From 2005 to 2021, he was head of the demography/social geography research area at the Institute for Danube Swabian History and Regional Studies in Tübingen and supervisor of the archive at the institute. He is a lecturer at the Institute of Geography at the University of Tübingen. His research focuses on historical demography, historical anthropology as well as economic, social history and social geography of the East-Central and South-East European region of the 18th and 19th centuries. From 2012 to the end of 2021, he served as Managing Director of the Commission for the History and Culture of Germans in South-East Europe.
Publications
Murder on the Danube. Leopold von Márffy and the German Subjects in Tscheb (1802-1812). A Microhistory of Violence. Berlin 2018.
Sources on the Lives of German Migrants in the Kingdom of Hungary in the 18th and Early 19th Centuries. Stuttgart 2015.
German Emigrants in Hungary. Settlement in the Bóly Lordship in the 18th Century. Stuttgart 2003.
Migration and Spaces of Longing in the East. Worlds of Experience of "Common" People (18th and 19th Centuries). Edited together with Dmytro Myeshkov. Berlin/Boston 2021.
Norm-Setting and Norm Violation. Everyday Lifeworlds in the Kingdom of Hungary from the 18th to the Mid-19th Century. Stuttgart 2014.
The Settlement of Germans in Hungary. Contributions to the Reconstruction of the Kingdom after the Turkish Period. Edited together with Gerhard Seewann and Norbert Spannenberger. Munich 2010.
Agrarian Reforms and Ethnodemographic Changes. Southeast Europe from the Late 18th Century to the Present. Stuttgart 2009.
"Far Out into the World..." Historical Relations between Southwest Germany and Silesia. Exhibition catalog. Edited together with Annemarie Röder. Calw 1998.
Repatriates Come to Us. Teacher's Guide. Edited together with Gabriele Gans. Published by the Ministry of the Interior of Baden-Württemberg in cooperation with the House of the Homeland of Baden-Württemberg. Stuttgart 1994.
Place of longing and space of conflict. Socialization processes of journeymen in Hungarian cities. In: Towns in Change. The Danube-Carpathian area in the long 18th century. Edited by Mathias Beer, Harald Heppner, and Ulrike Tischler-Hofer. Berlin 2023, pp. 131–151.
"This evil fate befell 27 towns." Settlement, flooding, and crisis management in the Bačka region in the 18th century. In: Melioration and Migration. Water and Society in Central and East Central Europe from the 17th to the mid-19th century. Edited by Márta Fata. Stuttgart 2022, pp. 227–248.
German colonists in the Kingdom of Hungary (18th and early 19th centuries). Genealogy as a Resource for a Historical-Anthropological Approach. In: Genealogies. Between Popular Practices and Academic Research. Edited by Georg Fertig and Sandro Guzzi Heeb. (Rural History Yearbook). Innsbruck/Vienna 2021, 154–186.
Migration and Spaces of Longing in the East. Worlds of Experience of "Common" People (18th and 19th Centuries). An Introduction. In: Migration and Spaces of Longing in the East. Worlds of Experience of "Common" People (18th and 19th Centuries). Edited by Karl-Peter Krauss and Dmytro Myeshkov. Berlin/Boston 2021, 7–31.
Of Spaces of Longing, Shattered Hopes, and Two Women. In: Migration and Spaces of Longing in the East. Worlds of Experience of "Common" People (18th and 19th Centuries). Edited by Karl-Peter Krauss and Dmytro Myeshkov. Berlin/Boston 2021, 235-276.
Human capital transfer of German-speaking migrants in eastern Europe, 1780s–1820s. In: The Economic History Review (2021), 1-36 (together with Matthias Blum and Dmytro Myeshkov).
The Actors. Demographic and Anthropological Approaches to the 18th and 19th Centuries. In: Hatzfeld. Orders in Transition. Edited by Reinhard Johler. Timișoara / Hermannstadt / Bonn 2020, 77-136.
Batschka. In: Online Encyclopedia of the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2018. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/p32553 (accessed March 14, 2018)
Nemačko naselje u Stanišiću do dobijanja tržišnih povlastica 1811 [The German settlement in Stanišić (Stanischitsch) up to the market privilege in 1811. godine]. In: Stanišić - 250 Godina istorija naselja i stanovništva od nastanka do savremenog doba [250 years of Stanišić (Stanischitsch). History of the settlement and the population from its founding to the present]. Sombor 2017, 219-232.
Together with Blum, Matthias: Age heaping and numeracy: looking behind the curtain. In: The Economic History Review (2017), 1-16.
On the history of a letter from Billed in 1784. In: Billeder Heimatblatt 29 (2016), 58-61; also available as an online resource.
Economic conditions of emigration from Württemberg to Russia in 1817. In: Escape from the Reformation. Anabaptists, Schwenckfelders, and Pietists between southwestern Germany and eastern Europe. Edited by Christine Absmeier and Annemarie Röder. Stuttgart 2016, 42-53.
