The German Historical Institute Paris (GHIP) or Institut historique allemand (IHA) is an international

research institute A research institute, research centre, research center or research organization, is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often i ...

situated in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

, France.

Overview

As one of ten research institutes in humanities worldwide funded by the

German Federal Ministry of Education and Research The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (german: link=no, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, ), abbreviated BMBF, is a cabinet-level ministry of Germany. It is headquartered in Bonn, with an office in Berlin. The Ministry prov ...

(BMBF), the GHIP is part of the

Max Weber Foundation The Max Weber Foundation (Ger. Max Weber Stiftung) is a German humanities research organisation based in Bonn and funded by the German Federal Government. It is composed of ten independent institutes: *Ten German Historical Institutes *German Forum ...

– German Humanities Institutes Abroad, a legal entity closely linked to the

German Federal Government The Federal Cabinet or Federal Government (german: link=no, Bundeskabinett or ') is the chief executive body of the Federal Republic of Germany. It consists of the Federal Chancellor and cabinet ministers. The fundamentals of the cabinet's org ...

and located in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

. The GHIP has the following main tasks: research, mediation, and qualification. The historical topics range from the Middle Ages to the 21st century. Besides France, Germany and Franco-German relations research projects focus on Western Europe,

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and the digital humanities. Since 1994, the researchers of the GHIP have been working in the Hôtel Duret-de-Chevry, a hôtel particulier in the centrally located quarter Marais.

History

The idea to found a German Historical Institute in Paris was already “an old favorite idea” of the medievalist and later president of the

Monumenta Germaniae Historica The ''Monumenta Germaniae Historica'' (''MGH'') is a comprehensive series of carefully edited and published primary sources, both chronicle and archival, for the study of Northwestern and Central European history from the end of the Roman Empir ...

Paul Fridolin Kehr, but the founding process stagnated early on in 1902/03. A new attempt was launched in 1941, again by a German medievalist, Theodor Mayer who wanted to underpin a “general German claim to leadership” in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. In the end, disputes about responsibilities delayed the project, which was eventually abandoned in the course of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. It was no longer the will to dominate, but rather the striving for exchange and mediation among German and French historians that led to the founding of the “Deutsche Historische Forschungsstelle” (German Historical Research Center), which was inaugurated on 21 November 1958. It was financed with German federal government grants and worked under the umbrella organization “Wissenschaftliche Kommission zur Erforschung der deutsch-französischen Beziehungen” (Academic Commission on Franco-German Relations), based in

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Ma ...

. Its managing director, the medievalist

Eugen Ewig Eugen Ewig (May 18, 1913 – March 1, 2006) was a German historian who researched the history of the early Middle Ages. He taught as a professor of history at the University of Mainz and the University of Bonn. In the second half of the 20th centu ...

, is regarded as the institute's founder. The academic intentions behind its foundation were tied to the process of Franco-German reconciliation after World War II. After many years of negotiations, one year after the signing of the Élysée Treaty, the German Historical Research Center in Paris was permanently institutionalized: on 1 July 1964, it was renamed “German Historical Institute Paris” and turned into a dependent institution under the responsibility of the Federal Minister for Scientific Research. The medievalist Alois Wachtel from Bonn became its first director in 1966. Alois Wachtel was succeeded as director by Karl Ferdinand Werner, who directed and significantly shaped the institute from 1968 to 1989, especially through his research on the Early Middle Ages. He founded the journal "Francia" and established events such as the “Jeudis” lecture series, which exists to this day. He also initiated the institute's relocation from Rue du Havre to a building on Rue Maspéro, which today houses Germany's Permanent Representation to the

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate ...

. The steady increase in staff and library holdings necessitated after 20 years another change of location. Shortly before Werner's successor,

Horst Möller Horst Möller (born 12 January 1943 in Breslau) is a German contemporary historian. He is Professor of Modern History at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) and, from 1992 to 2011, Director of the Institut für Zeitgeschichte. Educ ...

(who later also headed the" Institut für Zeitgeschichte" in Munich), came into office, the Federal Republic of Germany bought the Hôtel Duret-de-Chevry, a Hôtel particulier whose construction was commissioned around 1620 by the senior royal official Charles Duret de Chevry near the

Place des Vosges The Place des Vosges (), originally Place Royale, is the oldest planned square in Paris, France. It is located in the '' Marais'' district, and it straddles the dividing-line between the 3rd and 4th arrondissements of Paris. It was a fashionabl ...

. On 19 May 1994 the new premises were inaugurated in a ceremony in the presence of then

President of the Federal Republic of Germany The president of Germany, officially the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: link=no, Bundespräsident der Bundesrepublik Deutschland),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international corres ...

Richard von Weizsäcker Richard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker (; 15 April 1920 – 31 January 2015) was a German politician ( CDU), who served as President of Germany from 1984 to 1994. Born into the aristocratic Weizsäcker family, who were part of the German nobili ...

