Fritz W. Scharpf turns 85

Fritz W. Scharpf, Emeritus Director at the MPIfG, celebrated his 85th birthday on February 12. Colleagues gathered to congratulate him at a reception hosted by the Institute to mark the special occasion. Scharpf led the MPIfG from 1986 until 2003 alongside the Institute’s Founding Director, Renate Mayntz. His main research interests were federalism and European integration, and his work on the joint-decision trap and the effectiveness and legitimacy of the European multi-level polity is considered to have been groundbreaking for political science in Germany. In "Fritz W. Scharpf im Gespräch," a volume of interviews published in 2017, he explains his impact from the postwar period to the eurocrisis against the backdrop of his personal history. In his current research, Fritz W. Scharpf is working on the Political Economy of European Integration.