Europe – a region that is more than the sum of its parts. Migration and the constant exchange between its inhabitants have been and still are of utmost importance to the creation of a European relationship history. The Institute for German Culture and History in South-Eastern Europe (IKGS) is dedicated to exploring the diverse facets of this history, with a focus on South-Eastern Europe.
The Institute for German Culture and History in South-Eastern Europe (“Institut für deutsche Kultur und Geschichte Südosteuropas e.V.”), or IKGS, at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich explores the history, literature, and language of the German settlements and regions of origin in East-Central and South-Eastern Europe in their historical and regional contexts. It focuses on the 19th and the 20th century. In cooperation with partners from German, Austrian, East-Central European, and South-Eastern European universities, the IKGS supports the national and international academic discourse through research projects, expert events, and publications. It has a specialized library and an archive focused on the heritage of German-speaking authors in South-Eastern Europe.
The IKGS has been granted the status of an academic institute at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich since 2004. Its academic staff is comprised of lecturers from various European universities. The IKGS supervises and promotes students and junior researchers. Furthermore, with its diverse outreach program, the IKGS is able to reach a broad audience.
To the website of the IKGS (German)

Von dieser Einrichtung
Yearbook

Danubiana Carpathica

The yearbook "Danubiana Carpathica. Jahrbuch für Geschichte und Kultur in den deutschen Siedlungsgebieten Südosteuropas" (Yearbook for History and Culture in the German Settlement Areas of Southeastern Europe) is published as a joint project of renowned academic institutions and offers...
Digitalization project

Jewish German Bukovina 1918+

"Jewish-German Bukovina 1918+" is a digitization project of the Digital Forum Central and Eastern Europe and offers free access to historical and contemporary documents from Bukovina or related to Bukovina. The time period ranges from the end of the First World War to the present.
Library holdings | Archive

Collections and holdings of the Institute for German Culture and History in Southeastern Europe (IKGS)

Research project

Negotiating Post-Imperial Transitions 1918-1925

What effects did the upheavals after World War I have on local and regional actors – and how did they themselves actively shape these transformation processes? A cooperative project examined the Romanian cities of Kronstadt/Brașov and Hermannstadt/Sibiu and their German minorities as participants...
Intercultural project | Film project

Vergessener Holocaust in Transnistrien? (“Forgotten Holocaust in Transnistria?”)

Decades after Rosa Zuckermann lost almost her entire family in the “forgotten Holocaust” in Transnistria, her son Felix Zuckermann sets off on a journey – along the stations she passed when she was deported. It is a journey into the past that, together with an international group of students,...
Intercultural project | Film project | Summer School | Education and communication project

“Siebenbürgen in Bildern erzählt” (“Transylvania Told in Pictures”)

A small community, dozens of cameras, ten days of film time. In the summer of 2019 a group of German and Romanian film students accompanied the inhabitants of the Romanian Cața (Katzendorf). The result is a series of five short documentaries that offer a realistic and sometimes intimate insight...
Media project

“Media Beyond Frontiers”

Transnistria and the Ukrainian-Moldavian border region have always been part of different empires over the centuries. The political border divides the region, but the issues that move the people there connect them: labour migration, the minority situation, languages and identities, everyday life on...
Research project

Die Deutschen in und aus der Dobrudscha im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert (“The Germans in and from the Dobruja in the 19th and 20th Century”)

For almost 100 years Germans settled in the Romanian Dobruja, which initially belonged to the Ottoman Empire and, after the Berlin Congress, to Romania. From the 1840s until the National Socialist “resettlement” in the fall of 1940, these German-speaking settlers, most of whom had immigrated...
Research project

Literarische Stätten in Südosteuropa (“Literary Sites in Southeast Europe”)

Kronstadt/Brașov/Brassó: The multilingualism of this Romanian metropolis is reflected not only in its name but also in the city's literary history. Also, a recurring theme in the works of local writers was the city itself, as a space for encounters and experiences. A research project of the...
Research project

Interethnische Beziehungen im regionalen Kontext (“Interethnic Relations in a Regional Context”)

Over the centuries, Romanians, Hungarians and Germans have shaped the history and culture of Transylvania. Dr. Enikő Dácz at the Institute for German Culture and History in South-eastern Europe (IKGS) is researching how this interethnic coexistence was portrayed in the press in the early 20th...