, Regensburg Centre for the Study of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe (WiOS)

The Südost-Institut, a non-university institute dedicated to research into the history and contemporary affairs of South-Eastern Europe, was founded in Munich in 1930. In 2007, following a decision by the Bavarian State Government, it was relocated from Munich to Regensburg, where it became part of the Centre for Eastern and South-Eastern European Studies, Regensburg, and an affiliated Institute of the University of Regensburg. Following its merger with the Institute for Eastern European Studies, it changed its name to the “Institute for Eastern and South-Eastern European Studies” (IOS) with effect from 1 January 2012.

Over the course of its more than eighty-year history (see point 4), the remit of the Südost-Institute has evolved. In recent years, it has been active primarily in the following areas: Research into the history of South-Eastern Europe, focusing on the 19th and 20th centuries and adopting a regional-comparative perspective; publication of a historical journal (Südost-Forschungen) and a contemporary journal (Südosteuropa), as well as a historically oriented book series (Südosteuropäische Arbeiten); the production of foundational works (e.g. *Lexikon der Geschichte Südosteuropas* and *Geschichte Südosteuropas*, edited by K. Clewing and O. Schmitt); running a specialist library and developing electronic research environments; organising academic events; and teaching at the University of Regensburg. These tasks will be continued at the new Institute. The Südost-Institut was funded by the Bavarian State Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts; in addition, third-party funding was secured.

The Südost-Institute was run by the Foundation for Scientific Research on South-Eastern Europe, a public law foundation based in Regensburg (in Munich until 2007); the foundation continues to exist, and since 1 January 2012 has operated under the name ‘Foundation for Scientific Research on Eastern and South-Eastern Europe’, which oversees the Institute for Research on Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. The foundation’s highest governing body was the Foundation Board, which, amongst other things, appointed the Institute’s Executive Board, consisting of the Director and his deputy. The Institute’s Directors were, for the most part, also professors at a Bavarian university.

The Südost-Institute was founded in Munich on 23 June 1930 by representatives of the Bavarian and Reich governments as part of a revisionist-motivated historical examination of German population groups outside the German Reich. Geographically, the Südost-Institute’s remit initially focused less on South-Eastern Europe than on Czechoslovakia, Austria and South Tyrol. The ‘South-East’ in the institution’s name (‘Institute for the Study of German Ethnicity in the South and South-East’) was initially defined strictly in terms of the Reich’s borders. The institute’s first director was Karl Alexander von Müller (1882–1964), a professor at the University of Munich since 1928 and a supporter of National Socialism. In 1933, the first volume of the institute’s book series was published; until 1942, the series bore the title *Publications of the Institute for the Study of German Ethnicity in the South and South-East in Munich and the Institute for East Bavarian Regional Studies in Passau*, and has since borne the name *Southeast European Studies* (143 volumes by 2011), which is still in use today.

The South-East Institute was based at the ‘
’ in Munich until 2007.

Following the Nazi ban on research into South Tyrol, and driven by Fritz Valjavec (1909–1960), a native of Hungary who had been employed at the Institute since 1935 ( who became managing director in 1937 and deputy director of the Institute from 1943), the Institute’s focus shifted to South-Eastern Europe and the history and present-day situation of its states even before the outbreak of the Second World War. This was reflected not least in the extensive involvement of leading South-Eastern European scholars in the Institute’s journal, founded in 1935, and in its renaming (in 1940) from *Südostdeutsche Forschungen* to *Südost-Forschungen *. Valjavec regarded the South-East Institute as an organ of ‘militant scholarship’, but at the same time had a genuine interest in the history of South-Eastern Europe. During the Second World War, the South-East Institute was incorporated into the Institute for Foreign Studies (DAI) at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Berlin and thus into the structures of the SS. Its meagre financing does, however, suggest that it was not considered to be of great importance in this context. During an air raid on 25 April 1944, the institute’s building was hit and a large part of the library was destroyed.

Formally, the Institute continued to exist beyond the end of the war; in practice, however, it did not resume its activities until 1951. Its revival was due to Fritz Valjavec, who, despite his previous involvement in National Socialist politics, persuaded the Bavarian State Government to resume its funding.^[1] A meeting of the Board of Trustees held on 26 July 1951 marked the resumption of the Südost-Institute’s activities, initially under the name ‘Munich Institute for Cultural Research’, which the institute had adopted in March 1945. The Institute was funded by the Free State of Bavaria and the Federal Ministry of the Interior (from 1977 by the Federal Foreign Office).

In terms of its academic and staffing orientation, there were continuities from the period before 1945, which had largely shaped the Institute’s work even after the war, under Fritz Valjavec, who, as Executive Director (until 1955) and Director (from 1955), who continued to play a decisive role in shaping the Institute’s work even after the war; however, the history of South-Eastern Europe was now increasingly complemented by its contemporary realities. In light of the Cold War, research into the current situation in the region’s communist-ruled countries was prioritised, for which a dedicated Contemporary Affairs Department was established. From 1952, this department published the journal *Wissenschaftlicher Dienst Südosteuropa* (renamed *Südosteuropa* in 1982) and, from 1957, the book series *Untersuchungen zur Gegenwartskunde Südosteuropas* (until 2006, totalling 37 volumes). From 1956, the Institute produced the *Southeast Europe Bibliography* (until 1991), which provided access to bibliographical information that would otherwise have been difficult to obtain during the Cold War.

