German Historical Institute Paris

German Historical Institute
Established November 21, 1958 (1958-11-21)
Director Thomas Maissen
Academic staff
 23
Administrative staff
 18
Location Paris, France
Website www.dhi-paris.fr
German Historical Institute Paris, Hôtel Duret-de-Chevry

The German Historical Institute Paris (GHIP) or Institut historique allemand (IHA) is an international research institute situated in Paris, France.

Overview

As one of ten German historical institutes worldwide funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the GHIP is part of the Max Weber Foundation, a legal entity closely linked to the German Federal Government and located in Bonn.[1] Committed to the promotion of exchange and mutual understanding through the humanities the institute plays a leading role in the dialogue between Germany and France, particularly with regard to academic and sociopolitical issues. Besides France, Germany and Franco-German relations research projects focus on Western Europe, sub-Saharan Africa 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 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. In the end, disputes about responsibilities delayed the project, which was eventually abandoned in the course of World War II.

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. Its managing director, the medievalist Eugen Ewig, 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. 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. Until then, the institute had focused more or less equally on the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age. Under Werner, a third epoch came into focus: the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The steady increase in staff and library holdings soon necessitated another change of location. Shortly before Werner’s successor, Horst Möller (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. Under the institute’s director Werner Paravicini, on 19 May 1994 the new premises were inaugurated in a ceremony in the presence of then President of the Federal Republic of Germany Richard von Weizsäcker.

In 2002, the GHIP was incorporated into the Max Weber Foundation, an institution under public law. As an umbrella organization, today it unites ten partner institutions around the world. 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.[2] Since 2013, the institute has been directed by the Swiss historian Thomas Maissen, who broadened the geographical scope of the institute by founding a research group on sub-Saharan Africa in cooperation with the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal, in 2015.

Directors

The following have been directors of the Institute:

Mission and objectives

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 history in France or Germany. The items held in archives and libraries in Paris, and France at large, are particularly important in this context. In its early phase, research projects on the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age dominated the institute’s work. For example, much effort was invested into securing the deeds and charters of the Merovingian Empire. Beginning in the 1970s, research in the areas of modern and contemporary history also became prominent. The institute has moreover begun to expand into new research areas with its digital humanities department, and in 2015 with the founding of an international group of researchers on sub-Saharan Africa in cooperation with Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar.

Mediation

In order to support cooperation among historians in Germany, France and around the world, the GHIP regularly hosts international colloquia, seminars and talks, for example the so called “Jeudis de l’Institut historique allemand”. Moreover, it takes part as a partner in German–French as well as international historical conferences on medieval, modern and contemporary history in France and in Germany.

Qualification

The GHIP has special programs to support early-stage researchers working on projects in French, Franco-German or western European history. It periodically offers summer schools, field trips and study visits as well as specialized language courses and paleography workshops. Doctoral researchers and postdocs can apply for mobility grants, doctoral positions or the so called Karl Ferdinand Werner Fellowship. For university students, the GHIP offers mobility and residency grants as well as academic internships.

Organization and research projects

At the GHIP, approximately forty staff members work in research and research services (library, editorial staff, event management, press and communication). 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 six departments:

Library of the GHIP

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 are available in the reading room. 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 110,000 media items and 350 continuously maintained periodicals. 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. The focus of the periodical collection is on German regional journals. The stocks are indexed in a library catalogue.

Publications

The GHIP publishes its own journal as well as several scholarly book series. A consistent open access strategy makes it possible to find all publications online. New publications are offered online with a moving wall of three years.

Since 1973, "Francia" has appeared as the only German historical journal dedicated to the history of western Europe. Its subject matter and timespan ranges from fourth-century archaeology to post-World War II relations between France and Germany; from topics related to economic, constitutional and social history to the history of international relations, culture and methodological discussions. "Francia" has advanced to the status of an international forum for academic debate among historians, primarily in German, French and English. It is also accessible online.

"Francia" is accompanied by a book series, "Beihefte der Francia" (Francia Supplements). The volumes that have appeared so far have already attained the status of a library on the history of western Europe, France and Franco-German relations. Similar to the journal’s language practice, the monographs appear in French, English or German. The "Pariser Historische Studien" (Paris Historical Studies) have appeared since 1962, which makes them the GHIP’s oldest book series. This series publishes monographs and the documents of colloquia in German and French, and occasionally in English. By 2015, this series counted over 100 volumes. The series "Studien und Dokumente zur Gallia Pontificia" (Studies and Documents on the Gallia Pontificia) contains essays and source editions concerning papal deeds and letters and their judicial delegates in France. The eleven-volume series "Deutsch-französische Geschichte" (Franco-German History) appears in German and French, covering the era from 800 C.E. until the present.

References

  1. ↑ "German Historical Institute Paris". Max Weber Stiftung. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
  2. ↑ "perspectivia.net". Retrieved 24 October 2016.

Bibliography

External links

Coordinates: 48°51′31″N 2°21′48″E / 48.8585°N 2.3633°E / 48.8585; 2.3633

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