Department II: History of Economic Life

Kraftwerk Berlin Lichterfelde 2017.
Foto: Hans-Hermann Hertle

 

 

 

Head of Department: Priv.-Doz. Dr. Rüdiger Graf

The research of Department II focuses on economic structures and institutions as well as on the practices and behaviors of economic actors, and ideas and discourses linked to economics. The field of economics in contemporary history is examined in relation to its interdependency with politics, culture, and society.

Most of the department’s research work concentrates on the second half of the twentieth century from a transnational or East-West perspective. Individual projects deal with the history of globalization and structural policies, of retail trade and computerization, of collective economies in Western Europe, of the family and theories of economic behavior.