Hans-Ulrich has been working at the institute in the field of communication and media history since December 2000. From 2005 to 2026, he headed the Research Center Media History, a collaborative project with the University of Hamburg, and taught in the department “Language, Literature, Media I”. From 2019 to 2025, he headed Program Area 3 “Knowledge for the Media Society” at the institute and was responsible for the Media History Area of Expertise within that program. Since 2026, he has headed the Media History Research Group within the Program Area “Transformation of Public Communication”.
Hans-Ulrich received his doctorate summa cum laude from Otto Friedrich University in Bamberg in 1996. From 1996 to the spring of 2000, he was a researcher at the German Broadcasting Archive Foundation, and in the summer and fall of 2000, he was a fellow at the German Literature Archive.
His research interests focus on communicative processes in the past—specifically, issues related to the history of institutions, companies, offerings, programs, and reception. In addition, he studies contemporary communicative processes concerning the past, such as media-mediated practices in the culture of remembrance and politics of the past, including history memes and social media history practices on Instagram and TikTok.
Hans-Ulrich co-leads the “Participation and Appropriation” Research Group within the Leibniz Research Network “Value of the Past.” He is a co-founder and steering committee member of the international research network “Entangled Media Histories.”
Numerous publications focus on mass media communication during the Weimar Republic, the “Third Reich,” and the postwar period; on the public broadcasters NWDR, NDR, and HR; on the news agency dpa; on radio drama and literary works in the media; and on sound studies.
List of Publications (as of April 2026)
