Monarchy & Money Episode on Monarchy and Corruption: Interview with Jens Ivo Engels, Sarah Deck, and Markus Horbach (Darmstadt

The mini series within the Royal Studies Podcast on Monarchy & Money is hosted by Charlotte Backerra from the University of Klagenfurt in Austria, and Cathleen Sarti from the University of Oxford in the UK. In the Monarchy & Money episodes, they are talking with scholars on why economic questions are important to understand monarchical rule, and how royals are interacting with the economies of their kingdoms and beyond their territories. They are also always happy to hear about research into economic, financial, and business activities of monarchies and dynastic rulers of all kind.

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Guest Bios:

Jens Ivo Engels has been Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Technical University Darmstadt (TU Darmstadt) since 2008. In addition to the history of monarchy, his research focuses on the history of corruption, the theory and history of technical infrastructures, environmental history and popular culture. His book Die Geschichte der Korruption (The History of Corruption) was published in 2014. He is expected to publish a monograph next year, in collaboration with Ronald Kroeze, entitled “The Everlasting Fight Against Corruption in Modern Europe”. A monograph on the political significance of the German rock musician Wolfgang Niedecken in the late 20th century has just been published as Rock und Politik (Böhlau, 2026). His dissertation thesis was devoted to the public image of French kings in the early 18th century: Königsbilder. Sprechen, Singen und Schreiben über den französischen König in der ersten Hälfte des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts (Bouvier, 2000).

Sarah Deck is a PhD candidate at TU Darmstadt, and a research associate in the project on Monarchy and corruption debates. In her Dissertation, she examines the history of monarchies in Germany, UK and France around 1900 from the persepective of public corruption debates. She holds a Bachelor in History and German Language and Literature and a Master in Global History from the university in Heidelberg, and has studied at the University of St Andrews.  
 Previously - and still a research interest - she worked on migration history, focussing on so called "guest workers" from Yugoslavia, focussing on Yugoslavian Clubs in a small German town.

Markus Horbach is a PhD candidate and research associate as the Technical University of Darmstadt since 2024. He is currently working in the Project “Monarchie und Korruptionsdebatten im langen 19. Jahrhundert“, supervised by Jens Ivo Engels. Prior to this, he earned his master’s degree in history at the University of Osnabrück. His current research focuses on public discourse and debates regarding corruption as well as monarchical critique in Germany, England and France in the so called Sattelzeit, 1750 to 1850.

Mentioned Works:

Project website (in English): 

Previous Episodes of the Monarchy & Money series:

02 January 2026: Katia Wright (Winchester) on The Queen’s Lands – English Queens of the 14th Century
16 January 2026: Veronika Hyden-Hanscho (Klagenfurt) on Revenues of Habsburg Nobility in the Long 18th Century
30 January 2026: Fabian Persson (Linnaeus University, Kalmar and Växjö) on Court Economy in Sweden