Ludger Kühnhardt is a German political scientist, born in Münster.
Education
After studies of history, philosophy and political science at Bonn, Geneva, Tokyo and Harvard, Kühnhardt wrote a dissertation on the world refugee problem (1983) and a second thesis (Habilitation) on the universality of human rights (1986).
Career
Since 1997 he has been Director at the Center for European Integration Studies (ZEI), which he helped to found, and Professor of Political Science at Bonn University. Between 1991 and 1997 Kühnhardt was Professor of Political Science at Freiburg University, where he also served as Dean of his Faculty. He was speechwriter for Germany’s Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker (1987–1989) and a visiting professor at prestigious universities around the world, including the University of Cape Town (1991), College of Europe (1995), Dartmouth College (2000), Stanford University (2004), Seoul National University (2004–2005) and Street Antony"s College, Oxford (2005–2006).
He regularly lectures at the Catholic University of Milan (since 1997), at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna (since 2002) and at the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies in Malta (since 2007).
Also, he is on the advisory board of OMFIF where he is regularly involved in meetings regarding the financial and monetary system. He was a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna (1993) and a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington District of Columbia (2002 and 2011).
Kühnhardt has intensive political and academic consulting experience, including for the Secretary General of the Council of Europe and for the President of the European Parliament. Kühnhardt has lectured on all continents.
In 2004 he was awarded the European Science Prize of the European Cultural Foundation.
Membership
He is a member of the Advisory Board for European Affairs of the German Bishop’s Conference and a member of the Scientific Committee of the West Africa Institute (WAI).