Professor Nikolas Jaspert received his PhD in History from the Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut der Freien Universität Berlin, and is currently Professor of Medieval History at the University of Heidelberg. His research focuses on the history of the Mediterranean, especially the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages, the crusades, military orders, and medieval German-Iberian relations. He is the author of numerous articles and edited volumes dealing with various aspects of these topics, and the monograph Die Kreuzzüge, first published in 2003 and translated into English in 2006.