Abstract

Initiated by Erich Rothacker, a »Kommission für Begriffsgeschichte« was founded by the German Research Foundation and chaired by Hans-Georg Gadamer to establish Begriffsgeschichte as a common method for several disciplines of the humanities. On the basis of unpublished correspondence the article describes the organization of activities of the commission up to its end in 1966, i.e. before in 1971 the first volumes of the two great dictionaries of conceptual history were published, and offers a documentation of the discussions during the conferences, preserved in the archives of the DFG. An analysis of the documents reveals that the participants' approach to textual material was somehow arbitrary regarding conceptual history. It therefore provided no substantial support or inspiration for the two dictionaries in course and failed to engage in general reflection on Begriffsgeschichte which could have helped to establish it methodologically.