“When I had attained the age of seventeen, my parents resolved that I should become a student at the university of Ingolstadt.” (Victor Frankenstein) 

In Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein (1818), Victor Frankenstein's quest for knowledge begins in Ingolstadt. With its university, the city is a symbol of scholarship, scientific curiosity—and the question of what responsibility comes with knowledge. From this constellation, the novel develops one of the most influential reflections on creation, control, and the consequences of human aspirations. 

More than two hundred years later, these questions are once again pressing. Artificial intelligence promises unprecedented possibilities, but also challenges us to think about responsibility, care, and the limits of what is feasible. 

Today, the KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt once again uses the historic buildings of the Bavarian state university, founded in 1472, for its Future Campus: the Hohe Schule and the Georgianum. With our research projects and events on Frankenstein and artificial intelligence taking place in these very locations, we are consciously continuing a long history of knowledge acquisition and misuse. We are opening up a space in which the past, present, and future can come into dialogue with one another. 

We would like to invite you to join this conversation. Just stop by or send us an email: frankenstein@ku.de.