Starting in 1996 with Roman crafts living history demonstrations, I co-founded the project "Römischer Vicus", presenting several demonstrations of a dozen craftspeople on the website www.roemischer-vicus.de and attending Roman living history events in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Switzerland.
Since 2008 my webproject www.glasrepliken.de illustrates the Roman glass making techniques employing the German translations of the research by Mark Taylor & David Hill (UK) including reports on their Roman glass furnace projects and the glass furnace Projects of the PAM Velzeke (Belgium) as well as my own researches concerning glass.
In 2011 I had the chance to start the "IRM Internationale Reenactmentmesse - International Re-enactment Market"-project in/for the Archaeological Park Roman Villa Borg (Archäologiepark Römische Villa Borg, Germany, www.reenactmentmesse.com), which will be transferred to the RömerWelt Museum in 2020. This annual event serves as a platform for traders and craftsmen to present their goods and new researches on historic topics to re-enactors, living history interpreters and museum's staff.
Starting studying Archaeology of the Roman Provinces (Provinzialrömische Archäologie) at the Cologne University (Universität zu Köln) in 2011, I did my Bachelor's thesis 2014 on the reconstruction of a Roman glass workshop, consisting of a glass furnace and an annealing oven, at the Archaeological Park Roman Villa Borg. Since 2014, I conduct the annual glass workshops "Borg Furnace Project" in this hot glass workshop (www.glasofenexperiment.de). These projects also involve different German universities (Universität zu Köln, Universität des Saarlandes, Universität Trier, Philipps-Universität Marburg), including courses which combine the theoretical and practical aspects of Roman vessel glass and glassmaking in general. The glass workshop also hosted two international glass conferences in 2015 and 2016.
In 2017 and 2018, I did reconstruct and operate a Roman pottery kiln and a second hot glass workshop at the Archaeological Park Roman Villa Borg, featuring two glass furnaces and two annealing ovens. The total of this infrastructure serves for Roman crafts demonstrations and experimental archaeology in the materials glass, ceramics and metals, as well as for research and university teaching.
Some of my research focuses on different furnace layouts for making glass vessels and smaller structures for making glass beads. One of the latter was built in at Calugareni Mures, Romania (2016), and two at the Pfahlbaumuseum Unteruhldingen at Lake Constance (2018). A workshop at the Glasmuseum Rheinbach / Glasfachschule Rheinbach served for the building of a small Roman-style glass workshop-setup, containing a bead furnace, a glass furnace, and an annealing oven.
In October 2019, I was able to finish my master’s thesis on Roman locks and keys, found at the Roman Villa Borg, and to supervise the reconstruction and first firing of a Roman pottery kiln at the Römeranlage Lahr. Since November 2019, I am the executive director of the RömerWelt Museum in Rheinbrohl, Germany.