Migration and modernization. Socioeconomic processes and cultural landscape change in Transdanubia in the 18th century. In: Change through Migration. Edited by Tünde Radek and Anikó Szilágyi-Kósa. Veszprém 2016, 7-33.
The "new village": Interdependencies between migration, spatial planning, and land improvement in the Kingdom of Hungary (18th and early 19th centuries). In: Between History and Geography, Between Space and Time. Contributions to the conference held on April 11 and 12, 2014, at the University of Bonn. Edited by Jan-Erik Steinkrüger and Winfried Schenk. Bonn 2015, 123-133.
Landlords, lord officials, subjects. Conflict constellations; Rulership practices and modernization processes in manorial estates in Slavonia and southern Hungary in the late 18th century. In: From Bosnia and Herzegovina to Croatia. Edited by Husnija Kamberovic, Jasna Turkalju, and Carl Bethke. Sarajevo 2015, 35-54.
"But no one knows his grave." The demographic crisis of the settlement period in letters from emigrants. In: Suevia Pannonica 41/42 (2014/15), 102-112.
Establishment and Instrumentalization of Norms in Marital Matters in German Settlement Areas of Southern Hungary. In: Norm-Setting and Norm Violation. Everyday Lifeworlds in the Kingdom of Hungary from the 18th to the Mid-19th Century. Ed. by Karl-Peter Krauss. Stuttgart 2014, 79-114.
From Norm Violation to Norm? On the Approach to Everyday Lifeworlds in the Kingdom of Hungary from the 18th to the Mid-19th Century: Actors and Authorities. In: Norm-Setting and Norm Violation. Everyday Lifeworlds in the Kingdom of Hungary from the 18th to the Mid-19th Century. Ed. by Karl-Peter Krauss. Stuttgart 2014, 7-27.
Magdalena Schmid from Ratzpeter and Simon Bauer from Deutschtewel and the Struggle for Their Inheritance. In: Our House Calendar. The Yearbook of Germans from Hungary. 67 (2014), 43-49.
The Children of the Colonists. Settlement and the Demographic Crisis in the Kingdom of Hungary. In: Migration to Eastern and Southeastern Europe in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Ed. Mathias Beer. Munich 2014, 167-217.
Did They Come with a Bundle? Money Transfers to the Kingdom of Hungary in the 18th and 19th Centuries. In: Cultural Conference, October 16, 2010, of the Association of Germans from Hungary, Baden-Württemberg Regional Association, Gerlingen 2011, 7-32.
Everyday Practice and Violations of Norms in German Villages in Hungary in the Early 19th Century, Using the Example of Marriage Jurisdiction. In: History of the Germans in Hungary in the 19th Century - Hungarian German in the 19th Century. Pécs 2011. 24 pp.
Inheritance and Death. On the reconstruction of the life paths of emigrants to Hungary from the Principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (with source documentation). In: Journal of Hohenzollern History, 46 (2010), 123-182.
Maria Anna Wunderlich: The Assassin's Wife. In: Bukiner Heimatglocken, 12 (2010), 1482-1484.
Economic and demographic displacement processes in southern Transdanubia in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In: Historical Regions and Ethnic Group Consciousness in East Central and Southeastern Europe. Border Areas, Areas of Colonization, Identity Formation, Editor: Josef Wolf. Munich 2010, 237-262.
Women in Distress. The Marriage Court in the Backa Valley in the Process of Consolidation and Discipline. In: Churches as an Integration Factor for Migrants in the Southeast of the Habsburg Monarchy in the 18th Century. Edited by Rainer Bendel and Norbert Spannenberger. Berlin 2010, 163-192.
"They Came with a Bundle"? Money Transfer from the German Empire to Hungary. In: The Settlement of Germans in Hungary. Contributions to the Reconstruction of the Kingdom after the Turkish Period. Edited by Gerhard Seewann, Karl-Peter Krauss, and Norbert Spannenberger. Munich 2010, 125-173.
Agrarian Modernization Processes and Ethnodemographic Changes in Southern Backa Valley up to the Mid-19th Century. In: Agrarian Reforms and Ethnodemographic Changes. Southeast Europe from the Late 18th Century to the Present. Edited by Karl-Peter Krauss. Stuttgart 2009, 85-120.
Inheritance and Investment? The Transfer of Money to Hungary in the 18th and 19th Centuries. In: Spiegelungen, 2009, No. 2, 152-166.
A Space in Transition. Agricultural Modernization and Cultural Landscape Change up to the Mid-19th Century. In: At Home on the Danube. Coexistence of Germans and Serbs in Vojvodina. Edited by the Museum of Vojvodina and the Danube Swabian Central Museum Foundation. Novi Sad, Ulm 2009, 108-117.
