Great moment
Sternstunde (still a stellar hour around 1800 ) is a metaphor for decisions, actions or events that fatefully influence the future. The term is borrowed from astrology , which postulates that the position of the stars at the time of birth essentially determines the further course of life. Colloquially, Sternstunde is also used for an extraordinary or glamorous event in a positive sense.
The term gained particular popularity through Stefan Zweig's well-known book “ Sternstunden der Menschheit ” from 1927, in which he illustrates historical processes of change in 14 essayistic narratives based on incisive events that took place during this period (e.g. “The discovery of the Pacific Ocean”, “The Marseillaise arises ”or“ The first telephone call across the ocean ”). In the foreword he explained the term as follows:
“Such dramatically concentrated, such fateful hours, in which a timeless decision on a single date, a single hour, and often just a minute is squeezed together, are rare in the life of an individual and rare in the course of history. [...] I called them that because they shine like stars, shining and unchanging over the night of transience. "
