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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

Mar 03, 2021

A Demon-Haunted Land: Witches, Wonder Doctors, and the Ghosts of the Past in Post-WWII Germany

Lecture (virtual) | 1-2 pm ET | Speaker: Monica Black (University of Tennessee, Knoxville); Moderator: Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann (University of California, Berkeley)

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Mar 04, 2021

GHI Colloquium (Virtual Session)

T. Fielder Valone (GHI Washington)

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Mar 05, 2021

Layers of Untold Stories: Sharon Dodua Otoo in Conversation with Translator Jon Cho-Polizzi and Deniz Göktürk

Panel Discussion (Virtual) | 3pm - 4:30pm ET | Featured Speaker: Sharon Dodua Otoo; Discussants: Jon Cho-Polizzi and Deniz Göktürk (University of California, Berkeley)

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Mar 09, 2021

Vaccines and (Dis-)trust in Medical Science in Times of Crisis

Part 3 of Virtual Panel Series "Racism in History and Context" | 1:45 - 3:15pm ET |Panelist: Ute Frevert (Max Planck Institute for Human Development), Samuel K. Roberts (Columbia University), Sarah B. Rodriguez (Northwestern University), Malte Thießen (LWL-Institut für westfälische Regionalgeschichte); Moderator: Johannes Paulmann (Leibniz Institute of European History)

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Mar 10, 2021

Third Annual West Coast Germanists' Workshop: Facts, Fakes, and Representations

Panel II: The Spread of Misinformation | 11am – 12:30pm PT | Virtual Workshop | Conveners: Sheer Ganor (Pacific Regional Office of the German Historical Institute Washington), Isabel Richter (UC Berkeley)

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Mar 11, 2021

Eurafrica: The Colonial Origins of the European Union

Lecture (Virtual) | 1:45pm - 3:00pm ET | Speaker: Peo Hansen (Linkoping University); Comment: Rhiannon Welch (UC Berkeley) and Jelena Subotić (Georgia State University); moderated by Akasemi Newsome (UC Berkeley)

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Mar 17, 2021

Research Seminar (Virtual Session)

Manuela Achilles (University of Virginia)

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Mar 31, 2021

Research Seminar (Virtual Session)

Benjamin P. Hein (Brown University)

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Apr 07, 2021

Third Annual West Coast Germanists' Workshop: Facts, Fakes, and Representations

Panel 3: Art, Visual Cultures and Truth | 11am – 12:30pm PT | Virtual Workshop | Conveners: Sheer Ganor (Pacific Regional Office of the German Historical Institute Washington), Isabel Richter (UC Berkeley)

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Apr 22, 2021

Migration and Racism in the United States and Germany in the Twentieth Century

Virtual Workshop | Conveners: Maria Alexopoulou (University of Mannheim), Elisabeth Engel (GHI Washington)

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May 07, 2021

Third Annual West Coast Germanists' Workshop: Facts, Fakes, and Representations

Panel 4: State Making and Public Perception | 11am – 12:30pm PT | Virtual Workshop | Conveners: Sheer Ganor (Pacific Regional Office of the German Historical Institute Washington), Isabel Richter (UC Berkeley)

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May 13, 2021

The History of the Second Half of the Twentieth Century as Shown in Six Groups of Graphs, Charts, and Maps

12th Gerald Feldman Lecture (Virtual) | 12:15pm ET | Speaker: Jonathan Sperber (University of Missouri); moderated by Kenneth Ledford (Case Western Reserve University)

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Publications

Elisabeth Piller

Selling Weimar: German Public Diplomacy and the United States, 1918–1933

Transatlantische Historische Studien. Band 60. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2021.

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Bulletin 67 (Fall 2020)

Forum: New Research in Transatlantic History

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Sophia Dafinger

Die Lehren des Luftkriegs: Sozialwissenschaftliche Expertise in den USA vom Zweiten Weltkrieg bis Vietnam

Transatlantische Historische Studien. Band 59. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2020.

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Andrea Westermann & Onur Erdur, eds.

Histories of Migrant Knowledge: Transatlantic and Global Perspectives

Bulletin Supplement 15 (2020)

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John P.R. Eicher

Exiled Among Nations: German and Mennonite Mythologies in a Transnational Age

Publications of the German Historical Institute. Cambridge University Press, 2020.

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Paul Lerner & Joes Segal, eds.

Alternative Realities: Utopian Thought in Times of Political Rupture

Bulletin Supplement 14 (2019)

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Bulletin 65 (Fall 2019)

Forum: The Weimar Republic Reconsidered

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Latest News

Fellowship

Doctoral and Postdoctoral Fellowships

Deadline: April 1, 2021 | The GHI awards short-term fellowships to European and North American doctoral students as well as postdoctoral scholars to…

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Video

Watch recording of Paul Betts' lecture "Ruin and Renewal: Civilizing Europe after the Second World War"

If you were unable to watch Paul Betts' lecture "Ruin and Renewal: Civilizing Europe after the Second World War" live, it is now available on our…

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Event Report

Recreating Separate Spheres Across Not-So-Separate Worlds: Gender and Reeducation in Japan, Germany, and the USA after World War II

Conference report by Claudia Roesch (GHI Washington)

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Video

Watch recording of our virtual panel discussion "Museum Futures beyond the 2020 Crises: A Transatlantic Conversation"

If you were unable to watch our panel on "Museum Futures beyond the 2020 Crises: A Transatlantic Conversation" live, it is now available on our Vimeo…

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Video

Watch recording of our virtual panel discussion "Teaching German and Global History with Digital Sources"

If you were unable to watch our panel on "Teaching German and Global History with Digital Sources: Examples from Practice" live, it is now available…

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