The Max-Planck-Institute for History in Göttingen became increasingly important for my work, more so than the university. I have never had an official affiliation with the institute, but since 1961 I have been a steady guest, always having at least a table at which I could work and sometimes, when space was available, even an office. The Institute library contained most of the books and journals I needed; the rest were mostly in the University library. At the institute I found not only researchers with whom I could discuss my work, of whom several became good friends, but a steady stream of visitors from all corners of the world, including quite early scholars from Eastern Europe and East Asia. I know of no comparable meeting place elsewhere. In the sixties I became well acquainted with Dietrich Gerhard, a student of Friedrich Meinecke, who had emigrated to the United States during the Nazi period, divided his time between Washington University in St. Louisand the University of Cologne after the war, and after his retirement in 1962 came to the Max Planck Institute to direct a comparative project on Europe during the Old Regime. In 1971 Rudolf Vierhaus came as director and brought young scholars who worked on proto-industrialization, the transformation of the countryside on the eve of industrialization. Beginning with the examination of material life, they moved to a broad examination of village life with an emphasis on family life, social relations and daily life. Using computers, they examined the economic transformation of the countryside in the process of industrialization and at the same time explored how those affected by this process reacted to and influenced this process.
Source: Wilma and Georg Iggers, Two Lives in Uncertain Times, New York: Berghahn Books, 2006, p. 137