Gesellschaftswissenschaftliches Institut Hannover

The Gesellschaftswissenschaftliches Institut Hannover (GI Hannover) is a non-profit registered association founded in Hannover in 1991. Its stated purpose is the scholarly understanding of social phenomena and their causes, undertaken in the awareness that specific social forms are changeable. It brings together scholars from a range of disciplines — philosophy, mathematics, social sciences, history, natural sciences, and literary and linguistic studies — whose common orientation lies in the tradition of philosophy, the critique of political economy, and critical theory. For several decades the GI has regularly organized seminars, conferences and lectures on themes of critical social science, philosophy and interdisciplinary subjects, and it has also held vacation courses during university breaks. These seminar series were conceived to supplement the teaching offered by the University of Hannover, usually in cooperation with lecturers from the Philosophical Seminar or the social-science institutes. The public seminars, initially held at the university and later also in the institute's own seminar room, were led on a voluntary basis by advanced students or former students. They are open not only to students of philosophy and social science but also to students of other disciplines who wish to become acquainted with the philosophical foundations of their fields. To this day, (online) reading circles continue, introducing participants to philosophical classics and to critical theory. Since November 2004 the GI has also been responsible for organizing the publication of the scholarly estate of Peter Bulthaup. Because Bulthaup published far less during his lifetime than he wrote, the estate contains writings that had previously been inaccessible, above all lecture manuscripts and unpublished essays on epistemology, the philosophy of the natural sciences, metaphysics, legal philosophy, the philosophy of history and practical philosophy, as well as on aesthetics and themes of critical theory. From 2005 the archive staff worked on cataloguing and digitizing the holdings. Since 2013 the archive has been housed at the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Library in Hannover, where both Bulthaup's handwritten estate and his working library are publicly accessible. In 2025 the first volume appeared in the edition series Vorlesungen und Schriften aus dem Nachlass, published by the GI. The institute currently finances itself predominantly through donations. Its board comprises Stephanie Heck, Helge Nickele and Michael Städtler; its staff includes Johannes Bruns and Michael Heidemann. Its scholarly advisory board includes Andreas Arndt (Berlin), Peter Bulthaup (deceased), Andreas Gruschka (Frankfurt am Main), Adelheid Homann (Oldenburg), Gernot Koneffke (deceased, Darmstadt), Günther Mensching (Hannover) and Moshe Zuckermann (Tel Aviv). The GI also maintains a publications section, making some previously unpublished texts available for download, and continues to run weekly online courses and reading circles, including on Marx's critique of Hegel's philosophy of right and on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason.

The Gesellschaftswissenschaftliches Institut Hannover was founded in 1991 in Hannover as a non-profit association. From its beginnings it brought together scholars from different disciplines — philosophy, mathematics, social sciences, history, natural sciences, and literary and linguistic studies — united by an interest in the contemporary state of scientific consciousness and social science, and by a shared orientation toward the philosophical tradition, the critique of political economy, and critical theory. Over several decades the institute regularly organized seminars, conferences and lectures on themes of critical social science, philosophy and interdisciplinary subjects, and held vacation courses during university breaks. These seminar series were intended to supplement the teaching offered by the University of Hannover and were generally conceived in cooperation with lecturers from the Philosophical Seminar or the social-science institutes. The public seminars, initially held at the university and later also in the institute's own seminar room, were led on a voluntary basis by advanced students or former students. They were open not only to students of philosophy and social science but also to students of other fields, enabling them to engage with the philosophical foundations of their disciplines. Reading circles introducing philosophical classics and critical theory continue to this day, now also in online form. A major institutional task began in November 2004, when the GI took on responsibility for organizing the publication of the scholarly estate of Peter Bulthaup. Because Bulthaup had published far less during his lifetime than he wrote, the estate contained previously inaccessible writings, above all lecture manuscripts and unpublished essays on epistemology, the philosophy of the natural sciences, metaphysics, legal philosophy, the philosophy of history and practical philosophy, as well as on aesthetics and themes of critical theory. From 2005, archive staff worked on cataloguing and digitizing the holdings. Since 2013 the archive has been kept at the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Library in Hannover, where both Bulthaup's handwritten estate and his working library are publicly accessible. In 2025 the first volume of the edition series Vorlesungen und Schriften aus dem Nachlass, published by the GI, appeared. The institute currently finances itself predominantly through donations. Its board consists of Stephanie Heck, Helge Nickele and Michael Städtler, and its staff includes Johannes Bruns and Michael Heidemann. A scholarly advisory board includes Andreas Arndt (Berlin), Peter Bulthaup (deceased), Andreas Gruschka (Frankfurt am Main), Adelheid Homann (Oldenburg), Gernot Koneffke (deceased, Darmstadt), Günther Mensching (Hannover) and Moshe Zuckermann (Tel Aviv). The GI continues to run weekly online courses and reading circles, including on Marx's critique of Hegel's philosophy of right and on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, and maintains a publications section offering some previously unpublished texts for download.

• 2025

  The first volume of the GI's edition series Vorlesungen und Schriften aus dem Nachlass (Peter Bulthaup) was published.

• 2013

  The Peter Bulthaup Archive was transferred to the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Library in Hannover for storage and public access.

• 2005

  Archive staff began cataloguing and digitizing the Bulthaup holdings.

• 2004

  From November 2004, the GI took on responsibility for organizing the publication of Peter Bulthaup's scholarly estate.

• 1991

  Founded in Hannover as a non-profit association.

A donation-funded, non-profit scholarly association in the tradition of critical theory and the critique of political economy, supplementing university teaching and preserving the Peter Bulthaup estate.

• Seminars, conferences and lectures on critical social science, philosophy and interdisciplinary subjects

• Vacation courses during university breaks

• Weekly online reading circles (e.g. on Marx's critique of Hegel's philosophy of right; Kant's Critique of Pure Reason)

• Edition series Vorlesungen und Schriften aus dem Nachlass (Peter Bulthaup)

• Publications section with downloadable texts produced in the GI's circle

1. 1Gesellschaftswissenschaftliches Institut Hannover – Gesellschaftswissenschaftliches Institut Hannover e.V.gi-hannover.de
2. 2Gesellschaftswissenschaftliches Institut – Wikidatawikidata.org
3. 3Gesellschaftswissenschaftliches Institut Hannover – Wikipedia (German)de.wikipedia.org