13/03/2026
Lektüretipp: Bericht über einen von der Max Weber Stiftung organisierten Workshop in Tbilisi, an dem auch unser Mitarbeiter Dr. Dmytro Myeshkov teilnnahm.
We would like to invite you to the International Workshop
"The Foreign Expatriates at the South Caucasus. The case of international family enterprises in Azerbaijan and Georgia 1850–1925th".
The workshop is organized by Georgian Branch of the Max Weber Foundation in Tbilisi, Aleksanteri Institute at the University of Helsinki, Max Weber Network Eastern Europe.
Date: 1–2 December, 2025
Venue: Max Weber Stiftung Georgia Branch Office
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.
🔗 Please find the program for the workshop here: https://shorturl.at/kH8TR
®️ Interested parties and people can register via zoom by scanning the QR code included in the program to access the registration link.
