Advancing Research

German Historical Institute Washington

The GHI promotes research in three core fields: German history, American & transatlantic history, and global history.

Supporting Scholars

German Historical Institute Washington

The GHI works to enable scholars to conduct research and share their findings with their colleagues.

Building Networks

German Historical Institute Washington

The GHI’s programs rest on the assumption that communication is as important as research in advancing historical understanding.

The German Historical Institute Washington (GHI) is a center for advanced historical research. Working with junior and senior scholars around the world, the GHI facilitates dialogue and collaboration across national and disciplinary boundaries.

Latest News


Call for Papers

Refugees in Global Transit: Encounters, Knowledge, and Coping Strategies in a Disrupted World, 1930s–50s

Deadline: April 30, 2024 | Conference in Mumbai, India| Organized by Simone Lässig (German Historical Institute Washington), Sebastian Schwecke (Max…

Read on

Opportunities

Intern at the German Historical Institute

Deadline: July 31, 2024 | The GHI Internship Program gives students of history, political science, public relations, and public administration at…

Read on

Video

Watch recording of our event "A Frank and Open Discussion about the Secret World of Spying"

If you were unable to watch our event "A Frank and Open Discussion about the Secret World of Spying" live, it is now available on our Vimeo channel.

Read on

Opportunities

Administrative Assistant

Deadline: March 20, 2024 | The German Historical Institute Washington is hiring an administrative assistant.

Read on

Fellowship

Doctoral and Postdoctoral Research Fellowships

Deadline: April 1, 2024 | The GHI awards short-term fellowships to European and North American doctoral students as well as postdoctoral scholars to…

Read on

Events & Conferences

The GHI organizes international scholarly conferences, public programs and lectures on a wide variety of historical topics.

Mar 18, 2024

The Other Enslavement: Notes on Unthinkable Europeans in Unequal Europes

Lecture at GHI Pacific Office | (201 Philosophy Hall, UC Berkeley) Speaker: Manuela Boatcă (University of Freiburg); Moderator: Fabio Heupel Santos (Tandem Fellow, German Historical Institute Washington | Pacific Office Berkeley)

Read on

Mar 19, 2024

The Central American Insurgencies and the Human Rights Culture War in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1979 –1990

Lecture at GHI Pacific Office (201 Philosophy Hall, UC Berkeley) | Speaker: Felix A. Jiménez Botta (Miyazaki International College); Moderator: Akasemi Newsome (Institute of European Studies)

Read on

Mar 21, 2024

From Abundant Papers to Limited Pixels: Digitization and Intelligence Reduction in the Brazilian Serviço Nacional de Informações (SNI) in the late 1970s

Lecture at GHI Washington | Speaker: Debora Gerstenberger (University of Cologne)

Read on

Apr 14, 2024

Music, Knowledge, and Global Migration, ca. 1700−1900

Symposium at the University of California, Berkeley | Conveners: Tina Frühauf (Columbia University/The CUNY Graduate Center, New York), Simone Lässig (German Historical Institute Washington), and Francesco Spagnolo (The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, UC Berkeley)

Read on

Apr 18, 2024

Spy vs. Spy: West German Counterintelligence and GDR Espionage

Lecture at GHI Washington | Speaker: Michael Wala (Ruhr-Universität Bochum)

Read on

Apr 24, 2024

Research Seminar (Hybrid)

Kristina Spohr (Wilson Center)

Read on

Apr 26, 2024

German Blood, Slavic Soil: How Nazi Königsberg Became Soviet Kaliningrad

Lecture at GHI Pacific Offce (201 Philosophy Hall, UC Berkeley) | Speaker: Nicole Eaton, Associate Professor of History, Boston College

Read on

May 01, 2024

Research Seminar (Hybrid)

Viola Alianov-Rautenberg (GHI Washington, Pacific Office)

Read on

May 09, 2024

The Challenge of German Histories: An American Retrospective

15th Gerald D. Feldman Memorial Lecture at the German Historical Institute Washington | Konrad H. Jarausch (Lurcy Professor of European Civilization Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

