Prof. Werner Weidenfeld is the Director and founder of the Center for Applied Policy Research at Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich. He founded this program in 1995 as a home for practice-oriented research with the intent to close the gap between politics and academia. He is also Rector of Alma Mater Europaea (European Academy of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, Salzburg, Austria).
He attended the University of Bonn for his BA, where he studied political sciences, history, and philosophy. There he continued his studies until 1971, when he received his PhD in philosophy. In 1975 he earned his habilitation in political sciences from the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz. Following his habilitation, he was a professor of political sciences at the University of Mainz for twenty years. During this time, he was also Coordinator of the German Federal Government for German-American cooperation.