Under the new director, Mathias Bernath (1920–2013; director from 1960), the Institute’s expansion continued. Thanks to funding from the DFG, the Biographical Encyclopaedia on the History of South-Eastern Europe (1974–1981) and the Historical Bibliography of South-Eastern Europe (1978–1988) were compiled and published. Numerous scholars from the region and from Western countries contributed to both works, which demonstrated the Institute’s importance for academic exchange across the blocs. With the Federal Foreign Office becoming an institutional sponsor in 1977, further country units were established within the Contemporary History Department. The South-East Institute attracted particular attention in the 1990s thanks to its analyses of the wars in the former Yugoslavia and the upheavals in South-East Europe.

The start of the 21st century marked a turning point for the Institute: in 2000, the staff of the Institute’s Contemporary History Department were transferred to the newly established German Foundation for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin, and the federal government ceased its funding. In 2002, the Bavarian State Government decided to relocate the Institute from Munich to Regensburg (together with the Institute for Eastern European Studies and the Institute for Eastern European Law). In the wake of the move and in preparation for the merger with the Institute for Eastern European Studies, which took effect on 1 January 2012, the Free State of Bavaria increased its funding, which allowed for an increase in staff numbers. The Institute initiated a six-volume handbook on the history of South-Eastern Europe. This project, as well as the Institute’s publication series and research projects, are being continued under the new name‘Institute for Eastern and South-Eastern European Studies’.

Directors of the South-East Institute: Karl Alexander von Müller (1930–1935), Fritz Machatschek (1936–1945/51), Karl August Fischer (1951–1955), Fritz Valjavec (1955–1960), Mathias Bernath (1960–1990), Edgar Hösch (1990–2007), Björn Hansen (acting, 2007–2008), Ulf Brunnbauer (2008–2011).

• Mathias Bernath: The Südost-Institute. A Retrospective and Outlook. In: Südosteuropa 31 (1982), pp. 375–379.
• Konrad Clewing: The South-East Institute – On the History and Functions of a Specialised Non-University Institution. In: Yearbook of Historical Research in the Federal Republic of Germany. Reporting Year 2007. Munich 2008, pp. 29–36.
• Karl Nehring: History of the South-East Institute. In: South-East Institute Munich 1930–1990. In honour of Mathias Bernath on his seventieth birthday. Munich 1990 (South-East Europe Bibliography, Supplementary Volume 2), pp. 21–31.
• Gerhard Seewann: The Südost-Institute. In: Mathias Beer, Gerhard Seewann (eds.): South-Eastern European Studies in the Shadow of the Third Reich. Institutions – Content – People. Munich 2004 (South-Eastern European Studies 119), pp. 49–92.
• Krista Zach: The Beginnings of German Research on South-Eastern Europe and the Munich Journal ‘Südost-Forschungen’. In: Tübinger geographische Studien 128 (2000), pp. 267–301.

• The Munich Institute for South-Eastern Europe 1930–1990. Mathias Bernath on his seventieth birthday. Munich 1990 (Bibliography of South-Eastern Europe, Supplementary Volume 2).
• Karl Nehring (ed.): The Munich Institute for South-Eastern Europe 1930–2005. In honour of Edgar Hösch’s 70th birthday. Munich 2005 (Bibliography of South-Eastern Europe, Supplementary Volume 5).
• Southeast Europe. Journal of Politics and Society (from 1952).
• Southeast European Research. International Journal of History, Culture and Regional Studies of Southeast Europe (since 1935).
  www.ios-regensburg.de/ios-publikationen/zeitschriften/suedost-forschungen.html
• Southeast European Studies (since 1933).
  www.ios-regensburg.de/ios-publikationen/schriftenreihen/suedosteuropaeische-arbeiten.html

• suedost-institut.de/
• www.ios-regensburg.de/ (Institute for Eastern and South-Eastern European Studies, IOS)
  
• www.wios-regensburg.de/ (Regensburg Centre for Research on Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, WiOS)
  

[1] Fritz Valjavec, a member of the NSDAP since 1933, had put his contacts with representatives of the German communities in South-Eastern Europe at the service of the SS’s ‘enemy research’. In 1941, holding the rank of SS-Untersturmführer, he was assigned to the ‘Special Operations Command of the German Security Police and the SD – Special Operations Command 10b of Einsatzgruppe D’ in Bukovina. The extent to which Valjavec was involved in the mass shooting of Jews in Czernowitz/Černivci in July 1941 is a matter of dispute. See Norbert Spannenberger: ‘Southeast Research in the Service of the SS – On the Biography of Fritz Valjavec 1909–1945’. In: *Südosteuropa Mitteilungen* 54 (2014), special issue, pp. 60–73, here pp. 72ff.; and Klaus Popa: ‘Fritz Valjavec’. In: Ingo Haar, Michael Fahlbusch (eds.): Handbook of ‘Völkische’ Sciences. Individuals – Institutions – Research Programs – Foundations. Munich 2008, pp. 697–700, here pp. 698ff.

Ulf Brunnbauer: Südost-Institut, Regensburg. In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2012. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/53868.html (as at 2 November 2021).