The Jahresberichte of the Interwar Period

Digitialization project

Within the framework of of the funding programme Retrospective Digitalization of Library Holdings (Retrospektive Digitalisierung von Bibliotheksbeständen) of the German Research Foundation (DFG),  from 2001 to 2003 Jahresberichte volumes 1 to 14 were digitalized in a joint effort with the Trier Competence Center for Digital Humanities (Kompetenzzentrum für elektronische Erschließungs- und Publikationsverfahren in den Geisteswissenschaften) at Trier University.

The Jahresberichte volumes for the years under review 1925 to 1938, which appeared from 1927 to 1940, impressively document the development of German historical scholarship in the Weimar Republic and in Nazi Germany. During this time the Jahresberichte were not a bibliography in the pure form, but also a forum for detailed research reports. The reports and the employed classification reflect the shift from the Weimar Republic to the Nazi dictatorship as well as the reactions of eminent representatives of the discipline. Online publication makes this material available for modern research.

Jahresberichte für deutsche Geschichte 1 to 14

The project’s significance

The Jahresberichte für deutsche Geschichte stand in a long tradition of information on and documentation of German and international historical scholarship. From 1880 to 1916 the Historical Society of Berlin (Historische Gesellschaft zu Berlin) published the Jahresberichte der Geschichte, which started out with a universal history approach. The project was discontinued owing to war-time difficulties. After a first attempt to relaunch the Jahresberichte at the beginning of the 1920s, a fundamental reorganization was implemented in 1926. An important factor in this context was the intention of the International Committee of Historical Sciences to publish a bibliography of its own.

The motive that led German historians to start a bibliography in German history is illustrated by statements made by medievalist Hermann Reincke-Bloch in a letter of 4 June 1926 to the Reich Interior Ministry to the effect that a bibliography 'focusing solely on national historical research could not be devised merely taking into account current state borders, but also the respective territories of other states'. Vis-à-vis potential government funding agencies, he was even more explicit, pointing out 'that this is the only way to incorporate those historical works from the territories that are not or no longer part of the German Empire into the overall framework of German historical scholarship and thus to assert the cultural unity of the German people'. These requests evidently found sympathetic ears. Among the initiators were also the historian Albert Brackmann, who would proceed to be a leading proponent of what is known as Ostforschung, the medievalist Paul Kehr, who in 1917 was among the founders of the German history department of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft) and Hugo A. Krüss, who had been appointed Director-General of the Prussian State Library (Preußische Staatsbibliothek) in 1925 and who figured in a prominent position in the funding agency Notgemeinschaft der deutschen Wissenschaft.

Already in 1927, just one year after reorganization, the first Jahresberichte für deutsche Geschichte volume for the year under review 1925 could be published. Under Albert Brackmann’s and Fritz Hartung’s editorship and with the support of prominent representatives of the discipline such as Max Braubach, Otto Brunner, Hans Herzfeld, Wilhelm Mommsen and Fritz Petri, the Jahresberichte soon became an integral part of German historical scholarship. Along with the extensive bibliographies, which formed the opening parts of the individual volumes, it was particularly the detailed progress reports by acclaimed historians upon which the standing of the Jahresberichte in academia was founded.

This did not change after the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship. To be sure, however, there were changes in the composition of the contributors panel. Heinrich Sproemberg for instance was forced to withdraw from the circle of Jahresberichte reporters in 1933 and Wilhelm Mommsen in 1937. Also, the volume for the year under review 1932, which appeared in 1934, was the first to present a new structure, complete with a section dedicated to Racial, Family and Population Studies ('Rassen- und Familienkunde, Bevölkerungsgeschichte') and including a special division concerned with the Jews in Germany ('Die Juden in Deutschland'). Up to the discontinuation of work in 1942 owing to war-time difficulties, the Jahresberichte retained their significant position in the discipline.

The bibliography thus presents a valuable starting point for research in German historiography of the years between 1925 and 1942. They cover all topics of German history dealt with in the 1920s and 30s. Moreover, they reflect an fundamental aspect of academic politics in those years and document the degree to which historical judgement was governed by ideological convictions at the time.

The digitalization of these volumes and presentation on the Internet allows for page-to-page access to the individual volumes – with tables of content and indexes preserved in original format as far as possible. The volume-internal links constitute a substantial added value compared to the printed edition not only because they facilitate navigation, but also because they serve as an immediate indication of whether a title listed in the bibliographical section is discussed in the report section. The implementation of inter-volume search options opens up the possibility of surveying the development of particular research topics.

The title data of the digitalized volumes are to be integrated in the main Jahresberichte database.