Lutz Klinkhammer is Deputy Director of the German Historical Institute in Rome and head of Contemporary History. He studied History, History of Art and Political Sciences at the University of Trier where he graduated with a degree in Contemporary History in 1985 and received his PhD in 1991. He went on to teach at the Universität zu Köln in Cologne from 1992 to 1999 as Assistant Professor before joining the German Historical Institute Rome in 1999. He is the author of several books and articles in scientific journals and has taught Contemporary European History in Italy (at the Universities of Viterbo and of Pavia/Cremona, Visiting Professor at the University of Bologna) as well as in Germany.  In 2016 he was awarded the Venia Legendi in Modern and Early Modern History at the Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz and has been teaching there since 2010. From 2004 to 2006 he served as Consultant of the Italian Parliamentary Inquiry Commission investigating on the non-punishment of war criminals after 1945. From 2009 to 2012 he was a Member of the Historians’ Committee established by the Ministries for Foreign Affairs in Italy and Germany on the Italian-German relationship during World War II.

Current Research Projects
Elitenwandel in Italien im 20. und 21. Jahrhundert
Übergangsgesellschaften im Vergleich. Überlegungen zur "Sattelzeit" auf der italienischen Halbinsel und in Europa
Die Last von Achsenbündnis und Besatzung. Nationale Erinnerungskulturen und deutsch-italienische Beziehungen 1945 bis heute
Der Dienstkalender Benito Mussolinis

Memberships and scientific consulting
- Editorial board member of the "Journal of Modern Italian Studies"
- Scientific committee member of the journals "Mondo Contemporaneo", "Annali.Recensioni.Online" (Istituto storico italo-germanico di Trento)
- Referee for the journal "Ricerche di Storia Politica"
- Scientific correspondent of the journal "Roma moderna e contemporanea"
- Advisory board member of the "Istituto romano per la storia dal fascismo alla Repubblica" (Rome) and "Istituto nazionale per la storia del movimento di Liberazione in Italia" (Milan) (2000–2006)
- Correspondent member of the "Società romana di storia patria" (Rome)
- Expert of the "Commissione per il recupero del patrimonio bibliografico della Comunità ebraica di Roma, razziato nel 1943" appointed by the Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri (2005–2007)
- Member of the "Comitato Nazionale per le Celebrazioni del Bicentenario del Decennio Francese" appointed by the Ministero per i Beni Culturali (2006–2010)
- Chairman of the scientific advisory board of the foundation "Fossoli. Camp Foundation. Fondazione ex-campo" (2006–2010)
- Member of the committee for the evaluation of the university of Bologna (2005) and of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR, 2009), evaluation for the Italian Agency ANVUR, for the German DFG
- Member of the international advisory board of the foundation "Topographie des Terrors" since 2015
- Faculty Member of the History Departement at the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz (since 2016)
- Scientific committee member of the "Deutsches Studienzentrum Venedig"
- Editorial board member of the "Journal of Modern Italian Studies" and "Passato e Presente"

Main research interests
Italian History 19th and 20th centuries; National Socialism and Second World War; Europe during the age of Napoleon; Modern state and catholic church 1870–1945; National cultures of memory since 1945.