The Foundation
100 Doctoral Students
On 30 April 2014 the Gerda Henkel Foundation celebrated the 100th birthday of its founder Lisa Maskell (1914-1998), who set up the Foundation in 1976 in memory of her mother Gerda Henkel. In line with one of the founder’s particular wishes, the Gerda Henkel Foundation especially supports young scholars.
In the almost 40 years of its existence, the Gerda Henkel Foundation has awarded scholarships to over 1,000 doctoral students. In honour of our founder, 100 former PhD scholarship holders of the Foundation took this opportunity to review the period when they were working on their dissertation. Starting on 30 April, we have published short portraits of “100 Doctoral Students”:
Dr. Sonia Abun-Nasr
"My best memory: On a research trip to Ghana I gave a pastor letters from the early 19th century written in his mother tongue, the West African Twi language. He took a look at the letters, jumped up with glee and went into the kitchen to read from them to his wife."
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Dr. Ingmar Ahl
"The topic still concerns me today, because the question as to what makes people suitable for assuming particular duties is bound up with the education they have received. The Karg Stiftung works to support and promote gifted children and young people in the education system."
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David Bartosch
“My topic still concerns me today: If in today’s globalized world philosophy is to continue to encourage appropriate reflection of the times in which they live then we need to compare even more the relevant historical factors across the extensive spectrum of traditions of European and Asian thought – and make them our own.”
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Dr. Manuel Bärwald
"My topic continues to fascinate me to this day as there is still so much to be told about it. Many people do not realize there was more to Leipzig’s music history in the 18th century than Bach cantatas, and that above all Bach’s students were great fans of Italian opera, which was hardly known here at the time. Which is why I gladly give talks, introduce concerts and create exhibition concepts as a way of filling in the gaps."
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Prof. Dr. Franz Alto Bauer
"The most extraordinary experience I had when working on my Ph.D. was the lasting understanding of the incredible extent to which ‘results’ in the humanities are the consequence of a subjective perspective and personal touch. It became very clear to me back then that it is not about ‘truths’, but in the best case about ‘ponderables."
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Prof. Dr. Martin Baumeister
"My most extraordinary experience was meeting an almost 90-year-old man in a village in 'my' region in southwest Spain. I knew his name from a thick bundle of case files from the year 1918. As a young man he had been brought before a military tribunal as a 'revolutionary'. This unexpected meeting touched us both very much."
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Prof. Dr. Daniel Bellingradt
“My most extraordinary experience in an archive took place in the Historical Archive of the City of Cologne. Despite there being obvious cracks in the walls (and one of the steps in the staircase had become displaced), the specialist consultants advising the City said that the archive was perfectly safe to use. Only a few weeks after my last visit to the reading room the building collapsed around noon one day.”
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Prof. Dr. Frank Bernstein
"My most important experience during the time of my doctorate was the freedom to be able to delve into a scholarly problem without intellectual limitations or a set programme."
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Dr. Sigrid Bertuleit
"I almost gave up once, because large sections of my Ph.D. thesis in manuscript form were destroyed, together with original research material."
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Dr. Annette Böhm
"I almost gave up once when my supervisor returned my dissertation shortly before the submission date. I burrowed myself away in my room in my student accommodation and listened to dark Mahler symphonies, until my housemates were seriously concerned. But on hindsight it was worth revising my dissertation for another six months. It was really good in the end and it meant I won the DAI travel grant."
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Dr. Gisela Bungarten
“My topic still concerns me today because, among other things, I am responsible for our in-house publications here. Meaning I can make very good use of the experiences I gained through my dissertation.”
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Dr. Tiziana Caianiello
"A particular help at the time was that my husband and several friends proofread my Ph.D. thesis, because it was a challenge for me back then, as an Italian, to write in German. The unbureaucratic support from the Gerda Henkel Foundation enabled me to concentrate exclusively on my research."
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Prof. Dr. Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum
"My most extraordinary experience in an archive was a little gecko that simply did not want to budge from the clay tablet I was working on – in the tablets collection of the Deir-ez-Zor Museum in Syria."
