Meanwhile, trust in democracy is undermined every Monday and Saturday on the streets of Frankfurt by so-called lateral thinkers.

These protests, which are difficult to classify, denounce society's solidarity.

People who mistakenly believe they are not affected risk the lives of others at will.

This egoism is often legitimized with the conspiracy ideology-based idea that one is constantly being lied to and deceived – by science, by the state, by democratic institutions.

With the departure from a shared reality in which we live together, the basis for democratic debate is robbed.

These attacks on democracy, which can be observed not only in Frankfurt but internationally, do not follow the democratic rules of the game.

The question arises of what to oppose, which democratic traditions must be invoked and how they can be translated into the present.

Next year the 175th anniversary of one of the key events in the history of German democracy will be celebrated: the National Assembly met in the Paulskirche during the March Revolution of 1848.

How can this symbol contribute to the democratization of society today?

How can the Paulskirche be more than a stone relic?

The view of the Paulskirche

Since I moved into my office as mayor and head of department for diversity, anti-discrimination and social cohesion on the third floor of the Römer in August last year, I have been looking at the Paulskirche every day.

I can't help it.

Whenever I'm in my thoughts, the building attracts my gaze.

In the Frankfurt cityscape, the Paulskirche seems almost subtle.

It disappears in front of the skyscrapers, and so far it has received less attention than such an important place deserves.

That should change now.

Under the leadership of Lord Mayor Peter Feldmann, the magistrate considered not only honoring the Paulskirche with a long-term supporting program, but also making it a place of remembrance and learning.

She shall be given a house of democracy,

In view of the ambivalent history of the Paulskirche, a museum conversion from 1848 is out of the question.

The position of the Paulskirche both in the city society and for the Federal Republic has yet to be determined.

It is not possible to write a linear history from the democratic revolution to the present.

Because the history of democracy in Germany is also a history of its failure.

The achievements of the National Assembly - such as the constitution or the catalog of fundamental rights - have been overshadowed by their erosion and abolition.

This development did not come from outside alone.

In itself, too, the National Assembly was contradictory.

As Eckart Conze recently worked out in his book "Schatten des Kaiserreichs", there were not only democrats among the members of parliament, but also anti-Semitism and militarism in some cases.

Aggressive national chauvinism erupted in the so-called Poland debate in particular.

Furthermore, large parts of the population were underrepresented or not represented at all.

These reactionary moments damaged democratic ideals.

After the Second World War, the Paulskirche was the first historical building to be rebuilt in Frankfurt.

Ultimately, the Germans did not choose democracy themselves, but had to accept it after their defeat and in the face of the crimes they committed.

There were few democratic traditions that could be followed for reeducation.

The National Assembly in the Paulskirche was one of them.