This research project aims to study the 'Baltic Germans' between the late 1960s and 2004. The primary focus lies in the evolution and the construction of a new meaning for the term 'Baltic German' at a time when the group of people referred to as Baltic Germans does not match with its traditional definition anymore – as referring to the German speaking minority of Livonia, Courland and Estonia, and later Estonia and Latvia until 1939. While after the Second World War most Baltic Germans had simply become Germans in Germany, the adjectives 'Baltic German' are still labeling several associations and periodicals around the world. This comes with a redefinition of what could be called 'Baltic Germanness', which is gradually not presented as an ethnic category anymore, but rather as a cultural project rooted in a European narrative and emphasizing the bonds existing between certain Germans (with 'Baltic German' roots) and Latvia and Estonia.

Beyond discourse, the project intends to identify practices of socialization and networking, as well as political interests that gather - or split - people who consider themselves as members of the Baltic German 'community'. This includes looking at a set of relationships between individuals, associations and groups which constitute a transnational network set up by agents with different interests and expectations. By integrating sources which document the perspectives of all agents involved (in Germany, Estonia, Latvia, and other countries), the aim is to extend the analysis beyond the narratives brought out by the study of the Baltic German associations and publications in Germany. Thus, this project is in line with a historiography of the German 'expellees' which critically examines their definitions and boundaries by enlarging the study’s framework.