Raoul Schrott

“Only man knows the strange fiction of an empty form […]; the excess of the empty over the full can only occur in a being whose unsatisfied desire is always greater than its satisfied one.”
(Raoul Schrott)

What is zeitgeist? How does it arise, how does it spread, how does it shape societies – and how do we stand up to it? Raoul Schrott addresses these questions in a book that is both an essay and a volume of poetry: a bibliophile turning book. In the essay, he creates a surprising, perceptive analysis of our present. The poems form the flip side: portraits of people caught between a sense of the end times and the promise of happiness, between certainty and disorientation in a time that has gone off the rails.

Raoul Schrott has received numerous awards, including the Peter Huchel Prize and the Joseph Breitbach Prize. His most recent publications are 2024 Atlas der Sternenhimmel und Schöpfungsmythen der Menschheit and 2026 Zeitgeist. A plea for humanity.

In the series And now? – How Germany and Europe remain capable of acting
Germany and Europe are facing major challenges – but every crisis also opens up opportunities for renewal.
Under the title “And now?”, this series brings together renowned experts from politics, science, journalism and economics. They analyze the causes of the current crises and at the same time point out concrete perspectives: for a sustainable economy, a resilient democracy, a realistic European policy and a state that protects security and freedom in equal measure.