Heisenberg Professorship: A backstage look at the pre-modern historiography of princes in the late Middle Ages

Professor Grischa Vercamer is the new Heisenberg Professor at the University of Passau for the History of Eastern and Central European Cultures in the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period. In his research, he aims to expand our understanding of the representation of the rule of princes in the late Middle Ages.

In the Middle Ages, reign was considered to be given by the grace of God. One would think that the religiousness of the prince should therefore play a central role in pre-modern historiography. Surprisingly, however, the depiction of the pious or religious prince appears less frequently in the sources than one would expect.

This is one of the topics that the medievalist Professor Grischa Vercamer is addressing in his research at the University of Passau. He is being funded for five years as part of the renowned Heisenberg Programme. The German Research Foundation (DFG) supports academics who can prove their eligibility for a professorship through a habilitation and who have demonstrated particularly outstanding academic achievements. Professor Vercamer was successful in a highly competitive process and raised more than 800,000 euros in funding.

“I am delighted that we have been able to recruit Mr Vercamer for the University of Passau and congratulate him on this outstanding success,” said Professor Ulrich Bartosch, President of the University of Passau. “His research on the depiction of the forms of rulership of princes in the late Middle Ages is a significant contribution to the understanding of power and representation in a historical epoch that continues to shape our image of political authority and cultural perception to this day,” he adds, commenting on the significance of the work.

Professor Vercamer's project, which was launched in January 2025, is divided into two parts:

• The late medieval prince and his portrayal as a Christian and warrior ruler in historiographical works from the Bohemian, Austrian and southern German regions. In addition to the Heisenberg professorship, the DFG has granted a research grant for a doctorate on the portrayal of the prince as a warrior, military leader and warlord, under the supervision of Professor Vercamer.
• Structure and change of the German lower nobility in the late Middle Ages and early modern period from the 14th to the 16th century. Among other things, case studies on the composition of the lower nobility in the Mark Brandenburg and the historical Vogtland in the late Middle Ages and early modern period are planned.

“Pre-modern historiographers staged the image of their princely protagonists with a certain intention, i.e. often in an idealised, positive or negative way,” explains the Heisenberg professor. “Modern historiography obtains the individualised image of a pre-modern prince and his actions as a ruler precisely from historiographical works, but often reflects too little on the complexity of the respective works and the intentions of the authors.”

Professor Vercamer has set himself the goal of looking behind the currently prevailing image of the rule of princes and “bundling and structurally expanding the achievements of previous research on the history of ideas and conceptions”. To this end, he can draw on his own preliminary work, including his 800-page postdoctoral thesis on the subject of “The practice of rule in the High Middle Ages as reflected in historiography. Ideas of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ rule in England, Poland and the Empire in the 12th/13th century”. From his 650-page thesis on the Teutonic Order of Prussia, he developed the comparative European field of research on the late medieval “lower nobility”.

The researcher, who worked as a deputy professor at Chemnitz University of Technology from 2020 to 2024, is familiar with the University of Passau: He held the Chair of Medieval History from 2018 to 2020. He has spent the majority of his academic career in European capitals, namely in Berlin, Edinburgh, Prague and Warsaw. From 2008 to 2014, he conducted research as a medievalist at the German Historical Institute in Warsaw. The graduate German and history teacher for secondary schools speaks fluent Polish, among other languages.

This text was machine-translated from German.