Christoph Markschies is Professor of Ancient Christianity at the Humboldt University in Berlin. He studied Protestant theology, classical philology and philosophy in Marburg, Jerusalem, Munich and Tübingen, received his doctorate in Tübingen in 1991 and his habilitation there in 1994.
He held professorships in church and theological history of ancient Christianity in Jena (1994-2000) and Heidelberg (2000-2004) he was president of the Humboldt University of Berlin from 2006 to 2010. He has been a Fellow of the Institutes for Advanced Study in Berlin, Jerusalem and Princeton and a Visiting Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford.
He holds honorary doctorates from the theological faculties of Lucian Blaga University in Sibiu, the University of Oslo, and the Lateran University in Rome.
Christoph Markschies is a member of the Academies of Sciences and Humanities in Erfurt, Heidelberg, Mainz and Milan, as well as of the European Academy for Sciences and Arts and the Academia Europaea.
He also serves on various scientific advisory boards and foundations (including, since 2014, as chairman of the scientific advisory board of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation). The German Archaeological Institute elected him as a corresponding member in 2007.
Christoph Markschies has been awarded a number of prizes, such as the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation in 2001. In 2017, he received the Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his outstanding commitment to ecumenical and Jewish-Christian dialogue.