European Crises from Weimar until Today

From the Weimar Republic and interwar period over the 1970s to the current debacle over the Euro, crises and crisis semantics has been a recurrent theme of European modern history. Although being very different in terms of causes, developments and consequences these three crises share that they were characterized by economic downturns, social upheavals and forceful ideological formations and semantic innovations which have both challenged and transformed democracy and the state of law.

On this background, this conference seeks to take a closer look at the many variants of the crises phenomenon in the European context from the early 20th century until today by looking at the complex interplay between structural transformations within the economy and institutionalized politics and law and the ideological formations and semantic innovations which complemented these transformations.

Organizers: Professor MSO Poul F. Kjaer, Department of Business and Politics, Copenhagen Business School and Assistant Professor Niklas Olsen, Centre for Modern European Studies, University of Copenhagen.