The past has become a resource that is both highly sought after and hotly contested in the disputes about the interpretation of the past. In our current times, dominated as they are by new digital media and pervaded by crises of credibility (the "post-factual age"), recent decades have seen a significant increase in public appreciation of the value of references to the past, even as they have emerged as a battleground of identity.

The research alliance “Values of the Past” examines processes of value creation as well as competing values that built the basis for the preservation of cultural and natural heritage and also for societal discourses about the past.

The 21 institutes of the Leibniz research alliance "Values of the Past" are creating a place for metahistorical, historico-cultural and museological reflection. They combine their research in the area of historical and cultural science as well as historically working disciplines in the social and enviornmental sciences. 

The Leibniz research alliance works with many national and international partners from sciences and historical transfer of knowledge.