clear that German Ostforschung is not identical to Central and Eastern European Studies in
Germany (Burleigh, Mtihle). It represents a specific German approach to the regions east of
the Elbe River as far as Russia, an approach that arose after 1918 as a result of the First
World War and the Treaty of Versailles. Ostforschung was understood by its leading scholars
as a multidisciplinary strategy which