An overview of the Academy

We bring together science, literature and music as complementary ways of understanding the world, and create opportunities for inspiring dialogue and cultural engagement.

The Academy of Sciences and Literature | Mainz sees itself as an independent scientific institution that conducts long-term research and takes responsibility for resilient research infrastructures. Its profile brings together science, literature and music as complementary ways of understanding the world, and opens up spaces for exchange and cultural experience. Its guiding principles are academic freedom, integrity, sound judgement and transparency. As a non-university institution, it supports numerous long-term basic research projects within the Academies Programme (currently 36 projects with 58 research posts across 12 federal states).

The Academy also plays a central role as a bridging institution in the digital transformation: through the Digital Academy (since 2009), it develops and operates digital methods and infrastructures, acts as the spokesperson for NFDI4Culture, and provides cross-cutting services such as LOD.ACADEMY and AGATE.

It engages with society through deliberative policy advice, including via the Aldous Huxley Future Forum, as well as through professionalised science communication, brought together under the WissKomm Academy. As an integrated early-career initiative, the Young Academy | Mainz strengthens intergenerational dialogue and provides impetus for new formats.

Struktur Alles über den Aufbau von Präsidium, Klassen und Junger Akademie
Die Akademie in Zahlen Alles Daten und Fakten im Überblick
Gründung Unser Motto „Genio Leibnitii“ – „Im Geiste Leibniz“
Meilensteine Die wichtigsten Wegmarken

Structure

The Academy is headed by the President, supported by a Vice-President and a full-time Secretary-General, all of whom are elected by the three classes. Each of the three classes may elect up to 50 full members from across Germany, who represent as broad a range of disciplines as possible and are among the leading scholars in their respective fields. Many of the members have received numerous awards. Among those who have been awarded the Nobel Prize are Niels Bohr, Otto Hahn, Konrad Lorenz, Halldór Laxness, Saul Bellow, Heinrich Böll and Jean-Marie Lehn..

The Academy in numbers

54 ongoing research projects
57 offices across 12 federal states with over 200 staff members
Collaborations with 263 institutions, including universities, colleges, academies, research institutes, libraries, museums, associations and others
14 Academy professorships
32 DFG-Leibniz Prize winners
approx. 70 publications per year
Current as of January 2026

Fondation

The roots of the Mainz Academy can be traced back to the founding of the ‘Electoral Brandenburg Society of Sciences’ by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in 1700. This society later gave rise to the ‘Prussian Academy of Sciences’, followed after the Second World War by the ‘Academy of Sciences of the GDR’ and the ‘Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz’. Leibniz’s aim, to which the seal of the Mainz Academy refers with the motto “Genio Leibnitii” (“In the spirit of Leibniz”), was to bring together outstanding researchers from all disciplines to promote cutting-edge interdisciplinary research and to foster dialogue on pressing contemporary and future issues facing society.

The idea of founding an Academy of Sciences and Literature in West Germany arose in 1949 among former members of the Prussian Academy. After the Second World War, they wished to continue their research and projects in the newly founded Federal Republic. They found allies for the founding of the Mainz Academy in the French occupation zone. Particular mention must be made of General Raymond Schmittlein, who had already promoted the reconstruction of the University of Mainz and the founding of the Institute for European History, as well as Alfred Döblin, who – having returned from exile – worked as a cultural officer in Baden-Baden and also had in mind the re-establishment of the Prussian Academy of Arts and its poetry section.

On 9 July 1949, an Academy of Sciences was founded which occupied a unique position within the German academic landscape, as it comprised not only a Mathematical and Natural Sciences Class and a Humanities and Social Sciences Class, but also a Literature Class (since expanded to include music). From the outset, the current location in Mainz was chosen as the seat of the newly founded Academy.

Milestones

2009: Establishment of the Digital Academy
2009: Expansion of the Literature department to include Music
2015: Launch of the Master’s programme in Digital Methodology in the Humanities and Cultural Studies
2016: Founding of the Young Academy | Mainz
2020: Host institution for NFDI4Culture – Consortium for Research Data on Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage
2022: Establishment of the WissKomm Academy Centre of Excellence
2023: Inauguration of the Kalkhof-Rose Hall