Der lange Fall des liederlichen Mönchs (The long fall of the dissolute monk) takes us back to the 16th century
How do you portray early modern legal pluralism? For example, by working together with professional actors and actresses. The Käte Hamburger Kolleg ‘Legal Unity and Pluralism’ and the ‘Freuynde + Gaesdte’ theater have done just that and jointly developed an innovative format for science communication. On 15 October 2025, Der lange Fall des liederlichen Mönchs celebrated its premiere in the large jury courtroom of Münster District Court.
Bringing historical sources to life
The play tells the story of an explosive legal case in 16th century Münster. It centers on the monk and auxiliary bishop Johan van Aken, who is accused of adultery with a burgher’s wife and is subsequently arrested by the city council – despite his immunity as a cleric. With the emphatic protest of the cathedral chapter as defenders of the clergy’s special rights, a fierce dispute ensues over the question of whether the arrest by the council was lawful. The conflict is not confined to Münster for long, but spreads to the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope in Rome. The question is always: who is actually the competent authority to judge in this matter?
The case is historically documented. Vera Teske, historian and Junior Fellow at the Kolleg until September 2025, is investigating it in her dissertation on competing jurisdictions in the early modern city. She presented it to the theatre working group, which was in search of suitable material that would demonstrate the complexity of pre-modern legal systems while at the same time telling of human destinies. It quickly became clear that this story should be brought to the stage.
While Vera Teske willingly made her sources available and developed the lecture text, Prof. Dr. Ulrike Ludwig and Prof. Dr. Peter Oestmann took over as expert editors. Zeha Schröder, artistic director of ‘Freuynde und Gaesdte’, dramatised the material and wrote the scenes. His independent theater from Münster is known for staging its own plays based on real events or historical material. With Zeha Schröder and the performers Gabriele Brüning, Andreas Ladwig and Johan Schüling, we therefore had strong partners at our side. Seemingly effortlessly, they brought to life sources that had been slumbering in the archives for centuries.
What makes this production special is that it combines theatre scenes with scientific commentary. Between the appearances of the characters – including members of the city council, a burgher’s wife and the prince-bishop and his mistress – a member of the Kolleg speaks as the ‘voice of scholarship’. These interjections explain what the audience has just seen and place it in a wider context, gradually creating a comprehensive picture of the political and legal order in early modern Münster. In between, the sometimes serious, sometimes amusing dialogues drive the case of the dissolute monk forward. However, no more of the plot can be revealed at this point.
Between concretion, entertainment and reflection
What makes theater a suitable format for science communication? With its narrative power and its focus on characters and dialogue, the performing arts have the potential to provide a gateway to complex research topics. They bring worlds to life that seem far away from our own everyday experiences, making abstract topics concrete and translating structures into characters. At the same time, by emotionalising the subject matter, they create access beyond pure cognition and raises ethical questions (such as the justice of estates-based legal systems). This makes them particularly suitable for topics related to law and legal history, where behind codes of law, contracts and court proceedings, it is ultimately human beings and their conflicts that come to the fore.
The academic commentaries between the scenes serve as well-placed caesuras. They not only serve the purpose of summarising difficult-to-present plot lines, placing the dialogues in a larger context and providing background knowledge. Rather, they repeatedly break through the suggestive effect of the theatre and bring the audience from the historical period into the present. For example, the commentator explains that the wording of the dialog just heard actually comes from the historical letters, while another scene involves a greater degree of artistic freedom. The limits of research are also addressed at one point or another. In this way, the format opens up a space for reflection and encourages the audience to actively and critically engage with what they have seen and heard.
The primary aim of the theater project is to attract new target groups to the topics of the Kolleg and to show that the legal history of the early modern period can be fascinating and entertaining. The aim is for the audience to develop an idea of how fragmented the law was in the 16th century and that it functioned according to principles that were very different from those today. A systematic evaluation of the project, including a survey of the spectators, will provide more precise information on how the format was received by the audience and whether it achieved the desired effects. In any case, the lively discussions after the performances indicate that the experiment was a success.
About the Author
Dr. Lennart Pieper is a historian and science communication officer at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg.
Cite as:
Pieper, Lennart, Bringing research and theatre together. „Der lange Fall des liederlichen Mönchs (The long fall of the dissolute monk) takes us back to the 16th century, EViR Blog, 04.11.2025, https://www.evir.uni-muenster.blog/en/research-and-theatre/.
Licence:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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