Annual FiF Lecture

The FiF Lecture is a unique FiF format launched in 2017 that has an impressive impact on the entire university and beyond. Outstanding and internationally renowned scientists, primarily from the field of philosophy, are invited to lecture in Darmstadt. A special event every year. And a celebration of academic excellence.

Survey of the FiF Lecture

Dr Michael Knoche: “A future without books? What will happen to university libraries?”

Dr Michael Knoche, former director of the Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek in Weimar, has been engaged for the upcoming FiF Lecture on 7 May 2025.

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Käte Meyer-Drawe: “Imposition instead of censorship. The double-edged sword of experience.”

For the upcoming FiF Lecture on 7 May 2024, Prof. Dr Käte Meyer-Drawe could be won. For many years, Käte Meyer-Drawe lectured at Ruhr University Bochum. Since 2015, she has been a full member of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts. In 2022, she received an honorary doctorate from Klagenfurt University. She is regarded as one of the most renowned pedagogues whose work repeatedly addresses the challenges of human learning confronted with new technologies and technical environments. More information on the FiF Lecture will be provided in due course.

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Dieter Thomä: “Democracy and Education”

Prof. Dr Dieter Thomä will hold this year's FiF Lecture on 16 May. He teaches philosophy at University of St. Gallen. His works have found great international resonance. He has been a fellow at Max Weber-Kolleg in Erfurt, at Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin and at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and was also a visiting professor at Yale University (USA), among others.

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Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem: Power of information intermediaries – powerlessness of law?

With Professor Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem, once again FiF succeeded in convincing a scientist who is known beyond the subject boundaries to participate in the FiF Lecture 2022.

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Konrad Paul Liessmann: Education as a provocation. About dealing with thinking.

The FiF Lecture 2021 will be held by Konrad Paul Liessmann, professor of philosophy at the University of Vienna and, among other activities, scientific director of the Philosophicum Lech, which is known far beyond the borders of Austria.

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Hans Joas: The power of the sacred

The FiF Lecture 2019 hosted the sociologist and social philosopher Hans Joas on May 22, 2019.

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Bernhard Waldenfels: Responsive creativity

In 2018 FiF invited Bernhard Waldenfels, one of the most important and renowned contemporary philosophers.

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Günter Figal: Design with borrowed landscape. Phenomenological reflections on the sense of possibility in architecture

Professor Günter Figal, who held Husserl’s and Heidegger’s chair at Freiburg University, started the FiF Lectures with a presentation on November 30, 2017, which focused on philosophy and architecture.

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