The three historians Anka Steffen, Samuel Eleazar Wendt, and Jutta Wimmler presented their edited volume Re-Thinking German Colonialism. Dependencies in Trade, Production and Consumption (16th–21st Centuries) to fellow historian Prof. Dr. Klaus Weber on the occasion of his farewell lecture at Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder). Jutta Wimmler, former Research Group Leader at the BCDSS, who had worked alongside Prof. Weber for many years, acknowledged his tireless commitment to society:
"You were always focused on people. It was precisely this perspective, both global and local, that served as your guiding principle in your research."
For more information please see the press release by Viadrina University:
https://www.europa-uni.de/de/universitaet/kommunikation/newsportal/2026/20260709-abschiedsvorlesung-klaus-weber/index.html
Abstract of the volume:
Research of the past twenty years has revealed the deep connections between colonial spaces and Central European trade, production, and consumption in the early modern period. This book argues that the results of this research need to be integrated into our understanding of “German colonialism” on a conceptual level. Bridging research on “early modern” and “modern” colonial-isms, the papers in this volume suggest that we need to take the specific character of Central European entanglements with global spaces more seriously. At the same time, the book examines the analytical boundaries of “Germany” and the importance of a transnational perspective for Central and Northern European involvements with colonialism. Zooming in to questions of dependency, the individual contributions interrogate the scope of action of differently positioned actors, often generating surprising results about the possibilities and limits of agency. The ten thematic papers are framed by a historiographical essay and an introduction that proposes a framework for thoroughly re-thinking how we might conceptualize “German colonialism” moving forward.
