In this talk, Professor Stefanie Middendorf will scrutinize experiences of crisis and disorder in historical and comparative perspectives. The talk will reveal how states perceived ‘states of emergency’ which were both made visible or hidden by different political systems throughout the 20th century. It will also question whether this approach helps us to better understand liminalities of democratic and dictatorial rule. The historical cases that will be considered include Germany in the age of global wars and France after 1945, and a special focus will be on transnational experiences and the circulation of knowledge and micro-techniques of power.