Archivist, historian, author, journalist …

historyteller.

 

🗃️ Petra Tabarelli, the archivist

In a small town on the banks of the Rhine, nestled between vineyards and old walls, the Villa am Rupertsberg towers majestically over the small town of Bingen am Rhein. It’s a pretty great place to work! You can contact me with questions about Bingen history or your Bingen family history. I can either help you directly or put you in touch.

You can find all the info about my services on the webseite of the Bingen Archives. For example, my guide for family research, my online research results on the history of the Bingen Winzerfest and the #ArchivDingsTag on Facebook, Instagram and the municipal website with old photographs and stories about Bingen’s history.

 

🕵️‍♀️ Petra Tabarelli, the researcher and author of short stories

Petra stood on the banks of the Rhine and let her gaze wander over the water. The Binger Loch lay quietly before her, a place full of history and secrets that made her research so vivid. The morning mist slowly lifted, revealing the vineyards and castle ruins that lined the Rhine. Petra was a passionate researcher who was interested in nostalgia, public history and cultural history. She was particularly fond of the 19th century and British tourism on the romantic Rhine…

Two things in one monument:

1️⃣ On the one hand, the researcher for British tourism on the Middle Rhine (1813-1863) with Bingen and the Binger Loch as a case study. A cultural-historical and nostalgic perspective: how did they travel? What did they love? What was terrible? How did their judgement, travel and behaviour change? How did they try to take their experiences and what they saw with them as souvenirs and keep them in their memories?

2️⃣ On the other hand, there’s an author of historical, nostalgic short stories who takes an anecdote or true event as the core and writes a story from it. A story based on an anecdote or true event, for example, which I carefully mould into a narrative.

Unlike a lot of historical novels, which make up stories around an event, my aim is to show the past as it really was. I know that history is always seen in different ways, and I’m a nostalgia researcher.

This lets me share my findings in academic texts for specialist journals and in lively lectures. In these lectures, I like to tell short stories to make the past come alive. This way, I can explain the scientific basis in a way that’s both informative and memorable.

 

🏞️ Petra Tabarelli, the Midsomer historian

I’ve been a guest on the official Midsomer Murders podcast, ‘Midsomer Mayhem’, a few times.

Why? Because I have a personal passion project: MidsomerMurdersHistory.org – a great resource for anyone interested in the history of Midsomer County.

Let’s start at the beginning. I’m a big fan of the British crime series Inspector Barnaby, which was originally called Midsomer Murders. And the episodes are full of historical references. It could be through links to English history, Midsomer’s own history, or the many historical festivals, re-enactments, museums, archives, and so on. I decided to take a closer look at this and created MidsomerMurdersHistory.org, which serves as a collection point and encyclopaedia of Midsomer County history and the series. This is an unofficial fan site. I’m not connected to Bentley Productions, ITV or the actors in any way.

Why did I put in all this work? The reason I did it was simple and quick: I couldn’t find a website like this, so I created it. For anyone else out there who’s looking for a website like this and can now find it.

 

⚽️ Petra Tabarelli, the football historian

I’ve never been great at memorising dates. History is a real story to me – it’s not just a string of years and data. It’s a living narrative that shows the path from yesterday to today. I’m a detective for the development of football rules, which is the linchpin of the game. As a top expert, I work with the International Football Association Board (The IFAB) in Zurich and the DFB, among others. I regularly publish articles in the refereeing magazine of the German Football Association (DFB).

As a woman in football, it’s important to me to support other women and to remind them of former female colleagues. One of the main challenges is that women in football don’t get enough visibility. As part of the award-winning FRÜF collective, I write a monthly column on Web.de to help achieve this goal. I’ve also done a lot of interviews, either in front of the microphone or camera.

All good things come in threes, right? As a football historian, I’m also a book author. My most recent book is called Simon Rosenberger, der vergessene Fußballpionier (affiliate link). I wrote about him and other Jewish journalists at Kicker magazine in the best-selling anthology Der Kicker im Nationalsozialismus. You can find out more about Simon Rosenberger here (in German only).

💁‍♀️ Learn More About Me

Erfahre hier mehr über mich und meine Publikationen und Projekte.

Find out more about me and my publications and projects here.

(The focus is still very much on German, so I especially welcome enquiries in English).