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Photo: Jochen Hippler
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It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of INEF founding director Prof. em. Dr. Franz Nuscheler on July 31, 2025. For decades, Franz Nuscheler played a key role in shaping German development research and policy. With his passing, we have lost a committed and forthright researcher consistently speaking out on all central debates in the field of research he established in Germany. Our thoughts are with his family.

After studying political science, history, and public law in Heidelberg, Franz Nuscheler earned his doctorate in 1967 under the supervision of Dolf Sternberger. Subsequently, he worked as an academic assistant and, later, as a senior lecturer at the University of Hamburg from 1969 to 1974. In 1974, he was appointed full professor of comparative and international politics at the (then) University of Duisburg, where he remained until his retirement in 2003. In 1990, Franz Nuscheler founded the Institute for Development and Peace (INEF) at the Faculty of Social Sciences. INEF has since provided academic support for the activities of the “Development and Peace Foundation” established at the initiative of former German chancellor Willy Brandt. Franz Nuscheler headed the INEF until May 2006.

For decades, generations of students came into contact with Franz Nuscheler's often groundbreaking work. As early as 1974, Franz Nuscheler and Dieter Nohlen published a standard work for German-language development research, the “Handbuch der Dritten Welt” (Handbook of the Third World). It not only represented the state of the art in terms of research on development theories and strategies but also shed light on regional and national trends and particularities. In 1985, the first edition of Franz Nuscheler's “Lern- und Arbeitsbuch Entwicklungspolitik” (Textbook on Development Policy) was published. Like no other publication in the German-speaking world, it provided students and other interested parties with key access to the field of development policy, most recently with its 7th edition in 2012.

Franz Nuscheler's writings always offered helpful guidance. Apart from providing pioneering research insights, he also sought to influence the policy-making process. He never thought of development policy as an isolated domain but rather as part of global structural policy. In addition to the central importance of human rights for development, Franz Nuscheler recognized the significance of migration and forced displacement for global politics at an early stage. Consequently, he did not shy away from making his findings accessible to a broad readership going beyond academia.

Starting in the early 2000s, Franz Nuscheler succeeded in establishing the concept of Global Governance in German research and public discourse together with Dirk Messner. At the time, this represented nothing less than a new way of thinking, placing the sovereignty of the nation state within the context of the interdependencies of internationally and transnationally networked politics. In the light of common survival interests, Franz Nuscheler argued, there is an urgency for multi-level and multi-actor politics to follow the primacy of global cooperation. This insight is more relevant than ever, especially in times of a return to power politics shaped by national interests.

Franz Nuscheler's expertise and his eye for what is politically feasible and necessary were recognized by many. He not only served on numerous scientific advisory boards and selection committees but was also an expert member of the German Bundestag's Enquete Commission on the Globalization of the World Economy and the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU). In 2001, Franz Nuscheler was awarded the Order of Merit of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia for his outstanding commitment.

The INEF team remains attached to Franz Nuscheler’s pioneering work and remembers him with deep personal and professional respect.