Abstract

Migration to, from, and within German-speaking lands has been a dynamic force in Central European history for centuries. Exemplifying some of the most exciting recent research on historical mobility, the essays collected here reconstruct the experiences of vagrants, laborers, religious exiles, refugees, and other migrants during the last five hundred years of German history. With diverse contributions ranging from early modern martyrdom to post–Cold War commemoration efforts, this volume identifies revealing commonalities shared by different eras while also placing the German case within the broader contexts of European and global migration.

“The majority of essays deserve being highly praised as many authors provide well-written analyses and insights that are full of detail and highly original…The quality of the volume…ensures scholars working on specific aspects of migration in German territory will find valuable information in it.” • German History

“…important for the potential reader, the [diversity of the chapters} make the book a valuable contribution to any academic library, not just for their research but for their potential use in teaching graduate students and undergraduates alike. For graduate students in any historical field, the chapters serve as a kind of field guide to the potential benefits of archival research. For the teacher of undergraduates, these chapters illuminate the work of the historian as well as providing concrete examples of research scattered across the globe and historical epochs.” • English Historical Review

“The essays in this volume are thoroughly researched and address important aspects of central European migration, especially on three topical areas: religion and exile; flux and the politics of immigration; and cultures of exile and the formation of exile identities.” • European History Quarterly

“…a well-curated volume that seeks to both elaborate on known historical themes and to provide a critical counterpoint to the discussion of immigration and migration today… [This] book is topical and indispensable, providing a wide-ranging and critical discussion. This text stretches across disciplines and is a crossroads for multiple scholars within migration studies. Migrations in the German Lands, 1500-2000 is a significant work for scholars, both now and in the future.” • International Social Science Review

“This well-edited, well-written volume represents an important contribution to migration history. Its distinctiveness lies both in its focus on immigration to and within Germany—as opposed to German emigration to other lands—and its unusually broad chronological range, including a welcome emphasis on the early modern period.” • James Melton, Emory University

Jason Coy is Professor of History at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina. He is the author of Strangers and Misfits: Banishment, Social Control, and Authority in Early Modern Germany (2008) and co-editor of the Spektrum volume Kinship, Community, and Self (2014).

Alexander Schunka is Professor in Early Modern History at the Friedrich Meinecke Institute, Freie Universität of Berlin. He previously taught History at the Universities of Stuttgart and Erfurt. He is the author of Soziales Wissen und dörfliche Welt (2000) and Gäste, die bleiben (2006).

Jared Poley is Professor of History at Georgia State University. He is the author of Decolonization in Germany: Weimar Narratives of Colonial Loss and Foreign Occupation (2005) and The Devil’s Riches: A Modern History of Greed (2016). He is a co-editor of the Spektrum collections Conversion and the Politics of Religion in Early Modern Germany (2012) and Kinship, Community, and Self (2014).