Good will is a prerequisite, but it alone is not enough. One of the most interesting but also most contradictory rulers of the 18th century is Joseph II of Habsburg-Lorraine, Archduke of Austria-Lorraine (13. 3. 1741 - 20. 2. 1790). He was also Holy Roman Emperor from 1765-1780. His mother was Maria Theresa of Austria (13. 5. 1717 - 29. [...]
Category: History/Historic
A German doom
A custom that is difficult to understand today leads to the tragedy that ultimately broke the German Empire: the coronation of German emperors, unlike all other European powers, could only take place by the pope and on Roman soil. The regular problem-laden military campaigns to Rome for this purpose overstretched the forces of the empire. Even who [...]
100 years after the outbreak of the First World War on August 1, 1914 (Published in GralsWelt 83/2014) "Now the lights are going out in Europe, and none of the living will see them shine." This is how British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey (1862-1933), the man who, according to historian Golo Mann, "could have prevented the war," felt about the [...]
(Published in GralsWelt 67/2011) In view of violent acts like the one in Norway in July 2011, the fundamental question arises as to why man is capable of evil. Anthropologists believe that violence and other evils are inevitable consequences of our evolutionary history. Is this true? How did evil come into the world? Many traditions tell of a "golden age" far in the past, [...].
Weimar did not have to fail
(Published in GralsWelt 18/2001) Tensions are escalating At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, after Napoleon's defeat, European diplomats created a so-called balance of power, which was supposed to give the continent stable conditions and save wars. The unification of the German provinces into a common state (1871) and the subsequent rise of the German Empire to an important industrial nation disrupted this [...]
Japan III: Asia to Asians
(Published in Grail World 17/2000) A society fixed in Confucian tradition seeks its way into the future: Japan has recently attracted attention through many a crisis. But the "Land of the Rising Sun" has managed many an unexpected rise in the past... The opening of the Japanese ports in the middle of the 19th century brought the country economic [...]
(Published in Gralswelt 16/2000, page 63 f.) The “Land of the Rising Sun” went through decisive developments in the early modern times. Contact with Europe's Christian missionaries, who were advancing colonization, led to the ban on Christianity in Japan. From then on only Buddhism and Confucianism played an important role. The time from the 12th to the [...]
China II: China and the West
(Published in GralsWelt 6/1998) In medieval Europe, almost nothing was known about the gigantic Chinese empire. It was only when Marco Polo, who had traveled and got to know China thoroughly for two decades, reported on his adventures that Europe received the first halfway reliable information. "China is a sea that salts all rivers that flow through it." [...]
(Published in GralsWelt 50/2008) 700 years of firearms - a cause for reflection. At the beginning of the 14th century, probably in 1308, 700 years ago, the first cannon was fired in Europe. One of the most momentous inventions of all time reached our Old Continent: Firearms soon became the most powerful single factor that has ever influenced world history. [...]
That was the Wild West Part 7
(Published in GralsWelt 32/2004) Rancher, Cowboys and Bandits The conquest of the “West” went hand in hand with an economic development - not to say: a waste of resources - in which one (often short-term) “boom” replaced the other. It all started with the lucrative fur trade, which peaked in 1840. Then came the California gold rush of 1849, the discovery of [...]