Founding
The Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin also bears the English name Institute for Advanced Study Berlin. It is thus one of the academic institutions that see their model in an institution whose name became a generic term: the Institute for Advanced Study founded in 1930 in Princeton. The goal of such an Institute for Advanced Study is to offer outstanding researchers the opportunity to concentrate on their chosen research projects and to absorb ideas and inspirations from other disciplines and differing national traditions of science and scholarship.
In 1980, the institutional foundations for the creation of the Wissenschaftskolleg were laid, and the Medievalist and Professor of Literary Studies Peter Wapnewski was appointed Founding Rector. The academic year 1981/1982 saw the beginning of the Wissenschaftskolleg's scholarly work with the invitation of the first Fellows.
- Villa Linde 1912, home to the Wissenschaftskolleg since 1981
Guiding Ideas and Mode of Work
In selecting its members, the Wissenschaftskolleg places no restrictions on country of origin, discipline, or academic position. With the help of an international Advisory Board, invitations to scholars and scientists, alone or bundled in thematic groups or emphases, are issued in a way calculated to promote mutual stimulation across disciplinary boundaries among the natural and social sciences and humanities and among researchers from different cultures of knowledge.
The Wissenschaftskolleg is thus characterized by freedom in the choice of research project, by interdisciplinarity, and by interculturality. The Fellows' only obligations are residence at the Wissenschaftskolleg and the requirement to meet once a day for a meal and each Tuesday for the weekly Colloquium; at each Colloquium, one Fellow presents his work to the others and all Fellows, regardless of their disciplinary background, consider and discuss the presented topic.
Such an intellectually heterogeneous atmosphere often produces a productive friction that modifies a Fellow's own approach and thus leads to lasting innovations. Indeed, this special form of critical self-examination is possible only in a framework of freedom and intellectual richness resulting from the simultaneous presence of the widest variety of disciplines of thought. Also inviting a few outstanding artists and intellectuals completes this spectrum.
