(an Essay on Local Quantum Physics) 1 Looking at the past with Hindsight

Historical aspects as well as the present state of QFT are analysed from a new viewpoint whose mathematical basis is the modular theory of von Neumann algebras. Its physical consequences suggest a new symmetry concept as well as a novel way of dealing nonperturbatively with interactions. The former generalizes the innnite dimensional dif-feomorphism groups of low dimensional conformal theories to innnite dimensional groups in higher dimensions, with all symmetries beyond the Poincar e group being either partially or totally \hidden" (non-pointlike). Interactions are incorporated by using the fact that the S-matrix is a relative modular invariant of the interacting-relative to the incoming-net of wedge algebras. This new point of view allows many interesting comparisions with the standard quantization approach to QFT. To a contemporary observer the area which was once called particle physics, with QFT being its main theoretical tool, appears fractured into several loosely connected regions, ranging from the Gauge Theory of the Standard 1