Institute for Cultural and Universal History
The Institute for Cultural and Universal History was founded in Leipzig in 1909 by Karl Lamprecht as the Royal Saxon Institute for Cultural and Universal History . It was the first scientific research institute in Germany that existed independently of the university (although it performed tasks for the university). The institute competed with the history seminar at the University of Leipzig. The foundation was based not only on the skillful acquisition of third-party funds by Lamprecht, but also on his extremely problematic relationship with his specialist colleagues.
Karl Lamprecht's successor was Walter Goetz from 1915 . Before that, Alfred Doren was acting head of the institute. In the capacity of director, Goetz published the journal Archiv für Kulturgeschichte founded by Georg Steinhausen . The institute was part of the König-Friedrich-August-Gesellschaft , a Saxon counterpart to the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (today the Max Planck Society ).
Goetz's successor as director was Hans Freyer . After 1933, with the help of Hans Freyer, the institute was expanded into a political education facility for students. Freyer enriched the work with his sociological perspective, but the basic idea of universal history and comparative history barely came to fruition.
After 1945 the institute was not dissolved. After his appointment at the University of Leipzig in 1947, Walter Markov saw himself in the tradition of the Lamprechtian foundation. He mainly operated comparative world and revolutionary history from a comparative perspective. An institute for universal and cultural history no longer existed as an organizational unit as a result of the three university reforms in the GDR.
In 1974 Manfred Kossok was appointed to the chair of Markov . He continued the world and revolutionary perspective.
After the fall of the Wall, an institute for cultural and universal history was founded again by Kossok and his students (including Matthias Middell ). Other important employees at this institute were Gerald Diesener and the Ibero-America historian Michael Zeuske , who moved to Cologne after the institute was closed. The aim was to open up a perspective beyond historicism and beyond dogmatic Marxism . However, when the University of Leipzig was redesigned, this foundation did not last, especially since Manfred Kossok died in 1993.
Several students of Kossok and Markov then founded an association called the Institut für Kultur- und Universalgeschichte e. V. In close cooperation with the Karl-Lamprecht-Gesellschaft , the Center for Advanced Studies at the University of Leipzig , headed by Pirmin Stekeler-Weithofer , and the Global and European Studies Institute at the University of Leipzig , headed by Middell, the association conducts research on historical comparative literature and history cultural transfers and world or global history . The magazine Comparativ is published by him .
literature
- Matthias Middell: The Leipzig Institute for Cultural and Universal History 1890-1990. 3 volumes. Akademische Verlags-Anstalt, Leipzig 2004, ISBN 3-931982-43-2 .