It could have turned out differently - from this perspective the volume looks at fourteen
caesuras in German history between 1848 and 1989. Here the real and crucial historical events
are considered against the backdrop of other historical developments that were always possible
- developments inherently present in decisive often dramatic turning points. In this way new
light is shed on what is already known the essential openness of history made evident. What
would have happened if the East German security services had violently turned on the
demonstrators in 1989? If the USA had dropped atomic bombs on Germany in 1945? How would
Germany have turned out if the effort to establish a constitutional monarchy had succeeded in
1848? This book accompanies the exhibition Roads not Taken in the Deutsches Historisches Museum
whose titel has a programmatic dimension: following a concept of the historian Dan Diner he
and the other authors focus on possible historical alternatives. What unexpected coincidences
might have altered the real historical events? What role did the personalities involved play in
their unfolding? Themes such as Germany's Ostpolitik the Berlin Wall the Cold War the Nazi
rise to power revolution and democratization in Germany are newly evaluated in this way.
