Research

The Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History (Leibniz-Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung – ZZF) is a research institute for German and European contemporary history in the 20th century and its impact on the present. As a member of the Leibniz Association, its basic endowment is funded half by the federal government and half by the states. Additional funding is obtained by the institute and its research projects.

The ZZF collaborates with numerous universities and other research institutes in Germany and abroad, and has an international visiting-scholar program. It is linked to the University of Potsdam by a joint professorship, and cooperates with a range of other institutes of higher learning in research, teaching and training a new generation of scholars.

The scientific work of the Institute is currently divided into four departments and the Directorate.

Forschung

Director Prof. Dr. Frank Bösch head the following research projects which are assigned to the four ZZF departments.

This is in addition to individual projects of his own and to projects of the directorate’s staff.

Forschung

The Leibniz Center for Contemporary History Potsdam is a member of the Leibniz Research Alliance "Value of the Past", which is coordinated at the ZZF by Dr. Achim Saupe. The spokesperson of this Leibniz Research Alliance is Prof. Dr. Martin Sabrow.

Forschung

Lenin at the museum (Photo: Hans-Hermann Hertle, 2016)

In Department I, research is focused on the social practices of governance in the GDR and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and especially on the transformation processes in the last third of the 20th century including and extending beyond the turning point of 1989–91.

Forschung

The research of Department II focuses on economic structures and institutions as well as on the practices and behaviors of economic actors, and ideas and discourses linked to economics. The field of economics in contemporary history is examined in relation to its interdependency with politics, culture, and society.

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Media in action (Photo: Hans-Hermann Hertle, 2014)

Department III researches the process of media transformation in European societies and the changes brought by the advance of new information technologies and digitalization.

Forschung

Horst Köhler, Monday demonstration, Bremen 10.09.2007
Photo: Frank Kleinschmidt, so:leb Sozialer Lebensbund e.V. Bremen, 2007-09-10 Horst Koehler Montagsdemo Bremen, public domain, details on Wikimedia Commons

The research projects of Department IV investigate the question of how social processes were contained and regulated by the political systems of the twentieth century.

Forschung

Director Prof. Dr. Frank Bösch head the following research projects which are assigned to the four ZZF departments.

This is in addition to individual projects of his own and to projects of the directorate’s staff.

Forschung