Revolution in medieval studies: making Willehalm a digital experience!

Revolution in medieval studies: making Willehalm a digital experience!

The important medievalist research project “Willehalm in Context”, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), will start on August 29, 2025. The initiator of the project is Prof. Dr. Bernd Bastert, who holds the chair for German literature of the late Middle Ages at the Ruhr University Bochum. The project management is in the hands of junior professor Dr. Lina Herz at the University of Hamburg, who is working with the Heidelberg University Library on the digital transcription and edition of the Middle High German work “Willehalm”, which was written by Wolfram von Eschenbach around 1220.

“Willehalm” is one of the most frequently transmitted secular works of this era and deals with military conflicts and the coexistence between Christians and people of other faiths at the time of the Crusades. Particularly noteworthy is the central female figure in the text, who has a migrant background. This project aims to overcome the fragmentation of the surviving texts distributed in various libraries, research collections, private collections and family archives.

Research content and objectives

A main focus of the project is the long-term identification and analysis of all historical manuscripts and texts of the “Willehalm” and related works. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the relationship to the stories “Arabel” (previous story) and “Rennewart” (continuation) is also examined. These works form an important cycle in Germanic medieval studies that has rarely been examined in its entirety. The digital edition aims to serve individual research interests, including linguistic and art historical analyses, supported by innovative methods from the Digital Humanities.

The TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) format will be used for the digital edition, with a reading edition to be developed during the project period. This will also be accessible in book form as part of a “diamond open access” model. The comprehensive digital representation of the cycle “Arabel – Willehalm – Rennewart” will make it possible to present the entire tradition clearly, which was impossible in printed form.

Use of modern technologies and sustainable infrastructure

In this context, the use of artificial intelligence plays a crucial role. This technology is used for text recognition, analysis and networking of handwriting, which significantly increases the availability and usability of the data. One goal of the project is to build a sustainable digital infrastructure for research and teaching that supports interdisciplinary exchange and the promotion of young scientists.

The project will be presented in poster form during the DH Days of the Ruhr University on September 16, 2025 and in a poster exhibition from September 15 to 28, 2025. The important DFG long-term project supports projects of outstanding scientific importance that have a minimum funding period of seven to a maximum of twelve years.

In addition to the traditional texts, another project is being planned as part of the digital edition of German-language poetry from the 12th and 13th centuries. This project aims to provide a unified, easily accessible presentation of poetry that was previously scattered in different editions. For this purpose, edition texts, digital copies and transcriptions of the manuscripts are made available online in order to ensure closeness to the tradition.

This comprehensive initiative for the digital development of German studies is intended not only to deepen the understanding of the historical work “Willehalm”, but also to create broad accessibility for researchers and the interested public.