2019, Gilbert, Mark, Oberloskamp, Eva, Raithel, Thomas

Since 1945, Germany’s role in the project of European integration has been central for the continent’s economic and political development. The fourth volume of the German Yearbook of Contemporary History, edited by Mark Gilbert (Johns Hopkins University Bologna), Eva Oberloskamp and Thomas Raithel (both Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History), assembles articles, which have been published previously in the Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, and specially commissioned contributions. The chapters cover a wide range of topics. The theories and visions of European integration that were articulated after World War II are the starting point for the volume. The period embraced by the book stretches to the earliest stages of European Economic and Monetary Union, which received substantial momentum from German unifi cation in 1989/90.

2018, Harvey, Elizabeth, Hürter, Johannes

How should we understand Hitler as a factor in the history of the Third Reich? In recent years scholarly interest in the German dictator has once again intensified, as is evident from debates surrounding the publication of Mein Kampf, and from the publication of numerous new studies on Hitler’s personality, ideology and politics. Edited by Elizabeth Harvey (University of Nottingham) and Johannes Hürter (Institute for Contemporary History Munich – Berlin), the third volume of the German Yearbook of Contemporary History presents the latest in German research on Hitler based on selected articles from the Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte. Additionally, it includes new commentaries by renowned experts from the English-speaking world on theories concerning Hitler’s personality and authenticity, the sources of his radical racism, and the relationship between the dictator and German society.

2017, Bresselau von Bressensdorf, Agnes, Seefried, Elke, Ostermann, Christian F.

With its accession to membership of the United Nations in the early 1970s, the Federal Republic of Germany found new scope for its foreign policy, and it was at a time when the global North-South divide became a focus point of international politics. This is the background to the articles in the second volume of the German Yearbook of Contemporary History, edited by two historians from the Institut für Zeitgeschichte (Institute for Contemporary History Munich – Berlin) – Agnes Bresselau von Bressensdorf and Elke Seefried – together with Christian Ostermann from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. The current yearbook deals with West Germany during a time of Cold War confrontation, issues of human rights and threat from radical Islam. Selected contributions from the quarterly Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte offer detailed analyses of West German policies toward Cambodia, Chile, Iran and Afghanistan, and international experts provide a vivid commentary.