The course examines the question of how people lived in Medieval Europe and how they experienced themselves and their environment. How did they orientate themselves in time and space, and which cultural forms of expression did they create for themselves, and finally, which links exist between the present world and the medieval world? The historic scenery in the area of the upper Rhine, Lake Constance, the Black Forest and the Alps offers various and very real opportunities of visualizing the meaning of these questions. They are a documentation of the medieval roots of European culture. The course offers an analysis of chosen texts and pictures of European history from the late ancient world up to the 16th century. Visits to libraries and archives and field studies are included. The course material is divided into different realms: Space and environment, social life, spirituality, relationship of the sexes, outsiders and conflicts. The content of the field trips is prepared and planned by the students and the instructor together.
Prerequisites:
European history survey
Learning outcomes:
By the end of this course, students are capable of analyzing historical text and possess library/archive research skills necessary for historical research. Students also have in depth knowledge of how people lived in Medieval Europe and which links exist between contemporary times and the medieval world.
Method of presentation:
Lectures and class discussions in class, oral reports by the students, study trips (also including reports by the students, but ‘on the scene’), audio documents and films. The class meets twice a week for ten weeks. Each class hour consists of lecture and discussion of the readings. Students submit their own work for class consideration.
Required work and form of assessment:
Students are required to write one short piece of ca.
2-3 pages (10%) and a research paper making some use of local/regional sites and materials (ca. 10 pages). Students will receive training in the use of such resources and in writing a formal piece of original research (NB. The University Library offers all necessary resources, as do the libraries of the various faculties. Many of these resources are available in English, and all of them are freely disposable to the students). The students will write two drafts before the final version, to be discussed in workshops. Abstracts, bibliographies and an oral presentation of the paper’s argument will be given to the class during the seminar. (60%). Participation in class and workshops is required. Field trips are part of the course; most will take place outside of scheduled classed times. (30%)
content:
Week 1: Time and Space
Religious, historical and mathematical chronology, the “Reich”, its structures and inhabitants. Introduction to the research library of the Historisches Seminar.
Week 2: Natural Resources and Settlements
The Breisgau in late antique and early medieval times (4th - 10th century). Peasant life and rural conditions. (Archäologisches Museum Colombi-Schlößchen) History of medieval Freiburg and its Münster.
Paper 1 due (summary)
Week 3: European Culture in the Early Middle Ages: The monastic centres
Life in a monastery, the Benedictine Order, Books and bookmen.
Study of medieval manuscripts in the Manuscript and Rare Books Department of the Universitätsbibliothek Freiburg (‘Sonderlesesaal’). The manuscripts range over a period of more than five centuries (9th - 15th century).
Field trip to Colmar
Draft 1 due (abstract, annotated bibliography, research plan)
Week 4: Economic Expansion and Innovation since the Year 1000
Mining in the German Empire, particularly in the Black Forest Region. Silver as basis of the monetary system and as the economic condition for the growth of Freiburg.
The Cistercians and technical progress.
Week 5: The Age of Reform in the High Middle Ages (Time of the ‘Investiture Contest’). New
Centres of Religious Life and the ‘Birth of the Nobility’
The rise of the high nobility in south western Germany during the 11th/12th centuries: the dynasties of the Staufer, Welfen, Zähringer (founders of Freiburg im Breisgau) and Habsburg. Castles, daily life and representation. Cloisters as dynastic burial-places.
Week 6: The Flowering Knighthood
Tournaments and Minstrels. Ideology and reality of high medieval court life.
Study of the most famous ‘Minnesänger’-manuscripts in the facsimile-editions (Universitätsbibliothek Freiburg). Additional: listening to audiodocuments (minstrel songs).
Week 7: The Medieval Town
Part 1: Legal privileges and constitution; social life and welfare; gender relations; epidemics
Study of key documents for the urban development of Freiburg in the Middle Ages
Part 2: Religious life, Mysticism, Magic and Heresies in the Medieval Town
The mendicant orders in the cities of the upper rhine region; the movement of the ‘Beguines’; messianic ideals and heresies; forms of superstition and witch-hunt.
