The dead were always closely tied to religion and urbanity. Members and fellows belonging to the KFG have undertaken a range of project discussing death in cities, ranging from antiquity to the present and including cities, such as Rome, London, Munich and Córdoba…
Spatialisation is the process in which actors or groups construct or claim a space for themselves, for instance to perform rituals, hold events or trade. The spatialisation of social, religious or other groups indicates a wish for a more permanent presence, as they constitute the attempt to connect an identifiable space associated with a given group. Groups can indicate a space as theirs through symbols or rituals, for instance by adding objects to a room to indicate that it belongs to them.
It is not always easy to find “urbanity” in early modern sources. Many times, historians have to reconstruct what an author considered to be features of urbanity, by reading carefully and between the lines. This is especially the case because words, such as “urbanity” or “rurality” do not feature in these sources, instead problems and benefits of living in an “urban setting” may be explored by early modern authors…
When we think of London today, we might think of the many opportunities this provides. A global and cosmopolitan metropolis, that has much to offer to people from all walks of life: tourists come to marvel at Big Ben or Buckingham Palace, people looking for work relocate to the capital to work in business or media and artists hope to find new inspiration and audiences in one of the most important cities of Europe…
During my recent stay in Munich, I was also able to visit some urban cemeteries in Munich. As part of my project on the urban dead in Munich and London, I am also interested in the positioning, uses and meanings of cemeteries and so it is always helpful to visit them and get an overview of the spaces that still exist…
Over the past two months, I spent two stints of two weeks in Munich, researching my project on urban burials in London and Munich, c. 1520 to 1870. While it is still difficult (and not particularly safe) to travel from Germany to England, I decided to focus on Munich
In September 1652, Petrus Overier came to Leipzig. His...
KFG core group member and junior fellow Martin Christ...
Martin Luther did not always appreciate the urban environment....
We are interested in the connections between urbanity and religion.
This blog is connected to the DFG-funded Humanities Centre for Advanced Studies “Religion and Urbanity: Reciprocal Formations” (FOR 2779). We are based at the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies at Erfurt University.
