Prof. Dr. Hiram Kümper

since June 2026
Friedenstein Fellow at the Gotha Research Centre for the Early Modern Period

2023/2024
CRoSS Fellow of the Stifterverband with the project ‘Competitiveness as an Argument’

January–October 2023
Fellow of the Foundation for Innovation in Higher Education and the State of Baden-Württemberg with the teaching project ‘Hands-on cultural heritage – immersive learning in three-dimensional spaces’

June 2021
Hiob-Ludolf Fellow at the Gotha Research Centre of the University of Erfurt

October 2020
Museum Fellow at the German Museum of Caricature and Drawing, Hanover

January 2020
Voltaire Senior Fellow of the Van Runset Foundation at the Herzog August Library, Wolfenbüttel

since September 2013
Professor of Late Medieval and Early Modern History at the University of Mannheim (W3)

December 2012 to February 2013
‘Marbach-Weimar-Wolfenbüttel Fellow’ at the Herzog August Library, Wolfenbüttel

2012/13
Editorial fellowship from the State Graduate College ‘Protestant Educational Traditions in Central Germany’ at the University of Jena

December 2011 
Hardenberg Fellow at the Johannes a Lasco Library (Emden)

September and October 2010 
Fellow at the International Centre for Gender Studies at the University of Tübingen

February–July 2010
Acting Professor of Medieval History at the University of Mannheim

February 2010
Karl Ferdinand Werner Fellow at the DHI Paris

2009 to 2013 
Visiting Fellow (non-resident) at the Max-Weber-Kolleg, Erfurt

October 2009 to September 2014 
Junior Fellow at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, Bielefeld

April to June 2008
Scholarship holder of the Gerda Henkel programme ‘History of Ideas’ (awarded by the Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte)

2009–2013
Academic Councillor in History, specialising in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period, at Bielefeld University

October 2008
Postdoctoral scholar at the DHI London

2008–2009
Research Assistant at the Chair of Pre-Modern History at Vechta University of Applied Sciences

2007
Doctorate in Medieval and Modern History at the University of Mannheim

October to December 2006
Scholarship holder of the Dr Günther Findel Foundation at the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel

2001–2006
Studied History, Philosophy and German Studies at Ruhr University Bochum (BA 2004, MA 2006)

1. Economic and Social History: the Hanseatic League, trade, the coal and steel industry, corporate history and political economy
2. Urban, regional and constitutional history of the late Middle Ages and the early modern period, particularly of south-western Germany and Westphalia, which was part of the German Empire
3. Court, royal residence and cultural history of the 18th century, particularly in south-western Germany
4. Auxiliary historical disciplines, manuscript and book history, and source editing
5. Digital Humanities, prosopography, Linked Open Data and historical research data

6. Public history, material culture, museology, citizen science and knowledge transfer

    

Court Culture and Bourgeoisification as Linked Open Data: German Court Theatres, their Staff and Repertoire, 1770–1830

This project examines the transformation of German court theatres in the decades around 1800. It focuses on the career paths of theatre staff, the circulation of repertoires and artistic practices, and the institutional opening up of court stages to a broader, increasingly paying audience. The core period of 1770–1830 is supplemented by a prosopographical scope extending from 1750 to 1850. This allows for the analysis of professionalisation, social mobility and the transformation of the theatre—often referred to as ‘bourgeoisification’—on a broader empirical basis.

Two interlinked datasets are being compiled: a biographical dataset on actresses and actors, singers, musicians, artistic directors, court officials and technical staff; and an event dataset on plays and performances. The data will be processed in accordance with the FAIR principles, linked to standardised data sources such as GND, VIAF, GeoNames and Wikidata, and modelled in line with CIDOC-CRM and FRBRoo. The project thus combines traditional source-based research with methods from the digital humanities, creating a reusable foundation for research into theatre, social, economic and cultural history.

During the stay in Gotha, the initial focus will be on a comparative analysis of the theatres in Gotha, Mannheim, Weimar and Berlin, which were closely linked in terms of personnel. The Ekhof Theatre, the collections of the Gotha Research Library and the Thuringian State Archives form a central starting point for this. Particular attention will be paid to staff mobility and networking, to fees, pensions and additional income, to the transfer of repertoire, and to the consequences of institutional changes for employment relationships and artistic freedom. Plans include the publication of the datasets as Linked Open Data, a comparative study and a workshop aimed at expanding the scope of the research to include further court theatres.

Monographs

Mythos 1776. Traum und Erwachen der amerikanischen Nation, Berlin 2026.

Ernst Ehrhardt (1855–1944), Dombaumeister. Ein Architektenleben zwischen Preußen und Bremen (Schriften der Stiftung Bremer Dom 6), Bremen 2022.

Bindekräfte. Fünf Jahrhunderte südwestfälische Kettenproduktion, Iserlohn 2021 (with Daniele Toro).

Der Traum vom Ehrbaren Kaufmann. Die Deutschen und die Hanse, Berlin 2020.

Die mittelalterlichen und neuzeitlichen Handschriften in der Stiftungsbibliothek am Oberlandesgericht Celle, Wiesbaden 2018.

