Dr. Becker's main project explores transnational and global connections and exchanges between Europe and East Asia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It employs methods of maritime-business, economic, political, and cultural history to delve into the pasts of Europe and East Asia, and of private companies and individuals.

Dr. Becker is currently completing his book titled France and Germany in the South China Sea, c. 1840-1930: Maritime Competition and Imperial Power (under contract with Palgrave Macmillan). Other research interests include the history of the French leased territory of Kwang-chow-wan (1898-1945), now Zhanjiang, and the Prussian province of Pomerania in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Dr. Becker's research has been awarded with the Faculty Research Output Prize (2008) and the Prize of the Association of Schleswig-Holstein History (2014). (See German news report and its English translation here)

"All in all, the book is an excellent biography of an entrepreneur, presenting the life of Michael Jebsen in an appropriate and colourful way; it is pleasant to read and combines regional, national, and global aspects of the entrepreneur's activities in an ideal way."

- Peter Wulf, University of Flensburg

Georg Michaelis: Preußischer Beamter, Reichskanzler, Christlicher Reformer 1857-1936. Eine Biographie
English Title: Georg Michaelis: Prussian Official, Imperial Chancellor, and Christian Reformer, 1857-1936: A Biography (Book abstract and content here)

"It is a great credit to Bert Becker to have discovered this hitherto both "forgotten" and contradictory historical person. He has not only visited more than 30 archives but has also made use of an impressive number of primary and secondary sources. (...) Becker constructs an altogether impressive and in many parts exciting panorama of the life and work of a representative of the oft-cited Prussian-German bureaucracy about whose collective official deeds – Prussian-German politics – we are rather well informed but whose individual actions and motives are mostly obscured in the dark recesses of history. By making systematic use not only of publications by and about Michaelis but also of notebooks for long periods of time, and especially the so-called family circle letters, Becker provides essential insights into the self-image and the motives of his protagonist. (...) It is Becker's merit to have provided a deep insight into the mentality of an important representative of the Prussian-German administrative elite of the late-Wilhelminian period without in any way abandoning a critical stance towards his sources; for all periods of Michaelis' life the hard facts are separated from subjective evaluations, and are measured against each other. (...) It should be noted that, without pursuing Becker's far-reaching descriptions, this monograph offers important new and inspiring material for further research on several aspects that go beyond biographical interest."

- Reinhold Zilch, Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences

"Until recently Michaelis had belonged to the forgotten and everything else than "exciting personages". As such he was discovered by Bert Becker, since 2002 a visiting professor at the Department of History of the University of Hong Kong, who was concerned with his person for "almost fifteen years". For his biography, which employs a comprehensive methodological approach in the field of cultural history, he was allowed to use the voluminous personal archive of Michaelis but also other materials from more than thirty archives. From these abundant sources, the reader is spared no detail. However, because Becker convincingly fits Michaelis’ life and deeds into the respective historical period, his voluminous book is also a reference book for the comprehension of the socialisation and education, of the administration, of the social and economic life, of the evangelical-conservative governmental state-of-mind, and of the diffusion of Protestantism in Imperial Germany and in the Weimar Republic. (...) Becker's conclusion that the "contradictory figure" of Michaelis, despite the necessary assessment, deserves more attention and appreciation than "previously attributed", is justified. (...) A physically small man found a great biographer."

- Rudolf Morsey, University of Speyer