What motivates the federal republic? Nearly 75 years since its creation and more than thirty since reunification, German democracy is under pressure: political extremism is spreading, the major political parties are battling vanishing approval ratings, and resentment and anti-democratic feelings are on the rise. How did we get here?

Renowned historian Christina Morina believes that to understand modern German history, we need to stop thinking of it as a straightforward story of democracy and dictatorship. In her new book, Tausend Aufbrüche (A Thousand New Beginnings, English edition in preparation for 2025), she examines countless letters to politicians, petitions, leaflets and other documents to show how citizenship and democracy have meant different things to different people over the past 40 years. For the first time, this political-cultural history of modern Germany looks at the 1989 revolution in light of the history of German democracy – revealing the diverse and stubborn ways in which Germans from all walks of life, east and west, have approached democracy in theory and in practice, how their ideas are shaping the so-called Berlin Republic, and the associated opportunities and dangers.

Christina Morina is the 2024-2025 Visiting Heuss Professor in History at The New School for Social Research. She is Professor of General History with a particular focus on Contemporary History at the University of Bielefeld. Her research focuses on major themes in German and European history from the in 19th to the 21st century, particularly Nazism and the history of bystanding during the Holocaust; socialism, Marxism and communism; political and memory culture(s) in Germany since 1945, as well as the history of historiography.

This annual Heuss Lecture is part of The New School for Social Research's General Seminar event series. Open to New School community members only. Must have an @newschool.edu email address to register.