Part 1 The age in European perspective: the expansion of the West in the Mediterranean area including the shift in the centre of gravity of imperial politics towards the south, crusades and "reconquista", the conquest of Constantinople; the spread of Latin Christendom in Continental Europe including crusades against the heathen, the knightly orders; the creation of new kingdoms and forms of lordship including kingdoms and duchies on the periphery of Europe, constitutional trends; population increase, settlement density and economic growth including expansion and multiplication of settlements, trade and industry, the development of money economy; poverty, penitence and heresy including poverty and welfare, wandering preachers and heretics, the Cathars, the Waldensians and other communities close to heresy; the papacy, the Church and monasticism including the papacy and the official Church, the reforming papacy and Cluniac monasticism, hermits, the Cistercians, wandering preachers as founders of monastic orders, the regular canons, the early knightly orders, the mendicant orders; education and learning including religious, political and social connections; social change including social mobility and differentiation, the clerics, nobles and knights, peasants, serfs and slaves, town dwellers and citizens; typology and transmission of sources. Part 2 Germany from the middle of the 11th to the middle of the 12th century - tradition and change: imperial rule from Henry III to Barbarossa (1056-1152) including the estrangement between the reforming papacy and the Salian monarchy, from Canossa to the power struggle between Henry IV and Henry V, from Henry V's uprising to the solution of the investiture dispute, electoral monarchy under Lothar III and Conrad III; the power structure and its evolution including nobility, monarchy, churches and monasteries, allods, fees and territorial politics, the peace of God and the public peace, the rise of the communes; the basis and development of the economy; the Church, piety and education; groups and communities in transformation including the Jews as an alien minority. Part 3 Germany under the Staufen - new forms and limitations: imperial rule in the Staufen period including from the election of Barbarossa to the Peace of Venice, from the conflict with Henry the Lion to the third crusade, Henry VI, the struggle for the throne between the Staufen and the Welfs, the imperial rule of Frederick II and Henry (VII); continuity and change in lordship; the expansion of the economy; Church life, piety and education; new beginnings in the social system including ministerials, "knighthood" and nobility, Part 4: Germany in the context of Europe.
