Dr. Josef Köstlbauer

The Moravian Church and Slavery in the 18th and early 19th century

• Early Modern Frontiers and Borderlands
• Media Cultures 1600–2020
• Digital Media and History

Josef Köstlbauer has published five edited volumes and numerous articles and book chapters. More than twenty national and international presentations

The Moravian Church and Slavery in the 18th and Early 19th Century

My research has focused on individuals brought into Moravian Congregations in German principalities, the Netherlands and Britain as well as into Moravian congregations in Pennsylvania. Thirty-nine enslaved or formerly enslaved individuals have been identified and described so far.

Whether free or slave or serf or servant, these individuals were assigned a specific role in the enactment of Moravian (self-)representation. First of all, they were symbols of the success of the Moravians' missionary endeavors. The physical presence of such persons and their ability to speak of their conversions and their relationship to the Savior clearly demonstrated the success of the count's vision. To underline the significance of their function within the community, I have introduced the experimental concept of "representation labor."

The prime task of these people of color in the European congregations was to increase the status of the community and to represent the ideal of worldwide community both to outsiders and to Moravians themselves. Introducing such a idiosyncratic and a historic term is intended as a sort of semantic intervention, highlighting that this can be interpreted as a form a work performed at the intersection of several forms of dependency.

My own research as well as that of my colleagues in the Bremen ERC-project has demonstrated the value of micro-historical approaches in this field. Micro-historical case studies, a close reading of records and a well developed awareness of the semantics at play are help to arrive at a better understanding of the heterogeneous forms of asymmetrical dependencies prevalent in early modern European societies – including slavery. They create insights into the interplay and intersection of norms and practices in very specific historic instances. By reconstructing actual relations between historic individuals and the dynamics of navigating existing notions of slavery, serfdom, and other situations of dependence and coercion can be subverted or expanded upon.

2011 
PhD History, University of Vienna, Austria

2001
Mag. Phil. (Diploma) History, University of Vienna, Austria

1995–2001
Studies in History, Art History and Communication Sciences, University of Vienna, Austria

since 2016–present
Postdoctoral Research Associate on the ERC Consolidator Grant The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and Its Slaves

2011–2015 
Postdoctoral researcher, Continent Allegories in the Baroque Age, federally funded research project, University of Vienna, Austria

2006
Research Fellow at John F. Kennedy Institute, Free University of Berlin, Germany

2004–2005
Austrian Ministry of Science Fellow at the University of New Orleans, USA

2002–2004
E-Learning Project at the University of Vienna, Austria Geschichte Online

2001–2003
Concepts and Ideas of Europe in the Seventeenth Century

1999
Praedoc Research Grant of the University of Vienna

2010–2012
Assistant to the Dean of Studies, Department of History, University of Vienna, Austria

2007–2010
The World of the Habsburgs

2003–2004
European lieux de mémoire, web project for ARTE TV