What would be the most famous statement in all historiography? For Leonard Krieger, a recent commentator on the work of Leopold von Ranke, the answer lies unequivocally to the credit of his subject: 'History has had assigned to it the task of judging the past, of instructing the present for the benefit of ages to come. The present study does not assume such a high office; it wants only to show what actually happened (wei es eigentlich gewesen).