His professorial thesis (Habilitation) deals with Franz Six, Adolf Eichmann's superior, who was nominated to rule Great Britain as the head of the SD (Security Service of the Nazi paramilitary force SS) in case of a German occupation.

Hachmeister's book about Six's career[2] was widely recognized as one of the "new biographies" in the 1990s, describing in detail the mentality and role of the young academic elite in shaping the "Third Reich".

His research on former Nazi intelligence specialists in the formative years of Germany's leading news magazine Der Spiegel aroused a debate about the history of the paper, which was usually considered to have pure leftist-liberal traditions.

Hachmeister's documentary about the life and death of Hanns Martin Schleyer, the former head of the German employers association, who was murdered in 1977 by the Red Army Faction, won a Grimme-Award (Germany's most prestigious television prize) in 2004.

The Institute is particularly known for its high-ranking media colloquia, which hosts international guests like Alan Rusbridger, Greg Dyke or Norman Pearlstine.