Akademien
Akademien, in the sense of corporations of scholars, scientists, and men of learning such as the Royal Society in Great Britain, were founded in Germany in the 18th c. The most distinguished was the Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Royal (Königl.) until 1918; it was founded in 1700 by statute of Friedrich I in accordance with plans prepared by Leibniz, and inaugurated in 1711 in Berlin. It at first bore the title ‘Societät der Wissenschaften’. It was concerned with the natural sciences, mathematics, philosophy, and history. Among its distinguished members may be mentioned W. and A. von Humboldt, Schleiermacher, Th. Mommsen, R. Niebuhr, and Ranke. Of its many important publications the Monumenta Germaniae historica are the most famous. In 1946 it was renamed Deutsche Akademie zu Berlin with headquarters in East Berlin, and is one of the few organizations to have had a membership drawn from both Germanies while the two states were separated.
Similar institutions were founded in Bavaria in 1759, in Saxony in 1846, in Austria in 1847, in Baden in 1909; particularly notable was the Königl. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, founded in 1751 by the professor of medicine, A. von Haller, which published the Göttinger Gelehrte Anzeigen. A Preußische Akademie der Künste, though mooted by Ranke in the 19th c., was not founded until the 20th c., and the ‘Sektion Dichtkunst’ was not incorporated until 1926. This was dissolved in May 1933 after stormy sessions in March. The President H. Mann, F. Werfel, L. Frank, L. Fulda, G. Kaiser, B. Kellermann, A. Mombert, R. Pannwitz, A. Paquet, R. Schickele, F. von Unruh, and J. Wassermann were expelled. Th. Mann, A. Döblin, and Ricarda Huch resigned. A new National Socialist Akademie der Dichtung was announced in May 1933. The National Socialists wanted Stefan George as president, but he refused. The original members were W. Beumelburg, H. F. Blunck, P. Dörfler, P. Ernst, F. Griese, Hans Grimm, H. Johst, E. G. Kolbenheyer, Agnes Miegel, Borries von Münchhausen, W. Schäfer, E. Strauß and W. Vesper. Ernst Jünger and Hans Carossa refused an invitation to join the Akademie.
Following German unification (see Bundesrepublik Deutschland) the East Berlin Academy of Art closed down and the reorganized West Berlin Academy began to function as the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Künste with Walter Jens as its first elected president.
