Of all the epochs of European history, the Middle Ages are without a doubt the most prejudiced. Prejudices and simplifications are in our blood because they help us to understand the world better, including historical epochs. In the case of the Middle Ages, however, this is much more extreme than in
September is a special time in Bavaria. From the first days of spring at the latest, people here are usually already talking about this “festival” and when it will finally come. I didnt get it at first, and this obsession always struck me as odd. In the meantime Ive been living here for more than fo
Todays Germany would be hard to imagine without them, and neither would it be Austria or Switzerland:the guest workers from southern Europe. We can still find traces of them everywhere today. Whether its the kebab shop around the corner, the Jugo pub that I love so much, the Greek restaurant or the
Copyright:© Louis Glanzman, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Time magazine 1966, www.si.edu. The history of the Cold War is often seen as a conflict between two worlds. On the one hand the capitalist West, on the other the communist East. And yet, especially in Eastern E
This article is a chapter from my book Populism Made Easy, which you can currently pre-order in an exclusive special edition. Find out more here! There is an interesting trend among the worlds autocrats, dictators and populists. Although there is no solid reason for it, today almost all of them fol
Its back to being Dictator! At least thats pretty much what you have to come to when you look around Europe and the world today. How else are we going to explain ourselves to would-be saviors of the people like Viktor Orbán in Hungary or Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey? The drive for absolute power c
I was born in 1988. So for me there was no time before plastic. For as long as I can remember, pretty much every commodity has been made of plastic, or at least has plastic parts in it. Depending on your age, you either feel the same way, or you can still remember the radical change that swept our w
As is well known, the Oktoberfest will not take place this year due to the corona pandemic. 2020 is the first year since the end of the Second World War that the festival had to be cancelled. But that doesnt mean that there hadnt been drastic moments earlier when the Wiesn was close to being closed.
This article on the witch trials is an excerpt from my new book, Yesterdays Fake News. Crazy conspiracy theories from history The belief in witches and the witch trials that follow from it are a myth unparalleled in history. In his time and space, he was believed by such a large part of the popula
Good news! I am now officially part of the Deep State! Or at least thats what its all pointing to, according to certain conspiracy believers out there. Two weeks ago I was in Vienna and took part in an event at my old university:the Central European University. This university was – you might rememb
As is well known, racism in the USA is anything but history, even 150 years after the end of the Civil War, 50 years after the assassination of Martin Luther King and twelve years after the election of the first black US President. The constant new cases of white police violence against blacks and t
The “discovery” of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492 is still considered a great civilizational achievement in the western world. At least the day of his arrival is still celebrated as a public holiday, for example in the USA or Spain. Columbus voyage did change the world forever - but for the
When Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic in 1492, he changed the world forever. And thoroughly! This so-called “discovery” of America by Columbus is viewed as one of the possible endpoints of the Middle Ages, with good reason. What is much less clear is how his rides should be evaluated in the
The last years of the eleventh century were certainly not the most conducive to Christian-Muslim relations. The coexistence of religions had never been easy since Islam had spread 400 years earlier and first conquered the Holy Land, then the Iberian Peninsula and finally Anatolia right up to the gat
Whenever a new disease, plague, epidemic or even pandemic makes the rounds, society plays out the same story. Whether it is the corona virus, its now somewhat old-fashioned relative SARS, swine flu or bird flu … the process is now well known. Panic for a while (sometimes more appropriate, sometimes
Whether you call it carnival, carnival or Alemannic carnival. I must confess to you right at the beginning:I hate all of it. The stupid costumes, the annoying carnival parade, the horrible music (and I say that as someone who is quite inclined to pop music) ... The fifth season is anathema to me and
The Middle Ages are arguably both the most popular and poorly understood era in European history. On the one hand there is a fascination for the Middle Ages. You can understand this wonderfully in films or series, but also in the popularity of medieval festivals, role-playing games and much more. Ma
The Crusades of the Middle Ages are generally not a glorious story. First, there is the obvious fact that these alleged religious wars were mostly nothing more than bloodthirsty raids without much religious content and their consequences still overshadow Christian-Muslim relations today. Apart from
Easter is the most important holiday in Christianity. Everyone agrees on that, from the Vatican down to the smallest blogger. Still, this fact comes as a bit of a surprise. The biggest festival of the year is obviously Christmas and not Easter! Its no wonder that Ive been writing about the history o
Halloween is now a common holiday in Germany. More and more children (and drunk teenagers) parade through the streets on October 31st. Some organize their Trick or Treat and collect sweets, others try to get even more drunk as quickly as possible. Only twenty years ago things were very different. It
Today, the long-awaited Netflix series The Witcher, based on the cult books by Andrzej Sapkowski, has its premiere. Wild Hunt is one of the most important themes in this story. It was he who also gave the title of the third part of the equally cult game. What is this mythical pursuit? The concep
The Civil War has been the central episode of contemporary history. Misunderstandings and confrontations latent for decades led to it, and historical events that have developed since then have derived from it, including our most immediate present. It should not be understood, however, as some histor
Flavios Fokas was a special case of man in the negative sense. He was a low-ranking army officer who rebelled against Emperor Maurice, whom he destroyed along with his entire family to become emperor. From there on, he began his destructive work for the state, which fortunately did not last long.
On January 1 it seems appropriate to talk about the origin of our calendar and, for this, we have to go to the lands bathed by the Nile almost 5000 years ago. The Egyptians divided the year into 12 months of 30 days (360) and 3 seasons of 4 months (Flood of the Nile or Akhet , seed or Peret and gat