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Maiken Umbach, Paul Betts, Twenty-Five Years—Where is German History Now?, German History, Volume 27, Issue 1, January 2009, Pages 4–5, https://doi.org/10.1093/gerhis/ghn074
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Extract
As our two founding editors write in this issue, at its inception, German History fulfilled a dual purpose. First, it arose from the need to find a ‘home’ for a growing body of scholarship on German history produced and debated in the United Kingdom, not least under the aegis of the German History Society. Second, the journal was set up with a certain sense of mission, designed to showcase an innovative brand of German history writing, which was at variance, to some extent at least, with that predominantly published in the American-based Central European History. Since then, much has changed. The field has moved on, and with it, both our constituency and our sense of mission have changed—not beyond recognition, and not in one uniform direction, yet nevertheless in interesting ways, on which we felt it might be worth reflecting here for a few moments. The first obvious change is that the historiography of Germany has become more international and transnational. It would be difficult these days to identify a uniquely British view of any major problem or epoch within German history, let alone of the entire span. In part, this is a consequence of a heightened mobility among scholars. At British universities today, German history is just as frequently taught by German and American nationals as by native Britons. In part, this is also the consequence of a more intense and sustained dialogue between German historical communities throughout the English-speaking world and beyond. Some of this dialogue has been facilitated by frequent personal exchanges and visiting appointments, yet much of it has taken shape through print media such as this journal. The fact that the majority of our submissions now come from outside the UK is indicative of this: input from scholars based in the United States and Germany constitutes the bulk of this, but scholars from Israel, Australia, Eastern Europe and elsewhere have also made important interventions in this ongoing international discussion.
