Modern and Contemporary History

Department of History

The Chair of Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Siegen focuses on European history and its colonial roots, particularly in North America. A central aspect is transnational research on British-German relations from the Industrial Revolution to the end of World War II. Under the direction of Univ.-Prof. Dr. Angela Schwarz, the department examines issues in cultural, social, and intellectual history, as well as media strategies for popularizing history. Particular attention is given to traditional and digital media, whose significance has grown significantly over the past four decades.

News from the Chair

19.01.2026

Historian Prize of the Dirlmeier Foundation

Award ceremony for Milan Weber

Research Profile

General Information

The focus of the Modern and Contemporary History program at the University of Siegen is on European history, including the history of the former European colonies in North America, whose society and culture have strong European roots. A key focus is on researching transnational interconnections in British-German relations from the onset of industrialization to the end of World War II. In line with recent trends in historical research, the central focus of Univ.-Prof. Dr. Angela Schwarz and her colleagues is on issues related to cultural, social, and intellectual history. At the same time, researching the mechanisms and strategies used by the media to popularize history is a key priority. In addition to traditional media in historical contexts, the group focuses primarily on contemporary digital media, whose popularity has surged immensely over the past four decades.

The individual research studies and projects are often interconnected in terms of content, allowing them to be assigned to multiple fields of research. Furthermore, the topics are always interdisciplinary in nature and thus open to collaboration with scholars from related disciplines, such as the social sciences, literary studies, media studies, or even the natural sciences. More detailed information on the individual research projects and areas of focus can be found on the chair’s research website.

Objectives

The work at the Chair generally focuses on the study of phenomena in everyday history, the question of how certain contemporary events or historical developments (such as urbanization, industrialization, and technological advancement) are perceived, and the emergence and development of cultures of knowledge. The exploration of new research areas (e.g., popular historical constructions in video games) reflects the Chair’s commitment to addressing current societal and historical-cultural developments and contributing to the discourse surrounding them. In this way, the Chair’s profile is further refined.

Cooperation

In close coordination with the Siegen professorships in Contemporary History, Modern European History of Knowledge and Communication, and History Didactics, the Research Center for Transnational Cultural History focuses on the study and dissemination of history as a cultural asset. This serves as the central anchor for many of the chair’s projects, which are conducted as part of a broadly defined cultural history. In the field of regional history research, the chair collaborates with various local partner organizations on specific projects. There has been a long and successful collaboration with the Graduate School “Locating Media/Situierte Medien,” which has resulted in two dissertations supervised by Univ.-Prof. Dr. Angela Schwarz. Since 2015, the chair has strengthened its commitment to interdisciplinary collaborations aimed at researching popular culture and its transformations over time. Intensive collaboration with the interdisciplinary Research Center for Popular Cultures at the University of Siegen and participation in the Collaborative Research Center 1472 “Transformations of the Popular,” which launched in January 2021, further contribute to expand collaborations in the chair’s core research areas.

Research Areas

The team’s research can be categorized into seven major research areas:

Research Focus: Popularization

The three major areas of focus in which the team conducts its research on this complex are:

Latest Publications

Angela Schwarz/Heiner Stahl: Kontaktzone Bonn: The Federal Government’s Press and Information Office and Government Public Relations, 1949–1969, Göttingen 2023

Lines of Continuity in State Communication Policy and Relations with the Press in the Early Federal Republic.
In the postwar period, the Federal Chancellery and the Federal Government Press and Information Office were staffed by men who could draw on a wide range of experience in state press and information work dating back to the era of the German Empire—from the German Empire through the Weimar Republic to the end of the Nazi regime. In particular, the experiences gained during the twelve years of dictatorship and its state control of the media were incorporated as a body of knowledge and tried-and-true practices into the reconstruction efforts beginning in 1949. Thus, in the young Federal Republic, efforts to engage with the press and the public did not immediately emerge in a way that took into account the conventions of a liberal and democratic constitutional state or the information needs of an open and critical media society. Rather, existing structures and key figures from the 1930s and early 1940s continued to exert influence. In their examination of the Office of the Federal Chancellor and the Federal Government’s Press and Information Office, Angela Schwarz and Heiner Stahl combine cultural and media-historical approaches with a history of the mindset underlying government public relations work.

Link to the publisher’s website: https://www.wallstein-verlag.de/9783835353732-kontaktzone-bonn.html