Sabine Doering-Manteuffel

Sabine Doering-Manteuffel (born Sabine Künsting) is a German ethnologist. On 1 October 2011 she became the first woman to accept the appointment as president (university rector) of the University of Augsburg. She thereby became the first president/rector of a university in Bavaria.^[1][2]

Sabine Doering-Manteufful
Born	Sabine Künsting Bonn
Nationality	German
Occupation	Ethnologist

Biography

Sabine Künsting was born and grew up in Bonn, which at that time was the "provisional capital" of the Federal Republic of Germany. After completing her schooling she undertook an internship at the newly opened Romano-Germanic Museum down-river in Cologne, as a preparation for studying classics at university.

Partly as a result of her experiences at the museum she instead chose to study ethnology, philology, political sciences and history at the Universities of Cologne and Bonn. It was at Cologne that she met Peter Tschohl, with whom she subsequently teamed up.^[2][3] It was from Cologne that in 1984 she received her doctorate.^[4]

The focus of her academic studies at this time was on the nomadic hunter culture of the far north and on African societies.^[2] Between 1984 and 1989 she was based at the University of Bonn as a research assistant.^[5]

In 1987, she took a term as a visiting scholar at the Memorial University of Newfoundland (St. John's campus) in Canada.^[2] The next year she was in receipt of a post-doctoral bursary from the "Maison des Sciences de l'Homme" in Paris.^[5] She obtained her habilitation from the University of Mainz in 1993, with financial supported from the DFG: two years later accepted a teaching chair at Augsburg.^[2]

In 1999 she became a guest professor at the University of Pittsburgh Center for West European Studies,^[6] and in 2003 (in combination with an associate directorship of studies) at the Paris "Maison des Sciences de l’Homme". There have been numerous other study visits in North America, Mexico and Israel.^[2] Between 2008 and 2011 she served as dean of the Faculty of History and Philology at Augsburg. This was followed by her election as university president on 8 June 2011 in succession to Wilfried Bottke, the appointment taking effect in October of that year.^[1][7]

Her book, Das Okkulte, appeared in 2008 and won for her the "Prize for the Promotion of the Translation of Humanities Literature" ("Preis zur Förderung der Übersetzung geisteswissenschaftlicher Literatur") from (jointly) the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, the German Book-trade Exchange ("Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels") and the German Foreign Ministry.^[8] The book addresses the contemporary growth in interest in The Occult and compares it with other manifestations of "Unreason" through the ages, tracking developments from the Middle Ages to the present, in the context of "new media" such as the invention of printing and, more recently, of the internet.^[9] She identifies Wikipedia as a "forum for occult content".^{[clarification needed][10]}

Other activities

Corporate boards

• Deutsche Bank, member of the regional advisory board^[11]

Non-profit organizations

• Augsburg University of Applied Sciences, member of the board of trustees ^[12]
• German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), member of the board of trustees (2018–2019)^[13]

Personal life

Doering-Manteuffel is married to the historian Anselm Doering-Manteuffel, who recently retired from a senior post at the University of Tübingen. Asked by an interviewer in 2011 about her marriage, she joked that for twenty years the two of them had lived with a long-distance relationship which "everyone" had predicted would cause the marriage to end after two or three years. Such predictions had been wrong, though she volunteered that, despite having taken it on, she had never really wanted a double-barrelled name.^[1]

In a panel discussion organised in 2012 by the (pro-free market) Bavarian Free Democratic Party, Sabine Doering-Manteuffel came out as a supporter of university tuition fees as a way to fund universities. (The issue remains a politically contentious one in Germany.)^[14][15]

Works (selection)

• Die Eifel. Geschichte einer Landschaft. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 1995, ISBN 3-593-35356-3 (Habilitation).
• Das Okkulte. Eine Erfolgsgeschichte im Schatten der Aufklärung. Von Gutenberg bis zum World Wide Web. Siedler, München 2008, ISBN 978-3-88680-888-5.
• Okkultismus. Geheimlehren, Geisterglaube, magische Praktiken. Beck, München 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-61220-6.

References

1. Katia Rathsfeld (8 June 2011). "Ethnologin wird erste Augsburger Uni-Präsidentin". Augsburg - Die künftige Augsburger Uni-Präsidentin Sabine Doering-Manteuffel wird die erste Frau an der Spitze einer Landesuniversität in Bayern. Münchener Zeitungs-Verlag GmbH & Co.KG (Merkur). Retrieved 2 April 2019.
2. "Präsidentin Prof. Dr. Sabine Doering-Manteuffel". Eine Investition in Wissen bringt immer noch die besten Zinsen!. Universität Augsburg. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
3. Berthold Riese. "Peter Tschohl (3. April 1935 bis 27. September 2007)" (PDF). Nachruf/Obituary. Ibero Amerikanisches Institut Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin. pp. 225–240. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
4. Meine Ehre heißt Treue. Ethnologische Untersuchung eines Callasclubs in der Bundesrepublik: Spiegelbild, Köln 1986, DNB 891095969 (Köln, Univ., Diss., 1984).
5. "Doering-Manteuffel, Sabine ...Zur Person". Präsidentin Universität Augsburg .... Prof. Dr. Sabine Doering-Manteuffel ist seit 2011 Präsidentin der Universität Augsburg und die erste Frau an der Spitze einer bayerischen Landesuniversität. Seit 2013 ist sie außerdem Vorsitzende der Bayerischen Universitätenkonferenz Uni Bayern e.V. Bayerischer Rundfunk, München. 2 May 2013. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
6. Sabine Doering-Manteuffel (15 December 2011). Remerciments. Les Editions de la MSH. p. 247. ISBN 978-2-7351-1408-5 – via L' Occulte: L'histoire d'une réussite à l'ombre des Lumières. De Gutenberg au World Wide Web.
7. Eva Maria Knab; Christian Mühlhause (8 June 2011). "Die Uni setzt auf eine Frau". Sabine Doering-Manteuffel setzte sich bei der Präsidentenwahl gestern Nachmittag überraschend schnell gegen Alois Loidl durch. Ihr neues Amt tritt die 53-Jährige am 1. Oktober an. Presse-Druck- und Verlags-GmbH, Verlag der Augsburger Allgemeine. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
8. Klaus P. Prem, university press officer (16 May 2009). ""Geisteswissenschaften International": Übersetzungspreis für "Das Okkulte" der Augsburger Ethnologin Sabine Doering-Manteuffel". University of Augsburg. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
9. Christian Bauer (2009). Footnote 26. Kohlhammer Verlag. p. 190. ISBN 978-3-17-020565-9. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
10. Das Okkulte. Eine Erfolgsgeschichte im Schatten der Aufklärung. Von Gutenberg bis zum World Wide Web. Siedler, München 2008; ISBN 978-3-88680-888-5, page 275.
11. Members of the Regional Advisory Board, 2019 Deutsche Bank.
12. Board of Trustees Augsburg University of Applied Sciences.
13. Board of Trustees German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
14. Video: Studienbeiträge in Bayern – das sagen die Experten
15. (BPP): Transparentes Wahlprogramm: FDP diskutiert öffentlich über Wirtschafts- und Infrastrukturpolitik. In: bundespresseportal.de, 19 October 2012, retrieved 14 December 2018.