In nineteenth-century Germany public opinion about the Anglo-Saxon king Alfred the Great was shaped both by leading historians and well-known poets of the time. This interdisciplinary lecture will analyse how historians such as Gervinus or Winkelmann established influential narratives, while Wilhelminian poets like Fontane and Dahn worked towards Alfred’s ‘refunctionalization’ and heroic ‘reinterpretation’.
Andreas Bihrer is Professor of Medieval History at Kiel University. He specializes in diocese history, historiography and hagiography, and Anglo-Saxon history from a European perspective. He is the author of Begegnungen zwischen dem ostfränkisch-deutschen Reich und England (2012); Reformverlierer 1000–1800, ed. with Dietmar Schiersner (forthcoming 2016); and Die Angelsachsen in Europa (forthcoming 2017).
Julia Ilgner is a Ph.D. student at Freiburg University specializing in the genre of the German historical novel. She is co-editor of Arthur Schnitzlers Filmskripts and Transformations of History (both 2015).
The German Historical Institute London regularly holds seminars and lectures on topics of general interest to British and German historians. Seminars are held Tuesdays at 5.30pm during term time. Seminar papers are normally presented in English; knowledge of the German language is not necessary for participation.