Masterclass on the Peasants' War with Lyndal Roper and Gerd Schwerhoff

2025 marks the 500th anniversary of the Peasants' War. To mark the occasion, the Käte Hamburger Kolleg "Legal Unity and Pluralism" is organising, in cooperation with the SFB 1288 "Practices of Comparing. Ordering and Changing of the World" and the profile area "History of the Pre-Modern Era" at Bielefeld University, a masterclass with the historian Lyndal Roper and the historian Gerd Schwerhoff on 17 January 2025. Both have recently published monographs on the topic and will discuss their perspectives on the events with researchers from Münster and Bielefeld.

Prof Dr Lyndal Roper is Regius Professor of History at the University of Oxford and an expert on the history of the Reformation. She is particularly interested in the person of Martin Luther, on whom she published a highly acclaimed biography in 2016. In October, she published the book ‘Für die Freiheit. Der Bauernkrieg 1525’. Prof Dr Gerd Schwerhoff is Senior Professor of Early Modern History at the TU Dresden and Chairman of the Academic Advisory Board of the Käte Hamburger Kolleg. His book ‘Der Bauernkrieg. Eine wilde Handlung’ has just been published by C. H. Beck Verlag.

Based on the two new comprehensive accounts, participants will discuss whether it is time to bring historical events and a dedicated history of events back into the focus of research and presentation and how this can be reconciled with systematic approaches. On the other hand, they will investigate the extent to which the Peasants' War was a typical early modern phenomenon, bringing epochal characteristics to the fore.

Registration is possible until 15 January 2025 by email to info.evir@uni-muenster.de.

Click here for more details on the event.

Public discussion

On Thursday, 16 January 2025, 19.00, a public discussion with Gerd Schwerhoff and Ulrike Ludwig, early modern historian and EViR director, will take place at Stadtbücherei Münster. Further information about this event can be found here.