"Love and do what you will!" If one were to follow this famous saying of Augustine literally, one might assume that much in our world can be normalized, except for love. Love seems to have its own standard. However, in reality, few areas of human coexistence are as heavily regulated. The author traces the history of the inclusions and exclusions that people have made regarding love: What could love mean in which society and at what time, and what could it not? And above all: Why could something be called love at one time and not at another? In this way, the multiple conditions of such a seemingly "natural" phenomenon as love come to light. At the same time, the historical reconstruction helps to arrive at a viable form of an ethics of love for the present.