There seems to be a consensus today regarding the course and consequences of the French Revolution: the declaration of human rights is celebrated, while violence and terror are viewed as extremist deviations that we encounter today in the enemies of democracy, threatening our open society. The renowned historian of the revolution, Sophie Wahnich, takes a critical look at the events following 1789, shaking our contemporary democratic self-understanding: terror must be understood as an authentic expression of the will of the people, revolutionary terror and terrorism cannot be equated, making it clear that our democracy was born from violence. In a current afterword, written in light of the Paris attacks, Wahnich clarifies the question of how democratic terror differs from Islamist terror.