Die Dobrudscha – Geschichte und Kultur einer besonderen Landschaft.Vortrag von Privatdozent Dr. Tobias Weger (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)

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Today, the historical landscape of Dobruja is divided between the territories of Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine. The region has a history dating back to antiquity. Between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, it was part of the Roman Empire. Later, there were changing rulers until Dobruja was conquered by the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the 15th century. It became a region of particular ethnic, cultural and religious diversity, with Christians of various denominations, Muslims and Jews, Bulgarians, Romanians, Turks, Ukrainians and Russians living side by side for centuries. Since the middle of the 19th century, there have also been a considerable number of German settlements. With the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Dobruja fell to the newly founded states of Romania and Bulgaria. The Dobruja Germans were "resettled" to the former territory of the German Reich in 1940 under pressure from the Nazi dictatorship. The history and culture of Dobruja is an example of the destructive effect of nationalist ideologies, especially since the 19th century, on previously ethnically and culturally diverse European regions.

Privatdozent Dr. Tobias Weger is a historian specializing in Southeast Europe and its history. He is a research associate at the Institute for German Culture and History of Southeast Europe and also teaches at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich.