Europadialog - with Robert Menasse

Robert Menasse's novel "Die Hauptstadt" was celebrated in 2017 as the first novel about the European Union and won the German Book Prize. In numerous other novels and essays, the Vienna-based writer has repeatedly engaged with European integration - extending to far-reaching proposals such as a European Republic.

His essay "Der europäische Landbote" (2012) still paints a positive picture of the EU: open doors, competent information, highly qualified officials. His 2026 novella "Die Lebensentscheidung" sounds quite different: it centers on an EU official who, after twenty years of idealistic work, frustratedly quits his job at the European Commission in Brussels. Is this artistic freedom - or does it reflect a change in the author's own thinking?

These questions are at the heart of the Europadialog, hosted by the European Foundation Kaiserdom in Speyer at the cathedral's imperial hall. The "Europadialog" series opens in 2026 with this evening. Robert Menasse will also read passages from his work.

Robert Menasse was born in 1954 in Vienna, studied German literature, philosophy and political science in Vienna, Salzburg and Messina, and received his doctorate in 1980. He then taught for six years at the University of São Paulo. Since returning from Brazil in 1988, he has lived in Vienna as a writer and essayist. His honors include the Austrian Art Prize for Literature, the Carl Zuckmayer Medal of Rhineland-Palatinate, and twice the European Book Prize - in 2015 for "Der europäische Landbote" and in 2023 for "Die Erweiterung".