The History of the Jahresberichte

1880 to 1916 

The Jahresberichte für deutsche Geschichte have a tradition of over 125 years to look back on. From 1880 to 1916 the Historische Gesellschaft zu Berlin published the Jahresberichte der Geschichtswissenschaft. The scope of this publication was universal history; it included research reports by renowned representatives of all fields of historical scholarship.

1920 to 1942

After the end of World War I the Jahresberichte der deutschen Geschichte, which appeared in Breslau (Wroclaw) from 1920 to 1927, provided specialized information in the discipline of history. They now became limited to German history - a development that due to the rise in the number of publications had been foreseeable for some years. Post-war difficulties necessitated reorganization after only a few years.

In 1926 the Jahresberichte für deutsche Geschichte were created with support from state committees as well as the funding agency Notgemeinschaft der deutschen Wissenschaft. The volumes were divided into two sections: one bibliographical and one containing progress reports in various fields of German history. Albert Brackmann and Fritz Hartung functioned as academic supervisors and editors. The bibliographical work was carried out mainly in Berlin at the Prussian State Library (Preußische Staatsbibliothek). Beginning with the third volume, the German Library Leipzig (Deutsche Bücherei Leipzig) also got involved in the project. The institution in charge was the Gesellschaft Jahresberichte für deutsche Geschichte, which also commissioned the ninth edition of Dahlmann-Waitz, which appeared in 1931.  Political and ideological motivations in the historical scholarship of the 1920s and 30s are clearly reflected in the Jahresberichte. Owing to war-time conditions bibliographical work had to be discontinued in 1942.

Due to their special value for academic history, the Jahresberichte volumes 1 to 14 for the years under review 1925 to 1938 (which appeared between 1927 and 1940) were digitalized and made available on the Internet in a project that ran from 2001 to 2003.

1947 to 1989

In 1947 the German Academy of Sciences Berlin (Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin), which had been founded in the eastern sector of the city, entrusted Fritz Hartung with the continuation of bibliographic work on behalf of the Academy, although resumption was delayed until 1950. The first volume of the new series of the Jahresberichte für deutsche Geschichte – from that time on a bibliography in the pure form with entries indexed by content – appeared in 1952 for the year under review 1949. In 1958, after disputes concerning policy and in the course of the reorganization of historical scholarship in the GDR, Hartung ceded editorship to the Academy’s newly established Institute of History (Institut für Geschichte). Under Peter Wick’s and, from 1987 on, Wolfgang Wächter’s direction, the bibliography was successfully sustained and the considerable backlog was dealt with. Conceptionally geared to Marxism, it was nethertheless possible to keep the title selection largely free of political influence. Material limitations and technological lag seriously impeded the project. It was not least by the employment of a large staff, by extensive inter-library loan and by strictly applying the principle of inspection that the bibliographical quality and renown of the Jahresberichte as a reliable reference tool could be secured.

1990 to 2015

In 1991 a commission appointed by the Association of German Historians (Verband der Historiker Deutschlands) headed by Wolfgang J. Mommsen developed proposals and recommendations for a conceptual und technological modernization of the Jahresberichte, which were implemented with the presentation of volume 44 in 1994. The main goals in this process were:

• to improve the order and structure of the Jahresberichte by means of a conceptual restructuring of classification and subject index
• to enhance the profile by including publications pertaining to the beginnings in the Roman and Germanic eras as well as the most recent German history from 1945 to the present
• to intensify and expand cooperation with the large academic libraries in Germany – especially the German National Library (Deutsche Nationalbibliothek), the Berlin State Library (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin) and the Munich Bavarian State Library (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München)
• to convert the Jahresberichte to a database-driven bibliography.

From 1993 to 2015 the Jahresberichte für deutsche Geschichte have been conducted at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften) as a project within the so called Academies’ Programme (Akademienprogramm). Academic supervision lied with a board composed of Academy members as well as authorities in the field of history and the library sector. Christoph Cornelißen has directed the project – as Wolfgang J. Mommsen’s successor – since 2005.

The database serves as the foundation for the Jahresberichte in all of its formats. All digitally accessible entries have been freely searchable on the Internet since 2003. Classification was converted to a faceted system in 2003, whereby identical subject divisions are applied to all chronological sections. Online service technology is continually upgraded and content has been updated on a daily basis since 2005.

The Jahresberichte für deutsche Geschichte were also committed to advancing information in the field of historical scholarship in other ways. Since 2002 the Academy's project has been a partner in the cooperation network  supported by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG), and since 2007 in  the supporting association for the specialist portal Clio-online. The Jahresberichte database was also integrated specialist portal Chronicon of the Bavarian State Library (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek). From 2016 on wird im the so called "Deutsche Historische Bibliographie (DHB)" will be developed within the DFG-Project "Fachinformationsdienst Geschichte". The complete data of the  Jahresberichte will be a part of this new bibliographic service for historians and all people who are interested in german history and german historical science

Staff members in the long-term project were:

• Katy Barthel
• Gerlinde Baudach
• Bodo Becker
• Dr. Brigitte Berlekamp
• Detlef Gritzke
• Ursula Jakiel
• Petra Limbach
• Evelyn Müller
• Dr. Stefan Oehmig
• Saskia Paul
• Ulrike Reichhoff
• Dr. Daniel Schlögl
• D. Michéle Schubert
• Matti Stöhr
• Wissenschaftsadministration
• Ingrid Volz
• Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Wächter
• Dr. Stefan Wiederkehr