TheGerman Historical Institute Washington DC is an institute of historical study based inWashington, D.C.[1] It has been part of theMax Weber Foundation: German Humanities Institutes Abroad since 2002. The director isUlrike von Hirschhausen.[2]
The development of a German Historical Institute in America began soon after the establishment of theGerman Historical Institute London. The German historiansErich Angermann (University of Cologne) andGünter Moltmann (University of Hamburg) and the American historiansGordon Craig (Stanford University) andGerald Feldman (University of California at Berkeley),Wolfgang Mommsen (director of GHI London),Rudolf Vierhaus (Director ofMax Planck Institute for History) andGerhard A. Ritter (University of Munich) were part of the initial discussions to inaugurate a new GHI institute in the United States. They developed a proposal that theMinister for Research and Technology and the advisory board of theGerman Science and Humanities Council in Germany reviewed and which theGerman cabinet underHelmut Kohl formally accepted.[3]
The GHI Washington DC opened in 1987 with Hermann-Josef Rupieper as director. HistorianHartmut Lehmann became the official founding director a year later and helped establish its academic independence and acceptance into American academia. He initiated conferences, research projects, publications, lecture series, and scholarship programs that became typical of the institute.[4] Since 1991, GHI Washington DC has maintained relations with American scholars through the "Friends of the German Historical Institute."[5] The Federal Ministry for Research and Technology financed the institution as theStiftung Deutsches Historisches Institut in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika. The institute joined the Foundation German Historical Institutes Abroad with institutes in London and Warsaw in 1993 and the DGIA, Foundation German Humanities Institutes Abroad, in 2002.[6] GHI Washington DC became part of theMax Weber Foundation in 2002 and has been funded by the federal government of Germany.[7]
The focus of GHI Washington DC's research and conference programs has reflected the interests of the institute's directors. Under the leadership of Detlef Junker (1994–1999), the GHI devoted itself to the history of the Cold War and international relations. Following the appointment ofChristof Mauch as director (1999–2007), the GHI held conferences on "German History in Documents and Images" and "Competing Modernities," supported by the Max Kade Foundation and ZEIT Foundation Ebelin and Gerd Bucerius. Further conferences exploredGerman-American relations and European-American relations and the history of African Americans in Germany. A significant theme in conferences under Mauch wasenvironmental history. The Mauch era also saw the introduction of several public lectures, including the Bucerius Lectures, German Unification Symposia and Feldman Memorial Lectures. Under the direction of Hartmut Berghoff (2008–2015), the institute continued research on transatlantic studies, but focused more oneconomic history and consumerism.[8]
During her tenure from 2015 to 2025, directorSimone Lässig has brought her expertise into the institute's research focus. The institute has concentrated more on international, German, and Central European History in connection toJewish history.[9] The institute developed an interest in the history of the Americas as a whole and the relations between the Pacific and Atlantic regions. In line with this broader approach, the GHI Washington established a Pacific Office atBerkeley in 2017, emphasizing migrant history.[10][11]
The following persons are or have been directors:[12]
The main objectives of the GHI are to advance research, support scholars, and build networks.[16]
The institute's research engages with global, international, and transatlantic themes. The GHI currently furthers research inJewish history and the themes ofhistory of knowledge,[17]digital history,[18]migrant history[19] andglobal history.[20]
GHI supports scholars throughfellowships fordoctoral andpostdoctoral students andresidential fellowships.
GHI has long sustained relations between German and American scholars. The institute frequently holds conferences that bring together scholars from different countries.
GHI Washington DC has held lectures and conferences with notable historians and public figures. Natoble guest speakers have includedHelmut Schmidt,Joachim Gauck,Joschka Fischer,Gerhard Schröder,Ralf Dahrendorf,Marianne Birthler,Timothy Garton Ash,Rita Süßmuth,Jutta Limbach,Hans Küng,Wolfgang Huber,Michael Blumenthal,Kurt Masur,Kurt Biedenkopf,Jens Reich,Bärbel Bohley,Markus Meckel andHeinz Riesenhuber.
Notable historian speakers have included Heinrich August Winkler,Bernard Bailyn, Wolfgang Mommsen,Felix Gilbert,Stephan Kuttner, Stig Förster,Roger Chickering,Jürgen Kocka,Margaret Lavinia Anderson, andGerhard A. Ritter.
GHI publishes the biannualBulletin of the German Historical Institute that includes reports about the institute's conferences and research, lectures, as well as original research by scholars, GHI fellows, and GHI award recipients. Publications are issued in collaboration withCambridge University Press. The series editor is the directorSimone Lässig.[21]
Publications of the German Historical Institute, in collaboration withCambridge University Press, includes essays and monographs by scholars connected to the themes and research areas of the institute.[22]
GHI also publishes the series Transatlantic Historical Studies (German:Transatlantische Historische Studien) withFranz Steiner Verlag[23] and Studies in German History withBerghahn Books.[24]
From 2012 to 2020, GHI published Worlds of Consumption withPalgrave Macmillan about consumerism from a transatlantic and global perspective in the 20th century.[25]
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