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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

Dec 07, 2022

Research Seminar (hybrid)

Simone Lässig (Director of the GHI Washington and its Pacific Office)

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Dec 15, 2022

GHI Colloquium

Speakers:Darja Jesse (Technische Universität Berlin), Tabea Nasaroff (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), and Hans-Georg Ripken (Universität Mannheim)

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Jan 24, 2023

Shades of Blue: Claiming Europe in the Age of Disintegration

Panel Discussion (Zoom) | Panelist/Discussants: Gregor Feindt (Leibniz-Institute of European History, Mainz), Félix Krawatzek (Center for East European and International Studies, Berlin), Friedemann Pestel (University of Freiburg/University of California, Berkeley), Rieke Trimcev (University of Greifswald)

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Jan 25, 2023

Music of War and Victory: How Beethoven Helped to Save and Rebuild the Habsburg Empire

Lecture (Hybrid: 223 Moses Hall and Zoom) | Speaker: Philipp Ther (University of Vienna / UC Berkeley); Moderator: Nicolas Mathew (UC Berkeley)

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Jan 26, 2023

Decolonizing German Cultural Anthropology: Narratives of Time and Space in contemporary German Villages

Lecture (Hybrid: 201 Moses Hall & Zoom) | Speaker: Sadhana Naithani (Jawaharlal Nehru University)

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Feb 09, 2023

Theology of Disability: Germany, 1900-1945

Lecture (Hybrid: 223 Moses Hall & Zoom) | Speaker: Dagmar Herzog (CUNY Graduate Center); Moderator: Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann (UC Berkeley)

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Feb 22, 2023

"Noah's Ark for Future Generations" or Genetic Imperialism?: The Dilemma of the Seed Bank in Postwar German History

Lecture (Hybrid: 201 Moses Hall & Zoom) | Speaker: Jennifer Allen (Yale University); Moderator: Philipp Lenhard (UC Berkeley)

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Apr 17, 2023

Knowledge Production in Displacement and Forced Migration

Workshop at the University of California, Santa Barbara | Conveners: Joshua Donovan (GHI Washington | Pacific Office), Vitalij Fastovskij (GHI Washington | Pacific Office), and Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky (University of California, Santa Barbara)

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Apr 25, 2023

Diaspora and Debris: Material Culture in German-Jewish History

Seventh Junior Scholars Conference in Jewish History at GHI Washington | Co-organized by Anna-Carolin Augustin (GHI Washington), Mark Roseman (Indiana University Bloomington), and Miriam Rürup (Moses Mendelssohn Centre for European-Jewish Studies, Potsdam), with additional support from the Wissenschaftliche Arbeitsgemeinschaft des Leo Baeck Instituts

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Apr 28, 2023

Fifth West Coast Germanists’ Workshop: Scholarship-in-Progress

Workshop at University of British Columbia, Vancouver | Conveners: Heidi Tworek (University of British Columbia, Vancouver) and Richard Wetzell (German Historical Institute Washington)

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May 25, 2023

Work, Class, and Social Democracy in the Global Age of August Bebel (1840-1913)

Conference at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto | Conveners: James Retallack (University of Toronto), Simone Lässig (GHI Washington) and Swen Steinberg (GHI Washington) | Partners: Friedrich Ebert Foundation (Bonn); Institute for Social Movements (Bochum)

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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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all events

Publications

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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Patrick Gaul

Ideale und Interessen: Die mitteleuropäische Wirtschaft im Amerikanischen Bürgerkrieg

Transatlantische Historische Studien. Band 61. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2021.

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Simone Lässig, ed.

Digital History

Special Issue, Geschichte und Gesellschaft 47.1 (2021)

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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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all publications

Latest News

Call for Papers

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

Deadline: January 15, 2023 | Seminar at the Villa Vigoni, Loveno di Menaggio, Italy, June 29 - July 3, 2023

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Press Release

The GHI Launches a New Edition of Its Award-Winning Website German History in Documents and Images (GHDI)

The GHI is pleased to announce the relaunch of its website German History in Documents and Images (GHDI), a collection of primary sources and…

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Video

Watch recording of our event "The War in Ukraine and its Consequences for Europe and NATO"

If you were unable to watch our event "The War in Ukraine and its Consequences for Europe and NATO: A Conversation with Ulf Brunnbauer and Soeren…

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Video

Watch recording of our event "Trying to become "German"

If you were unable to watch our event "Trying to become "German": Author Can Merey in Conversation with Historian Michael Printy" live, it is now…

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New Publication

Fall 2021 & Spring 2022 Bulletin (69) double 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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