Stefan Heid, priest of the Archdiocese of Cologne, Director of the RIGG since 1.1.2011, habilitated in 2000 at the University of Bonn in Ancient Church History, Patrology and Christian Archaeology. Since 2001 he has been professor of liturgical history and hagiography at the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology in Rome.
Johannes Grohe studied history and education in Bonn and Aachen and theology in Rome, Pamplona and Augsburg. He has been editor of the journal Annuarium Historiae Conciliorum (now: Annales Historiae Conciliorum) since 2008. Since 1997 he has been Professor of Medieval Church History at the Pontificia Università della Santa Croce in Rome. He has been a member of the directorate since 2010, vice-director of the RIGG since 2012 and a board member of the Foundation for the Promotion of the Roman Institute of the Görres Society.
Sascha Priester (Munich / Rome) studied Classical Archaeology, Ancient History and Provincial Roman Archaeology in Munich and Cologne. After his master's thesis on myth images and the handling of consolation and mourning in Roman funerary buildings, he researched ancient high-rise buildings during a stay of several years at the German Archaeological Institute in Rome and published his dissertation on the subject.
Jörg Voigt (Hanover) studied history and English studies in Jena and Nottingham. In 2009, he received his doctorate from the University of Jena on late medieval beguinage. In the same year, he began his career for the higher archival service at the Lower Saxony State Archives, where he has worked as an archival councillor or senior councillor since 2011, and in the Hanover department since 2021. In the period from 2016 to 2021, he was seconded to the German Historical Institute in Rome to work on the 'Repertorium Germanicum'.
Andreas Raub (Rome) studied Catholic theology, art history and history in Gießen, Rome and Berlin and completed his doctorate at Humboldt University in 2019 on the phenomenon of furnishing churches with Italian altarpieces from the holdings of the Berlin Gemäldegalerie.
1 September 2021 until 31 July 2023
Martin Grobauer (* 1990 in Bad Tölz) studied theology at the University of Munich and is working on a dogmatic doctorate under Prof. Dr. Bertram Stubenrauch.
Grobauer is the Custodian of the Joseph Ratzinger / Benedict XVI Roman Library (
The scholarship is provided by the Fondazione Vaticana Joseph Ratzinger/Benedetto XVI.
1 september 2022 to 31 july 2023
Nicola Gadaleta (* 1993 in Molfetta, Puglia) studied Modern Philology at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan and since 2019 he’s enrolled in the 14th cycle of doctoral studies at the Scuola Superiore di Studi Storici of the University of the Republic of San Marino with the project “The Cathedral Chapter of Bari from its beginnings to the early Angevin period (1309)”.
His research focuses on the history of secular ecclesiastical institutions in southern Italy, especially the canon colleges and cathedral chapters in medieval Apulia.
The scholarship (Hubert Jedin-Stipendium) is provided to him by the Campo Santo Teutonico and the RIGG.
September 2022 until 31 july 2023
Cornelia Bäurle (* 1994 in Tübingen) studied art history and other subjects at the LMU Munich and the Sapienza in Rome and is working on her doctorate in art history under Prof. Dr Ulrich Pfisterer.
She is a scholarship holder of the Gerda Henkel Foundation.
Since 1 September 2021
Dr Federica Germana Giordani (* 1987 in Rome) received her doctorate from the Sapienza in 2016 with a thesis on historical linguistics. She works at the Vatican Archives and is a freelancer for the Society for the Study of Conciliar History.
Since 1 January 2016
Dr Pierluca Azzaro (born 1970), Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at the Catholic University of Milan since 2007, is responsible for the Italian edition of Joseph Ratzinger's Opera Omnia. He is the contact person in academic matters for the Roman Library Joseph Ratzinger / Benedict XVI.
Since May 2021
Father Dr. Augustinus Sander OSB from Maria Laach has been working at the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity since 2019. He is the contact person for the Martin Chemnitz Fellowship within the project "Studies on the Reception of the Council of Trent in Contemporary Lutheranism".
since December 2022
Christoph Butschak is a priest of the Archdiocese of Berlin, working on his doctorate in ecumenism and organising a conference project on the ecclesiology of Lumen Gentium 23, in collaboration with the Institute for Ecumenical Studies at the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum).
Since 1 March 2020
Dr. phil. Karin Mair (* 1976 in Wels, Upper Austria) has been a member of staff at the St. Peter's Cathedral Construction Office since 2008. Since 2020 she has been working in the library of the Campo Santo Teutonico.
Since 1 January 2022
Dr. Ignacio García Lascurain Bernstorff (* 1988 in Mexico City) is responsible for the Institute's social media, among other things. He is working on his habilitation in history.
Römisches Institut der Görres-Gesellschaft
