Most of the previous International Congresses of Germanists had a general theme and took place under the presidents named below at their places of activity.

1. 1955 Rome (Italy), Hans Heinrich Borcherdt: No general theme, but 2 sections: "High language and dialects" and "Literature in the 19^th century"
2. 1960 Copenhagen (Denmark), Louis L. Hammerich: "Late periods and late contemporaneity"
3. 1965 Amsterdam (Netherlands), Herman Meyer: "Tradition and Originality"
4. 1970 Princeton (USA), Victor Lange: "Poetry, Language and Society"
5. 1975 Cambridge (England), Leonard Forster: No general theme
6. 1980 Basel (Switzerland), Heinz Rupp: No general topic
7. 1985 Göttingen (Germany), Albrecht Schöne: "Controversies, old and new"
8. 1990 Tokyo (Japan), Eijiro Iwasaki: "Encountering the Foreign: Borders Traditions Comparisons"
9. 1995 Vancouver (Canada), Michael S. Batts: "Old worlds new worlds"
10. 2000 Vienna (Austria), Peter Wiesinger: "Zeitwende - Die Germanistik auf dem Weg vom 20. ins 21. Jahrhundert"
11. 2005 Paris (France), Jean-Marie Valentin: "German Studies in the Conflict of Cultures"
12. 2010 Warsaw (Poland), Franciszek Grucza: "Diversity and unity of German studies worldwide"
13. 2015 Shanghai (China), Jianhua Zhu: "German Studies between Innovation and Tradition"
14. 2020 Palermo (Italy), Laura Auteri: "Paths of German Studies in Transcultural Perspectives"

As the number of members increased from congress to congress, so did the number of participants, sections and presentations. While 192 Germanists from 24 countries took part in the 1^st International Congress of Germanists in Rome in 1955 and gave 35 papers in 2 sections, 40 years later 630 Germanists took part in the 9^th International Congress of Germanists in Vancouver and gave 610 papers in 38 sections, although the number of congress participants with accompanying persons was considerably higher at 260 and around 1000 respectively.
Although reports on the scientific results of the individual congresses were published by the respective presidents, it was not always possible to publish the individual plenary lectures and section papers and thus make them generally accessible due to various difficulties. Thus, lectures and papers from the 1^st Congress of Germanists were not published in specialist journals by the management, but only in part by the authors themselves. Only the 11 plenary lectures were published from the 2^nd Germanists' Congress and a selection of 64 section papers from the 3^rd Germanists' Congress in addition to the 8 plenary lectures. It was only from the 4^th Germanists' Congress onwards that all plenary and section lectures could be printed in the files. Although it was possible to publish the full text of the 6 plenary lectures at the 9^th Congress of Germanists, the section papers were limited to 486 summaries of one page each. Since the 10^th International Congress of Germanists in Vienna, the section papers have been published either in full or in abridged form.
On the occasion of the 50^th anniversary congress in Vienna, Michael S. Batts presented the history of the IVG.

• General Assembly of Members
• Presidium
• International Committee

The General Assembly meets every five years on the occasion of the International Congress of Germanists, negotiates the statutes, approves the finances and elects the Presidium and the International Committee.

The Presidium consists of the President and two Vice-Presidents from different countries.

The International Committee, which advises and supports the Presidium in its work, comprises 20 members. They are elected in such a way that the subject areas of Yiddish Studies, Dutch Studies and Scandinavian Studies are each represented by one member. The other members from other subject areas are appointed in such a way that a maximum of two members come from each country. The Finance Commission with the Treasurer, the Working Commission to deal with current and future tasks and the Congress Commission to prepare the elections and the next Congress are formed from the International Committee to carry out individual tasks in cooperation with the Presidium.

The purpose of the IVG is to promote international cooperation in the field of Germanic studies. Germanic studies are understood to mean the linguistics and literary studies of German, Dutch, Frisian, Afrikaans, Scandinavian with Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish and Yiddish in their current and historical forms as well as in their practical and didactic application. The main tasks of the IVG are the support of scientific undertakings, the promotion of personal relations within the framework of the subject areas represented, the establishment and maintenance of contacts with the individual Germanic studies associations, the promotion of Germanic studies teaching at universities and the organization of international congresses to deal with current scientific problems and organizational issues of Germanic studies in an international context. The language of the IVG is German. The International Congresses of Germanic Studies take place every five years in a different country of the world.