The following special issue unites the contributions made by history, German literature, and romance literature researchers from Spain, Germany, and Israel during the inaugural conference of the project Postwar Periods. Spain 1939–Germany 1945: A Comparative Approach, which took place between February 21 and 23, 2024, at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. The project, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), intends to explore a novel interdisciplinary and transnational approach to the Spanish and German postwar periods, aiming to integrate non-European and Jewish perspectives. The project’s aim is to sound out open questions within four thematic fields:
1. Historical Context: Society and Economy
2. Continuities and Blind Spots: German-Spanish Relations
3. The Renewal of Jewish Communities
4. The Postwar Era in Literature and the Arts