Kulturhistorismus
Kulturhistorismus, or cultural historicism, denotes a historiographical and cultural-scientific current that emerged in the German-speaking world in the late 18th and 19th centuries. It posited that culture—its language, religion, customs, institutions and arts—develops historically and that historical phenomena must be understood in their own cultural context rather than measured against universal norms. The movement aimed for a comprehensive reconstruction of past life-worlds by integrating methods from history, philology, archaeology, ethnology and art history.
Central to kulturhistoristische thinking is the idea of historical particularity: phenomena are shaped by long-term cultural
In German historiography, Johann Gottfried Herder has been seen as a precursor, and later figures such as
Critics later argued that Kulturhistorismus risked ethnocentrism and teleology, projecting contemporary national narratives onto the past.