Locations of events.

The court of the Sun King was a shark pool. Those who were popular – and who stepped on as few toes as possible – survived. Abbot de Bellegarde explained how to do this in the style of a modern manual. He wrote a bestseller.

Five Francs, 60 Francs, two Louisdor – what can money buy? A cup of coffee, a visit to the theater, the love of a woman? De Maupassant’s bestselling and highly entertaining novel shows that participation in social life is rarely possible without money.

One of the title pages of Honoré de Balzac’s novel The Wild Ass’s Skin is decorated with a strange squiggle. The sign is supposed to come from the 322nd chapter of a book by Laurence Sterne – however, such a chapter does not exist. We tell you what the enigmatic sign is all about and why it is sometimes worthwhile not skipping over the title pages of a book.

Ever since it was discovered, America has played a major role in the dreams of European emigrants. With the mass emigration of the 19th century, a new genre became popular: self-help books. Find out what emigrants needed to know ca. 1870 in this article.

A Bavarian toll ordinance from 1765 gives us an insight into the people’s everyday life: what goods were transported on the roads, how were they taxed and why did the subsistence economy endure until the 19th century?