• 2004-2009 Studied Historical Anthropology and Modern and Contemporary History at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
• 2009-2012 Scholarship holder and research assistant at the DFG Research Training Group 1288 "Friends, Patrons, Faithful: Practice and Semantics of Friendship and Patronage in Historical, Anthropological and Comparative Cultural Perspectives"
• 2013 Tutor for Ancient and Medieval History, Department of History, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
• 2014-2015 Academic coordinator of the DFG Research Training Group 1288 "Friends, Patrons, Loyalists"
• 2016-2017 Research assistant in the Department of Study Programme Development (Quality Pact for Teaching) at the University of Freiburg
• 2017-2018 Junior project manager in the teacher training quality campaign at the University of Freiburg
• 2019-2022 Research assistant at the Department of Medieval History at the University of Oldenburg
• 2022-2024 Employee in programme development at the Dean's Office of the University of Passau's School of Philosophy

Vassals and vassalage in narrative sources of the Carolingian period - case studies from a historical-anthropological perspective

Vassals and vassalage were long regarded as central components of the medieval feudal system until 1994, when the British historian Susan Reynolds published her book "Fiefs and Vassals. The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted". In it, Reynolds fundamentally questioned the interpretation of the source terms by researchers and the resulting concept of feudalism. Reynolds claimed that the feudal system was a construct of modern scholars who had been duped by early modern and high medieval jurists. A continuous legal or technical connection between vassalage, feudal lendings and the resulting military service obligations could not be proven, especially for the Frankish Empire in the early Middle Ages. More recent research following Reynold's theses has largely confirmed her findings and made it clear how necessary it has become to reconsider the individual phenomena that research has previously attributed to the feudal system.

The dissertation project described here takes a fresh look at vassalage in the Frankish Empire under the Carolingian dynasty. Using a series of case studies spanning the 8th and 9th centuries, the role played by vassalage in the Carolingian period - also in comparison with other phenomena - is analysed. The work concentrates on historiographical, epistolary and literary sources, which have hardly been systematically analysed by research into legal and constitutional history. Unlike capitularies, charters and document formulae, these sources make it possible to observe the dynamics of relations between vassals and their lords. It is not the rules of the game - to take up a frequently used term in medieval studies of the last two decades - but the game, i.e. the tactics and strategies, the manipulations and interpretations of the vassals and their lords, that are the subject of the study. To this end, the relationships between the players and the practice of negotiating these relationships are examined from a historical-anthropological perspective. This is done through anthropological approaches that ask about the use of rituals and gestures, patronage and friendship relationships, gifts and presents as well as emotions and loyalty ties or hierarchies and co-operation.

This will be supplemented by a semantic analysis in order to trace the ideas of contemporaries about vassals and vassalage and to work out the subtle differences in meaning between the source terms vassus and vassallus. In addition, the question arises as to what changes in vassal relationships can be identified over the course of the Carolingian period and in comparison to the Ottonian period in the 10th century.

• Historical anthropology
• Political history, social history
• Ritual research, history of emotions
• Theories of history, popular history
• Dynasties, biography
• Historiography
• Carolingian period (8th-9th century)
• Lotharingia
• Feudal system, vassalage
• Natural events, epidemics
• Vikings in the Frankish Empire and Friesland
• Emperor Henry IV
• Notker the Stammerer of St. Gall

