On Friday, April 17, we opened our doors to our supporters and partners, as well as to our new neighbors. A lot has happened since we moved into our new building at Warburgstraße 30 B in December 2025. The once-empty, white rooms have been transformed into lively, inviting offices, and the hallways have become places where people can meet.
We truly enjoyed presenting our research activities and outreach programs, as well as giving visitors a firsthand experience of our new location, which is designed for agile working methods and cutting-edge research. Our network and industry partners, neighbors, and supporters explored the new HBI location and engaged in conversation both with us and with one another.
We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who made the move possible and helped make this day so special.
A Research Clinic on the Topic of Doubt, Information about Hans Bredow, and Diverse Research Insights
After welcoming remarks from the HBI Board of Directors, the Research Clinic examined doubt as an analytical, social, and scientific category. The goal was to make the concept of doubt visible and open to discussion and research. Discussions took place at various stations: How does doubt about institutions arise, and how can it be addressed? Who decides what becomes socially important? What dynamics shape information behavior, and what role do individual differences play? What shifts are emerging as a result of generative AI? The results of the clinic will be published shortly on our Media Research Blog.
Afterwards, stations on each floor showcased the diverse research conducted at the HBI. In addition to information points on the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the #UseTheNews collaboration project, visitors learned about the Hamburg section of the Research Institute Social Cohesion (RISC) and the Reuters Institute Digital News Report. The latter revealed which news source is most frequently used in Germany. The result: linear television. The conceptual space “Social Media Platforms as Paradoxical Offerings” examined the logic of the social web—and, consequently, the paradox of how one can feel capable of influencing algorithms despite the fact that their technical functioning is hardly transparent.
The program included a “science cinema” that presented completed projects in an audiovisual format as part of “Sneak Reviews,” as well as listening stations in the BredowCast studio. A podcast episode (only available in German) was also made available, featuring Wolfgang Schulz, the Chairman of the Board of Directors and Scientific Director. In June 2025, on the occasion of the HBI’s 75th anniversary and in anticipation of the move to the new location, he said:
“We enjoy being hosts and hope that we will be able to hold many events and invite people from whom we can learn.”
In this sense, the open house was a kickoff. We look forward to hosting more events.
Photos: Leibniz Institute for Media Research / Jann Wilken