Fascination Rome. The Music History Department of the German Historical Institute in Rome (DHI)

The article presents the early history of the Music History Department of the German Historical Institute ("Deutsches Historisches Institut") in Rome in the context of the cultural and political activities of other Roman cultural and research institutes in the postwar period. A visit of German President Theodor Hess in Rome in 1957 paved the way for the foundation of the Department in 1960. The article also addresses the role of the "Gesellschaft fur Musikforschung" (GfM) with its newly founded "Commission for Foreign Studies" ("Kommission fur Auslandsstudien"): For more than twenty years its chairman Karl Gustav Fellerer oversaw the research activities in Rome. The Department, especially its library, soon became a meeting point for German and Italian musicologists. A second section focuses on the current fields of research and the numerous funding opportunities offered by the Music History Department to researchers, especially young scholars.