Public History

History is omnipresent. A wide range of institutions, media formats, and performative practices within historical culture confront us daily with historical themes and shape our perceptions of and attitudes toward the past. As history’s public presence continues to grow, there is an increasing need for cross-epochal, interdisciplinary, and academically grounded analysis, for critical engagement, and for research-based practical applications.

Public History examines the production, transformation, and reception of historical knowledge at the intersection of scholarly research and popular culture. It can thus be understood as the study of how history is communicated.

In Cologne, Public History is pursued as a cross-epochal and interdisciplinary field of research and teaching. Research addresses, among other topics, commemorative rituals, forms of civic empowerment in the writing of one’s own history, and media strategies of historical representation. It explores processes of entanglement and transfer, as well as regional and (academic-)cultural differences.

A particular strength in Cologne lies in its wide network of cooperation partners, including museums, archives, collections, memorial sites, associations, and media institutions. The Cologne approach to Public History also enables research from a global historical perspective. It moves between diverse analog and digital forms of public history, both past and present.

Public History in Cologne serves as a key bridge to neighboring disciplines such as theatre and media studies, art history, archaeology, sociology, and anthropology, while its connections to the Digital Humanities continue to grow stronger. Through the analysis and interpretation of extra-university digital history initiatives, the field makes an innovative scholarly contribution.

These research insights inform the research-oriented study track in Public History and simultaneously provide an increasingly indispensable qualification for future teachers and professional historians alike.