Hans-Werner Goetz - Biography#

Hans-Werner Goetz was born 1947 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. He studied history and English at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (1969-74); “Staatsexamen” (1974); Ph.D. thesis on the formation of the duchies in the Frankish kingdom (1976), Habilitation on the historical thinking of Otto of Freising (1981).

From 1976-86 he was assistant at the university of Bochum. In 1986 he was appointed professor of late antique and medieval history. From 1990 until his retirement in 2012 he held the chair of medieval history at the University of Hamburg. He received (and declined) several calls to other universities (Zürich 1989, Bamberg 1992, Heidelberg 1997). He has taught at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris (2002) and at the Normal University of Tianjin in China (2004) and held the 23rd "Wolfgang Stammler-Gastprofessur" at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland (2012/13).

He was Vicepresident (1997-2001) and President of the Mediävistenverband (Association of Medievalists) (2001-2007) and is President of the Society “Medium Aevum Quotidianum” in Krems (since 1995).

He is editor of “Ausgewählte Quellen zur deutschen Geschichte” (Freiherr-vom-Stein-Gedächtnisausgabe), a series of edited and translated medieval sources), coeditor of the collection “Orbis mediaevalis. Vorstellungswelten des Mittelalters” and Corresponding editor for Germany of "Early Medieval Europe".

He was (or is) member of several Scientific Boards, e.g. of PASE (Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England), The Nordic Centre of Excellence in Bergen, or the Institut Français Historique en Allemagne in Frankfurt-on-Main.

He has participated in several research groups and led several research projects:

• 1995-1997 The Transformation of the Roman World (European Science Foundation), participation in the group "Imperium et Regna";
• 2000-2005 Nomen et gens (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), an interdisciplinary project for the investigation of personal names from 300 to 800 (database: www.neg.uni-tuebingen.de);
• 2002-2008 Wahrnehmungs- und Deutungsmuster im europäischen Mittelalter (Patterns of perception and interpretation in the European Middle Ages) (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft);
• 1998-2002 Les transferts patrimoniaux en Europe occidentale, VIIIe-Xe siècle (participation);
• 1998-2003 Staat und Staatlichkeit im frühen und hohen Mittelalter (State and Political Order in the Early and High Middle Ages) (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften);
• 2003-2009 Les élites au haut moyen âge (participation);
• since 2010 La compétition au haut moyen âge (participation);
• 2009/2010 Religiöse Vorstellungswelten des frühen und hohen Mittelalters (Religious Conceptions in the Early and High Middle Ages) (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft);
• 2009-2012 The Perception of Other Religions in the Early and High Middle Ages (European Research Council, Advanced Grant "POR").

He has actively taken part in many conferences all over the world (e.g in Vienna, Linz, Krems; Fribourg, Zürich; Leuven, Brussels; Utrecht; Paris, Lyon, Straßburg, Lille, Auxerre, Limoges; Cambridge, London, Leeds, Aberdeen, Aberystwyth; Oslo, Bergen; Budapest; Warszaw; Moscow, Kiev; Barcelona, Santiago de Compostela, Toledo, Oviedo; Spoleto, Rom, Isernia, Bellagio, Padua; Los Angeles, Urbana/Illinois)and he has organized several conferences (Geschichtsbewußtsein im hohen Mittelalter, at the Werner Reimsers-Stiftung in Bad Homburg 1999; Mediävistik im 21. Jahrhundert, in Paderborn, 2001, together with Jörg Jarnut; Konrad I. – Auf dem Weg zum Deutschen Reich? in Fulda 2005; Theorie und Praxis frühmittelalterlicher Eliten. Konzepte, Wahrnehmung und soziale Umsetzung“ in Hamburg 2009).