Field trip to Castle of Rötteln
Draft 2 due
Week 8: Intellectual Life and Late Medieval Culture
Part 1: The Growing of the University
Study of the oldest articles of student’s association in Freiburg (15th century; combined text-image- manuscript in the Universitätsbibliothek Freiburg)
Week 9: Piety and printing
Piety in the late Middle Ages and the way to Reformation. The development of the printing press with moveable metal type and its consequences.
Week 10: Conclusion and Presentation of Papers
Required readings:
Borst, Arno. Lebensformen im Mittelalter. Berlin: Ullstein, 1997.
LeGoff, Jacques. Kultur des europäischen Mittelalters. München: Knaur, 1970.
Recommended readings:
Eco, Umberto. Der Name der Rose. München: Hanser, 1982 (novel).
Adler, Israel et al. (eds.). Herrscher und Heilige. Europäisches Mittelalter und die Begegnung von Orient und Okzident. Leipzig and Mannheim: Brockhaus, 1997.
Variety of possible fieldtrips, depending on students` interest and schedule
Field trips:
→Freiburg: Cathedral/Glass Paintings; and Chorus)
→Freiburg: Museum für Ur- und Frühgeschichte im Colombi-Schlößchen
→Freiburg: Uniseum (history of the University)
→Freiburg: Stadtarchiv (Freiburg in old documents)
→Hochburg (Stronghold) Emmendingen: Castle ruin
→Freiburg: silver mine Schauinsland
→Karlsruhe: Exhibition "Zwischen Burg, Stadt und Kathedrale - Leben im Mittelalter"
→Freiburg: Excavations at the Zähringer Burgberg
→Bad Krozingen (Glöcklehofkapelle, wall paintings)
→Freiburg: Augustiner-Museum
Day trip:
→Colmar (France): Medieval Old Town, Museum Unterlinden, Breisach: Old Town and Cathedral, Sektkellerei Geldermann (winecellar and tasting with bread and cheese)
→Castle of Rötteln
→Heidelberg (Old Town, University Heidelberg library: Old documents)
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Pia Eckhart studied Medieval History, Art History, Historical Auxiliary Science in Bamberg, Rome and Freiburg. She is a member of the Historisches Seminar. Her forthcoming Ph.D. will address Beatus Widmer's 1527 Chronicle of Konstanz (support: Promotionskolleg, Mittelalterzentrum).
The course examines the question of how people lived in Medieval Europe and how they experienced themselves and their environment. How did they orientate themselves in time and space, and which cultural forms of expression did they create for themselves, and finally, which links exist between the present world and the medieval world? The historic scenery in the area of the upper Rhine, Lake Constance, the Black Forest and the Alps offers various and very real opportunities of visualizing the meaning of these questions. They are a documentation of the medieval roots of European culture. The course offers an analysis of chosen texts and pictures of European history from the late ancient world up to the 16th century. Visits to libraries and archives and field studies are included. The course material is divided into different realms: Space and environment, social life, spirituality, relationship of the sexes, outsiders and conflicts. The content of the field trips is prepared and planned by the students and the instructor together.
European history survey
By the end of this course, students are capable of analyzing historical text and possess library/archive research skills necessary for historical research. Students also have in depth knowledge of how people lived in Medieval Europe and which links exist between contemporary times and the medieval world.
Lectures and class discussions in class, oral reports by the students, study trips (also including reports by the students, but ‘on the scene’), audio documents and films. The class meets twice a week for ten weeks. Each class hour consists of lecture and discussion of the readings. Students submit their own work for class consideration.
Students are required to write one short piece of ca.
2-3 pages (10%) and a research paper making some use of local/regional sites and materials (ca. 10 pages). Students will receive training in the use of such resources and in writing a formal piece of original research (NB. The University Library offers all necessary resources, as do the libraries of the various faculties. Many of these resources are available in English, and all of them are freely disposable to the students). The students will write two drafts before the final version, to be discussed in workshops. Abstracts, bibliographies and an oral presentation of the paper’s argument will be given to the class during the seminar. (60%). Participation in class and workshops is required. Field trips are part of the course; most will take place outside of scheduled classed times. (30%)
Week 1: Time and Space
Religious, historical and mathematical chronology, the “Reich”, its structures and inhabitants. Introduction to the research library of the Historisches Seminar.
Week 2: Natural Resources and Settlements
The Breisgau in late antique and early medieval times (4th - 10th century). Peasant life and rural conditions. (Archäologisches Museum Colombi-Schlößchen) History of medieval Freiburg and its Münster.
