The initiator and intellectual foster father of the Humboldt Centre was University Rector Professor Theodor Fliedner in the mid-1980s. Inspired by a lecture by the Giessen philosopher Professor Odo Marquard on the "inevitability of the humanities" [1], which he gave at the West German Rectors' Conference in Bamberg in 1985, the rector at the time pursued the foundation of a humanities centre at the then medical-scientific University of Ulm.

In his highly regarded and extremely controversial speech, Marquard pointed out the necessity of a humanities orientation in times of accelerated change. For the humanities would offer compensatory services with which they could make up for the loss in the life-world that the exact sciences had helped to cause. He was not concerned with "healing" but with alleviating the damage caused by modernisation.

Under the motto "university within the university", Fliedner wanted to create a philosophical and humanities centre with a special educational mission. This was primarily aimed at students of other disciplines who, in addition to their specialised studies, were to master the basic principles of philosophical and humanistic knowledge, thinking and argumentation. Questions of the ethics of technical progress and responsibility in the context of political-social action should also find their place there.

In January 1986, Fliedner commissioned Professors Richard Brunner, Peter Pauschinger and Klaus Giel to work out a detailed founding concept; Professor Peter Novak joined them a little later. Their mission: to build a bridge between the natural sciences and the humanities.

The Humboldt brothers, i.e. the natural scientist Alexander and the linguist Wilhelm, eventually became the patrons of the institute. And after four months, the vision became reality. With the help of teaching imports from Augsburg and Stuttgart, teaching began in the summer semester of 1986, with the lecture series "What is Philosophy?" in particular being very popular with students and guest auditors.

In the beginning, the lectures were part of a special programme of the Studium Generale, but in 1987 they were transformed into a regular humanities programme with a focus on philosophy. The examination regulations passed by the Senate on 23 April 1987 were approved by decree of the Ministry of Science and Art on 10 June 1987. The broad range of courses was supported by both associate and full lecturers, including promising young philosophers as well as world-renowned natural scientists and humanities scholars, as well as numerous subject representatives from neighbouring universities. The four-semester accompanying study programme, also called the "Ulmer Philosophikum", was equivalent to a regular basic study programme in philosophy. The philosophy programme at Ulm is based on three pillars: epistemology and science, ethics and the teaching of hermeneutic and analytical skills as practical scientific skills. However, a Bachelor's programme in Philosophy, which was established in 2003 and builds on this, was closed in 2009. Today, the Humboldt Centre offers philosophy courses within the framework of a minor subject programme, as an ethical-philosophical foundation course and for the acquisition of so-called additive key qualifications.

"In a globalised world, whose complex and dynamic structure increasingly permeates all levels of society, technology and science, it is important to be able to recognise and understand higher-level interrelationships in addition to sound specialist knowledge in order to be able to adequately align one's own thinking and actions."
Professor Dieter Beschorner, former spokesperson of the HSZ on the occasion of the HSZ's 20th anniversary.

Teaching institution, academy and forum

From the very beginning, the Humboldt Centre was also conceived as an academy, where a fruitful exchange between representatives of different academic disciplines can take place under a common denominator. In the sense of a hermeneutics of understanding the world, the aim is to reveal fundamental common philosophical or epistemological contents. Not to forget the function of a public forum that the humanities educational institution fulfils with its multitude of regular events in the city of Ulm. In addition to the Ulm Humboldt Colloquia, which last several days, these include not only the philosophical salons and lecture series, but also the "Ulmer Denkanstöße", which have been taking place since 2008. With their high-calibre speakers and socially significant topics, the "Denkanstöße" not only have an enormous supra-regional impact, but also embody in the best sense another significant bridge-building - namely that between the university and the citizenry.

Andrea Weber-Tuckermann, Press Office University of Ulm