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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

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.

"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

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

Richard F. Wetzell

Racial Science and Nazi Biopolitics

Richard F. Wetzell

Events & Conferences

Jun 14, 2023

Jewish Archives, Artefacts and Memory in Transit

Virtual Exhibition Panel | Christine Schmidt (Wiener Holocaust Library), Simone Lässig (GHI Washington), Anna-Carolin Augustin (GHI Washington), Indra Sangupta, (GHI London), Christina von Hodenberg (GHI London)

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Jun 29, 2023

28th Transatlantic Doctoral Seminar: German History in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Seminar at the Villa Vigoni, Loveno di Menaggio, Italy | Conveners: Anna von der Goltz (Georgetown University) and Richard Wetzell (GHI Washington)

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Jul 04, 2023

Historicizing the Refugee Experience, 17th–21st Centuries

Third Annual International Seminar in Historical Refugee Studies Duisburg | Organized by the University of Duisburg‐Essen (UDE), the German Historical Institute Washington (GHI) and the American Historical Association (AHA), in cooperation with the Interdisciplinary Center for Integration and Migration Research (InZentIM), the Institute for the Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI) and the Centre for Global Cooperation Research (KHK/GCR21)

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Sep 18, 2023

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

Seventh Annual Bucerius Young Scholars Forum | Pacific Office of the GHI in Berkeley & Sitka, AK | Conveners: Holly Guise (The University of New Mexico), Sören Urbansky, and Nino Vallen (both Pacific Office of the German Historical Institute Washington, Berkeley)

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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)

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all events

Publications

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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Bulletin 69 (Fall 2021 & Spring 2022)

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Moritz Föllmer and Pamela E. Swett, eds.

Reshaping Capitalism in Weimar and Nazi Germany

Publications of the German Historical Institute. Cambridge University Press, 2022.

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Paul Lerner, Uwe Spiekermann, Anne Schenderlein, eds.

Jewish Consumer Cultures in Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Europe and North America

Worlds of Consumption. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2022.

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all publications

Latest News

Opportunities

Intern at the German Historical Institute

Deadline: July 31, 2023 | The GHI Internship Program gives students of history, political science, public relations, and public administration at…

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Press Release

Berghahn Books and the German Historical Institute Washington Announce New Open Access Agreement

Studies in German History Series Has Transitioned to OA

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Alumni

Richard H Tilly: An Obituary and an Appreciation

Richard Tilly, our 2009 Helmut Schmidt Prize honoree, sadly passed away on February 18, 2023. Carl-Ludwig Holtfrerich, one of Tilly's first doctoral…

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New Publication

Fall 2022 Bulletin (70) issue published and available for download

The latest issue of the Bulletin is now available online for download as well as in print.

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Video

Watch recording of our event "When Democracy Died in Darkness: German-Jewish Responses to Hitler’s Rise"

If you were unable to watch our event "When Democracy Died in Darkness: German-Jewish Responses to Hitler’s Rise" live, it is now available on our…

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