After Frank Witzel and Philipp Felsch published perhaps the most original and eye-catching explorations of West Germany's past in spring 2015, they now take another look together at the old Federal Republic and the atmosphere of the era between the post-war period and the reunification. It is noticeable that the old Federal Republic is increasingly romanticized and idealized in light of current global uncertainties and identity crises. There is a growing longing for the seemingly cozy Rhineland capitalism and the Biedermeier of Helmut Schmidt and "Wetten Dass?". In their retrospective, fueled by their books, Witzel and Felsch recall the underlying violence and darkness of the old Federal Republic, which found its ideal representative more in Eduard Zimmermann than in Frank Elstner.