''Alltagsgeschichte'' (
German; and sometimes translated as 'history of everyday life') is a form of
social history
Social history, often called history from below, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. Historians who write social history are called social historians.
Social history came to prominence in the 1960s, spreading f ...
that emerged among
West German historians in the 1980s. It was founded by
Alf Lüdtke
Alf Lüdtke (18 October 1943, Dresden – 29 January 2019) (also Alf Luedtke) was a historian and a leading German representative of the history of everyday life ('' Alltagsgeschichte'' in German). He said his main fields of interest and research ...
(1943–2019) and
Hans Medick
Hans Medick (born 7 October 1939) is a German historian.
Life
Born in Wuppertal, Medick studied history, philosophy, English and political science at the universities of Cologne University, Cologne, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Heide ...
(born 1939). ''Alltagsgeschichte'' can be considered part of the wider
Marxian historical school of '
history from below'. It challenged the well-known framework of ' ('history of structures'), within the German historical field and advocated for a new model of social history.
It is related to
microhistory.
''Alltagsgeschichte''
''Alltagsgeschichte'' developed from the social and political upheavals of the 1960s when new social movements began to mobilize with political and academic voices.
Its intention was to show the links between the ordinary "everyday" experiences of ordinary people in a
society
A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. ...
, and the broad social and political changes which occur in that society. ''Alltagsgeschichte'' becomes a form of
microhistory because this massively broad endeavor to undertake can only feasibly be practiced on the most minute of scales. With the political shift in Germany during the 1990s, many historians deemed ''Alltagsgeschichte'' a casualty of the move from social history towards cultural history.
It can also be linked to the Italian historical doctrine of
microhistory (''microstoria'').
''Alltagsgeschichte''
's leading proponents include
Paul Veyne
Paul Veyne (; 13 June 1930 – 29 September 2022) was a French historian and a specialist of Ancient Rome. A student of the École Normale Supérieure and member of the École française de Rome, he was honorary professor at the Collège de Franc ...
(born 1930) and
Michel Rouche
Michel Rouche (30 May 1934 – 5 December 2021) was a French historian and academic. He specialized in the history of Gaul during the Roman Empire and in the Middle Ages.
Biography
Rouche earned an agrégation in history in 1959 and subsequently ...
in France, and
Peter Carr in the United Kingdom.
Martin Broszat
Martin Broszat (14 August 1926 – 14 October 1989) was a German historian specializing in modern German social history. As director of the '' Institut für Zeitgeschichte'' (Institute for Contemporary History) in Munich from 1972 until his ...
(1926–1989) was also strongly influenced by the method in his six-volume co-edited work on
Bavaria
Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...
under National Socialism entitled ''Bayern in der NS-Zeit'' (1977–1983).
Popular culture
An example of ''Alltagsgeschichte'' becoming part of popular culture in Europe can be seen in the Austrian documentary series of the same name, produced between 1985 and 2006 by Elisabeth T. Spira.
The series chronicled the everyday lives and stories of Austrian people in over 60 episodes.
Selected publications
*''The History of Everyday Life'' by German historian Alf Lüdtke
*''Alltagsgeschichte - ein Bericht von unterwegs'', by Alf Lüdtke, in ''Historische Anthropologie No. 11'' (2003),
*''A History of Private Life: from Pagan Rome to Byzantium'',
Paul Veyne
Paul Veyne (; 13 June 1930 – 29 September 2022) was a French historian and a specialist of Ancient Rome. A student of the École Normale Supérieure and member of the École française de Rome, he was honorary professor at the Collège de Franc ...
, ed. (Editions du Seuil, 1985)
*''Portavo: an Irish Townland and its Peoples'', Parts One and Two, by Peter Carr (White Row, 2003 and 2005)
*"The History of Everyday Life: A second chapter," by Paul Steege, Andrew Bergerson, Maureen Healy and
Pamela E. Swett, in ''The Journal of Modern History'', No. 80 (June 2008),
*''Eigen-Sinn. Życie codzienne, podmiotowość i sprawowanie władzy w XX w.
igen-Sinn. Alltagspraxis, Subjektivität und Herrschaft im 20. Jahrhundert', ed. by Thomas Lindenberger and Alf Lüdtke, ed. editing: Kornelia Kończal, translation: Antoni Górny, Kornelia Kończal und Mirosława Zielińska, Poznań: Wydawnictwo Nauka i Innowacje, 2018.
* ''Eigen-Sinn und Alltagsgeschichte. Ein Gespräch von Kornelia Kończal mit Alf Lüdtke und Thomas Lindenberger'', in: Ein Theorieblog zu Alf Lüdtkes (1943-2019) Konzept des „Eigen-Sinns“, 10. Dezember 2021, https://eigensinn.hypotheses.org/#_ftn1.
See also
*
Social reproduction, a Marxian concept
*
History of mentalities, a French tradition
*
Historical anthropology
References
{{Authority control
Historiography of Germany
World history
Social history