Oldenburg historian Prof Dr Hans Henning Hahn has been awarded the highest Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. He received the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit from Polish President Bronisław Komorowski during a ceremony at the Royal Castle in Warsaw.
On Poland's highest bank holidays (3 May), the neighbouring country honoured Hahn's "outstanding merits for the development of Polish-German scientific cooperation, for achievements in research and for the dissemination of knowledge about the history of Poland".
The historian from the University of Oldenburg has become known in Poland for his research on Polish history in the 19th century and on German-Polish relations in modern times, among other things. Together with his colleague Prof Dr Robert Traba, he has been leading the largest joint German-Polish humanities research project "German-Polish Places of Remembrance" since 2007, with extensive book publications in both languages.
His essays and a book he co-authored with his wife Eva on the expulsion events during and after the Second World War enjoy an attentive readership in Poland, as does Hahn's methodological work on historical stereotype research.
The Grand Cross of the Order of Merit is not the first award that the historian - an honorary member of the Polish Association of Historians since 2012 - has received in the neighbouring country. Komorowski also presented him with the Medal of Thanks of the European Centre Solidarnosc in 2010. This was in recognition of Hahn's commitment to the democratic opposition in Poland in the 1970s and 1980s, which resulted in him being banned from entering the former People's Republic of Poland for ten years.
Hans Henning Hahn has been Professor of Modern Eastern European History at the University of Oldenburg since 1992.
