Suhrkamp Insel

Hans Joas

Under the Spell of Freedom

How do the history of religion and the history of political freedom relate to one another? The diversity of opinions on this in the fields of philosophy, the humanities and social sciences and in the public is vast and confusing. And yet, the sublime synthesis in which Hegel once united Christianity and political freedom is still of enormous guiding power for many – despite or maybe because of Friedrich Nietzsche’s influential provocations.

Susanne Kaiser

Political Masculinity

»We must re-discover our masculinity,« is the appeal to German men by Björn Höcke, probably Germany’s most famous right-wing politician. With this demand, the AfD politician is not alone: From New Zealand to Canada, from Brazil to Poland, right-wing populists, so-called »Incels«, but also Christian pro-life activists are connecting with one another under the banner of masculinity to push women back to a subordinate place in an allegedly natural hierarchy.

Thomas Kling

Sondages

As the images of the devastating attack on the World Trade Center in New York were flickering across the TV screens on September 11, 2001, Thomas Kling began drafting a laconic lament as a live connection »to the waters of the hudson«: »Manhattan Mundraum Zwei«. The volume Sondages, published in 2002, opens with this poem, which thus arches over the cyclically structured events that followed.

Thomas Kling

Collected Works in Four Volumes

Fifteen years after his early death, it is time to discover the entire œuvre of Thomas Kling. The provocatively-sensitive Thomas Kling of contemporary classics such as the volumes of poetry flavour enhancers and Long-distance Trading. The arbiter of traditions and fearless polemic Thomas Kling in the poetological self-placement Itinerar and in the seminal collection of essays Messenger Substances.

Alexander Kluge

Russia-Container

Not just in light of a currently contested pipeline but also after centuries of both exchange and rejection, Russia and Germany were and are as far away from each other as they are connected. The political present seems critical, the signs point towards conflict and polarity.

Tatjana Kruse

K&K Sister Act

Two tough sisters, a faked suicide and a text message from the grave – once more, things turn tumultuous in Konny and Kriemhild’s newest case…

Bernd Ladwig

A Political Philosophy of Animal Rights

Every year we cause great harm to billions of animals and kill them only to enjoy insignificant benefits such as the taste of their meat. Since this infraction of the rights of animals belongs to the fundamental order of society, for which all of us are responsible, it is a topic for political philosophy. Philosopher Bernd Ladwig, who teaches at the Free University of Berlin, provides a profound overview of the current international debate.

Christian Lehnert

Out Towards the Inward

A »story of the invisible world on single pages« – poet and theologian Christian Lehnert has nothing less in mind for this book. The starting point for his thoughts are nature spirits and lower deities, dualistic notions of angels and demons, the formation of divine hierarchies, border crossings between this world and the other side with mysterious intellectual contraband in tow.

Gertrud Leutenegger

Late Guests

A village near the Italian border. Late in the evening the narrator has arrived there after receiving news of a death. Orion, with whom she shared many years of her life before she ran away with their child, has died.

Stephan Lohse

Johann’s Brother

Paul is arrested by police in a village in Northern Germany. He has beheaded seventeen chickens. Because he refuses to talk about the incident, he is taken to a psychiatric hospital, from where his younger brother Johann is supposed to pick him up – the two men haven’t seen each other in over twenty years. When Paul eventually asks his brother to accompany him on a trip, Johann agrees.

Isabell Lorey

Democracy in the Present Tense

Amidst the crises and threats to liberal democracy, Isabell Lorey develops a democracy in the political present that bursts open political certainties as well as linear ideas about progress and growth.

Nicolas Mahler

Ulysses

Dublin, June 16, 1904: a day in the life of the advertising agent Leopold Bloom and the sensations of the ordinary – James Joyce has created a maximal book from a minimum of matter: Ulysses, the most important novel of modernity, the book of the century. Joyce’s creation, spectacular also in regard to form, has inspired Nicolas Mahler to a story in pictures that is not a mere illustration or adaption of the novel but an independent and equally as inventive work.

Friederike Mayröcker

as I in the morning and moss green. come up to the window

»Esteemed listeners, do not try to lift the secret of this text«, orders Friederike Mayröcker in her new work of prose – but even its title leaves an infallible track.

Christoph Möllers

Degrees of Freedom

We are familiar with degrees of freedom in the field of mechanics. The term denotes the number of directions into which a rigid body connected to a joint can move. In attempt at modernising liberalism, Christoph Möllers starts neither with the general political climate nor the conflict between the individual and society.

Heiner Müller

The American Leviathan

All throughout his life, »America« was both dream and projection machinery to Heiner Müller. He never forgets the first Mickey Mouse film he saw as a child in Eppendorf, while Faulkner is a defining read in his adolescence. The early fascination is coupled with the disapproving scepticism towards the opposing system’s aggressive politics during the Cold War.

Rolf Nagel

A Dog’s Eye

Inflation destroyed my family’s savings … – many stories in Germany begin like this. So does that of young Rolf Nagel, who is born into a completely ordinary family in Hamburg in 1929.

Christoph Nußbaumeder

The Unexpected

Late summer in the year 1900 in the Bavarian Forest. Standing on a hill, the young labourer Maria looks down at her village. The glass factory that employs the local people is engulfed in flames. Maria herself has started the fire as revenge for a rape that went unpunished.

Deniz Ohde

Sky Glow

Sky Glow tells a story of class and origin without pithy slogans, of discrimination and contempt and their effects on the individual. The book talks about social shame, societal constraints and inequality, but at the same time it is a novel about a young woman’s self-empowerment, despite all adversities.

Dirk Peitz

Looking Ahead: How We Are Narrating the Future

We can’t foresee the future. If you believe that you’re already living it, as some people in the Silicon Valley do, you need to adjust yourself because the future global power China is preparing to take over interpretational sovereignty. What, then, can we say about what is to come? Do we have reason to rejoice? Do we need to be scared?

Emanuel Richter

The Pensioners’ Democracy

Which consequences does the dramatic overageing of society have for our democracy? Are a few well-off »best agers« und »silver surfers« going to seize political participation and dismiss the interests of the younger age groups? Or will the democratic hope of the senior citizens for an expanded and more intensified political participation that benefits all generations be fulfilled?