Presented: New digital platform on the Thirty Years' War

"One of the central aims is to better connect current research projects and qualification work on this topic and at the same time make it accessible to a wider public," explains Meumann. "In addition, the portal itself provides impetus for further research into the Thirty Years' War as one of the outstanding events of early modern European history." This is achieved primarily by making previously unpublished sources available and by initiating collective research projects, particularly in cooperation with the FactGrid based at the Gotha Research Centre.

The portal is currently divided into four sections: In the section Bibliography section, an overview of recent research literature on the Thirty Years' War from 1998, the year of the major Council of Europe exhibition on the 350th anniversary of the Peace of Westphalia, is to be made available in the medium term. There are also plans to use regional bibliographies to record the printed literature on specific areas as completely as possible, even retrospectively. The second area, sources will gradually be compiling sources that were particularly close to the contemporary actors, such as personal testimonies, letters and chronicles in open access. Under Prosopography a pilot project is being created a lexicon of the most important military leaders and officers of the Thirty Years' War, with a particular focus on the military activities of these actors. Further prosopographical data collections are to follow in the coming years. The aim of the projects section is to provide an overview of ongoing research projects as well as theses and dissertations in progress and to bring their authors into dialogue with each other. The four project areas are supplemented by a collection of links which provides initial information on the Thirty Years' War and is intended to encourage interested individuals and institutions to make contact with each other.

Dr Markus Meumann: "All researchers interested in the Thirty Years' War are cordially invited to take part, as this is the only way to ensure that the bibliographies are updated and the portal is successively expanded." Information on own or third-party research projects, but also suggestions and ideas for the further development of the portal are just as welcome as the provision of regional or specialised bibliographies, source materials, data collections and biographical articles for the Army Leaders' Encyclopaedia.