Before Nord Stream 2 and All That: German-Russian/Soviet Economic Relations in the Long 20th Century
This course reconstructs the long history of German-Russian/Soviet economic relations between ~ the 1900 and the post-Soviet era. Its first part will be devoted to theoretical and methodological basics regarding the political economy of international relations, actors and structural features. In the second part, students will conduct small group projects to reconstruct German-Russian/Soviet economic relations in chronological order. The seminar will be jointly organized by Martin Lutz (HU) and Robert Kindler (FU).

Soviet History through the Senses
In 1994 George H. Roeder Jr. published an article in the Journal of American History titled ‚Coming to Our Senses‘ and claimed: „Ours is a nearly sense-less profession.“ (JAH 81, 3; p. 1112.). Only a few historians have studied sensory experiences up to this point; most notably Alain Corbin. We will delve into the main themes of the historiography of the Soviet Union and explore their still largely uncharted sensory dimension. Although we will work mainly with texts and audio-visual material, we will also strive for a practical approach, for example, by studying Soviet cookbooks. 

Das Russländische Imperium und die Sowjetunion in westlichen Reiseberichten
Until well into the second half of the 20th century, travelogues from Russia and the Soviet Union served historical researchers at best as a "reservoir of quotations" and were considered useful historical sources only to a limited extent. Together, we will devote this seminar to a selection of well-known and lesser-known (Western) European and American travelogues from the beginning of the 19th to the end of the 20th century.