About us

As a prestigious institute of the Humboldt University of Berlin, we have been dedicated to promoting sustainable development, particularly in rural areas of the Global South, for over 60 years. Our leading role in teaching, training and research in the field of international cooperation is motivated by our clear objective: to make a positive contribution to overcoming global challenges. We aim to positively influence and accelerate socially and ecologically sustainable transformation processes through well-founded empirical knowledge, cooperation with practical organizations and the training of future specialists and managers.

Transformation areas and fields of work

The content of STUDIUM, TRAINING and PROJECTS revolves around the three transformation areas of ecosystems and nutrition, socio-ecological management and governance, participation and peacebuilding. Each area is considered in a multi-level approach, as transformative development measures can only have a sustainable impact if they are anchored at all levels, bottom up and top down.

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Our history

The SLE was founded in 1962 as the "Seminar for Agricultural Development". With its focus on tropical and subtropical agriculture, it was part of the "International Agricultural Development" department at the Technical University of Berlin. In the course of the reorganization of the three Berlin universities after reunification, the SLE was affiliated to the Faculty of Agriculture and Horticulture at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in October 1992 and renamed the "Seminar for Rural Development" in 1994. This renaming was intended to reflect the broader approach of the SLE. With the faculty reform in 2014, the SLE was placed under the umbrella of the Faculty of Life Sciences at the Albrecht Daniel Thaer Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, under which it still operates today.

About us

Transformation areas and fields of work

Our history

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Das SLE

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