The notorious speech of the German Minister for Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, in the Sportpalast on 18 February 1943 has been extensively studied by historians. In this lecture, it is analyzed in a slightly different way: as an example that illustrates problems Goebbels had with the media logic of the 'Third Reich'.

Keynote opening lecture given on 8 September 2011 as part of the German History Society Annual General Meeting 2011 (8-10 September 2011).

This round-table discussion was a special event accompanying the international conference 'The Fischer Controversy 50 Years On' which took place on 13–15 October 2011 at the German Historical Institute London. The panellists discuss the insiders' view on Fritz Fischer’s seminal work Griff nach der Weltmacht (English title: Germany's Aims in the First World War), which was published 50 years ago.

This Plenary Forum was a special event accompanying the "Third European Congress in World and Global History" at the London School of Economics, 14-17 April 2011. Hosted by the German Historical Institute London and kindly supported by Campus Verlag, Princeton University Press and Cambridge University Press the Plenary Forum on 'Empires and Colonies' took place Friday, 15 April, 6.30-8.30 pm. Three outstanding scholars in the field - Frederick Cooper (New York University), John Darwin (University of Oxford), and Regina Grafe (Northwestern University) - discuss various, possibly contradicting approaches to imperial and colonial history, chaired by Peer Vries (University of Vienna).

'The German Foreign Office and Nazism: Image and Reality after 1945' was the title of this year's 8th Annual Lecture on Contemporary German History, given by Professor Peter Hayes of Northwestern University, Illinois, on 31 March. Professor Hayes was a member of the Independent Historians' Commission appointed by the Ausw„rtiges Amt (Federal Foreign Office of Germany) to investigate its own history. The result was a comprehensive study entitled 'The Foreign Office and the Past: German Diplomacy during the Third Reich and the Federal Republic' which became a German bestseller after its publication in 2010. As Professor Hayes pointed out, German history did not end in May 1945. He lucidly depicted the careers of diplomats before and after 1945 and discussed their ambivalent role in the Third Reich and subsequently in setting up a new diplomatic service in the Federal Republic. The lecture was followed by comments from Professor Neil Gregor, from the University of Southampton, who then chaired a questions and answers session providing over 130 guests the opportunity to ask further questions.

Three outstanding scholars in the field – Frederick Cooper, John Darwin, and Regina Grafe – discuss various, possibly contradicting approaches to imperial and colonial history.

The subject of this debate was the contested field of Public History, its strengths, shortcomings, and developments, and the place of history in public life in general. Academic and public historians are increasingly involved in public debates seeking to reach broader audiences and to shape public consciousness through the understanding of the past. Undoubtedly the popularity of history in public life has created political, economic, and cultural opportunities. But it also generated competition and barriers between the professional and the public historians. The GHIL has invited four speakers from Britain and Germany: Franziska Augstein is a journalist for the S\x81ddeutsche Zeitung (Munich) and has written on nineteenth-century Britain; Kathleen Burk (UCL) specialises on the twentieth century, in particular Anglo-American relations; Justin Champion is head of department at Royal Holloway, University of London, and works on early modern British and European history; Peter Mandler (Cambridge) concentrates on British cultural, intellectual, and social history since c.1800.