Mitteilungen
The Mitteilungen can be accessed free of charge as PDF documents either via the CRC website or via the LMU document server (Open Access LMU).
01/2026
With the latest issue of our Mitteilungen, we would once again like to offer you an insight into the research carried out within the CRC.
Regina Bichler, a research fellow at the CRC, examines various aspects of the theoretical and practical handling of waste from the perspectives of vigilance, attention and alertness, drawing on examples from Germany and Japan. Waseem Ahmed, who was also a research fellow at the CRC last year, investigates practices of denunciation in 17th-century revolutionary England. In his analysis of various sources, he demonstrates how diverse this practice was within the bourgeois camp and how it contributed to the stability of the English Republic. Maddalena Fingerle, who was a member of project C03 during its first phase, traces the connections between vigilance and the sense of hearing as presented by Italo Calvino in ‘Un re in ascolto’. Her reading of the story reveals the spectrum of listening, which shifts from vigilant, compulsive listening on the lookout for danger to a pleasant and lively listening to the sounds of the city.
Three reports round off this issue: Maria Hauber and Tim Schütrumpf (B02) provide an update on the latest masterclass; Saki Kikuchi reports on the workshop she organised for her sub-project (B01); and Sabrina Wiederhold
reports on the joint workshop held by projects A02 and A07.
02/2025
With this tenth issue of our Mitteilungen, we would like to offer you an insight into the research being carried out within the SFB.
Leonard Horsch, a researcher on project B04, uses a letter by Ludovico Foscarini to demonstrate how Venetian
politicians of the 15th century sought to compensate for their absence whilst holding offices abroad. Horsch analyses the vigilance with which Foscarini proceeded and how he sought to
hold the addressee accountable by styling them as a co-guarantor of the Republic’s supra-individual goals. David Brißlinger, a researcher on project A02, examines guardian angel prayers within the context of late medieval books of hours. He analyses the role of guardian angels in the interplay between text and illumination and interprets the visual representation of the angel as a call for self-reflection. Punny Kabir, who was a fellow of the CRC, presents her research on migrants from Bangladesh in Rome in her contribution and discusses various forms of everyday social control as vigilance.
In addition, Riccarda Gattinger and Maresa Dudek report on the presentation of their project (A06) at the Bavarian Criminological Forum. A report by Adeliia Davletova on a workshop that she and Christoph Neumann organised as part of their project (C05) rounds off this issue.
01/2025
We are delighted to once again offer you insights into the research carried out within the CRC through the latest issue of our newsletter. Jonas Bauschert, a researcher on project A10, reports on his fieldwork in Peru. His account highlights how vigilance is distributed amongst various actors in the protection of the rainforest, and the role played by the ethnographic observer within this framework of vigilance. Max Hering Torres, who was a guest of the CRC last year, presents in his article the alcaldes de barrio in Santafé de Bogotá at the end of the 18th century. He highlights the practices of these guardians of public order and discusses their role between institutionalisation and individual vigilance by private citizens. Laurian Kanzleiter, a researcher on project C03, uses
selected examples to illustrate how an ‘Oriental’ Italy is constructed in travelogues of the long 19th century and what forms of attention are activated in the process.
Two reports round off this issue: Laurian Kanzleiter and Tamara Klarić provide information on the masterclass of the Integrated Research Training Group with Pia Campeggiani. Claudia Olk and Annegret Schäffler report on a workshop they organised under the title ‘Vigilance and Uncertainty in Early Modernity’ as part of their project.
02/2024
The latest issue once again offers insights into the research being carried out within the CRC.
Caroline Mezger, for example, demonstrates how, in Nazi Europe, rumours and gossip became a means of informal
communication under conditions of censorship, state propaganda and authoritarian rhetoric. She also examines how vigilance came into play within these communicative dynamics.
In her article, Giulia Grossi (A08) examines the ambiguity of the Medusa’s head, specifically how its protective and disaster-warding qualities are linked to its deadly effect. Her contribution explores the contexts that are characteristic of its protective and guardian aspects and in which ancient Gorgoneia were originally used. Our guest and scholarship holder Paul-Simon Ruhmann focuses on competing cultures of vigilance on the eve of the Salzburg emigration. He demonstrates how a broad concept of vigilance, which avoids the conceptual narrowing
to top-down measures of state surveillance, can be particularly illuminating in this oppressive research context.
