Research and development projects of the Zentrum für historische Sozialforschung (Centre for Historical Social Research, ZHSF)

The ZHSF carries out exemplary research projects in the following areas. The method-, data- or data-processing-oriented organisation of the projects therefore fulfils the specific tasks of the data and advisory services of the GESIS-ZA for the historically oriented scientific community.

• Historical parliamentarianism, elites and biographical research
• Statistical methods in historical social research
• Virtualisation / online databases
• Dissertation projects

The department "Historical parliamentarianism, elites and biographical research" conducts basic research on parliamentarianism and political leadership groups. In the individual projects the methodologies of 'collective biography' and content analysis are implemented and developed.

In the area of statistical methods stochastic models have been investigated in relation to their importance for economic and social history. In the analysis of historical mobility tables, alongside a regional comparison of mobility patterns, the constancy and change in historical perspective were the main focus of the study.

The results of historical parliamentarianism and biographical research are available to large number of users in two online databases since 2001. The multimedia database Biosop-Online (Social-democratic Parliamentarians 1867 - 1933) will contain biographies, photos and selected speeches. The database "Deutsche Landtagsabgeordnete 1918 - 1933" (Members of German state parliaments 1918 - 1933) contains a biographical and parliamentary index of representatives.

The ZHSF has developed the concept of an "online-based revision courses and a virtual consulting service platform", which has been realised for the first time in 2003. This concept supports the individual supervision of research projects with the help of internet-based consulting. Furthermore, it is closely connected to the online services of the ZHSF methodology seminar.