Jochen Oltmer

Prof. Dr. phil. habil. Jochen Oltmer, M.A., born 1965, has been a member of the Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies (IMIS) since 1995, member of the IMIS Board of Directors since 1997; academic employee at IMIS since 2006; studied History and Political Science 1986-1990, M.A. 1990; Doctorate (summa cum laude) Osnabrück University 1995; Habilitation (Modern and Contemporary History) Osnabrück University 2001; associate professor 2003; academic positions including: Managing director IMIS 1991-1994; research assistant for modern history 1995-2001; senior research assistant 2001-2005; administrator of the professorship for modern history, Osnabrück University 2002/2003 and 2007-2010.

Member of numerous university committees (School of Cultural Studies and Geography, Study, Appointment and Structural Commissions, Standing Working Group on Teaching), offices in academic self-administration, including 2008-2010 Dean of Studies in the School of Cultural Studies and Geography; 2011-2015 Dean of Studies in the School of Social Sciences; 2018-2022 Dean of Studies in the School of Cultural Studies and Social Sciences, 2012-2022 Chair of the Library Commission of Osnabrück University.

Vice President for Studies and Teaching at Osnabrück University since October 1, 2022.

Memberships (selection)

• Association of Historians in Germany
• Historical Commission for Lower Saxony and Bremen
• Society for Historical Migration Research (GHM)
• Working Group for the History of Lower Saxony in the 19th and 20th Centuries
• Council for Migration (RfM), Berlin
• Leibniz-Sozietät der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, founded in 1700 as Brandenburgische Sozietät der Wissenschaften

Awards and honors

• Awarded the Hans Mühlenhoff Prize 2001 for outstanding habilitations (2001)
• Award for "outstanding student achievements" from the Lower Saxony Minister for Science and Culture (1990)

Historical migration research examines the conditions, forms and consequences of the spatial movement of people in history. It asks why migrations took place, what patterns and dynamics they followed, how they were perceived and charged with meaning and which (differently powerful) actors influenced migrations for what reasons and with what interests as part of complex negotiations. By looking at the effects of regional mobility, historical migration research also raises the question of the perspectives and challenges faced by migrants in gaining or achieving economic, social or political participation. The present of the migration process can only be explained by looking at the change in migration conditions in the sense of a long-term observation of societies over years, decades and centuries.

Since the early 1990s, I have been interested in the transformation of German, European and global migration patterns from the late 18th century to the present day. The focus has been on different forms of migration (from labor and settlement migration, educational migration and expatriation to forced migration, i.e. flight, expulsion, deportation), but also on the various negotiations and reactions that (potential) movements of people in space have caused in different societies. Migration as a social "normality" has changed the world considerably over the past centuries - but why, in what way and with what implications?