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Fate a key concept today for understanding both ourselves and the world as individuals and society.

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How could modern society, with its rational self-understanding, come to be so dependent on such an occult-like term such as fate ? Franziska Rehlinghaus shows that since its establishment around 1650 the German idea of fate ( Schicksal ) was a central concept for dealing with the respective problems of each era. Indeed, one can speak of modern times as the Fatalistic Age. The author reconstructs for the first time the semantic and functional changes as well as the conjunctures this term underwent from the time of the Enlightenment to the beginning of the 20th century.

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Why is it that a modern society, which regards itself as rational, is reliant on such a seemingly occult concept as that of fate? Franziska Rehlinghaus provides evidence that since the establishment of the term in around 1650, the German notion of fate was a central expression of period-specific problems, so that modernity can be regarded as an age of fatalism? To this end, the author reconstructs the semantic and functional changes as well as the fluctuations in the use of the concept of fate from the Enlightenment to the beginning of the 20th century.

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Rehlinghaus, Franziska
Dr. Franziska Rehlinghaus ist Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam.

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