Forgotten histories - international medieval learning - Crusades

Forgotten histories – international medieval learning - Crusades

The “Crusades” are a medieval topic with a lot of potential for modern use and abuse. Between approx. 1100 and at least the 15^th century very many crusades were recommended, planned, preached, put into action, not only against the “Saracen” occupiers of the Holy Land and Jerusalem – places esp. the Latin Christians at some point actively considered hereditary land (the land where Christ himself had walked on Earth) to be regained. But also to other places and against other enemies crusades took place: The Iberian Peninsula, the Baltic Area, the Balkans against “Saracens” and ”Pagans” as well as many places of heretic enemies within were chosen over time as legitimate crusade aims. Although in the Middle Ages there is no common name for these movements (“crusades” being a later word) modern historians can recognize enough common features to compare. At the same time, “crusades” are one of the probably best-known medieval events, demonized and revived, typical medieval in their human-slaughtering intolerance or a good example for rightful fight against the expansive Muslims, to mention only two extremes. And although it seems that “crusades” can be used as a short hand because everybody knows what it is, the notion and the memories connected to it are very different in different places in Europe (and of course beyond): Not only do different national and ethnic groups in Europe remember different crusades at different times (and may not even have heard of others), they also play very different roles in national narratives across our continent.

In cooperation with several European universities (Universidade Nova de Lisboa, UNED Madrid, Stockholms universitet, Univerzitet u Sarajevu), the project “Forgotten Histories” is concerned with a comparative, trans-European view on medieval historical topics such as ‘Crusades’. It gives attention to national and/or different unknown and surprising perspectives. There lies a huge didactical potential on the perhaps initially unsettling confrontation on different and distinct narratives. As a second step this allows an analytical recession from the own well-known reading and opens a complexity of perspective. The format of blended learning gives therefore the chance of mirroring the experiences of history as tangible localities and collective-digital of national narratives on the other hand.

Participation should be completed in form of examination, which will be offered as portfolio auditing (conditions will be presented during the local phase).

Time schedule (to be completed):

1. Preparation phase

- In preparation for the local phase, participating students should prepare a commentated video clip (non-professional, on the mobile phone) of a historical location, a piece from a museum, a digitized document ... from their own country which relates to the topic of the seminar.

- Emphasis: “this is where I’d start from when I had to explain my understanding of Crusades.” This will be presented in the following local phase

2. Local phase – FernUniversität in Hagen

- Friday 01.10.2021, 5 pm - 8 pm

- Saturday 02.10.2021, 10 am – 4 pm

3. Icebreaking seminar – place online

Thursday-Friday 18.11.2021 – 19.11.2021 - 4.00 pm - 7 pm and Saturday, 20.11.2021 – 10.00 am - 4.00 pm online

4. Online phase via open moodle platform and other resources: Mixed international teams are preparing their papers and presentation for the final meeting.

- November 2021 – March 2022

5. Final workshop – FernUniversität in Hagen.

- 28. - 30. April 2022 Online via Zoom

Th. 28.04.2022 - 16.00 - 19.00 Uhr

Fr. 29.04.2022 - 16.00 - 19.00 Uhr

Sa. 30.04.2022 - 10.00 - 16.00 Uhr

Initial Reading (some more will follow later on):

• Hehl, Ernst-Dieter (1994): “Was ist eigentlich ein Kreuzzug”, Historische Zeitschrift 259, 297-336.
• Jaspert, Nikolas (2005): Von Karl dem Großen bis Kaiser Wilhelm: Die Erinnerung an vermeintliche und tatsächliche Kreuzzüge in Mittelalter und Moderne, in: Glaube, Heinz/ Scheidmüller, Bernd/Weinfurter, Stefan (Hg.): Konfrontation der Kulturen? Saladin und die Kreuzfahrer, Mainz, 136-159.

Recommended to be purchased: Jaspert, Nikolas (2020): Die Kreuzzüge, (7. aktual. Neuaufl.), Darmstadt.