Geschwister-Scholl-Institut

It is named after Hans and Sophie Scholl, members of the White Rose, a student group in Munich that was active in the non-violent resistance movement in Nazi Germany.

To promote the methodological possibilities of historical science to study politics, King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria invited several prominent historians to Munich; among them were Joseph Görres, Leopold von Ranke, Carl Adolph Cornelius, Heinrich von Sybel, and Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl.

Thanks to his international connections and reputation, Voegelin managed to organize German and American donations for the establishment of the institute (which was initially housed in Theresienstrasse 3-5) and to attract significant foreign guest lecturers.

The center emerged from the Eric Voegelin Archive founded by Peter J. Opitz in 1990, and pursues nowadays two thematic priorities.

This topic has gained enormously in importance and attention in recent years, in particular in the context of the debates on a "return of religion" or with regard to new forms of religious fundamentalism.

The Center addresses the relationship between politics and religion from a primarily political-theoretical perspective, and is expressly committed to an interdisciplinary approach.

The Munich Center on Governance, Communication, Public Policy and Law (MCG), in which the GSI participates, has been established at the Faculty of Social Sciences at LMU.

The Centrum für angewandte Politikforschung (Center for Applied Policy Research, or CAP) was founded in 1995 by Werner Weidenfeld with the aim of providing long-term strategy consulting and scientifically based orientation for politics, business and civil society.

As an independent think tank, the CAP tries to close the gap between politics and science with its special working approach of applied policy research.