As a regional historian, I am interested in the people and institutions of the Holy Roman Empire at the transition period from the late Middle Ages to the early modern period. My research focusses on the legal and social history of the non-princely high nobility and the lower nobility as well as the university and municipal history. My work is primarily founded on source-based and prosopographical approaches, furthermore I am interested in the visualisation of historical data and to markup of sources with XML/TEI.
As part of my dissertation, which was funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation (supervisor: Prof. Dr Christine Reinle), I recently investigated how the Counts of Solms emerged from a regional and less powerful position during the 15th century to gain a presence at the imperial level. Earlier I researched the careers and networks of the scholars of the Holy Roman Empire (1250-1550) as a project member of the Repertorium Academicum Germanicum (RAG). I also worked on the DFG project Kommunikation und Sprache im Reich as an editor of the hybrid edition of the early letter books the Nuremberg (15th century).
Emphasis in research:
- History of the Holy Roman Empire in late Middle Ages and the early modern period
- Legal and social history of the nobility (non-princely high nobility and low nobility; nobility and cathedral chapters)
- University history (aristocratic studies and academic careers)
- Urban history (residential towns and urban literacy)