Former Fellow

Luca Hemmrich

Luca Hemmerich recently submitted his dissertation, entitled “The Concept of Interest. An Objectivist Reconception”, supervised by Dirk Jörke at TU Darmstadt. He was a doctoral student and research assistant at the Department of Political Theory and History of Ideas at TU Darmstadt from 2020 to 2024. He previously studied social sciences, mathematics and political theory in Bielefeld, Frankfurt and Darmstadt. Stays abroad during his doctorate and master’s degree took him to Oxford, Lancaster and the New School for Social Research. His current research project “Institutions for the Future of Democracy” is dedicated to the growing ecological crisis, which is one of the most pressing challenges facing democracy today. The project is based on the assumption that current liberal-democratic institutions are ill-prepared for this crisis due to systemic reasons. Accordingly, an appropriate response to the ecological crisis requires a structural change to existing democratic institutions. The focus here is particularly on the question of how the interests of future generations and non-human nature can be adequately taken into account in political institutions.

  • Publikationen

    Forthcoming. Intergenerational Domination. The Journal of Ethics. 2024. Against Negativism: Why Critical Theory Should Appeal to the Good. Political Philosophy 1 (1), pp. 105–127. 2023. Trivially Satisfied Desires: A Problem for Desire-Satisfaction Theories of Well-Being. Utilitas 35 (4), pp. 277–291. 2021. Politische Anthropologie und Anthropologiekritik. Der Platz des Menschen im politischen Denken heute. Zeitschrift für Politik 2021 (4), pp. 406–422, (with Dirk Jörke).

News from the research center

Event
20.03.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

40 Jahre Schengen-Raum

Colloquium

Der 1984 geschlossene Schengen-Vertrag schuf einen heute 29 Staaten umfassenden Raum ohne Binnengrenzen, doch Migration über die Außengrenzen führte zuletzt zur Wiedereinführung von Kontrollen, auch durch die Bundesregierung ab 8. Mai 2025. Das Walter Hallstein-Kolloquium diskutiert die rechtliche Zulässigkeit, wirtschaftliche Folgen insbesondere für Arbeitsmigration und Arbeitsmarkt sowie die Zukunft des Schengen-Raums.

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News
12.02.2026

Satanist politics and the decline of reason in liberal democracies

For the last time in the winter semester 2025/26, the Research Center hosted the lecture series "Am Scheidepunkt. On the crisis of democracy". At the end, philosopher Michael Rosen from Harvard University presented his concept of "satanic politics" as a variant of the political interpretation of the world.

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News
09.02.2026

On the topicality of the concept of violence based on Camus and Derrida

Prof. Dr. Christine Abbt from the University of St. Gallen gave a lecture on democracies and the concept of violence as part of the lecture series "At the crossroads? On the crisis of democracy", she gave a lecture on democracies and the concept of violence. Under the title "Defending democracies. On the topicality of the concept of violence in Camus and Derrida", the philosopher discussed forms of violence and revolt and categorized them with regard to a democratic setting.

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Publication
04.02.2026 | Journal article

New Perspectives on Trust in International Conflicts

Wille, Tobias; Simon, Hendrik; Daase, Christopher; Deitelhoff, Nicole; Wheeler, Nicholas J.; Holmes, Marcus; Rathbun, Brian C.; Acharya, Amitav; Mitzen, Jennifer (2026): „New Perspectives on Trust in International Conflicts“. In: International Studies Review 28 (1), viaf027.

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News
02.02.2026

States competing for people - David Owen on civil geopolitics

As part of the lecture series "At the Crossroads - The Future of Democracy", David Owen from the University of Southampton presented his concept of civil geopolitics.

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News
20.01.2026

Christine Hentschel on reorientation in catastrophic times

As part of the lecture series "At the crossroads? On the crisis of democracy", the sociologist spoke about living in and dealing with catastrophic times. Against the backdrop of the destruction of living conditions, wars, permanent crises and threats to democracy, Hentschel addressed the infiltration of the catastrophic into everyday social life and a changing activist and literary approach to the future.

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Publication
08.01.2026 | Journal article

Gender Differences in Financial Advice

Bucher-Koenen, Tabea; Hackethal, Andreas; Koenen, Johannes; Laudenbach, Christine (2025): „Gender Differences in Financial Advice“. In: American Economic Review, 115 (12), pp. 4218–4252.

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Publication
19.12.2025 | Anthology

Faszination und Freiheit 

Günther, Klaus; Zabel, Benno (Hrsg.) (2025): Faszination und Freiheit - Gegenwartsdiagnosen im Anschluss an Christoph Menkes Theorie der Befreiung, Weilerswist (Velbrück Wissenschaft).

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Publication
12.12.2025 | Anthology

Zwischen Transformation und Abolitionismus. Das Strafrecht und die Vielfalt der Alternativen

Tobias Singelnstein, Christoph Burchard (2025)

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