History
The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities was founded in 1759 by Elector Maximilian III Joseph. From the very beginning of the 18th century learned men in Bavaria, both clerics and laity, had sought contact with the European Academic movement. In 1702 a learned society was established in Munich with the Baroque name of "Nutz- und Lusterweckende Gesellschaft der vertrauten Nachbarn am Isarstrom" (Society of friendly neighbours on the stream of the Isar for the creation of utility and pleasure). This society devoted itself to the study of Bavarian history. In 1720 it was followed by the short-lived Academia Carolo Albertina. The periodical Parnassus boicus oder neueröffneter Musenberg (Bavarian Parnassus, or the newly opened mountain of the Muses) was established in 1722, but continued only until 1740, by which time five issues had appeared. The foundation charter of the Academy in 1759 makes special mention of Parnassus boicus.
That the Academy was founded at all was due to the untiring efforts of Johann Georg Lori (1723–1787), Privy Counsellor at the Münz- und Bergwerkskollegium (College of Coinage and Mining) in Munich. Lori, son of an innkeeper in south-eastern Bavaria, had studied law at Würzburg and Ingolstadt. He was in contact with many of the leading scholars of his time, in particular the influential philosopher Christian Wolff. In Munich on 12th October 1758 Lori founded the Bayerische Gelehrte Gesellschaft (Learned Society of Bavaria). From the outset it was his intention to raise this society to the status of a Royal Academy devoted to the pursuit of scholarly research and the advancement of knowledge. As many as 88 members joined within six months. The first President was the chairman of the Münz- und Bergwerkskollegium, Count Sigmund von und zu Haimhausen, who was able to open doors to the royal court and to the Elector himself.
Elector Maximilian III Joseph (1727–1777), founder of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
On March 28, 1759, Elector Max III. Joseph signed the founding documents, and he endorsed the statutes of the Academy on June 25, 1759. From the very beginning, the Academy chose its members without paying heed to religion or mother country. In 1759, 19 of the 88 members were Protestants – this at a time when Protestants were prohibited from gaining the Munich citizenship.
The members were divided into two classes, one historical and one philosophical – philosophical in the old sense of a general theory of science, which included mathematics as well as physics. The Academy was first housed in the Mauthaus; after 1783, it was relocated at the Wilhelminum at Neuhauser Straße, the former collegiate building of the dissolved Jesuit Order. The Academy's object was to "make all things objects of scrutiny, except for religious matters and political controversies (…)."
Former collegiate building of the dissolved Jesuit Order, accomodation of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities from 1783 to 1944.
Following the secularisation the structure of the Academy altered. From being a free association of scholars it changed in 1807 into a centralised state-run organisation whose members were now full-time civil servants on a fixed salary. In addition, between 1807 and 1827 a large part of the State of Bavaria's scientific collections and institutions were incorporated in the Academy in the form of so-called "adjuncts". These "adjuncts" were separated from the Academy when the university moved from Landshut to Munich; some of them became independent organisations, some were united with the collections of the university. In 1827 the Academy largely reverted to its original purpose: a free association of scholars and a research facility.
After the Second World War, the Academy had lost its home. The Wilhelminum fell prey to the bombs in April 1944. However, the State of Bavaria created a worthy new domicil in the north-eastern wing of the Munich Residence, which had been built by Leo von Klenze; the new home was occupied in the anniversary year of 1959. The Academy has 135 offices at its disposal, a library, two conference halls and, last but not least, a representative auditory for 420 persons.
The north-eastern wing of the Munich Residence (Banqueting Hall Building), the seat of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities since 1959.