Research
Our research and teaching here in Göttingen is informed by theoretical concepts and focuses primarily on the social and economic history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We focus on five subfields:
History of consumption
A plentiful array of affordable consumer goods available to wide segments of the population has shaped the "modern" way of life in developed economies. The rise of mass consumer societies, their origins and their social consequences are an important aspect of the study of economic and social history in Götttingen.
Business history
We are interested in the history of companies not merely as producers, but also as actors within society. We study the way in which companies are embedded within economic, political, social and cultural contexts. Our research also traces transformation processes with regard to the micro-economic and organizational structures and functions of businesses.
History of Globalisation
The growth of the world econopmy and the increasing global integration of markets has a historical dimension; it cannot simply be viewed as a uniform and linear process leading up to the present day. We research the effects of globalisation as a process on societies worldwide as well as through the histories of phenomena such as multinational enterprises, global markets, or transnational transfers in knowledge.
History of Transformation
The history of transformation following the fall of the Iron Curtain and the end of the SED dictatorship in the GDR, as well as the decline of communism in Central and Eastern Europe, continues to shape the economies of Germany and the former “Eastern Bloc countries” to this day. In our courses and research, we examine this history of economic transformation and upheaval in its entirety, for example, with regard to the revolutions of 1989–1991, deindustrialization, the phenomenon of (mass) unemployment, and the general socio-economic reorientation.
Economic History of the 20th and 21st Centuries
At our department, we explore the various recent and current trends in the economic history of the 20th and 21st centuries. These include the still-raging debates surrounding the system of forced labor in Nazi Germany, as well as the economic policies of the Federal Republic of Germany and U.S. trade policy under Donald Trump.