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Dr. Folke Damminger
"My topic still concerns me today, because my professional career has, in a roundabout sort of way, led me back to the field of my dissertation. One of my fields of occupation back then, starting from the grave finds, was early Medieval settlements and today they are once again one of the scientific focal points of my work."
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Dr. des. Anna Degler
"My best experience during the time of my doctorate was a tour of all the large and small storerooms, restoration workshops, and a number of secret side corridors at the National Gallery London, during which I was able to study in depth all the relevant material."
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Dr. Jörg Matthias Determann
"My best experience during the time of my doctorate was my field research in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait between 2009 and 2011. In particular I enjoyed the hospitality and cordiality of many Arabs."
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Dr. André Dombrowski
"My topic still concerns me today, because I teach and research late 19th-century French art and culture almost every day."
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Dr. Anna Echterhölter
"My topic still concerns me today, because how are we to separate them, academia and laudationes?"
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Dr. Jacob S. Eder
"A particular help to me at the time was the swift and entirely unbureaucratic support I received from the Gerda Henkel Foundation, especially in a critical and crucial phase relating to access to an important collection of files."
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Prof. Dr. Andreas Eichhorn
"My most extraordinary experience in an archive was when I was conducting literature research and I pulled out a card tray under “Sh” and found inside not index cards, but instead a full bottle of sherry and set of glasses. The digital library age rules out such finds today…"
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Dr. Barbara Ellermeier
"A particular help to me at the time was that the Gerda Henkel Foundation supports not only research, but also the communication of our findings. Contact to the press, the L.I.S.A. portal, the poster presentation at the 'Historikertag' and the scholarship alumni network – all this was valuable help back then."
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Dr. des. Alexandra Engelfried
"I almost gave up once, because I almost drowned in the flood of images of Putin."
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Prof. Dr. Johanna Fabricius
"My best experience during the time of my doctorate was seeing lots of things gradually fitting together: the plug and bracket holes in the reliefs examined with possible installation contexts in the necropolises, the pictorial scenes and their typical conventions for the respective city with the social structures of a city documented in inscriptions."
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Dr. Alexander Free
"My most extraordinary experience was a lecture in the context of a science slam organized by the foundation on a drizzly evening in an allotment in Berlin. For me the entire undertaking from my arrival to my return to Munich was unique and highly eventful. I will cherish fond memories of it."
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Dr. Susanne Froehlich
"A particular help to me at the time was that I was lucky enough to get one of the extremely rare crèche places (a total of only 20 were available at the time at my uni). It so happened that the crèche was just 50 metres from my study, so I could simply sit down at my desk and start work."
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Dr. Robert Fuchs
"My topic still concerns me today, because 1. I work in an institution that focuses on migration, and 2. I myself have married, thus putting theory into practice."
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Prof. Dr. Thomas Fuchs
"My topic still concerns me today, because the history of the Reformation has been “following” me as a research subject throughout my entire working life."
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Dr. Nepomuk Gasteiger
"My best experience during the time of my doctorate was the writing stage. At that point in time I had a handle on my topic, was able to classify the discourses and debates in research circles and realized that my theories could not only be thought, but also written down."
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Dr. Alexander C. T. Geppert
"My best experience during the time of my doctorate was not submitting the dissertation, but defending it at the European University Institute in Florence. Suddenly something I had been thinking about for years had come to life."
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Dr. Axel Gering
"My most extraordinary experience in an archive was when, lost in the old excavation diaries, I didn’t notice the last custodian leave and was locked into the Ostia archaeological site. To escape the guard dogs I had no choice but to spend the night in a 2,000-year-old bedroom in a Roman house."
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Dr. Sebastian Gießmann
"I almost gave up once, because one ignorant fool didn’t want to let me hire a car in Hartford, Connecticut with my German driver’s licence – 'It’s the law!' – and I almost didn’t make it to the archive of the first telephone company."
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Dr. des. Jana Glorius
"A particular help to me at the time was that my family and friends always supported me during the 'PhD adventure'."
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Dr. Judith M. Grünberg
"A particular help to me at the time was the great patience of my supervisor, Prof. Karl J. Narr, as well as the scholarships from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German National Academic Foundation) and Gerda Henkel Foundation. They enabled me to document and evaluate the burials of 1,608 individuals in 23 European countries from the Mesolithic Age and supplement the material on study trips."
