Charlotta Cordes

Charlotta Cordes is a doctoral researcher and research associate at the University of Bremen. She is affiliated with the Chair of Economics of Innovation and Structural Change and the Research Centre for East European Studies. Since 2019, she has been a member of the BMBF-funded project 'Obstacles to Modernization in the Economy and Science of the GDR' under Prof. Dr. Jutta Günther, and since 2022, she serves as curator for the 'GDR Research' category at the Discuss Data project.

Her research focuses on the economic, social, and cultural history of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), with an emphasis on territorial planning, socioeconomic transitions, and post-unification transformations. She explores themes such as socialist spatial economies, regional development in the GDR (e.g., the Lower Lusatia region), and comparative analyses of elite structures in post-socialist societies.

The keywords for her research include History, Political Science, GDR, Post-Socialism, and Comparative Analysis. Her work often intersects with the study of territorial planning, elite continuity, and the legacy of socialist governance.

Her scientific award includes recognition by the Association for Critical Business History for her MA thesis on the Duke of Braunschweig's role in National Socialist industrial entrepreneurship.

She has participated in numerous academic presentations, including topics on post-1989 elite transformations, GDR territorial narratives, and energy policy shifts in post-socialist regions. Her affiliations include the Bremer International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS) and collaborative projects like Mod-Block-DDR and Discuss Data.