Maximilian Wehner

Maximilian Wehner is a researcher at the Chair of German Philology, Senior Department, at the University of Würzburg. He holds a doctoral position in the Graduate School of Humanities under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Joachim Hamm, Prof. Dr. Thomas Baier, and Prof. Dr. Brigitte Burrichter. His work focuses on medieval and early modern German literature, with a particular emphasis on spatiality in Sebastian Brant’s Ship of Fools and its adaptations.

• Doctoral Student, Graduate School of Humanities (2020–2025)
• Former part-time lecturer and research associate at the Chair of German Philology and the Chair of Artificial Intelligence and Knowledge Systems
• Member of academic networks including the DHd OCR working group and the Oswald von Wolkenstein Society

Wehner’s research explores the narragonic space in Brant’s satirical work as a didactic structure for Renaissance humanism and moral guidance. He connects literary analysis with digital humanities methods, contributing to projects like OCR4all for historical text recognition.

His publications highlight transformations of spatial concepts in Ship of Fools adaptations and digital methodologies for textual scholarship. Wehner has presented at international conferences including the International Medieval Congress (Leeds 2022) and DHd Annual Conference (2022).

Teaching activities include courses on medieval epics like Hartmann von Aue’s Iwein and Heinrich von Veldeke’s Eneasroman, integrating digital humanities approaches into literary studies.