Aktuell

• von Dr. Alexandra Nießen
• 28.08.2026

The period between 1500 and 1800 was far more than merely the prelude to our present day – Prof. Dr Tim Neu is convinced of this. He is interested in pre-modern conceptions of freedom and equality and explores how political rule and economic exchange could be organised across great distances even centuries ago. The 47-year-old historian has taken up the Chair of Early Modern History at the Faculty of Humanities.

[Dr. Alexandra Niessen:] How would you briefly summarise your research?

[Prof. Dr. Tim Neu:] People in the Global North now have to deal with ‘the state’ on an almost daily basis – whether it be filing a tax return or attending an appointment at the local council office. At the same time, they are connected to much of the world through ‘the markets’, as every shopping trip makes clear. However, these connections cannot be taken for granted – for thousands of years, the everyday lives of most people were scarcely affected by political centres or long-distance supply chains.

My research focuses primarily on how and why, during the Early Modern period – roughly between 1500 and 1800 – it became increasingly possible to exercise political and economic power over ever greater temporal and spatial distances and across ever larger territories.

Are there any issues that are particularly close to your heart?

The topic of ‘the history of democracy’ is particularly important to me. However, the early modern period is often viewed from the perspective of the modern idea of universal freedom and equality, which came to the fore with the French Revolution in 1789. The early modern period then appears either as its precursor – or is overlooked altogether. Such a narrow focus, however, fails to capitalise on the potential insights offered by pre-modern concepts and practices of freedom and equality. It is precisely their distinctiveness that I find particularly interesting.

What are your plans at the UDE?

To begin with, I shall have my ‘second book’ published; the manuscript is currently under the working title “Credit Machines: Early Modern Fiscal Power in the British Empire (1692–1783)”. The central question is how the English-British state of the long 18th century was able to ensure public solvency on an ever-increasing scale, given the conditions of imperial expansion and rule across vast distances.

At the same time, I am beginning to transfer the digital resource ‘Introduction to the Early Modern Period’ to the UDE and to develop it further in collaboration with UDE students and colleagues from North Rhine-Westphalia. My aim is to expand the platform into a collaborative, cross-campus teaching and knowledge-transfer tool and to strengthen the UDE’s visibility in the fields of digital history and early modern studies in the long term.

What should your students know about you?

For me, the university is, above all, a place of research-based learning. This means that, right from the start, I trust students to engage with the subjects of their studies in an academic manner – as provisional insights derived from historical material, rather than as fixed, ready-made ‘content’.

What misconception about your field of expertise would you like to clear up?

There is a twofold misunderstanding: many regard the Early Modern Period as a run-up to the modern era, as the prelude to the present day. Others, by contrast, emphasise how different it is and write a kind of alternative history. Both approaches, however, are oversimplified, for the Early Modern Period was both – pre-modern and early-modern. The distinctive character of this era therefore stems precisely from the tension-filled combination of both characteristics, forming an ‘intermediate period’ (J. Burkhardt).

Short Biography: Tim Neu

• Since April 2026: Professor of ‚Early Modern History‘ at UDE
• 2020 to 2026: Assistant Professor of the History of Democracy and Human Rights (16th to 21st centuries), University of Vienna (Austria)
• 2017 to 2020: Assistant Professor of European Expansion (1700–1850), RUB
• 2012 to 2017: Research Assistant, University of Göttingen
• 2005 to 2012: Research Assistant, University of Münster
• Two awards for his doctoral thesis, ‘The Creation of the Provincial Constitution: Creativity, Hypocrisy and Representation in Hesse’
  • 2015 Science Prize of the German Bundestag
  • 2014 Research Prize of the Federation of German Historical and Archaeological Societies
• 2011: PhD, University Münster
• 1999 to 2005: Studied history, philosophy and educational science at the University of Bonn and the University of Münster

Further information:
Prof. Dr. phil. Tim Neu, Early Modern History, phone. +49 (0)201/18-34463, tim.neu@uni-due.de

Editor: Dr. Alexandra Niessen, phone. +49 (0)203/37-91487, alexandra.niessen@uni-due.de