Five professorships represent the individual historical epochs and across epochs, the history of specific regions. In addition, the area of ancient history and didactics of history is represented and the subjects of Greek and Latin studies are located at the institute. Courses are offered in ancient history, medieval history, early modern history, modern history including contemporary history, and Nordic and Eastern European history.
The Interdisciplinary Centre for Baltic Sea Region Research (IFZO) and the Epigraphical Research unit Arbeitsstelle Inschriften are located at the Department of History.
Members of the Department of History also participates in the current International Research Training Group 2560 "Baltic Peripeties. Narratives of Reformations, Revolutions and Catastrophes", a joint research programme of three universities in the Baltic Sea region - Greifswald, Tartu and Trondheim. At the IRTG, doctoral students and professors research the narrative constructions of the Baltic Sea region in an interdisciplinary environment and with the focus on the concept of “peripety”.
In 1863, the institute was founded as the Historical Seminar by Arnold Dietrich Schäfer and renamed the Department of History in 1951. The institute was the place of work of Heinrich Otto Seeck (1881-1907), Ernst Bernheim (1883-1921), Fritz Curschmann (1904-1939), Adolf Hofmeister (1921-1955), Hans Glogan (1912-1934), Konrad Fritze (1953-1991) and among others.
The Greifswald historian Ernst Bernheim was professor of medieval history and historical sciences at the University of Greifswald from 1883 to 1921. In 1895/96 as well as in 1909 he was also Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and 1899 Rector of the University. His best known for an influential Lehrbuch der historischen Methode (1889) on historical method.
