070368 PS Proseminar - History of the Baltic Sea Region, 1914-2014 (2019W)

The aim of the course is to provide students with an overview of the history of the Baltic Sea Region from the caesura of World War I, which led to profound geopolitical changes around the Baltic rim, to the occupation of Crimea one hundred years later, which turned the region into a new frontline of conflict between NATO and the Russian Federation. Studying European post-1914 history through the prism of the Baltic Sea Region, the course will give ample opportunity to examine the double role of the sea itself as a barrier and a bridge, but also its impact on historical narratives based on the Braudelian idea of the "Mediterranean of the North". The discussion of the Baltic Sea Region as both a historical and historiographical space is used to impart knowledge about the role of history writing as a policy-making tool in region-building processes, but also about its instrumentalization as an element of strategic geopolitics.
The critical reading of contemporary and older scholarly texts, which serve a double function as primary and secondary sources, but also of political treaties, travel guides and policy papers will provide the basis for class and group discussions on maritime history approaches, the changing conceptions of space in historiography and the study of historical regions from a transnational angle. Individual work on selected aspects of the overarching topic of the history of the sea and its shores as a European macro-region will train students to frame historical questions, to outline a topic for first independent research and to make a survey of existing work in the field. Additional oral assignments will offer students an opportunity to develop their skills in presenting and critically discussing their and their fellow students’ work.