‘Eastern Germany’ is a collective term for the historic eastern provinces of Prussia and – in a broader sense – also for the areas settled by Germans in Eastern Central, South-Eastern and Eastern Europe.

In the context of German reunification in 1989/90, the term‘EastGermany’ – which had been in common use until then – came to have a dual meaning. This term was no longer used solely to refer to historical East Germany – that is, the Prussian eastern provinces beyond the Oder and Lusatian Neisse rivers, which had been inhabited by Germans prior to 1945, as well as the areas of German settlement in Eastern Europe – but – following the GDR’s accession to the scope of the Basic Law – increasingly also for the new (eastern) Federal States of the enlarged Federal Republic of Germany. This led to growing misunderstandings.

Against this background, in 1990 the Stuttgart-based historian and Silesian regional historian Norbert Conrads coined the neologism ‘Altostdeutschland’ and, derived from it, ‘Altostdeutsch’, to describe the historical-political space in which the history and cultural history of the Germans in Eastern Europe unfolded. The term was coined explicitly in reference to the concept of ‘Old Europe’ (Alteuropa) originated by the Swiss cultural historian Jacob Burckhardt (1818–1897), with which Burckhardt referred in particular to the lost cultural diversity of Europe prior to the French Revolution. The historians Otto Brunner (1898–1982) and Dietrich Gerhart (1896–1985) developed this into the concept of the ‘Old European era’ (European history prior to industrialisation). Furthermore, Conrads referred to terms already in common use in regional historiography, such as ‘Old Bavarian’ or ‘Old Prussian’ history. Conrads viewed the coining of the term ‘Old East Germany’ as a forward-looking proposal for a neutral and concise designation, intended in particular to make it possible to avoid politically charged terms such as‘German East’or‘Eastern Research’.He explained this as follows:

I propose designating the historical world of the lost German East in its entirety as ‘Old East Germany’, whilst being fully aware that this is an auxiliary term encompassing highly heterogeneous regions and developments which share no common history, but only a common fate. In the narrower sense, this ‘Altostdeutschland’ comprises the former Prussian provinces beyond the Oder and Neisse rivers; in a broader sense, it also includes all historical German settlement areas from Bohemia through Transylvania to Russia. ‘Old East German history’ is therefore to be understood as the history that took place in this region and is subject to scholarly investigation, insofar as it was shaped by German influences.^[1]

The professorship of ‘Early Modern History’ at the University of Stuttgart, held by Conrads (who retired in 2003), had been linked since 1985 to the long-term ‘Silesian History Project’. This led to the professorship being expanded to ‘History of the Early Modern Period with a Focus on Old East German History’. Although the term ‘Old East Germany’ has not become widely established, it is used particularly in academic and cultural contexts; the adjective ‘Old East German’ is frequently associated with terms such as region, country or territory.^[2]

• Norbert Conrads: The Silesian History Research Group at the Institute of History, University of Stuttgart, and the State of Research into the History of the Former East German Regions. In: Ibid. (ed.): Research into Silesian History at the Institute of History, University of Stuttgart. A research report marking the fifth anniversary of the Silesian History Research Group at the Institute of History, University of Stuttgart. Stuttgart 1990, p. 5–16.

[1] Conrads: The Silesian History Project, p. 9.

[2] The term ‘Altostdeutschland’ was discussed in 1994 during a German-Polish conference held at the Herder Institute; Hans-Jürgen Karp: German History and Culture in Present-Day Poland. Issues of Scope and Methodology. Marburg 1997 (Conferences on East Central European Research 2), pp. 37, 48ff.

Matthias Weber: East German. In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2014. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/p32852 (accessed 12 July 2021).