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 ‘Unity and Diversity in Law’ is organising a masterclass in cooperation with the Bielefeld CRC 1288 ‘Practices of Comparison. Ordering and Changing the World’ and the “History of the Pre-Modern Era” profile area 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 University and Bielefeld University.
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. The Peasants‘ War of 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. He has just published his book ‘Der Bauernkrieg. Eine wilde Handlung’ has just been published by C. H. Beck Verlag.
Based on the two new comprehensive accounts, the event will discuss the extent to which it is time to bring historical events and a dedicated history of events back into the focus of research and representation and how this can be combined with systematic approaches. On the other hand, the question of the extent to which the Peasants‘ War was a typical early modern phenomenon will be explored, i.e. to what extent the Peasants’ War brings epochal characteristics to the fore.
Registration is possible until 15 January 2025 by email to info.evir@uni-muenster.de.
On Thursday, 16 January 2025, a public discussion with Gerd Schwerhoff and Ulrike Ludwig, early modern historian and EViR director, will take place at 7 p.m. in the Münster City Library.