[The stories are] Fascinating and, collectively, provide an essential contribution to our understanding of poverty and welfare in modern Europe. In sum, this is yet another triumph for the German Historical Institute in London.
Andreas Gestrich was appointed to the chair of modern European history at Trier University in 1997. From 2006 to 2018 he served as the director of the German Historical Institute London. His main research interests are the history of childhood, family and youth, the history of media and the political public spheres, and the history of poverty, poor relief, and the welfare state. He is co-editor with Elizabeth Hurren and Steven King of Poverty and Sickness in
Modern Europe (2012) and with Beate Althammer and Jens Gründler of The Welfare State and the 'Deviant Poor' in Europe 1870-1933 (2014).
Elisabeth Grüner is a former Research Fellow in Contemporary History at the interdisciplinary Collaborative Research Centre 'Strangers and Poor People: Changing Patterns of Inclusion and Exclusion from Classical Antiquity to the Present Day' at Trier University. She works in public administration in the field of integration and equal opportunities. Her research interests include the history of poverty and rural society as well as the history of migration with an emphasis on the second half
of the twentieth century.
Susanne Hahn is a Research Fellow in Contemporary History at the Forschungszentrum Europa at Trier University with a research emphasis on rural poverty and policies for rural development in Germany after the Second World War.