Jena and Weimar are the center of the "German Classic" in 1800, which, as an interaction of the Enlightenment and Romanticism, forms foundations of our present culture. In an interdisciplinary dialogue Jena’s research center “Laboratory of the Enlightenment" and the "Research Centre European Romanticism" relate contemporary issues and problems to this formation phase of modern society aiming to turn the classic memorial sites in Germany into current forums for discussion of a historically informed diagnosis of the present.

Self-enlightenment of modern societies about their past is one of the prerequisites of democracy after the experience of war, dictatorship and genocide. The "Jena Center 20th Century History " and the "Imre Kertész Kolleg Jena" explore, in close cooperation with the memorial sites Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora, the German and European history with special focus on the history of National Socialism and the dictatorships of the 20th century and their effects onto the present.