Ketzer

The term "heretic" seems like a relic from times long past. In the Dark Ages, the Catholic Church brutally enforced its claim to sole truth against dissenters with the help of the Inquisition, torture and death penalties. At the time of the Reformation, according to the common assumption, the spook ended, but at the latest with the Enlightenment. However, it took even longer before the churches began to modernise their world view. And more recently, the term has experienced something of a renaissance. Recently, tech investor Peter Thiel organised the "Hereticon", a heresy conference. In Germany, hundreds of thousands of subscribers watch the right-wing YouTube account "Ketzer der Neuzeit".
So it's time for SPIEGEL GESCHICHTE to dedicate an issue to the historical background and current attempts to connect the dots.