Modern History

My main research interests lie broadly in the field of late 19th and 20th-century history of Central Europe and its southern transitional areas. In particular, I focus on the (formerly) Habsburg borderland regions in the Alps and on the Upper Adriatic Sea. The past of this unique European crossroad of cultures and languages is embedded in the history of larger spaces. Therefore my area of interest comprises Italy, the German-speaking countries, and Southeast Europe. Additionally, my research interests include social and rural history, historical demography, and the history of tourism and mountaineering. Find a list of my research and publication metadata here.

• Viticulture and Wine Trade of the Augustinian Canons' Monastery at Gries (Bolzano): A Long-Run Socio-Economic History
  

2025, September 11 - Klagenfurt (Austria), kärnten.museum:

Conference »Glückliche Umstände oder problematische Kontinuität? Das [Kärntner] Landesmuseum und seine Geschichte«

Papers and discussion with Renate Jernej, Wilhelm Wadl and Michael Wedekind

2025, October 24-25 - Klagenfurt (Austria), Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt / kärnten.museum:

Conference »Zum Umgang mit Geschichte nach 1945«

Paper:  »Kärnten im ›Dritten Reich‹: NS-Regime, Expansion, Besatzungs- und Bevölkerungspolitik (1938-1945). Eine historiographische Nachlese« (October 24)

2025, November 18 - Ljubljana (Slovenia), Znanstvenoraziskovalni center Slovenske akademije znanosti in umetnosti, 3.00 p.m.

Paper:  »Seizing the Past – Shaping the Future: Slovene Cultural Heritage under Nazi Occupation«

Seizure and transfer of cultural heritage across German occupied Europe were part of the Nazi strategy for reorganizing the continent’s space and population. The appropriation of artifacts is closely linked to the appropriation of the past and its reinterpretation; it is aimed at claiming, securing and representing power as well as at the denationalisation of people and the ‘ethnic purification’ of cultural landscapes. As was the case of Slovenia, cultural heritage is generally loaded with complex symbolic emotional, historical and ideological charges. While it is therefore hardly surprising that the confiscation of cultural assets played a major role in Nazi occupation policy, marked by intense efforts to eradicate Slovene identity and culture, it does come as a surprise, however, that this subject remained largely unaddressed by historians and art historians until only a few years ago. The paper traces the numerous German authorities involved in the relocation of cultural assets; it analyses their specific intentions as well as their ways of thinking and acting. It deals with the differences compared to other Nazi occupied territories, and traces the whereabouts of works of art and their political use and musealisation. The paper also sheds light on those collaborating circles of Slovene society (not only of ‘volksdeutsch’ origin) that occasionally were key figures in seizing artifacts. Finally, it touches upon the lengthy post-war restitution processes, which for a long time were overshadowed by the Cold War, by persisting ethnical conflicts, excessive Yugoslavian claims and Austrian obstructionism.

Slovenia: Confiscating Cultural Heritage.

The Case of Hugo Uhlíř

Mansion Ruda near Sevnica/Štajerska, owned by Bohemia-born art collector and fine art publisher Hugo Uhlíř (1881-1965; see Slovenska biografija), was confiscated by the Reich Commissioner for Strengthening Germandom (Reichskommissar für die Festigung deutschen Volkstums) in mid-1941. A few months later, the Nazi General Trustee for the Safeguarding of Cultural Assets (Generaltreuhänder für die Sicherstellung der Kulturgüter) began to inventory the Uhlíř Collection. According to the valuation report of the Commission for the Determination of Damage to

2025, May 22 - Bremen (Germany), Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Bremen / Deutsch-Italienische Gesellschaft Bremen e.V.

