Online panel: Global History meets German Zeitgeschichte

Mittwoch, 25. September 2024 | 18 Uhr 
Organisation: German Historical Institute Washington und Leibniz-Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam

The panel will be held in English language and is open to the general public.

Panelists: 
Frank Biess (UC San Diego), 
Franziska Exeler (FU Berlin/University of Cambridge), 
Michelle Lynn Kahn (University of Richmond), 
Isabella Löhr (ZZF Potsdam)

Online panel featuring four established historians from the United States and German-speaking Europe to discuss current trends and future developments at the intersection of Global History and German Zeitgeschichte (Contemporary History). The panel is organized and moderated by Isabella Löhr and Carolin Liebisch-Gümüş. It will be held in English language and is open to the general public.

In the last decades, Global History and German Zeitgeschichte, the sub-discipline dedicated to the most recent period, have surprisingly had few overlaps and exchanges, despite the latter being widely regarded as a quintessentially globalized era. Global History primarily focused on the long nineteenth century, while German-speaking Zeitgeschichte oftentimes retained its focus on the national perspective, employing transnational approaches but rarely engaging with the theories and methodologies of Global History. This is currently changing, partly due to the vibrant research on the global history of socialism and the Cold War, which has begun to shed a different light on the history of the two German states. Starting from a brief assessment of the past relationship between the two fields, the panel discusses current shifts and emerging questions as new publications, conferences, and institutional initiatives signal the start of a more substantial dialogue between these historiographical domains. What are the prevailing trends, challenges, and potential stumbling blocks in bringing Global History and German Zeitgeschichte together? And what can we learn from transatlantic and transregional perspectives on these two fields?