Prof. Dr. Nadir Weber
Prof. Dr. Nadir Weber Associate Professor at the University of Bern (Project director: “Republican Secrets”) After studying history and sociology at the University of Bern and the EPHE Paris, Nadir Weber completed his PhD in 2013 with a study on the interdependence of foreign relations and ruling practices in the 18th century at the University of Bern, where he worked as an SNSF project collaborator, assistant, and finally senior assistant at the Department of Modern History. Starting in 2014, his postdoctoral project on Animals in Courtly Society took him to the Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität Munich (2014/15), the EPHE Paris, and the Centre de Recherche du Château de Versailles (2015/16) as an SNSF mobility fellow, and to the interdisciplinary Zukunftskolleg of the University of Konstanz (2016-2018) as a Marie S. Curie Fellow. In the academic year 2018/19, he represented the professorship of Early Modern History at the Université de Lausanne. He then led the SNSF-Ambizione-Project «Falcons in Courtly Society» at the University of Bern, which also took him to Humboldt University as well as the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin as a visiting researcher in 2020/21. For his research he was awarded, among others, the Prix Jubilé of the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (2012) and the Haller Medal of the University of Bern (2020). He is an editorial board member of the «Schweizerische Zeitschrift für die Erforschung des 18. Jahrhunderts» and co-editor of the book series «Tiere in der Geschichte I Animals in History» published by Böhlau-Verlag. From September 2022 to January 2024, Nadir Weber was Assistant Professor with a focus on Modern History (Early Modern Period) at the Department of History of the University of Lucerne, where he led the SNSF-Eccellenza-Project «Republican Secrets: Silence, Memory, and Collective Rule in the Early Modern Period». In February 2024 he was appointed as Associate Professor of Early Modern Swiss History at the Department of Swiss History at the University of Bern, where now the «Republican Secrets»-Project is based as well.
Debora Heim, MA
Debora Heim, MA PhD Candidate at the University of Bern Debora Heim, born 1998 in Thun, studied history and sociology at the University of Bern and the Università degli Studi La Sapienza in Rome. During her master’s degree, she specialized on early modern history and modern history. In her master’s thesis, she analysed the secret council of the Republic of Bern in the 17th and early 18th centuries. During her studies, she worked as an assistant in the SNSF-Ambizione-Project «Falcons in Court Society», and as an assistant and tutor at the department of early modern history at the University of Bern. Since October 2022, she has been a PhD candidate at the department of history at the University of Lucerne. Her PhD project on secret councils in the early modern Swiss Confederation is part of the SNSF-Eccellenza-Project «Republican Secrets. Silence, Memory, and Collective Rule in the Early Modern Period,» under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Nadir Weber. Her research interests include the political and social history of the early modern Swiss Confederation, secrets and practices of secrecy in the early modern period, and the history of information and communication.
Jan Haugner, MA
Jan Haugner, MA PhD Candidate at the University of Bern Jan Haugner, born in 1997 in Worms (Ger), studied History and German Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg-University in Mainz (Ger) from 2016 until 2019. Afterwards he did his M.A.-studies in Early Modern History from 2019 until 2022 in Mainz as well. During that time, he focused mostly on early modern witch-hunt as well as magical literature and beliefs in the Holy Roman Empire. His master thesis compared anthropologic concepts in magical literature written by Jean Bodin, Johann Fischart and Paracelsus. Since September 2022 he is a PhD-student in the SNSF-Eccellenza-Project “Republican Secrets” conducted by Prof. Dr. Nadir Weber at the University of Bern, researching the importance and role of archives for secrecy in the early modern Swiss Orte. During his studies he worked for four years as a freelancer and for two years as a permanent staffer at the Allgemeine Zeitung. He also worked for three semesters as a tutor at the department for early modern history at the university of Mainz. His research interests include Witch-hunt, -literature and -beliefs in the early modern Holy Roman Empire, early modern Christian demonology, medical, religious and magical anthropologic concepts in German-speaking literature of the 16th century, as well as archival practices and practices of secrecy in early modern Europe with a special focus on the Swiss Confederation.
Noah Businger, MA
Noah Businger, MA Associated researcher, PhD Candidate at the University of Bern Noah Businger, born in Stans in 1993, studied history and geography at the University of Bern (2017-2023), specialising in early modern Swiss history. His master’s thesis examines the city of Basel as a hub for war resources during the War of the Spanish Succession. During his studies, Noah worked as a student assistant and tutor at the Department of Swiss History at the University of Bern. He also writes regularly as a freelance journalist on historical topics for various media. Since October 2024, he has been a PhD student at the Department of Swiss History at the University of Bern under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Nadir Weber and an associate researcher of the Republican Secrets project. His dissertation project investigates the procurement and distribution of war resources in the neutral Swiss Republic of Basel in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The study pays particular attention to the clandestine trade in war resources and the role of state actors in facilitating economic secrecy. His research interests include the political, social and economic history of the early modern Swiss Confederacy, wartime economic practices, early modern neutrality, and the business of war within the European fiscal-military system.
Amélie Jaggi, BA
Amélie Jaggi, BA Student Assistant at the University of Bern Amélie Jaggi studies history, political science, and constitutional law at the University of Bern. She is currently working on her bachelor’s thesis, in which she analyses the return migration from the Americas to Europe after the First World War using Swiss sources. Before joining the team, Amélie worked on Dr Agnes Gehbald’s postdoctoral project «Transatlantische Remigration nach Europa, 1870-1920». In addition to her work for the Republican Secrets project, Amélie Jaggi is currently working as a tutor at the University of Bern.
Charlotte Schmidli, BA
Charlotte Schmidli, BA Student Assistant at the University of Bern Charlotte Schmidli is nearing the completion of her undergraduate studies, majoring in history and minoring in social sciences. In her Bachelor’s thesis, she researched counterrevolutionary and anti-Helvetic caricatures created by the artist and contemporary witness Balthasar Anton Dunker. Specifically, she analyzed the representation of animals in the artist’s work. Charlotte Schmidli is an assistant in the Department of Early Modern History and supports the project “Republican Secrets”.
Larissa Stadelmann, BA
Larissa Stadelmann, BA Student Assistant at the University of Bern Larissa Stadelmann studies history as a major and classical philology as a minor for her bachelor’s degree at the University of Bern. And is currently working on her bachelor’s thesis about the Grisons around 1700.While studying she worked as a tutor at the department of early modern Swiss history, where she is now an assistant. In this role she supports her colleagues at the SNSF-Eccellenza-Project «Republican Secrets».
Fabio Guldimann, BA
Fabio Guldimann, BA Student Assistant at the University of Bern Fabio Guldimann began studying history and social sciences at the University of Bern in 2018. He wrote his Bachelor’s thesis on the topic: «Das neurasthenische Subjekt. Ein kulturwissenschaftlicher Erklärungsansatz für die ‹Modekrankheit› um 1900» and received his Bachelor’s degree in 2023. Fabio Guldimann is studying history at the University of Bern in the Master’s program with a minor in digital humanities, where he is expected to graduate in summer 2025. While studying he is working at the republican secrets project and at Dodis – Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland, a research center for studies in the history of Swiss foreign policy since 1848.