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It is almost a mantra: "It is men who make history," said the Prussian court historian Heinrich von Treitschke again and again since 1874 in the introduction to his lecture on politics in the past and present, which was often given at Berlin's Friedrich Wilhelms University .
In his main work "German History in the 19th Century", published in 1879: "Men make history."
Heinrich von Treitschke (1834-1896)
Source: picture alliance / akg-images
Of course, this dictum is wrongly phrased, because en passant it excludes half of humanity.
In the version “people make history”, however, it gets right.
Of course, this has nothing to do with gender issues, which are currently dominating the humanities to an unbearable degree.
Because women, like men, have always been actors and winners, but also sufferers of those political processes in the broader sense that, in retrospect, are called history.
For example, how should one think of the 1930s and the emerging Second World War without the very personal influence of Hitler and Stalin?
Or - to use a different, positive example - like the dawn of the early 1960s without the young, dynamic and charismatic President John F. Kennedy?
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From January 1st, WELTGeschichte is dedicating a new regular column to the personality factor, the “head of the day”.
365 times a year we will shed light on the life of a person who has more or less shaped or changed the world, summarized, but with the most important details.
Of course, political ideas, economic constraints and social movements also play a role, but only insofar as they are represented by people.
People not only “make” history, they “are” history.
In other words: history is nothing more than the sum of innumerable biographies - of well-known figures, be they rulers, thinkers, warriors, inventors or artists, and of unknown ones whose traces have been lost or have not yet been considered.
In all of these lives, the social and economic conditions, to which left historians attach great importance, as well as dimensions such as belief and ideology, for which conservative researchers can be enthusiastic, are reflected.
Only those who look at people can understand the past.
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For decades, the predominant direction in German historical studies, the social history of the Bielefeld School, has denied this simple insight or simply ignored it.
Generations of academically trained historians wrote about "structures" that were all made up of people - the knowledge gained from the work done in this way was often small as a result.
It was not for nothing that the intellectual head of this historical social science, Hans-Ulrich Wehler, increasingly reflected on the importance of the individual.
Hans-Ulrich Wehler (1931-2014)
Source: picture alliance / dpa
“Even for the crudest social science, biography is a possible access to history itself,” said Johannes Kunisch, professor in Cologne and biographer of Frederick the Great: “In addition, biography is one of the ways in which history can be conveyed at all.
Because everyone who reads a biography sees the references to their own existence, be it childhood and the relationship to their parents, be it illness or death - all of this is understandable for each individual. "
That is exactly, in the small form of the short, concise article, the aim of the new WELTGeschichte column “Head of the Day”.
In the course of time, the very great figures from all epochs from antiquity to more recent history will appear here, those people who have appeared in lists such as “The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History” by US historian Michael H. Hart, the BBC show “100 Greatest Britons” or the ZDF ranking shows “Our Best”.
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However, the “heads of the day” on WELTGeschichte go far beyond such lists.
Because you don't have to stop at 100 or 365 people.
And of course we place the individuals described in the context of their respective times, mostly portrayed on the basis of significant events that influenced them.
There are heroes and criminals, rulers and “ordinary people” who have made a difference.
Because people make history - who else?
You can also find “World History” on Facebook.
We look forward to a like.