Foundation Max Weber

The Max Weber Foundation is one of the leading agencies supporting German research in the humanities abroad. Around the world it finances ten scientifically autonomous institutes, which provide a bridge function between the host nations and Germany and which play an important role in the international science scene. Being a multi-polar network, the institutes collaborate in the promotion of the internationalisation of science.

Our history reaches back to the year 1888 when the "Preußische Historische Station in Rom", today known as DHI Rome, was established. The DHI Paris, the OI Beirut, the DHI London, the DHI Washington, the DIJ Tokyo and the DHI Warsaw were founded one after another after WWII. In 2002 these were combined in a foundation which then continued opening further institutes: the DHI Moscow, the DFK Paris and the OI Istanbul. From the 1st July 2012, the Foundation was named after Max Weber, who exemplifies in the Scientific Community around the world an approach reaching beyond cultures and eras as well as the limitations of subject areas and disciplines.

The institutes each have their own research focus, every one of which is essentially influenced by its director and its staff and which includes scientific long-term projects. For their leadership, the Max Weber Foundation nominates established scientists, normally professors from German universities, for limited periods. The institutes closely collaborate with their scientific advisory councils, which consult the leadership, the scientists at the institutes and the Foundation Board of the Max Weber Foundation. The decision-making body is the foundation board, comprising the president, eight other nominated scientists and two representatives of the Federal Republic of Germany.