Abstract
The Athenian Department of the German Archaeological Institute started its activities in 1874 as the third of twenty-one institutes that operate today in nineteen cities of the Eurasian region. It become the second foreign archaeological institute of the German Empire after the Archaeological Institute in Rome.
The activities of the DAI-A are going on almost continuously - except two breaks caused by the two World Wars - nearly for one hundred and forty years. Based on of secondary literature and available resources (mainly collections of the German Archaeological Institute and archival materials from the German Foreign Ministry Archives as well as the German Archaeological Institute, Department of Athens) this chapter analyzed the DAI-A not only in terms of its scholarly and an educational benefit, but also from the angle of cultural policy.