Leibniz Institute of European History

The Leibniz Institute for European History (IEG ) in Mainz, a non-university research institute, is a non-profit organization for the promotion of science. Its mission is the scientific study of European history.

Foundation

Today's Leibniz Institute for European History was founded in 1950 on the initiative of the French military government as a foundation under civil law in Mainz.

Major impetus for its establishment had assumed the international historian talks after the Second World War, in which mainly German and French participants spoke up for a permanent European cooperation. Their goal was to help overcome prejudice by an in-depth knowledge of the peculiarities, commonalities and interrelationships in the confessional and national developments and contribute to a better understanding between the peoples of Europe.

The Institute initially it was expressly a revision of the old nationalist -oriented view of history. It played for a Raymond Schmittlein with his federalist anti -nationalist, pro-European approach and Fritz core universal-historical conception an important role. In 1953 the Institute was made available as a residence Domus Universitatis. The issued for this purpose, official self-presentation of the Institute stated that the previous exaggerated nationalism and uncomprehending confessionalism were the main weaknesses of the previous German historical picture. This applies to overcome it with a new Western Christian attitude. In 1955, the Institute addressed a major international conference on " Europe - Heritage and Tasks" from. In 1956 the Institute was incorporated into the so-called King Steiner agreement that regulated the financing of the institutions by the federal states.

Tasks

The statute defines today as the main tasks of the Leibniz Institute for European History:

The Leibniz Institute for European History pursued these tasks statutory

• Through their own research projects in individual and collaborative work of his family with domestic and foreign scientists
• Edit the advancement of younger post-graduate scientists from Europe and overseas, research projects on European history and life as fellows at the Institute
• Through collaboration with other institutions at home and abroad, which have similar objectives
• Through its own publications and promotion of other publications in which scientific issues of European research are discussed

Research program

The Leibniz Institute for European History sees itself as a research institution, which in modern times takes the historical foundations of modern Europe in the view.

Firstly, this research questions the foundations of Europe after the integrating and antagonistic movements and forces that gave the ( geographical ) continent and ( cultural ) context of meaning "Europe" a over the centuries walking, but compared to the other continents distinct character. The research aims pan - European and some communication links as well as bilateral and multilateral transfer processes. The religious and confessional imprints of these transfer processes are a focus of the interdisciplinary work of the Institute.

Second, distinguish this " research on the foundations of Europe ," the story of conscious reflection on Europe to analyze the political unification attempts, the specific European plans, the ideal European ideas and the utopian visions of Europe - the anti- European thinking included with. An integral part of this approach is the history of historiography, that the history of Europe 's history.

Third, this task includes a theoretical and methodological reflection on the historical research on Europe. The Leibniz Institute for European History questions what knowledge-constitutive interests follow > European < approaches in the historical sciences, and how this site bondage of European research can be reflected methodically.

Time and space, the Leibniz Institute focuses on European history of the early modern period, the newer and more recent history between about 1450 and 1950.

Program areas

The scientific work of the Leibniz Institute for European History is summarized in six program areas. Four program- bound research areas are complemented by a non- program-related research area and the cross-sectional project European History Online clamped. The IEG published his research results printed and online; It also provides services (such as the map server IEG -Maps, the European peace treaties of pre-modern or historical- geographical information system HGIS Germany ) ready online.

In the four program-related research areas, which are usually created to five years, churches and theological historians work together with general historians and scholars refer to a. There are the following research areas for the period 2007 to 2011:

In the research area " Europe as a challenge for politics, society and the Church ," which is operated jointly with the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz Graduate School The Christian churches built facing the challenge of "Europe".

Scholarship Program

An essential task of the Leibniz Institute for European History is the promotion of young scientists. The international scholarship program consists of three pillars: research, training and networking. The focus is the promotion of research on individual qualification of grantees ( Doctoral, Post -doctoral and post-doctoral theses ). Since 1950, over 900 young scientists came to Mainz and were promoted as fellows of the IEG. The Institute sees itself as a place of exchange between different national and disciplinary research traditions - the fellows live and work in the institute building, the Mainz " Old University " ( Domus Universitatis ) from the early 17th century.