Experiences of Relevance

The article aims to reconstruct how the author’s sense for the relevance of history and historiography developed and grew over several decades. It shows the intellectual development of the author, originally educated in a traditional manner, on the need to answer of questions of his students – such as »why history?« – starting with family history and leading to a much more broader concept of historical anthropology. Within that framework of the own intellectual biography, the question, what can be learned from history is discussed intensively.The article aims to reconstruct how the author’s sense for the relevance of history and historiography developed and grew over several decades. It shows the intellectual development of the author, originally educated in a traditional manner, on the need to answer of questions of his students – such as »why history?« – starting with family history and leading to a much more broader concept of historical anthropology. Within that framework of the own intellectual biography, the question, what can be learned from history is discussed intensively