Foreign world or birth of modernity? The early modern period (1500-1800) is an era full of contradictions. State formation processes, new conditions of communcation, the transformation of knowledge and scholarship and, finally, emerging global contacts seem to point to the present day. On the other hand, court culture, the deep religiosity of the people and a strictly ordered society may appear rather foreign to us - not to mention witch hunts, stinking cities and precarious living conditions of most early modern people. The lecture addresses these and other phenomena. It provides insights into key events, fundamental structures and processes of the era in a European perspective as well as it introduces important actors and historical sources. The lecture is to be attended in combination with an introductory seminar on the early modern period. close