Category: Posts
-
NGHM reads | Christopher R. Browning: Ordinary Men (1992)
Who were the perpetrators of the Holocaust? Christopher R. Browning’s Ordinary Men, the second title on the NGHM reading list, this time selected from the field of National Socialist history and Holocaust research, offers an answer that continues to unsettle: not demons, not fanatics, but middle-aged Hamburg reserve policemen — family men from the working and lower…
-
Hidden Legacies, Untidy Endings. Notes from the InechO Conference in Florence.
What happens to an international organization after it has ceased to exist? On 23 and 24 April 2026, the Alcide De Gasperi Research Centre at the European University Institute in Florence convened a conference of the InechO project (International Organizations and their European Consequences and Hidden Outcomes) on precisely this question. The framework, developed by…
-
NGHM reads | Edward Hallett Carr: What is History? (1961)
With Edward Hallett Carr’s What is History? our series “NGHM reads” begins, in which the 65 titles of the NGHM reading list from the field of historical theory and historiography are presented. Carr’s six lectures, delivered in Cambridge in 1961 and broadcast on BBC Radio, formulated a question that every generation of historians has had…
-
IMIS Guests @ NGHM | Summer Semester 2026: Matti Välimäki (Helsinki) and Morten Baarvig Thomsen (Odense).
Since early April 2026, two visiting scholars have joined the Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies (IMIS) at the University of Osnabrück as guests integrated into the NGHM Research Group (Prof. Dr. Christoph Rass): Matti Tapio Välimäki (University of Helsinki) and Morten Baarvig Thomsen (University of Southern Denmark) work in different national archives and…
-
Forum HistOS Invites | Forum HistOS in the Summer Semester 2026: Quo Vadis?!
The “Forum HistOS – More than just History/Histories” is entering its third semester. Since its founding in the summer semester of 2025, it has established itself as a cross-epochal space for dialogue within the Historisches Seminar at the University of Osnabrück: a place where students, student assistants, and staff reflect together on what constitutes the…
-
NGHM-Tracker (4/26)
The monthly newsletter of the Working Group on Contemporary History and Historical Migration Research at the University of Osnabrück. By Benjamin Look & Jessica Wehner. March was marked by movement – in both the literal and figurative sense. Several contributions centred on the theme of excursions: students travelled to Nuremberg, exploring the historical layers of…
-
NGHM-digital | An App for Excursions: HistOS Trip to Nuremberg as a Test for a DH Prototype.
Anyone who has navigated a city full of history with students for three days will be familiar with the challenges: meeting points, train connections, tour bookings, historical background information, and spontaneous changes of plan all compete for attention on WhatsApp, in emails, and on printed handouts. For the excursion “Nuremberg between the Middle Ages and…
-
There and Back Again | Nuremberg between the Middle Ages and National Socialism – An Excursion into the Historical Layers of a City
From 17 to 19 March 2026, a joint excursion by the Chair for the History of the Middle Ages (Christoph Mauntel) and the Chair for Contemporary History and Historical Migration Research (Christoph Rass) at the University of Osnabrück led to Nuremberg: a city that, like few others in Germany, not only preserves layers of the…
-
There and Back Again | Digital Excursion to the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial
An excursion report by Jule Kumbrink As part of a digital day excursion, a group of students from the University of Osnabrück dedicated themselves on January 23, 2026, to the history and media engagement with the Neuengamme concentration camp. The excursion led by Imke Selle took place under special circumstances: Due to the onset of…
-
Call for Papers | The Age of Humanitarianism. Jewish and Other Global Migrations Between Empire and Decolonisation
The 2026 annual conference of the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture – Simon Dubnow (DI) will take place with participation from the NGHM team. Dr. Sebastian Musch, Alfred Landecker Lecturer in Modern History and Historical Migration Research, is co-organising the international conference “The Age of Humanitarianism: Jewish and Other Global Migrations Between Empire…
-
German Listeners!” – Students Develop Perspectives on Thomas Mann’s Radio Addresses
Student conference of the seminar “Deutsche Hörer! Thomas Mann’s BBC Radio Addresses as a Source for Exile and Migration History” in the winter semester 2025/26. In the winter semester 2025/26, students at the University of Osnabrück examined Thomas Mann’s BBC radio addresses ‘Deutsche Hörer!’ (1940–1945) in a block seminar not as a literary work, but…
-
Student Conference Words and/as Resistance: Thomas Mann and the German Listeners
In the winter semester 2025/2026, the Chair of Contemporary History and Historical Migration Research is organizing a student conference as part of the block seminar “Words and/as Resistance: Thomas Mann and the German Listeners”, conducted by Prof. Dr. Christoph Rass, Dr. Sebastian Huhn, Dr. Sebastian Musch, Annika Heyen and Jessica Wehner. Between 1940 and 1945,…
-
NGHM Tracker (3/26)
The monthly newsletter of the Research Group Modern History and Historical Migration Research at the University of Osnabrück By Benjamin Look & Jessica Wehner In February, the lecture-free period began for Team NGHM, and with it the concentrated work on texts, projects and presentations. In addition, several trips were scheduled – for example to Hamburg…
-
There and Back Again | Excursion to the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial
An excursion report by Leonie Güneri On January 16, 2026, a day excursion to the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial in Hamburg took place under the leadership of Imke Selle. In preparation, the students had already received an initial thematic introduction through a preliminary discussion, which had to take place digitally due to the sudden onset…
-
Out Now | Two New IMIS Working Papers on the ‘Production of Migration
‘Guest workers’ in the Nazi press (1933–1945) The IMIS Working Papers series has been expanded by two contributions that examine a common question from different perspectives: How do language, knowledge and categories produce those social orders or phenomena that we negotiate as ‘migration’? Both texts originate from the Chair of Contemporary History and Historical Migration…
-
Online Now | Two New NGHM Exhibitions
What can we learn about local history when we read administrative files, index cards, and survey forms not merely as carriers of information, but as sources that were themselves involved in the production of knowledge about population, belonging, and exclusion? Two new digital exhibition projects by students from the Research Group Modern History and Historical…
-
NGHM Tracker (1-2/26)
The monthly newsletter of the Working Group Modern History and Historical Migration Research at the University of Osnabrück By Benjamin Look & Jessica Wehner After a brief winter break, the Tracker editorial team is back in service for public outreach. In December and January, Team-NGHM together with students and colleagues used the time to present…