Julia Schulz-Dornburg
Chair

Julia Schulz-Dornburg (born 1962) has been chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Gerda Henkel Foundation since 1999. After training in furniture design and cabinet making at the Makepeace School for Craftsmen in Wood in the UK, she studied Architecture at the Architectural Association in London. Since 1991 Julia Schulz-Dornburg has been working as an architect in Barcelona. Her output includes design and execution planning of architectural projects, exhibition design and light installation.

Julia Schulz-Dornburg has been awarded numerous prizes for her work. Some of the most significant are the Spanish FAD and the American AIA Award for the exhibition “Home Sweet Home” in 1997. She won another FAD Award in 2004 for the installation La Bossasona. In 2002, Julia Schulz-Dornburg was presented with the City of Barcelona Award for the “Cosmopolis – Borges and Buenos Aires” exhibition, and in the same year she received the Triennial Architecture Award of the Maresme for the house Can Rei in Tordera. In 2000, she published her book “Art & Architecture – New Affinities”, followed in 2012 by the book “Modern Ruins, a Topography of Profit”.

Prof Andreas Beyer
Deputy Chairman

Andreas Beyer (born 1957) is Professor of Early Modern Art History at the University of Basel. He read Art History, Classical Archaeology, Romance Studies and Theatre Studies at the universities in Munich, Florence, and Frankfurt/Main. He graduated with a doctorate in 1985. Until 1993 he worked as a university assistant at the Department of Art History at the University of Bonn, where he qualified as professor in 1994.

He researched and taught at the National and International level amongst others at the Hertziana/Max-Planck-Institute in Rom, the University Hamburg, der ETH Zurich, the Centre for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts der National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Clark-Art-Institute and Williams-College in Williamstown, Mass. und the Research Institute for the Art and the Humanities des Getty Centre in Los Angeles.

Following professorships at the University of Jena and the RWTH Aachen, he moved to the University of Basel in 2003 to take up the post of Professor of Early Modern Art History. From February 2009 until February 2014, he was Director of the German Centre for Art History in Paris / Max Weber Stiftung.

Andreas Beyer has been co-editor of Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte from 1999 until 2014. In 2005, he was Project Manager for EIKONES at the National Centre of Competence in Research of the Swiss National Science Foundation, and President of the Academic Committee of the Swiss Institute for Art Research in Zurich. Since 2013, has been speaker of the BMBF-funded international research association "Bilderfahrzeuge. Aby Warburg's Legacy and the Future of Iconology” and since 2022 member of the "Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung".

Andreas Beyer works in particular in the research fields of art and architecture of the Modern Age and Classicism, art in Goethe’s era, and methodology.

 

Dr Kaspar von Braun

Kaspar von Braun (born in 1971 in Bonn) has worked as an astronomer at the Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff (Arizona, USA) since 2014. From 2010 to 2020 he was a member of the Supervisory Board of Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, and since 2022 has been a member on the Shareholders Committee.

After studying physics (1991-4) at Munich’s Ludwig Maximilians University and then at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (Michigan, USA), he was awarded a PhD in Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (Michigan, USA) in 2002.

In 2002-5 Kaspar von Braun was a Carnegie Fellow conducting research at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism attached to the Carnegie Institute for Science, Washington, D.C. (USA). After a stay as a postdoctoral scholar at the Michelson Science Center, until 2012 he was active as an astronomer at the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute operated by the California Institute of Technology, Washington, D.C. (USA). In 2013-4 he was a visiting research scholar at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg. Since 2011 Kaspar von Braun has been Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the James Cook University, Australia.

His research focuses on the detection and characterization of exoplanetary systems. Moreover, Kaspar von Braun examines fundamental star parameters, low-mass stars, variable stars, galactic clusters, observation techniques, interstellar extinction, and astrobiology.

He is a member of the American Astronomical Society, Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft and the International Astronomical Union and has published extensively on his research fields.

Dr Carolin Emcke

Carolin Emcke (b. 1967) holds a PhD in Philosophy and since 2014 has been a freelance publicist, contributing a column to the weekend issue of “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. Prior to that she was a full-time member of the editorial staff at “Der Spiegel” and an author and international reporter for “Die Zeit”, for which she covered above all crisis regions such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kosovo, Iraq, Colombia, Lebanon and the West Bank. Before working as a writer she studied Philosophy, Politics and History in London, Frankfurt and Harvard. In 2003-4 she was visiting lecturer for political theory at Yale University, holding seminars on “Theories of Violence” and “Witnessing War Crimes”.

In 2006-7 she was an advisor for the Journalism course run by Hamburg Media School. Since then she has regularly lectured there and speaks on international journalism, globalisation, human rights, theories of violence, witnessing, photography, and cultural identities.

In 2016 Carolin Emcke won the “Peace Prize of the German Book Trade”. That year, she published “Gegen den Hass”, a book that has since been translated into a number of languages including Dutch, Finnish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Slovenian, and Spanish.

In addition to being a member of the Gerda Henkel Foundation Board of Trustees, Carolin Emcke is a member of the Foundation Council of Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin.

