Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger

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Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger Leipzig Book Fair 2017

Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger FBA (born 17 July 1955 in Bergisch Gladbach) is a German historian. She mainly researches the early modern period and has held the chair for early modern period and has held the chair for early modern history at the University of Münster. Stollberg-Rilinger is one of the leading representatives of research that examines the constitutional history of the Holy Roman Empire on the basis of symbolic-ritual forms of communication. Her work on rituals, symbolic communication and ceremonial influenced research on the exercise of power in the pre-modern era.

Career

She studied German language and literature, history and history of art at the University of Cologne, graduating in 1980 and earning a doctorate in 1985 in Mediaeval and Modern History, Ancient History and German Philology. She habilitated at the University of Cologne in 1994. First professorship she obtained at the Historical Institute of University of Cologne, only to follow a call from the University of Münster, where she holds the chair of Early Modern History at 1997. Since 2018, she is a rector of the Berlin Institute for Advanced Study.

Her focus lies on the political and cultural movements and changes in Europe in the 17th and 18th century (the Age of Enlightenment).

Political positions – Criticism by the "Jüdische Allgemeine"

In December 2020, Stollberg-Rielinger was one of the initiators of the "Initiative GG 5.3 Open-mindedness" of numerous important institutions and personalities in the cultural and scientific community. The initiative criticizes a Bundestag resolution of 2019 condemning Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) as anti-Semitic and banning government funding for the Israel-hostile movement, and warns against a restriction of the Basic Law constitutionally protected freedom of expression through the "misuse of the accusation of anti-Semitism". The initiators and signatories was again accused of ignoring the fact that BDS denied Israel's right to exist.

Awards and honours

• 2017 Leipzig Book Fair Prize (non-fiction): "Maria Theresia. Die Kaiserin in ihrer Zeit"
• In July 2017, Stollberg-Rilinger was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.
• 2017 Sigmund Freud Prize for Scientific Prose: "Maria Theresia. Die Kaiserin in ihrer Zeit"
• 2013 Award of the Historical Collegium of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities
• 2012 Innovation award of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia
• 2006 Doctorate honoris causa of the Ecole normale superieure Lyon
• 2005 Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz Award of DFG

Bibliography

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

• Das Heilige Römische Reich Deutscher Nation. Vom Ende des Mittelalters bis 1806 (= Beck'sche Reihe. C.-H.-Beck-Wissen 2399). 4. durchgesehene Auflage. C. H. Beck, München 2009, ISBN 978-3-406-53599-4.
• Des Kaisers alte Kleider. Verfassungsgeschichte und Symbolsprache des Alten Reiches. 2., durchgesehene und aktualisierte Auflage, C. H. Beck, München 2013, ISBN 978-3-406-57074-2.

Critical studies and reviews of Stollberg-Rilinger's work

"Much ado about nothing?"

External links

Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger in the German National Library catalogue

• Homepage of Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger at the University of Münster
• Cluster of Exzellence at the University of Münster
• Portrait at the DFG
• Interview at Sciencegarden.de
• Profile at H-Soz-u-Kult