Prof. Dr. Sebastian Kaufmann
born 1979, studied philosophy, ancient history and modern German literature at the University of Freiburg, Magister Artium 2007, doctorate 2011, habilitation 2018, from 2013 to 2023 sub-project leader at the of the research unit “Nietzsche-Kommentar” at the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Since 2022, he has been an adjunct professor at the Institute for Modern German Literature at the University of Freiburg; he is leading the research team of PartUBI since 2022.
Lives in Freiburg im Breisgau

Robert Krause, PD Dr.
comparative literature and cultural studies scholar, born 1980, studied German language and literature, history and philosophy at the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg as well as Romance studies and art history at the universities of Strasbourg and Seville, Magister Artium 2007, doctorate 2010, habilitation 2019. Krause is an academic assistant at the German Seminar of the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg, from February 2023 to July 2023 visiting professor at Iméra, Institut d’études avancées in Marseille with the research project “The Unconditional Basic Income: towards a cultural and intellectual history of a necessary utopia”, from July until december 2023 academic assistant in the PartUBI team project.

Alina Plitman, M.A.
is a doctoral student supervised by Prof. Dr. Andreas Urs Sommer at the Philosophy Department of the University of Freiburg. She completed her studies in economics at the Ruhr University Bochum. At the University of Stuttgart, Ms Plitman completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Philosophy. Ms Plitman’s main research interests are applied ethics, economic ethics and political philosophy. Her dissertation is concerned with the concept of an unconditional basic income. It focuses on the concept of work, its revision and incorporation into theories of justice. Alina Plitman is a member of the Junior Research Group at FRIBIS and at the Society for Business Ethics.
Lives in Stuttgart

Prof. Dr. Andreas Urs Sommer
born in 1972, studied philosophy, church and dogma history and German literature in Basel, Göttingen and Freiburg im Breisgau, licentiate in 1995, doctorate in 1998 at the University of Basel, habilitation in 2004 at the University of Greifswald, from 2014 to 2023 head of the research unit “Nietzsche-Kommentar” at the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, since 2016 W3 professor of philosophy with a focus on cultural philosophy at the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg. His most recent book publications deal with questions of political philosophy, namely Eine Demokratie für das 21. Jahrhundert. Warum die Volksvertretung überholt ist und die Zukunft der direkten Demokratie gehört (Herder 2022) and Entscheide dich! Der Krieg und die Demokratie (Herder 2023).
Lives in Freiburg im Breisgau

Milan Wenner, M. A.
is currently a PhD student in philosophy at the University of Freiburg (Germany). His dissertation deals with anti-modernist narratives of decline in the ‘long 20th century’. He is also working on the UBI in the context of political philosophy and the philosophy of history. His research on the narrative of the Great Displacement connects both of Wenner’s aforementioned research areas. This is why he is particularly interested in the use of the narrative of technology-induced unemployment and its potential as a meta-political tool for Basic Income advocates.
Lives in Freiburg im Breisgau

FRIBIS Team Coordinator

Leon Hartmann, M. A.
studied philosophy and German literature in Freiburg. He is currently a doctoral candidate in philosophy at the University of Freiburg and works as a research assistant at FRIBIS. In his dissertation, he analyses historical and contemporary conceptions of the future in the context of unconditional basic income, political participation and direct democracy. In doing so, he primarily examines discursive future practices and associated semantics as well as reflections on governmental techniques. Special attention is paid to the concept of the ‘narrative’ and its implications for the social negotiation of the future.
Lives in Freiburg im Breisgau
Contact:
leon.hartmann@philosophie.uni-freiburg.de
leon.hartmann@fribis.uni-freiburg.de

Michael von der Lohe
Dipl. Ing. Photoingenieurwesen, born in 1953, has been an employee of OMNIBUS FÜR DIREKTE DEMOKRATIE gGmbH since 2000. He has been managing director there since 2004. He was a self-employed photo designer from 1978 to 2014 and won the Kodak European Award for professional photographers in 1988. In 1992, he developed a chemical process for burning silver halide emulsions onto ceramic substrates. From 2000 to 2006 he was an employee at the company Wirtschaft und Kunst – erweitert gGmbH in Frankfurt.
Lives in Hattingen, Germany

Susanne Wiest
has been advocating for the introduction of an universal basic income in Germany since 2008. Long-standing and also more recent partners in this free field of work include organisations such as the OMNIBUS FÜR DIREKTE DEMOKRATIE, collaborators of the initiative Freiheit statt Vollbeschäftigung, Uschi Bauer, initiator of the Krönungswelle, and since 2020 the Freiburg Institute for Basic Income Studies (FRIBIS). Central and fundamental was the inspiring cooperation with Götz Werner. Since 2022 Susanne Wiest has been chairperson of Mensch in Germany e. V.
Lives in Alt Tellin, Germany

Philip Kovce
is an external doctoral candidate at the Götz Werner Chair of Economic Policy & Constitutional Economic Theory at the University of Freiburg. He also conducts research at the Philosophicum Basel, teaches in the Studium fundamentale at the University of Witten/Herdecke, and writes as a freelance author for the press and radio. Numerous publications on unconditional basic income, including, together with Birger P. Priddat Bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen. Grundlagentexte (Suhrkamp 2019).

Sabine Scharff, M. A.
is author, doctoral candidate in philosophy at the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg and mother. She completed her Master of Arts in Philosophy, Art History and German Studies at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich and worked for many years as a research assistant and project coordinator at the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe and the ZKM Karlsruhe. She realised various international and transdisciplinary projects with a special focus on political issues in the application of digital media. For over ten years, she has been involved with the Institut für Wirtschaftsgestaltung [hyperlink: http://www.ifw01.de/] in Berlin and now also within the Freiburg Institute for Basic Income Studies (FRIBIS). In her work in the PartUBI team, she is particularly interested in the implications of the digital shift for the relationship between participation and basic income.
Lives in Munich, Germany

Sören E. Schuster
is a doctoral candidate in philosophy at the Albert-Ludwig-University of Freiburg. His main research interests at the Institut für Wirtschaftsgestaltung in Berlin are Philosophy of Economics, History of Economic Thought, Philosophy of Management and Friedrich Nietzsche. Together with Georg N. Schäfer, his most recent publication was Mapping Mainstream Economics. Genealogical Foundations of Alternativity (Routledge, 2022)
Lives in Berlin