Martin Kobler

Martin Kobler (born 1953) has been the German Ambassador to Pakistan until 2019. Previously, from November 2015 to July 2017 he was Special Representative of the UN Secretary General and Head in Libya (UNSMIL) and from June 2013 to October 2015 he was Head of the United Nations’ peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (East Congo) (MONUSCO). After studying Law at the Universities of Bonn and Pajajaran (Bandung, Indonesia) and preparation for senior foreign service, he was posted to Cairo (1985 to 1988), New Delhi (1991 to 1994) and Jericho (1994 to 1997).

As a staff member in the United Nations Directorate General in the German Federal Foreign Office, Martin Kobler took on roles in the liaison office in Windhoek (Namibia) and as an election observer in Nicaragua (1990) and Haiti (1990-1). From 1997 to 1998 he was Deputy Head of the Special Desk for Bosnia in the German Foreign Office, and from 1998 to 2000 was Deputy Head and from 2000 to 2003 Head of the Minister’s Office. From 2003 to 2007 Martin Kobler was German Ambassador in Cairo and Baghdad, before heading the Foreign Office’s Directorate-General of Culture and Communication from 2007 to 2010. In 2010, he was appointed deputy to the Head of the United Nations’ Aid Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). Between 2011 and 2013, he was UN Special Envoy for Iraq and Head of the United Nations’ Aid Mission in Iraq (UNAMI).

Prof. Dr. Jens Südekum

Jens Südekum (born 1975) has been a university professor of international economics at the Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE) at Heinrich Heine University since 2014. His research interests include international trade, the labour market effects of globalisation and digitalisation as well as urban economics and regional policy.

Jens Südekum is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) and advises the Federal Government on economic and financial policy issues. The University of Duisburg-Essen appointed him Professor of Economics in 2007 at the age of 31. Jens Südekum is a Research Fellow at the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), London, the CESifo Institute, the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) and the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

Prof Peter Geimer (Berlin)
Chair

Prof. Dr. Peter Geimer studied Art History, Modern German Literature and Philosophy in Bonn, Cologne, Marburg and Paris. His doctorate at the Philipps University of Marburg in 1997 was followed by stints at the Max-Planck-Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, at the University of Konstanz and at ETH Zurich.

Peter Geimer was awarded a junior professorship in 2008 at the University of Basel and in 2010 was appointed Full Professor at the University of Bielefeld. Since the winter semester of 2010-1, he has been Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History at the Freie Universität Berlin. There, he is co-spokesperson of the German Research Foundation “BildEvidenz. History and Aesthetics”-research group. Since 2007 he has been a freelance contributor to the arts supplement of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and since 2015 he has been a member of the German Research Foundation’s senate. Professor Geimer has been Director of the German Forum for Art History in Paris since 1 October 2022. His research tends to focus on the theory and history of photography, the visual representation of history and the history of science.

Prof Birgit Emich (Frankfurt am Main)

Birgit Emich studied History and Political Science in Freiburg im Breisgau, where she was awarded a PhD in 1999 and was made a junior professor in 2002. After a Heisenberg Scholarship from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft in 2005 she worked as visiting professor in Freiburg, Münster and Dresden, before being appointed guest professor at Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies at the University of Erfurt, subsequently becoming Senior Academic Councillor in the Dept. of History at the University of Münster.

From April 2010 to December 2016 she was Chair of Early Modern History at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg. Since January 2017 she has taught Early Modern History at Goethe University Frankfurt. In 2003, Birgit Emich won the Academy Prize of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences for her habilitationsschrift and in 2005 the Annual Prize of Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft in Freiburg im Breisgau. In 2010, she was inducted into AkademiaNet – Internet portal for outstanding women scholars.

Since 2017, Birgit Emich has been a member of the Academic Advisory Council of the Historisches Kolleg in Munich. Since 2012 she has been an elected member of the DFG Fachkollegium 102 Geschichte and an elected member of the Executive Board of the “Early Modern” Working Party at Verband der Historiker und Historikerinnen Deutschlands. She is the Spokesperson of the Academic Advisory Council of Leibniz Institute of European History (IEG) in Mainz.

She belongs to numerous academic and specialist historical associations, including Verband der Historiker und Historikerinnen Deutschlands, Deutscher Hochschulverband, Soci corrispondenti della Scuola Internazionale di Alti Studi “Scienze della cultura” della Fondazione Collegio San Carlo di Modena (Italy) and in the United States the Sixteenth Century Society, the German Studies Association and the Renaissance Society of America. As a member of the editorial board, she is co-editor of the Annali dell’Istituto storico italo-germanico in Trento / Yearbook of the Italian-German Historical Institute in Trento and a member of the editorial board of Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte and Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung. Moreover, she is a member of the Academic Advisory Council of the series “Oldenbourg Seminar Geschichte”. Her research focusses on political and administrative history from a culturalist perspective, on the topics of informality and formalisation, the Reformation and cultures of confession, the cultural history of the Papacy, territoriality, and belonging.

Prof Christian Mann (Mannheim)

Christian Mann (born 1971 in Heilbronn) has held the Chair of Ancient History at the University of Mannheim since 2011.

