Book presentation "Grimm – Gotha – Paris: Eine europäische Konstellation zur Zeit der Aufklärung"

About the publication

© Schwabe Verlag

Schwabe Verlag has published a new German-French volume by Claire Gantet, Markus Meumann and Isabella Treskow. It is dedicated to the cultural mediator Friedrich Melchior Grimm, a key figure in European knowledge transfer in the long 18th century.

The volume, which was published on 26 January 2026 as a printed book and in parallel as an open access publication by Schwabe Verlag, contains 16 contributions in German and French and is divided into three thematically focused chapters:

1. relationships and business | Relations et affaires
2. The Gotha Court as a central node in Grimm's network | La cour de Gotha, nœud central du réseau de Grimm
3. Grimm as a man of letters: criticism, politics, Enlightenment | Grimm homme de lettres : critique, politique, Lumières

"Grimm was central to the spread of the ideas of the Parisian Enlightenment in Germany and north-eastern Europe," emphasises Dr Markus Meumann, co-editor of the volume. "At the same time, he was both a colourful and torn figure: on the one hand, he was friends with the radical representatives of the 'lumières', while on the other, he increasingly strove for social recognition by the aristocratic elites of the Ancien Régime."

The editors:

• Claire Gantet is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland).
• Markus Meumann is an early modern historian and managing director of the Gotha Research Centre at the University of Erfurt.
• Isabella von Treskow is Professor of French and Italian Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Regensburg.

Further information can be found in the overview of our publications.