Translating History in the Subjunctive Mood
Knowledge of the Past Through Counterfactual Means at the Deutsche Historische Museum
Keywords:
Counterfactual Historiography, Museums, Knowledge, Interpretation, ExperienceAbstract
This article examines the ‘Roads not Taken’ exhibition at the Deutsche Historische Museum (on display from December 2022 until March 2026) through a translational lens, proposing that it enacts a form of counterfactual historiography that can be understood as translation in the subjunctive mood. While the curatorial team insist upon a distinction between ‘verifiable’ alternatives and counterfactual historiography, this article argues that such a binary is untenable. Through an analysis of the exhibition’s spatial and artistic design, alongside its use of primary sources, the article demonstrates how visitors are invited into an experiential process of discovery in which they critically assess historical alternatives through subjunctive translation. In doing so, the exhibition positions visitors as co-translators of the past, thereby fostering a critical and participatory engagement with the historicization process.Downloads
References
Alonzi, L. (2023) ‘Introduction: Translating the past’, History as a translation of the past. Case studies from the West. London: Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 1–24.
Backhaus, F. (2023) ‘Interview mit dem Projektleiter Fritz Backhaus' [Interview with Project Leader Fritz Backhaus] in Bresky, S., de Fallois, C., and Müller-Kuckelberg, T. (eds) Begleitheft zur Wechselausstellung ‘Roads not Taken. Oder: Es hätte anders kommen können’ [Accompanying volume to the temporary exhibition ‘Roads not Taken. Or: Things could have turned out differently’]. Berlin: Stiftung Deutsches Historisches Museum, pp. 25–27.
Bennett, K. (2023) ‘Approaches to knowledge translation’ in Marais, K. and Meylaerts, R. (eds) The Routledge handbook of translation theory and concepts. London: Routledge, pp. 443–462 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003161448-27.
Black, J. and MacRaild, D.D. (2000) Studying history. 2nd edn. London: Macmillan Press.
Blumczynski, P. (2023) Experiencing translationality: Material and metaphorical journeys. London: Routledge.
Boria, M. and Tomalin, M. (2019) ‘Introduction’ in Boria, M. et al. (eds) Translation and multimodality: beyond words. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 1–23.
Burke, P. (2007) ‘Cultures of translation in early modern Europe’ in Burke, P. and Hsia, R.P. (eds) Cultural translation in early modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 7–38.
Butler, E. (2024) ‘Towards a curatorial translation zone’, Punctum, 10(2), pp. 81–99 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.18680/hss.2024.0022.
Deluermoz, Q. and Singaravélou, P. (2021) A past of possibilities: A history of what could have been. Translated by S.W. Sawyer. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Deutsches Historisches Museum (DHM) (n.d.) About us [online]. Available at: https://www.dhm.de/en/museum/about-us/ (Accessed date)
Deutsches Historisches Museum (2022a) Curator tour digital [video]. Available at: https://www.dhm.de/en/exhibitions/roads-not-taken-oder-es-haette-auch-anderskommen-koennen/curators-tour-digital/ (Accessed: 1 December 2025).
Deutsches Historisches Museum (2022b) More story: President Raphael Gross [online]. Available at: https://www.dhm.de/en/exhibitions/roads-not-taken-oder-es-haetteauch-anders-kommen-koennen/more-story/ (Accessed: 1 December 2025).
Diner, D. and Backhaus, F. (2023) ‘A talk with Dan Diner on the exhibition concept’ in Backhaus, F. et al. (eds) Translated by A. Blauhut, B. Hagen, and P. Neumann. Roads not Taken. Or: Things could have turned out differently. German Caesuras 1989-1848. Munich: C.H.Beck, pp. 11–21 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.17104/9783406808951.
Ferguson, N. (1999) ‘Virtual history: Alternatives and counterfactuals’ in Ferguson, N. (ed.) Introduction. Virtual history: Towards a ‘chaotic’ theory of the past. New York: Basic Books, pp. 1–90.
Grele, R.J. (1981) ‘Whose public? Whose history? What is the goal of a public historian?’, The Public Historian, 3(1), pp. 40–48 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2307/3377160.
Gross, R. (2023) ‘Preface’ in F. Backhaus et al. (eds) Translated by A. Blauhut, B. Hagen, and P. Neumann. Roads not Taken. Or: Things could have turned out differently. German Caesuras 1989-1848. Munich: C.H.Beck, pp. 7–10 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.17104/9783406808951.
Hawthorn, G. (1991) Plausible worlds: Possibility and understanding in history and the social sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hooper-Greenhill, E. (1992) Museums and the shaping of knowledge. London: Routledge [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203415825.
Kean, H. (2017) ‘Public history as a social form of knowledge’ in Hamilton, P. and Gardner, J.B. (eds) The Oxford handbook of public history. Oxford University Press, pp. 403–422 [online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199766024.013.22.
Koskinen, K. (2014) Translating institutions: An ethnographic study of EU translation. London and New York: Routledge.
Lowenthal, D. (1985) The past is a foreign country. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Macdonald, S. and Basu, P. (2007) ‘Introduction: experiments in exhibition, ethnography, art, and science’ in Macdonald, S. and Basu, P. (eds) Exhibition experiments. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 1–24.
McCall, V. and Gray, C. (2014) ‘Museums and the “New Museology”: theory, practice and organisational change’, Museum Management and Curatorship, 29(1), pp. 19–35.
Neather, R. (2025) Translating for museums, galleries and heritage sites. London and New York: Routledge.
Pearce, S. (1995) ‘Collecting as medium and message’ in Hooper-Greenhill, E. (ed.) Museum, media, message. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 15–23.
Ravelli, L. (2006) Museum texts: communication frameworks. London and New York: Routledge.
Rosenfield, G.D. (2005) The world Hitler never made: alternate history and the memory of Nazism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Savchenkova, M. (2024) La traducción emocional de la historia: la memoria traumática en la obra de Svetlana Alexiévich. Granada: Editorial Comares.
Vidal Claramonte, M.C.Á. (2025) Translating his-stories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Vidal, R. and Campbell, M. (2025) The Translation of experience: cultural artefacts in experiential translation. London and New York: Routledge.
