Germany at the Crossroads: A Nation between Past and Future

  • A historical perspective dating back to the 19th century puts current crises into context and dispels myths
  • The award-winning German-British historian Frank Trentmann teaches at the renowned Birkbeck College in London


Where is Germany heading? The book on the state of the nation

The world is looking at Germany. Ever since the Federal Republic has appeared to be a model of economic efficiency and political stability. Now German trains are notorious for running late and populists make up the second biggest party in parliament. Since reunification, outsiders have asked, sometimes with trepidation, whether Germans would or could play a greater role on the world stage. The war in Ukraine and now the estrangement of the United States from Europe has made this question urgent. What are the roots of the current German crisis? Will the country be able to turn itself around? And, if it does, can the Germans be trusted?

"Outstanding ... meticulous and well-judged" Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year on "Out of the Darkness: The Germans, 1942-2022"

“It's original, enlightening, and entertaining.” Gustav Seibt, Süddeutsche Zeitung


Contact Foreign Rights
Sample Translations
  • Publisher: S. FISCHER
  • Release: 10.09.2025
  • ISBN: 978-3-10-397702-8
  • 288 Pages
  • Author: Frank Trentmann
Buchcover von Germany at the Crossroads: A Nation between Past and Future: Deutschland zwischen Vergangenheit und Zukunft
Frank Trentmann Germany at the Crossroads: A Nation between Past and Future
Portrait von Frank Trentmann
© Andreas Labes
Frank Trentmann

Frank Trentmann , author of Empire of Things and Out of the Darkness , is professor of history at Birkbeck, University of London, and at the University of Helsinki. He has taught at Princeton University and has been a visiting professor at the École des hautes études/Paris, the EUI/Florence, St Gallen/Switzerland, and the University of Chicago. He has been awarded the Whitfield Prize, a Humboldt Research Award, the Bochum Historians’ Prize and he was a Moore Scholar at Caltech. He grew up in Hamburg and lives in London.