Overcoming the crisis of disunity: Writers on a constitution for Europe

Abstract

The topic of this paper is a retrospective of the history of literary discourse on Europe, from the Vienna Congress to the present. The Congress of Vienna was seen as a step back for European cooperation by contemporary authors like Saint-Simon, Schmidt-Phiseldek, Goerres and Mazzini. They understood that a constitution was the precondition for the future unity of a European federation. Later, new voices were heard in which the debate about a common constitution for Europe played a dominating role, and writings on Europe were published by Richard Graf Couldenhove-Kalergi, Heinrich Mann and Jules Romains. After WWII writers like Ernst Jünger and Reinhold Schneider pleaded for a continental constitution. After the common constitution was rejected in 2005, the debate on Europe gave way to other topics. Today, Robert Menasse believes the European crisis can be overcome by using regions (instead of nations) as the building blocks of a united Europe.