Understanding history as a whole - this is the aim of Ernst Nolte's great book. His preoccupation with contemporary history and, above all, with modern ideologies thus has the greatest imaginable time frame. "Historical existence" means history as a whole, namely the period of about 5000 years between prehistory and our present, which could be the beginning of a possibly incalculably long "post-history". A limitation of history has become a topic for historians and philosophers of history since Hegel. Ernst Nolte does not approach this question in a "universal historical" way, but rather analyzes the most important categories of historical existence such as religion, state, nobility, war and peace, city and country, rebellion and the left, without forgoing narrative chapters . For Nolte, however, the "post-history" is not an unquestionable reality that is separated from history by a clear boundary. If in this book he tries to give the history of the 20th century the widest possible framework, he nevertheless remains a historical thinker who keeps aloof from the grand constructions of a "philosophy of history". "Historical Existence" is a great scholar's magnum opus and essential reading for anyone interested in history as a whole.