Eastern Europe (post)colonial

Nazi Germany’s eastern expansion has meant the Nazi goal of Lebensraum (living space) is often solely associated with Eastern Europe. However, the justifications for claiming overseas colonies by colonial enthusiasts during the Third Reich were often strikingly similar to the narratives of those...

Poland as an object of colonial policy has been much discussed in recent research on the 19th and 20th centuries. But was Poland itself a colonial power in former times? We examine this possibility using two case studies.

In the 1930s, as part of a Polish colonial movement, Poland briefly pursued a colonization project in Liberia. The Warsaw government supported the project, while Great Britain looked on with skepticism. Ultimately, Poland’s efforts to become a colonial power proved unsuccessful.

From half-finished beehives to delicate embroidery, the Museum of European Cultures in Berlin (Museum Europäischer Kulturen, MEK) houses a large number of objects from Southeastern Europe. Although they are without doubt still fascinating today, the question remains: Why should we be interested in...

The end of the First World War marked a turning point in the power relationship between Poland and Germany. But did traditional images of superiority and inferiority also change? Caricatures provide an interesting lens through which to answer this question.

Why are we still conducting research on Eastern Europe? In this article, I use two empirical case studies from the post-socialist period – the founding of the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest and Eastern European research in the German Democratic Republic – to discuss how questions...

To what extent do anti-East-European discourses influence the self-image of young people from Russia? 16 people were interviewed on this topic. The study revealed that there was an established negative self-image among the interviewees, as well as an internalized image of an idealized ‘(Western)...

Is it possible to be one hundred percent “German”? Counter question: If you are not (one hundred percent) can you still be considered “German”? – and what does this “Germanness” even mean, especially in numbers; how do you determine that, and who determines it?

In spring 2023 the Өmә exhibition took place in Kreuzberg, Berlin and received a great deal of media attention. The exhibition not only exposed the reproducibility of Russian imperialism, describing the war in Ukraine as colonial, but also made political demands regarding territorial independence.