Three reports conclude this issue: Maximilian Schwarz reports on the workshop ‘Distraction and Vigilance’ with Jamie Kreiner, Jonas Bauschert and Hannah Ritchie from the international conference of project A10,
in which indigenous voices were also heard, and finally Giulia Grossi on a workshop concerning the relationship between the individual and imperial authorities in the ancient Mediterranean.
DOI: 10.5282/ubm/epub.122620
01/2024
We are delighted to once again offer you insights into our research with the latest issue of our Mitteilungen.
Hannes Ziegler, a member of the CRC and recently appointed to the University of Dresden, together with his colleagues Christine Gerwin and Nina Opgen-Rhein, presents the research of an Emmy Noether Junior Research Group. They examine the phenomenon of ‘common informing’ in early modern England and highlight the legal and social consequences of this practice, which were significant precisely because there was no organised police force at the time. Nevertheless, such practices and their effects – and sometimes even laws – extend right into the present day.
This is also demonstrated by Pia Fuschlberger (C01) and Paul J. Kramer (B08), who take a highly ambivalent, now-viral warning about pickpockets as an opportunity to examine similar practices: vigilante citizens’ initiatives in contemporary Japan and early modern pictorial journalism,which addresses the phenomenon of theft.
In his contribution, Tim Burger (B06) focuses on a particular form of vigilance in the Azores. He demonstrates how complex the vigilance of local farmers is. The cultivation of the boundary between culture and nature is of enormous importance to the farmers, not least because the encroachment of nature into formerly cultivated areas threatens their economic livelihood.
This issue concludes with three workshop reports: John Hinderer and Tamara Klarić report on vigilance in monasteries of the Bursfelde Congregation; David Brißlinger and Katharina Brost discuss collective conceptions of the devil and ‘queer’ life; and finally, Paul J. Kramer and Gabriele Vogt compare vigilance and governance in Japan and Germany during the Covid-19 pandemic.
01/2023
In May, the German Research Foundation (DFG) approved our application for a second funding phase of the Collaborative Research Centre on Cultures of Vigilance. We are delighted by this recognition of our work, and it spurs us on to continue pursuing our research goals with determination.
In this issue, we therefore begin by introducing the newly added sub-projects and their leaders.
Arndt Brendecke then outlines what a history of attention might look like if it were told not only from the perspective of the attentive individual subject, but as a history of interconnected cognitive processes.
Felix Grollmann, a member of project B02 in the first phase and a continuing member of the CRC, and his three co-authors demonstrate in their article how the attention of merchants is harnessed within the context of cross-border trade. The text demonstrates how, since the 15th century, letters from merchants have become a social resource far beyond their purely economic significance, bearing witness to the development of a communication network.
From a similar perspective, a workshop organised by project B04 explored how the security of Mediterranean coasts was to be ensured in the early modern period. Kilian Harrer concludes this issue with a report on this workshop.
02/2022
We have an important year ahead of us, as a decision on the future of the CRC will be made in March.
In this issue, three of our research fellows offer an insight into their work. In her article, Charlotte Thun-Hohenstein
examines the visual language in the devotional writings of the early modern court preacher Jeremias Drexel. She demonstrates how spiritual health is conceived there as the result of a series of mindfulness practices.
Her article is based primarily on research she was able to undertake during her stay. This also applies to Ron Sadan’s text. Like Thun-Hohenstein, he places images at the centre of his analysis and examines the bookplates that Karl d’Ester, a pioneer of early newspaper studies at the University of Munich, used for his private library and which later served as an emblem of the social mission of his discipline. Sadan, however, interprets the grotesques conceived by Ernst Maria Fischer as an early critique of d’Ester’s ambitious plans. Kateryna Yeremieieva, who was forced to flee Kharkiv with her son last year, turns her gaze in a different direction, even though images also play a role in her work. She explores the connection between vigilance and humour and, as part of her research project, traces the shifting history of their relationship – particularly in times of war, the boundaries of what can be said can shift.
Two workshop reports and a short article on the masterclass held by the Integrated Research Training Group with Eva Illouz offer insights into the Research Centre’s events.
