Max Trecker, M.A.

Main Research Areas

• Economic History after 1945
• History of Central Europe in the 20th century
• Relations between the East and the South in the Cold War Era

Research Projects

Die Geschichte der Treuhandanstalt

Postdoctoral Project at the IfZ

Further information at the IfZ website (in German language)

Communists into Capitalists: Die Genese des ostdeutschen Unternehmertums nach der Wiedervereinigung

Postdoctoral Project at the IfZ

Further information at the IfZ website (in German language)

 

Red Money for the Global South: The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) and the Economic Side of the Cold War in the Global South — completed

Doctoral Project at the Graduate School

Research on the socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe too seldomly leaves the frame of the nation state behind. This is the more true for economic history. While the history of the Western European integration process is receiving much attention starting with the Union for Coal and Steel and reaching as far as the Maastricht Treaty and beyond, this is not true for integration processes which took place in Eastern Europe between 1945 and 1990. Yet they had command over the CMEA since 1949, an instrument with which it was possible to constitute economic cooperations across borders according to the internationalist ideology of the ruling communist parties. With my project I want to take a closer look at the cooperation between the CMEA member states on the field of development aid. Due to the decolonization process the socialist countries faced a more or less ideal situation to prove the superiority of their development model and ideology. With my research on this part of East-South relations I expect further insights on the CMEA’s appeal on developing countries but also on the inner cohesion of the CMEA. What power relations can be seen inside the CMEA? Was the Soviet Union the all deciding hegemon or could the countries on the periphery like Hungary or the GDR exercise some power too and enforce their own goals? To which degree could developing countries play off the CMEA member states against each other and how did they react to such attempts?

Curriculum Vitae

I was born in Strausberg near Berlin in 1989. In 2013 I graduated in History and Economics in Munich after completing my MA studies at LMU Munich and CEU Budapest. In between I was awarded two times by the Committee of the Federal President's History Competition and won a 1st prize by the Classicists' Association for a work on war crimes in antiquity. During my studies I was a scholarship holder by the German Scholarship Foundation. From 2009 to 2013 I worked as a freelancer for a publishing house based in Munich. From 2013-2017 I was scholarship holder of the Graduate School. Since 2017 I am research associate at the Institut für Zeitgeschichte München-Berlin (Institute of Contemporary History).

Publications

Monograph

With Michael Kamp: Geheimdienst und Widerstand. Das Leben des Wolfgang Abshagen (1897-1945), München 2011.

Edited Books and Journal Issues

Co-editor of the series "aventinus nova" within the online journal "aventinus. Studentische Publikationsplattform Geschichte" (2010-2015)

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

With Sören Urbansky: Kremlinology Revisited. The Nuances of Reporting on China in the Eastern Bloc Press. In: Cold War History 18 (3), 2018, 307-324. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14682745.2018.1458093.

With Henning Lautenschläger / Moritz Sorg: Sowjetisch in der Form, "usbekisch" im Inhalt. Geschichtspolitik und Musealisierung in Usbekistan. In: Osteuropa 66 (6-7), 2016, 237-252.

With Anne Dreesbach: "Schön konnte man sie nicht gerade nennen…". Touristische Bilder der Saami. In: Sonja Kinzler / Doris Tillmann (Hgg.): Nordlandreise. Die Geschichte einer touristischen Entdeckung, Berlin 2010, 178-188.

Reviews

Lucien J. Frary / Mara Kozelsky: Russian-Ottoman Borderlands. The Eastern Question Reconsidered, Madison 2014. In: Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 4, 2014, S. 16-18. URL: http://www.dokumente.ios-regensburg.de/JGO/erev/Trecker_Borderland.html.

Further Publications

Staatssozialismus, Rock und Christentum: Zur Rezeption der Rockoper "István, a király". In: Erinnerungskulturen. Erinnerung und Geschichtspolitik im östlichen und südöstlichen Europa, 19.08.2016. URL: http://erinnerung.hypotheses.org/853.

Gefangen in der "Asiatischen Sackgasse" oder: Viktor Orbáns Wandel. In: Erinnerungskulturen. Erinnerung und Geschichtspolitik im östlichen und südöstlichen Europa, 01.06.2015. URL: http://erinnerung.hypotheses.org/191.

Sovietizing the Periphery. A Comparative Approach, 04.07.2014, München [Tagungsbericht]. In: H-Soz-Kult, 19.11.2014. URL: http://www.hsozkult.de/conferencereport/id/tagungsberichte-5682.

Migration und Landschaftswandel. Veränderungen der Kulturlandschaft in Ostmitteleuropa im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, 23.-24.05.2014, München [Tagungsbericht]. In: Bohemia 54 (2), 2014, S. 443-446.

Imperialismus als Schicksal der Moderne? Eine kritische Auseinandersetzung mit Max Webers Aufsatz "Der Nationalstaat und die Volkswirtschaftspolitik". In: aventinus nova Nr. 27, 30.10.2010. URL: https://www.aventinus-online.de/neuzeit/imperialismus-und-erster-weltkrieg-1890-1918/art/Imperialismus_a/html/ca/8d2bab5e1b7eed07826ecec90998329e/indexee27.html.

Nietzsches Übermensch und seine nationalsozialistische Rezeption. In: aventinus varia 16, Winter 2008. URL: https://www.aventinus-online.de/varia/ideengeschichte/art/Nietzsches_UEbe/html/ca/e1e12ee55e73314e485c7047fe4baf55/indexee27.html.

Solving the Enigma. Theories on State Variations in Early Modern Europe. In: aventinus varia 35, 31.08.2012. URL: https://www.aventinus-online.de/varia/ideengeschichte/art/Solving_the_Eni/html/ca/af59edd45a40435f95340316f023ceb5/indexee27.html.

Presentations

"Circle of Debt: How the Crisis of the Global South in the 1980s Affected the Socialist East". (Jahrestagung der Graduiertenschule für Ost- und Südosteuropastudien "Studying East and Southeast Europe as Area Studies: Paradigms - Themes - Methods for the 21st Century", München, 25.-27.10.2018)