Research interests:

• migration and global history
• history of transformation prior and after 1989
• biographical research
• Ukraine, Poland and Soviet Union in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

Current research project: 

"Cars for the East: The Informal Car Market in Poland, 1980-1990s".

In my project, I examine the transnational history of Poland in the context of the transformation period before and after the political caesura of 1989. As a case study, I investigate the informal car market, which was closely interwoven with Germany and Austria as well as the post-Soviet space. I speak of "informal" because legal, illegal and semi-legal practices are equally considered. I use criminal court records as my main source, a source that has hardly been used for this period to date.

Publications:

"Der Karabiner von Stalin. Ein sowjetisches Leben zwischen Bürgerkrieg, Konzentrationslager und Gulag" (Frankfurt am Main: Campus 2023)

"Das global vernetzte Dorf. Eine Migrationsgeschichte" (Frankfurt am Main: Campus 2017)

"Flucht aus dem Todesblock. Der Massenausbruch sowjetischer Offiziere aus dem Block 20 des KZ Mauthausen und die 'Mühlviertler Hasenjagd'. Hintergründe, Folgen, Aufarbeitung" (Innsbruck: Studienverlag 2012)