BA, MA, PhD
Head of History Department

Rainer Schulze was a research fellow at the Arbeitskreis ‘Geschichte des Landes Niedersachsen (nach 1945)’ in Hannover, and taught Modern European History at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Birkbeck College London and Roehampton University, London, before joining the University of Essex in 1995.

He has written widely on the British military occupation of Germany, (West) German reconstruction after the Second World War, regional structural change and German collective memory and identity. He initiated and designed an exhibition titled ‘Fremde – Heimat – Niedersachsen’ (Strange(rs) – Home – Lower Saxony) and was involved, as one of the project leaders, in the development of a new permanent exhibition at the Gedenkstätte (memorial) Bergen-Belsen, which opened in October 2007. In 2005, he was appointed a member of the International Experts’ Commission for the Redevelopment of the Gedenkstätte Bergen-Belsen, the only member from the UK.

His research interests include the history of Bergen-Belsen, questions of German collective memory and identity in the twentieth century, the Second World War and forced migration in Europe, continuity and discontinuity in twentieth century German history, questions of regionalism, regional development and construction of regional and national identities. He is currently preparing a monograph on the history and memory of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.