In 2011, the Centre for Mediterranean Studies chose a new form of publication: open access working papers. The Mediterranean Working Paper Series provides a platform for describing and analysing current political developments within the project area, for introducing new research ideas from discussion forums to a larger audience and for presenting scientific results of interdisciplinary research on transversal topics and academic teaching.

The ZMS Working Papers are published in irregular intervals.

Please note: With immediate effect you will find the Working Paper Series also on the website of the university library of the Ruhr-University Bochum.

Timo Grenz

As a representative of transdisciplinary Mediterranean Studies, an important task of the Center for Mediterranean Studies (ZMS) is to constantly seek an exchange of scientific and personal experiences beyond its own location in Bochum. Therefore, even before the start of the winter semester 2015/16 at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, a joint Mediterranean excursion was to take place. The choice fell on Marseille: Mediterranean meeting place and historical anchor point of European culture and civilization.

Nadine Lordick

This working paper deals with the presence of the Mediterranean in Middle High German narrative literature. Selected verse novels from the eleventh to the thirteenth century will be examined under different aspects: The sea itself, its location in medieval geography, but also cultural contacts and conflicts within the Mediterranean, as reflected in literature at the time of the Crusades, will be included in the investigation.

Daniel Brauch, Jens Lieven, Mareike Roder, Linn Schilling

The conquest of the Levant by the Crusaders and the subsequent settlement of Palestine was recently characterized by Jonathan Phillips as "religious colonization". Nikolas Jaspert places these events in the broader context of European expansion, since Christian settlements were established at the same time in the Baltic and on the Iberian Peninsula, similar to those on the other side of the Mediterranean. Jaspert mentions here in particular the seizure of the land by a knightly elite, the subsequent immigration of peasants who were able to cultivate the land, and the development of privileged cities. At the same time, however, he points to important differences: the original intention of the crusaders in taking possession of Palestine was not only territorial expansion for the purpose of gaining land; rather, it was also motivated to a not insignificant extent by religion. After all, Jaspert continues, the Crusaders conquered the Promised Land, which was known from the Bible. The crusades to the Holy Land thus have an exposed significance in the context of territorial expansion, which will be discussed in more detail in the following in order to outline the external framework conditions.

Christin Nezik, Konstantin Küppers, Teresa Peters und Wolf Zöller

This essay is dedicated to illuminating the specific historical constellations from the founding phase of the Crusader dominions, in which the connection with the Occident acted as virtually constitutive for the Latin churches of the eastern Mediterranean. The focus will be on the actors as well as on the structures of transfer, on mobile groups of people, transfer routes, frequencies and continuities of exchange.

Linda Basha, Eileen Bergmann, Kathrin Kelzenberg, Robin Köhler, Anna Schiff

This article focuses on several surviving voyages whose destination was the Holy Land. What these journeys have in common is that they had to cross the Mediterranean or survive the journey at sea. The practical organization, the motivation and the financing of the journeys are to be investigated. We will look at the preparations, which were not only limited to the organization of the voyage, but also affected those who stayed behind. How much time did each leg of the journey take? It is important to focus on the Mediterranean passage in order to examine how this route underwent professionalization over the centuries. What were the experiences of pilgrims entering the Holy Land, and how did Christians and Muslims interact? The journeys of male and female pilgrims will be briefly compared. The question is not about the Mediterranean itself, what dangers it held or what images existed about it, but how the sea was actually traveled.

Pia Sentkowski, Lukas Raupp, Nikolas Berghoff, Tristan Pfeil

In 1110/11, the Norwegian part-king Sigurðr Magnússon reached the Holy Land by sea with a larger force. There he assisted King Balduin I of Jerusalem in the capture of the city of Sidon, having received from the latter some relics, including a particle of the Holy Cross, whose handover, however, was conditional. The role of this cross relic within diplomatic communication by means of material carriers of meaning will be discussed below in the context of far-away, trans-Mediterranean connectivity, which is why a brief outline of the meaning of the cross within (Latin) Christianitas precedes the investigation.

Meike Meerpohl

This paper wants to shed light on the relations between Libya, Chad and Sudan in the last three decades, relations, which were characterized by wars, tensions and interven- tions, but also by alliances, assistance and investment. It also wants to focus on a Dafurian rebel movement, the JEM, and its interrelation to the three states. Further, the paper will show how the uprisings in Libya and Gaddafi’s fall affect its two neighbour-countries in the south. The information presented here is based on fieldwork conducted in the three countries between 2003 and 2007, mainly in Tiné, a border town along the Chadian-Sudanese border and the hometown of the ethnic group of Zaghawa. Further information raised from fieldwork conducted in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan between 2009 and 2011 and from analysis of different reports and articles as well as from per- sonal conversations with members of the Zaghawa.

Ioannis A. Panteleon

This paper deals with a series of poems written by scholars of antiquity and educational travelers during their stays in Greece between 1880 and 1904. Such poetry of use is not infrequently found in the estates of scholars, but it has remained rather unnoticed, perhaps due to the fact that it was not made available to a wider circle of recipients. As works written under the direct impression of a stay in a foreign country, they represent a charming variety of "travel writing" that is still able to captivate through its inherent linguistic wit and richness of allusion. The reason for a more intensive study of these works is, however, different: the present work explores the suitability of these poems as historical sources, which - as it has already been done for the numerous Greek travelogues acquired at the same time - are to be examined for their informative value for questions of scientific as well as cultural history.

Dieter Haller

Köstlichen Wein, du findest ihn hier, und junonische Frauen,
Artemis floh, doch sie ließ uns ihre Nymphen zurück.
Glücklicher Wanderer, wenn am Blumenfeste der Göttin
Venus auch dir einen Kranz duftiger Rosen bescheert.
Wilhelm Friedrich Waiblinger (* 21.11.1804 , † 17.01.1830)

In this poem, my uncle, distant in time and degree, the writer Wilhelm Waiblinger, expresses not only his desire for the female sex in general, but - drawing on classical motifs - for the specific sensuality of Italian women. For a poet who came from the environment of the Swabian-Pietist Tübingen monastery, the city of Rome, which he got to know on a trip to Italy in 1826 on the advice of the publisher Johann Friedrich Cotta, might have seemed a revelation: the Mediterranean permissiveness in dealing with sexuality there made him a native. Waiblinger lived in prosperous and dissolute circumstances in Rome until his early death in 1830. "The erotic liberation is lived, it too belongs to the repertoire of the classical Italian journey (...)," writes the ZEIT in a portrait of the poet.

Dieter Haller

Tunis - Avenue Bourguiba: On December 17, 2010, the desperate self-immolation of a young man, Mohamed Bouazizi, in Sidi Bouzid leads to a successful uprising of Tunisian citizens against the 23-year regime of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. In January of the so-called Jasmine Revolution, the dictator leaves the country and a transitional government is established. The example and success of the Tunisian revolution give the masses in other Arab countries and their civil social movements the courage to turn against their regimes: Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya and Syria are only the most important countries whose inhabitants are inspired by the Tunisian example.

Dieter Haller

This essay focuses on the fault lines that can be discerned in German media coverage of the upheavals in Mediterranean North Africa. These are the fault lines between the EU and the North African states, those between Northern and Mediterranean Europe, and those between the Mediterranean coastal regions and the Arab metropolises.