THE BOOK
Athens, March 1972. Greece was living in the shadow of dictatorship and Europe was still searching for its limits in the Cold War. Then Günter Grass, the leading writer of post-war Germany and later Nobel laureate, gave a memorable speech in Athens: «Reason against Habit.».
It was a bold denunciation of the junta, but also a timeless warning: democracy is not lost only through violence, but also through the slow habit of losing it. This volume brings together the lecture, the aftermath of the event, and an interview where Grass talks about socialism, democracy, and the Europe of the future.
Fifty years later, his words still ring painfully timely: let us never get used to injustice and authoritarianism.
Foreword by Professor Emeritus and former minister, Nikos Alivizatos.
THE CREATOR
Günter Grass (1927–2015) was a German writer, poet, and visual artist, one of the most powerful voices in post-war literature. He became world-famous with the book The Tin Drum, a landmark work that opened the Danzig Trilogy. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature (1999) and often intervened publicly in political and historical issues in Germany and the world.