Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall in autumn 1989, Boris Buden presents a radical diagnosis of our times: Since the collapse of the communist regimes, which saw not only the end of dictatorship and planned economies but also the demise of the era of industrial modernity itself, the future has taken its leave. In contemporary art and in the new history museums, the spirit of retro-utopia prevails: a return to the unfulfilled potentials of the past. The longing for history has replaced the belief in progress. Religion and nationalism are experiencing a renaissance. What does this mean for our society? Does the now-obsolete social hope—a discarded idea—persist in cultural memory?.