In 2007,the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministe-rium für Bildung undForschung)instituted theKäte HamburgerInternational Cen-tres (KHK) with the purpose of advancinginnovative,interdisciplinary,and inter-nationallyvisible research in the social sciencesand the humanities. In the secondround of calls of proposals for KHK theMinistry widened the reach by funding twocentres which explore topics rooted in the humanities but withaparticular focuson transdisciplinary work. Asaresult, the University ofHeidelbergwas awardedfunding for the Centre of Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies(CAPAS), start-ing in March2020.The inter-and trans-disciplinary nature of our research centreaccounts forthe fact that theapocalypse asatrope, figureofthought,and discourse–as itis studied in the humanities–is complementaryto empiricallyobservable cata-strophic changeinnatural and/orsocial systems.Incontrast to other notionsofexistential threat (for instance, existential crisis, catastrophe, cataclysm, rupture),apocalypse allows us to think about the end not as total destruction but asaformof radical changeofthe“paramount reality”of alifeworld: the end of the world aswe know it on different scales (from global to individual), followed byapredom-inantlydystopian post-apocalypse, but also as the founding event–in thesensegiventothe term byAlainBadiou–of apotentiallybetter world. The trope ofthe apocalypse (andits post-apocalyptic corollary) conceptualized asapoint ofno return, as folding back of the end times unto its foundations, allows thestudyofvarious essential“boundaries”of our epoch (ecological, economic, techno-logical,military,cultural, institutional, psychological, etc.)asacomplex system. Inthis sense, the apocalypse is not primarilyaresearch topic which can be approach-ed in an intra-disciplinary way. Rather,the notion of apocalypse constitutes theline of flight forabroadrangeofacademic disciplines thatstudythe finitenessof comprehensive orders,self-reproducing systems,and paramount realities.More-over,the trans-disciplinarity of CAPAS implies that this collaborative research on atopic which addresses concerns (and hopes) in everydaylife provides the basis of adialogue with society at large.Fromaviewpoint anchored in Western academia and its undeniable roots inontologies and epistemologies indebtedto Judeo-Christian thought, apocalypticism,that is,the idea that the world isgoing to end, seems to beauniversal notion.It ispart of the mission of CAPASto caution againstaccepting this universal and trans-cultural validity of apocalyptic thinking.Historical records and current develop-ments in the non-Western world show that apocalyptic thinking has been and is afactor in manycultures in human history,either asasort of background noise orin theform of apocalyptic or millenaristflares or revolutionary movements as wellas radical critiques of WesternModernity and the capitalist world-system.As an internationalcentre foradvanced studiesCAPASenables andreliesonthework of fellows whoexploretheseissueswith original andvariedoutlooks. Each yearCAPAShosts anew cohort,approximately tenfello ws,who areinvited to HeidelbergUniversity to pursue their individual projects andconduct collaborativeresearch.Inordertofurtherthesediscussions andtomakethemavailable to abroad rangeofinterestedaudiences andacademics,CAPASusesavariety of scholarlyformatssuchasapublic lectureseries,abookseries, andanopen-access peer-reviewedjour-nalApocalypticato reachout to colleagues,disse minate research, and, atthe sametime,invite contributionstoApocalypticandPost-apocalyptic Studies.