Das Max Weber Netzwerk Osteuropa und das Max Weber Stiftung Büro Georgien laden zum internationalen Workshop The Foreign Expatriates at the South Caucasus. The case of international family enterprises in Azerbaijan and Georgia 1850–1925th, der in Kooperation mit dem Aleksanteri Institut veranstaltet wird.
The New Industrial Revolution in the middle of 19th century and its modern industry began to exploit many natural and synthetic resources, such as oil, gas, kerosene, or paraffin. The oil fields in the Absheron Peninsula and near Baku in Azerbaijan made this region very important for the growing industry since the middle of the 1860th. The Russian Empire was one of the most important markets for German, Finnish, and Swedish industries also as well as one of most important suppliers of raw materials for these nations.
Finnish, Swedish, and German engineers, traders, businessmen, companies, and agencies had their activities in Russia. Dozen foreign firms turned their attention to this oil region. The largest foreign companies in the South Caucasus were the Nobel Brothers involved in the oil business and the Siemens & Halske AG and later the Simens Brothers with copper mines. Finns and Swedes (citizens of Finland and Sweden) were the largest foreign diaspora in Baku. The third group were Germans. It was a unique expats’ community with their own culture, its own church, its own schools, its own cemeteries.
This workshop addresses several different aspects of the history of international community and family business in Georgia and Azerbaijan: the specifics of a non-regional family business in the periphery of the Russian Empire, the cultural history of business-expats in Caucasian cities, merchant communities, in expat-communities (including roles as ethnic/religious minority) and their role in Caucasian-European contacts. The task of the workshop is to discuss the everyday life and fates of Germans, Finns, and Swedes who moved to Azerbaijan and Georgia for various reasons and the role of archives and museums in preservation of the history of migration.
Arbeitssprache des Workshops: Englisch
Zoom Link für die Teilnahme online:
https://maxweberstiftung.zoom-x.de/j/69521481417?pwd=WSSWtg1SsrasECbDT6la5sed7t1laq.1
Meeting-ID: 695 2148 1417
Kenncode: 462297