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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

Oct 07, 2024

When the Disaster Comes to Visit: The Chernobyl Children and the Transnational History of a Nuclear Catastrophe

Gerda Henkel Lecture Tour at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff (Liberal Arts Building, Room 120)| Speaker: Melanie Arndt (University of Freiburg)

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Oct 09, 2024

Research Seminar

Tim Schanetzky (Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen)

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Oct 15, 2024

Gender and the German-Jewish Migration to Mandatory Palestine

Lecture at UC Berkeley (223 Philosophy Hall)| Speaker: Viola Alianov-Rautenberg (German Historical Institute Washington | Pacific Office Berkeley), Moderator: Rebecca Golbert (Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies)

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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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Nov 07, 2024

After Life: The Legacy of Discontinued International Organizations in the 20th Century

38th Annual Lecture at GHI Washington | Speaker: Kiran Klaus Patel (Ludwig Maximilian University Munich ), Comment: Natasha Wheatley (Princeton University)

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Nov 21, 2024

Research Seminar (Virtual)

Jaromír Mrňka (Deutsches Historisches Institut Warschau)

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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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Mar 07, 2025

Seventh West Coast Germanists' Workshop: Migration, Mobility, and Exchange

Workshop at University of Nevada, Reno | Conveners: Viola Alianov-Rautenberg (GHI Washington | Pacific Office, Berkeley) and James McSpadden (University of Nevada, Reno)

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May 18, 2025

The Place of the Holocaust in German-Jewish History and Memory

Eighth Junior Scholars Conference in Jewish History in Berlin | Organized by Anna-Carolin Augustin (German Historical Institute Washington), Mark Roseman (Indiana University Bloomington), and Miriam Rürup (Moses Mendelssohn Centre for European-Jewish Studies, Potsdam), and the Wissenschaftliche Arbeitsgemeinschaft des Leo Baeck Instituts with additional support from the Indiana University Europe Gateway in Berlin

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Jun 25, 2025

Germans in the Asia-Pacific Region: (Post) Colonial Entanglements, Conflicts and Perceptions in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Conference in Flinders University (city campus), Adelaide, South Australia | Conveners: Mathew Fitzpatrick (Flinders University), Simone Lässig (GHI Washington), Isabel Richter (GHI Washington Pacific Office at UC Berkeley)

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Sep 10, 2025

Universities and the Public Good: Research, Education, and Democracy since 1945

Workshop and Young Scholars Forum at Herrenhausen Palace, Hanover, Germany | Conveners: Charles Dorn (Bowdoin College, Maine), Axel Jansen (German Historical Institute Washington), Charlotte Lerg (Amerika-Institut, LMU München), Till van Rahden (Centre canadien d’études allemandes et européennes, Université de Montréal), and Richard F. Wetzell (German Historical Institute Washington)

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Sep 29, 2025

Food, Migration, and Belonging in 20th Century European History

Conference at German Historical Institute | Pacific Office at UC Berkeley | Conveners: Maren Möhring (University of Leipzig), Isabel Richter (GHI Washington Pacific Office at UC Berkeley)

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Publications

Bulletin 73 (Spring 2024)

Forum: Antisemitism and Sexualities

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Maximilian Klose

Why They Gave: CARE and American Aid for Germany after 1945

Transatlantische Historische Studien. Band 63. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2024.

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Jan C. Jansen & Kirsten McKenzie, eds.

Mobility and Coercion in an Age of Wars and Revolutions

Publications of the German Historical Institute. Cambridge University Press, 2024.

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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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all publications

Latest News

Call for Papers

Universities and the Public Good: Research, Education, and Democracy since 1945

Deadline: January 19, 2025| Workshop and Young Scholars Forum at Herrenhausen Palace, Hanover, Germany | Sept. 10–12, 2025

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Fellowship

Fritz Thyssen Pre-Dissertation Fellowship

Deadline: December 31, 2024 (deadline extended) | For Doctoral Students in German and European History at North-American West Coast Universities

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Call for Papers

Seventh West Coast Germanists' Workshop: Migration, Mobility, and Exchange

Deadline: November 1, 2024 | Workshop at the University of Nevada, Reno, March 7-8, 2025

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New Publication

Spring 2024 Bulletin (73) 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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Fellowship

2025 Gerald D. Feldman Travel Grants

Deadline: October 6, 2024 | The Max Weber Stiftung's Gerald D. Feldman Travel Grants provide funding up to 3 months travel funding for junior scholars…

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