Prof. Dr. Jan-Hinnerk Antons has been Professor of Transnational History at the University of Greifswald since February 2026 and teaches and investigates the history of Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries, with a focus on the Baltic Sea region. Political decision-makers and national power politics are not at the centre of his work. “I am less interested in the ‘Politics of the Major Players’ than in the encounters and interactions of ordinary people, initiatives in the civil society, and social developments, which have gained border-crossing significance in the modern era,” explains Antons.
The Baltic Sea as a unifying element
This places the focus on a perspective that extends beyond the borders of individual states. Antons considers the Baltic Sea region to be a particularly good example of why geographic regions should not be viewed exclusively from the view point of one individual nation. Instead, transnational history is about taking a closer look at the exchange between societies, interconnections, dependencies, and similarities. “For me, transnational means overcoming the historical sciences’ narrow focusing on national states that emerged together with the discipline at the beginning of the 19th century,” stresses Antons.
The Baltic Sea represents a particularly vivid example. In contrast to the vast oceans, the relatively small Baltic Sea has, for many centuries, proven more of a unifying than a dividing element. The settlement history, cultural exchange, and economic ties have shaped the region and political dominance changed hands between the Germans, Danish, Swedish, and Russians. That is why Antons’ research considers the history of individual countries with Baltic Sea shores to be less decisive than, for example, the question as to how the development of Baltic Sea tourism in Denmark and Sweden was linked to similar developments on the southern Baltic Sea coast.
When environmental disasters cross borders
Just how promising transnational approaches in research can be is reflected particularly clearly in Antons’ current research project on the environmental history of the Baltic Sea with regard to its crude oil reserves. The history of oil production spanned national boundaries from the very beginning: drilling, processing, transport, and consumption have always been transnational.
“The transnational dimension of the oil age only became apparent to the majority of the population with ecological threats resulting from tanker accidents,” says Antons. The Torrey Canyon catastrophe of 1967 led all countries bordering the Baltic Sea to discuss the first joint precautionary measures to transverse the “Iron Curtain” in 1969. However, oil catastrophes could not be prevented: in 1979, oil from the Antonio Gramsci drifted through the Baltic Sea for months, reaching the Stockholm Archipelago and the Åland islands. “And as the environmental damage did not stop at national boundaries, the growing environmental movements began to focus more strongly on transnational perspectives and networking.”
Further information
About Prof. Antons: Prof. Dr. Jan-Hinnerk Antons has been Professor of Transnational History at the University of Greifswald since February 2026. Antons gained international experience from the beginning of his academic career, sparking his interest in transnational history and the Baltic Sea region. He studied history, political science, and sociology at the University of Greifswald and the University of Copenhagen, and then completed periods of study abroad in Lviv/Ukraine as part of a doctoral scholarship from the German Academic Scholarship Foundation. Following the completion of his habilitation, he worked as a postdoctoral teaching and research associate at the University of Hamburg until 2025.
A detailed interview with Prof. Dr. Jan-Hinnerk Antons on the occasion of his appointment to the University of Greifswald can be read in German in the university’s Campus*1456 magazine.
Contact at the University of Greifswald
Prof. Dr. Jan-Hinnerk Antons
Professor of Transnational History
Domstraße 9 A, 17489 Greifswald
Tel.: +49 3834 420 3330
jan-hinnerk.antonsuni-greifswaldde