Pioneers of German Democracy

Freedom and democracy have deep roots in German history. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has made it one of the goals of his term in office to make these roots more visible. The volume he has edited portrays courageous women and men who stood up for freedom and human rights between the French Revolution and the Weimar Republic. The foundations of democracy and parliamentarism, emancipation, fundamental rights and the constitutional state were laid in this era. Nevertheless, actors such as Georg Forster, Robert Blum, Louise Otto-Peters, Emma Ihrer or Hugo Preuß are too often still too much in the background in public memory. Nevertheless they show us what has brought us forward in our history and what we can build on.

With contributions by Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger, Norbert Lammert, Barbara Sichtermann, Christopher Clark, Hedwig Richter, Herfried Münkler, Ute Gerhard, Dietmar Süß, Heribert Prantl and many others.