Borders in Central and Eastern Europe – States, Migration and Mobility from 1800 to the Present

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Viadrina Summer Program 2020 has been postponed. This course deals will various kinds of borders in Central and Eastern Europe from 1800 to the present day. Through the lens of border studies we will explore how empires and states, people and ideas changed over the course of two centuries. We will therefore look for structural tendencies, paradigm shifting and ideas as well as other important events. Between 1800 and 2020 Eastern Europe has witnessed several political regimes, waves of forced and voluntary migration, explosions of bloody violence and war but also moments of solidarity and peaceful cooperation. This course will not focus solely on political history of the rise and fall of certain states and powers. Instead, we will analyze how borders between states but also in the minds of people evolved and mattered. Topics include migration, industrialization, mobility, (cold) war and peace, nationalism and communism, European integration and many more. Since these are huge topics we will focus on Frankfurt/Oder and the German-Polish borderlands.

Course leader

Dr. Marcus Nesselrodt

Target group

Undergraduate Students

Course aim

The general aim of this course is to enable students to understand the importance and the dynamics of borders in Central and Eastern Europe.