Elmar Altvater (24 August 1938 – 1 May 2018) was Professor of Political Science at the Otto-Suhr-Institut of the Free University of Berlin. He retired on 30 September 2004. He worked at the Institute, and to publish articles and books. He was born in Kamen, Province of Westphalia. In 1970, he co-founded the German journal PROKLA - Journal for Critical Social Science.