Michael Borgolte Aufnahme von Werner Maleczek

Michael Borgolte (born 1948) is a German Historian. Besides the history of medieval endowments he studies mainly the

Comparative history Comparative history is the comparison of different societies which existed during the same time period or shared similar cultural conditions. The comparative history of societies emerged as an important specialty among intellectuals in the Enlight ...

of Europe and the Global history of the Middle Ages.

Career

Borgolte was educated at the

University of Münster The University of Münster (, until 2023 , WWU) is a public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over 120 fields of study in 15 departments, it is Germany's ...

, where he gained his doctorate in 1975. In 1981 he qualified as a professor at the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1 ...

, where he was assistant to the

palaeographer Palaeography ( UK) or paleography ( US) (ultimately from , , 'old', and , , 'to write') is the study and academic discipline of historical writing systems. It encompasses the historicity of manuscripts and texts, subsuming deciphering and dati ...

Johanne Authenrieth from 1975 onwards. in 1991 he was one of the first professors newly appointed to

Humboldt-University The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humboldt, ...

after the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...

came down. He held the chair for Medieval History until 2018. Since 2007 Borgolte is a member of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and as such delegated to the scientific board of the

Monumenta Germaniae Historica The (Latin for "Historical Monuments of Germany"), frequently abbreviated MGH, is a comprehensive series of carefully edited and published primary sources, both chronicle and archival, for the study of parts of Northwestern, Central and Souther ...

. Together with

Bernd Schneidmüller Bernd is a Low German short form of the given name Bernhard (English Bernard). List of persons with given name Bernd The following people share the name Bernd. *Bernd Brückler (born 1981), Austrian hockey player * Bernd Cullmann (1939–2025), G ...

he was coordinator of the research progra
SPP 1173
"Integration und Desintegration der Kulturen im europäischen Mittelalter", funded by the

German Research Foundation The German Research Foundation ( ; DFG ) is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2019, the DFG had a funding bud ...

. In 2011 he was awarded with an ERC Advanced Grant for his research program "Foundations in Medieval Societies — Crosscultural Comparisons". Collaborating with the

Byzantinist Byzantine studies is an interdisciplinary branch of the humanities that addresses the history, culture, demography, dress, religion/theology, art, literature/epigraphy, music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination ...

Zachary Chitwood, the

Indologist Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies. The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') is ...

Annette Schmiedchen, the medieval historian Tillmann Lohse and others he prepared a three volume encyclopedia on this topic which promptly stimulated scholarly discussions.

References

1948 births 20th-century German historians Living people 21st-century German historians Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin {{Germany-historian-stub

Career

Further reading

References