Inheritance patterns and property transfers since 1800

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Jürgen Dinkel
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: since 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 430277095

German baby boomers stand to inherit about 260 Billion Euro annually between the years 2010 and 2020. However, despite the substantial contribution of inheritance practices to social inequality in societies and individual families, we know very little about the distribution of inherited money and assets in the period since the late nineteenth century. Historians have published extensively on inheritance law and practices in earlier periods and among different social groups, yet the twentieth century remains largely unexplored. Against this background, the members of this network seek to bring together the history of inheritance in German-speaking Central Europe and contemporary history. The aim of the network is fourfold: First, we will use approaches from different fields, like economic and cultural history - which are rarely combined by historians and draw on studies on inheritance law, theories of gift economies, family, kinship, gender history, material culture, and the history of emotions to develop a methodology for the analysis of inheritance cases and property transfers upon death. Second, we will explore the interdependence between public, social, and economic welfare structures and private family and kinship networks in the modern age. Thus, we aim to contribute to the history of the state and the structure and meaning of personal networks (like family and kinship relations) in the twentieth century. Third, we will publish the results of the network meetings. They should serve as an impulse and as an orientation for further studies focusing on the history of inheritance, and be tied back to the general history of the 20th century as well as to current public and political debates. Finally and fourth, the meetings of the network should be used as a stepping stone for the development of permanent structures to research the history of inheritance since the nineteenth-century.The network is made up by twelve scholars who have been working in this field for many years. However, most of these research projects have not been connected to one another yet. That is why the communication between members of the network should be promoted and intensified. Five meetings und one public conference are planned. At these meetings the members will engage with the analysis of inheritance patterns and estate transfers, prepare the publishing of their results, work on the development of following projects and also take first steps in connecting with colleagues in other disciplines as well as in foreign countries.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks
• Co-Investigator: Professorin Dr. Simone Derix