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Dr. Bahargül Hamut
"My topic still concerns me today, because I am as ever interested in this area and find great enjoyment in library and archive research. My most extraordinary experience in a library or archive was in London at the British Library, reading the manuscripts."
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Prof. Dr. Gabriele Haug-Moritz
"My best experience during the time of my doctorate was the birth of my daughter Annalena – even though things got pretty difficult afterwards."
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Dr. Dorothee Heinzelmann
"My best experiences during the time of my doctorate were always the on-site residencies. At the time it was entirely new and exciting for me to be allowed to view a cathedral as I pleased, exploring the fascinating perspectives of triforia and attics and the traces left behind by the craftsmen and builders."
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Dr. Sophie Helas
"My best experience during the time of my doctorate was time and again walking around the ruins of Selinunte in the early morning when no-one was about; discovering the propylaeum on the Acropolis, until then unknown to the master; the hospitality of E&G in Marinella."
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Dr. Karl Gerhard Hempel
"My topic still concerns me today, because I still live in Tarent and also supervise and support doctoral students working on research projects linked to my dissertation."
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Dr. Marcus Heinrich Hermanns
"A particular help to me at the time was the support I received from the contact persons on site in Sicily; this helped me overcome the despondency I sometimes felt looking at the numerous boxes containing many thousands of found objects that I would have to sift through."
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Dr. Stefanie Hoss
"My best experience during the time of my doctorate was the three months I spent conducting research in Jerusalem. I was able to make many visits to see the sites that were the subject of my doctorate with my own eyes."
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Dr. Simone Husemann
"A particular help to me at the time was that the scholarship represented not only financial support, but also constituted recognition of my planned research project."
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Dr. Mahmoud Kandil
"My topic still concerns me today, because I am still researching and publishing material in this field."
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Dr. Kerem Kayi
"My best experience during the time of my doctorate was having daily meetings and encounters with experts from all over the world in the Ottoman Archive (Istanbul), just a stone’s throw from the Hagia Sophia. And the moment I started reading over 150-year-old handwritten documents in Arabic script."
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Prof. Dr. Margit Kern
“I almost gave up once when I received the news that a dissertation on the same subject was almost complete. But, after a sleepless night, the next day it turned out to be a mistake.”
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Prof. Dr. Martin Kintzinger
"My topic still concerns me today, because the “history of education”, which I was interested in at the time, has now gone on to spawn the current field of the “history of knowledge” in international discourse and I have the honour of heading an interdisciplinary “Gesellschaft für Universitäts- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte” (Society for the history of universities and of science), which is active in this field."
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Prof. Dr. Yvonne Kleinmann
“A particular help to me at the time was a friend who compared a doctoral thesis with a huge mountain of rice, which you can only get to grips with spoonful by spoonful. After that I split up the material into small portions and many sources never made it into the book.”
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Dr. Holger Kockelmann
“My topic still concerns me today because in my literature research I now and again come across additional, more recently published fragments of mummy bandages in the Book of the Dead [...]. I must say that for me those Egyptian funerary texts on linen still continue to be a most exciting and fascinating subject for research.”
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Dr. Martin Krispin
"A particular help to me at the time was that the Russian staff at the regional archive were so taken with my interest in their region and resolve to go to remote sources to research my doctoral topic that they generously ignored a formality or two."
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Prof. Dr. Stefan Kroll
"My best experience during the time of my doctorate was my first extended research trip to the Swedish Imperial Archive in Stockholm in 1993."
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Dr. Şevket Küçükhüseyin
"My most extraordinary experience in an archive was the fact that it was not the employee behind the desk, but the cleaner in the overalls and carrying a wet mop who answered my questions, fetched the handwritten manuscript from the archive (without the mop) and in the end also obtained a digital copy for me."
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Dr. Thomas Labusiak
"My most extraordinary experience in a library was in 2002 in the abbey library of St. Gallen, when the then Indian defence minister entered the reading room with no prior announcement and expressed an interest in the exquisite Carolingian manuscripts that were lying on the desk in front of me, asking 'is this Latin?'."
