At the heart of this department's work is human influence on the natural and cultural landscape of Eastern Europe. Its reaches from the transition between late Antiquity and the Middle Ages to the present day: How did the appearance of the earth’s surface change under the influence of political, social and economic factors? How did interethnic relationships and settlement structures in particular develop? How have rural and urban ways of life changed as a result of modernisation since the Middle Ages? What was the impact of confessionalisation, industrialisation and political upheaval, and what are the consequences of wars, conquests and both natural and anthropogenously shaped catastrophes? 

In this department, widely different disciplines work hand in hand to investigate human influence on the environment. These explorations draw on methods, tools and approaches from archaeology, medieval history, Byzantine studies, area studies, history and linguistics as well as architectural and environmental studies. The research projects also comprise approaches from the natural sciences, such as geography and climate history.

The department is headed by Prof. Dr. Matthias Hardt.