After studying Ancient History, Classical Archaeology, and Classical Philology in Freiburg im Breisgau and Perugia (1990-5), Mann was awarded a doctorate in 1999 for a dissertation on the political significance of athletes in the formative phase of the Greek polis. He was supported by a doctoral stipend from the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg Post-Graduate Funding Programme. He was then appointed scholarly assistant at the University of Freiburg and qualified as a junior professor in 2005 with a thesis on demagogues in democratic Athens. From 2006-11 he was DFG German Research Foundation fellow and during this time stood in for professors in Frankfurt/Main, Konstanz and Basle, conducting research as a visiting scholar at Brown University in Providence/Rhode Island. He is co-editor of the journals “Klio” (since 2018) and “Nikephoros” (since 2014) and of the series “Forum historische Forschung: Antike” (since 2019).

Christian Mann researches Greek and Roman history in its long lineages that extend into society today. His analyses of demagogy in ancient Athens highlight some striking parallels to the populism we are currently witnessing, while also elaborating on the fundamental differences between democracy in Classical Antiquity and in Modernity. With the research team on Sports in Classical Antiquity (MAFAS), which Mann has established together with other academics in his department in Mannheim, amongst other things the focus is on the integrative and exclusion mechanisms of ancient athletic competitions.

Christian Mann has been an International Master in chess since 1991.

Prof Ute Schneider (Duisburg-Essen)

Ute Schneider (born 1960 in Bonn) has been Professor of Social and Economic History at the University of Duisburg-Essen since October 2007. Since May 2020 she has been Spokesperson of the Historical Studies Specialist Section (102) at DFG German Research Foundation.

Ute Schneider studied modern and medieval history as well as general languages at Düsseldorf’s Heinrich Heine University (1981-7). In 1993, she gained a doctorate at Technische Universität Darmstadt with a dissertation on the political culture of festivals in the Rhenish province in the 19^th century. After an appointment as DAAD lecturer at the University of Victoria, Canada, she returned to Technische Universität Darmstadt in 1996 as scholarly assistant in the Dept. of Modern and Contemporary History, where in 2002 she qualified as a junior professor with a thesis on issues of family law in East Germany pre-1989. She then worked as a lecturer in Darmstadt and also stood in for various professors in Saarbrücken, Braunschweig, Vechta, and Cologne.

From 2014-20 she was a member of the board at the Cultural Studies Institute in Essen and in 2017-8 was interim director of the institute. In the 2019-20 academic year she did research as a fellow at Munich’s Institute for Advanced Study in History. Since 2018 Ute Schneider has been a member of the Academic Advisory Council at the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich and Berlin, and since 2016 a member of the Historical Studies Specialist Section (102) at DFG German Research Foundation as well as of the Working Group “Jurisprudence and Contemporary History” at the Mainz Academy of Sciences and Literature.

Since 2014, she has been a member of the PhD Committee of Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, and since 2013 a member of the Academic Advisory Council of Stiftung Bibliothek des Ruhrgebiets, Bochum, and since 2009 part of the Academic Advisory Council for Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften.

Since 2010 Ute Schneider has been co-editor of the “Düsseldorfer Schriften zur Neueren Landesgeschichte” and since 2008 of the journal “Neue Politische Literatur”.

Ute Schneider’s research covers Europe’s social, gender, legal, and cultural history in the 19^th and 20^th centuries, the history of science (cartographical visualizations; cartography, geography since Early Modern times), problems of Modernity and its processes; cultures of compromise; and the methodology of historical studies.

Dr Michael Hanssler
Chair

Michael Hanssler (born 1961) has since 2003 been a member of the Executive Board of the Gerda Henkel Foundation, and since 2008 he has been Chair of the Executive Board. After studying History and English, in 1990 he completed an internship at BMW AG. From 1991 to 1994 Michael Hanssler was a senior adviser in the Training Centre of the Bavarian Employers’ Association, and from 1994 to 1997 senior adviser at the German Federal Environmental Foundation. From 1997 to 2003 he worked as Executive Director of the Bellagio Forum for Sustainable Development, an association of grant-making foundations in Geneva.

From 2005 to 2011 Michael Hanssler worked pro bono as a member of the Advisory Council and, from 2011 to 2018, as a member of the Executive Board of the Association of German Foundations. In addition, from 2005 to 2008 he headed the “International Affairs” working party, and from 2008 to 2011 the “Science and Research” working party. Since 2008 he has been a member of Industrie-Club Düsseldorf. In April 2015, Michael Hanssler was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Ernst und Berta Grimmke Foundation.

Dr Angela Kühnen

Angela Kühnen (born 1969) is a Member of the Executive Board of the Gerda Henkel Foundation. She completed a Master’s studies in Ancient History, Modern History and English Language and Literature at the Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf, in 1996. In 2005, she was awarded a doctorate by the University of Duisburg-Essen for a thesis on imitatio Alexandri in Imperial Rome.

Angela Kühnen has worked at the Gerda Henkel Foundation since 1997, first as a research assistant, then from 2001 as a consultant, from 2002 as a proxy Board Member and since 2008 as a full member of the Executive Board.