German Historical Institute London

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Phone: Tel. +44-(0)20-7309 2050

URI: www.ghil.ac.uk

 

Dr Clemens Villinger

Modern History

+44 020 7309 2038 c.villinger@ghil.ac.uk ORCID-ID
 
 

Clemens Villinger is a historian of modern (East) German history, interested in the history of everyday life, the history of (social) sciences and knowledge, as well as consumer and economic history.


Before joining the GHIL in 2023, I worked at the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History in Potsdam (ZZF), the GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences and the University of Jena. I received my PhD from the Max Weber Centre at the University of Erfurt in 2021. Prior to my doctorate, I finished a scientific traineeship at the Berlin Wall Foundation and worked as a research fellow at the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the East German Dictatorship. Because of my previous work in field of memorial culture, I am interested in translating scientific knowledge into the public. The history of transformation in East Germany before, during and after 1989/90 has been the focus of my past research. By re-using social science data from the 1990s, I examined the relationship between consumption practices, notions of justice and social inequality.

At the GHIL I am developing a new project on the history of normality in the 20th century by comparing the lives of ‘average’ British and German people born around 1900. The vast social science data archives in Germany and the UK will serve as a starting point for me to explore further the practical and methodological implications of re-using social science data as historical sources.


 

Research Project

The Average Self:
A Comparative History of Normality in the 20th Century

Image of a page of an Edwardian family album, dated 1907, from the Hook family, possibly of Hull. It shows six images, 4 with people, one of a park and one of a home interior.

This project uses social science data to analyse how notions of normality were (re)produced, spread and changed during the 20th century. It focuses on people who lived in Britain and Germany between 1900 and 1980. By asking how and why people perceived themselves and their biographies as ordinary or extraordinary, the project aims to tell a history of normality in the ‘age of extremes’ (Eric Hobsbawm).

Responsibilities at the GHIL

  • Research Fellow in Modern History
  • Review Editor for the GHIL Bulletin

Research Interests

  • Everyday history
  • History of social sciences and knowledge
  • History of socialism and post-socialism
  • Consumption and economic history
  • Biographical research

Education and Academic Background

2022–2023 Research fellow, University of Jena
2020–2021 PhD candidate at the Max-Weber-Centre of the University of Erfurt
2020–2022 Research assistant, GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences
2016–2022 PhD candidate and research fellow, Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam (ZZF)
2015–2016 Research fellow at the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the East German Dictatorship
2012–2014 Scientific trainee at the Berlin Wall Foundation
2009–2012 MA in History, Humboldt University Berlin
2005–2009 BA in History with minors in sociology and political science, Technical University Dresden
   

Fellowships, Grants, and Scholarships

2019 25th Transatlantic Doctoral Seminar, GHI Washington/BMW Center for German and European Studies
   

Honours and Distinctions

2020 WISPoP – Potsdam Prize for Science Communication (together with Kerstin Brückweh and Kathrin Zöller)
   
   

Memberships and Affiliations

  • Review Editor for H-Soz-Kult
  • Arbeitskreis Sozialdaten und Zeitgeschichte
 
 

Publications

 
 

Monographs and Edited Volumes

Vom ungerechten Plan zum gerechten Markt? Konsum, soziale Ungleichheit und der Systemwechsel von 1989/90 (Berlin, 2022)

with Kerstin Brückweh and Kathrin Zöller (eds.), Die lange Geschichte der “Wende”. Geschichtswissenschaft im Dialog (Berlin, 2020)

Articles and Chapters

‘Normalizing capitalism: East Germans experiencing the market economy during the 1990s’, Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe 32 (2024) (Read here)

‘Verantwortung durch Konsum: ostdeutsche Verbraucherinnen und Verbraucher und die Zuschreibung von individueller Handlungsmacht zu Beginn der 1990er-Jahre’, Geschichte und Gesellschaft 48/1 (2022), 28–58 (Read here)

with Kerstin Brückweh, Christina von Hodenberg, Pascal Siegers, Lutz Raphael, Sabine Reh, Kathrin Zöller, ‘Sozialdaten als Quellen der Zeitgeschichte: Zur Einführung’, Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 48/1 (2022), 5–27 (Read here)

with Kerstin Brückweh, Christina von Hodenberg, Pascal Siegers, Lutz Raphael, Sabine Reh, Kathrin Zöller, ‘Sozialwissenschaftliche Forschungsdaten als historische Quellen: Welche Infrastrukturbedarfe hat die zeitgeschichtliche Forschung?’, RatSWD Working Paper Series 277 (2022) (Read here)

with Kerstin Brückweh, ‘Sich (nicht) die Butter vom Brot nehmen lassen. Ein Forschungsbericht zur Konsumgeschichte zwischen Alltag, Arbeit, Kapitalismus und Globalisierung’, Archiv für Sozialgeschichte, 57 (2017), 463–95 (Read here)

‘“Der Ring wird für Berlin zum Strick”. Städtische Verkehrsplanungen und der Grenzstreifen der Berliner Mauer (1989-1993)’, in Günter Schlusche, Christoph Bernhardt, Andreas Butter and Axel Klausmeier (eds.), Die Mauer als Ressource. Der Umgang mit dem Berliner Mauerstreifen nach 1989 (Berlin, 2021), 158–65.

with Kerstin Brückweh and Kathrin Zöller, ‘Die lange Geschichte der “Wende”. Differenzierung als neue Meistererzählung’, in Marcus Böick, Constantin Goschler, Ralph Jessen (eds.), Jahrbuch deutsche Einheit 2020 (Berlin, 2020), 293–312.

‘Teuer erkauftes Alltagswissen: Ostdeutsche erleben die Marktwirtschaft zu Beginn der 1990er-Jahre’, Deutschland Archiv (1 October 2020) (Read here)

‘Von Erfahrungen und Erwartungen. Konsum und der Systemwechsel von 1989/90’, Indes. Zeitschrift für Politik und Gesellschaft, 1 (2019), 46–54.

‘“Oberbaumbrücke bleibt Stadtringlücke”. Die Auseinandersetzungen um den Abriss der Berliner Mauer und die Nachnutzung des Grenzsteifens (1990-1994)’, in Hanno Hochmuth and Paul Nolte (eds.), Berlin im 20. Jahrhundert. Neue Forschungen zur Stadtgeschichte (Berlin, 2019), 330–55.

‘Die Musealisierung von Fluchthilfe am Beispiel der Sonderausstellung “Risiko Freiheit – Fluchthilfe für DDR-Bürger 1961-1989”’, in: Gabriele Anderl and Simon Usaty (eds.), Schleppen, Schleusen, Helfen: Flucht zwischen Rettung und Ausbeutung (Wien, 2016), 404–22.

‘Fern der Heimat – Deutsche Diplomatinnen und Diplomaten erleben den Herbst 1989’, Deutschland Archiv (30 May 2014) (Read here)

with Marie-Christine Schlotter, ‘Familiensache. Handelnde Personen, Aussagen und Motive’, in Malte Zierenberg (ed.), Schiebern auf der Spur. Eine Berliner Gerichtsakte von 1941 (Berlin, 2011), 49–77.

Reviews and Miscellaneous Publications

Contributions, conference reports and reviews at Zeitgeschichte-Online, H-Soz-Kult, Bulletin of the DHI-London, German History, Zeitgeschichte regional and in art catalogues

Blog posts:

‘Durchschnittliche Leben: Eine vergleichende Geschichte von Normalitätsvorstellungen im 20. Jahrhundert’. Max Weber Stiftung - Themenportal (2023). (Read here)