Conference
Körper und Herrschaft
Referentialität, Räume und Transformationen von Körperlichkeit in politischen Settings im Übergang von Spätmittelalter und Früher Neuzeit
Forschungszentrum Gotha, Germany
11-13 September 2025
Abb.: What makes the King? William Makepeace Thackeray, The Paris Sketchbook, aus dem Exemplar der Forschungsbibliothek Gotha, um 1880.
A conference on "Körper und Herrschaft" (Body and Domination) is being held by the Gotha Research Centre at the University of Erfurt under the direction of Dr Benjamin Steiner and Dr Anja Rathmann-Lutz (Tübingen) from 11 to 13 September 2025 at the "Landschaftshaus" in Gotha.
Body history is more relevant than ever: Recent debates about the health of candidates in US presidential elections, for example, impressively demonstrate the extent to which physical appearance, vitality and health still influence political settings today. This is by no means a purely modern phenomenon. Even in pre-modern societies, the physical constitution of rulers played a central role in legitimising political power.
Despite its historical relevance, corporeality as a condition of political rule remained underexposed for a long time – even in research. Particularly in medieval and early modern monarchies, however, specific expectations were placed on the physical conditions of rulers in order to stabilise political orders or ensure dynastic continuity.
The conference in Gotha is now dedicated to the question of how bodies can be methodically and historically analysed in political contexts. How visible or invisible is the "mere" body behind the façade of staging, ritual and symbolism? What repercussions do political spaces, institutions and techniques of rule have on the bodies of those in power – and vice versa? And can specific transformations in the relationship between body and rule be recognised in the transition from the late Middle Ages to the early modern period?
Speakers have been invited who deal with corporeality in the context of rule from different perspectives - be it in the context of dynastic systems, medical-historical questions, individual biographies of rulers or with regard to comparative approaches that transcend epochs or regions.
The event is sponsored by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation.
Contact: PD Dr. Benjamin Steiner Inhaber der Vertretungsprofessur für Wissenskulturen der Europäischen Neuzeit (Faculty of Philosophy)
For more information, visit https://www.uni-erfurt.de/en/forschungszentrum-gotha/ueber-uns/news/news/newsdetail/koerper-und-herrschaft