PD Dr. Joachim Zweynert is scientific head of the HWWI's office in the federal state Thuringia (Erfurt) since April 2007. From 1990 to 1996, Joachim Zweynert studied economics and political science at the University of Hamburg. After receiving his master degree in economics (Diplom-Volkswirt), he attended language studies in England for half a year before moving to St. Petersburg (Russia), were he from 1997 to 1999 worked on his Ph.D. thesis on the history of Russian 19th century economic thought. From 1999 to 2004, he was research fellow at the Institute of Economic Systems, Economic History and the History of Economic Thought of the University of Hamburg. From 2004 to 2007, he managed a research project on path dependence in Central and Eastern European transition processes at the Hamburgisches Welt-Wirtschafts-Archiv (HWWA). Joachim Zweynert received the German professorship qualification (Habilitation) in 2006.