Welcome to “The Aggressor” project blog!

“The Aggressor” blog is part of the international research project “The Aggressor: Self-Perception and External Perception of an Actor Between Nations”, led by Professor Dr Thomas Maissen and based at the Heidelberg University and Ruhr University Bochum. The project examines images of the aggressor in European historical narratives and memory cultures. The blog provides information on the latest events and updates on the project members’ research. Experts from all over Europe share their insights on memory cultures around individual aggressors and explain their role in contemporary politics. “The Aggressor” YouTube channel offers short educational videos that provide a glimpse into the interviews. Provided with a rich historical background information, expressive visual material, and multimedia links, blog entries shed light on some of the most salient memory controversies of our time.

Impulses for Thought from Budapest

…on aggressors in memory and politics

Reflections of the visit on 24-27 March 2026

The Aggressor in Digital Games Database (ADG-DB)

Intergation of the concept of the aggressor into the field of Historical Game Studies

Launched in March 2026

Interview with Dr Ivan Sablin

“The Aggressor” project idea, Brezhnev’s and Donroe doctrines, and playing an aggressor in digital strategy games

February 2026

Interview with Dr Adéla Gjuričová

Memory of Brezhnev and the Warsaw Pact invasion to Czechoslovakia

November 2025

Interview with Prof em Luigi Cajani

Memory of Joseph Radetzky in Italy and Austria

Dezember 2025

Interview with Prof Dr Balázs Trencsényi

Aggressor narratives in Central and Eastern Europe over 200 years

November 2025

Workshop “The Aggressor in the Museum”

Report & Programme

Thessaloniki, 9-10 October 2025

The Balkans Expedition Story Map

Journey through overlapping memory conflicts related to the Macedonian Struggle, the Second World War, and the Yugoslav Wars

1-10 October 2025

Ljubljana Conference “The Aggressor”

Report & Programme

Ljubljana, 1-3 October 2025

Interview with Prof em Chris Lorenz

The Dutch Views on the Indonesian President Sukarno

August 2025

Interview with Prof em Nada Boškovska

Memory of the Ustasha leader Ante Pavelić

May 2025

Interview with Prof Dr Thomas Cauvin

Public History and Agonism

May 2025

Interview with Prof Dr Katja Makhotina

Memories of Stalin in Russia and the Baltic states

February 2025

Interview with Prof Dr Xosé Manoel Núñez Seixas

Aggressor images in the Spanish Civil War 

February 2025

Interview mit Prof. Dr. Corine Defrance

Aggressoren in den Berlin-Krisen

November 2024

 

Workshop “Playing the Aggressor”

Report

Heidelberg, 15-16 November 2024

Interview with Prof Dr Stefan Berger

Historiographical nationalism & collective aggressors

October 2024

Interview with Dr Andy Mycock

Memory of Cecil Rhodes

July 2024

Interview with Prof Dr Efi Gazi

Mussolini & Greco-Italian War

July 2024

Interview with Prof Dr Florian Bieber

Memory of the Yugoslav wars

July 2024

Interview with Assoc Prof Dr Alina Mozolevska

Memes in the Russo-Ukrainian War

June 2024