Anna Haut

Contact: Anna.haut@grk-freundschaft.uni-freiburg.de

Personal Information

Born on March 18th 1987 in Sosnowice, Poland

• 2005: High School Diploma, Goethe-Gymnasium Freiburg
• 2005-2011: Studied Modern and Early Modern History, English Philology and Political Science, Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg and University of Sheffield/UK
• January 2011: Magister Artium, topic of the final paper: Between sense and sensibility. Friendship, love and marriage in Karl von Rotteck’s circle of friends in Freiburg (1790-1805)
• June 2011: PhD-Student, DFG-Graduiertenkolleg 1288 “Friends, Patrons, Clients”, Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg
  

Internships, Scholarships and Working Experience

• 2010: Internship at the German Diary Archive, Emmendingen
• 2007-2010: Teaching Assistant at the Department of History, Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg
• 2009: Scholarship of the Jubiläums-Stiftung of the City of Freiburg in Cooperation with the City Archive, Freiburg
  

Fields of Interest

• German Middle Classes in the 18th Century
• Gender History
• 18th Century Moral Philosophy
  

PhD Project

Friendship and Love in 18th Century German Popular Moral Philosophy

First Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Ronald G. Asch
Second Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Hans-Helmuth Gander

In modern societies love and friendship constitute an essential source of an individuals’ sense of self. These central forms of human relationships appear to be familiar, it is difficult to define them: What is love? Who is a friend? In the 18th century these questions were integral to a lively debate among the intellectuals of the German middle classes, who throughout the century drafted various concepts of personal close relationships. In this debate the different notions of friendship and love were closely interrelated and developed via dialogue and demarcation. My PhD thesis aims to analyze the development and change in the debate on love and friendship in German popular moral philosophy between 1720 and 1800. I will study the mechanisms at work in this debate, how different concepts of love and friendship were constructed and how they mutually influenced each other. Applying a discourse-analysis methodology, I will look at the demarcations, hierarchizations and meanings ascribed to terminology by middle class scholars, the discursive practices, central ideas, turning points of the debate and its conclusions. At the same time I will discuss the driving forces behind the changing concepts of love and friendship and why some concepts established themselves whereas others were ultimately rejected. I will also place the debate on love and friendship against the background of the rise of the German middle classes to social importance as well as the general development of ethical thinking in the 18th century. Therefore I will analyze the link between the debate on love and friendship and the social situation of the middle classes, i.e. the molding of these concepts along the lines of middle class generation, gender and rank structures. All in all my thesis shall contribute to the historiographical delineation of the genesis of modern ideals of interpersonal relations.