Alltagsgeschichte is a form of Microhistory practised in particular by German historians during the 1980s.

The name comes from German, where Alltag means everyday; it can thus be roughly translated as everyday-history.

In this sense, alltagsgeschichte can be considered part of the wider Marxian historical school of 'history from below'.

The purpose of alltagsgeschichte is to find and prove the links between the down-to-earth, everyday, basic experiences of ordinary people in a society, and the broad social and political changes which occur in that society. Because this is such a massively broad endeavour to undertake, it can only feasibly be practised on the most minute of scales. Thus alltagsgeschichte becomes a form of microhistory.

Alltagsgeschichte can also be linked to the Italian historical doctrine of microstoria.

One famous publication of collected alltagsgeschichte works is The History of Everyday Life by German historian Alf Lüdtke.

Fields of History | German loanwords

Alltagsgeschichte | Histoire du quotidien