Home > Research > Research field Transformation Research

Research field: Transformation Research

Es werden die Projekte mit Titel und Namen der Koordination und Bearbeiter aufgelistet. Über einen Link können Detailinformationen aufgerufen werden

Transformations in internationally comparative perspective

The projects are listed with the title and name of the coordinator and the researchers involved. Detailed information can be accessed via a link.

This research field is tasked with the comparative and interdisciplinary study of transformation processes in (East) Germany and East Central Europe, taking into account simultaneous transformation processes in Western Europe (of the so-called ‘co-transformation’). In our research, we not only center on the system change of 1989/90 but on transformation processes in Europe throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. We aim at developing a transnational and diachronic perspective on political caesuras and processes of profound social change from the First World War up to the present day. Our work particularly focuses on the transformation processes after 1918, 1945, 1989 and 2020 and their diverse effects on the societies and people affected. A central aim lies in analyzing the specific experiences of different ages, especially of the life phases of ‘childhood’ and ‘old age’.

As an interdisciplinary and international team, we employ biographical and qualitative research methods. We also increasingly make use of digital humanities methods. In addition to an innovative methodological approach, our research field pursues a transnational comparative approach to transformation processes in (East) Germany and Eastern Europe.

The work of our research field is currently divided into three thematic areas: 1) ‘Work and Everyday Life’: Here we are researching ‘transformation regimes’ through the nationalization and privatization of economic and industrial enterprises in East German and in East Central European societies. 2 ‘Age and Care’: The focus here lies on examining the impact of political caesuras on different ages (especially of children and the elderly) as well as the respective care discourses and practices; 3. ‘Political Action and Self-Organization’: This focus illuminates the possibilities and limits of political action and various forms of self-organization in times of accelerated change in social, political and economic systems. The projects in these three areas and the resulting conference and publication projects aim to contribute to diachronic and comparative research into political ruptures and their long-term social consequences.

Coordination: PD Dr Friederike Kind-Kovács
Researchers: Dr. Agnes Anna Arndt, Dr. Maren Hachmeister, PD Dr. Friederike Kind-Kovács, Teresa Lindenauer, Dr. Klará Pinerová, Josephine Starke

Current projects

To their own good? Children's rights and democratic education in Europe since 1924

coordination: Dr. Agnes Anna Arndt

The Best Interests of the Child. A Social and Cultural History of the Political Economy of Care since 1946

coordination: Dr. Agnes Anna Arndteditor: Dr. Agnes Anna Arndt

Working group on childhood history(ies)

coordination: PD Dr. Friederike Kind-Kovács

Ageing and digital change. Experiences of older people with volunteering, ageing and digitalization from post-unification to the covid-19-pandemic (1980-2023)

coordination: Dr. Maren Hachmeistereditor: Teresa Lindenauer

COST Action CA22159, National, International and Transnational Histories of Healthcare, 1850-2000

coordination: PD Dr. habil. Friederike Kind-Kovács

Politisches Handeln in der Transformationsgesellschaft. Eine rekonstruktive Analyse der politischen Biografien sächsischer Stadtratsmitglieder

coordination: Josephine Starke

Political Polarisation and Communist Past: Czech and German Case (POPOLACOP)

coordination: Dr. Klára Pinerová

"PENTACON PROJECT" - Long-exposure. Work and experiences in Dresden's camera industry in the transformation years of 1980 to 2000

coordination: Roland Schwarzeditor: PD Dr. habil. Friederike Kind-Kovács, Dr. Maren Hachmeister

The "Wende" of the Children: Childhood in the East German Transformation

coordination: PD Dr. Friederike Kind-Kovácseditor: PD Dr. Friederike Kind-Kovács

More than a Footnote in History? Asta Nilsson and the Swedish Rescue of Budapests (Jewish) Children

coordination: PD Dr. Friederike Kind-Kovács

Out of the Camps: The Rehabilitation of Hungarian Jewish Child Victims in postwar Sweden

coordination: PD Dr. Friederike Kind-Kovács

Completed projects

Ukrainian Childhood facing War and Displacement : A Life Story Project

Belonging. The History of Child Adoption in Germany (1945/9-2000)

coordination: PD Dr. Bettina Hitzereditor: PD Dr. Bettina Hitzer; Anne Rinke

Multiple Transformations. Societal Experience and Cultural Change in East Germany and Central Eastern Europe before and after 1989

coordination: PD Dr. Friederike Kind-Kovácseditor: Dr. Maren Hachmeister; PD Dr. Friederike

Voluntariness and Care in Transformation: Local Involvement in the Tri-Border Region

coordination: PD Dr. Friederike Kind-Kovácseditor: Dr. Maren HachmeisterJoint project

Setting out for democracy and nationhood in the border triangle of Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia after the Great War (1918-1923)

coordination: PD Dr. Steffen Kailitzeditor: Sebastian Paul, Matthäus Wehowski

Volunteer work in local communities between state socialism and liberal capitalism. The history of the volunteer fire brigades in Germany and Eastern Central Europe 1980-2000

coordination: Prof. Dr. Thomas Lindenberger, Univ. Prof. Dr. Philipp Thereditor: Steffi Unger, Mojmír Stránský

Why do democracies collapse?

coordination: PD Dr. Steffen Kailitz

Budapest's Children: Humanitarian Relief in the Aftermath of the Great War

coordination: PD Dr. Friederike Kind-Kovácseditor: PD Dr. Friederike Kind-Kovács