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Dr. Hannes Lachmann
"My topic still concerns me today, because I encounter virtually daily the mechanisms by which transnational crises evolve and are perceived that I analysed in my research in my own life or indirectly with a view to the current crisis developments e.g., in North Africa."
"I almost gave up once, because the numerous interwoven temporal, spatial and thematic strands of my work started taking on a life of their own in a sorcerer’s apprentice-type way, and I could barely keep up with them with the means of conventional narrative."
"A particular help to me at the time was that thanks to support from the Gerda Henkel Foundation, I could clear my head enough to shed some light on the dark matrix. The friendly scholarly exchange of ideas with the post-graduate programme “Socialist dictatorships as semantic identity” in a mountain village in Maramureș, Romania, was also a great help."
Dr. Hannes Lachmann
German-Czech Chamber of Industry and Commerce, HoD Public Relations & Members’ Service
Born in Regensburg, lives today in Prag
Dissertation topic: "Ungarische Revolution" und "Prager Frühling". Staatssozialistische Reformversuche zwischen 1956 und 1968 als Gegenstand einer ungarisch-tschechoslowakischen Verflechtungsgeschichte
completed in: 2012
Dr. Petra Lange-Berndt
"My topic still concerns me today, because taxidermy has become so popular in the UK that instead of knitting groups, workshops are now taking place where participants can learn how to prepare small animals for display. Stuffed animals are ambivalent things and as such ever interesting for artists."
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PD Dr. Uwe Lübken
“My most extraordinary experience in an archive was that it was precisely those documents that I had been alerted to by another book happened to be missing from the archive in the United States National Archives.”
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Dr. Ute Lucarelli
"I almost gave up once, because I was already in employment during the final stage of my dissertation. Working on it every morning between 6:30 and 8:30 a.m. and for large parts of the weekend while also having a ‘weekend’ relationship pushed me to my limits. But my research was important to me. I really wanted to get it finished and managed it in the end."
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Dr. Ingrid Männl
"My most extraordinary experience in an archive was sitting with Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia, a great-grandson of the last German Kaiser Wilhelm II, flicking through his great-grandfather’s school books and reading his timetable live on camera. It was later broadcast on television."
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Prof. Dr. Christoph Marx
"A particular help to me at the time was that the Gerda Henkel Foundation was willing to support a topic from extra-European history, which in the 1980s was something that most certainly could not be taken for granted."
Dr. Albrecht Matthaei
"My topic still concerns me today, because I am currently exploring issues of urbanism in reference to the spatial layout of settlements in the Aeolis region during the 4th century BCE – and am repeatedly studying towns and cities whose coin designs I already examined in my dissertation."
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Dr. Markus Leo Mock
"My topic still concerns me today, because it gave me an excellent basis for researching Medieval art in central Germany, which is still, both professionally and privately, the focus of my interest."
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Verena Mogl
"My most extraordinary experience was in the music department of the Russian State Library in Moscow. The scores I wanted to see there (namely previously completely unknown compositions by Weinberg, a sensation for me!) dated to 1949-52. When I picked them up from the loans desk the strict woman behind the counter couldn’t help but smile – I was the very first who wanted to see this ‚old stuff‘, she said."
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Dr. Marcus Mrass
"It was a great experience that, as a Gerda Henkel Foundation scholarship holder, there was no long questioning on why one needed this or that book from the Rara Collection."
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Prof. Dr. Eduard Mühle
"My best experience during the time I spent on my doctorate was the birth of my daughter."
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Prof. Dr. Harald Müller
"My best experience during the time of my doctorate was in Bayeux (Normandy). The director of the municipal library there had refused my request to borrow “manuscrit no1”, which would have been the world-famous tapestry. Her mistake, which she admitted, gave me 30 minutes alone with the 11-century artwork one evening by way of recompense."
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Dr. Silke Müth-Frederiksen
"My topic still concerns me today, because over the years working in Messene I have grown very fond of the beautifully situated town, and its walls also play an important role in my current projects."
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Prof. Dr. Johannes Myssok
"My topic still concerns me today, because creative artistic processes are an ever-recurrent and central issue at the Academy."