• "Beneficia and vassalage - feudalism in the Carolingian period from a gabentheoretical perspective", lecture at the State History Colloquium of the Chair of Medieval History I (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg im Breisgau), Freiburg im Breisgau, 04 November 2008
• "Benefices and vassalage - Feudalism and feudalism in the Carolingian period from a historical-anthropological perspective", lecture as part of the DFG review of the Research Training Group 1288 "Freunde, Gönner, Getreue", Freiburg im Breisgau, 10 June 2010
• "Heroldum jamque fidelem - The case of the Danish king Harald. A model for the feudal system in the Carolingian period?", lecture at the regional history colloquium of the Chair of Medieval History I (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg im Breisgau), Freiburg im Breisgau, 22 June 2010
• "Ex illo die exosum illum hominem super omnes familiares suos miro coluit amore - Relationships between vassals and their lords in Notker's Gesta Karoli Magni", lecture at the 17th colloquium of the Konstanzer Arbeitskreis für mittelalterliche Geschichte, Zurich, 6 November 2010
• "Maintaining networks of followers? -Relationships between lords and vassals in the Early Middle Ages and the application of network theory", lecture at the workshop "Methodische Zugänge zu Freundschaft und Patronage" of the Research Training Group 1288 "Freunde, Gönner, Getreue", Altglashütten, 18-20 February 2011
• "Vom Bruch zur Bindung - Emotionen zwischen Männern und ihren Herren in Notkers Gesta Karoli Magni", lecture at the Landesgeschichtliches Kolloquium des Lehrstuhls für Mittelalterliche Geschichte I (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg im Breisgau), Freiburg im Breisgau, 24 January 2012
• "From Rupture to Commitment - Emotions between Men and their Lords in Notker's Gesta Karoli Magni", Lecture at the workshop "Emotionality" of the Research Training Group 1288 "Freunde, Gönner, Getreue", Schloss Beuggen near Rheinfelden, 24-26 February 2012
• "'Absorption of a non-existence'? - The feudal system of the Carolingian period from a historical-anthropological perspective", lecture at the workshop on the feudal system of the Chair of Medieval History I (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg im Breisgau, Prof. Dr Jürgen Dendorfer) and the Seminar for Medieval History (Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Prof. Dr Steffen Patzold), Freiburg im Breisgau, 10-11 October 2013
• "Benefits for bastards - comparing the cases of the Carolingian Grifo, Tassilo and Hugo", Lecture at the State History Colloquium of the Chair of Medieval History I (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg im Breisgau), Freiburg im Breisgau, 19 November 2013
• "Das Schicksal Hugos, Sohn Lothars II., und die Normannenpolitik der Lotharlinie", lecture at the Franco-German workshop on Lorraine/Lotharingia of the Chair of Medieval History I (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg im Breisgau, Prof. Dr. Jürgen Dendorfer), organised by Dr. Jessika Nowak, Freiburg im Breisgau, 13-14 December 2013
• "Honour and honores in historiographical sources of the late Carolingian period and Notker's Gesta Karoli Magni", lecture at the international workshop for doctoral students "Ehre und Hof. Chancen und Grenzen des politischen Konsenses im Mittelalter" (Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen), Organisation: Christian Heinemeyer, Marco Krätschmer, Andreas ÖffnerProf. Dr. Steffen Patzold, Tübingen, 01-03 October 2014
• "Optimi vassalli? Alternative interpretations of some passages in Notker's Gesta Karoli Magni", lecture at the 2nd workshop on the feudal system: "Normative Ordnungen des Mittelalters neu denken. Mediävistische Entwürfe nach der Feudalismus-Debatte" (Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen), Organisation: Daniel Föller, Christoph Haack, Prof. Dr. Steffen Patzold, Tübingen, 22-23 November 2014
• "Benefices and vassals in the historiography of the Carolingian Empire in the late 9th century. A semantic analysis of selected sources', lecture at the 4th workshop on feudalism (Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen), organised by Christoph Haack, Prof. Dr. Steffen Patzold, Prof. Dr. Jürgen Dendorfer, Tübingen, 8-9 April 2016
• "Weapons and Warriors in the Gesta Karoli of Notker the Stammerer - Evidence of a militarised World?", lecture at the international conference "Reflections of a Militarised World? Perceptions and conceptions of war and the military in the early Middle Ages (ca. 500-1000)" (Department of History of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, Freie Universität Berlin / Fritz Thyssen Foundation), organised by Dr Laury Sarti, Berlin, 19-21 September 2017
• "Günstlinge und ihr Sturz in der Historiographie und Herrscherbiographie der späten Karolingerzeit", lecture at the workshop "Gunst und Missgunst. The Rise and Fall of Favourites in the Middle Ages" (Professorship of Medieval and Modern Legal History and Civil Law Goethe University Frankfurt am Main), organised by Anika M. Auer, Frankfurt, 4-6 October 2017
• "Waffen und Krieger in den Gesta Karoli Magni Notkers des Stammlers - Anzeichen einer militarisierten Gesellschaft in der späten Karolingerzeit?", lecture at the Landesgeschichtliches Kolloquium des Lehrstuhls für Mittelalterliche Geschichte I (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg im Breisgau), Freiburg im Breisgau, 07 November 2017
• "Optimi vassalli" - "devotissimi vassalli"? Case studies on vassals in the "Gesta Karoli Magni" of Notker the Stammerer, lecture at the research colloquium on the history of the Middle Ages (HU Berlin, Prof. Dr. Barbara Schlieben), Berlin, 18 June 2018
• "Vasallen und Vasallität in der Geschichtsschreibung der Karolingerzeit - Das Beispiel der Gesta Karoli Magni Notkers des Stammlers", lecture at the colloquium of the Arbeitskreis der Geschichte des Mittelalters, Historische Komission für Niedersachsen und Bremen, Dombibliothek Hildesheim, 15 February 2020
• "Mementote, inquit, et quod mei vassalli estis, mihique cum iuramento fidem firmastis! - On vassalage within the Carolingian dynasty", lecture at the Wuppertal-Bochum High Middle Ages Day, Prof. Dr Gerhard Lubich (Bochum) / Prof. Dr Jochen Johrendt (Wuppertal), 21 January 2022
• 'The vassalage of Tassilo III, Duke of Bavaria - new perspectives on an old problem', lecture in the advanced seminar, Prof. Dr Philippe Depreux, University of Hamburg, 22 June 2022
• "'It is better to be dead than to live like this' - the vassalage of Tassilo III, Duke of Bavaria", lecture in the advanced seminar, Prof. Dr Jenny Rahel Oesterle-El Nabbout, University of Regensburg, 10 May 2023

Albert-Ludiwgs-University Freiburg

• Wars and the consequences of war, reading course for the joint master's seminar in medieval history and ancient history (winter semester 2013/2014)

University of Oldenburg

• Rituals, gestures, emotions - symbolic communication in the early Middle Ages, advanced seminar (summer semester 2019)
• The feudal system in the Middle Ages, basic seminar (winter semester 2019/2020)
• Emperor Henry IV - personality and biography, advanced seminar (winter semester 2019/2020)
• Epidemics in the Middle Ages - From the Justinian Plague to the Black Death, advanced seminar (winter semester 2020/2021)
• The Saxon Wars of Charlemagne, basic seminar (summer semester 2021)
• The Vikings in Friesland, advanced seminar (summer semester 2021)
• Charlemagne and the world of the early Middle Ages as reflected in the Gesta Karoli Magni of Notker the Stammerer, basic seminar (winter semester 2021/2022)

University of Passau

• Rule in the Middle Ages: Fiefdoms and vassalage in European comparison, basic seminar (summer semester 2023)

University of Regensburg

• Tassilo III, Duke of Bavaria - Power and powerlessness of an early medieval ruler, introductory seminar (summer semester 2023)