{"id":2659,"date":"2022-11-27T15:31:25","date_gmt":"2022-11-27T14:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasteuropeans.eu\/?page_id=2659"},"modified":"2025-06-11T17:32:41","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T15:32:41","slug":"arnold-dreyblatt-last-europeans","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.lasteuropeans.eu\/en\/jewish-perspectives-on-the-crises-of-an-idea\/arnold-dreyblatt-last-europeans\/","title":{"rendered":"Arnold Dreyblatt: Last Europeans?"},"content":{"rendered":"

3 lenticular transparent prints<\/span>
\nBerlin 2022<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

When the exhibition was presented in the \u00a0Jewish Museum Munich in 2022 a special installation of Arnold Dreyblatt completed the show.
\nWith texts in German, English and Esperanto by:\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Agnes Heller, Ludwik Zamenhof, Bernard-Henri L\u00e9vy, Andr\u00e9 Glucksman, Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Jaques Derrida \/ J\u00fcrgen Habermas<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Arnold Dreyblatt: Last Europeans?
Photo: Eva J\u00fcnger<\/p><\/div>\n

Daniel Cohn-Bendit<\/span>
\n<\/strong>We are still in a phase of overcoming the nation state. Basically, it took us five hundred years to conquer the nation state and the cultural identities that emerged with it, with all their contradictions\u2014revolutions, terrible historical moments\u2014and to transform them into something new. Against this background Europe is a unique project.The question is not whether, but how quickly we accomplish the necessary transfer of national sovereignty to the European level. And how we shape this democratically.For the first time many people are realizing that there is not only their nation state and that the EU is not an abstract playground in the far distance. People are realizing that Europe has a very concrete impact on our everyday life. For the first time we have a European public. This is a decisive step towards a European democracy.
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Andr\u00e9 Glucksmann<\/span><\/strong>
\nThe crisis of the European Union is a symptom of its civilization. It doesn’t define itself based on its identity but, rather, on its otherness. A civilization isn’t necessarily based on a common desire to achieve the best but, rather, on excluding and making the evil taboo. In historical terms, the European Union is a defensive reaction to horror.<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.spiegel.de\/international\/europe\/philosopher-andre-glucksmann-a-dark-vision-of-the-future-of-europe-a-851266.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Jacques Derrida \/ J\u00fcrgen Habermas
\n<\/span><\/strong>Today we know that many political traditions, which in the semblance of their naturalness demand authority, have been \u201cinvented.\u201d In contrast, a European identity born in the light of the public would have from the beginning a feeling of something constructed. But only something constructed arbitrarily would bear the stigma of arbitrariness. The political-ethical will, which is expressed in the hermeneutics of self-understanding processes, is not arbitrariness. The distinction between the heritage we take on and the one we want to reject requires as much circumspection as the decision on the reading in which we appropriate it. Historical experiences are candidates only for a conscious appropriation, without which they do not acquire an identity-forming force.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Europe is scarred by the experiences of the totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century and by the Holocaust\u2014the persecution and extermination of European Jews, in which the Nazi regime also implicated the societies of the conquered countries. The self-critical debates about this past have brought to mind the moral foundation of politics. A heightened sensitivity to violations of personal and bodily integrity is reflected, among other things, in the fact that the council of Europe and the EU have made renunciation of the death penalty a condition of membership.<\/p>\n

Jacques Derrida and\u00a0J\u00fcrgen Habermas, “Nach dem Krieg: Die Wiedergeburt Europas”, FAZ<\/em>, <\/a>Mai 31, 2003 (excerpts)<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
Ludwik Zamenhof <\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

I call patriotism or service to the fatherland only service to the welfare of all my compatriots, regardless of their origin, language or religion. I must never call patriotism the service to particularly the non-Jewish interests, language or religion of that population which constitutes the majority in the country. In accordance with the principle that citizens\u2014even if they constitute a larger majority in the country\u2014have no moral right to impose their language or religion on other citizens, I must advocate that in my country every people has the right to establish schools and other institutions for their members with their language and their religion if they so desire, but that in all public institutions, which are not exclusively for one people, only a neutral human language and neutral human or state stability should prevail. As long as this is not possible, I must work to ensure that there are schools and other institutions in my country with a neutral human language for those subjects who do not want or cannot use institutions with this or that vernacular; and from all mutual struggles of tongues or religions for supremacy I must abstain, for it is only a struggle between one wrong and another.<\/p>\n

