History

Sind die evangelischen Communitäten, die größtenteils nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg entstanden, ein Unfall in der protestantischen Geschichte oder doch reformatorisches Erbe? Lange wurde ihnen vorgeworfen, dass es in der evangelischen Kirche keine Orden geben sollte - aber was hat Luther eigentlich dazu genau gesagt? Fragen und Antworten werden in dem Artikel debattiert.

Due to the greater interest in the relationship between gender and history, as it has been emphasized after the “cultural turn” of the 1990s, questions concerning women’s roles in early modern legal practice became an important focus of research, too. First of all, criminal laws came into view: Questions were raised, why women were being hunted as witches, and whether they should be regarded as victims of the legal system. Furthermore, studies asked, how gender was constructed, when, for instance, fornication was being tried at court. Despite these efforts, research did not focus on civil legal practice with the same intensity. It appeared, that corresponding cases were regarded as less spectacular than issues of criminal law. Moreover, the existence of several judicial instruments like the guardianship seemed to have suggested that women could not be regarded as independently acting subjects of law. Instead, they were expelled from early modern legal culture. Nevertheless, it has t...