The Academy, which opened in September 1998, is a private, non-profit center for advanced research in a range of academic and cultural fields. It welcomes emerging as well as established scholars, writers, and professionals who wish to engage in independent study in Berlin for an academic semester or – in rare cases – for an entire academic year. (In the case of the Bosch Fellowship in Public Policy, shorter stays of six to eight weeks may be arranged.)

The Academy is housed in the Hans Arnhold Center, a historic lakeside villa in the Wannsee district of Berlin. It welcomes about twenty fellows each year. Berlin Prizes have been awarded to historians, economists, poets, art historians, journalists, legal scholars, anthropologists, musicologists, public policy experts, and writers, among others. We do not accept project proposals in mathematics and the hard sciences.

Fellowship benefits include round-trip airfare, housing at the Academy, partial board, and a stipend ranging from $3,500 to $5,000 per month. Fellows are expected to be in residence at the Academy during the entire term of the award. The Academy offers furnished apartments suitable for individuals and couples. Very limited accommodations are available for families with children.

All fellowships are restricted to US citizens and permanent residents who are based permanently in the US. (US expatriates are not eligible to apply.) Candidates in academic disciplines are expected to have completed a doctorate at the time of application. Candidates need not be specialists in German topics, but the submitted project description should explain how a Berlin residency would contribute to further professional development.

Application forms may be downloaded from the American Academy’s website (www.americanacademy.de) or obtained through the mail upon request. Finalist dossiers will be reviewed by the General Selection Committee following a rigorous screening process. The 2007–2008 Berlin Prizes will be awarded in January 2007 and publicly announced in the spring of 2007.

At this time, the Academy is accepting general applications from all fields except for the visual arts and musical composition. Please consult the Academy’s website for information on the Guna S. Mundheim Berlin Prize in Visual Arts and the Deutsche Bank Berlin Prize, a fellowship for musical composition.