Heinrich Heine Guest Professorship 2024/2025

Dr h.c. mult. Charlotte Knobloch

Holocaust survivor and former President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Dr h.c. mult. Charlotte Knobloch took on the Heinrich Heine Guest Professorship for the academic year 2024/25. The long-term President of the Israelite Cultural Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria has been an advocate for Jewish life in Germany, interreligious dialogue and Holocaust remembrance for decades.

Within the framework of the Guest Professorship 2024/2025, she offered insights into the culture of remembrance she advocates, the importance of tolerance and Jewish life in Germany. However, her lectures focused on current political developments in Germany and the significant rise in antisemitism.

In her opening lecture on 31 October 2024, she addressed the question: “Arrived in Germany?” The title of the last lecture on 11 February 2025 was “Jüdische Zukunft in Deutschland” (“Jewish Future in Germany”). In a keynote speech and subsequent panel discussion with further guests, the challenges and prerequisites for future Jewish life in Germany were explored. The discussion was moderated by Monty Ott (German only) and the panel comprised the following individuals: Hetty Berg (Director of the Jewish Museum Berlin), Philipp Peyman Engel (Editor-in-Chief of the Jewish weekly newspaper “Jüdische Allgemeine”, German only) and Professor Dr Armin Nassehi (Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, German only).

About the Heinrich Heine Guest Professorship

The Heinrich Heine Guest Professorship was a gift from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia to the University on the occasion of its naming in 1988 and has become established as an important platform for the exchange of thoughts and ideas between culture, politics and academia. Before Charlotte Knobloch, other Heinrich Heine Guest Professors have included Helmut Schmidt, Juli Zeh, Klaus-Maria Brandauer and most recently Campino.