Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung

The Hamburg Institute for Social Research (HIS), founded in 1984, is an independent social science and contemporary history research institution supported by a foundation of the same name. In its four research groups, "Democracy and Statehood," "Macroviolence," "Monetary Sovereignty," and "Sociology of Law," the institute focuses on the dialogue between the humanities and other disciplines in the fields of empirical social research, historical analysis, and social science theory. The HIS also includes the publishing house Hamburger Edition, the journal "Mittelweg 36", which is published six times a year, an archive and a library. The HIS also operates the independent internet platform "Soziopolis", which has become an important forum for the German-speaking social sciences with the essays, book reviews and specialist debates published there. In addition to publications, the institute also appears in public with conferences, meetings, and events. On April 2, 2015, Wolfgang Knöbl, a sociologist from Göttingen, took up his post as director of the HIS. In the leadership role, he thus replaced Jan Philipp Reemtsma, who retired after 30 years.