Max Weber Foundation is a legal entity closely linked to the German Federal Government located in Bonn. It comprises ten humanities research institutes.
The Foundation’s goal is to promote research with a focus on history, culture, economic and social sciences in selected countries and to promote a mutual understanding between Germany and those countries.
The Max Weber Foundation is the only German research institute which is academically active abroad exclusively due to its programme of work. Through its own research, extensive publications, international events and numerous scholarships it makes a considerable contribution towards an international exchange through its institutes, in regard of questions, methods and results of humanities research.
The Foundation finances its activities almost exclusively through the annual contributions by the Federal Government, made available by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The annual budget amounts to approximately EUR 30 million. Moreover the institutes have at their disposal further funding from partners and sponsors amounting to approximately EUR 1 million each year.
In total there are over 275 staff, of which 100 are academic fellows, employed in the institutes and in the Central Office in Bonn.
What They Do
The Max Weber Foundation promotes global research, concentrated around the areas of social sciences, cultural studies and the humanities. Research is conducted at ten institutes in various countries across the globe with distinctive and independent focal points. Through its globally operating institutes, the Foundation is able to contribute to the communication and networking between Germany and the host countries or regions of its establishments. By promoting scientific dialogue and merging academic as well as non-academic employees from several countries with different cultural backgrounds, the Max Weber Foundation is able to strengthen the Internationalization of research in its three fields of dedication.
The Max Weber Foundation preserves and strives to improve the framework for research and scientific exchange at its institutes. It is looking for new ways of promoting cross-border cultural, social science and humanities research. By supporting the global network of German research funding and intermediary organizations, the foundation contributes to the strengthening of Germany’s international research profile. It creates forums for institutes to display and present their findings and research.
The Max Weber Foundation promotes innovative projects by establishing smaller project groups with limited research assignments, or even new institutes. For these purposes it enters into strategic partnerships with other German and international research organizations.
Institutes
The Max Weber Foundation currently maintains ten humanities institutes abroad:
The institutes abroad are autonomous institutes within the framework of the statutes and carry out independent academic work. They conduct their own research and promote cooperation with academics as well as institutes within their own areas of work, in particular through publications and academic events, academic information and consultation, mediation of academic contacts, promotion of young historians, especially through scholarships as well as setting up and administering libraries and archives.
