Professor Klaus Richter

• Mondays: 11:00 - 12:00
• Wednesdays: 12:00 - 13:00

• Staatsexamen in History (University of Cologne)
• Doctoral degree in History, (Technical University of Berlin)

From 2009 to 2011, I worked as a research associate at the Centre for Research on Anti-Semitism at the Technical University of Berlin, followed by a year of postdoctoral research at the German Historical Institute in Warsaw. I started work at the University of Birmingham in 2012. 

• Special subject: ‘Conflict, nationalism and genocide in East Central Europe, ca. 1880 – 1953’
• Option: ‘Europe in the Age of Total War’

I am currently first supervisor for the following students: Jonathan Conde, Graham Cox, Jared Feuerstein, Owen Grey and Marta Starostina.

I am happy to supervise doctoral work in the following areas: history of modern Eastern Europe, history of nationalism, interwar history, history of the First and Second World War.

Find out more - our PhD History  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

I am a historian of Central and Eastern Europe with a specific interest in the region located between Russia and Germany, i.e. especially modern-day Poland, the Baltics, Belarus and Ukraine. In my research, I am particularly interested in nationalism, in the relationship between society and state and in the impact of economic crises.

My past research include a monograph on the effects of territorial fragmentation were utilised to build states in interwar Poland and the Baltics (2020), which received the Biennial Book Award of the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies as well as a monograph on anti-Semitism in Lithuania before World War I (2014), which focussed on anti-Jewish violence and strategies to “emancipate” the peasants from Jewish merchants. I am also the lead of the following projects:

• 'Subjectivities of Owning Land: Land Redistribution and the Nation State in the Baltics, ca. 1900-2000' (as principal investigator). Funded by the UK-German Funding Initiative in the Humanities of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the German Research Foundation (DFG), the project is a collaboration with the Herder Institute in Marburg. The project aims to investigate whether the central role of land reform in 1918-1940, 1940-1990, and after 1991 has produced a land-owning subjectivity that is specific to the Baltics, but also how far there is a broader logic to how property redistribution shapes subjectivities that can be applied to other geographical contexts.
• 'The Liminality of Failing Democracy: East Central Europe and the Interwar Slump' (as principal investigator). This project challenges the narrative that democratic failure and the rise of authoritarian leaders in interwar East Central Europe resulted from a lack of experience in political participation. Rather, it argues that authoritarianism was enabled during specific critical moments which endowed it with significant domestic and international support. Two research fellows carry out the research, focusing on the two largest states of the region: Poland and Romania.

Concluded research projects:

• ‘Futures of German Diasporas’ (as principal investigator). This was an interdisciplinary visiting scholar programme that brought into a common frame different disciplinary approaches to the study of diaspora communities’ expectations towards their individual futures and towards the future of their relationship with the state and society they live in. The programme funded visits of two postdoctoral scholars (Dr Nino Aivazishvili-Gehne, Dr Cristian Cercel) and of 5 doctoral students (Dr Till Greite, Rahat Shah, Jana Stöxen, Stefanie Populorum, Florian Probst). It was funded through the German Academic Exchange Service’s (DAAD) ‘Promoting German Studies in the UK and Ireland’ programme and ran from 2022 to 2024.
• ‘The Fight against the Traffic in Women and Children in Interwar Poland’ (as principal investigator). This project retraced the networks of Polish anti-trafficking organisations and their connection to local and regional practitioners, such as the Polish Women’s police as well as railway and port missions. It focused on how far Polish campaigns were shaped, facilitated or hampered by international efforts and how far they in turned shaped international policies, especially concerning the control of prostitution and of the movement of women. The research for this project was funded by the Fritz-Thyssen Foundation and ran from 2018 to 2021.
• ‘Hinterlands and Hypertrophies. Assessments of the “Viability” of Empires and Nation-States in Central and Eastern Europe, 1900 – 1930's’ (as principal investigator). Together with Dr Jonathan Gumz, I analysed the origins, development and impact of the concept of “viability” and its practice in early 20th century Central and Eastern Europe. The project was funded by an AHRC Early Career Standard Research Grant from 2017 to 2020.
• ‘Practices and Perceptions of Property Redistribution in Poland and the Baltic States, 1917 – 1934’ (as principal investigator). This project looked at the development of property distribution and its connection with state building in the former borderlands of the German and Russian empires following WWI – specifically Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The project was funded with a British Academy Small Research Grant from 2015 to 2017.
• ‘Borders, Maps and Congresses. The New Order of East Central Europe from the Legacy of the Empires, 1917 – 1923.’ This project, which was co-ordinated by the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt/Oder, looked at the interplay of international diplomacy, practices of rule and spatial imaginaries in the drawing of borders after the First World War. The project ran from 2013 to 2016 and was funded by Viadrina University.
• ‘Population displacement and its political and cultural heritage in 20th century Lithuania’ (Gyventojų dislokacija ir jos politinis bei kultūrinis palikimas XX amžiaus Lietuvoje). This project, which was co-ordinated by the University of Vilnius, examined the impact of displacement, refugee crises and deportations on Lithuanian society across the 20th century. The project, which was funded by the European Structural Fund, started in 2013 and concluded in 2015.