Michael Prosser-Schell

Prof. Dr. Michael Prosser-Schell is an Extraordinary Professor at the University of Freiburg since 2009 and a Research Associate at the Institute for Folklore of the Germans of Eastern Europe (IVDE) in Freiburg. His work focuses on European Ethnology with special emphasis on German communities in Eastern Europe. He maintains active collaborations with Hungarian academic institutions including the University of Szeged and ELTE University Budapest.

Prosser-Schell earned his doctorate from the University of Freiburg in 1991 with a dissertation on 'Late Medieval Rural Legal Records on the Upper Rhine between Memory Culture and Literacy.' He completed his habilitation at the University of Würzburg in 2002 with a thesis titled 'Sport and the Social System of Meaning. On the Influence of Bundesliga Football Events on Contemporary Popular Culture.' His academic journey includes research and teaching positions at Regensburg, Würzburg, Bamberg, and Erlangen-Nuremberg universities before his current appointment at Freiburg.

His primary research interests include orality/memory culture and literacy, history of popular religious culture in Central Europe, ritual research (particularly sporting events as popular celebrations), migration research focusing on post-WWII displacement in Southwest Germany, and Danube region/Carpathian Basin studies. His current projects examine the Renaissance of Hungarian-German Rural Architecture, Integration and religious culture of refugees, and Migration and Football. He has developed significant expertise in analyzing religious festivals, pilgrimage practices, and the cultural significance of sporting events as contemporary rituals.

Prosser-Schell's scholarly output demonstrates consistent engagement with European ethnology, particularly German communities in Eastern Europe. His recent publications show increasing focus on migration studies, religious practices of displaced communities, and the cultural significance of sporting events. He has developed expertise in analyzing historical continuity and transformation in folk traditions, especially religious festivals and rituals, with particular attention to the Saint Urban festivals in wine-growing regions.

• Foreign Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) since 2012
• Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of 'Acta Ethnologica Danubiana'
• Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of 'Yearbook Religion, Culture, Society'
• Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Alemannic Institute Freiburg/Tübingen
• Commission for German and Eastern European Folklore in the German Society for Folklore

Prosser-Schell has supervised doctoral students including Harald Stahl on forest consciousness and wilderness culture, and Sebastian Felix Sparwasser on identity in the context of forced migration and return of Hungarian Germans. His research is supported through collaborations with institutions like the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Alemannic Institute, with particular focus on migration and integration processes. His international collaborations, especially with Hungarian institutions, form an important dimension of his research framework.

Based at the IVDE in Freiburg, he contributes to research on German communities in Eastern Europe, working with archival materials including the Karasek estate. His international collaborations, particularly with Hungarian institutions, form an important dimension of his research activities. He regularly presents at international conferences and maintains active research networks across Central Europe focused on migration studies, religious culture, and European ethnology.