Standard Works

The authoring and supervision of reference academic works is evidence of the IOS’s leading and coordinating role in the historical study of Southeast Europe. These works, which also find recognition and application in related fields, serve the purpose of informing both the international specialist public and the broader general public.

Current Projects

Biographisches Lexikon zur Geschichte Südosteuropas. München 1974–1981

The four volumes of the Biographical Encyclopaedia of Southeastern European History have been turned into an electronic device, available in open access. BioLexSOE online

The database offers more than 1500 entries on leading personalities from across the region, starting with the Middle Ages and up to 1945.

Handbuch zur Geschichte Südosteuropas. [Handbook of the History of Southeast Europe]

Handbook on the History of Southeast EuropeThe Handbuch zur Geschichte Südosteuropas [Handbook of the History of Southeast Europe], planned as a six-volume work, has been coordinated and edited by the Institute for Southeast European Studies, and now the IOS, since the spring of 2010. The aim is to create an academic compendium that is oriented towards the requirements of historical research and university teaching and that, furthermore, addresses an audience which is not rooted in Southeast European studies. Moreover, on the basis of a focused overview of the state of research, the handbook will also, as an original contribution, identify and partly close research gaps and give impetus for future research. >>>

 

Completed Standard Works

Lexikon zur Geschichte Südosteuropas. [Encyclopedia on the History of Southeast Europe]. Stuttgart 2004.
The first edition of the Lexikon zur Geschichte Südosteuropas pools the knowledge of around 60 international experts in 544 keywords. The encyclopedia has been very well received within its field and beyond. According to the leading German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, it belongs "in the reference library of every person interested in the events in this region" (FAZ, 20 June 2012). The second, revised and considerably extended edition - edited by Holm Sundhaussen and Konrad Clewing - was published in 2016.		 Lexikon zur Geschichte Südosteuropas
Biographisches Lexikon zur Geschichte Südosteuropas. [Biographic Encyclopedia on the History of Southeast Europe]. Munich 1974–1981.
This biographic encyclopedia was published with the support of the German Research Foundation and continues to be available in bookstores. It features a total of 1,625 name entries in four volumes. The index in Vol. IV makes reference to around 10,000 further individuals. The criterion used by the encyclopedia for selecting the featured individuals was to choose those who were significant at some point between the Middle Ages and 1945. Contemporaries of the encyclopedia’s years of origin are therefore hardly represented. Apart from citizens of Southeastern European nations from the Bosphorus to Slovakia, the encyclopedia includes, in particular, outstanding individuals from the three historical Southeast European Empires (the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy). An online-version of it is currently under preparation.		 Biographisches Lexikon zur Geschichte Südosteuropas

Geschichte Südosteuropas: Vom frühen Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart. [History of Southeast Europe: From the Early Middle Ages to the Present]. Regensburg 2011.
A comprehensive work written collectively by 14 international experts, the Geschichte Südosteuropas is one of the most extensive treatments of the history of the whole region in one volume. Through intensive editing the individual chapters were joined into one interlinked text. The large, supplementary map section (with a total of 35 original thematic maps) represents a preliminary substitute for a historical atlas of Southeast Europe that has yet to appear. Likewise, the book served as a pilot project for the multi-volume handbook project on the history of Southeast Europe. From the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of 25 June 2012: “... essential for years to come and as equally indispensable for politicians, diplomats and journalists as for students and historians.”

 Geschichte Südosteuropas

Historische Bücherkunde Südosteuropa. [Historical Bibliography Southeast Europe].
The Historische Bücherkunde Südosteuropa was published as a commentated bibliography on the history of the entire region of Southeast Europe, including its great empires – the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy. The annotated bibliographical references were limited to the period from the 6th century to the year 1918. >>>

 Historische Bücherkunde Südosteuropa

Südosteuropa-Bibliographie. [Southeast Europe Bibliography]. Munich 1956–1992.
When the Institute for Southeast European Studies began to work on bibliographies on Southeast Europe in the early 1950s, it was difficult to gain access to literature and book data from countries behind the Iron Curtain, not only because of the Cold War, but also because the research instrument that is most commonly used nowadays – the Internet – did not yet exist. >>>

 Südosteuropa-Bibliographie