The news of the tragic death of our colleague, Professor Dr. Thomas Großbölting, has deeply shaken us. The historian passed away on Tuesday in a train accident, in which an ICE train collided with a truck.

In 2015, Großbölting was a fellow at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg of CERES, where he conducted research on the spread of Asian-origin spiritual movements in Germany during the 1970s. Additionally, he was a co-initiator of the graduate program RePliR (now RePliV) and made significant contributions to the collaboration between CERES and the Münster-based Excellence Cluster "Religion and Politics," of which he was a member at the time.

Most recently, Großbölting was the head of the Research Center for Contemporary History in Hamburg. He gained wider public recognition through his publications on cases of abuse in church-related contexts.

Our thoughts are with his family and friends.