Paper 1 due (summary)
Week 3: European Culture in the Early Middle Ages: The monastic centres
Life in a monastery, the Benedictine Order, Books and bookmen.
Study of medieval manuscripts in the Manuscript and Rare Books Department of the Universitätsbibliothek Freiburg (‘Sonderlesesaal’). The manuscripts range over a period of more than five centuries (9th - 15th century).
Field trip to Colmar
Draft 1 due (abstract, annotated bibliography, research plan)
Week 4: Economic Expansion and Innovation since the Year 1000
Mining in the German Empire, particularly in the Black Forest Region. Silver as basis of the monetary system and as the economic condition for the growth of Freiburg.
The Cistercians and technical progress.
Week 5: The Age of Reform in the High Middle Ages (Time of the ‘Investiture Contest’). New
Centres of Religious Life and the ‘Birth of the Nobility’
The rise of the high nobility in south western Germany during the 11th/12th centuries: the dynasties of the Staufer, Welfen, Zähringer (founders of Freiburg im Breisgau) and Habsburg. Castles, daily life and representation. Cloisters as dynastic burial-places.
Week 6: The Flowering Knighthood
Tournaments and Minstrels. Ideology and reality of high medieval court life.
Study of the most famous ‘Minnesänger’-manuscripts in the facsimile-editions (Universitätsbibliothek Freiburg). Additional: listening to audiodocuments (minstrel songs).
Week 7: The Medieval Town
Part 1: Legal privileges and constitution; social life and welfare; gender relations; epidemics
Study of key documents for the urban development of Freiburg in the Middle Ages
Part 2: Religious life, Mysticism, Magic and Heresies in the Medieval Town
The mendicant orders in the cities of the upper rhine region; the movement of the ‘Beguines’; messianic ideals and heresies; forms of superstition and witch-hunt.
Field trip to Castle of Rötteln
Draft 2 due
Week 8: Intellectual Life and Late Medieval Culture
Part 1: The Growing of the University
Study of the oldest articles of student’s association in Freiburg (15th century; combined text-image- manuscript in the Universitätsbibliothek Freiburg)
Week 9: Piety and printing
Piety in the late Middle Ages and the way to Reformation. The development of the printing press with moveable metal type and its consequences.
Week 10: Conclusion and Presentation of Papers
Borst, Arno. Lebensformen im Mittelalter. Berlin: Ullstein, 1997.
LeGoff, Jacques. Kultur des europäischen Mittelalters. München: Knaur, 1970.
Eco, Umberto. Der Name der Rose. München: Hanser, 1982 (novel).
Adler, Israel et al. (eds.). Herrscher und Heilige. Europäisches Mittelalter und die Begegnung von Orient und Okzident. Leipzig and Mannheim: Brockhaus, 1997.
Variety of possible fieldtrips, depending on students` interest and schedule
Field trips:
→Freiburg: Cathedral/Glass Paintings; and Chorus)
→Freiburg: Museum für Ur- und Frühgeschichte im Colombi-Schlößchen
→Freiburg: Uniseum (history of the University)
→Freiburg: Stadtarchiv (Freiburg in old documents)
→Hochburg (Stronghold) Emmendingen: Castle ruin
→Freiburg: silver mine Schauinsland
→Karlsruhe: Exhibition "Zwischen Burg, Stadt und Kathedrale - Leben im Mittelalter"
→Freiburg: Excavations at the Zähringer Burgberg
→Bad Krozingen (Glöcklehofkapelle, wall paintings)
→Freiburg: Augustiner-Museum
Day trip:
→Colmar (France): Medieval Old Town, Museum Unterlinden, Breisach: Old Town and Cathedral, Sektkellerei Geldermann (winecellar and tasting with bread and cheese)
→Castle of Rötteln
→Heidelberg (Old Town, University Heidelberg library: Old documents)
Pia Eckhart studied Medieval History, Art History, Historical Auxiliary Science in Bamberg, Rome and Freiburg. She is a member of the Historisches Seminar. Her forthcoming Ph.D. will address Beatus Widmer's 1527 Chronicle of Konstanz (support: Promotionskolleg, Mittelalterzentrum).