Two successful sister institutes within the Humanities and Social Sciences Section of the Max Planck Society with the common theme of the evolutionary history of humankind – the MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig and the MPI for the Science of Human History in Jena – will enter into a major phase of restructuring in the coming years to create optimized research clusters in human biological and cultural evolution at both sites. Several upcoming retirements at the MPI in Leipzig and a partially overlapping research agenda between the two institutes in Leipzig and Jena have led the Max Planck Society to reorganize both in order to stake out a clear vision for the future of the two institutes.