Jonas Bleckmann

Jonas Bleckmann has been working as a research assistant in the “Contemporary History and Archives” research group since April 2026. As part of the joint project “Auto(im)mobile Infrastructures in the Federal Republic of Germany and Western Europe during the Great Acceleration”, he is collaborating with the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History in Potsdam (ZZF), the Berlin Social Science Centre (WZB) and the Centre for Metropolitan Studies at the Technical University of Berlin. As part of his doctoral research, he is leading the sub-project based at the IRS on the history of bridges as components of automotive infrastructure. Taking the Elbe bridges in Hamburg as his starting point, he examines bridges as interfaces between European infrastructure, mobility and trade policies and local spatial development, where the dynamics of the Great Acceleration converge.

Previously, he worked as a research trainee at the Museum of Hamburg History and was involved in the redesign of the permanent exhibition. As part of this, he developed the exhibition sections on the history of transport and on reform-oriented urban planning in Hamburg during the Weimar period.

He completed his bachelor’s degree in History and Jewish Studies at the Free University of Berlin. He subsequently commenced a master’s degree in Historical Urban Studies at the Technical University of Berlin. During his studies, he worked as a research assistant in the Mobility Research Group at the German Institute for Urban Studies. There, he was involved in projects on sustainable urban mobility.