Award-winning author on Europe's unity against Russia

"There is probably no writer in Europe who thinks more often and more deeply about the unfathomably diverse area west of Russia," wrote the jury of the Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding in a statement, in praise of Austrian writer, essayist and editor Karl-Markus Gauss.

The award, handed out on March 16, honors Gauss' portrayals of various European minorities through his latest book, "Die unaufhörliche Wanderung: Reportagen" [The perpetual journey: Stories].

As the name of the book suggests, the author takes the reader on a journey to European cities, but not from the perspective of the standard travelogue on mainstream European life, if that even exists.

Gauss' intention is rather to simply watch and report; polarities emerge by themselves. "I want to say that I do not invent contradictions, they just catch my eye," Karl-Markus Gauss told DW.

A Europe of contradictions

Such contradictions are very striking in Karl-Markus Gauss' book.

The first chapter, for example, is about a Muslim restaurant owner called Isuf in Berat, a mountainous town in southwestern Albania, and his penchant for wine-tasting.

Gauss certainly has an eye for catching the contrasts of any given area, and this is most obvious in his description of Salzburg, the city he grew up in.

His story on Salzburg begins with a description of a crossing called the "Bäcker-Bacher-Kreuzung" (the Bacher bakery crossing) by the city locals in his time. The crossing got its name from the Bacher bakery, known for its fresh bread and delicacies, and its strict owners who wouldn't take a penny less from the children who passed by the bakery on their way to school and were dying to get a treat from the place.

But apart from Gauss' childhood reminiscing, the crossing is also relevant for historical reasons. It's a crossing that "divides four worlds in four directions," Gauss writes in his book. Each side of the crossing is inhabited by a different set of people. WWII migrants from the Sudetes in former Czechoslovakia lived in one area; refugees from South Tirol who wanted to escape Hitler and Mussolini's dictatorships in another. The third neighborhood was for monks and church officials, while the fourth used to be inhabited by high-ranking officials.

The 'paternalistic' west

Gauss, who is also an essayist and ethnographer, has written several other books on Europe, including "The Edge of the World: How the North Sea Made Us Who We Are" (2015), "Zwanzig Lewa Oder Tot" [20 Lewa or death, 2017] and "Die Sterbenden Europäer" [The dying Europeans, 2002]. His latest book, published this year, is called "Die Jahreszeiten der Ewigkeit" [The seasons of eternity].

For Gauss, a big part of understanding Europe's cities and countries also includes understanding the concept of Europe.

In a chapter called "The West, the East," Gauss describes how the continent has changed in the last decades, including in its perception of itself.

One observation is how western Europe, with its ideas of democracy, the welfare state and freedom, has come to identify itself as all of Europe, looking at the rest of the continent in a paternal manner. "Europe creates itself by creating an anti-Europe at the same time," Gauss writes in his book.

Russia as the 'anti-Europe'

In the meantime, Russia's war on Ukraine has slowly brought eastern European countries, like Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary and Czechia for example, into the fold. Moscow itself, is emerging as the embodiment of this "anti-Europe," Gauss tells DW, recalling its image from Stalinist Russia and in communist times, he explains.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, the situation eased. But now, with the war, Russia has again taken up the position of the antithesis to Europe, he says. Gauss believes that Russia's extreme hostility against Ukraine is also against what is called the West, "even though I've personally never considered the West as a unified country unified system," he adds.

Meanwhile, Europe is also redefining itself in reaction to the war, says Gauss, citing the case of Poland, "of all countries, which behaved as the absolute outcast and looked at every rational refugee policy with mistrust." By taking in a maximum number of Ukrainian migrants, it is upgrading its position in the EU.

But it's difficult to predict whether this unity in Europe will last, Gauss says, because currently, Russia is the aggressor. Once the threat is over, one will have to see what can preserve unity, common values or traditions or something similar.

Chance as an accomplice

Through his unusual representations of places like Berat and Salzburg, Gauss intends to showcase European diversity. "But it's not like I'm reinventing it every time or trying to think of something new every time and in the sense that this [diversity] also exists, but more in the sense of a reality that has not been perceived in this way. To put it simply, as something that exists and that one needs to perceive with alert senses.”

His portraits of different corners of Europe are enriched by his observations on the population's places of origin and language, but also on historical and social aspects such as their professions.

He also avoids restrictive definitions of his work as a writer: "I am not an ideological author who wants to bring everything into a fixed concept," he says.

He rather sees himself as "a follower of that which you call coincidence. I often meet people in places where they don't belong, considering our neatly marked out divisions, and those are the best: when chance becomes my accomplice, and tells me something about the world, which I didn't know."

 

Edited by: Elizabeth Grenier