Dreams frighten and attract us because of their ›otherness‹, their manifold deviations from the world we know when we are awake. One of the most consistently used techniques of coming to terms with this otherness has been the attempt to ›make sense‹ of dreams, to consider and portray them as messages which can and have to be deciphered. On the oth…[Read more]

Verstrickt in Abstraktionen: Aus Forschung und Erfahrung geht leicht hervor, dass Spiritualität in Abstraktionen verwickelt ist: Kräfte, Perfektion, übernatürliches, unwirkliches, grenzenloses Wissen, Kristallkugel-Wahrnehmungen usw. Dr. Stephen Farra antwortete: „Guter kurzer Aufsatz – durchdacht und ansprechend.“ Der Punkt: Ein mangelnde…[Read more]

Mannheim und historische Synergien: Mannheims Argument war ziemlich gesunder Menschenverstand – dass die wirtschaftliche und politische Realität einen tiefgreifenden Einfluss auf Weltanschauungen und Sozialwissenschaften – Philosophie, Psychologie, Politikwissenschaft – und sogar spirituelle und religiöse Ansichten haben würde. Der gesunde…[Read more]

Verschwörungserzählungen haben seit einigen Jahren Konjunktur und finden ein immer größeres und sichtbareres Publikum. Die Vorlesung will versuchen, die aktuellen Verschwörungserzählungen um QAnon historisch zu lesen und mit ihren spätmittelalterlichen Vorläufern, hier am Beispiel der Ritualmordlegende um Simon von Trient von 1475, zu verglei…[Read more]

The identity of the Early High German author Johannes Hartlieb, who had been working as
a court physician in Munich since 1441, with a pleban of the same name who was installed in
Ingolstadt in 1436/37, was repeatedly called into question. The comparison of a letter of this
pleban with autograph documents of the Munich court physician confirms…[Read more]

Seminarprogramm und Literaturliste der Veranstaltung:

Verschwörungserzählungen im Spätmittelalter und heute

Master Hauptseminar
Institut für Germanistische und Allgemeine Literaturwissenschaft
RWTH Aachen University
Marco Heiles

Als Sprachstadienwörterbuch erfasst und beschreibt das Mittelhochdeutsche Wörterbuch (MWB) den mittelhochdeutschen Wortschatz. Das gesamte Spektrum deutscher Textsorten aus dem Zeitraum 1050 bis 1350 dient als Grundlage, um die Wörter und ihren Gebrauch zu dokumentieren. 1994 startete das Projekt mit einer DFG-finanzierten Vorbereitungsphase, be…[Read more]

As the authors of the article “Beyond the Group Mind: A Quantitative Review of the Interindividual–Intergroup Discontinuity Effect” which was published in Psychological Bulletin, observed, It is estimated that just in the final decade of the twentieth century, the deadly wars of places like Rwanda, Bosnia, and Ethiopia claimed the lives of 30 m…[Read more]

The little known German card game “Höllfahren” or “Hölle” has a forgotten history that stretches back into the 16th century, when it was called “Untreue”, “untreuer Nachbar”, “in die Hölle (fahren)” and similar names. Several images and textual references indicate the game’s popularity in the 17th century. Unusual for a card game, Höllfahren emp…[Read more]

Like other Eastern Bloc countries, East Germany sought to control even its citizens’ leisure time in the 1960s and 1970s, with the goal of making it useful or at least not subversive to state interests. Certain hobbies, like amateur photography, found support from the state in the form of increased access to equipment and supplies. Other s…[Read more]

The article describes two accounts of Poland and the culture of its people. The first of these dates from 1784 and was written by the Marquis de Ségur, a French diplomat travelling to St Petersburg. The second, from 1840, was written by the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz, at the time working as a professor at the Collège de France in Paris. I try t…[Read more]

Announcement for the opening of the exhibition “Eden and Everything After” at the University of Stavanger Archaelogical Museum and publication of attendant catalogue.

Abstract of presentation at 2023 MLA Convention session “193 – Poetics, Poiesis, Poeticity”

Merels (also called Nine Men‘s Morris) comprises a family of traditional board games with ancient roots. Between medieval and modern times, merels saw an interesting onomasiological shift : Several European languages took up a new name for the game. This new name is sometimes claimed to have originated in German, but the details surrounding this n…[Read more]

This document is a basic guide for graduate students who need to work in archives or other special libraries. The guide includes items to bring or have on hand as well as steps for planning your visit and organizing your notes.

Presentation about the divinatory texts in the Bairische Bild-Enzyklopädie.

Manuscripts:
Erlangen, Universitätsbibliothek, MS.B 200, http://digital.bib-bvb.de/webclient/DeliveryManager?custom_att_2=simple_viewer&pid=5281832
Kraków, Biblioteka Jagiellońska, Rkp. Przyb. 35/64, http://jbc.bj.uj.edu.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?id=271106&from=FBC

GERMAN: Waren die Götter Astronauten? Davon ist Erich von Däniken überzeugt. Der erfolgreiche Autor ist seit Jahrzehnten der einflussreichste Protagonist auf dem Gebiet der Paläo-SETI bzw. Prä-Astronautik, einer grenzwissenschaftlichen Laienforschung, die die Position vertritt, dass Außerirdische vor Urzeiten die Erde besucht und die Entwi…[Read more]

I’m a disability activist and musicologist with multiple sclerosis (PhD, Musicology, Cornell, 2014). I’m unaffiliated due to discrimination against my disabilities. However, I often give guest lectures, both virtually and in person. My speaking engagements help to advance diversity and representation in academia: I offer students the opportunity…[Read more]

Diatopic and diachronic variation in Middle High German is rarely addressed explicitly in the new Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch (MWB). The need to base the dictionary on edited texts makes it difficult for the lexicographical team to cover varietal specifics of MHG with certainty. This paper analyzes how variation is mentioned in the MWB and,…[Read more]