Research projects

When Bonn-based contemporary historian Hans-Peter Schwarz and his Berlin colleague Henning Köhler wrote their biographies of Konrad Adenauer more than thirty years ago, their aim was to use historical methods to capture in detail, for the first time, the inside view of a long political life. As a result, Schwarz and Köhler offered an empirically rich account of the private and political biography of the first German chancellor that had never been achieved before, occasionally disagreeing with each other—for example, in their assessment of Adenauer's alleged or actual persecution during the Third Reich.

It is probably due to these pioneering works by the two authors that no academic biography of Konrad Adenauer has been published since then. The planned study aims to change this. The aim is to present, after more than thirty years, a scientifically sound biography of the first Federal Chancellor that takes into account the completely changed state of research in many areas related to Adenauer's long life, as well as the changed conceptual foundations of historical biographical research. The aim is to produce a modern biography of Konrad Adenauer that goes beyond the person himself to offer new explanations, especially for the early Federal Republic, and also contributes to the classification of the Bonn Republic in the history of the 20th century. It does this on a broad archival basis.

The study was published on October 16, 2025, under the title “Konrad Adenauer - Dreieinhalb Leben. Biographie” by dtv Verlag. (Publication by the publisher)

Project leaders: Prof. Friedrich Kießling / Prof. Laura Münkler, University of Bonn

Research assistants: Johannes Pötz and Max Schuckart

This interdisciplinary research project aims to examine the Nazi past of the predecessor to the Federal Social Security Office (BAS), the Reich Insurance Office (RVA), within the institutional structure of the Nazi dictatorship from both a historical and a legal perspective.

Under the direction of Prof. Dr. Friedrich Kießling and Prof. Dr. Laura Münkler, the project will examine the actions of the Reich Insurance Office in its role as a legal supervisory and participatory authority and as the court of last resort in legal disputes during the Nazi era. The focus will be on the institutional history, policy, personnel policy, and senior staff, as well as the case law of the Reich Insurance Office.

In terms of institutional history, the initial focus will be on the structure of the authority and its changes in 1933 and the following years, with particular attention paid to the consequences of the law of July 1934, including the resulting increase in powers. Another turning point was the outbreak of war, which brought about a reduction in the workload through the streamlining of internal processes, an expansion of responsibilities in the annexed and occupied territories, and the use of so-called foreign and forced laborers. In addition, there is the policy analysis with the question of what role the Reich Insurance Office played in the politicization and “biologization” and, not least, the economization of the social security system under National Socialism and what contribution it thus made to Nazi persecution policy. In addition, for the first time, a systematic investigation of senior staff with a focus on the higher civil service and an investigation of the case law of the Reich Insurance Office against the backdrop of National Socialist ideology will be carried out.

The research project was commissioned by the Federal Social Security Office.

The project researches whether and how legislative and executive action in the Federal Republic of Germany changed in the course of the 1970s and 1980s in response to increased expectations of political participation.

To this end, three sub-projects analyse different levels of state action (federal bureaucracy, local administration and legislature) and verify the hypothesis of expansive participation in state institutions. Multiple comparisons between the different objects and levels of analysis will allow the identification of causal relationships and specific features of German development.

Subproject 1, directed by Prof. Dr. Kießling, examines the effects of participation and expectations of participation in the consumer policy of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture. A diachronic comparison with the food and agricultural policy of the Weimar Republic provides additional historical depth and insights into the long-term development of consumer policy, the culture of public authorities and participation.

The research project „Expanding Participation and the State in the Late Bonn Republic in Comparison“, funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation, consists of three sub-projects:

Subproject 1 ( Project leader: Prof. Dr Friedrich Kießling)

Participation in the consumer policy of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Ministry of Agriculture of the Weimar Republic in comparison (Author: Dominik Antruejo, M.A.)

Subproject 2 ( Project leader: Prof. Dr Christine G. Krüger)

A participatory turnaround? Urban planning in a German-British comparison in the 1970s (researcher: Anna Christina Berger, M.A.)

Subproject 3 ( Project leader: Prof. Dr Carsten Burhop)

Expansive participation in legislative processes during the social-liberal and Christian-liberal Bonn Republic (1969-1990) (Researcher: Prisca Lohmann, M.A.) 

Head of project: Prof. Dr. Friedrich Kießling / Prof. Dr. Christoph Safferling, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg

The challenges for the rule of law and democracy in Germany are increasing. A look back at the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany and the crises of the past 75 years shows that our democracy is more stable than many pessimists would like to admit. Social cohesion during the stormy crises of recent years - financial crisis, refugee crisis, pandemic, Ukraine war - has proven to be resilient. And in a European comparison, it is striking that radical parties can still be kept out of power in Germany. But the challenges are great and only through decisive political action, through a reform of the constitutional state, Germany can remain what it is: a liberal democracy.

The book on this project "Der Streitfall: Wie die Demokratie nach Deutschland kam und wie wir sie neu beleben müssen" was published by dtv Verlag on March 14, 2024. (Publication from the publisher)

Head of project: Prof. Dr. Kießling in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Brummer, Chair of International Relations, University of Eichstätt

The starting point of the project was the consideration—equally important for political science and history—that a country's foreign relations are not only determined by material quantities like population size, economic power, perhaps also geography, and also not only by classical calculations of power and interests, whether they are determined by foreign or domestic policy, but that another factor is important to be considered, namely socially formed constructions of meaning. In this way, the question of ideas about what position one's own country has or should have in the international system becomes important. The conference that was conducted at the University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt on the 4th and 5th of May 2018 took up such considerations from political science and history and asked which internatioal role conceptions can be grasped historically for the Federal Republic, how they have changed—and thus possibly "normalised“—and what significance they have for today's view of the Federal German position in the international relations. In this process, an attempt was made to bring historical and political science considerations into a more interdisciplinary discussion. (Publication from the publisher)

Head of project: Prof. Dr. Kießling (research assistant i.a.: Christoph Teubner)

In its research, the independent Historical Commission focused on the history of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture in the context of 20th century German history. In particular, the following aspects were considered: The re-establishment of the Ministry in 1949; the history of its predecessor institutions; the question of continuity or discontinuity in terms of employees and concepts; the attitude towards its predecessor institutions; the role of the associations; the simoultaneous developments in the German Democratic Republic. Professor Kießling's work as a member of the Historical Commission of the Ministry of Agriculture from 2016 to 2020 aimed at researching the re-establishment of the Ministry in 1949 as well as its development during the early years of the Federal Republic until the early 1970s. He was particularly interested in questions of public personnel policy in the post-war period and continuities in the history of ideas, questions of factual and structural continuity and discontinuity in top federal authorities after 1945, and the beginning Europeanisation of agricultural policy in the early Federal Republic. (Publication from the publisher)