Armin Heninen is Professor of Pre-modern and Modern History at the University of Aachen. He studied history, political sciences and mathematics at the University of Frankfurt am Main, and he earned his PhD from the University of Trier. He obtained his docentship from the University of Saarbrücken. He is an invited professor at the University of Würzburg. He has extensively published in the fi eld of European, German, Dutch, American and French comparative history.