The main aims of this paper are following:1) to introduce the conception of socio-historical learning and to connect it to the concepts of social and individual processes of learning through the concept of communication and communicative action, and2) to examine the tendencies of socio-historical learning which have been most powerful in the processes of modernisation in Western societies using the cultural-historical development of the Federal Republic of Germany during and after the World War II as an empirical example.The philosophical foundations for developing the theory of socio- historical learning are in the German critical theory, especially its Habermasian and the other formulations which have been made by the third generation of the critical theory. Theory will include the aspects of learning-processes of subjects, communities and societies. The methodology of analysis is dialectical and argumentative.The paper will concentrate on three main arguments. The first argument is that it is grounded to conceptualise the historical development of societies, which also has been defined as modernisation, as processes of learning. Learning processes are in definite way connected to the social learning of communities and subjects.The second argument is that the economic and technological processes which include the aspect of instrumentalisation of social interaction and communication, have been most powerful processes in modernisation.The third argument is that in spite of that, the most important historical processes of learning for cultural evolution of humanity are, indeed, moral processes and communicative rationality.The historical examination of the main tendencies of socio-historical learning in the Western modernisation has been done using the development of democracy in the Federal Republic of Germany during and after the World War II as an empirical example, too.Habermas applies his conception of learning processes to the analysis of the recent development in the history of Germany and European integration. He argues that the most prominent steps in the socio-historical processes of learning in West Germany have been the development of the constitutional state (der Rechtstaat), the relationships to the Western democracies and the essential improvement of economy. In addition to these factors, one of the most important preconditions has also been the formation of the democratic mentality, the new political and cultural orientation to the other Western countries. Furthermore, the citizens have been involved in finding the traditions of humanism and the Enlightenment. The political education of the members of communities through the new forms of communication has also contributed significantly to these processes. The national consciousness was very important, because without it the democratic basis for the legitimacy of power could not have been established. Social integration and solidarity were also necessary preconditions. Democratic participation in particular promoted social integration: the subordinated became free citizens of the national state (die Staatsburger). A sense of solidarity was created through a national consciousness, which was based on a common origin, language and history. All these aspects of communicative rationality have been learnt historically in spite of the fact that the communicative rationality has not direct the mainstream of modernisation in the Western societies.