Top 2 Quotes & Sayings by Fritz Stern

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American historian Fritz Stern.
Last updated on October 6, 2024.
Fritz Stern

Fritz Richard Stern was a German-born American historian of German history, Jewish history and historiography. He was a University Professor and a provost at New York's Columbia University. His work focused on the complex relationships between Germans and Jews in the 19th and 20th centuries and on the rise of National Socialism in Germany during the first half of the 20th century.

Life and study have persuaded me of the openness of history. There is no inevitability in history. Thinking about what might have happened, what could have happened, is a necessary element in trying to understand what did happen. And if, as I believe, individual acts of decency and courage make a difference, then they need to be recorded and remembered.
[T]he historian must serve two masters, the past and the present. — © Fritz Stern
[T]he historian must serve two masters, the past and the present.
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