Talk »Über das Ende von Kriegen: Der Fall Oberitalien zwischen Alpen und Adria 1943-1945«



2025, January 31 - Bolzano (Italy), Arbeitsgruppe ›Geschichte und Region / Storia e regione‹ & Biblioteca provinciale italiana ›Claudia Augusta‹:

Book launch: Taiani, Rodolfo / Wedekind, Michael (eds.), Bevölkerungsgeschichte eines mitteleuropäischen Übergangsraumes: Tirol - Südtirol - Trentino 1880-2010. Vienna: Böhlau 2025 & Taiani, Rodolfo / Wedekind, Michael (eds.), La regione Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol nel XX secolo. Vol. 3: L'oggetto popolazione. Trento: Fondazione Museo storico 2021. - Panel discussion with Alessio Fornasin (University of Udine) and the editors. Introduction by Adina Guarnieri (Bolzano).

2024, October 21 - Warsaw (Poland), Austriackie Forum Kultury - Österreichisches Kulturforum (Organized by Pracownia Obszaru Postjugosłowiańskiego Uniwersytetu Warszawski):

Talk »Continuities and Discontinuities: Late Habsburg Rule in the Alpine-Adriatic Borderlands and its Aftermath«

2024, September 27 - Baselga di Piné (Italy), LAC - Biblioteca di Baselga di Piné

Conference »Tra storia e musealizzazione del turismo: il progetto Albergo-Museo ›Alla Corona‹« (di Montagnaga di Piné, Trentino)

Paper »I luoghi della villeggiatura nella storia del turismo«

2023, November 9-10 - Regensburg (Germany), Leibniz-Institut für Ost- und Südosteuropaforschung, Regensburg / Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste, Magdeburg:

Conference »NS-Raubgut aus dem östlichen Europa in Bibliotheken: Provenienz - Restitution - Forschungsstand«

Paper »NS-Kulturgutraub in den besetzten Gebieten des heutigen Sloweniens« (November 9)

2023, November 8-10 - Polanica-Zdrój (Poland):

10. Internationale Tagung ›Gebirge - Literatur - Kultur‹: »Klang, Geruch, Geschmack und Berührung der Berge« / Międzynarodowa konferencja naukowa ›Góry - Literatura - Kultura‹, Edycja X: »Dźwięk, zapach, smak i dotyk gór«

Paper »Vom Schaudern und Entzücken der Sinne: Zum Wandel sinnlicher Alpenwahrnehmung«  (November 8)

2023, November 2-4 - Salzburg (Austria), Universität Mozarteum Salzburg:

»Metamorphosen: Wandel und Verwandlung in und durch Musik im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert«

Paper »Zwischen Wandel und Beharrung: Musik in Tirol vom frühen 20. zum beginnenden 21. Jahrhundert«  (November 4)

2023, June 12-13 - Warsaw (Poland), University of Warsaw, Instytut Slawistyki Zachodniej i Południowej - Zespół Badania Kultur Słowiańskich w Monarchii Habsburskiej (Institute of Western and Southern Slavic Studies - Research Center on the Slavic Cultures in the Habsburg Monarchy) / German Historical Institute:

Conference »Local Communities and New Elites in Austria-Hungary«

Paper »Between Austria and Italy: The Liberal Elites of Italian Speaking Tyrol, c.1848 to 1915«  (June 12)

2023, May 25-26 - Bolzano (Italy), Landesbibliothek ›Dr. Friedrich Teßmann‹ / Austrian Academy of Sciences (Vienna):

Conference »›Citizen Science‹ gestern und heute«

Paper »An den Grenzen des  ›Deutschtums‹, an den Grenzen der Wissenschaftlichkeit: Karl Felix Wolff – ein ›citizen scientist‹«? (May 26)

2023, April 27-28 - Berlin (Germany), Bundesarchiv Berlin-Lichterfelde:

›Ideologies in National Socialism‹ Conference, organized by ›History and Documentation e.V.‹ (Berlin) - ›Ideologies in National Socialism‹ Handbook Project

Paper »The Südtirol Culture Commission« (April 27)

2023, March 30-April 1 - Prague (Czech Republic), Masarykův ústav a Archiv Akademie věd České republiky (Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences):

»›Minority Science‹ in the Short 20th Century: Imagining Science from the Margins of Academia« 

Paper »Interwar Minority Scholarship in South Tyrol« (March 31)