Hello, I'm Dennis Kölling

"How do ideas shape society and why does it matter how we communicate them?"

I am a Berlin-based researcher, writer, and speaker specializing in intellectual history, liberal philosophy, and political thought. I've always been interested in how ideas shape societies and how abstract theories can be translated into popular culture and made accessible for broader audiences. My curiosity led me on an interdisciplinary journey through history, political theory, and literary studies, alongside hands-on work in civic education project management.

I earned my Ph.D. in History & Civilization from the European University Institute in 2025. My research focuses on the intellectual history of liberalism in the United States and Europe from the nineteenth century to the present, with a particular interest in the libertarian right and its emergence as a challenger to liberal democratic ideals. My dissertation traced the historical origins of modern libertarianism to American literary circles of the 1930s and 1940s, examining utopian fiction as an instrument for libertarian economic education.

In my latest research, I explore limited knowledge as a key strategy for addressing complexity, an approach that reshaped science and economics in the twentieth century. From market economics to quantum mechanics, modern progress was built on the admission that certainty is impossible. I'm interested in how uncertainty moved between the natural and social sciences, and whether not knowing might be an essential human trait in the era of artificial intelligence.

My work has been published in English and German in journals including Neue Politische Literatur, Global Histories, and the European Review of History. I have also written on contemporary libertarianism for specialist blogs and popular publications such as Jacobin and the CEU Review of Books.