14.09.2022
Overview
Historical Sciences
The science of history explores the development of man as a social and acting being. She tries to reconstruct what happened with the help of reliable sources and to interpret it critically.
The study field at a glance
The traditional branches of history are ancient, medieval and modern times. Moreover, some individual disciplines have evolved, e.g. Egyptology, Assyirology or Byzantine Studies (history and culture of the Eastern Roman Empire), some content was also assigned to individual sciences (church and religious history, literary and art history, etc.). Own compartments have also evolved, e.g. on the history of Judaism.
In response to industrialization emerged the economic and social history and the history of technology. From the study of individual rooms developed regional, country, city history and population history.
There are overlaps with the study field "Classical Studies, Archeology".
Offered courses
The opportunity to study historical science exists only at universities. Auxiliary sciences of history are paleography, diplomatic, chronology, genealogy, sphragistics, numismatics, heraldry; furthermore sociology, economics and statistics. Not every university has all directions. The teaching offer is therefore very different.
Contents of the course
The following modules provide a bachelor's degree in the basics of historical research, working techniques and methods as well as knowledge of the big epochs:
- Ancient History is closely linked to classical philology and archeology.
- Medieval research relies primarily on handwritten tradition. Important additional and supplementary subjects here are art and church history, medieval Latin philology and the historical auxiliary sciences.
- Recent history begins with printed sources in the early 16th century.
- From 1789 we speak of the latest history.
- Historical events after the Second World War deal with contemporary history, which in turn is closely related to political science.
Building on this, the knowledge is deepened in part epochs and in selected problem areas, whereby a profiling or specialization usually takes place.
In addition, there are modules in the subjects of historical science such as constitutional, economic and social history, historical auxiliary sciences, country history and in key qualifications such as translation of sources and specialized texts, information gathering and the like.
Admission criteria & study application
Prerequisites for a successful history study are basic knowledge of historical epochs and a sufficient data framework of important events. Latin, French and English are helpful in foreign languages: Latin for the reception of ancient and medieval texts, French and English as international archival and scientific languages.
Possible careers after graduation
Historians find employment in adult education and political education, in research institutes, in museums, archives and libraries, in the foreign service, in associations, foundations and parties as well as in the media sector and in press and public relations. In addition, one of the main fields of activity of historians is teaching at schools; for this purpose, the study is completed with the teacher training examination.
