Crossing the Boundaries of Belief: Geographies of Religious Conversion in Southern Germany, 1648-1800

Acknowledgments

vii Acknowledgments This book may never have reached completion without encouragement, support , and not-so-gentle prodding from a number of people. I would like to show my appreciation to all of them. As a dissertation, my first attempt to make sense of the unruly contents of my research was indebted to my amazing committee members: Antonio Feros, Penny Johnson, Karen Kupperman, and Darline Levy. My adviser, Ronnie Hsia, has remained a source of generous guidance, based on a productive tension, in which he has constantly pushed me and my thinking. I am extremely grateful for his mentorship through what is avastbutwell-mappedlandscape:the world of German religion and culture. The research required to turn dissertation into book was made possible by many generous research fellowships, including a dissertation research grant from DAAD, a Bernadotte E. Schmidt Fellowship from the American Historical Association, summer grants from the History Departments of both GeorgiaStateUniversityandCornellUniversity ,aResearchInitiationGrant(Georgia State University), and a Junior Faculty Travel Grant from the Institute for European Studies at Cornell University. For my research, I visited sixteen different archives and research libraries. I am indebted to the archivists and staff at each of these institutions: the city archives of Augsburg, Füssen, Kaufbeuren, Kempten, Memmingen, Nördlingen , Nürnberg, and Ulm; the City and State Library of Augsburg; the Bavarian State Archive in Augsburg; the Central Bavarian State Archive in Munich; the Bavarian State Library; the Central State Archive of Stuttgart; the Archive of the Bishopric of Augsburg; the Archive of the Diocese of Eichstätt; the Regional Lutheran Church Archives in Nürnberg and Stuttgart; and the Archive of St. Anna Church in Augsburg. Without the kind help of every archivist, librarian, and staff member in these institutions, I could not have completed the research contained in this book. In particular, I would like to thank Richard Bauer, Franz-Rasso Böck, Sigrid Buhl, Michael Cramer-Fürtig, Christoph viii • Acknowledgments Engelhard, Suzanne Faul, Manfred Heimers, Gerhard Lemmermeier, Renate Mäder, and Wilfried Sponsel. While in Germany, I discovered more than dusty documents in archives. I also found guidance, camaraderie, and friendship with Heike Bock, Stefan Brünner,AllysonCreasman,SusanneEser,GeorgFeuerer,AlexFisher,Florian Gloeckner, Helmut Graser, Mark Häberlein, Mitch Hammond, Michele Hanson , Jürgen Hanwalter, Bridget Heal, Markus Heinz, Carina Johnson, Christine Johnson, Boris Kaut, Hans-Jörg Künast, David Lederer, Kirill Levinson, Benedikt Mauer, Wolfgang Mayer, Erik Midelfort, Rosamarie Mix, Martin Ott, Wolfgang Petz, Beth Plummer, Edith Seidl, Kathy Stuart, Ann Tlusty, Helmut Zäh, and Michelle Zelinsky. Over the many years that I researched and wrote this book, these people inspired me and stimulated my interest in Germany and its history. Irmgard Maili deserves a very special thanks for the miles she added to her speedometer while showing me around so much of southern Germany. This project has ultimately spanned three institutional settings, and I owe a debt of gratitude to many at New York University, Georgia State, and Cornell: Kristin Bayer, Dan Bender, Alejandro Cañeque, Peter Dear, Oren Falk, Ian Fletcher, Yael Fletcher, Durba Ghosh, Taja-Nia Henderson, T. J. Hinrichs, Kats Hirano, Itsie Hull, Paul Hyams, Jamie Melton, Stephen Mihm, Judith Miller, Melina Pappademos, Joe Perry, Kavita Philip, Jared Poley, Kirsten Schultz, Suman Seth, Christine Skwiot, Michael Stevens, Jonathan Strom, Joanna Waley-Cohen, and Rachel Weil, all of whom commented on the manuscript in part or in whole. I also benefited enormously from conversations about this project with Leslie Adelson, Joel Anderson, Ed Baptist, Holly Case, Derek Chang, Ray Craib, Denise Davidson, Seth Fein, Abi Fisher, Paul Fleming, Maria Cristina Garcia, Franz Hofer, Taran Kang, Jacob Krell, Ada Kuskowski, Dominick LaCapra, Dan Magaziner, Patrizia McBride, Tom McSweeney, Molly Nolan, Ryan Plumley, Guillaume Ratel, Camille Robscis, Aaron Sachs, Micol Seigel, Elke Siegel, Chuck Steffen, Eric Tagliacozzo, Robert Travers, and Claudia Verhoeven. In recent months, I have developed especially large debts for the unwavering support of Itsie Hull and Barry Strauss. Colleagues and friends in the field helped clarify my arguments at conferences and workshops or in e-mails and late-night messaging, including Eva Bremner, Jason Coy, Jörg Deventer, Barbara Diefendorf, Emily Fisher Gray, Dagmar Herzog, Ute Lotz-Heumann, David Luebke, Ben Marschke, Matthias Pohlig, Lyndal Roper, Susan Rosa, David Sabean, Alexander Schunka. Bob Burchfield’s copyediting and Bill Nelson’s cartographic work were invaluable. Acknowledgments • ix Dick Holway, Erik Midelfort, and the anonymous reviewers contacted by the University of...