The Biographical Method

Abstract

Biographers take advantage of others people's distress. It goes without saying that the theory of the biography, one that a biographer can have at hand and that lets him write the ideal biography, is an utopia. The biographical method offers the reader the possibility to ask specific research questions and come to different results that way. Sometimes a biography can provide clarity about a question that concerns countless more people than the person biographied. With assistance of the biographical method a different or new light can be shed on certain issues. In a biography everything is connected to each other. The biography therefore is in essence multidisciplinary. The connection between activities especially surfaces through biographical research and results in different research data as opposed to traditional press- and party histories. Biographies have become an integral part of historical research. Keywords: biographers; biographical method; biographical research; historical research; utopia