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Dr. Juliane Noth
"My most extraordinary experience was being allowed to spend an evening in a private collector’s house – on my own with her precious treasures."
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PD Dr. Salvatore Ortisi
“I almost gave up once when I found myself standing in front of sheer endless rows of shelves spilling over with boxes full of finds, waiting to be processed. My academic supervisor provided invaluable support at the time. And when not long after that the Gerda Henkel Foundation approved the funding for my dissertation project, I was able to put to rest my last remaining doubts.”
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Dr. Christoph Otterbeck
"I almost gave up once, because for two years running I planned to submit my dissertation before Christmas. In the end it was spring of the following year."
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Dr. Arzu Öztürk
"My dissertation topic still concerns me today, because I am the first female Turkish architect to work on ancient architecture in the Archaeological Dept. of a Turkish university. In this way I can continue my career in the field of research into archaeological buildings."
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Dr. Anna Pawlak
"My topic still concerns me today, because since gaining my doctorate my research has continually focussed on the issue of the various artistic concepts of the visual representation of immaterial reality."
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Dr. Klaus Petry
"My topic still concerns me today, because Medieval numismatics in particular is an extremely fascinating topic, and open to diverse interpretations."
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Prof. Dr. Felix Pirson
"My best experience during the time of my doctorate was the daily lunchtime picnic in the ruins of Pompeii far away from the herds of visitors."
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Prof. Dr. Richard Posamentir
"My topic still concerns me today, because back then I learnt the most important thing when dealing with ancient objects, namely that anything made by humans will somehow leave a trace. Yet you can only see them if you look very closely and take sufficient time."
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Dr. Ruben Quaas
“My topic still concerns me today because fairly traded coffee is everywhere and each variety contains a bit of history. And because today global and local links can be discovered no matter where you go.”
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Dr. Annelie Ramsbrock
"My topic still concerns me today, because cosmetic surgery is still significant today, and it seems the questions as to the boundaries of self-determination and the design of one’s own body will be even more important in future."
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Dr. Anna-Katharina Rieger
"Precisely in the summer months, when the library is closed to the public, we doctoral students felt like kings on the gallery of what was then the library room at the DAI! Despite all the pressure to finish writing up and an incredibly intensive period in terms of academic study, we spent highly diverse and often amusing weeks there."
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Dr. Felix Römer
"A particular help to me at the time was the fact that the Gerda Henkel Foundation provided me with permanent assistance up until the completion of my dissertation project – the Foundation’s trust gave me additional motivation and I am still very grateful for this today."
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Dr. Marion Röwekamp
"My best experience during the time of my doctorate was my interviews with contemporary witnesses, who were able to provide me with a better sense of the time than the written sources. Despite all the differences between the individual personalities they did have things in common which clearly defined not only that group of women, but also values and characteristics that have died or will die with that generation."
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Dr. Tina Rudersdorf
"An enormous help to me at the time was the fact that my supervisor (Barbara Schellewald, Basle) was cheerfully confident that I would soon finish the work."
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Dr. Alfred Schäfer
"My best experience was successfully handing in my dissertation after only one year’s sponsorship by the Gerda Henkel Foundation. I can still remember my doctorate party today."
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Dr. Irmhild Schäfer
"My topic still concerns me today, because in my role at the Bavarian State Library I am responsible for the enduring preservation of the library’s unique inventories of Medieval manuscripts, incunabula, rare prints, handwritten sheet music, maps, atlases and the estates of important people."
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Prof. Dr. Thomas G. Schattner
"My best experience during the time of my doctorate was the feeling of being the first person to succeed in making certain observations about the pieces that contribute to explaining the unsolved questions of our discipline. To mention one example – the model of the Iron-Age house in Caltanissetta, Sicily, the key to the architectural figure of the triangular gable."
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Dr. Olaf Schneider
"My most extraordinary experience in a library was that as a user I had no idea that one day I would be able to work professionally with historical inventories in such a library or that I would become a librarian."
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Dr. Kerstin Schulmeyer-Ahl
"A particular help to me at the time was the fact that I came across people with whom I could experience a light-hearted approach to academic work."
