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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.

Photo Credit: E. Zimmermann, Satirical Map of Europe, ca. 1914, Library of Congress.

Team

Isabel Richter

Deputy Director

Isabel Richter

Deputy Director
Pacific Office of the German Historical Institute Washington
Institute of European Studies | University of California, Berkeley | 249 Philosophy Hall | Berkeley, CA 94720-2316
Phone +1.202.552.8936

richter@ghi-dc.orgRead on

Projects

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.

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.

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.

Innovation through Tradition? Jewish Educational Media and Cultural Transformation in the Face of Modernity Religion, Knowledge, and Education as Key Elements of Socio-Cultural Transformation

German-Israeli cooperative research project bringing that investigates the transformation of Jewish daily life through the prism of its central spaces of teaching, learning and knowledge.

Migrant Melodies: Jewish Refugee Songs as a Transnational Archive of Emotions

Viola Alianov-Rautenberg

"Remnants Saved from the Fire": A Transnational History of Jewish Ceremonial Objects after 1945

Anna-Carolin Augustin

In Pursuit of Knowing: Nineteenth-Century Jewish Education and the Transformation of Jewish Knowledge

Kerstin von der Krone

Family and Enterprise in the Age of Industry: The Arnholds, 1808-2000

Simone Lässig

Coping with Disruptive Change: Jews, Middle Class Culture, and Social Transformation in Germany, 1800-1860

Simone Lässig

West German Youth and Countercultures in the Global 1960s

Isabel Richter

The Politics of Punishment: Penal Reform in Modern Germany, 1870-1970

Richard F. Wetzell

Racial Science and Nazi Biopolitics

Richard F. Wetzell

Events & Conferences

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

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May 06, 2024

Washington-Area German History Seminar

Seminar at GHI Washington | Speaker: Chris Ewing (Purdue University)

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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)

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May 10, 2024

32nd Annual Symposium of the Friends of the GHI

Award of the 2024 Fritz Stern Dissertation Prize at the GHI | Prize Winner: Steven Samols (University College London)

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May 22, 2024

Washington-Area German History Seminar

Seminar at GHI Washington | Speaker: Richard Wetzell (GHI Washington)

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Jun 05, 2024

Research Seminar (Hybrid)

Viola Alianov-Rautenberg (GHI Washington, Pacific Office)

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Jun 06, 2024

Voting Authoritarians into Power

Panel Discussion at the GHI | Speakers: Udi Greenberg (Dartmouth College), Lisa Mitchell (University of Pennsylvania), Árpád von Klimó (Catholic University of America); and moderated by Aslı Aydıntaşbaş (Brookings Institution) and Richard F. Wetzell (German Historical Institute)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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Feb 13, 2025

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

Conference in Mumbai, India | Organized by Simone Lässig (German Historical Institute Washington), Sebastian Schwecke (Max Weber Forum for South Asian Studies, Delhi), and Swen Steinberg (Queen's University, Kingston). in collaboration with Christoph K. Neumann (OI Istanbul), Maria Framke (Erfurt University), and Jens Hanssen (OI Beirut).

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all events

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.

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Bulletin 72 (Fall 2023)

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

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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.

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Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk

End Game: The 1989 Revolution in East Germany

Studies in German History. Vol. 26. New York: Berghahn Books, 2022.

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Bulletin 70 (Fall 2022)

Forum: Rethinking Cross-Border Connections

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Anna Corsten

Unbequeme Erinnerer: Emigrierte Historiker in der westdeutschen und US-amerikanischen NS- und Holocaust-Forschung, 1945–1998

Transatlantische Historische Studien. Band 62. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2022.

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Andrew Kloiber

Brewing Socialism: Coffee, East Germans, and Twentieth-Century Globalization

Studies in German History. Vol. 27. New York: Berghahn Books, 2022.

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all publications

Latest News

Video

Watch recording of our event "Spy vs. Spy: West German Counterintelligence and GDR Espionage"

If you were unable to watch our event Spy vs. Spy: West German Counterintelligence and GDR Espionage" live, it is now available on our Vimeo channel.

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Video

Watch recording of our event "From Abundant Papers to Limited Pixels"

If you were unable to watch our event "From Abundant Papers to Limited Pixels: Digitization and Intelligence Reduction in the Brazilian Serviço…

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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…

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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…

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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.

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