The Carlsbad Institute: New Ideas for a New Europe
The Carlsbad Institute’s programming currently consists of three initiatives.
First, the Carlsbad Considerations serves as the institute’s open-access online journal, providing cutting edge scholarly writing in the humanities and social sciences to a wider audience.
Second, the institute sponsors a variety of conferences throughout the European continent, public and private, and on topics ranging from the loftiest theoretical or philosophical considerations, down to the nature of contemporary civilization in all its facets.
Third, the Carlsbad Institute will host the Carlsbad Fellows program, which is intended for young and emerging scholars, professionals and leaders, and seeks to have them study and discuss core ideas and texts from across the tradition of European social thought. It will be held every August, beginning in 2026, in the historic spa town of Carlsbad, serving as the pinnacle event of the year for associated students and faculty.
The Carlsbad Institute for Social Thought endeavours to deepen the understanding of society and its institutions through free, independent, and value-neutral study within the disciplines of history, law, philosophy, political economy, and other related fields, and to use these ideas to help shape the Europe of the future.
Dr. Martin Hähnel - Director
Martin Hähnel is a private lecturer in philosophy at the University of Bremen and the Editorial Director of Karl Alber Publishing House. Besides his innovative work in the field of ethics, Dr. Hähnel also pursues research into the great geopolitical questions of our day, particularly the European relationship with Russia, inspired by his experience growing up under East German communism. Drawing on his rich intellectual background, Dr. Hähnel is now leading the Carlsbad Institute in building a community of scholars prepared to address Europe’s largest problems.
Catholic University of Leuven
Charles University of Prague
Humboldt University of Berlin
Jagiellonian University in Krakow
Konrad Adenauer Foundation
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
Technical University of Dresden
The Carlsbad Institute also collaborates with scholars across the world. The institute has already attracted interest from a number of scholars at the following institutions:
University of Basel
University of Bremen
University of Chicago
University of Florence
University of Heidelberg
University of Notre Dame
University of Vienna