Henrike Lähnemann

Henrike Lähnemann (born 1968 in Münster) is a German medievalist and has held the Chair of Medieval German Literature and Linguistics at the University of Oxford since 2015. She is a Fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford.

Lähnemann is the daughter of the theologian Johannes Lähnemann [de], and the granddaughter of the German medievalist de:Eleonore Dörner(née Benary) and the archeologist Friedrich Karl Dörner; she grew up in Lüneburg and Nuremberg, Germany. She studied German literature, History of Art and Theology at the University of Bamberg, the University of Edinburgh, Free University of Berlin and University of Göttingen. After a PhD at the Universität Bamberg on late medieval didactic literature, Lähnemann worked at the University of Tübingen, where she gained her Venia legendi in German Philology with a study of the Book of Judith in German medieval literature. She spent a year as a Feodor Lynen Research Fellow at the University of Oxford and a semester as Visiting Professor at the University of Zurich. Between 2006 and 2014 she held the Chair of German Studies at Newcastle University, and was also Head of the German Section in Newcastle's School of Modern Languages. Since 2015 she has held the Chair of Medieval German Language and Literature at the University of Oxford.

Her research focuses on medieval manuscripts, the relationship of text and images and how vernacular and Latin literature are connected, currently mainly in late medieval Northern German convents. At the moment she isworking on a Gerda Henkel Stiftung funded project to edit the letters of the nuns from Lüne (together with Eva Schlotheuber), and the edition of prayer-books of the Medingen Convent.A major theme is the engagement with the Reformation.2015-2024, she holds a Senior Research Fellowship at the FRIAS, made possible by the generous co-funding of the Chair by the VolkswagenStiftung, the DAAD, and the University of Freiburg.

In 2010, the German Research Foundation nominated her for AcademiaNet [de], the database of profiles of leading women scientists; she also chaired Women in German Studies 2009-2015. The Author Angelika Overath, with whom she has been working productively over the last years, dedicated her new novel called Sie dreht sich um to Lähnemann.

• Medingen Manuscripts
• The Nuns' Network. Editing the Lüne letters (with Eva Schlotheuber, financed by the de:Gerda-Henkel-Stiftung)
• Sword of Judith Project
• The Renner of Hugo von Trimberg
• Jüngerer Sigenot

• Lähnemann H. Medinger Nonnen als Schreiberinnen zwischen Reform und Reformation. In: B-J Kruse, ed. Rosenkränze und Seelengärten. Bildung und Frömmigkeit in niedersächsischen Frauenklöstern. Wolfenbüttel: Herzog August Bibliothek, 2013, pp. 37–42, 319-320.
• Lähnemann H. Text und Textil. Die beschriebenen Pergamente in den Figurenornaten. In: Klack-Eitzen, C., Haase, W., Weissgraf, T., ed. Heilige Röcke. Kleider für Skulpturen in Kloster Wienhausen. Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner, 2013, pp. 71–78 (79-173).
• Lähnemann H. Also do du ok. Andachtsanweisungen in den Medinger Handschriften. In: Brüggen, E; Holznagel, F-J; Coxon, S; Suerbaum, A, ed. Text und Normativität im deutschen Mittelalter. Tübingen: de Gruyter, 2012, pp. 437–453.
• Lähnemann H. Der Auferstandene im Dialog mit den Frauen. Die Erscheinungen Christi in den Andachtsbüchern des Klosters Medingen. In: Koldau, L.M, ed. Passion und Ostern in den Lüneburger Klöstern. Ebstorf: Verlag Kloster Ebstorf, 2010, pp. 105–134.
• Brine K, Ciletti E, Lähnemann H, ed. The Sword of Judith. Judith Studies Across the Disciplines. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2010.
• Lähnemann H. Per organa. Musikalische Unterweisung in Handschriften der Lüneburger Klöster. In: Lähnemann, H., Linden, S, ed. Dichtung und Didaxe. Lehrhaftes Sprechen in der deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters. Berlin / New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2009, pp. 397–412.
• Lähnemann H., Linden S, ed. Dichtung und Didaxe. Lehrhaftes Sprechen in der deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters. Berlin / New York: de Gruyter, 2009.
• Lähnemann H. Hystoria Judith: Deutsche Judithdichtungen vom 12. bis zum 16. Jahrhundert. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2006.
• Lähnemann H. 'An dessen bom wil ik stighen.' Die Ikonographie des Wichmannsburger Antependiums im Kontext der Medinger Handschriften. Oxford German Studies 2005, 34(1), 19-46.