In addition, Benjamin Steiner introduces the History Club, a course for selected pupils from Bavarian grammar schools who have worked very enthusiastically with our programme over two semesters.
01/2022
The CRC is set for an important year with a packed programme of events. We look forward to reconnecting with you and receiving your feedback, which we have had to do without for far too long.
In this issue, Jonathan Alderman offers an insight into our work. He highlights the particular vigilance displayed by US citizens in the border region with Mexico who are mistakenly perceived as illegal immigrants. Elke Wienhausen-Knezevic and Nico Herold explore how the media and social environment shape the acceptance of whistleblowing. Maddalena Fingerle, whose novel has just been translated into German, has discussed with colleagues what ‘vigilante authorship’ might mean. In her contribution, she summarises these discussions and shows how self-observation and external observation constitute literary text production.
This issue concludes with two reports on past events. Whilst Felix Grollmann describes the diverse insights that working with court records provided to participants in a workshop organised by project B02, Sébastien Demichel reports on the B04 workshop, where they exchanged views with French historians on the fight against the plague in the Ancien Régime.
02/2021
Fortunately, conditions are now returning to normal within the Collaborative Research Centre as well, making it possible once again to hold the all-important in-person academic exchanges. As a result, our annual conference, ‘Languages of Vigilance’, was able to take place in the traditional manner, albeit with a limited number of participants. Molly Taylor-Poleskey’s visit as a guest of the SFB in the spring was a first sign of a return to normality. Her contribution to this issue is based mainly on research she was able to undertake during her stay. The text traces a spectacular case of poisoning at the Prussian court and examines the culture of courtly interaction as well as the associated practices of observation. Patrick Geiger turns his attention in a different direction. He demonstrates how, in the 18th century, consistent self-observation and self-questioning, combined with corresponding systems of record-keeping, led to the establishment of an autovigilant practice that continues to influence self-optimisation discourses well into the 20th century. In the third article of this issue, Felix Grollmann traces the origins of a statement by the Roman jurist Quintus Cervidius Scaevola, according to which the law is written for vigilant citizens. Furthermore, Agnes Rugel reports on a workshop organised by project C01, which focused on the imagery of sin and court constellations in
ecclesiastical literature of the late Middle Ages. This issue concludes with an article by Maddalena Fingerle on the masterclass and the lecture by Ulrich Bröckling, who was able to highlight the links between heroism and vigilance.
01/2021
This first issue of our Mitteilungen for 2021 has also been produced under the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. In it, Alina Enzensberger, the coordinator of the Integrated Graduate College (IG), reports on what support for doctoral students within the CRC looks like despite the pandemic. On the IG’s initiative, Mirko Breitenstein was a guest of the CRC – unfortunately, like so many others, the events with him could only take place via Zoom. In his article, he demonstrates how the idea of an individual responsible for themselves takes shape in images and metaphors.
All the articles in this issue address how attitudes are tested and how the conditions of this testing contribute to their formation. In her text, Christiane Brenner highlights two strands that shaped research into prostitution in 1960s Czechoslovakia: the state doctrine, for which the very existence of the phenomenon was a thorn in the side, and the scientific ethos, which sought to gain access to the subject matter. Nic Leonhardt uses selected examples to discuss how images point beyond themselves and seek to elicit a sense of responsibility. This issue concludes with a report on a workshop organised by project A02, which examined the role of the devil in moral vigilance regimes.
01/2020
This first issue is intended, on the one hand, to introduce the CRC. To this end, alongside general information on the structure of the sub-projects in the three areas ‘A. Transformations’, ‘B. Spaces’ and ‘C. Techniques’, it also features
an article by Arndt Brendecke, in which he outlines the fundamentals of the research concept, along with its opportunities and challenges.
In addition, initial research findings are already presented. For instance, Maddalena Fingerle and Florian Mehltretter explore the nuances of Italian terminology for ‘vigilance’. Brendan Röder, meanwhile, examines the question of the necessary social distancing during early modern plague epidemics. Reports are also included on workshops: Katharina-Luise Förg on symbols of medical vigilance, Patrick Geiger on the Confessions of Augustine, and Felix Grollmann on court records in Italian archives.