The Leibniz Institute of European History (IEG) awards fellowships for doctoral students and postdocs from Ukraine working in the field of European history and modern religious history.

Download IEG_Fellowship_Ukraine_2022 (engl.) or IEG_Stipendium_Ukraine_2022

Statement by the Leibniz Institute of European History, Mainz

We, at the Leibniz Institute of European History, are dismayed by the news reaching us from Ukraine. In the last few years alone, ten Ukrainian historians have been guests at our Institute for extended research stays. Today we have to fear for their lives and those of their families and friends. Our thoughts are with them. We are with you! Ми з вами!

We strongly condemn Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine, which is contrary to international law. Our Institute was founded more than 70 years ago to contribute to overcoming Europe’s divisions by researching the historical foundations of Europe. During the Cold War, it was, among other things, the venue of the “German-Soviet Historians’ Talks”. Today it pains us to see that a brutal war is being waged in the heart of Europe. The painstakingly achieved foundations of a peaceful, future-oriented order in Europe are being trampled on by Putin – not for the first time. It is therefore all the more admirable that courageous people in Russia are also taking to the streets and saying “No to war”. Нет войне!

Ukraine is a fundamental part of European history. In historiography, it is undisputed that Ukraine is a sovereign European country with its own history and not merely an appendage of the historical or a future Russian empire. As historians, we are particularly appalled by the instrumentalisation and falsification of history that Putin uses to justify his military aggression against Ukraine. The community of scholars, including the German-Ukrainian Commission of Historians, has rejected these false claims in detail [Statement 2022-02-24 and Statement 2022-02-22]. We add that it is not a contradiction that Ukraine is both closely intertwined with Russian history, its various cultural manifestations and religions and in historical exchange with Central and Western Europe, not least with Germany. Ukraine is a multi-ethnic and culturally diverse country, with different denominations, religions, and languages, as well as a rich historical heritage. The diversity in European history is part of our research mission. Hardly any other country illustrates the diversity and mutual exchanges in Europe as clearly as Ukraine.

This European history of Ukraine must also be researched in the future without political interventions and restrictions. That is why we support initiatives for endangered researchers from Ukraine, to enable them to work in a safe place and to make their voices heard. We are with you! Ми з вами!

Mainz, 26 February 2022

Contact: Professor Johannes Paulmann (paulmann@ieg-mainz.de) and Dr Gregor Feindt (feindt@ieg-mainz.de)

download pdf (engl.): Statement Leibniz Institute of European History Russian War against Ukraine

download pdf (dt.): Erklärung Leibniz-Institut für Europäische Geschichte Russischer Angriffskrieg auf Ukraine

Contributions by Historical Scholarship and Challenges

Digitisation has taken hold of research in the humanities for some time: In everyday work at the computer, in searching books and articles, in reading sources online, in collaborative work and via electronic publishing, whether open access or not. The humanities are not awaiting but they are already in the middle of a new digital era.

New issue of the archival journal  “Der Archivar” with contributions by archivists, historians and digital historians (Der Archivar 1/2020)

The issue contains an essay by Johannes Paulmann, Director of the Leibniz Institute of European History, and Eva Schlotheuber, President of the German Historical Association. The write on the challenges for historians posed by the new digital knowledge order and on the issue of data quality. Paulmann Schlotheuber Essay in Archivar 2020

They content that digital research, that is research with digital tools and methods, works more or less well at the level of individual projects – or it just doesn’t work, especially when higher-level structures and links are needed: Technical and content standardization, data integration and interoperability, reusability, long-term preservation, copyright and rights of use and scientific evaluation have a variety of problems. In this situation, the initiative to establish a national research data infrastructure has been taken up positively on all sides in Germany. The initiative came from the German Council for Information Infrastructures (RfII) – a science policy advisory body to the federal government and the states.

From the point of view of the historical sciences, there are fundamental issues. We are, on the one hand, in the midst of building a new knowledge order. On the other, we deal with the essential question of how in the framework of a digital order data quality is ensured, can be checked and made transparent. For both areas – new knowledge order and data quality – the development of a scholarly led (inter)national data infrastructure is urgently needed. Reflecting ont the challenges for the historical scholarship also makes an essential contribution to the critical reflection of digital research and work in general as well as on societal use of knowledge in the present and the future .

These concerns are central to the 4Memory consortium initiative in which they are envolved . The initiative aims to establish systematic, sustainable links among three main categories of the producers and users of historical data: historical researchers, memory institutions (archives, libraries, museums, and collections) and information infrastructures. For more information see the 4Memory website.