The Institute for German-American Relations was established at the time of the collapse of the Berlin Wall to promote interaction, good will, and understanding between the United States and Germany. IGAR works in cooperation with American and German universities concerned with the cultural, economic, and political relations of their respective countries. It organizes conferences, seminars, discussion groups, and lecture series, drawing heavily upon local and regional resources, but also on the international scholarly world. The Institute serves as a source of information on matters relating to Germany and German-Americans, promotes educational programs, cooperates with organizations having similar objectives, offers awards to university students, organizes exhibitions on the German and the German-American past, publishes informational pamphlet and newsletters, and subsidizes the publication scholarly studies and books relating to German history.  IGAR has access to the holdings of the  Institute of Foreign Cultural Relations in Stuttgart, Germany. An interlibrary loan system links IGAR to the 290,000 volumes of the Stuttgart Institute, to its films, its videotapes, and its well-researched exhibitions.