Affiliated Institutes

The Abraham Geiger College at the University of Potsdam was founded in 1999 and is the first academic seminary for rabbis and cantors in Continental Europe after the Shoah. It stands in the tradition of the Berlin Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums (the Institute for the Scientific Study of Judaism), which was closed down by the Nazis in 1942. The College draws funds from private and public sources, the Federal German Government, the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Laender in the Federal Republic of Germany, the Federal State of Brandenburg as well as the Central Council of Jews in Germany and the Leo Baeck Foundation.

The Academy of Psychotherapy and Intervention Research (API) was founded in 1998 and has been affiliated to the University of Potsdam since 1999. Since its state recognition in 1999 it has started new training courses every year to become a psychotherapist for children and adolescents including the license to practice medicine. In 2002 the training at the API was accredited by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychologie as university training courses in child and adolescent psychotherapy. It is a member of the Verbund universitärer Ausbildungsstätten für Psychotherapie, the association of university training centers for psychotherapy (www.unith.de).

We are an affiliated institute of the University of Potsdam closely cooperating with the Law Faculty. Dedicated university teachers and theologians work together at the institute, mostly on a voluntary basis, to foster and promote training and research in the field of church law and law of church-state relations. They supervise research projects and doctoral theses and give also lectures at extramural institutions.

The Institute for Applied Family, Childhood and Youth Research (IFK) is a legal entity and an economically independent interdisciplinary research institute. It is supported by a promotional association and an advisory council of renowned scholars. The IFK is a nationally recognized independent institution of youth welfare services and has a partnership agreement as an affiliated institute of the University of Potsdam making a valuable contribution to academic program.

The Moses Mendelssohn Center for European Jewish Studies (MMZ) in Potsdam was founded in 1992, and named after the philosopher of the Enlightenment, Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786). The MMZ is an interdisciplinary scientific facility which carries out basic research in history, philosophy, religion, literature, and social science.

The MMZ is an institute affiliated with the University of Potsdam and involved in the study program Jüdische Studien/Jewish Studies.

WiB e.V., an institution for further qualification in education, evolved from wbl e.V., a non-profit association founded by the University of Potsdam and the Brandenburg ministries of education and science in 1994. It had the mandate to provide local, practical and career-integrated graduate non-degree programs and graduate courses complementary to a first degree in 18 subjects and fields for 3,600 teachers within a period of five years. (Special program for further qualification of teachers in Brandenburg).