Hermann and Elise (nee Heckmann) Wentzel Foundation

Supporting science and scholarship since 1894

The Hermann and Elise (nee Heckmann) Wentzel Foundation was set up in 1894 for the benefit of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences by Elise Wentzel. Since 1992 the Foundation’s resources have been directed to the benefit of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. The Foundation is a foundation with legal status under civil law and is based in Berlin. It supports scientific research and its publication.

Year after year since its creation, the foundation has supported the research projects, conferences, workshops and publications of the Academy. In 2006 the international conference on the ‘650th Anniversary of the Golden Bull’ was supported by the Heckmann Wentzel Foundation. Other examples of this support for science are the editions of, for example, volumes of Alexander von Humboldt’s travel diaries, and the internet project ‘Virtual Berlin in 1800’.

In a 1902 letter to the Steering Committee, Elise Wentzel-Heckmann, who endowed the foundation, wrote: ‘If, as I wish and hope, my foundation proves to be of continuing value to the sciences, that will be the best form of thanks and will provide me with the greatest satisfaction.’