Käte Hamburger

Käte Hamburger (1896-1992) is among the German Werner Gephart, Käte Hamburger Center for Advanced Study "Law as Culture" (2010 mixed media) literary scholars of international renown. She is especially famous for her classic work on “the logic of poetry” (“Die Logik der Dichtung”), of seminal value to newer narratology, but also for her studies on Rilke and Ibsen. In her Swedish exile as of 1934, the Jewish scientist was denied the luck of free research and publication during the period of National Socialism, to which, for instance, the correspondence with Thomas Mann, published by Vittorio Klostermann, is testament.

Blessed with the liberty to conduct free research, moreover generously supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research’s fund for the Humanities, to which Käte
Hamburger serves as eponym; tasked with the exploration of the lines of conflict resulting from the globalization of law - lines that challenge modern achievements, whose value becomes apparent particularly when studying unjust states;  privileged by being able to publish the research results at the publishing house Vittorio Klostermann, a multifold responsibility thus rests upon the Center for Advanced Study in the Humanities “Law as Culture”.

Whether this situation may make it possible to live up to the standards of Käte Hamburger
herself remains to be seen. However, the founding of the Bonn Center for Advanced Study in the Humanities "Law as Culture" as a place for the study of legal culture(s) ties in with another standard to be met, namely to do as Käte Hamburger and be “an institutional outsider and methodically an important inspirer” (Gesa Dane). To regard freedom as a responsibility is to follow her example.