Prof. Dr. Jürgen Heyde

Jürgen Heyde was born in Wolfhagen. He studied Eastern European history, Slavic Studies and medieval history in Giessen, Mainz, Warsaw and Berlin. From 1991 to 1997, he held a scholarship of the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes. He obtained his doctorate in 1998 from the Free University of Berlin (supervisor: Prof. Klaus Zernack). In December 2009, he completed his habilitation. In March 2016, he was appointed Adjunct Professor at Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU). From 1998 to 2003, he was a research assistant at the German Historical Institute in Warsaw and from 2003 to 2013, a research assistant at the Institute of History at MLU (Chair Prof. Michael G. Müller). 

Jürgen Heyde has been a researcher at the GWZO since 2014. From January to September 2015, he was Assistant to the Director. In 2021 and 2022 he served as Interim Head of the department »Knowledge Transfer and Networking«.

• Transcultural interdependencies in Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages and early modern period
• History of Poland and Polish-Jewish relations from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century History of north-eastern
• Europe in the early modern period

• WiSe 2017/18: Vertretung der Professur für mittelalterliche Geschichte – MLU Halle-Wittenberg
• SoSe 2015: Vertretung der Professur »Geschichte Ostmitteleuropas/Russlands in der Vormoderne« – LMU München
• WiSe 2013/14: Gastwissenschaftler: Emmy-Noether-Projektgruppe »Wege der Rechtsfindung in ethnisch-religiös gemischten Gesellschaften« an der Universität Leipzig
• SoSe 2013 – Fellowship: Imre Kertész-Kolleg Jena; Arbeitsvorhaben: »Vom Programm zur Politik. Handlungsszenarien antisemitischer Publizistik in Polen 1880-1939«
• SoSe 1994 – SoSe 1997: Doktorandenstipendium der Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes
• SoSe 1991 – SoSe 1993: Studienstipendiat der Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes

• 2015-2019: Ethnic group formation in the pre-modern era. Interculturality and transculturality using the example of the Armenians in Eastern Europe (DFG, »Eigene Stelle«)
• 2010-2013: The »ghetto« concept in Polish-Jewish historiography and journalism 1868-1918. A conceptual and communication-historical investigation (DFG, »Eigene Stelle«)
• 1998-2009: Transcultural communication and interdependence. The Jewish economic elites in Poland from the 14th to the 16th century (habilitation project)
• 1994-1998: Peasant, manor and royal power: Estonian peasants in Livonia under Polish and Swedish rule 1561-1650 (dissertation project)

• Member of the expert forum »German-Polish Place of Remembrance, Historical Information, Education and Encounter/ Deutsch-Polnischer Ort des Gedenkens, der historischen Information, der Bildung und Begegnung«, Berlin (since 2023)
• Member of the Board of Trustees »Akademie Mitteleuropa«, Bad Kissingen (2022-2026)
• Member of the Association Internationale des Études Arméniennes (since 2021)
• Associate member of the DFG SPP 1981 »Transottomanica. Eastern European-Ottoman-Persian mobility dynamics/ Transottomanica. Osteuropäisch-osmanisch-persische Mobilitätsdynamiken« (since 2019)
• Member of the Societas Jablonoviana (since 2019)
• Member of the Aleksander Brückner Center for Polish Studies at MLU Halle-Wittenberg (since 2013)
• Member of the »Society for Research into the History of Jews/ Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der Geschichte der Juden«
• Member of the »Polish Society for Jewish Studies« (“Polskie Towarzystwo Studiów Żydowskich”)
• Member of the Baltic Historical Commission Member of the Association of Historians in Germany
• Member of the Association of Eastern European Historians e.V.

• Co-editor of »Eesti Ajalooarhiivi Toimetised« [Publications of the Estonian Historical Archives], Tartu (since 2001)
• Co-editor of the journal »Tuna. Ajalookulturi Ajakiri« [Past Cultural History Journal], Tallinn (since 2001)

Jürgen Heyde has held teaching assignments at the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg and taught further courses at the University of Warsaw and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.