Wolfgang Burgdorf

Wolfgang Burgdorf (born December 26, 1962 in Salzkotten , East Westphalia ) is a German historian .

Life

Wolfgang Burgdorf studied history, social science , political science , philosophy and education at the Ruhr University Bochum from 1984 to 1990 . In 1991 he worked as a research assistant for medieval history at the University of Hamburg . From 1992 to 1993 Burgdorf was a scholarship holder of the Institute for European History at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz . From 1994 to 1995 he was assistant for modern history in Bochum, where he did his doctorate in 1995 with Winfried Schulze . From 1996 to 2004, Burgdorf was a research associate at the History Department of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . He received his habilitation there in 2005 . Since 2013 he has been an adjunct professor for modern history at the LMU Munich.

Research and positions on the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation

Wolfgang Burgdorf wrote his dissertation on the subject of the imperial constitution and nation. Constitutional reform projects for the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in political literature from 1648 to 1806 . He deals with the question of the position of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in the history of German statehood. Burgdorf refers to the positive traditions associated with the Old Reich in German history, such as federalism , the rule of law and cultural diversity. In addition, he advocates viewing the early modern German Empire as the state of the German nation in accordance with the perception of itself and others at the time. However, he does not see the empire as a modern state, but as an early modern composite state, similar to Switzerland , the Netherlands or Poland at the time , a total state that, depending on the needs of its members, acted as a subsidiary to different degrees .

In 1999 his work Chimera Europe was published. Anti-European discourses in Germany (1648–1999) . In it he asks about anti-European thinking, especially in the early modern period. In it he puts forward the thesis that, contrary to what was previously claimed, the Old Reich did not perish in 1806 “without a sungpone”, but with an audible roar, accompanied by complaints from contemporaries in all parts of Germany. The reactions could be described as disorientation, horror and feelings of anger and shame. Restrictions on communication, fear of informers, the shooting of the publisher Johann Philipp Palm , the interruption of the postal service and the horrors of a new war would have stifled the complaints about the fall of the empire and then pushed them into the distance. He also stated that the end of the empire was taboo in the first half of the 19th century and simultaneous attempts to compensate and sublimate the loss of the empire.

reception

Dietmar Willoweit wrote in 2004 about Burgdorf's dissertation: "The book by Wolfgang Burgdorf will claim the place of a standard work on his subject in the literature on the late period of the Holy Roman Empire".

Fonts (selection)

As an author

• Imperial constitution and nation. Constitutional reform projects for the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in political literature from 1648 to 1806. Von Zabern, Mainz 1998 (dissertation, University of Bochum, 1995), ISBN 3-8053-2499-5 .
• "Chimera Europe". Anti-European discourses in Germany (1648–1999) . Winkler, Bochum 1999, ISBN 3-930083-23-X .
• A world view loses its world. The fall of the Old Empire and the 1806 generation. Oldenbourg, Munich 2006 ( excerpts from Google Books ), 2nd edition 2009, ISBN 978-3-486-58747-0 .
• Frederick the Great . A biographical portrait. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2011, ISBN 978-3-451-06328-2 .
• Protoconstitutionalism. The imperial constitution in the electoral capitulations of the Roman-German kings and emperors. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-525-36085-9 .

As editor

• with Arndt Brendecke : Paths to the Early Modern Age. Workshop reports (= Munich University Writings. Philosophical Faculty for History and Art Studies. Munich Contact Study History. Vol. 4). Ars Una, Neuried 2001, ISBN 3-89391-519-2 .
• Johann Nikolaus Becker: Critique of the German Reich constitution. 3 volumes. Olms-Weidmann, Hildesheim 2009, ISBN 978-3-487-13664-6 ; ISBN 978-3-487-13665-3 ; ISBN 978-3-487-13666-0 .
• The electoral capitulations of the Roman-German kings and emperors 1519–1792 , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-525-36082-8 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Wolfgang Burgdorf in the catalog of the German National Library
• Wolfgang Burgdorf on the website of the University of Munich

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Imperial Constitution and Nation. Constitutional reform projects for the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in political literature from 1648 to 1806. Von Zabern, Mainz 1998.
2. ↑ "Chimera Europe". Anti-European discourses in Germany (1648–1999) . Winkler, Bochum 1999.
3. ^ Journal of Legal History , 2004.