The department focuses on processes that intensified in the 19th century and continued throughout the 20th century. We regard the 19th century as the era of the breakthrough of ‘modernity’ and as the foundation of the ‘industrial world’. Key themes of this period include the history of European social orders and democracies, the history of industrialisation and the associated social and cultural changes, the movements towards the nation state and imperialist expansion, and the history of, in some cases, new social classes and movements.

We do not examine the history of modernity, as has long been customary, as a narrative of progress. Rather, we focus on the manifold ruptures, ambivalences and ‘dark sides’ of modernity. Why was one part of Europe marked by crises and wars that led, in the 1930s, to the great ‘civilisational rupture’ of the 20th century, whilst in other regions democratic societies resisted the temptation of totalitarianism?

Seen in this light, the first half of the 20th century appears to have been characterised by uncertainty, but also by breathtaking cultural upheavals; the second half by the stabilisation of democracy and the emergence of new dictatorships, the revolutionisation of lifestyles, the ‘Cold War’ and its end in 1989.

Our research projects focus primarily on German, British and Scandinavian social history from the early 19th century to the present day, examining it from a transnational perspective.