Jonas Scherner
Jonas Scherner is cPI of BLOCKADE and Professor of Modern European Economic History at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. He received his PhD and habilitation at the University of Mannheim, Germany, before joining NTNU in 2010.
Professor Scherner leads BLOCKADE’s Trondheim-based team, which studies how the blockades shaped economic policy, company decisions, innovation and consumption during and after the wars. The Trondheim team examines questions related to the resilience and vulnerability of economies, companies and individuals in blockaded belligerents and in neutral countries directly affected by the blockade as well as the learning effects and long-term economic consequences of blockades. The subjects will be the basis for transnational and diachronic comparisons to explore common patterns and deviations therefrom.
Professor Scherner’s research has focused on war preparation, war economies and their lasting effects, covering both state and company actors and using micro and macro data as well as qualitative sources. He is the author of numerous book chapters, edited volumes, monographs and articles, including in leading journals such as Economic History Review, Journal of Contemporary History, Business History, The English Historical Review, and Historische Zeitschrift. He has co-edited among others a collection on Paying for Hitler’s War. The Consequences of Nazi Hegemony for Europe (CUP, 2016), a handbook on the Nazi economy (DeGruyter, 2023) and a special issue of International History Review (2024) on the blockade in the era of the world wars.