During the Kulturkampf, attacks on Catholic perspectives on Central European history were not uncommon, especially in connection with topics concerning the Reformation and the legacy of Martin Luther and the Hohenzollern dynasty.

Conversely, Catholic historians published periodicals with some anti-Prussian political and historical content such as the Historisch-politischen Blätter für das katholische Deutschland and the Historisches Jahrbuch.

The denominational divide in German historiography and the competition for dominating the discourses about cultural and political identity construction in German-speaking Europe was not overcome until the 1920s when an increasing body of scholarly work by Catholic and Jewish authors was accepted for publication in the Historische Zeitschrift.

Major historical and political controversies in the late Weimar Republic (e.g. about Ernst H. Kantorowicz monograph on emperor Frederick II) and in post-war Germany were debated by leading historians in the Historische Zeitschrift.

The main arguments of Fritz Fischer's book Griff nach der Weltmacht about the origins of World War One were first outlined in an article in the Historische Zeitschrift.

Recent editors such as Fahrmair and Leppin have also liased with major German newspapers such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Die Zeit in order to democratise the findings and debates of historical scholarship.