This volume relates to a comparative research of historical developments and structures in North Central Europe, which is directed to the exploration of an early medieval design of this historical region beyond the Roman Empire’s culture frontier. One point of the editorial concern thus was building bridges to overcome long existing dividing lines built up by divergent perspectives of previous scientific traditions. In addition, the recent come back of national histories and historiographies call for a scrutiny on the suitability of postulated ethnicities for the postsocialist nation building process. As a result, the collected papers – presented partly in English, partly in German – have a critical look into various influences, responsible for the realization of images of the past as of scientific strategies.

The Editors: Matthias Hardt is Special Coordinator for Medieval History and Archaeology at the Geisteswissenschaftliches Zentrum Geschichte und Kultur Ostmitteleuropas (GWZO) in Leipzig. Christian Lübke lectures on Central and East European History at the Historical Institute of the University in Greifswald. He is also heading the Department «Germania Slavica» of the GWZO. Dittmar Schorkowitz lectures on Central and East European History at the Free University of Berlin. He is editor-in-chief of the series Gesellschaften und Staaten im Epochenwandel (Peter Lang Publishers).