The DOG was officially founded in January 1898 to foster public interest in oriental antiquities, and to promote related archaeological research.
It competed with similar organizations in France and England, and reflected an increased enthusiasm to learn about the Bible lands in the late 19th century.
Ludwig Borchardt led DOG excavations in Egypt in 1902 at the Ancient Egyptian necropolis of Abusir and then, from 1911 to 1914, at the ruins of Tell el-Amarna, where the famous bust of Nefertiti, now in Berlin's Ägyptisches Museum, was discovered among other sculptural artefacts in the workshop of the sculptor Thutmose.
After the DOG was reestablished following the Second World War, more recent excavations have taken place at Habuba Kabira from 1969 to 1975, at Tall Munbāqa (also Ekalte (Mumbaqat) in northern Syria from 1969 to 2012, near Bogazköy from 1996 to 1999, Sarissa in 1995, Urkesh in 1998, and Qatna in 1999.
The DOG produces the annual publications, Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft (MDOG) and Alter Orient aktuell.