Maria Godau is a German historian and fashion designer. Before beginning her academic career at the University of Oxford, she completed a degree in Fashion Design in her hometown of Munich and trained as a haute couture embroidery artisan at Chanel’s École Lesage in Paris. She subsequently founded Saintemarie Couture, a fashion label that combines French couture craftsmanship with her passion for traditional Bavarian dress.

Following her work in fashion, Maria pursued an MSt in History of Design at the University of Oxford, graduating with distinction. Her research focused on conflicting and changing concepts of femininity, gender and family in Germany and across Europe and the ways in which these developments are reflected in fashion and material culture. 

Maria is now returning to Oxford to undertake a DPhil in Modern European History. Her research examines how the trauma of the Second World War, together with National Socialist and Socialist ideologies, shaped post-war understandings of gender, femininity and family in Germany and wider Europe. She is particularly interested in how the cumulative effects of war trauma, political ideology, and intergenerational inheritance influenced society at both the individual and collective level, and how this continues to shape contemporary understandings of gender and femininity across Germany, Europe, and the West. Driving her research is the wish to understand the different influences shaping societal ideas and the power of culture and the arts in social developments, as well as the redeeming power of the beautiful, the good and the true.  

Alongside her academic work, Maria is actively involved in the organisation of cross-denominational Christian gatherings in Munich, which she helps lead together with her brother, as well as supporting a church plant in Munich. Apart from this, she is passionate about liturgical vestments and their embroidery.