Having in May 1945 survived three sinkings and a pending court-martial, WILHELM HENNIS studied law in Göttingen University, Germany and in 1951 became the Bundestag assistant to the legal adviser of the SPD, and then from 1953 assistant to Carlo Schmid, Professor of Political Science in Frankfurt. After a period in Hamburg, he was in 1967 appointed Professor of Political Theory in Freiburg, a post which he held until his retirement. In 2003 he was awarded the Reuchlin Prize.

• Introduction; D.Kelly The Problem of the German Conception of the State The Idea of Office and the Concept of Democracy Democratization: Concept and Problematic Legitimacy: On a Category of Civil Society Tocqueville's 'New Political Science' Goya's Reason and the Project of Modernity: Seeking Understanding of 'The Dream of Reason' (Capricho 43) 'Hellenic Intellectual Culture' and the Origins of Weber's Political Thinking Political Science as a Vocation: A Personal Account