Open Access

Peter Haslinger

• First, this article focuses on the question of how the historiography on Eastern European in German-speaking countries reflected on questions of space and territoriality before the appearance of the spatial turn. Second, it gives an insight into recent trends in this field of research and summarizes the most important works on the modern history of East Central Europe that can be placed in this context. It comes to the conclusion that it would be too much to say that the debates that emergedFirst, this article focuses on the question of how the historiography on Eastern European in German-speaking countries reflected on questions of space and territoriality before the appearance of the spatial turn. Second, it gives an insight into recent trends in this field of research and summarizes the most important works on the modern history of East Central Europe that can be placed in this context. It comes to the conclusion that it would be too much to say that the debates that emerged since the late 1990s on Eastern Europe in Germany had anticipated already the main elements of the recent spatial turn. From today’s perspective, however, significant transfer potential can still be identified, also because discussions within German East European history did not find their way into more general historical debate (with only some exceptions like studies related to the question of boundaries). The complex historical development of East-Central Europe in particular offers enough material for impulses that can be ideally transmitted in connection with the core theories of the spatial turn.…