Dan Diner

Raphael Gross

Fritz Backhaus

Julia Franke

Stefan Paul-Jacobs

Lili Reyels

“It could have turned out differently” – from this perspective, the volume looks at fourteen caesuras in German history between 1848 and 1989. Here the real and crucial historical events are considered against the backdrop of other historical developments that were always possible – developments inherently present in decisive, often dramatic turning points. In this way new light is shed on what is already known, the essential openness of history made evident. What would have happened if the East German security services had violently turned on the demonstrators in 1989? If the USA had dropped atomic bombs on Germany in 1945? How would Germany have turned out if the effort to establish a constitutional monarchy had succeeded in 1848? This book accompanies the exhibition “Roads not Taken” in the Deutsches Historisches Museum, whose titel has a programmatic dimension: following a concept of the historian Dan Diner, he and the other authors focus on possible historical alternatives. What unexpected coincidences might have altered the real historical events? What role did the personalities involved play in their unfolding? Themes such as Germany’s Ostpolitik, the Berlin Wall, the Cold War, the Nazi rise to power, revolution and democratization in Germany are newly evaluated in this way.

Or: Things Could Have Turned Out Differently

Roads not Taken

Sabine Kößling

Mirjam Wenzel

The Judengasse in Frankfurt, which was established in 1462, was the first ghetto in Europe and one of the most important centers of European Jewry until it was dissolved in 1796. This book accompanies the new permanent exhibition in the Judengasse Museum. It presents Jewish history and culture from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century. Featuring paintings, ritual objects, books and documents – and examining these in conjunction with archeological finds – it paints a rich portrait of everyday life in the Judengasse.

Catalog of the permanent exhibition of the Jewish Museum Frankfurt

The Judengasse in Frankfurt

Fritz Backhaus

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