Theology and History: Dutch People in East Frisia - Language, Economy and Culture Since the Early Modern Period

Previous cooperation projects have shown the extent to which the transnational regions of East Frisia, Friesland and Groningen must be understood as a coherent and mutually influencing cultural space, especially in the early modern period. Recent research approaches to transregional history point to the porosity of early modern borders, which were indeed experienced as such by the actors. This porosity has strong historical roots in East Frisia that go back to the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, we currently know little about everyday migration from the Netherlands and the cross-border influence of the Dutch language and its effects on societies on either side of a border that has been renegotiated over and over again.

The project "Border Crossers in the Northwest" is dedicated to this topic, which has not yet been dealt with much in research, and aims primarily at involving students in Groningen and Oldenburg in the research perspective outlined. In doing so, it combines the expertise of those involved in the cooperation at the Universities of Groningen (Prof. Dr. Raingard Esser, Early Modern History, Prof. Dr. Bart Ramakers, Early Netherlandish Studies) and Oldenburg (Prof. Dr. Andrea Strübind, Church History) with the research holdings of the Johannes a Lasco Library Emden, and the special collection of the University Library of Groningen. Methodically and theoretically, the research programme is based on recent approaches to the concept of actor-centred transregionalism.