Talk by Hans-Christian Petersen, Federal Institute for Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe (BKGE) in Oldenburg (Germany)

The Overlooked Racism? Xenophobia Against East Europeans in Anti-racist and Postcolonial Debates in Germany

Racism against East Europeans has a long history dating back to the eighteenth century. It was particularly pronounced in Germany with its long-standing entanglements and quasi-colonial relationship with Eastern Europe. Even beyond 1945, structural discrimination and everyday humiliation exist. 

Still, East Europeans’ experiences with xenophobia are a blind spot in the current anti-racist and postcolonial debates. Petersen argues that the political and economic Eastern enlargement of the European Union must be followed by an eastward enlargement in the current dispute on racism.

Hans-Christian Petersen is historian and research fellow at the Federal Institute for Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe (BKGE) in Oldenburg (Germany). Advisor for two projects of the research network “Ambivalences of the Soviet: Diaspora Nationalities between Collective Experiences of Discrimination and Individual Normalization, 1953-2023.“ Main Research Interests: Urban history and social space, Russian German history and transnational history of migration, racism against East Europeans (Antislavism), German “Ostforschung”.