Journeying down the river Rhine and diving into its past reveals a new endeavour in European history. The Rhine basin demarcates and crosses the borders of nine European states, creating a need for cooperation, posing an inherent risk of conflict, and calling static ideas of space into question. From its source down to its estuary, it inspires various images and definitions of a Europe on the one hand, and different understandings of water management issues on the other, as well as informing how these two dimensions come together. These ideas about Europe may be geographical, based on organizational structures, or charged with symbolism.
Continue reading A View of Europe through the Prism of the RhineAuthor: Frieda Ottmann
She is a researcher at the ANR-DFG funded research project "ELEMENT" on EC/EU environmental policy since. Under the supervision of Kiran Klaus Patel, her dissertation deals with water pollution and the development of water protection at the European level between 1975 and 2000. She obtained an MA in History, with a focus on contemporary history, from the LMU in 2021.