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Mediation resp. Consolidation of theoretical knowledge; knowledge about the history ot the Holy Roman Empire, about the current theoretical and methodological discussions.

The history of the Holy Roman Empire was judged very negatively by 19^th century historiography. This interpretation of the Old Empire, which presented a strange contrast to the evaluation of contemporary historians, was dominant up to the middle of the 20^th century.

After World War II this changed. Recently Georg Schmidt and Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger have rendered completely different interpretations of the Holy Roman Empire und thus, have provoked controversial discussions.

In this course / seminar different models of interpretation shall be compared and discussed as to their dependence on certain time periods.

Reading of essential texts, presentations of such texts in groups formed of the participants, group discussions.

Course with continuous performance assessment: attendance at all sessions, readings are to be prepared in advance for class discussion, short written assignments.

Georg Schmidt, Geschichte des Alten Reiches. Staat und Nation in der Frühen Neuzeit 1495-1806, München 1999.

Matthias Schnettger (Hrsg.), Imperium Romanum – Irregulare Corpus – Teutscher Reichs-Staat (Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Europäische Geschichte Mainz. Abteilung für Universalgeschichte, Beiheft 57), Mainz 2002.

Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger, Des Kaisers alte Kleider. Verfassungsgeschichte und Symbolsprache des Alten Reiches, München 2008.

Literature will be announced at the various units of the lecture. 

For students of the curriculum BA History (2009), a reduced workload applies.