Zentrale Forschungsthemen im Bereich Hof der Frühen Neuzeit, gesehen mit den Augen der mitteleuropäischen Historiographie

The article discusses the basic approaches to the issue of the early modern court in the context of its long development from the Middle Ages to the 19th century. It presents the methodological approaches and questions that have been resolved by historians of the last few decades and opens up some serious historical problems for the future. These focus in two areas, which can be labelled as “structure” (the static dimension) and “process” (the dynamic dimension). Both levels cooperate with one another and form the overall view of the court as a polysemous phenomenon connecting culture, politics, economy and religion and its central point was the sovereign, or the ruling family.