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Hamburg Institute for Social Research

Coordinates: 53°34′09″N 9°59′41″E / 53.56920°N 9.99472°E / 53.56920; 9.99472
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(Redirected from Mittelweg 36)

Hamburg Institute for Social Research
AbbreviationHIS
Formation1984
FounderJan Philipp Reemtsma
TypeResearch institute
PurposeSocial research
Location
Coordinates53°34′09″N 9°59′41″E / 53.56920°N 9.99472°E / 53.56920; 9.99472
Director
Wolfgang Knöbl
Websitewww.his-online.de

The Hamburg Institute for Social Research (German: Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung; abbreviated HIS) is an independent private foundation whose scholarship is focused on both contemporary history and the social sciences.[1] Founded in 1984 by Jan Philipp Reemtsma,[2] it currently employs about 50 people with roughly 50% working in the research fields of sociology and history. The institute publishes a bimonthly journal called Mittelweg 36 [de] and has its own publishing house,[3] Hamburger Edition and an archive and a library.[4]

History

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Beginnings

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Jan Philipp Reemtsma founded the HIS in Hamburg in 1984 with funds from his inheritance and was a member of the executive board from its foundation until 2015.[5] In addition to Reemtsma, Helmut Dahmer, Ernest Mandel, Margarete Mitscherlich-Nielsen, Jakob Moneta, and Alice Schwarzer formed the first advisory board.[6] Initially, the HIS only funded individual projects and was theoretically oriented towards psychoanalytic sociology, which Reemtsma later said had been the wrong direction.[7] In the academic milieu, HIS was initially ridiculed, but established itself as an important contributor to social research over the years.[5][8]

Mittelweg 36

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The institutes journal was first published in 1992 and allows readers to follow ongoing research projects at the institute. In its first decade the journal has garnered interest not only in the academic community but also has a number of non-academic readers.[9] It is published six times a year[6] academic publisher of the HIS the Hamburger Edition,[10] which was founded in 1994.[11]

Wehrmachtsausstellung

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In 1995 the institute began an exhibition titled Wehrmachtsausstellung which toured Germany until 1999.[12] The tour detailed the War crimes of the Wehrmacht and helped break the Myth of the clean Wehrmacht in Germany. It was designed by Hannes Heer.

Initially, the Wehrmachtsausstellung was only intended as a smaller exhibition alongside a larger one. However, it quickly sparked intense debates among the public and in the media. On 13 March 1997, the German Bundestag also discussed the exhibition, as did some state parliaments.[13] After criticism arose, among other things, about false information regarding the attribution of some of the photographs shown, the HIS withdrew the exhibition at the end of 1999. A commission of historians examined the allegations and found that the criticism of the exhibition was at least partly justified. The exhibition contained "factual errors", "inaccuracies and carelessness in the use of material" and "overly sweeping and suggestive statements". However, the criticism regarding the attribution of the images was justified for fewer than 20 of the 1,433 photos.[14] In response, the HIS designed a new exhibition on the subject, which was shown from 2001 to 2004. In retrospect, the historian Hans-Ulrich Thamer said that the presentation had brought about a "change in consciousness" in Germany; it had "destroyed the legend of the clean Wehrmacht".[5][15]

Research topics

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The forms that the "legacy of violence" of the Second World War took during the Cold War were the subject of a comprehensive research project at the HIS. In this context, the institute organised a series of eight conferences between 2003 and 2011, and six anthologies were published by the Hamburg Edition under the series title "Studien zum Kalten Krieg" (Studies on the Cold War) between 2006 and 2013.[16]

The HIS also provided contributions to the controversies surrounding the 1968 movement and left-wing terrorist groups, in particular through the work of Wolfgang Kraushaar.[5][6]

From 2013 to 2015, the scientific work was organised into three research groups: "Crisis and Transformation of Empires", "Postwar Periods" and "Future Production".[5]

In 2015 Wolfgang Knöbl took over as director of the institute[17] shifting the research focus more towards southern Europe.[18] The new direction in terms of content was taken with the establishment of further research groups, including the research group on "Democracy and Statehood". The group focuses on the current problems of democracy, especially in southern Europe.[19] Continuity exists above all in the research on violence.[5]

More recent research groups are "Monetary Sovereignty"[20] and "Legal Sociology".[21]

Bibliography

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  • Bartov, Omer (13 February 2003). Germany's War and the Holocaust. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-8681-4.
  • Bankier, David; Mikhman, Dan (2008). Holocaust Historiography in Context. Jerusalem: Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-965-308-326-4.

References

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  1. ^ "Home". Hamburg Institute for Social Research. Archived from the original on 25 June 2011.
  2. ^ "About Us". Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  3. ^ Neumann, Volker Maria. "A Few New Questions: The Hamburg Institute for Social Research". Goethe-Institut.
  4. ^ "Hamburg Institute for Social Research". www.hamburg.com. Retrieved 27 December 2024.
  5. ^ a b c d e f "Reemtsma – Schließung des Hamburger Instituts für Sozialforschung: Ende eines Bildungsauftrags". www.fr.de (in German). 15 January 2024. Retrieved 27 December 2024.
  6. ^ a b c "Nur die Logik setzt die Regeln fest – WELT". DIE WELT (in German). Retrieved 27 December 2024.
  7. ^ "Von Marx bis Migrationsforschung – DW – 09.06.2009". dw.com (in German). Retrieved 27 December 2024.
  8. ^ Wendler, Lutz (15 March 2012). "Reemtsma wird Sloweniens Honorarkonsul". www.abendblatt.de (in German). Retrieved 27 December 2024.
  9. ^ "Mittelweg 36". Magazine List. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
  10. ^ "Hamburg Institute for Social Research". www.hamburg.com. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  11. ^ "Hamburger Edition HIS Verlagsgesellschaft mbH". Leipziger Buchmesse. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  12. ^ Bartov 2003, pp. XI–XII.
  13. ^ "Kultur: Wehrmachtsausstellung: Viele Feinde, viele Freunde, eine Denkpause Vier Jahre auf Reisen". Der Tagesspiegel Online (in German). ISSN 1865-2263. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  14. ^ "Bericht der Kommission zur Überprüfung der Ausstellung "Vernichtungskrieg. Verbrechen der Wehrmacht 1941 bis 1944"" (PDF). www.verbrechen-der-wehrmacht.de. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 May 2010. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  15. ^ ONLINE, RP (25 November 2012). "Wissenschaftler und Stifter: Millionär Jan Philipp Reemtsma wird 60". RP ONLINE (in German). Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  16. ^ "Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung: Cold War: Zwischen "Totalem Krieg" und "Kleinen Kriegen"". 1 May 2015. Archived from the original on 1 May 2015. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  17. ^ deutschlandfunkkultur.de (8 June 2015). "Reemtsma-Nachfolger Wolfgang Knöbl – Staffelübergabe am Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung". Deutschlandfunk Kultur (in German). Retrieved 31 December 2024.
  18. ^ Gretzschel, Matthias; Albers, Volker (13 July 2015). "Reemtsma-Nachfolger: "Ich glaube an das gedruckte Wort"". www.abendblatt.de (in German). Retrieved 31 December 2024.
  19. ^ "Hamburg Institute for Social Research". www.hamburg.com. Retrieved 31 December 2024.
  20. ^ deutschlandfunk.de (17 November 2019). "Über das Geld - Die Rückkehr des Geldes in die Politik". Deutschlandfunk (in German). Retrieved 31 December 2024.
  21. ^ "Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung (HIS)". www.hamburg.de (in German). Archived from the original on 13 December 2024. Retrieved 31 December 2024.
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