I am aware that in countries where the population is more or less ethnically homogenous the injustice that lies in the domination of one language or religion over others will not be understood for a long time, and the population will fight with all means against equal rights for all languages and religions and will persecute and sling mud at those who advocate equal rights. But I will never let myself be confused by this persecution and remember that I am fighting for absolute truth and justice, that no people can know what will happen to them tomorrow, that equal rights for all languages and religions will eliminate the cause of all wars and conflicts between peoples, that any action against the principle of \u201cthe empire for the citizens\u201d and violence among citizens will always remain violence, even if committed by an overwhelming majority against a marginal minority, and that lasting happiness for mankind is only possible on the condition of equal and absolute justice for all people and countries, regardless of place and time and strength, and when in every empire there will be only human beings, only citizens regardless of their ethnicity.<\/p>\n

I call my nation the totality of all people who live in my homeland, regardless of their origin, language or religion. But to my nationality I must always add the words \u201chuman being\u201d to show that I do not count myself among my nation in a chauvinistic sense. The multitude of all people who have the same origin as me I call my people. I must not call my nation by the name of any people, I have always to call it\u2014at least in conversation with like-minded people\u2014by the neutral geographical name of my empire or country. If my interlocutor wants to know not only which political-geographical, but also which ethnic group I belong to, then I name to him my people, my language, my religion etc. separately. Example: Swiss individual, Petersburg individual, Warsaw individual.<\/p>\n

Ludwik Zamenhof, Hillelismus<\/em>, 1901<\/p>\n

\u00c1gnes Heller
\n<\/span><\/strong>Nationalism\u2019s victory came in 1914\u2014against the internationalism of the working class and the cosmopolitanism of the bourgeoisie. Europe\u2019s \u201coriginal sin\u201d was the ugly child of nationalism. All previous empires began to break up into nation states. This trend is being continued to this day.<\/p>\n

The exclusionary character of nation states is best illustrated by the history of European Jews in the 19th and 20th centuries and the history of the two world wars. Modern antisemitism (as opposed to earlier anti-Judaism) is a product of nation states. The shift from nationalism to racism was no accident, as the aspect of racism is inherent to ethnic nationalism.<\/p>\n

After the devastation of the Second World War, some European states drew the consequences from the dark side of being nation states and established the European Union. The importance of this grand design should not be downplayed. Member states are obliged never to even start a war among themselves. Nonetheless, a sense of European identity has not, to this day, gained the same strength or significance as the national identities of the member states.<\/p>\n

The European Union was founded on the decision to uphold certain values. However, even among those values chosen there are contradictions. First and foremost, because the Union is a union of nation states. As a Union, the value of solidarity must prevail; as a Union of nation states, on the other hand, it has to respect national interests due to a nation\u2019s values, so nationalism will usually be stronger than solidarity.<\/p>\n

\u00c1gnes Heller, Paradox Europa<\/em>, Wien 2019<\/p>\n

\u201cLib\u00e9ration\u201d \/ Bernard-Henri L\u00e9vy<\/span>
\n<\/strong>\u201cEnough of \u2018building Europe\u2019!\u201d is the cry. Let\u2019s reconnect instead with our \u201cnational soul\u201d! Let\u2019s rediscover our \u201clost identity\u201d! This is the agenda shared by the populist forces washing over the continent. Never mind that abstractions such as \u201csoul\u201d and \u201cidentity\u201d often exist only in the imagination of demagogues.<\/p>\n

Europe is being attacked by false prophets who are drunk on resentment, and delirious at their opportunity to seize the limelight.<\/p>\n

Europe as an idea is falling apart before our eyes.<\/p>\n

For those who still believe in the legacy of Erasmus, Dante, Goethe and Comenius there will be only ignominious defeat. A politics of disdain for intelligence and culture will have triumphed. There will be explosions of xenophobia and antisemitism. Disaster will have befallen us.<\/p>\n

Our faith is in the great idea that we inherited, which we believe to have been the one force powerful enough to lift Europe\u2019s peoples above themselves and their warring past. We believe it remains the one force today virtuous enough to ward off the new signs of totalitarianism that drag in their wake the old miseries of the dark ages. What is at stake forbids us from giving up. Our generation got it wrong. Like Garibaldi\u2019s followers in the 19th century, who repeated, like a mantra, \u201cItalia se far\u00e0 da s\u00e8\u201d (Italy will make herself by herself), we believed that the continent would come together on its own, without our needing to fight for it, or to work for it. This, we told ourselves, was \u201cthe direction of history\u201d. We must make a clean break with that old conviction. We don\u2019t have a choice. We must now fight for the idea of Europe or see it perish beneath the waves of populism.<\/p>\n

Copyright: \u201cLib\u00e9ration\u201d \/ Bernard-Henri L\u00e9vy (signed by: Milan Kundera, Salman Rushdie, Elfriede Jelinek et. al., 25.01.2019)<\/p>\n

\"\"

