Longing for Yesterday: A History of Nostalgia in Germany

For Tobias Becker, nostalgia serves as a key to understanding German society. In his book, he examines how divided and reunified Germany has dealt with its past: The rediscovery of the “Golden Twenties” by the youth of the 1960s, the resurgence of the Nazi past in the form of the “Persilschein,” and the characterization of nostalgia as a “Western-capitalist phenomenon” in divided Germany. Tobias Becker questions why “Ostalgie” (nostalgia for the East) appears in the Duden dictionary today, but “Westalgie” (nostalgia for the West) does not.

According to Becker, the concept of nostalgia reveals more about those who use it than about those to whom it is applied. Whether it’s retro trends in pop culture or the historical politics of populist parties: looking back at yesterday reveals who we are today—or who we want to be.

On November 5 at 7:00 p.m., historian and curator Tobias Becker will present his book and discuss the concept of nostalgia and its instrumentalization in politics and society with journalist and author Jens Bisky.

Tobias Becker teaches German and European history as a DAAD visiting professor at Charles University in Prague and as a private lecturer at Freie Universität Berlin. Previously, he worked at the Leibniz Center for Contemporary History in Potsdam and at the German Historical Institute in London. His research focuses on the history of nostalgia, popular culture, crime, and, currently, memories of the Weimar Republic and exile.

Jens Bisky, born in 1966, served for many years as arts and culture editor of the *Süddeutsche Zeitung* and has been working since 2021 as managing editor of *Mittelweg 36* at the Hamburg Institute for Social Research. He is the author of several books. In 2017, the German Academy for Language and Literature awarded him the Johann-Heinrich-Merck Prize for literary criticism and essays. In 2024, his book *Die Entscheidung. Deutschland 1929 bis 1934* was published.

IN GERMAN