Coffee is a global as well a local phenomenen - this is the basic thesis of Prof. Dr. Dorothee Wierling's new research project. The historian and Deputy Director of the Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte in Hamburg analysis how especially the merchants in Hamburg organized the trade with such a global commodity as coffee, which nowadays is exclusively produced in countries of the southern hemisphere, while consumption is dominated by industrialized countries in the north. In her inaugural lecture on the 22nd of Octobre she presented her project. The introduction was held by Prof. Dr. Andreas Gestrich, Director of the German Historical Institute London.
The Gerda Henkel Visiting Professorship is a co-operation of the Department of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), the Gerda Henkel Foundation, the German Historical Institute London (GHIL), and the Gerda Henkel Professor’s home university. Its purpose is to promote awareness in Britain of German research on the history of the German Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic, and to stimulate comparative work on German history in a European context. The first professorship was awarded in 2009.