I am Professor of Intelligence History and a historian of modern European history, focusing on the transformation of statehood in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
My research examines how state institutions produce, process, and apply knowledge in political decision-making. I combine approaches from political, social, and knowledge history with perspectives from the history of digitalization.
A particular focus lies on intelligence agencies and security institutions as key sites of knowledge production in modern states, especially in the context of the Cold War.
Professor of Intelligence History at the German Federal University of Applied Administrative Sciences (current)
Lecturer (part-time), Humboldt University of Berlin, 2012–2020
Postdoctoral researcher at the Leibniz Center for Contemporary History in Potsdam (ZZF), 2009–2019
Research Associate / Lecturer (part-time), Potsdam University, 2005-2009
Habilitation (second book), History, Humboldt University of Berlin, 2017
Ph.D., summa cum laude, History, Potsdam University, 2009
History and German Studies at Göttingen University, Fernuniversität Hagen, Freie Universität Berlin, 1997–2003 (B.A. in 2002)
“Zeitgeschichte Digital Prize”, awarded by the "Verein der Freunde und Förderer des ZZF Potsdam“, 2022
“Carl Erdmann Prize (German Historians’ Association, VHD) for an outstanding habilitation thesis”, 2018
“Geisteswissenschaften international” translation prize awarded by the German Publishers & Booksellers Association for the habilitation thesis
DFG Research Grant, Principal Investigator ("eigene Stelle“), “Computerization and Knowledge Production in East and West German Security Agencies, 1960–1990” at the Center for Contemporary History in Potsdam (ZZF), 2017
Werner Hahlweg Prize (2nd prize) for the dissertation, 2010
Visiting Scholarship, University of Chicago, 2006–2007