Ordinary People. An Approach to Stages of Life of Germans in Hungary through Court Records. In: Minorities and Majorities in Their Interrelationships in Southeastern Central Europe. Festschrift for Gerhard Seewann on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday. Edited by Zsolt Vitári. Pécs 2009, 47-66.
Agricultural economics, modernization processes, and the settlement of Germans in Hungary using the example of the Bohl/Bóly domain. In: Deutsch revital. Pedagogical Journal for Hungarian-German Education. 5 (2008), No. 5, 26-34.
Inheritances: Money transfers to Hungary in the 18th and early 19th centuries. In: Suevia Pannonica, 36 (2008), 106-125.
Family structures and women's fates. The demographic crisis after settlement. In: Familienkundliche Forschungsblätter, 32 (2006) No. 122, 12, 665-678.
Out of sight, out of mind? Emigration from Undingen in the 18th and 19th centuries. In: 1200 Years of Undingen 806-2006. Sonnenbühl 2006, 160-178.
German emigrants in Hungary in the 18th century: The Bóly rule. In: Suevia Pannonica. Archive of Germans from Hungary 21 (2003), 22-36.
A németek betelepítése és családstruktúrái a Délkelet-Dunántúlon [Settlement and family structures of German settlers in southeastern Transdanubia]. In: Népek együttélése Dél-Pannóniában. Tanulmányok Szita László 70. születésnapjára. [The coexistence of peoples in southern Pannonia. Studies on the occasion of the 70th birthday of László Szita] Ed. István Lengvári and József Vonyo. Pécs 2003, 217-236.
"People like heroes, with long beards, tall, pointed hats..." Deportation and return of the Hauenstein insurgent Jakob Fridolin Albiez. In: "Life is better here than in Swabia." From the German southwest to the Banat and Transylvania. Edited by Annemarie Röder. Stuttgart 2002, 195-214.
Oameni asemenea eroilor, cu bărbi lungi, pălării înalte şi ascuţite..." Deportarea şi reîintoarcerea lui Jakob Fridolin Albiez, răsculat din Hauenstein. Transl. by Marius Joachim Tătaru. In: "Pentru că aici este mai bine de trăit decăt în Ţara Şvabilor.” Din southern Germaniei în Banat şi Transylvania. Ed. Annemarie Röder. Stuttgart 2002, 195-214.
Resettlement, flight and expulsion of Germans as an international problem. On the history of a European wrong path. Published by the House of the Homeland of Baden-Württemberg on behalf of the Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Sport of Baden-Württemberg. Stuttgart 2002.
Settlement as a Process. German Colonists in the Boly Domain. In: Migration to Eastern and Southeastern Europe from the 18th to the Beginning of the 19th Century. Edited by Mathias Beer and Dittmar Dahlmann. Stuttgart 1999, 291-315.
Emigration from Württemberg to the Caucasus in 1817. In: Kaindl Archive. Journal of the Bukovina Institute for Cultural Exchange with the Peoples of Central and Eastern Europe, 26 (1996), 78-88.
From the Swabian Alb to the Caucasus. Emigration from Mehrstetten in 1817. Searching for Traces: What Became of the Colonists? In: Late Repatriates Come to Us. Ed.: House of the Homeland of the State of Baden-Württemberg. Stuttgart 1995, 37-55.
"Hunger, Misery, and Hardship Among the Poor Colonists." Emigration and Settlement of German Colonists in Hungary. In: The Common Path, 72 (1993), No. 10, 11-15.
Age of Upheaval. German Settlement in the East in the High Middle Ages. In: The Common Path, 65 (1992), No. 1, 10-14.
Domokos Kosáry: Hungary and International Politics 1848-1849. Translated and introduced by Andreas Oplatka. Edited by Andreas Oplatka and Franz Adlgasser. Vienna 2017. In: sehepunkte 19 (2019), No. 11 [15.11.2019]. URL: (https://www.recensio.net/rezensionen/zeitschriften/sehepunkte/19/11/ungarn-und-die-internationale-politik-1848-1849).
András Vári/Judit Pál/Stefan Brakensiek: Rule on the Border. A Microhistory of Power in Eastern Hungary in the 18th Century. Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 2014. In: Southeast Research. International Journal for the History, Culture, and Regional Studies of Southeast Europe, Vol. 76 (2017), 363-366.
Salvation of the Soul and Earthly Possessions. Testaments as Sources for Dealing with "Last Things." (Irseer Schriften. Studies in Swabian Cultural History 4). Edited by Markwart Herzog and Cecilie Hollberg. Konstanz 2007. In: Journal of Hohenzollern History, 46 (2010), 190-192.
Hölzl, Richard: Contested Forests. The History of an Ecological Reform in Germany 1760-1860. Frankfurt am Main 2010. In: H-Soz-Kult, 2010.