Otto Danwerth

Head of Editorial Department

Main Focus

  • History of Early Modern Spain
  • History of Pre-Columbian America, in particular the Inca period
  • Ibero-American History (16th–19th centuries)
  • Legal history, cultural history, ethnohistory, history of death

Short biographical information

Otto Danwerth studied history, philosophy and public law at the universities of Passau, Tübingen, Salamanca, Madrid and at the California State University, Chico. In Hamburg, he worked as a scientific assistant at the Ethnological Museum (2002–2004) and as a university lecturer of Latin American History (2001–2010). In 2010, he joined the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History as a researcher. Since March 2019 he is head of the editorial department of that scientific institution.

He received a Ph.D. in History from the University of Hamburg in 2016, with a dissertation on “Cultures of death and religious life in Spain and Peru (16th–17th centuries)”. His research interests – legal and cultural history, ethnohistory – focus on early modern Ibero-America. He has investigated the history of ecclesiastical institutions and normativities, and co-organized pertinent conferences in Mexico (2011), Lima (2012), Bogotá (2013) and São Paulo (2015). Another field of work deals with the circulation of normative literature – books and manuscripts – in colonial Spanish America.

Publications (in English, Spanish, German) include articles in journals, handbooks and encyclopedias as well as translations and book reviews.

Curriculum Vitae

Since March 2019
Head of the Editorial Department at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History, Frankfurt am Main

2016
PhD thesis on “Cultures of Death and Religious Life in Spain and Peru (16th–17th centuries)”, Chair of Iberian and Latin American History, Universität Hamburg

2010-2019 
Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History, Frankfurt am Main

2006-2010
Linga Library for Latin American Research, Hamburg

2002-2004
Scientific assistant (Volontariat) at the Ethnological Museum Hamburg

1998-2000
Scholarship of the Hamburger Stiftung zur Förderung von Wissenschaft und Kultur

1997-1998
Research in Peruvian archives (Cuzco, Lima) thanks to a scholarship of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)

1997
Research in Spanish archives (Sevilla, Madrid) thanks to a scholarship of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Madrid

1996
Institute for Cultural Exchange, Tübingen

1993-1996
Studied History, Philosophy and Public Law at the Eberhard-Karls-Universität, Tübingen (M.A. 1996)

1994-1995
Studies at the Universidad Complutense, Madrid

1992-1993
Studies at Salamanca University, thanks to an Erasmus program scholarship

1991-1992
Graduate student at the History Department and teaching assistant at the German Department of the California State University (CSUC) at Chico (USA)

1989-1991
Studied History, Philosophy and Public Law at the Eberhard-Karls-Universität, Tübingen

1987-1989
Studied Law, History and Philosophy at the Universität Passau

1986-1987
Voluntary social year abroad: Norfolk (England), Aix-en-Provence (France)

1966
Born in Ostbevern / Westphalia

Memberships

  • Gesellschaft für Überseegeschichte (GÜSG)
  • Verband der Historiker und Historikerinnen Deutschlands (VHD)

Teaching

2001-2010
Teaching assignment: Latin American Studies / History, Universität Hamburg
Lecture on “Latin American History: An Introduction” (every second semester)

Winter Term 2009/10
Teaching assignment: Latin American Studies / History, Universität Hamburg
Seminar on “Indigenous Religious Life in the Andes (16th-20th centuries)“

Winter Term 2008/09
Teaching assignment: Latin American Studies / History, Universität Hamburg
Seminar on “Eating, Drinking and Consumption in colonial Ibero-America“

Summer Term 2008
Teaching assignment: Latin American Studies / History, Universität Hamburg
Seminar on “Ethnohistorical Sources of early colonial times: Comparing Meso-America and the Andes“

Summer Term 2006
Teaching assignment: Early Modern History, Universität Bremen
Seminar “Elites in colonial Spanish America (16th-18th centuries)“

Completed Projects

Go to Editor View