Read on

May 10, 2024

32nd Annual Symposium of the Friends of the GHI

Award of the 2024 Fritz Stern Dissertation Prize at the GHI

Read on

May 15, 2024

Research Seminar (Hybrid)

Benjamin Waltner Goossen (George Mason University)

Read on

May 20, 2024

Fugitive Histories and Migrant Knowledge in Latin America and the Caribbean

Workshop at the University of California, Irvine | Conveners: Kevan Antonio Aguilar (University of California, Irvine), Amy Kerner (University of California, Berkeley & GHI Washington | Pacific Office), Fabio Santos (University of California, Berkeley & GHI Washington | Pacific Office), and Chelsea Schields (University of California, Irvine)

Read on

May 23, 2024

The History and Future of State Secrecy

Lecture at GHI Washington | Speaker: Matthew Connelly (Columbia University / the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, University of Cambridge)

Read on

Jun 23, 2024

29th Transatlantic Doctoral Seminar: German History in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Seminar at the Harnack Haus, Berlin-Dahlem | Conveners: Anna von der Goltz (Georgetown University), Stefanie Schueler-Springorum (Zentrum für Antisemitismusforschung, Technische Universität Berlin), and Richard Wetzell (GHI Washington)

Read on

Jun 28, 2024

Archives in/of Transit: Historical Perspectives from the 1930s to the Present

Workshop at University of Southern California, Los Angeles | Conveners: Einstein Papers Project / California Institute of Technology (Jennifer Rodgers); German Historical Institute Washington and its Pacific Office at UC Berkeley (Simone Lässig, Anna-Carolin Augustin, Swen Steinberg); Holocaust Research Institute, Royal Holloway, University of London (Dan Stone); Queen Mary, University of London (Jane Freeland); Wiener Holocaust Library, London (Toby Simpson, Christine Schmidt) as part of the Holocaust and Genocide Research Partnership (HGRP); USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research (Wolf Gruner)

Read on

Jul 03, 2024

Historicizing the Refugee Experience, 17th–21st Centuries

Fourth Annual International Seminar in Historical Refugee Studies in Tübingen | Organized by University of Tübingen (UT), the German Historical Institute in Washington (GHI) and the American Historical Association (AHA), in cooperation with the Centre for Global Cooperation Research (KHK/GCR21)

Read on

Jul 14, 2024

Making a World of Many Worlds: Identities, Activisms, and Comparisons

Summer School | Pacific Office, Berkeley | organized by The Maria Sibylla Merian Center for Advanced Latin American Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences (CALAS), the Pacific Office of the German Historical Institute Washington (GHI) at UC Berkeley, and the Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 1288 “Practices of Comparing” at Bielefeld University

Read on

Sep 05, 2024

Science and Democracy in Political Crises, 1900-2024

Conference at GHI Washington | Conveners: Axel Jansen (GHI), Alexander Bogner (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna), Carsten Reinhardt (Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – German National Academy of Sciences, Halle), Heidi Tworek (University of British Columbia, Vancouver)

Read on

Oct 21, 2024

Young Scholars Forum: Histories of Migration - Transatlantic and Global Perspectives

Eighth Annual Young Scholars Forum | Pacific Office of the GHI in Berkeley | Conveners: Isabel Richter (GHI Pacific Office Berkeley) and Benno Gammerl (European University Institute Florence)

Read on

Oct 31, 2024

Wings of Globalization? New Approaches to the History of Commercial Aviation, 1920s–2020s

International Conference at the German Historical Institute Washington | Conveners: Andreas Greiner (GHI Washington) and Stefan Rinke (Freie Universität Berlin)

Read on

Research Fields


German/European & Jewish History

German/European & Jewish History

Modern German history and the history of German-speaking Jewry have been core research fields at the GHI since the institute’s founding in 1987. German migrations to North America, relations between Germany and the United States, and the flight of German Jews from Nazi Germany have been major research topics since the GHI’s early years. More recently, the GHI has given increased attention to the transnational and global dimensions of German, Central European, and Jewish history.

