Frankfurter Stadtgespräche

The research center regularly invites interesting personalities from science, politics or culture to think about and discuss current social issues in an open discussion in Frankfurt’s city centre. With the “Stadtgespräche”, the research network addresses Frankfurt’s urban society and provides impulses at the interface between theory and practice.

Past events:

The Islamic headscarf between religious freedom, state neutrality and equal rights
Seyran Ateş in conversation with Prof. Dr. Ute Sacksofsky
1. November 2019

The crime of the Holocaust is not time-barred – The tasks of history and justice
PD Dr. Boris Burghardt and Günther Feld in conversation with Prof. Dr. Sybille Steinbacher
25. April 2019

In the name of God? Monotheism and violence
Prof. Dr. Mouhanad Khorchide in conversation with Prof. Dr. Harmut Leppin
19. April 2017

Happiness. Fortuna and Felicitas: ambivalences of the art of living
Stefan Sagmeister in conversation with Prof. Dr. Martin Seel
20. April 2016

Migration with misunderstandings. Germans and their citizenship
Prof. Dr. Rita Süssmuth in conversation with Prof. Dr. Andreas Fahrmeir

February 25, 2016

In the name of the market? TTIP, its arbitration tribunals and the self-restraint of state policy
Prof. Dr. Armin von Bogdandy in conversation with Prof. Dr. R. Alexander Lorz
November 10, 2015

Responsibility, leadership and restraint. Germany’s changing role in foreign policy
Stephan Steinlein in conversation with Prof. Gunther Hellmann
October 16, 2014

The emotional balance of capitalism. Greed for money as a structural principle?
Prof. Ute Frevert in conversation with Prof. Sighard Neckel
September 25, 2014

Who started it all? The sense and nonsense of historical attributions of guilt
Prof. Christopher Clark in conversation with Prof. Christoph Cornelißen

May 26, 2014

Values or economy? Germany’s contribution to international cooperation
Tanja Gönner in conversation with Prof. Rainer Klump
March 19, 2014

Virtuous Orient – sinful Occident? Pornography and sexuality between East and West
Hoda Salah in conversation with Prof. Susanne Schröter
12. December 2013

The end of the internet? On the regulation of the digital society
Markus Beckedahl in conversation with Prof. Alexander Peukert
November 20, 2013

Punishment is a must? What we get from criminal law
Minister of State Jörg-Uwe Hahn in conversation with Prof. Klaus Günther
July 3, 2013

This side of Eden. Religion between pontiff and post-secularism
Prof. Michael Sievernich SJ in conversation with Prof. Thomas M. Schmidt
22. May 2013

What does art do? The arts and the current crises
Prof. Carl Hegemann in conversation with Prof. Christoph Menke
March 8, 2012

Democracy in crisis? What intervention the current upheavals require
Dr. Joachim Gauck in conversation with Prof. Klaus Günther

February 4, 2012

What can film do? Images of time and society in contemporary cinema
Sebastian Schipper in conversation with Prof. Martin Seel
December 8, 2011

Growth without end? On the economics of more
Prof. Hans Christoph Binswanger in conversation with Prof. Bertram Schefold and Dr. Toni Föllmi

June 30, 2011

What to do with the protest? On the future of our democracy
Dr. Erhard Eppler in conversation with Prof. Peter Niesen
5. May 2011

Interference wanted?
Thea Dorn in conversation with Prof. Rainer Forst
24. November 2010

The politics of art in a globalized world
Dr. Juliane Rebentisch in conversation with Dr. Clémentine Deliss
16. September 2010

What does tolerance mean? Dealing with cultural and religious difference
Feridun Zaimoglu in conversation with Prof. Rainer Forst
27. May 2010

After the crisis? Learning from the financial crisis: what was and what is to come
Tom Koenigs in conversation with Prof. Reinhard H. Schmidt

March 11, 2010

News from the research center

Publication
12.05.2026 | Online article

Disinhibited Informalization: Talk Radio, Bro Podcasts and the Aesthetics of Populism

This essay by Johannes Völz is a revised and updated translation of “Enthemmte Informalisierung: Talk Radio, Bro-Podcasts und die Ästhetik des Populismus,” WestEnd: Neue Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung 22.2 (2025): 3–24. It is published here as part of the b2o Review’s “Stop the Right” dossier.

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Event
20.05.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Von der Selbstermächtigung zum sozialen Widerstand

Lecture

Vortrag von Prof. Dr. Axel Honneth (Frankfurt am Main / New York Columbia University) mit anschließender Diskussion im Rahmen des Rechtstheoretischen Mittwochsseminars von Klaus Günther, Dan Wielsch und Benno Zabel.

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Event
19.05.2026 | Frankfurt

Speculative Truth Regimes

Panel Discussion

Event with Adam Kahlil (New Red Order) and Toby Lee (NYU) as part of the Series Visual Truth Regimes, organized by Laliv Melamed (Goethe University Frankfurt, Normative Orders), Felix Trautmann (Institut für Sozialforschung; HBK Braunschweig) and Franziska Wildt (Institut für Sozialforschung).

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Event
25./26.06.2026 | Frankfurt

Shifting Regimes, Changing Orders

Conference

Conference as part of WDC2026 in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Designtheorie und -forschung (DGTF), Kunstgewerbemuseum/Design Campus SKD and Design and Democracy

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Event
28./29.05.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Global Health Justice: Principles and Practice

Conference

Following the research focus of the Global Health Justice Postdoctoral Programme, funded by Höppsche Stiftung, the "Global Health Justice: Principles and Practice" conference places a particular emphasis on themes such as the human right to health, political activism and health justice issues, and problems of structural injustice and vulnerable populations in health care. Keynote lectures by Jonathan Wolff and Kanchana Mahadevan. The Global Health Justice Programme and this conference are supported by the Höppsche Stiftung in Villmar.

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Event
14.07.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Democracy Over Time and the Climate Crisis

Lecture Series

Vortrag von Anja Karnein (Binghamton). Die Vortragsreihe untersucht Fragen der Klimakrise als Herausforderungen für demokratische Gesellschaften und konzentriert sich auf Themen wie politische Legitimität, Widerstand gegen fossile Brennstoffe und die Interessen künftiger Generationen. Sie wird organisiert von Prof. Dr. Darrel Moellendorf und Dr. Lukas Sparenborg.

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Event
10.06.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Capital Investment, Inequality, and State Power in a Time of Climate Emergency

Lecture, Lecture Series

The lecture series examines questions of the climate crisis as challenges for democratic
societies and focuses on issues of political legitimacy, fossil fuel resistance, and the interests
of future generations.

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Event
23.06.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Wehrhafte Demokratie: Chancen und Grenzen des Parteiverbots

Panel Discussion

Im Mittelpunkt des Abends steht die Frage, ob und unter welchen verfassungsrechtlichen, politischen und gesellschaftlichen Voraussetzungen ein Verbot einer demokratisch gewählten, rechtsnational ausgerichteten Partei als legitimes Mittel in Betracht gezogen werden kann oder nicht. Ausgehend von den normativen Grundlagen des Parteienverbots im Grundgesetz, möchten wir die hohen rechtlichen Hürden und demokratietheoretischen Spannungsfelder dieser Maßnahme erörtern – zwischen Pluralismus und Selbstverteidigung, zwischen Meinungsfreiheit und Schutz der freiheitlichen demokratischen Grundordnung.

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