. The institute’s director from 1994 to 2007, Werner Paravicini, focused his research especially on Burgundy in the Late Middle Ages. In 2002, the GHIP was incorporated into the Max Weber Foundation, an institution under public law. As an umbrella organization, it unites ten partner institutions around the world today. Beginning in 2007, the digital humanities became the main focus of Gudrun Gersmann’s directorship. She launched comprehensive projects to (retro)digitize holdings and founded open access initiatives such as ''perspectiva.net''. Since 2013, the institute has been directed by the Swiss historian Thomas Maissen, who broadened the geographical scope of the Institute. In 2015, a research group on sub-Saharan Africa was founded in cooperation with the

Cheikh Anta Diop University Cheikh Anta Diop University (french: Université Cheikh Anta Diop or UCAD), also known as the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar, is a university in Dakar, Senegal. It is named after the Senegalese physicist, historian and anthropologist C ...

(UCAD) in

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital and largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 3.94 million in 2 ...

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 ...

, and its Center for Research on Social Policies (CREPOS). With the creation of the transnational research group “The Bureaucratisation of African Societies“, a second cooperation phase with the CREPOS and the UCAD began in 2017 (duration: 2017–2021). The transnational research group will be part of the new „ Maria Sibylla Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa“ (MIASA) with headquarters in Accra from mid-2018 onwards. The MIASA Africa is carried by a number of partners, among them the GHIP, and funded by the

(BMBF). The program will investigate the topics of democratic governance, conflict management, and sustainable transformations.

Directors

The following have been directors of the Institute: * 1966–1968 Alois Wachtel * 1968–1989 Karl Ferdinand Werner * 1989–1992

* 1993–2007 Werner Paravicini * 2007–2012 Gudrun Gersmann * since 2013 Thomas Maissen

Mission and objectives

The main tasks of the GHIP are: research, mediation, and qualification.

Research

The GHIP conducts independent research, in most cases in cooperation with French partners, and supports the endeavours of international researchers working in the area of western European and African history in France or Germany. The items held in archives and libraries in Paris, and France at large, are particularly important in this context. The historical research topics range from the Middle Ages until the 21st century. In the early phase, research projects on the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

and the Early Modern Age dominated the institute's work. Much effort was invested into securing the deeds and charters of the

Merovingian The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from the middle of the 5th century until 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the Franks and northern Gaul ...

Empire. Beginning in the 1970s, research in the areas of modern and

contemporary history Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is ...

also became prominent. The institute has moreover begun to expand into new research areas with its Digital Humanities department and with the founding of the international research group on "The Bureaucratisation of African Societies" in cooperation with the

in Dakar, Senegal. In fundamental research projects, significant sources were collected and rendered available on data bases. Regularly, guest researchers work at the GHIP in order to pursue own projects and, at the same time, to enrich the institute's research. Such residencies are among others part of the GHIP's cooperation with the LabEx "Écrire une histoire nouvelle de l’Europe" EHNE.

Mediation

The GHIP publishes its research findings in several formats: online, print journals and books. It manages a multilingual scientific library specialized in German history. In order to support cooperation among historians in Germany, France and around the world, the GHIP regularly hosts international colloquia, seminars and talks, for instance in the context of the “Jeudis de l’Institut historique allemand” lecture series Moreover, it takes part as a partner in German-French as well as international historical conferences.

Qualification

The GHIP supports young researchers in a German-French context with a wide range of opportunities. Summer schools, academic skills, language classes as well as field trips allow students to broaden their research horizons and to exchange with students and scholars from other countries. A wide offer of grants and fellowships enables residencies of various lengths in Paris, which are organized according to the specific needs and expectations of Master students, PhD candidates, post-doctoral researchers, and professors.

Organization and research projects

At the GHIP, approximately forty staff members work in research and research services (library, editorial staff, event management, public relations). An academic advisory board composed of nine German and French university professors of all historical periods supports and advises the work of the GHIP. The research projects are divided into five departments: Middle Ages, Early Modern History, Contemporary History, Digital Humanities and Africa. Bibliothek des DHIP

Library

The library of the GHIP is accessible for all scholars free of cost after the issuing of a library card. Forty-six reading stations and four catalogue terminals with

Internet access Internet access is the ability of individuals and organizations to connect to the Internet using computer terminals, computers, and other devices; and to access services such as email and the World Wide Web. Internet access is sold by Interne ...

are available in the reading room. The collections are indexed in a library catalogue. The institute's library is a reference library; it does not lend out items. The library is connected to the German interlibrary loan. At present, it holds a total of approximately 120,000 media items and 350 continuously maintained

periodicals A periodical literature (also called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) is a published work that appears in a new edition on a regular schedule. The most familiar example is a newspaper, but a magazine or a journal are also exampl ...

. Besides its extensive collection on German and French history, the library has extensive special material on the relations between Germany and France as well as numerous items on western European history and German national history. A significant focus of the periodical collection is set on German regional journals. The library blogs Franco-Fil and Germano-Fil for information resources in France and Germany as well as regularly occurring seminars on information competence provide a useful research support for scholars.

