Steffen Hölscher, M.A.

Curriculum Vitae

Studies of Medieval and Modern History, Ancient History and Low German Philology (with a focus on Dutch language and literature), M.A. examination with a work on the visit of King George II at Göttingen University in 1748 (supervisors: Professor M. Jakubowski-Tiessen and Professor P. Aufgebauer).

07/2013-09/2013 Fritz-Thyssen-scholar of Franckeschen Stiftungen zu Halle/IZEA.

Focus of research and interests

History of Universities, Science and Students of the Early Modern Age
Cultural History of the Early Modern Age
Symbolic Communication
History of Ideas of the 18th Century
Transatlantic History

Doctoral dissertation project

University and State Building. Halle, Göttingen and the Dynamics of Power in the 18th Century (supervisors: Professor M. Füssel, Professor P. Aufgebauer)

Because of the administrative structures of the Personal Union, the Göttingen University, founded in 1734/1737 under the reign of George II, is of special interest among the universities of the Holy Roman Empire. In opposition to other state universities in the 18th century, it is assumed that the Georg-August-Universität was subject to state-building processes and the dynamics of power to a lesser extent. The physical distance to the founder, monarch and nominal rector – the King in London – allowed for specific modes of communication between state and university and enabled the Georgia Augusta to elude the “Festlegungen von Territorialstaatlichkeit” (English: specifications of territorial statehood) (R. Stichweh) – at least partially. In comparison with the Friedrichs-Universität Halle, which was founded 40 years earlier and was more directly reliant on state imperatives, structural and praxeologic aspects of the relationship between universities and states in the long 18th century (1694 to 1837) are to be examined more specifically by exemplary case studies as for example visits of the sovereign, appeal trials, academic festivities or student turmoils.

Courses

SoSe 2011: Selbstzeugnisse als universitätshistorische Quelle (Aufbaumodul Theorie)
WiSe 2011/12: Staatsbildung in der Frühen Neuzeit (Aufbaumodul Theorie)

Publication

Steffen Hölscher, Zwischen Legitimation und Lustbarkeit. Der Besuch Georgs II. an der Universität Göttingen 1748, in: Göttinger Jahrbuch 59 (2011), S. 41-69.