Founded in 1962 and in its first decade partially funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, the professorship was named for the first president of the Federal Republic of Germany, in recognition of the role the New School in helping bring endangered German scholars to the United States before and during World War II. Still in existence in 2017, each year a leading German sociologist, historian, economist, political scientist, philosopher, social anthropologist, or psychologist assumes the role of Heuss Professor at The New School.