Read more

History of the Americas & Transatlantic History

History of the Americas & Transatlantic History

From an initial focus on North American history and the history of the transatlantic relations, the GHI has broadened the scope of its core research agenda to encompass the Americas as a whole. Its long engagement with the histories of the United States, Canada, and North American-European ties is the point of departure for its new initiatives in the history of the Americas. GHI-supported projects are exploring the myriad entanglements linking the societies of North America, Latin America, and the Caribbean to each other and societies across the globe. The interconnections of the Atlantic and Pacific worlds are focal point of the research program of the GHI’s Pacific Regional Office in Berkeley.

Read more

Global & Transregional History

Global & Transregional History

The GHI’s engagement with global and transregional history is an outgrowth of its work in transatlantic history and its longstanding interest in comparative history, especially historical comparisons of the U.S. and Germany. Global and transregional history at the GHI are defined less by subject matter than by analytical perspective. GHI-supported research explores processes that transcend individual polities and entangle disparate states, regions, and continents. The GHI is particularly interested in historical comparison as a tool to illuminate trends and developments at the transregional and global levels.

Read more

History of Knowledge

History of Knowledge

The history of knowledge analyzes the production and circulation of knowledge, taking into consideration a broad spectrum of actors, practices, and social contexts. It seeks to understand the creation of knowledge orders and systems along with the power relationships upon which they rest. The development of the field has taken different paths in Europe and North America. Consequently, a central objective of the GHI’s program in the history of knowledge is to spur transatlantic exchange on research methodologies. The history of knowledge also serves as vehicle for collaboration across the GHI’s core research fields and other subfields of history. Notably, the GHI’s Pacific Regional Office in Berkeley “Migrant Knowledge” initiative is supporting research at the intersection of migration history and the history of knowledge.

Read more

History of Mobilities & Migration

History of Mobilities & Migration

The GHI’s longstanding engagement with the migration of German-speakers to North America from the seventeenth century to the present is the foundation for the wider reaching program in migration history it launched in 2015. Current GHI-supported projects look beyond the flows of European migrants across the Atlantic and analyze migrant groups and receiving societies around the world. The research at the institute also places a focus on spatial mobility and its social impacts and asymmetries by bringing together projects on migration with colleagues working on different mobile groups, objects, information, or ideas. Particular attention is given to forced migration and comparative research on the social and cultural integration of migrants. The roles of migrants as producers and transmitters of distinctive bodies of knowledge is the focus of the “Migrant Knowledge” initiative at the GHI’s Pacific Regional Office. The collaborative project "German Heritage in Letters" draws on the tools of digital history to explore the ways German emigrants and their family and friends at home created transnational spaces of communication and knowledge circulation.

Read more

Digital History

Digital History

The GHI’s digital history program operates at the crossroads of multiple disciplines and professions. One overarching goal is to forge links between seemingly disparate communities and pursuits: digital historians and “book” historians; projects informed by public history concerns versus those motivated by research objectives; and research and academic teaching. In addition to its own digital history projects – German History in Documents and Images, German History Intersections, and German Heritage in Letters – the GHI collaborates with partner institutions across Europe and North America in exchange and networking initiatives to support the development of digital tools and methodologies for historical research.

Read more

Collaborative Projects

German History in Documents and Images (GHDI)

GHDI is a comprehensive collection of primary source materials documenting Germany's political, social, and cultural history from 1500 to the present.

Read on

German History Intersections

The German History Intersections project is a transatlantic initiative that will begin by examining three broad themes – German identity; migration; and knowledge and education – over as many as five centuries.

Read on

German Heritage in Letters

German Heritage in Letters is a project to create a digital collection of German-language correspondence currently held in private hands, by archives, by special collection libraries, museums, and other institutions.

Read on

Migrant Connections

Migrant Connections is a digital research infrastructure for historical research on German migration to the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Read on

In Global Transit

In Global Transit builds from the endeavors of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution to explore the spatial and temporal dimensions of global transit. Currently it consists of two separate pillars: a conference series and resulting research network and individual projects from GHI research staff.

Read on

Interaction and Knowledge in the Pacific Region: Entanglements and Disentanglements

The project analyzes the Pacific as a space of knowledge transfer and interaction, which shape state and non-state actors through contacts, reciprocal influences and conflicts.

