Besides France, Germany and Franco-German relations research projects focus on Western Europe, Africa and the digital humanities.

It was financed with German federal government grants and worked under the umbrella organization “Wissenschaftliche Kommission zur Erforschung der deutsch-französischen Beziehungen” (Academic Commission on Franco-German Relations), based in Mainz.

After many years of negotiations, one year after the signing of the Élysée Treaty, the German Historical Research Center in Paris was permanently institutionalized: on 1 July 1964, it was renamed “German Historical Institute Paris” and turned into a dependent institution under the responsibility of the Federal Minister for Scientific Research.

[3] Alois Wachtel was succeeded as director by Karl Ferdinand Werner, who directed and significantly shaped the institute from 1968 to 1989, especially through his research on the Early Middle Ages.

Shortly before Werner's successor, Horst Möller (who later also headed the"Institut für Zeitgeschichte" in Munich), came into office, the Federal Republic of Germany bought the Hôtel Duret-de-Chevry, a Hôtel particulier whose construction was commissioned around 1620 by the senior royal official Charles Duret de Chevry near the Place des Vosges.

On 19 May 1994 the new premises were inaugurated in a ceremony in the presence of then President of the Federal Republic of Germany Richard von Weizsäcker.

With the creation of the transnational research group “The Bureaucratisation of African Societies“, a second cooperation phase with the CREPOS and the UCAD began in 2017 and ended as scheduled in 2021.

Since 2018, the transnational research group is part of the “Maria Sibylla Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa“ (MIASA) with headquarters in Accra.

The MIASA Africa is carried by a number of partners, among them the GHIP, and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

Since 2018, the GHIP has been involved in the Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA) in Accra, which conducts research on "Sustainable Governance."

In order to support cooperation among historians in Germany, France and around the world, the GHIP regularly hosts international colloquia, seminars and talks, for instance in the context of the “Jeudis de l’Institut historique allemand” lecture series Moreover, it takes part as a partner in German-French as well as international historical conferences.

A wide offer of grants and fellowships enables residencies of various lengths in Paris, which are organized according to the specific needs and expectations of Master students, PhD candidates, post-doctoral researchers, and professors.

[8] An academic advisory board composed of nine German and French university professors of all historical periods supports and advises the work of the GHIP.

The 2005 initiated eleven-volume series “German-French History” appears in German and French and comprises the time span between 800 and the present.

The series “Studies and Documents on the Gallia Pontificia” is constituted of articles and source editions from the research area on deeds and letters of popes in France.

Moreover, the GHIP was a partner of the German-French Journal for Humanities and Social Sciences “Trivium”, which renders translated outstanding French and German research accessible.