GHDI: German History in Documents and Images

It is difficult to come by original documents and images about the German history, especially for people from foreign countries. Because of this difficulty the German Historical Institute in Washington D.C. initiated an interesting project.

The project “GHDI – German History in Documents and Images” offers a collection of original historical material. This material documents the German history from 1500 to 2009. In ten sections discrete periods are covered. All of them are structured in an introduction with different chapter about the period, a selection of primary source documents, a selection of images and a selection of maps. All of the sections are elaborated of renowned historians. You can find print versions of all the material and so you can use the material for citation and historical work.

Two sections deal with the two German states. One deals with the period between 1945 and 1961 and one with the period between 1961 and 1989. In every section you find also images and documents and maps. In a third section you can find information and all the material about the time after the Fall of the Berlin Wall and about the developments in Germany after the reunification.

In my opinion this is a really interesting and important project. It is useful for historians and students, for school classes and teachers and for each other person who is interested in German history.