There is a flawless history of democracy, and it goes like this: Everything used to be worse, then democracy was won in heroic battles, and since then everything has been better - and will remain so forever. The only problem is that this history is not only blind to history, but also to the future. It ignores the dark side of democracy. So it’s time for a light and shadow history of democracy.
About the person
Hedwig Richter, born in 1973, is Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Munich. Her work focuses on the history of democracy, German, European and transatlantic history in the 19th and 20th centuries and gender studies. Most recently, together with Bernd Ulrich, she published “Demokratie und Revolution. Ways out of self-inflicted ecological immaturity” (2024).