Dr. Robert Luft

Senior Researcher, in charge of the Biographical Collection

Subject: History
E-Mail: robert.luft[at]collegium-carolinum.de

Research Areas

Political history of the Habsburg Monarchy and Czechoslovakia, in particular Czech and German parliamentary and political party history
Civil society of East Central Europe
Social and economic history in Central Europe from the early modern period to the twentieth century
Inter-ethnical relations in European border regions
Educational history in the Bohemian lands and Czechoslovakia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
Jewish history in Central and East Central Europe since the early modern period

Personal Data

• Born in 1956
• Studied history, Eastern European history, mathematics and economics  in Mainz and Vienna
• Study visits in Berlin, Prague, Brno, and Vienna
• Since April 1990: Research assistant at the Collegium Carolinum
• 1991-2006: Managing Director of the Collegium Carolinum
• Since 1996: Lectureships at the University of Regensburg, the University of  Passau, and the Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Munich
• Since 1997: Organizer of the annual "Bohemisten-Treffen" (a platform for the presentation of works in progress, open to everyone with a special interest in the past and present of the Bohemian Lands)

Fellowships/Awards

• 2005: recipient of the Central European and Anton Gindely Prize (Institute for the Danube Area and Central Europe / Austrian Ministry for Education, Science and Culture) for the research project "Social Structures in Bohemia"
• 2013: recipient of the Science Award of the Margaretha Lupac Foundation for Parliamentarism and Democracy, Austrian National Council Vienna, for the book „Parlamentarische Führungsgruppen und politische Strukturen in der tschechischen Gesellschaft. Tschechische Abgeordnete und Parteien des österreichischen Reichsrats 1907–1914“ (VCC 102)
• 2014 awarded the Palacký Medal for services to history at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague

Roles

• Since 1990: work for the German-Czech Schoolbook Commission, member of the Joint German-Czech Schoolbook Commission founded in 2002
• Since 1992: Member of the academic advisory board of the Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften (Austrian Journal for Historical Studies) in Vienna
• Since 2005: Chairman of the Historical Commission for the Bohemian Lands
• 2003-2006: Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Adalbert Stifter Society in Munich
• Since 2007: Member of the International Editorial Board of the Časopis Matice moravské (ČMM) in Brno, Czech Republic
• Since 2008: Member of the Editorial Boards of the Pražský sborník historický (PSH) and Documenta Pragensia (DC) at the Prague City Archives, Czech Republic
• Since 2009: Member of the Editorial Board of the Prací z Archivu Akademie věd at the Masaryk Institute and Archives of the ASCR in Prague, Czech Republic
• Since Autumn 2009, lecturer at the „Religious cultures in 19th and 20th-Century Europe“ International Research Training Group at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU), Munich, and Charles University, Prague
• 2009-2013 Director of the research groups working on the project „Transnational Mediators of Knowledge – The Migration of Czechoslovakian Journalists and their Work for Radio Free Europe in Munich (1950-1970)“ as part of the Bavarian Research Network „Migration and Knowledge“ (ForMig) in collaboration with Prof. Martin Schulze Wessel
• Since March 2013, joint lead, together with Prof. Benjamin Schenk (Basel), Prof. Martin Aust (Munich) und Prof. Maurus Reinkowski (Basel), of „Imperial Subjects. Autobiographical practies and historical change within the continental realms of the Romanovs, Habsburgs and Ottomans (mid-19th to early 20th centuries)“, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the German Research Foundation

Publications

Selected publications