Wuppertal at the top: Prof. Eke is redirecting pre-March research!

Wuppertal at the top: Prof. Eke is redirecting pre-March research!

Prof. Dr. Norbert Otto Eke was elected as the new chairman of the international scientific association “Forum Vormärz Research” in Wuppertal at the end of April 2025. This association was founded in 1994 and is based in Bielefeld. It includes scientists from various countries, including Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Japan, the USA and Australia. The University of Paderborn reports that the forum focuses on research on the important period of the Vormärz, which ranges from 1815 to around 1849.

The focus of the forum is on numerous academic disciplines, including literary studies, history, theology, sociology, philosophy as well as music and art studies. The aim of the forum is to initiate joint research projects, organize conferences and workshops and produce scientific publications.

Research and publications

The “Forum Vormärz Research” publishes its own yearbook and several series of publications that publish important research contributions to the era. The yearbook “Everyday Culture in Vormärz” (2025) published by Prof. Eke was recently published. Prof. Eke has significantly influenced pre-March research through numerous monographs and individual contributions, as well as the yearbook “Vormärz, Nachmärz / Risorgimento, Postrisorgimento: German-Italian Perspectives”, which was published in 2022.

The main topic of aesthetics in the 2021 yearbook, edited by Norbert Otto Eke and Marta Famula, is another example of the forum's committed research. It addresses various aspects of aesthetics in Vormärz and offers contributions from numerous researchers who deal with literary modernism.

Goals and membership

A central goal of the forum is to reflect on the close connection between social and literary development during the pre-March period. It sees itself as a lobby for well-known authors such as Ludwig Börne, Karl Gutzkow and Georg Herwegh, but also supports largely unknown writers of this time, including Therese Huber and Fanny Lewald. The forum that is particularly committed to reliable text output, is intended to strengthen the reception of the literature of the Vormärz.

Overall, Prof. Eke heads the “Modern German Literature” department at the Faculty of Cultural Studies at the University of Paderborn. The significance of his work and the role of the forum in the academic community show how important research on the Vormärz period is for understanding German literary history.