Rotating Administration in Action

A Note from our New Managing Director, Stefan Vogenauer

The position of Managing Director at the Institute rotates among the three Directors every three years. As of 2025, I have assumed this role, succeeding Marietta Auer at the start of the year. The Managing Director oversees the Institute’s day-to-day operations, particularly its administrative functions.

I believe that I speak for the entire Institute if I use this opportunity to thank Marietta for performing her duties in an exemplary fashion. She did not only oversee the consolidation of the renamed Max Planck Institute for 'Legal History and Legal Theory’, she also discharged many of the mundane administrative tasks that are inevitable in running an organisation of our size. Most recently, she steered us calmly through the evaluation of the Institute by our Advisory Board.

The Advisory Board visited us for three days in early November. We received a lot of helpful feedback and are currently awaiting the Board’s official report and its recommendations. We will try to implement these over the coming years and develop the Institute further towards achieving its mission, as set out in our mission statement that can be found at the top of the home page of the Institute’s website.

For me personally, the new year will bring two further important changes. I will take over as Chair of the Human Sciences Section of the Max Planck Society in June. The three sections of the Society (the other two deal with Biology and Medicine and with Chemistry, Physics and Technology, respectively) are essential for its independent academic governance. They engage in strategic planning and coordinate the process of appointing new Directors. The Human Sciences Section consists of 21 Max Planck Institutes at 16 locations in Germany, the Netherlands and Italy. The Institutes explore topics ranging from the human intellectual development and social interaction to the economic and legal order, cultural history and the artistic expression of human spirituality.

As a consequence, in October I will step down as Chair of Max Planck Law, the network of the nine Max Planck Institutes engaged in legal research. My successor in this role is due to be elected next month.

While these updates focus on organizational matters, our main goal remains to produce outstanding research, whether by initiating new projects or completing ongoing ones. You will read more about these in our future newsletters and on this website. With this in mind, I wish you all a happy, healthy and successful new year!