The Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

: ''Leibniz-Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung'', abbreviated ''ZZF'') is an interdisciplinary

research institute A research institute, research centre, 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 implies natural ...

focusing on the

contemporary history Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from about 1945 to the present. In the social sciences, contemporary history is also continuous with, and related t ...

of Europe, especially Germany, and member of the

Leibniz Association The Leibniz Association (German: ''Leibniz-Gemeinschaft'' or ''Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz'') is a union of German non-university research institutes from various disciplines. Funding and Structure As of 2020, 96 non-u ...

History

The ZZF, located in

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and largest city of the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the Havel, River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, was established in 1996 as the continuation of the

Max Planck Society The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (; abbreviated MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes. Founded in 1911 as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, it was renamed to the M ...

research program on Contemporary History, founded in 1992. Its main operation was supported by the state of

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

, with additional financial backing from the

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft The German Research Foundation ( ; DFG ) is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2019, the DFG had a funding bu ...

(German Research Foundation) for specific projects. Since 2009 the ZZF is a member of the

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Scientific Community The Leibniz Association (German: ''Leibniz-Gemeinschaft'' or ''Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz'') is a union of German non-university research institutes from various disciplines. Funding and Structure As of 2020, 96 non-u ...

and therefore mainly funded to equal parts by the German Ministry of Education and Research and the ''Länder''. As of October 2022, its current director is Frank Bösch. Past directors include Jürgen Kocka, Christoph Kleßmann, Konrad H. Jarausch, and Martin Sabrow.

Research

The centre cooperates with the doctoral programs of several universities, and other research programs. The emphasis is on production of scholarly papers and dissertations on the partition of Germany after world War II, the comparison of post-war dictatorial regimes in

Central and Eastern Europe Central and Eastern Europe is a geopolitical term encompassing the countries in Baltic region, Northeast Europe (primarily the Baltic states, Baltics), Central Europe (primarily the Visegrád Group), Eastern Europe, and Southeast Europe (primaril ...

, and the history and transformation of European memory. The centre also organizes joint academic conferences, accepts

visiting scholar In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting scientist, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic fo ...

s, and coordinates

memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects such as home ...

s and

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

s. Additionally, the centre also engages in the production of non-academic public lectures, conferences, workshops and multimedia based websites.

Publications

The centre publishes several publications and websites: * ''Zeithistorische Forschungen / Studies in Contemporary History'', an

open access journal Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...

published also in print by

Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (V&R) is a scholarly publishing house based in Göttingen, Germany. It was founded in 1735 by (1700–1750) in connection with the establishment of the Georg-August-Universität in the same city. After Abraham Vandenh ...

. The journal contains both German and English articles, each with an abstract in both languages.''Zeithistorische Forschungen / Studies in Contemporary History'' was reviewed by Andrew I. Port, H-Net Reviews, July, 2009, URL
http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.php?id=24748
* ''Zeithistorische Studien'' (Contemporary Historical Studies), a monograph series of which up to 2010 have been published 47 titles. * ''Geschichte der Gegenwart'' (The History of the Present), a monograph series (since 2010). * ''ZeitRäume'' (TimeSpaces), an

almanac An almanac (also spelled almanack and almanach) is a regularly published listing of a set of current information about one or multiple subjects. It includes information like weather forecasting, weather forecasts, farmers' sowing, planting dates ...

. * ''Zeitgeschichte-online'' (ContemporaryHistory-online), a

web portal A web portal is a specially designed website that brings information from diverse sources, like emails, online forums and search engines, together in a uniform way. Usually, each information source gets its dedicated area on the page for displayin ...

. Sites on the portal devoted to the

Uprising of 1953 in East Germany The East German uprising of 1953 ( ) was an uprising that occurred over the course of two days in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 16 to 17 June 1953. It began with strike action by construction workers in East Berlin on 16 June ...

17Juni53.de
and on the history of the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...

Chronik-der-Mauer.de
are particularly frequently used. The centre also designed the websit
Ungarn1956.de
(Hungary1956), on the

Hungarian Revolution of 1956 The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 4 November 1956; ), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the policies caused by ...

jointly with the “

Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur The Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship (, alternatively translated as "(Federal) Foundation for the Study of Communist Dictatorship in East Germany") is a government-funded organisation established in 1998 by the Bundest ...

” (Foundation for the Reconciliation of the SED Dictatorship) and the Collegium Hungaricum Berlin.

Notes

External links

Official Website
/
Web Portal “Zeitgeschichte-online”

Journal “Zeithistorische Forschungen / Studies in Contemporary History”
{{DEFAULTSORT:Centre For Contemporary History History institutes Research institutes in Germany Leibniz Association 1996 establishments in Germany History organisations based in Germany Research institutes established in 1996

History

Research

Publications

See also

Notes

External links