HIST W3304: Modern German History: Primary Sources
Historical Documents
There are a number of ways to find primary documents translated into English. The German Historical Institute has a useful compilation: German History in Documents and Images (GHDI). Some of the collections include:
- Wilhelmine Germany and the First World War (1890-1918)
- Weimar Germany (1918/19-1933)
- Nazi Germany (1933-1945)
- Occupation and the Emergence of Two States (1945-1961)
- Two Germanies (1961-1989)
- One Germany in Europe (1989-2009)
GHDI also hosts other innovative, collaborative research projects: Immigrant Entrepreneurship: The German-American Business Biography, 1720 to the Present, which highlights the lives, careers, and business ventures of German immigrants in America; African American GIs and Germany, which explores the connection between the military service of African American GIs in Germany and the advancement of civil rights in the U.S.; and The Nuclear Crisis: Transatlantic Peace Politics, Rearmament, and the Second Cold War, which focuses on European and North American debates on nuclear armament in the 1970s and 1980s.
The U.S. Government Printing Office is also publishing a collection of translations of German documents in the series Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918-1945. Documents through 1941 have been translated, and are in the Butler Stacks at JX691 .A46.
Also see History of Germany: Primary Documents from EuroDocs and ANNO- AustriaN Newspapers Online as well as German Studies in North America, a GHI-sponsored directory of scholars in the U.S. and Canada whose research touches upon Germany and the German-speaking world.
Primary Source Databases
- Conditions & politics in occupied Western Europe, 1940-1945 . This link opens in a new window
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Selected from the PRO Class FO 371 files in the National Archives, London, Conditions and Politics in Occupied Western Europe, 1940-1945 features full-text documents received in the British Foreign Office from all European states under Nazi occupation during World War II. This unique collection includes a range of primary sources related to wartime conditions in France, Italy, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the Vatican, in addition to those from Spain and Germany itself. - Economy and war in the Third Reich, 1933-1944 . This link opens in a new window
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30,506 digital page images reproducing the following original documents from the London School of Economics and Political Science collection Statistics of the Third Reich analysed, 1933-1944: Monatliche Nachweise über den auswärtigen Handel Deutschlands (January 1933-June 1939); Der Aussenhandel Deutschlands Monatliche Nachweise (July 1939); and Sondernachweis der Aussenhandel Deutschlands (August 1939-1944). These publications illustrate a number of major topics: the importance of German trade with Eastern Europe; effect of new trade treaties with Southeastern European states concluded in 1934 and 1935; Germany's economic offensive beginning in1934; growth of a "command economy" and the requirements of the Rearmament Program. Sondernachweis der Aussenhandel Deutschlands is particularly important as it provides a thorough breakdown of German foreign trade by commodity, volume and value on a monthly basis. The December issue of each year gives a final listing of annual figures. - German folklore and popular culture : Das Kloster / [compiled by] Scheible. This link opens in a new window
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Das Kloster is a collection of magical and occult texts, chapbooks, folklore, popular superstition and fairy tales of the German Renaissance compiled by Stuttgart antiquarian Johann Scheible, between 1845 and 1849. In addition to the Das Kloster volumes, this collection provides additional volumes of unique perspectives on Central European culture and tradition. Included are texts essential for the study of German folk traditions, the Reformation, wit and humor, and 19th-century literature. - German literature collections . This link opens in a new window
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German Literature Collections brings together the following ProQuest German literature resources: Goethes Werke, Schillers Werke, Kafkas Werke, Brechts Werke, Die Deutsche Lyrik, and the Digitale Bibliothek Deutscher Klassiker. This database offers a wealth of German literature in a cross-searchable format, allowing users to search for authors, keywords or phrases across the entire collection. - Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees : the West's response to Jewish emigration. This link opens in a new window
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The first director of the IGCR was George Rublee, an American lawyer, who opened negotiations with Hjalmar Schacht, the President of the German Central Bank in December 1938. After Schacht was removed from his post, the negotiations went on with Helmut Wohltat of the Ministry of Economy. As a result of the negotiations they called for the creation of a fund, to be guaranteed by the Jewish property in Germany, and a coordinating foundation in order to finance the emigration of 400,000 Jews from Germany. The attempts of the IGCR to find havens for German Jews in different countries largely failed. - Nietzsche online. This link opens in a new window
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The database Nietzsche Online provides researchers and readers complete online access to the editions, interpretations and reference works on one of the most important philosophers. Users thus obtain access to a comprehensive database containing the research results of the last forty years. Apart from the authoritative editions of the works (KGW) and the letters (KGB), the database Nietzsche Online contains all De Gruyter publications on Nietzsche.
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