Peter Schöttler

Peter Schöttler joined the Research Program on the History of the Max Planck Society (GMPG) in 2016. He received his Dr. phil from Universität Bremen (1978), was a Research Director at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique in Paris, and now teaches at the Freie Universität Berlin, where he has held an honorary professorship since 2001.

Peter Schöttler’s field of research pertains to French and German history and historiography in the nineteenth and twentieth century. In the framework of the Research Program History of the Max Planck Society he is currently investigating on initiatives and problems of scientific renewal through and around the Max Planck Institute for History opened in Göttingen in 1957 under the directorship of Hermann Heimpel. In a particular case study he will explore the foundation and beginnings of the “Mission historique française” founded in the same city by Robert Mandrou in 1977 which represented a decisive step to overcome the gap between German and Western historiography.