I have been traveling in the post-Soviet region for more than 25 years. My expertise in the East began with my Slavic studies in Munich and Moscow … and with the travel guide “Cityguide Moskau”, which was published by Reise Know-How Verlag in 2007. The Klitschko brothers, whom I was teaching German at the time, inspired me to write a “CityTrip Kiew” about their hometown Kiev. After many years of translating Russian standard works for the architectural book publisher DOM publishers and writing book contributions to various reference books, I began writing architectural guides myself, including on Saint Petersburg, Kiev, Krakow, Tbilisi and Baku. In 2014, when the future of Europe lay in ruins on the Kiev Maidan, I traveled to the Caucasus. My fascination with the Azerbaijani capital of Baku found expression in two books. In lectures, articles, and blog posts, I explore the question of how the European architectural phenomenon of Art Nouveau was able to spread to the Orient.