Der Stoff, aus dem Geschichte wird. Quellenarbeit im Studium anleiten (Forum Hochschuldidaktik. Kleine Reihe), Frankfurt am Main 2018.

Materialwissenschaft Mediävistik. Eine Einführung in die Historischen Hilfswissenschaften (UTB 3941), Paderborn u.a. 2014.

Sachsenrecht. Studien zur Geschichte des sächsischen Landrechts in Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit (Schriften zur Rechtsgeschichte 142), Berlin 2009.

Edited collections

Geschichte der Stadt Borken, Bd. 1: Von den Anfängen bis zum Ende der fürstbischöflichen Zeit (Borkener Beiträge zur Stadtgeschichte und Kultur 9), Bielefeld 2025 (with Norbert Fasse and Stefanie van de Kerkhof).

Letmathe. Stadt, Land, Menschen durch die Jahrhunderte, 2 Bde., Oppenheim 2025 (with Daniele Toro).

Carl Theodor - ein Kurfürst in bewegten Zeiten, Oppenheim 2024.

Kosmos Desbillons - Desbillons et son univers, exhibition catalogue, German-French, Reims 2023 (with Thomas Nicklas and Viktor Boecking).

Reformation - Aufklärung - Revolution - Emanzipation. Beiträge zur Kultur-, politischen Ideen- und südwestdeutschen Landesgeschichte. Festschrift für Wilhelm Kreutz zum 70. Geburtstag, Ubstadt-Weiher 2020 (with  Hermann Wiegand and Jörg Kreutz).

150 Jahre Mannheimer Akte. Festschrift zum 150-jährigen Bestehen der Revidierten Rheinschifffahrtsakte vom 17. Oktober 1868 (Schriften für Transport- und Versicherungsrecht 12), Baden-Baden 2018 (with Andreas Maurer).

Practicing New Editions. Transformation and Transfer of the Early Modern Book, ca. 1450-1800 (Bibliothemata 26), Nordhausen 2011 (with Vladimir Simić).

Historikerinnen. Eine biobibliographische Spurensuche im deutschen Sprachraum (Schriften des Archivs der deutschen Frauenbewegung 14), Kassel 2009.

Articles in journals and anthologies

Translating Popular Wisdom into Learned Language and Practice: Egbert of Liège’s Fecunda ratis and the 11th c. Homiletic Movement, in: Hungarian Historical Review 14 (2025), S. 186-213.

Glaube ausstellen in säkularen Zeiten. Herausforderungen einer zeitgemäßen Museologie des Religiösen, in: Revue suisse d’histoire religieuse et culturelle 119 (2025), pp. 193-215 (with Christina Clever-Kümper).

Das „Ruhrgebiet“ vor dem Ruhrgebiet. Der Raum zwischen Ruhr und Lippe von den Anfängen bis ins 18. Jahrhundert, in: Nicolai Hannig/Ute Schneider (Hg.), Geschichte des Ruhrgebiets, Bd. 1: Der Rheinisch-Westfälische Industriebezirk bis 1914, Köln u.a. 2025, pp. 13-64.

Carl Theodor, der „Mannheim Effect“ - und wie die Kurpfalz zur Innovationsregion wurde, in: Heiner Bernhard (Hg.), Geschichte(n) aus der Kurpfalz, Oppenheim 2025, pp. 47-60.

Das Ende der Konsumentenstadt und Kultur als Standortfaktor. Der Residenzverlust in Mannheim, 1778, in: Wolfgang Dobras/Matthias Müller (Hg.), Residenzstädte in der Transformation. Konkurrenzen, Residenzverlust und kulturelles Erbe als Herausforderung (Stadt in der Geschichte 48), Göttingen 2024, pp. 219-240.

Klangräume als Rechts- und Herrschaftsräume. (Kl)eine Akustik der spätmittelalterlichen deutschen Rechtsgeschichte, in: Nikolas Jaspert/Harald Müller (Hg.), Klangräume des Mittelalters (Vorträge und Forschungen 94), Ostfildern 2023, pp. 267-287.

Ökonomische Interessen und politische Vigilanz. Zu Briefen und Lehrwerken ober- und niederdeutscher Kaufleute zwischen Spätmittelalter und Früher Neuzeit, in: Mitteilungen des Sonderforschungsbereichs „Vigilanzkulturen“ (SFB 1369) 1/2023, pp. 25-32 (zusammen mit Felix Grollmann, Christian Hagen und Bettina Pfotenhauer Caniato).

Stabile Bindungen. Die südwestfälische Kettenproduktion als eigenwilliger Weg der Industrialisierung, in: Westfälische Forschungen 77 (2022), pp. 261-292 (with Daniele Toro).

Tragik der Allmende? Markenordnung und Markenteilung im Märkisch-Limburgischen in der zweiten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts, in: Märkisches Jahrbuch für Geschichte 121 (2021), pp. 23-74.

Semi-Supervised Textual Analysis and Historical Research Helping Each Other: Some Thoughts and Observations, in: International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing 10 (2016), pp. 63-77 (with Federico Nanni und Simone Paolo Ponzetto).