Prof. Dr. Michael Krennerich
Prof. Dr. Michael Krennerich
- Phone number: +49 9131 85-23271
- Fax number: 015204976834
- Email: michael.krennerich@fau.de
Michael Krennerich is a Professor of Political Science and the Scientific Director of the Center for Human Rights Erlangen-Nuremberg (CHREN) at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU). He holds a doctorate (summa cum laude) in Political Sciences, Public Law, and Philosophy from Heidelberg University, as well as a postdoctoral habilitation from FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg. He has accrued 30 years of academic and professional experiences in the field of civil, political, economic, social and cultural human rights, with many years of academic and non-academic teaching.
In the 1990s, Krennerich was a researcher at the University of Heidelberg, partly in cooperation with the Instituto Interamericano de Derechos Humanos in San José (Costa Rica), and then at the Institute for Ibero-American Studies (now the German Institute for Global and Area Studies) in Hamburg. From 2001 to 2006, he worked outside academia as an editor in television production and as a freelance political consultant in Europe, Latin America, Africa and the Caucasus. Since returning to academia, he has been teaching at the FAU since 2006/2007 (with a focus on elections and human rights) and helped establish the Chair of Human Rights and Human Rights Politics there, which was set up in 2009. Krennerich is co-founder of CHREN and served as co-director of the International Human Rights Master Programme at the FAU from 2014-2020.
Professor Krennerich has published extensively on the subjects of elections, democratisation and human rights. In addition to several monographs, edited volumes and studies, he has also published a substantial number of articles in journals and books, which can be found in the list of publications. Moreover, he is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the bilingual Zeitschrift für Menschenrechte/Journal für Menschenrechte, the most significant interdisciplinary journal on human rights and human rights policy in Germany, established in 2007. The journal presents current and systematic human rights issues for analysis and reflection from the perspectives of political science, law, philosophy, history, sociology and educational theory.
Michael Krennerich is strongly committed to civil society human rights work. Since 2007, he has been chairperson of the non-governmental human rights organisation “Nürnberger Menschenrechtszentrum e.V.” (Nuremberg Human Rights Centre), which promotes human rights at local, national and international level. Since 2003, he has been active in the national network of German human rights organisations, “Forum Menschenrechte”, where he led the working group on human rights and development for several years. From 2016 to 2020 and again in 2024, he was a member of the coordinating committee of the Forum Menschenrechte.
In 2017, Michael Krennerich received the Nuremberg Bürgermedaille (Citizen Medal) for his human rights engagement.
Nürnberger Menschenrechtszentrum (Nuremberg Human Rights Centre) (Chairperson)
Forum Menschenrechte (Network of German human rights organisations) (Member of the coordinating committee, 2016-2020, 2024)
Deutsches Institut für Menschenrechte (German Institute for Human Rights) (Member of the Board of Trusties, 2016-2024)
Kuratorium für Vielfalt und Zusammenhalt der Stadt Nürnberg (Member of the Advisory Board for Diversity and Cohesion of the City of Nuremberg)
FIAN Germany (Member of the Advisory Board)
Amnesty International