Born in 1950, Claus Leggewie studied Social Sciences and History in Cologne und Paris. In 1979 he received his PhD at the University of Göttingen with a doctoral thesis on the French colonial system in Algeria. In Göttingen, he also received his habilitation (postdoctoral lecture qualification) and became Professor for Political Science in 1986. From 1989 he has been Professor for Political Science at the Justus-Liebig-University Giessen. He was visiting professor and fellow at several institutions, amongst others at the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin, the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna as well as the universities of Paris-Nanterre, Vienna and New York. In 2001 he founded the Center for Media and Interactivity (ZMI) in Gießen and in August 2007 he became Director of the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities in Essen (KWI). From December 2008 Prof. Dr. Claus Leggewie has been a member of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU).

He is editor of the „Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik“, Berlin and „Transit“, Vienna. He frequently writes for national and international newspapers, magazines and radio stations. His research foci are: Climate and Culture (Cultural premises of the adaptation of modern societies to the consequences of climate change), Intercultural relations (Conditions and consequences of cultural and religious globalisation), Collective Memory (European conflicts on commemoration and politics of memory) and Political and scientific communication via digital media as well as democratisation in non-Western societies.