German Historical Institute Paris

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, 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 steady increase in staff and library holdings necessitated after 20 years 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. 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. 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 eleven 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. From 2013 to 2023, the institute was 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 (UCAD) in Dakar, Senegal, 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 and ended as scheduled in 2021. Since 2018, the transnational research group is part of the “Maria Sibylla Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa“ (MIASA) with headquarters in Accra. The MIASA Africa is carried by a number of partners, among them the GHIP, and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The program investigates the topics of democratic governance, conflict management, and sustainable transformations. Since September 2023 the Institute has been directed by Klaus Oschema.

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 and the Early Modern Age dominated the institute's work. 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 with the founding of the international research group on "The Bureaucratisation of African Societies" in 2015, which worked in cooperation with the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal until 2021. Since 2018, the GHIP has been involved in the Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA) in Accra, which conducts research on "Sustainable Governance."

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.