A conversation with Director Emeritus Klaus J. Hopt
When Klaus J. Hopt joined the Institute as a Director in 1995, he came from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. His academic career and life had already taken him around the globe. To this day, he is an internationally sought-after expert on the commercial law topics with which he has made a name for himself, and he encourages young researchers embarking on an academic career to similarly adopt an international perspective. His credo: “quality prevails.”

In preparation for the one hundred year anniversary of the Institute's founding in 2026, the Scientific Communication department has conducted a series of oral history interviews in collaboration with an agency specializing in historical projects. Among the individuals interviewed was Klaus J. Hopt, our long-standing Director and Director Emeritus since 2008. Following his detailed recounting of the history of the Institute, we met him for an interview in order to give readers of the Private Law Gazette more insight on his personal career.
“It was the best decision in my academic career,” says Hopt about his choice to accept the position offered by the Max Planck Society. And it was undoubtedly a decision that has greatly benefited the Institute. Much of the Institute's long-term success is due to his commitment. This applies in particular to the Institute’s international orientation, which has grown considerably over the last three decades, and the fostering of young academics, which has turned the Hamburg Institute into a bustling incubator for legal careers. He has also set new accents in the areas of commercial, corporate, banking, and capital market law.
One of the most important steps Hopt took after his appointment was his initiation of close academic ties with the University of Hamburg, as was similarly done later with Bucerius Law School. The move proved fruitful for all involved: A large number of doctoral and post-doctoral theses accepted at the two universities have been written at the Institute. Hopt supervised many of them himself. In 2008, he was awarded the Claussen Simon Foundation's prize for mentorship as “Hamburg's best doctoral supervisor”. To date, 123 law students have completed their doctorates under his guidance and a number completed their post-doctoral qualification (“habilitated”). Eighteen of his academic students have obtained professorships at renowned German and foreign universities.
Many of his academic projects have had a lasting impact in the form of widely circulated publications, such as the commercial law commentary known as “Hopt HGB”; now in its 44th edition, it can be found in every German court library. Hopt's contributions to capital market law continue to be ground-breaking. His comparative work in the area of corporate governance comprises numerous volumes and has met with considerable recognition both in Germany and abroad.
As an expert for the German Bundestag and several federal ministries as well as for the Deutsche Bundesbank and the European Commission, he has often put his expertise at the service of legislative actors. Under his leadership, the Institute produced a series of influential expert reports. As for these efforts, he always attached great importance to independence: “I only took on topics that were also of academic interest. There were no partisan analyses. And in our work for the European Commission, we didn’t concern ourselves with the national perspective but placed an unreserved focus on what was best for Europe.”
During his tenure as Institute Director, he was joined by Hein Kötz, Ulrich Drobnig, Jürgen Basedow, and Reinhard Zimmermann on the three-member directorate. “We became friends through our collaborative efforts,” says Hopt, describing their internal relationships. “We had very different professional interests, but we got on well because we shared the same standards of quality.” But there was, no doubt, also a human touch. Whether inside or outside the Institute, anyone who has worked on a team with Klaus J. Hopt knows how much he cares about collegial and cooperative partnership. Similarly, it was particularly important for him to provide personal support for the Institute's guest researchers, for whom his door was always open.
Klaus J. Hopt's career has been international from the very outset. Portions of his university studies were completed in Paris, Bilbao, and New York. He later held visiting professorships at many universities in Europe, the USA, and Asia. In Germany, he has also made a name for himself as a framer of academic undertakings. He has shown great personal engagement as, for example, chairman of the Scientific Council and senator of the Max Planck Society and as vice-president of the German Research Foundation. How does he view the German and international scholarly landscape today?
“Although I am convinced that we need more rather than less academic knowledge for the topics of our future, we can hardly expect any growth in the number of professorial chairs in Germany at the moment. However, one very positive development is that our Institute is now attracting talent from many different countries. At the same time, it has become a matter of course for our young scholars to orient themselves internationally. Many of our alumni have gone on to notable careers abroad.”
Also as Director Emeritus, Klaus J. Hopt has been a prolific author and sought-after guest lecturer. Over the last fifteen years, he has published numerous articles in German and international journals and has co-edited various volumes published by Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press on the topics of financial market regulation, financial market supervision, mediation, comparative corporate governance, and boards of directors and supervisory boards in law and practice. The list of his professional activities remains extensive and impressive. For a long time, he wrote a column for the Handelsblatt. Most recently, he has given academic lectures at the University of Bologna and the Université Laval in Quebec, Canada, and he continues to be active as a doctoral supervisor. He maintains regular contact with what he calls his “academic children and grandchildren” – and he now also has an “academic great-granddaughter”. How he manages all this remains his secret.
Image: © Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law