“We live in irreconcilable times. Polarisation, hostility and aggression characterise political and social debates. There are hardly any topics left without insurmountable differences of opinion. How can we manage to be more conciliatory? [...] Michael Quante has long been concerned with the topic of reconciliation and reconcilability – not only professionally as a professor of Practical Philosophy at the University of Münster, but also privately, because he is worried about cohesion in society.”

“A team led by Philip Ebeling, Achim Lichtenberger and Oren Tal reviewed every known fourth- to second-century BCE cemetery in Israel, Jordan and coastal Syria. They discovered that the well-known kokhim, or side burial niches, actually began in Phoenicia during the Persian period—not in the royal cemeteries of early Alexandria as many books still say.”

“Whether in Buer, Ückendorf or Altstadt: Mayors give their names to streets and squares. Otherwise, many people know very little about ‘the city leadership’, which they formed together with the chief city directors from 1945 to 1999. [...] The fact that there are only three women among the 322 personalities in Westphalia between 1831 and 1999 was noticed by both Mayor Welge and Prof. Dr. Carla Meyer-Schlenkrich, who, as the second chairwoman of the Historical Commission (HIKO) for Westphalia in the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (LWL), gave a welcoming address.”

“An incredibly exciting time in which many strands of history overlapped”: this is how Michael Custodis, Professor of Musicology at the University of Münster, summarises the immediate post-war period in Germany. He talks about the avant-garde's belief in progress and the rediscovery of music that had been branded “degenerate” by the Nazis, about the symphony orchestras’ repertoire management, the failed denazification and the huge influence of broadcasting on public musical life.