ABSTRACT
The idea of a project of asking experts to compose characteristic stories of the history of the Crusades from differing historical cultures is based on historiographic-theoretical foundations. This chapter presents basic historiographic-theoretical considerations which focus, as a first step, on a structural model of historical thinking, in order that the results might be made understandable. A second step situates this model in how societies deal with history, and utilizes the concept of historical culture, differentiating between five dimensions. In a third step, the methodological question is how, against the preceding background, the texts on historical cultures can be interpreted by the historians. History is only socially relevant for orientation if it does not stand in contradiction to any of the five dimensions: cognitive, aesthetic, political, moral, and religious. The chapter also poses a final question: what assertions are possible based on the texts on historical cultures?.
