The Hamburg Institute for Social Research is an independent private foundation whose scholarship is focused on both contemporary history and the social sciences. Founded in 1984 it currently employ's around 50 people with roughly 50% working in the research fields of sociology and history. The institute publishes a bimonthly journal called Mittelweg 36 and has its own publishing house.

Mittelweg 36

The institutes journal was first published in 1992 and allows readers to follow ongoing research projects at the institute.
In its first decade the journal has garnered interest not only in the academic community but also has a number of non academic readers.

Controversy

In the late 1990`s the institute began a controversial exhibition titled "War of Extermination: Crimes of the Wehrmacht 1941-1944" which toured Germany until 1999.