Twenty-Five Years—Where is German History Now?
Manchester University
University of Sussex
maiken.umbach{at}manchester.ac.ukp.r.betts{at}sussex.ac.uk
As our two founding editors write in this issue, at its inception, German History fulfilled a dual purpose. First, it arose from the need to find a ‘home’ for a growing body of scholarship on German history produced and debated in the United Kingdom, not least under the aegis of the German History Society. Second, the journal was set up with a certain sense of mission, designed to showcase an innovative brand of German history writing, which was at variance, to some extent at least, with that predominantly published in the American-based Central European History. Since then, much has changed. The field has moved on, and with it, both our constituency and our sense of mission have changed—not beyond recognition, and not in one uniform direction, yet nevertheless in interesting ways, on which we felt it might be worth reflecting here for a few moments. The first obvious change is that the historiography of Germany has become more international and transnational. It would be difficult these days to identify a uniquely British view of any major problem or epoch within German history, let alone of the entire span. In part, this is a consequence of a heightened mobility among scholars. At British universities today, German history is just as frequently taught by German and American nationals as by native Britons. In part, this is also the consequence of a more intense and sustained dialogue between German historical communities throughout the English-speaking world and beyond. Some of this dialogue has been facilitated by frequent personal exchanges and visiting appointments, yet much of it has taken shape through print media such as this journal. The fact that the majority of our submissions now come from outside the UK is indicative of this: input from scholars based in the United States and Germany constitutes the bulk of this, but scholars from Israel, Australia, Eastern Europe and elsewhere have also made important interventions in this ongoing international discussion.
At German History, we welcome such trends: rather than trying to prioritize a British perspective, we now see the intensification of intellectual exchange across the dividing lines of different academic cultures as part of our mission, to which we are not only committed intellectually, but which we also try to foster in practical ways, for example by accepting manuscripts in German, and having them professionally translated. So has the journal maintained any distinctiveness? We hope so. Yet we have sought to retain it precisely by looking forward, by being open to new developments, and by assuming an active role, in as much as one can, in promoting innovation and cross-fertilization. Alongside the day-to-day and largely invisible business of editing a journal, this has manifested itself in some more visible changes, notably the introduction of new rubrics. The first of these is Reflections. Here, we invite more senior scholars to reflect upon interesting developments in the field. Given the trend towards ever-increasing specialization, we feel such overview and opinion pieces are vital in sustaining a dialogue that crosses national, chronological and disciplinary boundaries. We have also changed the way in which we now commission our annual special issues. In our view, these should fulfil functions beyond those of the typical conference volume, and we have therefore prioritized special issue themes that cross established period divides: communication, domesticity and modernity, British and American views of Germany (this was a recent joint venture with Central European History), and, forthcoming, the history of the body and ‘ego-documents’. Although some of these topics did not lend themselves to coverage from the middle ages right through to the present, all of our recent and forthcoming special issues bring together the work of scholars who belong to different ‘period camps’—with illuminating and, we find, sometimes quite surprising results.
And finally, another innovation is the Forum. These have been running for a few years now and, according to our download statistics, are one of the most widely read features of the journal. In each Forum, we invite five or six scholars from different backgrounds, in terms of nationality, generation, methodology and even discipline, to comment on what we see as key debates in German history. Some of the Fora have engaged with the role that history plays in the wider public domain—for example through anniversaries, such as that of the dissolution of the Old Reich in 1806, the sixtieth anniversary of 1945, and the ‘German Autumn’ of 1977. Other Fora have been dedicated to debates in specific fields that have a direct bearing on the assessment of German history more generally, as our recent Forum on the German colonial imagination, or that on environmental history in this issue. In this way, we showcase work and controversies that we feel deserve a broader audience, and in which, more often than not, neighbouring disciplines have played a major role. Indeed, we also note that the Fora in turn have affected the contents of the journal more generally, encouraging scholars who are active in emerging fields not previously covered in German History to submit their work to the journal.
What the future will bring is of course uncertain, and it would be fruitless to speculate. We, the editors, hope that in twenty-five years another anniversary issue of German History will be published, offering our successors a chance to reflect on the many dramatic changes and new directions the journal will have taken. Yet we should say that the role of the editors and of our outstanding editorial board, of whom we are extremely proud, is of course limited. Ultimately, the shape of the journal depends on you, our readers. We rely on you to continue sending us the best scholarship that is out there. We rely on you, in your capacity as anonymous assessors, to evaluate and help improve the articles we are considering for publication. And we rely on you, in your capacity as active citizens of the German History community, to contact us with new ideas and constructive criticisms of our work on your behalf. We look forward to an ongoing and stimulating dialogue for many years to come!
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