Publications

The GHIP publishes the own research findings as well as outstanding theses. A consistent access strategy allows to find all publications online. Since 1973, “Francia” has appeared as the only German historical journal dedicated to the history of Western Europe. The articles are written in German, French or English. Their subject matter and timespan ranges from fourth-century archaeology to recent relationships between France and Germany. The “Francia” review catalogue has been released online since 2008 four times yearly as “Francia-Recensio”. The volumes from the series “Beihefte der Francia” (Francia Supplements), which was founded in 1975, appear in French, English or German, similar to the journal's language practice. The same is true for the GHIP's oldest book series published since 1962, the “Pariser Historische Studien” (Paris Historical Studies). The series “Studies and Documents on the Gallia Pontificia” is constituted of articles and source editions from the research area on deeds and letters of popes in France. The 2005 initiated eleven-volume series “German-French History” appears in German and French and comprises the time span between 800 and the present. As the project carrier of de.hypotheses.org, the GHIP operates thematic scientific blogs in addition to cross-epochal methodological blogs. The results of completed fundamental research projects of the GHIP as well as podcasts recordings of numerous lectures, which took place at the GHIP, are available on the website of the institute. Past colloquia and conferences such as the “discussions” are digitized retrospectively. Moreover, the GHIP is a partner of the German-French Journal for Humanities and Social Sciences “Trivium”, which renders translated outstanding French and German research accessible.

References

Bibliography

* Karl Ferdinand Werner: ''Deutsches Historisches Institut 1958–1983. Institut Historique Allemand 1958–1983'', Paris 1983. * Gerd Krumeich: ''Das Deutsche Historische Institut in Paris (DHIP)''. In: '' Geschichte und Gesellschaft'' 13 (1987), p. 267–271. * Werner Paravicini (ed.): ''Das Deutsche Historische Institut Paris. Festgabe aus Anlaß der Eröffnung seines neuen Gebäudes, des Hôtel Duret-de-Chevry'', Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1994. **idem: ''Du franco-allemand à l’histoire européenne. L’Institut historique allemand de Paris depuis 1964''. In '' Allemagne d’aujourd’hui'' 162 (2002), p. 150–156. **idem: ''L’Institut historique allemand. Un lieu de recherche européenne à Paris''. In: ''Précis analytique des travaux de l‘Académie des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Rouen'', 2003 (published December 2006), p. 225–234. **idem: ''Wie ist es eigentlich gewesen? Das Deutsche Historische Institut Paris''. In: ''Revue des Deux Mondes'', Paris 2005, p. 223–227. – ''L’Institut historique allemand de Paris: ce qui s’est réellement passé''. In: ''Revue des Deux Mondes'', Paris 2005, . *

Ulrich Pfeil Ulrich Pfeil (born 13 May 1966) is a German historian based in France. Life Born in Hamburg Pfeil grew up in Heide (Holstein) and took the Abitur at the in 1985. After his military service he studied Educational Science, French language a ...

: ''Das Deutsche Historische Institut Paris. Eine Neugründung »sur base universitaire«''. In idem (ed.): ''Deutsch-französische Kultur- und Wissenschaftsbeziehungen im 20. Jahrhundert. Ein institutionengeschichtlicher Ansatz'', Oldenbourg, Munich 2007, p. 281–308
perspectivia.net
**idem: ''Vorgeschichte und Gründung des „Deutschen Historischen Instituts“ Paris. Darstellung und Dokumentation'', Instrumenta 17, Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2007
perspectivia.net
**idem (ed.): ''Das „Deutsche Historische Institut“ Paris und seine Gründungsväter. Ein personengeschichtlicher Ansatz.'', Pariser Historische Studien 86, Oldenbourg, Munich 2007
perspectivia.net
**idem, Die Gründung des ''Deutschen Historischen Instituts'' in Paris im Jahre 1958, in: Axel C. Hüntelmann, Michael C. Schneider (ed.), ''Jenseits von Humboldt. Wissenschaft im Staat 1850–1990'', Frankfurt/M. 2010, p. 49–60. * Rainer Babel, Rolf Große (ed.): ''Das Deutsche Historische Institut Paris / Institut historique allemand 1958–2008'', Thorbecke, Ostfildern, 2008
perspectivia.net
* Rolf Große, Frankreichforschung am Deutschen Historischen Institut Paris, in: Jahrbuch der historischen Forschung in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Munich 2013, p. 21–27
hypotheses.org
* Matthias Werner: ''Die Anfänge des Deutschen Historischen Instituts in Paris und die Rückkehr der deutschen Geschichtswissenschaft in die „Ökumene der Historiker“'', in: ''Rheinische Vierteljahrsblätter 79'' (2015), p. 212-245. * Rolf Große, Die Entstehungsgeschichte des DHI Paris, in: Jürgen Elvert (ed.), Geschichte jenseits der Universität. Netzwerke und Organisationen der frühen Bundesrepublik, Stuttgart 2016 (Historische Mitteilungen, Beiheft, 94), p. 141‒153.