The Richard Koebner Minerva Center for German History

The Koebner Center for German History was established in 1980 with the support of the MINERVA Gesellschaft für die Forschung of Germany in order to promote and enhance research in German and German-Jewish history. The center is located at the History Department of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel and named after the historian Richard Koebner, who was the leading figure in the establishment of the history department at the Hebrew University during the '30s and '40s.

Today the Koebner center is one of the main research centers on German history in Israel cooperating with major universities in Germany, Europe and around the world.

One of the center's aims is to encourage outstanding students to write M.A. and Ph.D. theses on German history, thus creating a reservoir in this field and filling the gap prevailing in this area since 1945.

The permanent academic members of the center contributing to its activity in research and teaching are Moshe Zimmermann (director), Michael Toch, Steven Aschheim and Dan Diner.

In addition to the permanent academic members the center houses a number of temporary academic members as well as Ph.D students.

The permanent staff of the center is reinforced by an academic lecturer (researcher) as well as visiting professors from Germany since 1980:

• H. Mommsen (1980)
• E. Kolb (1981)
• W. Fischer (1982)
• R. Ruerupe (1982)
• W. Schieder (1983)
• K.E. Pollmann (1990)
• E. Hinrichs (1991)
• A. Luedtke (1993)
• R. Hudemann (1995)
• U. Frevert (1997)
• B. Weisbrod (1998)
• C. Dipper (2000)
• H. Berding (2000/2001)
• H-G. Haupt (2001)
• Christian Jansen (2000/2001)
• Inge Marsolek (2002)

More information and the full list of members is available on the Academic Members page.

In addition to the individual research activities of each member, the center conducts different research projects and post-doc studies on German and German-Jewish History.

More information is available on the Research Activities page.

Lectures, exercises and seminars of the center are given during the academic year (autumn and spring term) in the framework of the History Department of the Hebrew University by the members of the center.

Supervision of M.A. and Ph.D. theses are offered by the academic teachers of the center. Tutorial advice is given for overseas students.

A list of recent seminars and lectures is available on the Teaching Activities page.

The center sponsors international conferences as well as workshops and lectures on topics related to the center's fields of research. The conferences take place in Jerusalem and are open to the general public. International experts are invited to present their innovative research conclusions.

More information about conferences sponsored by the Koebner center is available on the International Conferences page.

In addition to publications of the individual researchers, which reflect research being a part of the regular activity of the center, a special series of books, aimed at the Israeli reader (students as well as lay men), is being published in Hebrew by the center at the Magnes Press Jerusalem and at the Am Oved Publishers Ltd. Tel Aviv.

A list of book publications is available on the Publications page.

The center supports M.A. and Ph.D. students and post-doctoral students who take part in projects organized by the Koebner center. Students during research outside the country are entitled to scholarships for a short duration of time.

• Prof. N. Frei (Friedrich Schiller Universität, Jena)
• Prof. B. Weissbrod (Universität Göttingen)
• Prof. A. Döring-Manteuffel (Universität Tübingen)
• Prof. M. Silver (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
• Prof. Y. Weiss (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
• Mr. A. Primor (Former Israeli Ambassador to Germany)

Address:

E-mail: mskoeb@pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il

Room: 6124 (Humanities)
Phone: 00-972-2-5880135