CfP: Architektur / Repräsentation / Restriktion – Schaufassaden im mittelalterlichen Stadtraum

25./26. September 2025, Erfurt

The focus will be on an architectural phenomenological aspect in its urban context: Public buildings are generally characterized in the urban space by the fact that they stand out architecturally from their surroundings. Architecture and use interact with the adjacent square and street space in a special way. Architecturally elaborate storefronts often form the framework for a special act or rite, be it the presentation of relics, homage or urban legal acts. In contrast to civic or ecclesiastical institutions, Jewish institutions, especially synagogues, appear to have made hardly any architectural appearance as a result of restrictions or even bans on building in public urban spaces. And yet here too, at least during certain periods (e.g. the end of the 13th and beginning of the 14th century), more elaborate and architecturally sophisticated measures were taken, which were at least visible in the semi-public space of the Jewish quarter, but sometimes also more prominently in the urban space.

The invitation to apply with short abstracts (max. 2000 lines) on specific case studies or source studies is aimed at interested parties from all disciplines (building research, archaeology, building and art history, history, Jewish studies, monument preservation and museology).

Please send your application by May 31, 2025 to maria.stuerzebecher@erfurt.de or simon.paulus@ifag.uni-stuttgart. The number of participants for both days is limited. Unfortunately, travel and accommodation costs cannot be covered.


OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Maria Stürzebecher (March 29, 2025). CfP: Architektur / Repräsentation / Restriktion – Schaufassaden im mittelalterlichen Stadtraum. medievalJewishStudiesNow! Retrieved November 10, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/13lh5


About Maria Stürzebecher

I am the curator of the Museum Old Synagogue in Erfurt and scientific coordinator for the UNESCO World Heritage application Jewish-Medieval Heritage in Erfurt. Since 2012, I am editing the series "Erfurter Schriften zur Jüdischen Geschichte"; in 2020, the 6th volume "Ritual Objects in Ritual Contexts." was published. I studied History of Arts, Archaeology, Sociology and History and wrote my PhD thesis about the medieval Erfurt Treasure, which was published in 2009 entitled „Der Schatzfund aus der Erfurter Michaelisstrasse – Mittelalterliche Goldschmiedearbeiten als Zeugnisse jüdischen Lebens in Erfurt“.