Read on

Latest Publications


Michael Weaver

Political Friendship: Liberal Notables, Networks, and the Pursuit of the German Nation State, 1848-1866

Studies in German History. Vol. 29. New York: Berghahn Books, 2024.

Read on

Bulletin 72 (Fall 2023)

Forum: The German Treatment of Soviet Prisoners of War During The Second World War

Read on

Adam Bisno

Big Business and the Crisis of German Democracy: Liberalism and the Grand Hotels of Berlin, 1875–1933

Publications of the German Historical Institute. Cambridge University Press, 2023.

Read on

Latest Blogposts


Mar 13, 2024

Editors

Knowledge Notes

Occasional notes on calls, events, publications, and more that caught our attention. Please email us your own items. Calls for Papers: The History of Intellectual Culture (HIC) International Yearbook …

Read on

Feb 28, 2024

Christiane Weber

Protected: Hätte ich das mal eher gewusst…Was Historiker:innen und historisch arbeitende ihrem jüngeren Ich raten würden

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.…

Read on

Feb 15, 2024

Hannah-Lea Wasserfuhr

For the Love of Bread and Barches – The Very German-Jewish Challah Knife

That Germans love bread seems to be one stereotype that is largely accurate. Given Germany’s rich baking culture, it is perhaps not surprising that it also has a long tradition of producing challot,…

Read on

Feb 06, 2024

Ediz Hazır

Cultural Crossroads: The Assumptionists and Their Transnational Exchange in the Ottoman Orient

Describes the Assumptionist and Oblate missions as part of the Mission d'Orient in the Ottoman Empire, focusing on them as a cultural bridge that fostered the exchange of knowledge between East and We…

Read on

Jan 24, 2024

Call for Proposals: Online Source Portal ‘History of the German-Jewish Diaspora’

Call for proposals from the Moses Mendelssohn Center for European-Jewish Studies for an online source portal called "History of the German-Jewish Diaspora" The post Call for Proposals: Online Source P…

Read on

Jan 24, 2024

historyofknowledgeblogeditor

Call for Proposals to Online Source Portal ‘History of the German-Jewish Diaspora’

For a German version of this call, please visit Geschichte der deutsch-jüdischen Diaspora . Deadline: January 31, 2024. The Moses Mendelssohn Center for European-Jewish Studies is seeking authors for…

Read on

Jan 16, 2024

CfP: Mapping German Film Exile: A Transnational Perspective

CfP for Mapping German Film Exile: A Transnational Perspective The post CfP: Mapping German Film Exile: A Transnational Perspective first appeared in Migrant Knowledge. …

Read on

Jan 12, 2024

hannahvoss

Women’s and Gender History in the Digital Age: The “Helene-Lange-Archiv” and its Potential for Historical Research and Education

Editorial note: Hannah Voß has finished her undergraduate degree in History and English and American Studies at the University of Münster and is currently in the last semester of completing her mast…

Read on

Jan 11, 2024

Luca Sciortino

Styles of Reasoning and the History of Knowledge

We have many different cognitive abilities, and human history runs on many paths. Not surprisingly, there are many ways to conduct scientific research. … These are distinct styles of reasoning, each…

Read on

Dec 15, 2023

Simon Krahé

Reflections on the Process of Network Analysis Dataset Creation Using Line Content Classification with Python

By Simon Krahé Editorial note: Simon Krahé is finishing his undergraduate studies in English and American Studies, History and Computer Science at the University of Wuppertal. He will use network an…

Read on

Nov 13, 2023

Charis Marantzidou

Shared Spaces of Knowledge: Russian Exiles and the V. P. Kuzmina Gymnasium in Interwar Bulgaria

In 1924, a private gymnasium opened its gates, welcoming children of Russian exiles to the Bulgarian capital of Sofia. The founder of the school, Varvara Pavlova Kuzmina, a teacher from St. Petersburg…

Read on

Aug 25, 2023

linuslanfermannbaumann

The U.S. in the (Digital) World: Working with the Foreign Relations of the United States Series in 2023

By Linus Lanfermann-Baumann Editorial note: Having finished his undergraduate studies in History and English at Göttingen University, Linus Lanfermann-Baumann is in the final phase of his master’s …

Read on