Our Research Groups
Phenomena of power and domination (Macht and Herrschaft) are currently being researched transculturally in 24 individual projects. Therefore, we understand the cultural areas studied as hybrid entities subject to multifaceted influences, that themselves provide impulses for change. The aim of our work is to reveal the interdependence of "lived", factually established order on the one hand and its perception, representation and commentary on the other. What is the significance of elites in the formation and establishment of forms and spaces of order and rule? And how did discourse and communication about power and domination function?
Mechthild Albert
Macht and Herrschaft of women in the ruler´s surroundings between private and public (Iberian Peninsula 1250–1350)
Matthias Becher/Linda Dohmen
Pillars of Royal Rule. Queens and Princes in the Eastfrankish-German realm (9th to the beginning of the 12th century)
Jan Bemmann
Urbanity on the Mongolian Plateau in the Premodern Period
Elke Brüggen
Dynamics of Power. The Political Agency of Courtly Elites as reflected in German Literature of the 12th and 13th Centuries
Stephan Conermann
Macht and Herrschaft of Courtly Elites under the Abūʾl-Khayrids (1500–1599)
Dittmar Dahlmann
Metamorphoses of Power (Macht). Religious and secular elites in the Moscow multi-ethnic state of the 17th century
Irina Dumitrescu
Power, Networks, and Transgression in England and France, 600-1500
Matthias Haake
The Autocrat as Author. A Comparative Study of Ancient Monarchy from the Archaic Period to Late Antiquity
Hendrik Hess
Maskulinität(en) im Spätmittelalter – Konstruktionen der Männlichkeit des römisch-deutschen Herrschers im 14. Jahrhundert
Ralph Kauz
Delegated power: rise and fall of the "tusi" in Southwest China during the late imperial period
Karina Kellermann
An intellectual elite at the end of the Middle Ages: 'Publicist activity' and its impact on 'public opinion‘
Konrad Klaus
Courtly Elites in Medieval Kashmir according to the Rājataraṅgiṇīs written by Kalhaṇa, Jonarāja and Śrīvara
Anna Kollatz
Power and the Elite in the Mamluk Sultanate: The Agency of awlād an-nās
Ludwig Morenz
Re-Fragmentation of the Pharaonic State. The new power of the local elite(s) at the end of the third millennium
Birgit Ulrike Münch
“Court dwarves” and court artists as actors at medieval and early modern courts.
Alheydis Plassmann
Lordships acquired by marriage. The heiress and the power of political elites in 12th-century Western Europe
Michael Rohrschneider
Power and Rule(s) in the Electorate of Cologne in the Early Modern Period: Practices – Actors – Spaces
Daniel Schley
Ruling Myths and Historical Practices at the Japanese Court (9th-11th Century)
Christian Schwermann
Meritocracy and Dynasticism in Ancient and Medieval China
Andrea Stieldorf
Images of Imperial Princes. Representation and legitimation of imperial rule on seals and coins of the 11th to 13th century
Detlev Taranczweski
Endogenous and exogenous aspects in the developmental dynamics of relational networks of local and regional elites in Japan's early medieval period
Tilmann Trausch
Fostering Loyalties in the Early Delhi Sultanate: Power and Empowerment in the Textual Worlds of Northern India, c. 1196-1259
Konrad Vössing
The 'friends' of the ruler. A comparison between the Ptolemies and the Roman emperors
Harald Wolter-von dem Knesebeck
The house and its honour – Macht and Herrschaft in images and heraldic representations of the elites (1300-1700)
Birgit Zacke
‚Empörer‘ und der Griff nach der Macht. Zur literarischen Verhandlung von Usurpation in spätmittelalterlichem Erzählen