This volume provides an historical overview of the relationship between Germany, German speakers, and successive waves of German colonists with their eastern neighbors over the period from the Middle Ages to the present. The collection of essays by 28 leading experts includes the most recent scholarship together with fresh perspectives on the subject.

Franz A.J. Szabo is Professor of Austrian and Habsburg History and Director of the Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. He has published widely in Europe and in North America and is the author of the award-winning Kaunitz and Enlightened Absolutism, 1753-1780 (1994). Charles Ingrao is Professor of History at Purdue University. He has authored or edited many books on central Europe.