Between the Chairs: An Interdisciplinary Career

Abstract

The author was one of the earliest representatives of computer applications within historical research in Germany, later being appointed to the first professorship for computer applications in the Humanities in Germany outside of linguistics. The following text describes his experiences as part of that development, which lead from the beginnings in the seventies to the current state of “Digital Humanties”. His view on this development of an interdisciplinary area left him with rather mixed memories: behind a sparkling front story of an enfolding field, he frequently had the feeling, that there was a tendency to ignore the huge epistemic potential of a serious attempt to apply computer science to the field of history in favor of glamorous but shallow short term goals.