Regina Schulte earned the EUI an excellent reputation as a place for interdisciplinary gender studies. A renowned expert of social history in 19th century Germany, she was also devising comparative perspectives that ventured across periods and regions.
Time after time, Regina Schulte paved the way for new, at times daring, topics and approaches. Her PhD thesis, submitted in 1977 in Munich, discussed the central place of prostitution in modern urban economies. She analysed its interrelation with bourgeois 'virtuousness' and showed that the occupational backgrounds of 'prostitutes' were far more complex than often assumed. Professor Schulte also wrote an inspiring socio-legal history of the village in the 19th century and helped establish the field of war studies from a gender perspective. Her 1998 book, Die verkehrte Welt des Krieges, The inverted world of war, explored how military conflicts affected the everyday lives of women in particular. Looking at history from the point of view of individual biographies was a core feature of Professor Schulte's work. Her scholarly mind also explored other innovative topics, such as the body of the queen since 1500, incest or the love between siblings, and the history of the senses.
Born in 1949 in Paderborn, Regina Schulte's academic career took her, among other places, to Stockholm, London, Cornell, and Berlin. She was involved in establishing networks that continue to support gender historians in Europe and beyond. Schulte co-edited key journals such as Historische Anthropologie, and L’Homme. European Journal of Feminist History. From 1993 to 2014, she taught as professor for modern history and gender history at Ruhr University, Bochum, and from 1998 to 2003 she held the Chair for European History and Women's and Gender Studies at the EUI's History Department. During her time at the EUI, she took a keen interest, among many other things, in the project 'Narratives of the Servant'. Analysing the complex dynamics between master/mistress and servant/maid, this project addressed intersections between gender, class, and race, and pinpointed the global implications of the trajectories of domestic servants, thus once more framing new research agendas.
Regina Schulte's courageous and insightful voice will be dearly missed. She is survived by her husband Lutz Niethammer, an eminent historian as well, and her daughter Lena Niethammer. The EUI expresses its deep condolences to Professor Schulte's family during this time of sorrow.
By: Benno Gammerl, Professor of History of Gender and Sexuality at the EUI History Department
Photo credit: University of Vienna, media portal