Current News

In memory of Mr Robert Schneck

The members of the Faculty of Philosophy, Arts, History and Social Sciences mourn the loss of Robert Schneck, who worked for many years as a lecturer in Religious Studies at the Institute of Protestant Theology and the Institute of Philosophy. He passed away on 4 October 2024 and we offer our heartfelt condolences to his family.

Programme for the promotion of early career researchers at the Faculty of Philosophy, Arts, History and Social Sciences

At its meeting on 8 May 2024, the Faculty Council of the Faculty of Philosophy, Arts, History and Social Sciences approved a programme for the promotion of early career researchers at the faculty from the faculty funds of the DFG programme lump sum. The aim of the programme is to promote the mobility of early career researchers by subsidising active conference participation. Further information can be found in this information sheet.
 

Inaugural Lectures for Prof. Dr. Jenny Oesterle-El Nabbout and Prof. Dr. Eva Odzuck

On May 14, 2024, Professors Jenny Oesterle-El Nabbout and Eva Odzuck delivered their inaugural lectuers as holders of the Chair in the Medieval History; and the Chair in Political Philosophy, Theory, and History of Ideas, respectively. More information is available in the flyer below.

In memory of Professor Matthias Heesch

It is with great sadness that the University of Regensburg mourns the death of Professor Dr Matthias Heesch, who passed away on 16 February 2023 at the age of 62.

Matthias Heesch was born in Heide (Holstein) in 1960 and studied Protestant Theology and German Studies at the Universities of Kiel, Tübingen and Mainz after completing his Abitur in Norderstedt. In 1989, he passed the First Theological Examination of the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church and completed his doctorate at the University of Mainz in the same year under the supervision of Prof Dr Eilert Herms. In 1996, he was habilitated in systematic theology.

From 1989 to 1991, Professor Dr Heesch was a vicar at the Evangelical Lutheran St Martin's Church in Kiel. This was followed by employment as a research assistant at the University of Mainz and from 1996 to 2002 as a university lecturer at the University of Wuppertal.

From 1 April 2002, Professor Dr Heesch was a university professor of Protestant theology with a focus on systematic theology and contemporary theological issues at the University of Passau. With effect from 1 April 2008, he moved his chair to the University of Regensburg.

His main field of research was systematic theology, the task of which is to reflect on the Christian faith in context using the means of a historical-hermeneutical science. This involves the methodological-scientific prerequisites of this reflection (prolegomena), the actual content of faith (material dogmatics) and also the resulting consequences for human behaviour (theological ethics).

In Prof Dr Matthias Heesch, the University of Regensburg has lost a particularly committed academic. It will always honour his  memory.

Regensburg researchers complete long-term project:

More than stones ... Bavarian synagogue memorial volume
Just in time for the 2021 commemorative year ‘1700 years of Jewish life in Germany’, the Bavarian Synagogue Memorial Volume project has come to an end after 19 years.
Prof Dr Hans-Christoph Dittscheid (Art History) and Prof Dr Wolfgang Kraus (Lecturer at the Institute for Protestant Theology) from Regensburg are involved.
Four volumes present the history of over 200 former Jewish communities in Bavaria that celebrated services in their synagogues around 1930. There were 115 congregations in Lower Franconian towns and villages alone. The last volume covers 65 places with branches in the eastern districts of Lower Franconia on 1780 pages. The presentation will take place on 25 April 2021 in Würzburg.
The synagogue memorial volumes see the various aspects of Jewish life and suffering as part of a shared Bavarian history. They also see themselves as a medium of reminder and a call for reconciliation.

The project was mainly funded by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria and the Free State of Bavaria, as well as by many foundations, including the Regensburg University Foundation Lucia and Dr Otfried Eberz.

The presentation will be attended by the President of the Central Council of Jews Dr Josef Schuster, the Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria Dr Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, the Archbishop of Munich and Freising Reinhard Cardinal Marx, the Vice President of the Bavarian State Parliament Karl Freller and the Commissioner for Anti-Semitism Dr Ludwig Spaenle. The presentation will be recorded and can then be accessed via a link on the project's homepage (URL: www.synagogenprojekt.de) and on the homepage of BCJ.Bayern (URL: https://bcj.de).

The video of the presentation is now online:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvCW7NU8ef0&t=770s

Hanns Lilje Foundation Science Prize for Dr Tatjana Schnütgen

The faculty would like to congratulate Dr Tatjana Schnütgen on being awarded the Hanns Lilje Foundation's 10,000 euro science prize. The foundation honours Tatjana Schnütgen's dissertation ‘Tanz zwischen Ästhetik und Spiritualität. Theoretical and Empirical Approaches’ as a first-class interdisciplinary contribution to the understanding of contemporary religious culture. The theologian is a lecturer at the Institute for Protestant Theology at the University of Regensburg and was a research assistant at the Chair of Religious Education and Didactics of Religious Education under Prof Dr Michael Fricke from 2012 to 2017. She completed her doctorate in Protestant Theology at the Faculty of Philosophy, Arts, History and Social Sciences with ‘summa cum laude’.

Here you can find the press release of the University of Regensburg with further links to the prize winner and the Hanns Lilje Foundation Science Prize.