The event takes place within the Leibniz Research Alliance ‘Value of the Past’ at the IEG in Mainz. Cooperation partner is the Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute, Braunschweig. The conference will discuss how the examination of Germany's past became a legitimation and central resource for non-university historical research in the BRD after 1949 and in the unified Germany after 1990. The aim is to test the hypothesis that the valorisation of the past often oscillated between the ‘reappraisal’ of Germany's recent past and a reorientation of national historical narratives in a European perspective. The conference will combine presentations on research institutions that were founded in the formative phase of the ‘old’ Federal Republic of Germany with papers on the establishment of new research centres in the historical humanities after 1989/1990, particularly in the new Länder. Participation is open to a specialised scientific audience. Please contact info@ieg-mainz.de. Organisation: Joachim Berger (IEG/GNM) and Gregor Feindt (IEG) with Marcus Otto and Steffen Sammler (Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute) The conference is also a scientific contribution to the 75th anniversary of the (Leibniz) Institute of European History.