The University of Heidelberg's Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA) is a higher education and research center. It was founded in 2004, making it the newest institute of Germany's oldest university. The Heidelberg Center for American Studies opened its first office in the spring of 2003. By October 2004, HCA was officially inaugurated. In the summer of 2006 the HCA moved into its present offices located in a historic building in the old city center of Heidelberg- Curt und Heidemarie Engelhorn Palais, Hauptstraße 120, 69117 Heidelberg. The institute is funded through public and private financial partnership. The founding director and former director of the institute is Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Detlef Junker. In February 2018, Prof. Dr. Welf Werner became the second director of the HCA and