In Middle High German bekêren means to turn around, to reverse, to invert. In this volume Matthias Rein portrays the systematic history of the meaning of this concept. Both the theological-conceptual aspect and the basic motoric meaning were present simultaneously and competed with each other. The modern interpretation of “bekehren” in the sense of a mental reorientation is very new indeed: During the Middle Ages, particularly since the times of late Old High German, this nuance gradually grew in meaning, but even in early Modern High German the motoric intimation of a spatial action is still present.weiterlesen