Prof. Dr. Jan C. Behrends

During the summer semesters 2026:
mondays, 1:00-2:00 p. m.

Prof. Dr Jan C. Behrends is currently working on a history of the post-Soviet world as well as on various projects dealing with war and violence in the Soviet Union and Russia since 1979.

You can find a current overview of publications here.

March 2022
Professorship "Dictatorship and Democracy. Germany and Eastern Europe from 1914 to the Present" at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt an der Oder

2019 - 2022
Lecturer in Eastern European History at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt an der Oder

Since 2011
Project manager at the Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam.

2007

Fedor Lynen Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the University of Chicago

2005 - 2018
Lecturer in Modern and Eastern European History at the Freie Universität Berlin and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

2005-2011
Research associate at the Social Science Research Centre Berlin (WZB).

2004-2005
Post-doc at the Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam.

2005
Doctorate (s.c.l.) at the University of Potsdam with the thesis "Die erfundene Freundschaft. Propaganda for the Soviet Union in Poland and the GDR (1944-1957)" Reviewers: Chr. Kleßmann and Jörg Baberowski.

2000-2004
Research associate at the University of Bielefeld and the Herder Institute Marburg.

2000
First state examination.

Studied history, literature and philosophy at the Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the University of Wisconsin and Lomonossov University in Moscow.

Born on 5 December 1969 in the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen

 Overview of current courses on ViaCampus