Books by Jan Siegemund
Articles by Jan Siegemund
Privacy in Early Modern Saxony Perspectives on Architecture, Culture, Health, Law, and Religion, 2024
In sixteenth-century conflict culture the boundary between the private and the public was often c... more In sixteenth-century conflict culture the boundary between the private and the public was often challenged or shifted as a part of conflict management. In the following discussion, the problem of privacy at the beginning of the early modern period will be examined through the lens of the public and the political as concepts opposed to the private. More precisely, this chapter deals with conflicts of both an ostensibly private or public nature carried out in the public sphere.
Rumors in Transition: Uncertain Information in the Premodern Culture of News
History of Knowledge Research, Resources, and Perspectives, 2023
Invective Communication and the 16th-century Public Sphere
Jahrbuch für Kommunikationsgeschichte 22, 2020
Hitherto, historical research into the public sphere has suffered from a normative distor-tion: S... more Hitherto, historical research into the public sphere has suffered from a normative distor-tion: Still, »reasonable« deliberation, i.e. the sober transfer of information and knowledge, is implicitly or explicitly regarded as the valid standard mode of communication. Thus, forms of controversy and personal disparagement tend to be excluded and alienated from the public sphere. In contrast, our aim is to show the potentials of a non-normative research perspective which focusses on an invective mode of communication instead. For this purpose, we refer to the new concept of »invectivity« and test its analytical perspective on three exemplary cases: With the early reformation period as a starting point, the conflict-laden events surrounding the Franconian city of Miltenberg and their preacher Johann Drach in 1523/4 are at centre of atten-tion. The pamphlet war against the notorious bigamist Landgrave Philipp of Hesse in 1540/1 then leads to the level of imperial policy. Finally, an affair of honour, involving publically posted libels in Dresden 1569, takes us back to the mode of face-to-face communication within the urban public sphere.
Das Mittelalter, 2020
Libel played an important and extraordinary role in early modern conflict culture. The article di... more Libel played an important and extraordinary role in early modern conflict culture. The article discusses their functions and the way they were assessed in court. The case study illustrates argumentative spaces and different levels of normative references in libel trials in 16th century electoral Saxony. In 1569, Andreas Langener – in consequence of a long stagnating private conflict – posted several libels against the nobleman Tham Pflugk in different public places in the city of Dresden. Consequently, he was arrested and charged with ‘libelling’. Depending on the reference to conflicting social and legal norms, he had therefore been either threatened with corporal punishment including his execution, or rewarded with laudations. In this case, the act of libelling could be seen as slander, but also as a service to the community, which Langener had informed about potentially harmful transgression of norms. While the common good was the highest maxim, different and sometimes conflictin...
Hansische Geschichtsblätter, 2021
In the past, Hanseatic research has mainly focused on the major players such as Lübeck, Hamburg, ... more In the past, Hanseatic research has mainly focused on the major players such as Lübeck, Hamburg, Cologne or Danzig, whereas small towns were assumed to have played only a subordinate role. The definition of “small towns” was thereby primarily based on negotiations during the Hanseatic Diets of the 15th century. Besides these discussions, however, these towns are hardly represented in the classic Hanseatic sources and therefore largely remain absent in Hanseatic research. For this reason, the workshop for junior researchers of the ‘Hansischer Geschichtsverein’, which took place in Stendal in 2018 under the topic “Underestimated small towns in the Hansa? – New ideas of research”, aimed to take a look at the less well-studied towns that always acted in the shadow of the “large” Hanseatic cities. The role of these small towns within the Hanseatic system, the advantages and disadvantages of membership in the Hanseatic League and the definition of such membership were questioned. Three case studies were selected, by which the participants discussed the topic: the towns of Westphalia and Pomerania and the city of Bocholt in Münsterland. Based on these case studies, it is possible to identify three factors which largely define the role of a certain town within the Hanseatic commercial network: first, Hanse-specific factors such as the use of Hanseatic privileges or structures or the presence in the Hanseatic settlements abroad (“Kontore”). Second, regional structures such as urban institutions, political relations and structures of power. And third, conditions specific for a certain region, which largely defined the commercial and political development of a town. Researching the role of small towns within the Hanse therefore requires not only a regional and local historical perspective and knowledge, but also the use of sources outside of the Hanseatic standard repertory of the Hanserecesse and Hansisches Urkundenbuch.
Talks by Jan Siegemund
Pasquill oder Schmähschrift? Vielfalt als quellentypologisches Problem
Vortrag im Rahmen des Workshops „Invektive Gattungen“ des SFB 1285, Dt. Hygienemuseum, 21. Juni 2018
Papers by Jan Siegemund
Rezension: Wolfgang Wüst / Marina Heller (Hg.): Historische Kriminalitätsforschung in landesgeschichtlicher Perspektive. Fallstudien aus Bayern und seinen Nachbarländern 1500–1800. Referate der Tagung vom 14. bis 16. Oktober 2015 in Wildbad Kreuth (re
Mit »Stabilität« und »Kontinuität« sind die Kernbegriffe der Arbeit Eline Van Onackers bestimmt. ... more Mit »Stabilität« und »Kontinuität« sind die Kernbegriffe der Arbeit Eline Van Onackers bestimmt. Die Antwerpener Historikerin hat diese beiden Charakteristika für die vormoderne Gesellschaft der Kempen ausgemacht. Für Untersuchungszeit und -region, besonders unter der Perspektive ländlicher Wirtschaftsund Gesellschaftsstrukturen, kann Van Onacker mittlerweile als Expertin gelten, publiziert sie hierzu doch kontinuierlich seit 2012. 2014 legte sie ihre Dissertation »Leaders of the pack? Village Elites and Social Structures in the Fifteenthand SixteenthCentury Campine Area« vor, die diesem Buch offensichtlich zugrunde liegt. Ausgangsbeobachtung der Untersuchung stellt die relative Unveränderlichkeit der sozialen und ökonomischen Strukturen der Kempen zwischen dem 15. und 18. Jahrhundert dar. Die Region, heute gelegen im nördlichen Belgien und den südlichen Niederlanden, war damals geprägt von kleinen Landpächtern und -besitzern sowie Dorfgemeinden, die im Besitz elaborierter Selbstver...
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Books by Jan Siegemund
Articles by Jan Siegemund
Talks by Jan Siegemund
Papers by Jan Siegemund