Daniel Kehlmann - AFRIKA - Book Presentation

Description

AFRICA
Daniel Kehlmann is touring with his new novel "Africa" A colonial order takes shape while one of its negotiators desperately tries to cover up a private fraud. In his new novel "Africa," Daniel Kehlmann takes us to Berlin in the winter of 1884/85. At Bismarck's invitation, representatives of European states, the USA, and the Ottoman Empire meet there to discuss trade, territorial claims, and the rules of colonial expansion. African representatives are not involved. The final act becomes the basis for the subsequent division of Africa into colonies. For Austria-Hungary, Legation Councillor Strinetzky sits at the negotiating table because the ambassador is unavailable: Franz Liszt dedicated a piano piece to him that must be practiced. Strinetzky himself has transferred considerable sums to a fictitious expert named Doctor Waldbach to finance his affair with an actress. When a real Waldbach appears in Berlin, the fraud threatens to be exposed. Strinetzky must raise 5,000 gulden. Then a Prussian officer also challenges him to a duel in Grunewald.
With these worries, Strinetzky wanders through the conference and develops a talent for negotiations precisely under pressure. His private panic unfolds in the routine language of diplomacy. The novel shows how responsibility can dissolve into procedures. Its comedy focuses on the banality with which history is made. After "Lichtspiel," Kehlmann again chooses a historical constellation in which an individual becomes part of a political catastrophe without understanding its dimension. Daniel Kehlmann reads from "Africa." The discussion is about how literature transforms historical reality and makes the colonial past visible in the present. Daniel Kehlmann, born in Munich in 1975, lives in Berlin and New York. With "Measuring the World," he achieved one of the greatest successes in contemporary German-language literature. "Tyll" was on the 2020 shortlist for the International Booker Prize; the English edition of "Lichtspiel" was also on the 2026 shortlist and caused an international sensation. Daniel Kehlmann lives in New York and Berlin.

Highlights

• Book presentation by Daniel Kehlmann
• New novel "Africa" in historical context
• Negotiations on colonial expansion 1884/85

General Information

Daniel Kehlmann presents his new novel "Africa" in Schaan. The event highlights the colonial negotiations in Berlin and the personal conflicts of the protagonist Strinetzky during this time.

Location

Reberastrasse 12, 9494 Schaan, Liechtenstein

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