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Dr. Irina Shvets
"My topic still concerns me today because rock art fascinates me and I intend to continue my research."
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Dr. Brigitte Sölch
"My best experience during the time of my doctorate was my two-year research scholarship in Rome, which took me to the Bibliotheca Hertziana and the libraries and archives of the Vatican and the monastic congregations, with all their rich history."
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Dr. Kurt Daniel Stahl
"My most extraordinary experience in an archive was being given unlimited access to files in the Paraguayan Foreign Ministry. I learned that the relevant state secretary had made the decision in my favour. She had previously served as ambassador in Berlin, where we had met on one occasion."
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Dr. Maya Kerstin Stiller
"I would usually have to drink green tea with the monks for a couple of hours and listen to numerous requests to translate Korean Buddhist texts [...] before they would allow me a glimpse at even a single painting. However, at one temple the monk did not hesitate for long. After hearing with delight that I had come from Germany, he guided me to the portrait hall straight away and told me that his aunt also lived in Germany."
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Dr. des. Neela Struck
"My topic still concerns me today, because Hamburger Kunsthalle also owns a whole series of architectural images from the 17th century. They are not from Rome however, but from Utrecht, Delft and Amsterdam."
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Dr. Beate Sturm
“My topic still concerns me today because as an archivist I am surrounded by historical documents on a daily basis. Working with those files I often see parallels to the questions I addressed in my dissertation.”
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Prof. Dr. Monika Trümper
"I almost gave up once, because at the beginning of my research on Delos when I was investigating buildings and taking photographs early one morning at the dry-stone walls I saw a poisonous snake (a viper) climb up my photo measure and disappear into the wall. That was a warning to take especial caution and I subsequently saw and survived numerous (even more poisonous) snakes…"
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Dr. Syrinx Carola von Hees
"A particular help to me at the time was that although I received a comparatively generous scholarship from the Gerda Henkel Foundation, at the same time I was under pressure to complete the doctorate within a period of two years. Even though I didn’t quite manage that, this target was of great help to me."
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Prof. Dr. Ulrike von Hirschhausen
"A particular help to me at the time was that my supervisor, Dieter Langewiesche, was a passionate historian, showed great interest in my topic, and believed in my work."
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Dr. Philipp Freiherr von Rosen
"My best experience during the time of my doctorate was when I flew in a microlight over the principal work of my dissertation, Michael Heizer’s “Double Negative” (a gigantic excavation on an elevated plain in the middle of the Nevada desert, thus being able to view this earthwork for the first time in its entirety."
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Dr. Arndt Weinrich
"My topic still concerns me today, because at the moment at the DHI Paris I am confronted by the First World War every working day. It is intriguing to see the significance the boom in major anniversaries and jubilees has on 'pure' research, too. That’s something you simply don’t think about when as a young academic you set about choosing your topic."
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Dr. Christiane Wienand
"My most extraordinary experience in a library or archive was my stay at the “archive” (a rather dusty cellar) at the Homecomers’ Association in Bad Godesberg, which ended when the association was disbanded after being in existence for more than 50 years, leaving part of its archive to one of my colleagues and myself."
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Dr. Gabriele Wimböck
“My most extraordinary experience in an archive in Bologna, where I spent the best period of my doctoral studies, was being taken by the hand into the archive room to look for the relevant materials.”
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Prof. Dr. Alfons Zettler
"My best experience during the time of my doctorate was meeting the founder, Ms. Lisa Maskell, in person and being able to explain the archaeological excavations whose results formed the basis of my dissertation."
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PD Dr. Volker Zimmermann
"My best experience during the time of my doctorate was receiving advice and assistance, particularly from a large number of Czech academics and archivists. This was a very positive experience and many of the contacts and friends I made at the time are still around today."
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Prof. Dr. Cornel Zwierlein
"I'll never forget (as many others) the 9/11 moment. Sitting in the Archivio Camerale (Sede Piave) of the Archivio di Stato in Turin, studying some exciting account books of the Savoyard 16th c. militia administration, I and the other readers were all suddenly disturbed by ringing phones and noisy discussion about the "torre gemelli". I did understand all that only after the archive's (normal) closing when I saw the TV pictures."
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