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Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities

Logo: badw.de3

Independent public institution in Germany

The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (German: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften) is an independent public institution, located in Munich. It appoints scholars whose research has contributed considerably to the increase of knowledge within their subject. The general goal of the academy is the promotion of interdisciplinary encounters and contacts and the cooperation of representatives of different subjects.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1759Founded1
  • HeadquartersMunich1
  • Websitebadw.de
  • Legal formKörperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts1

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Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
Photo: ich, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons5

The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (German: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften) is an independent public institution, located in Munich. It appoints scholars whose research has contributed considerably to the increase of knowledge within their subject. The general goal of the academy is the promotion of interdisciplinary encounters and contacts and the cooperation of representatives of different subjects.2

Corporate structure

Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities sits at the top of its group. 3 entities, 1 country on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

  • Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities Munich

Built from subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0); major holders from Schedules 13D and 13G. Each entity in the chart links to its source.

The story

On 12 October 1758 the lawyer Johann Georg von Lori (1723–1787), Privy Counsellor at the College of Coinage and Mining in Munich, founded the Bayerische Gelehrte Gesellschaft (Learned Society of Bavaria).

This led to the foundation by Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria, of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities on 28 March 1759.

Count Sigmund von Haimhausen was the first president.

The Academy's foundation charter specifically mentions the Parnassus Boicus, an earlier learned society.

Originally, the Academy consisted of two divisions, the Class for History (Historische Klasse) and the Class for Philosophy (Philosophische Klasse); natural sciences, including mathematics and physics, were thought of as part of the Class for Philosophy. Today, the Academy is still divided into two classes, but the classes are now the Class for Philosophy and History (which also includes the humanities and social sciences) and the Class for Mathematics and the Natural Sciences.

From Wikipedia’s article on Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Leadership

Who has led Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and when. Pick a name to see everywhere that person has worked.

Chair

  1. Sigmund von Haimhausen1759–1761
  2. Joseph Franz Maria Ignaz Seinsheim1761–1762
  3. Maximilian Emanuel Törring1762–1768
  4. Johann Joseph von Baumgarten1768–1769
  5. Sigmund von Haimhausen1771–1779
  6. Joseph Franz Maria Ignaz Seinsheim1779–1787
  7. Sigmund von Haimhausen1787–1793
  8. Anton Clemens von Toerring-Seefeld1793–1807
  9. Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi1807–1812
  10. Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling1827–1842
  11. Maximilian von Freyberg-Eisenberg1842–1848
  12. Friedrich Thiersch1848–1859
  13. Justus von Liebig1859–1873
  14. Ignaz von Döllinger1873–1890
  15. Max Joseph von Pettenkofer1890–1899
  16. Karl Alfred von Zittel1899–1904
  17. Karl Theodor von Heigel1904–1915
  18. Otto Crusius1915–1918
  19. Hugo von Seeliger1919–1923
  20. Max von Gruber1924–1927
  21. Eduard Schwartz1927–1930
  22. Karl Everhard Goebel1930–1932
  23. Leopold Wenger1932–1935
  24. Karl Alexander von Müller1936–1944
  25. Mariano San Nicolò1944–1945
  26. Walther Meissner1946–1950
  27. Heinrich Mitteis1950–1952
  28. Richard Wagner1952–1956
  29. Friedrich Baethgen1956–1964
  30. Robert Sauer1964–1970
  31. Joseph Franz Maria Ignaz Seinsheim1969–1971
  32. Hans Raupach1970–1979
  33. Walter Rollwagen1977–1979
  34. Herbert Franke1980–1985
  35. Arnulf Schlüter1986–1991
  36. Horst Fuhrmann1992–1997
  37. Heinrich Nöth1998–2005
  38. Dietmar Willoweit2006–2010
  39. Karl-Heinz Hoffmann2011–2016
  40. Thomas O. Höllmann2017–2022
  41. Markus Schwaiger2023–now
197019801990200020102020
Board members and other officers (1)

Subsidiaries and ownership

Subsidiaries

  • Cuneiform Artefacts of Iraq in Context

From Wikidata.1

Timeline

  1. 1759Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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