How do we study Germany in its European context?

IGES has invited Prof. Dr. Jacco Pekelder, a leading expert on modern German history who works at the University of Utrecht, to deliver this postgraduate workshop, which focuses on Germany’s relationship with Europe. The workshop addresses questions such as: What are the main challenges we face when we examine outside perceptions of Germany? How can we research German nationalism within its European context? How has Germany’s relationship with Europe changed across the 19^th, 20^th and 21^st century? All postgraduate students are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Jacco Pekelder (b. 1967) is associate professor in the history of international relations at Utrecht University, the Netherlands, and honorary professor of Contemporary History of Western Europe at Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany. His publications deal with the dynamics of political violence, especially around left-wing terrorism in West Germany in the 1970s, and the history of Germany’s position in Europe since 1815. He is currently writing a book about the German question in the nineteenth century, which looks at how, from 1830, six of Germany’s neighbouring nations reacted to the emergence of a German nation-state and the spectre of hegemony from Europe’s centre.

Recent publications include the articles “Germany and Europe after 1989: The spectre of the German question and the resilience of self-restraint”, in: Eleni Braat and Pepijn Corduwener (eds.), 1989 and the West. Western Europe since the End of the Cold War (Routledge, 2020), 17-26, and, with Joost Augusteijn (Leiden University), “Terrorist Constituencies in Terrorist-State Conflicts: The Debate on the Use of Violence Among Irish Nationalist and West Germany’s Radical Left in the Mid-1970s”, in: Joost Augusteijn, Constant Hijzen and Mark Leon de Vries (eds.), Historical Perspectives on Democracies and Their Adversaries (Palgrave MacMillan, 2019) 101-136.