Die Wärme entweicht mit kläglichem Zischen
Aus allen Gesprächen mit Schlussapplaus.
Wörter haben einen Bleigeschmack,
Wenn über Schützengräben die Floskeln fliegen,
Tödlich wie die Haubitzen.
Stell dir vor, es ist Krieg, und du schwiegest dazu.
Oder weintest über den Leopard.
Dachtest an das Schrapnell,
Das sich schmatzend in ihre Körper bohrt.
Anstatt zu sagen, was du nicht weißt.
Without many words
Today is a day of mourning. Nationalist blindness is killing again in Europe. Our sympathy goes out to the victims. We grieve with all those who stand up for peace, democracy and human rights.
The first in-house production made possible by European Utopia e.V. is set in Auschwitz. It made the front page of the daily newspaper Haaretz in Israel and the FAZ feuilleton in Germany.
Clay, not shards: How Stephan Winkler created the animation that makes Europe nicer.
Sebastian Kurz has resigned. Since 2017, the man from Vienna caused a lot of damage and shook trust in the political culture. It started when he formed a coalition with the far-right FPÖ to become Austria’s chancellor. His coalition railed against immigration and formed a nationalist alliance with Hungary, Poland and Slovakia in the EU. Kurz accused the South of wastefulness and played the role of frugal teacher-in-chief, while corruption thrived at home. In 2019, the government collapsed because vice-chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache allowed himself to be filmed doing politics: drunk in the back room. After the re-election and a coalition with the Greens (!), it came out how Kurz did politics: via low-level smartphone messages. Vienna’s Burgtheater and Der Standard have turned the embarrassing chat protocols of the opportunistic clique into art - the grandiosely simple production can be seen and heard online here.
Toby Binder, Eva-Maria Feilkas and Jörg Fokuhl each gave us a motif for this website. Many thanks for that! In this section the three photographers talk about their work from Belfast, Greece and Munich - and explain why they support European Utopia e.V..
2021 begins with sad news that has been known for a long time: Great Britain has left the EU. The Brexit referendum on June 23, 2016 was an anticlimax in the history of European integration. Even the conservative columnist Nikolaus Blome commented on Spiegel Online with “anger instead of melancholy”. Those who are less pessimistic will at least find this consolation: Brexit is forcing pro-Europeans to seriously consider what kind of Europe they actually want. Reform the EU? Or create a true transnational democracy? Oxford professor Timothy Garton Ash, who once described Brexit as a nightmare, naturally continues to think European (like most Britons), as his essay in Prospect magazine shows. He calls for a “new liberalism” that takes the Enlightenment and human rights seriously, not only the freedom of the market. If Europe succeeded in a renaissance in this sense, it would be armed against populist splits, safer and more successful than any unjust state.
A better world is possible - or isn’t it? This question has occupied philosophers and scientists for ages and ages. To our prospective European utopians, we recommend six standard works as a basis for discussion.
August 2019, eight friends of a better Europe (and one kindergarden-aged witness) have just founded European Utopia in Munich. What started small, went steadily forward. Since February 2021, this website is online - and new members, donors and supporters are always welcome (more under WHO WE ARE)!
Donation account at GLS Bank:
European Utopia e.V.
IBAN: DE02 4306 0967 1112 6290 00
BIC: GENODEM1GLS
The non-profit association European Utopia e.V.
was founded on 1 August 2019 in Munich and
entered in the register of associations on 22 April 2020.
Click here for the statutes.
