Spaces – Borders – Projections

Spaces and borders, but also their projections and constructions, are fundamental for the political history of Eastern Europe as well as for human interaction. The thematic focus shows the significance and function of space- and border-related debates and discourses in Eastern Europe and presents prominent case studies.

Spatial orders and spatial projections

Editorial
Spaces - Borders - Projections
Editorial
Since the beginning of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine on February 24, 2022, questions around spaces and borders have increasingly appeared on the agenda of Eastern European studies. The contributions to the Copernico Portal’s newest area of focus demonstrate the important role played...
Peter Haslinger
Background Article
The Changing Landscape of Place Names
Systems of geographical knowledge in the history of German-Polish border regions.
The Republic of Poland has a turbulent history – as do its many place names. Hardly any town or village has only one, which makes the matter very complicated, especially for historical research.
Grigori Chlesberg
Background Article
How did a German Emigrant find his Way in Eastern Europe at the Beginning of the 19th Century?
Spatial and cultural orientation during emigration using the example of Franz Xaver Bronner and his journey to Kazan and back again (1810–1817)
How someone finds their way in a foreign country can be explored in different ways. In the case of Franz Xaver Bronner's travels from Switzerland to Kazan in 1810, and his return in 1817, a geographical approach is used to provide a fact-based foundation.
Hermann Beyer-Thoma
Background Article
Malbork Castle, the Knights of the Teutonic Order and the "German East" in the 19th and 20th Centuries
Changes through time and space
How far did the “German East” extend? With recourse to Malbork Castle, which was “rediscovered” around 1800, German historical policy in the 19th and 20th centuries found very different answers to this question.
Daniel Benedikt Stienen

Upper Silesia – a Divided Land

In Germany and in Poland – Upper Silesia between the world wars 1922-1939

To the web documentation

Black and white photo of a control at the border station Bytom/Buthen in 1930; image: Weltrundschau/ullstein bild via Getty Images

Border Drawings - Border Discourses

Background Article
Ruthenia quasi est alter orbis
Dimensionen und Ambivalenzen von Grenzziehungen im Spätmittelalter am Beispiel der heutigen Westukraine
"Rus' is almost another world" wrote the Krakow bishop Maciej around 1150. What was the basis of this differentiation? How powerful was it and how did it play out in reality? In search of answers, this article also discusses the dimensions and ambivalences of border demarcations.
Sven Jaros
Background Article
The History of the Creation of the Austro-Hungarian Border After the First World War
The border demarcation between Austria and Hungary after 1918 is considered a prime example of the general post-war turmoil in East-Central Europe. The article traces the lengthy border-drawing process of the heterogeneous area, which initiated a slow disentanglement.
Ibolya Murber
Background Article
The debate between Austrian and Hungarian
Eine Debatte in der österreichischen und ungarischen Geschichtsschreibung
The region of Burgenland was transferred to Austria in 1921. After the First World War the country was compensated with a territory which had previously been a part of Hungary. Since its “birth”, Austria’s historical claim to the region was contested by Hungarian historians. In contrast,...
László Dávid Törő
Background Article
Wilderness without borders?
Nature conservation and the border in the Bavarian Forest and Šumava
A boundless wilderness – or a mountain range divided both politically and culturally? The neighboring Bavarian Forest and Šumava National Parks on the German-Czech border share a complicated history in which the state border plays a key role.
Dr. Pavla Šimková

Portraits of artists bearing witness to their times

A short film accompanying the exhibition "Borders in Art. Three generations of Czech art"

Watch the film

Urban diversity in Eastern Europe

"Wait till the Scots come!"
Scots in early modern Gdansk
Background Article
This old Prussian proverb exhorts us to be patient and wait for the right opportunity. But what does this have to do with the far north of Great Britain? The answer leads us to Gdansk. In the early modern era, the port city attracted numerous merchant ships from the Baltic region and beyond. Some...
Marc Banditt
A divided city?
The entertainment and pleasure culture in Posen around 1900
Background Article
Around 1900, the city of Posen (now Poznań) was divided into a German Posen and a Polish Poznań. This is at least the impression given by the sources on population and spatial politics in the city. A look at everyday life and especially urban entertainment culture, however, gives us a more...
Vincent Hoyer
From Brothers to Business Partners
The Rise and Fall of Serbo-Slovenian 'Twin Towns' in the Second Yugoslavia
Background Article
The Train of Brotherhood and Unity was founded in 1961 as a grassroots commemorative initiative by Slovenian and Serbian journalists. Eventually, it became a manifestation of socio-political cohesion among Yugoslav nations, and a ritualized instrument for economic networking between Serbian and...
Nikola Baković

Urban Diversity: The Example of Warsaw

Capital of the Saxon Garden Baroque on the Vistula River
Warsaw as the residence city of the Saxon electors and the kings of Poland
Background Article
The cartographic drawings of Warsaw from 1730-1762, preserved in the Dresden and Warsaw collections, illustrate the architectural garden city where the artistic ideas of the Saxon Baroque were crystallized. These exceptional documents bear testimony to a golden era where the urban landscape and...
Łukasz Przybylak
Between Polish Metropolis and Provincial Prussian Town
The educational landscape of Warsaw around 1800
Background Article
The period of Prussian rule in Warsaw has traditionally received little attention and is usually interpreted as an early climax of Prussian-German expansionism in Poland. Yet it was also a time when, under the influence of the Enlightenment, a number of important educational initiatives developed in...
Benedikt Stimmer
A City Inside the City
Warsaw's Miasteczko Wilanów – between urban utopia, imaginary construct and concrete reality
Picture gallery
Some disdain it as an enclave of a consumerist, unthinking middle class. Others sing its praises and consider it a one-of-a-kind urban development project. No other urban district in Poland has been written about and discussed as much as the Miasteczko Wilanów. But where do the roots of this...
Anna Seidel