Hunting and the Country House

Hunting is an activity intimately connected to life in country houses across Europe from the Middle Ages to the present day. It is also closely related to noble lifestyles over the centuries. Yet, the continuous existence of this activity might easily lead us to overlook the many meanings, changes and transformations that occurred as well as the different people that participated in hunting or whose livelihoods were implicated by it.

The research seminar will shed new light on hunting and the country house from four different angles: Marcus Koehler (Dresden) studies hunting lodges from an architectural perspective and in the very long run. Abigail Green (Oxford) and Tom Stammers (Durham) take a close look at Jewish country house owners and their hunting habits. Amy Freund (Dallas), is an art historian, focusing on hunting in paintings. Finally, Daniel Menning (Tübingen) investigates economic logics at play when it came to killing animals.