[2] Historian Moshe Zimmermann considers Heinz Galinski, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and Rolf Berger, president of Technische Universität Berlin as the founding fathers of the center.
According to Zimmerman, Galinski saw the 40th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1978 and the gap in the systematic study of antisemitism as the ideal time to launch an academic research center.
Berger approached Mayor of West Berlin Dietrich Stobbe, who was keen to support as a sign of solidarity with the Jewish community in Germany.
Founding director Herbert A. Strauss gave his inaugural address on November 9, 1982, called "Research on Antisemitism as a Science".
According to Zimmerman, Strauss followed the socio-historical methods of prejudice research in the United States and Great Britain, which emphasized the uniqueness of antisemitism.