Zeithistorische Forschungen/Studies in Contemporary History

Zeithistorische Forschungen/Studies in Contemporary History

http://www.zeithistorische-forschungen.de/

Publisher: Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung

This journal is a response to fundamental changes in contemporary 
historical interests during the last decades. The collapse of the 
communist regimes in 1989/90 has created new interpretative challenges 
for politics and scholarship, including the need to deal with the legacy 
of two dictatorships. Fears that the memory of the Nazi past would fade 
away with the end of the GDR have not turned out to be true; instead, 
the intellectual debate about the Third Reich has only become more 
intensive following the fall of the wall. However, attention also ought 
to be paid to the often neglected, yet more positive history of 
Germany's efforts at democratization.

As a result of the progress of European integration and the process of 
globalisation, historical research has to start transcending the 
national paradigm. Simultaneously the shift toward popular culture and 
the media has changed how we remember the past, since visual 
representations follow their own market logic. Finally, the Internet has 
revolutionized communication inside and outside of scholarship. This 
journal strives to respond to and shape these changes.

"Studies in Contemporary History" is based on a broad understanding of 
"contemporary history", encompassing three separate, but overlapping 
time periods. Central problems of the first half of the century will be 
addressed to the extent that they are relevant for a historically 
grounded understanding of long-range issues (e.g. war-crimes, migration, 
and xenophobia).

The central focus of the journal will nonetheless be the decades of 
German, European and global conflicts between 1945 and 1990, because 
they constitute the most important experiences of persons alive today. 
Beyond that we would also like to provide a forum for current history, 
since scholarly reflection on the most recent past does not have to 
begin with the release of previously closed files. Beset by new wars, 
international terrorism, the contraction of the welfare state and other 
threats, people have a great need for orientation, which is also one of 
the responsibilities of contemporary historical research.

ISSN: 1612-6033
EISSN: 1612-6041

Dr. Jan-Holger Kirsch
Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung
Redaktion Zeitgeschichte-online
Am Neuen Markt 1
D-14467 Potsdam

Tel.: +49 (0)331/28991-18
Email: kirsch@zeitgeschichte-online.de

Zeithistorische Forschungen is available free of charge as an Open 
Access journal on the Internet.

Content available online.

Current Issue: Volume 3 Number 1 2006

Date: 15 June 2006