After Emperor William II’s visit to Jerusalem, when the first official declarations were published to create an institute that would promote all aspects of archaeological and historical research of the Holy Land, mainly in the biblical periods, the German Protestant Institute of Archaeology of the Holy Land in Jerusalem was founded in Eisenach in 1900 and was officially opened in 1903. It is a foundation of the Protestant churches in Germany and has been sponsored by them ever since. The Institute’s first director (1902–1917), Gustaf Dalman (fl. 1845–1941) established the Institute’s annual publication (Palaestina-Jahrbuch, 1905–1941) and initiated a broad range of research activities, not only in Jerusalem but in Petra and elsewhere. His main academic pursuit was ethnography, summarized in his famous eight-volume Arbeit und Sitte in Palaestina. He instituted a study program for young German-speaking scholars called the “Lehrkurs.” After World War I, Albrecht Alt (fl. 1883–1956) was appointed director of the Institute, and until the closure of the Institute during World War II the provosts of the German Protestant parish in Jerusalem were its directors. In 1964, the Institute was reopened under the directorship of Martin Noth (fl. 1902–1968). Since then, and after a branch of the Institute was founded in Amman in 1975, the Institute has undertaken several excavations on both sides of the Jordan and has published mainly in the renewed Jahrbuch des Deutschen Evangelischen Instituts für Altertumswissenschaft des Heiligen Landes (since 1989) and in the Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palaestina-Vereins.