The First World War as a ‘Break’ in the European History of the Twentieth Century

The First World War was more than a turning point; it was a break in European history which prompted a reorientation of biographies, political and social systems, and, above all, mental structures in almost all academic disciplines. Starting from biographical sketches from the time of the war, the paper will demonstrate the confusion and reorientation of concepts of time and history during and after the war in Germany.

Lucian Hölscher is Professor of Modern History and the Theory of History at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. His main fields of research are the social, cultural, and religious history of modern times, the history of concepts, the history of notions of the future, and the theory of time and space. He is author of Die Entdeckung der Zukunft (1999); Neue Annalistik: Umrisse einer Theorie der Geschichte (2003); Geschichte der protestantischen Frömmigkeit (2005); and Semantik der Leere: Grenzfragen der Geschichtswissenschaft (2009).