English Articles

This is our section for English articles.

Islamic Ambitions and Imperial Imaginations: The Iranian Revolution in the longue durée

Since the US and Israel attacked Iran, news has been flooding the public sphere every minute: confusing statements from politicians, contradictory assessments from commentators, and heated opinions on social media. In his analysis, Hamid R. Ekbia outlines areas of tension within the resistance and protest movements that cannot be reduced to a simple juxtaposition of left-wing opposition and pro-monarchist movements. Despite all the anger and grief, he recommends a moment of pause and distance to understand what motivates the brave people of Iran, why they are fighting, and what they have been fighting for so long.

Hamid R. Ekbia

Anti-Putin does not mean anti-imperial. Why the romanticisation of Russian dissidents is misleading

In the German debate on the Russian anti-Putin camp, the problematic aspects of this milieu are often ignored. The Russian perspective continues to be given more weight than that of the states colonized by Russia.

Franziska Davies

Depression, Antisemitism and the Writing of History: Remembering Evelien Gans

Historian Evelien Gans was a renowned anti-Semitism and Holocaust scholar. In 2018, she took her own life. This had many causes, but also challenges us to reflect on the distressing aspects of academic culture.

Anna Hájková und Jazmine Contreras

National Internationalism? The Jewish Labor Bund between Nation and Class

Intersectionality has posed a challenge for leftist movements attempting to advance the cause of specific groups without losing sight of the intercommunal unity they need to succeed. How can a party of Russian Jewish revolutionaries help us square this circle?

Joshua Meyers

Geschichte der Gegenwart

Schweizer Filme über das Recht auf Abtreibung

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The century of pandemics. A conversation with Mark Honigsbaum

Medical historian Mark Honigsbaum speaks of a "century of pandemics" that stretches from the Spanish flu of 1918 to our Corona-related present. In an interview with Philipp Sarasin, he explains why we only ever prepare for the pandemic that has just passed.

Mark Honigsbaum und Philipp Sarasin

The German Catechism

For many, the memory of the Holocaust as a break with civilization is the moral foundation of the Federal Republic. To compare it with other genocides is therefore considered a heresy, an apostasy from the right faith. It is time to abandon this catechism.

A. Dirk Moses

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Unloved Monuments. On Confederate War Memorials and Monuments to the Expellees

Many monuments no longer fit into our political landscape – in the US as well as in Germany. They celebrate the wrong heroes or tell of injustices suffered in order to conceal the suffering inflicted on others. Should they be removed for that reason?

Helmut Walser Smith

Clampdown. How Turkey’s New Internet Law Threatens Journalists

The free use of the internet has been subject to growing censorship pressure in Turkey for years. However, the new internet law that came into effect in 2020 now directly targets social media - and thus threatens journalistic work and freedom of information head-on.

K. Zeynep Sarıaslan

Academic Freedom under Threat in India

Since coming to power in 2014, India’s Hindu nationalist regime has been steadily shrinking the spaces of political and academic freedom. Its latest moves show a continuing tendency to silence critical voices and to further its narrow views of history and society.

Benjamin Zachariah

Phenomena of the Irrational. On wonder doctors, witches and conspiracy theories

From 1945 until the late 1950s, a wave of accusations of witchcraft swept through Germany, and tens of thousands of people flocked to wonder healers. But why? And what links these phenomena to today's conspiracy theories? A conversation with the US-American historian Monica Black.

Svenja Goltermann und Monica Black

Contested Memory. The ‘Comfort Women’ Statue in Berlin and Dealing with Sexual Violence in War

The unveiling of a statue in memory of the victims of sexual violence committed by the Japanese Army in World War II has led to diplomatic tension between Berlin and Tokyo. But there are good reasons for the statue to have a place in Germany.

Insa Eschebach und Regina Mühlhäuser

Comparing Comparisons: From the “Historikerstreit” to the Mbembe Affair

In the late 1980s, mostly German intellectuals discussed the question of the “uniqueness” or “comparability” of the Holocaust. In the Cause Mbembe, the fronts, the participants and the course of the discussion have changed fundamentally – but the political and ethical stakes remain the same.