Professor Dr. Höpken received his doctorate from the University of Hamburg. Since 1994 he has held the chair in East and Southeast European History at the University of Leipzig and since October 2000, he is director of the Georg Eckert Institute. He is a member of several national and international boards and organizations: The German UNESCO-Commission, the German National Committee of the presidency and the advisory board of the Society for Southeastern Europe (Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft), Munich. He is the general editor of i.a. the Georg Eckert Institute’s journal “Internationale Schulbuchforschung/International Textbook Research”.

Publications include: Co-edited with Michael Riekenberg Politische und ethnische Gewalt in Südosteuropa und Lateinamerika (Köln: Böhlau, 2000) Das Dickicht der Kriege: Ethnischer Konflikt und militärische Gewalt im früheren Jugoslawien 1990-1995, in Wie Kriege entstehen, edited by Paderborn, (Schoeningh, 2000), Vergangenheitsbewältigung in Südosteuropa –Last oder Chance? in Internationale Verständigung, edited by Hannover, (Hahn, 2000), Gibt es eine ‘balkanische politische Kultur’?” in Politische Kultur in Ostmittel- und Südosteuropa, edited by Leipziger Universitätsverlag, (Leipzig, 1999).