The Institute of Contemporary History Institut für Zeitgeschichte (IfZ) located in Munich, Germany is a national research institution with the legal status of a publicly endowed foundation. Although independent of the university system, the Institute interacts significantly with the academic world. Its scholars are holding appointments at the universities of Augsburg, Berlin, Freiburg, Leipzig, Mainz, Munich, Münster and Potsdam.

The Institute's specialized library contains more than 225,000 volumes. Its archives store unpublished works by politicians, scholars and journalists, as well as records of political parties and private associations. From the Nuremberg and other post-war trials there are records of court sessions, indictments and sentences of war criminals, as well as an extensive collection of printed media consisting of government documents, newspapers, press releases and leaflets. Microform copies of the records of the Office of Military Government for Germany (U.S.) (OMGUS) can also be found in the Institute's archives.

Until the seventies the Institute's research primarily dealt with the National Socialist dictatorship and its origins, the Weimar Republic, as well as the period of Allied occupation. Since then, new lines of study in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany and former East Germany as well as European perspectives have been pursued. The Institute responded to new challenges by establishing two departments in Berlin. One department, located at the German Foreign Office Auswärtiges Amt since 1990, focuses its research on German foreign and international policy since the 1950s and edits the Documents on the Foreign Policy of the Federal Republic of Germany [www.ifz-muenchen.de/aktenedition_auswaertige_politik.html].

The other department, located in Berlin-Lichterfelde close to the Federal Archives, started in 1994 by taking up the Institute’s established research on former East Germany. Over the past decades it has developed further areas of international history reflecting the wider European context as an integrated part of the Institute’s overall research strategy [www.ifz-muenchen.de/abteilung_berlin.html].

Since 1999 the Institute has been responsible for the research basis and design of the Dokumentation Obersalzberg, a place of guided learning and remembrance with more than 160.000 visitors each year [http://www.obersalzberg.de/obersalzberg-home.html?&L=1].

The Institute, which was founded in 1949, has produced more than 600 volumes, as well as two microfiche editions. Since 1953, the Institute has published the world renown quarterly Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte. Abstracts of all articles and full texts older than five years can be found on the internet at www.ifz-muenchen.de. The Institute's publications are either works produced by the Institute's scholars, or works submitted from outside under the aegis or direct sponsorship of the Institute. The publications cover all themes of research current in contemporary history.

Director: Prof. Dr. Andreas Wirsching

Deputy Director: PD Dr. Magnus Brechtken

Institut für Zeitgeschichte
Leonrodstr. 46 B
80636 Muenchen
Germany
Tel.: (089) 126880
Fax:(089)12688191