The present: an "unknown time" in the German Kaiserreich around 1900

In her contribution, Rothauge focuses on assumptions of ‘the present’ in the German Kaiserreich around 1900. Historical sources reveal that many contemporaries considered present time(s) to be highly dynamic and heterogeneous, thus confusing and partly ‘unknown’. Rothauge links this to several official initiatives preoccupied with synchronising different time regimes. She argues that these attempts initially led to a yet again increased pluralisation of both the notions and uses of ‘the present’. According to this, the master narrative of (high) modernity as being characterised by just one specific temporal experience, namely that of an ever increasing acceleration, needs to be looked at in a more differentiated way, paying more attention to the fact that people actively take part in the construction of temporal discourses