Global History Colloquium: Laetitia Lenel (Universität Duisburg-Essen) on “Decline: On the Circulation of Narratives of Decline in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Politics”
9 February 2026, 16:15-17:45 (in person)
FU Berlin, FMI, Room A336, Koserstr. 20, 14195 Berlin
In his convention speech in summer 2024, Donald Trump spoke of “a nation in decline.” Against the backdrop of this depicted decline, he promised to “make America great again.” Populist politicians in other countries share Trump’s argumentation. Here, too, stories of decline take center stage, with populist politicians usually presenting themselves as leadership figures who are the only ones to hear the concerns of “the people.” My book project explores the role of national, economic, and social narratives of crisis and decline in political discourse in the 19th and 20th century, their origin in different fields of knowledge production, and their circulation since the late 18th century. A particular focus is placed on the transformation and impact of narratives of decline in times of economic crisis. In my presentation, I will outline the project and illustrate my approach through a case study that traces how Oswald Spengler’s Decline of the West influenced German population statistics in the 1920s and 1930s. My case study investigates that act of translation and asks how Korherr’s warnings of a declining birthrate, influenced by Spengler’s study, intervened in the surrounding political debate.
Laetitia Lenel is Professor of Economic History at the University of Duisburg-Essen (Juniorprofessur für Kulturgeschichte des Ökonomischen). Her research brings together the study of economic knowledge practices and economic history. Among other topics, she investigates the history of business forecasting and how societies have grappled with economic turbulence.