Wetlands, a distinct ecosystem that is permanently or seasonally flooded by water, exist in myriad variations regardless of temperate zone all around the globe. Classified by their source of water, they range from tidal wetlands and estuaries to riverine floodplains and from groundwater-fed fens and seeps to rain- or meltwater saturated bogs and vernal ponds. In past centuries, ruling actors often equated wetlands with wastelands, representing obstacles to urbanization, agrarianism, and the exertion of state power, ultimately aiming to change these landscapes through amelioration and drainage. Consequently, vast wetland territories have been lost. The Wetlands in History working group engages with these slippery landscapes from the early modern to the contemporary period, fascinated by and focused on their in-between nature as neither land nor sea.

The year 2024/25 marks the 500th anniversary of the complex of events known as the Peasants' War. Numerous activities in Germany and neighbouring countries testify to a renewed interest in the topic of the Peasants' War among historical disciplines as well as a broader public. The IEK will participate in anniversary activities. Among other things, a joint conference is planned with the district of Swabia, the Swabian Research Association, the Historical Association for Swabia and individual chairs of the University of Augsburg. Information on this and other activities will soon be available here.

Under the umbrella of the Institute for European Cultural History, academics at the University of Augsburg are researching the history of social and private provision in pre-modern and 19th century Europe.

The project focuses on the early modern writing calendar: a medium of public communication produced using a printing technique, whose name derives from its practical function as a sheet of paper intended for writing on.

A project of the IEK in collaboration with the German Newspaper Museum Foundation.

This dissertation project examines early modern festive culture as a component and form of diplomatic communication. Using the example of the weddings of the Este and Medici families in the second half of the 16th century, it explores how the ceremonial staging of these marriages framed certain figures, who in turn could be used as frames in subsequent festivities.

Revolutions are not merely political and social events; they also have a dimension related to the culture of remembrance. It is only in memory that they are imbued with the transformative character that defines revolutions, and it is only in memory that they are charged with meaning for a collective. Starting with the ‘Glorious Revolution’ (1688/89), this project seeks to identify similarities and differences in the culture of remembrance surrounding revolutions, thereby reconstructing traces of a European culture of revolution prior to the French Revolution (1789).

In the early modern period and well beyond, into the 20th century, antiquity was virtually omnipresent. References to mythological and historical figures, events, and texts appeared in visual representations, architecture, scholarly treatises, and popular media alike. In the process, antiquity was not only inscribed into the cultural code of each respective era, but competing conceptions of antiquity were also constantly being generated anew, which in turn underwent processes of transformation. The aim of the project is to view antiquity not as a historically given reality, but as a production of contemporary “argumentations” and referencings. In particular, the focus is on the question of the function of returns to antiquity.