 In 2005/2006, the VDW was the patron and main contributor to the Potsdam Manifesto‚ 'We have to learn to think in a new way’ and the Potsdam Denkschrift under co-authorship of Hans Peter Duerr and Daniel Dahm, together with Rudolf zur Lippe.2015 Hartmut Graßl, a former Wuppertal Institute scientist took over the chair of VDW from Ulrich Bartosch, a political scientist at Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.VDW was closely connected with the German Friedensbewegung (peace movement) in the 1980s.