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Topic · History

German History and Society

German History and Society is a research topic within History. Science Explorer counts 9.6k research works in it since 1950. 10.5% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the memory, identity, and material culture of East Germany, focusing on topics such as Ostalgie, Stasi, Holocaust remembrance, Cold War politics, and the impact of socialism on postwar German society. It delves into the complexities of individual and collective memory in the context of historical events and political ideologies.

  • East German Memory
  • Ostalgie
  • Stasi
  • Holocaust
  • Identity
  • Cold War
  • Nostalgia
  • Socialism
  • GDR
  • Postwar Germany
Research works
9.6k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.5%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
+16%
the tick is no change

Which countries lead German History and Society research?

By volume, Germany and the United States publish the most (504 and 235 works in 2022–2025).

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Germany 504 works
  2. 2 United States 235 works
  3. 3 Poland 101 works
  4. 4 United Kingdom 97 works
  5. 5 France 68 works
  6. 6 Russia 56 works
  7. 7 Austria 47 works
  8. 8 Spain 29 works
  9. 9 Switzerland 27 works
  10. 10 Netherlands 27 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

Germany: 42.3%United States: 19.7%Poland: 8.5%United Kingdom: 8.1%6 others listed: 21.4%42%largest
Germany504 · 42.3%United States235 · 19.7%Poland101 · 8.5%United Kingdom97 · 8.1%6 others listed255 · 21.4%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead German History and Society research?

By volume in 2022–2025, Freie Universität Berlin publishes the most German History and Society research, followed by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Freie Universität BerlinGermany 16 works
  2. 2 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität MünchenGermany 14 works
  3. 3 Humboldt-Universität zu BerlinGermany 13 works
  4. 4 Goethe University FrankfurtGermany 12 works
  5. 5 Institut für Zeitgeschichte München–BerlinGermany 11 works
  6. 6 University of ViennaAustria 11 works
  7. 7 Bielefeld UniversityGermany 11 works
  8. 8 Friedrich Schiller University JenaGermany 10 works
  9. 9 Adam Mickiewicz University in PoznańPoland 10 works
  10. 10 Universität HamburgGermany 9 works

Who are the leading researchers in German History and Society?

The most-cited researchers publishing on German History and Society include Sander L. Gilman, M. Roth and Stanley Hoffmann.

  1. 1 Sander L. Gilman United States 4.2k citations
  2. 2 M. Roth Germany 2.3k citations
  3. 3 Stanley Hoffmann United States 2.3k citations
  4. 4 Fritz Stern United States 1.2k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

Where is German History and Society research done?

The largest centres of German History and Society research in 2022–2025 are Berlin (Germany), Munich (Germany), Moscow (Russia) and Vienna (Austria). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Frankfurt am Main.

Largest cities, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Berlin Germany 63 works
  2. 2 Munich Germany 40 works
  3. 3 Moscow Russia 27 works
  4. 4 Vienna Austria 26 works
  5. 5 Warsaw Poland 25 works
  6. 6 Hamburg Germany 22 works
  7. 7 Paris France 21 works
  8. 8 Frankfurt am Main Germany 21 works
  9. 9 London United Kingdom 19 works
  10. 10 New York United States 18 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. Frankfurt am MainDE · 20.8 works17×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in German History and Society than the world average.

See German History and Society on the map

Where is the best place to study German History and Society?

Among universities, judged by research, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, University of Vienna and Freie Universität Berlin score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%mean 11.75%fractional works in this node (log) →share in the world top 10% →Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin: 13, 17.6%University of Vienna: 11, 13.3%Freie Universität Berlin: 16, 8.9%Friedrich Schiller University Jena: 10, 15.7%Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München: 14, 9.3%Goethe University Frankfurt: 12, 5.7%Bielefeld University: 10, 9.5%University of Warsaw: 8, 11.8%Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań: 10, 13.8%Philipps University of Marburg: 8, 11.9%Humboldt-Universität…Friedrich Schiller U…University of ViennaFreie Universität Be…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the table below. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1 Humboldt-Universität zu BerlinGermany 64.717.6%24.8×13 +174.5%
2 University of ViennaAustria 56.413.3%16.1×11 +204.8%
3 Freie Universität BerlinGermany 48.38.9%29.0×16 +95.5%
4 Friedrich Schiller University JenaGermany 48.115.7%33.6×10 +94.4%
5 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität MünchenGermany 41.99.3%15.3×14 +22.1%
6 Goethe University FrankfurtGermany 39.05.7%20.2×12 +198.4%
7 Bielefeld UniversityGermany 37.69.5%31.0×10 +150.0%
8 University of WarsawPoland 34.911.8%11.4×8 +156.5%
9 Adam Mickiewicz University in PoznańPoland 33.313.8%16.4×10 +41.3%
10 Philipps University of MarburgGermany 26.311.9%24.2×8 +12.9%

Universities only. Score blends excellence (30%), specialisation (25%), size (20%), growth (15%) and international reach (10%), 2015–2022; growth compares 2010–14 with 2015–19.

Is German History and Society research growing?

Output in 2018–2022 was 16% higher than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2020. The fastest-growing topics are German History and Society.

19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon — one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.