Prof. Dr. Frank Bösch is Director of the Leibniz Center for Contemporary History (ZZF) in Potsdam and a full professor of 20th-century German and European history at the University of Potsdam.
Frank Bösch was born in Lübeck in 1969 and studied history, German language and literature, and political science at the universities of Hamburg and Göttingen. From 1998 to 2002, he was a research assistant at the Department of History at the University of Göttingen, where he earned his doctorate with a dissertation titled “The Adenauer CDU: Anatomy of an Interdenominational Catch-All Party (1945–1969).” From 2002 to 2007, he taught as an assistant professor at the Department of History at the University of Göttingen. Prof. Dr. Frank Bösch is Director of the Leibniz Center for Contemporary History (ZZF) in Potsdam and full professor of 20th-century German and European history at the University of Potsdam. He is the author of numerous widely acclaimed books on 20th-century history, leads major funded research projects, and serves on various academic committees. In addition to scholarly articles, he regularly publishes in the media.
His current research focuses on German contemporary history and its global connections. For example, he published the book “Zeitenwende 1979. Als die Welt von heute begann” (2019), which, based on ten global events, examines fundamental changes in contemporary history since the 1970s and their interconnection with German history. His book "Deals mit Diktaturen. A Different History of the Federal Republic,“ which examines Germany’s dealings with autocratic states since the Adenauer era. A second focus is on political social history, for which he has published monographs on the transformation of club culture (”Das Konservative Milieu,“ 2002) and political parties (”Die Adenauer-CDU," 2001). Third, he has conducted cultural-historical research on the transformation of norms and politics in Germany and Great Britain in the late 19th century (“Öffentliche Geheimnisse,” 2009). A fourth area of focus is media history, particularly the relationship between media and social change (“Mediengeschichte,” 2011/19). A fifth area of research lies in the history of German-German relations during the reunification phase. He is currently writing a book on the reception of (post)Soviet Jews in Germany (1970–2005).
- Born in 1969 in Lübeck
- 1991–1997: Studied history, German language and literature, and political science at the Universities of Hamburg and Göttingen
- 1998–2002: Research assistant at the Department of Medieval and Modern History, University of Göttingen
- 2001: Ph.D. with a dissertation on “The Adenauer CDU. Anatomy of an Interdenominational Catch-All Party (1945–1969)”
- 2002–2007: Assistant Professor at the Department of History at Ruhr University Bochum, externally evaluated with a study on “Public Secrets. Scandals, Politics, and the Media in the German Empire and Victorian Britain”
- 2007–2011: Full Professor (W3) at the Department of History at Justus Liebig University Giessen and spokesperson for the DFG Research Training Group “Transnational Media Events from the Early Modern Period to the Present.”
- 2011: He declined an appointment at the University of Cologne and accepted an appointment at the University of Potsdam, which was linked to the directorship of the Center for Contemporary History.
- Visiting scholar at the DHI London, the Université de Montréal, LMU Munich, HU Berlin, and the University of Vienna.
Honorary membership in academic committees since 2016:
Vice Chair of the Association of German Historians (2016–2021) and member of the VHD Executive Committee (2012–2021)
Member of the Senate and Funding Committee for Research Training Groups of the DFG (2012–2018)
Member and Vice Chair of the Working Group for Modern Social History (since 2017/2021)
Advisory Board Member, Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (since 2017)
Member of the Advisory Board of the Koebner Minerva Center for German History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (since 2019)
Member of the Advisory Board of the Leibniz Center for Modern Orient Studies (ZMO) (since 2021)
Member of the Commission on the History of Parliamentarism and Political Parties (KGParl) (since 2018)
Advisory Board Member of the “Ruhr Area Library Foundation”/Institute for Social Movements, Bochum (since 2012)
Member of the Expert Committee of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) for Federal Funding of Memorial Sites (since 2023)
Member of the BKM’s Academic Committee on Remembrance Culture (2024/25)
Member of the Academic Advisory Board of the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the Past (since 2023)
Chair of the Advisory Board of the Federal President Theodor Heuss House Foundation, Stuttgart (2012–2022)
Member of the 4th International Advisory Board of the Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt Foundation (since 2023)
Advisory Board Member of the “House of History,” Bonn (since 2012)
Member of the Board of Trustees of the Moses Mendelssohn Center for European-Jewish Studies (since 2024)
Member of the Board of Trustees of the Lindenstraße Memorial Foundation, Potsdam (since 2025)
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Giessen Emergency Reception Camp Learning and Remembrance Site (since 2025)
Member of the jury for the Open Humboldt Award of the Humboldt University Foundation (since 2025)
Member of the Advisory Board of the Brandenburg Society for Culture and History gGmbH (since 2024)
Deputy Spokesperson for the Leibniz Research Network “Crises in a Globalized World” (2013–2019)
Research foci
- German and British History since the 19th century
- Political History of Culture and Society
- Media History
- Global History of the 1970s
Interview with Frank Bösch "What contemporary historian Frank Bösch brought to Potsdam"
Current publication projects
Negotiate with dictatorships. The German-German dealing with non-democratic states, 1950-2000, Website
a) current third-party funded projects
East German villa districts after 1945, a PhD project as part of the collaborative research project “Where the Rich Live: Mapping Villa Neigh-borhoods and Cultures of Wealth in Germany’s Long 20th Century (RichMap),” conducted in partnership with the Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space (IRS) in Erkner, Website
The Radical Right in Germany, 1945-2000,
Website in collaboration with the Moses Mendelssohn Centre
funded by VolkswagenStiftung
The Transformation of the East German Universities in the 1980s/90s: Potsdam in Comparative Perspective,
Website in collabroation with the University of Potsdam
Graduate School “Social Consequences of the Changing Working Environment in the Second Half of the 20th century”, Website
Funded by Hans-Böckler-Stiftung
Duration: Nov 2016 - Oct 2019, 2021 -
b) completed third-party funds projects (since 2008)
Departure towards the Digital Society. Computerisation and Social Regimes in West and East Germany, Website
Funded in line with a competition of the Leibniz Association
Duration: May 2014 - April 2017
“The Early Post-war History of the Ministries of the interior of West and East Germany”, PDF, Website
Project management with Prof. Dr. Andreas Wirsching (Institute of Contemporary History Munich-Berlin)
Duration: Dec 2014 - May 2018
Research Group “Living History: Reenacted Prehistory between Research and Popular Performance”, PDF
With archeologist Dr. Stefanie Samida (FU Berlin/Tübingen)
Funded by Volkswagen Foundation
Duration: 2012 - 2016
Research Group (German Research Foundation) “Transformation of religion in modernity”
In cooperation with Klaus Tenfelde, Lucian Hölscher, Wilhelm Damberg, Volkhard Krech, Traugott Jähnichen (Bochum)
Duration: 2006-2012
Results
“Lost in Translation? Perceptions of Europe and their Translations. From Word War I to the Present”
In cooperation with Simone Lässig (Georg Eckert-Institut), Wilfried Speitkamp (Kassel), Martin Sabrow (ZZF)
Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Resarch
Duration: 2009-2012
Results
“Cultural Techniques and their Medialisation”
Funded by the German state Hessen (Landes-Exzellenz „LOEWE“)
In cooperation with Peter Haslinger (Herder-Institut Marburg)
Duration: 2008-2012
Results
