Whether and to what extent memory-theoretical approaches can be introduced into historical science and church history is still a desideratum of historical work, especially on the level of application in historical interpretation. Within the framework of the BA Historical Sciences and MA History and Society programs based in Passau, as well as in cooperation with the Chair of Exegesis and Biblical Theology, we are constantly trying out hermeneutics, methodology, and interpretation.

The topic of identity and memory is a focus of the professorship both hermeneutically and as a research topic; in addition to classical source analyses, the methods of oral history are used. Research is conducted in the area of the 20th century on three levels:

• The Catholic Bible Movement as a Memory-Cultural Phenomenon
• Catholics and their regionally differing constructions of identity and past in East and West Germany.
• Religious groups in Central and Eastern Europe with their differing and shifting constructions of the past (in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Thomas Wünsch).