Moritz Sorg
Lecturer
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Department of History
Rempartstraße 15
79085 Freiburg
Street address:
Belfortstraße 20, Rückgebäude, R. 02007
Tel. +49 / (0)761 / 203 98743
Email: moritz.sorg@geschichte.uni-freiburg.de
Office hours:
Tuesday 11:30 am to 12:30 pm (please book an appointment online)
CV
| since 2023 | Lecturer in Modern European History, University of Freiburg |
| 2020 | Visiting PhD Student, École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris |
| 2019 - 2023 | Research Associate, University of Freiburg (DFG funded project on “Foreignness and Monarchic Rule”) |
| 2018 - 2023 | PhD Student, University of Freiburg |
| 2016 - 2017 | MPhil Modern European History, University of Cambridge |
| 2015 - 2016 | Student Research Assistant, University of Freiburg, Professorial Chair for Modern European History |
| 2014 - 2015 | Erasmus Visiting Student, Trinity College Dublin |
| 2013 - 2016 | Student Research Assistant, University of Freiburg, Professorial Chair for Modern Eastern European History |
| 2012 - 2016 | B.A. History and Management, University of Freiburg |
Research Interests
- History of Nationalism and Foreignness in the Nineteenth and Twentieth century
- History of Monarchy in the Nineteenth and Twentieth century
- Comparative and transnational European History with a particular focus on Germany, Great Britian, France, Belgium, Switzerland and Romania
- History of Media and Democracy in the Twentieth Century
- History of Globalization and Global Infrastructures in the Twentieth Century
Research Projects
Foreignness and Monarchic Rule: Transnational Monarchy in the Age of Nationalism, 1815-1943
The research project examines the phenomenon of foreign monarchs and consorts in the nineteenth century, the First World War and the interwar period. Focusing on transnational marriage customs of European monarchy and the import of foreign princes as monarchs for newly founded nation-states in the nineteenth-century, the comparative analysis uses a wide range of European and global examples around central case studies of Belgium and Romania to examine the remarkable contiguity of monarchic foreignness and the rise of nationalism. The project explains challenges to the legitimacy of foreign kings and queens in nationalising societies, investigates international expectations of loyalty, and clarifies the self-perceptions of these monarchic figures with transnational biographies as parts of an internationally entangled and multilayered discourse around monarchic foreignness.
The study understands the First World War as a crisis of transnational monarchy during which foreign kings and queens had to answer to increasingly pressing questions about their nationalities and loyalties. Therefore, the project identifies new strategies of legitimation, developed by European ruling houses in the war period, such as nationalisation, accessibility or democratisation and shows how the failure to adapt to these new strategies led to the overthrow of some monarchies by the end of the war, while others exited the conflict as heroic national figures. Thereby, the study explores discursive negotiations of legitimacy and nationality in the nineteenth and early twentieth century and contributes to a better understanding of the transformation of European monarchy.
Scholarships
| 2020 | Erasmus PhD Scholarship, EHESS Paris |
| 2018-2020 | PhD Scholarship, Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes |
| 2016-2017 | Scholarship, Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes |
| 2014-2015 | Erasmus Scholarship, Trinity College Dublin |
Other Professional Memberships
- Modern Monarchy in Global Perspective Research Hub
- Arbeitskreis Historische Belgienforschung
Office Hours
Publications
- Begegnungsraum Republik – Die Schweiz und die transnationale Monarchie im 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert, in: Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte, 74/2 (2024) (in Vorbereitung).
- „Royal Families at War: Transnational Monarchy and the First World War, in: Cindy McCreery, Robert Aldrich und Falko Schnicke (hrsg.), Global Royal Families (in Vorbereitung)
- „Remnants of an Old Order? The Romanian Monarchy between Nationalisation and Transnationality after the First World War, in Revue des Études Sud-Est Européennes, LX, 1-4 (2022), S. 267-289.
- „Reformfähige Monarchie – Verpasste Republik? Rumänien zwischen Niederlage und Sieg im Ersten Weltkrieg“, in: Bernd Braun (hrsg.), Es lebe die Republik? Der Erste Weltkrieg und das Ende der Monarchien in Deutschland und Europa, Göttingen 2021, S. 207-232.
- „Of Traitors and Saints: Foreign Consorts between Accusations and Propaganda in the First World War“, in: The Court Historian Journal 24, 1 (2019), S. 1-16.
- „From equilibrium to predominance. Foreign princes and Great Power politics in the nineteenth century“, in: Journal of Modern European History 16, 1 (2018), S. 81-104.
- „Sowjetisch in der Form, Usbekisch im Inhalt. Die Musealisierung der sowjetischen Vergangenheit in usbekischen Museen“, zsm. mit Henning Lautenschläger und Max Trecker, in: Osteuropa 6 (2016) S. 237-252.
Reviews
- “Jan De Volder, Cardinal Mercier in the First World War. Belgium, Germany and the Catholic Church”, in: Historische Zeitschrift, 310 (2020).
- “David Hamlin, Germany's Empire in the East. Germans and Romania in an Era of Globalization and Total War”, in: Historische Zeitschrift, 209 (2019).
- „Torsten Riotte, Der Monarch im Exil. Eine andere Geschichte von Staatswerdung und Legitimismus im 19. Jahrhundert“, in: Francia-Recensio, 4 (2018).
- „Sebastian Bischoff, Kriegsziel Belgien. Annexionsdebatten und nationale Feindbilder in der deutschen Öffentlichkeit, 1914-1918“, in: Journal of Belgian History, 48, 1/2 (2018).
