Generative AI (GenAI) offers the possibility to support many steps in the creation of digital scholarly editions (DSE), e.g., the production of transcriptions from digital images, the addition of TEI-markup, and the preparation of web presentations (Pollin et al., 2025). There are established procedures and tools for all these steps in the DSE workflow. What is new is that GenAI chatbots make methods easily accessible to users from a single platform via conversation with the bot. With its ubiquity and potential for supporting scholarly work, GenAI should be considered as teaching and learning content in DH (Fritsche and Münster, 2024).

In the summer semester of 2026, a seminar for students of the humanities (German Studies) will be offered at the University of Rostock in which they will work together on a DSE of dramatic works of Sophie Tieck (Dramatische Fantasien, 1804). The seminar runs for 13 weeks, two hours per week. After familiarizing ourselves with the author, her work, and the historical context, we will go through the steps involved in creating an edition and subsequently test how GenAI can help to implement it. A GenAI chatbot using the Gemma 4 model, hosted on a university server, is used, so that there are no constraints for the students. The aim is to create an edition prototype of Tieck’s dramas. Part of the seminar is to discuss and test how GenAI may (1) support the preparation of historical literary texts in digital format, (2) support learning about digital editing methods, (3) be employed in a setting of collaborative work in the classroom using Git. This short paper will present the setup and results of the seminar and reflect on the added value, challenges, and limitations that the use of GenAI brings to DH teaching with regard to digital editions.