Klaus Neumann - new visiting PhD-student

I am a historian of the Freie Universität Berlin and currently working on my PhD “Social security and liberty in the German and the Swedish welfare state from 1920-1990“. (supervisor: Prof. Arnd Bauerkämper).

My PhD work’s hypothesis is that the history of the European welfare states from the late 19th century until today can be understood as the history of the development of a new social order in which social security and liberty were reinvented and readjusted.

I aim to prove this hypothesis by analyzing and comparing the historical development of Germany and Sweden, two European “model welfare states”, from 1920 till 1990. I will focus on three fields of social policy in which debates on the values of social security and liberty played an important role: The regulation of (un-)employment, the regulation of mother- and fatherhood, as well as overarching conceptions of social order and utopias of the welfare state.

The historical sources analyzed are mainly derived from public authorities: Protocols of the parliament’s sessions, committee reports, publications issued by political parties and so on. Additionally, the standpoints of key political figures and influential public intellectuals will be taken into account.

 Klaus Neumann academic CV (83 Kb)

Room: D560, floor 5, House D, Södra huset, Campus Frescati.
Telephone: +46 8 16 10 95.
Email: klaus.neumann@historia.su.se