History. Herstory.
08. Dez 2025,
“This will go down in history.” Well, practically everything alive goes down sooner or later. But whoever goes down in history — that person stays there, forever and ever, carved into the chronicles of humankind. Now, if that isn’t an exquisite kind of immortality, what is?
As desirable as it sounds to be listed in the great book of human and planetary evolution, the truth is sobering.
History is no award, no Oscar, no Grammy — and certainly no Nobel Prize.
It’s merely the place that time itself assigns to a person or an event.
Whoever applies for a line in the history book must share that space with the likes of Mahatma Gandhi, Adolf Hitler, Caesar, Greta Thunberg, and yes — Donald J. Trump.
History is not just a record or an archive. No, the way we write history has always been a colourful story in itself.
In ancient times — that greyish pre-digital era — history was filled with myths and legends, simply because facts were hard to come by. Two early historians, Herodotus and Thucydides, found that unsatisfying. They introduced critical methods to separate facts from fiction.
In other words, they invented the fact-check thousands of years before apps and AI.
Then came the Middle Ages — and history took a holy turn.
Stories were rewritten through the eyes of the church.
Facts gave way to divine plans. Chronicles became heavenly PR campaigns featuring kings and saints — not the regular folks who baked bread, built houses, or fought wars.
Luckily, the wheel — or shall we say the cycle — of history turned again, bringing us the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment.
Ancient texts were dusted off and re-examined.
Science entered the chat, and from that moment on, reason and critical thinking became the stars of the show.
It took another nineteen centuries for the study of history to professionalize.
Historians like Leopold von Ranke preached the value of primary sources and objectivity.
Their motto: “To tell it as it really was.”
By the time the 20th century rolled around, historians got bored of kings and wars.
They expanded their view to include culture, social life, and gender.
Finally, history began to be told from the perspective of the non-powerful.
And that one famous saying still circles back again and again:
“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
And just like that — we’re back to the legendary cycle.
Says history.