Breaking Walls

“Breaking Walls” is a graphic novel about nuns in Northern Germany during the Reformation. It tells the stories of women navigating big change, finding their voices, and shaping their own paths. Our story highlights how women’s actions shaped religious life at that time.

Taking real stories from historical sources, we bring these women’s experiences to life with engaging storytelling and vibrant art. With “Breaking Walls,” we aim to make history understandable and interesting.

The Team

© Sigrid Körner

We are a dynamic interdisciplinary team composed of three doctoral students and one postdoctoral researcher from the University of Oxford and the University of Hamburg. Driven by our shared passion for uncovering the voices of 16th-century nuns from Northern Germany, we aim to shed new light on their experiences and insights during this transformative era. Join us on our journey as we explore history in an engaging and meaningful way, breaking down barriers and bringing the past to life.

Marlon Bäumer

Marlon is in the final stages of his dissertation on the Reformation of the six Lüneburg convents, examining developments within these convents from the 1520s to the early 17th century. His research delves into the conception, negotiation, and implementation of Lutheran convent life during this period. Marlon has previously studied History, German Studies, and Art History at the University of Hamburg and has served as a research assistant with the DFG Research Training Group 2008, “Interconfessionality in the Early Modern Period.” He currently coordinates the DFG research group “Spiritual Intermediality in the Early Modern Period.“

Carolin Gluchowski

Carolin completed her PhD in 2024 and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Hamburg. Her postdoctoral project investigates early modern prayer practices, with a particular emphasis on praying automata. For her PhD dissertation, she focused on bilingual prayer books from the Cistercian convent of Medingen, analyzing these texts within the broader context of the religious transformations of the 15th and 16th centuries. Through her research, Carolin aims to enhance our understanding of the intersection between language, culture, and devotion in early modern Germany.

Sigrid Koerner

Sigrid is a London-based artist and illustrator, currently pursuing her doctorate at the University of Oxford. Her dissertation looks at late medieval performances that involved sculptures of Christ crucified. Her visual art seeks to bring the past to life, to make history accessible without tempering its alterity. Her sculptural art and illustrations have been exhibited at the Bodleian Libraries’ 2024 “Chaucer Here and Now” exhibition. In addition, Sigrid has illustrated the play “The Netherhole Martyr.”

Marlene Schilling

Marlene has been a PhD student in Medieval German at the University of Oxford since the 2022/2023 academic year. She attained her MSt in Modern Languages from Oxford in 2021 and earned an M.A. in German Literature from the University of Tübingen in 2022. Her PhD project explores the personifications of specific points in time in Late Medieval prayer books from female convents, focusing on how engaging with, addressing, and describing these personified instances in time facilitates a unique form of divine communication.