Born 11 January 1943 in St. Sebastian bei Mariazell, Austria
1959 Junior high school diploma in Essen; vocational training in business
1962 Certification as an industrial clerk, followed by three years employment as a clerk
1966 Abitur (high school diploma) at the Abendgymnasium Gelsenkirchen (night school)
1966 - 1971 Studies in History, Political Science and German in Heidelberg
1971 State Teaching Exam in these three subjects
1971 - 1978 Research Assistant in Modern History at the University of Würzburg
1973/74 PhD awarded
1978/79 Habilitation (post-doc degree) in Modern History and Regional History at the University of Würzburg
1978 Professor of Modern History at the University of Hamburg
Since 1985 Professor of Early Modern and Modern History at the University of Tübingen; professorships declined in Bochum, Munich and Erfurt
1994/95 Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
1991 and 1994 Visiting Professor for several months at the European University Institute in Florence
1984/85 Dean of the Faculty of History at the University of Hamburg
1988/89 Dean of the Faculty of History at the University of Tübingen
Member of numerous temporary and permanent university commissions in Hamburg and Tübingen (including the General Studies Committee)
1997-2000 Sabbatical in Tübingen; Prorector of Teaching and Founding Commissioner from the Faculty of Humanities as part of the establishment of the University of Erfurt
German Research Foundation (DFG) Positions
1992 - 2000 Evaluator in Modern History (elected)
1996 - 2000 Chairman of the History Evaluation Committee
1996 Initiator of the newly established DFG research program on modern intellectual history “Ideen als gesellschaftliche Gestaltungskraft im Europa der Neuzeit: Ansätze zu einer neuen Geistesgeschichte”; Chairman of the Evaluation Board for this research project.
1997 - 2000 Member of the selection committee for the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize awarded by the DFG.
Current Membership in Professional Associations
Since 1997 Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften Since 1998 Akademie gemeinnütziger Wissenschaften zu Erfurt Since 2011 Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina; Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften.
Member of other academic commissions, including the Kommission für die Geschichte des Parlamentarismus und der politischen Parteien (Commission for the History of Parliamentarianism and the Political Parties) and the Kommission für geschichtliche Landeskunde in Baden-Württemberg (Commission for the Regional History of Baden-Württemberg)
Jury member for the history prize awarded by the Museumsgesellschaft Ulm e.V.
Former Membership in Professional Associations
1990 – 1996 Committee of the German Historians’ Association (Verband der Historiker und Historikerinnen Deutschlands)
1991 – 1993 Structural Commission for Universities, Technical Colleges and Non-University Research Institutions of the State of Brandenburg
1999 – 2001 Expert Advisory Council for Universities and Technical Colleges of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia
1993 – 1995 Science Council; from then until 2001: member of its evaluation committee “Blaue Liste-Institute”
2000 – 2006 Board of Trustees of the University of Tübingen and Curatorium of the University of Erfurt (from November 2000; and then chairman until 2006)
Until 2009 Academic Advisory Council of the Bundesstiftung Reichskanzler Bismarck
Stiftungsrat Weimarer Klassik
Arbeitskreis für moderne Sozialgeschichte (Working Group for Modern Social History)
Historical Commission of the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (German Publishers’ Association)
Chairman of the Academic Advisory Council of the Bundesstiftung Bundespräsident-Theodor-Heuss-Haus
Academic Advisory Council of the Fritz-Thyssen-Stiftung, the Werner-Reimers-Stiftung Bad Homburg, the Institut für Donauschwäbische Geschichte Tübingen (until 1997), the exhibition “1848 Aufbruch zur Freiheit” in Frankfurt am Main (organized by the Deutsches Historisches Museum Berlin and Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt); membership in the academic selection committee for the price that the city of Bad Wurach awards for sophisticated literary works on German history (until 1998); member of the jury of the Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung for the Wolf-Erich-Kellner-Prize.
German-Czech and German-Slovakian Historical Commission
1998 – 2010 Historical Commission of the Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Bavarian Academy of Sciences).
Academic Council of the Liechtenstein Institute of the Principality of Liechtenstein (until 2012)
2007 – 2012 Academic Advisory Council of the DFG Cluster of Excellence “Cultural Foundations of Social Integration” at the University of Konstanz
2008 – 2012 Jury (chairman) for the translation prize Geisteswissenschaften International awarded by the Börsenverein des deutschen Buchhandels
University liaison of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung at the University of Tübingen
Prizes and Honors
1996 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz-Prize awarded by the DFG in the amount of 1.5 million German Marks
1997 Prize for the Advancement of Female Academics and Students at the University of Tübingen
2001 Erwin-Stein-Prize awarded by the Erwin-Stein-Stiftung
2009 Honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Erfurt
2009 Fellow of the Collaborative Research Group 640 Repräsentationen sozialer Ordnungen im Wandel at the Humboldt University of Berlin
2010 Honorary Fellow of the Historisches Kolleg in Munich
2013 Federal Cross of Merit with Ribbon of the Federal Republic of Germany