Photo: Daniel Schvarcz<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Esperanto:<\/span><\/p>\n

Daniel Cohn-Bendit
\n<\/strong>Ni da\u016dre estas en fazo de lukto por superi la nacian \u015dtaton. Fakte ni bezonis kvincent jarojn por venki la nacian \u015dtaton kaj la kune kun \u011di disvolvi\u011dintajn kulturajn identecojn kun \u0109iuj ties kontra\u016ddiroj \u2013 revolucioj, teruraj historiaj momentoj \u2013 kaj transformi ilin en ion novan. Anta\u016d tiu fono E\u016dropo estas unika projekto.<\/span><\/p>\n

La demando ne estas \u0109u, sed kiom rapide ni efektivigos la necesan transiron de nacia suvereneco sur la E\u016dropan nivelon. Kaj kiel ni aran\u011du tion demokratie.<\/p>\n

Por la unua fojo multaj homoj konscii\u011das, ke ne nur ekzistas ilia nacia \u015dtato kaj la EU ne estas abstrakta ludejo en fora malproksimeco. Oni rimarkas, ke E\u016dropo tre konkrete difinas nian \u0109iutagan vivon. Unuafoje ni havas e\u016dropan publikecon. Tio estas decida pa\u015do al e\u016dropa demokratio.<\/p>\n

Andr\u00e9 Glucksmann
\n<\/strong>La krizo de la E\u016dropa Unio estas simptomo de \u011dia civilizacio. \u011ci ne difinas sin per sia identeco, sed, multe pli, per sia alieco. Civilizacio ne devige bazi\u011das sur komuna deziro akiri la plej bonan, sed, multe pli, sur la volo ekskludi kaj tabui la malbonon. En historiaj terminoj, la E\u016dropa Unio estas defenda reago al hororo.<\/p>\n

Jacques Derrida \/ J\u00fcrgen Habermas
\n<\/strong>Hodia\u016d ni scias, ke multaj politikaj tradicioj, kiuj en sia \u015dajno de natura deveno postulas a\u016dtoritaton, estas \u201einventitaj\u201c. Male e\u016dropa identeco, naskita anta\u016d \u0109ies okuloj, dekomence surhavus ion konstruitan. Sed nur io arbitre konstruita portus la makulon de ajneco. La politik-etika volo, kiu montras sin en la hermene\u016dtiko de procezoj de memkomprenigo, ne estas arbitro. La diferencigo inter la hereda\u0135o, kiun ni akceptas, kaj tiu, kiun ni volas refuti, postulas samkvantan diligenton kiel la decido pri la interpretado, per kiu ni alpropriigas \u011din. Historiaj spertoj kandidatas nur por konscia alpropriigo, sen kiu ili ne atingas identec-formigan forton.<\/p>\n

La nuntempan E\u016dropon karakterizas la spertoj de la totalismaj re\u011dimoj de la dudeka jarcento kaj de la Holoka\u016dsto \u2013 la persekutado kaj pereigo de la e\u016dropaj judoj, en kiun la NS-re\u011dimo implikis anka\u016d la societojn de la konkeritaj \u015dtatoj. La memkritikaj konfronti\u011doj al tiu pasinto rememorigis la moralajn fundamentojn de politiko. Kreskinta sentemo pri lezoj de persona kaj korpa integrecoj inter alie speguli\u011das en tio, ke E\u016dropa Konsilo kaj EU rangigis la rezignon pri mortopuno je membriga kondi\u0109o.<\/p>\n

Ludwik Zamenhof
\n<\/strong>Patriotismo a\u016d servo al la patrujo mi nomas nur la servadon al la bono de \u0109iuj miaj samregnanoj, de kia ajn deveno, lingvo a\u016d religio ili estas; la servadon speciale al la gentaj interesoj, lingvo a\u016d religio de tiu lo\u011dantaro, kiu en la lando prezentas la plimulton, mi neniam devas nomi patriotismo. Konforme al la principo, ke unuj regnanoj, e\u0109 se ili prezentas en la lando grandegan plimulton, ne havas moralan rajton altrudi sian lingvon a\u016d religion al aliaj regnanoj, mi devas penadi, ke en mia lando \u0109iu gento havu la rajton fondi por siaj membroj lernejojn kaj aliajn instituciojn kun sia lingvo kaj sia religio, se ili tion \u0109i deziras, sed ke en \u0109iuj publikaj institucioj, ne destinitaj sole por unu gento, regu nur lingvo ne\u016dtrale-homa kaj festoj ne\u016dtrale-homaj a\u016d regnaj. Tiel longe, kiel la atingo de tio \u0109i estos ne ebla, mi devas penadi, ke en mia lando ekzistu lernejoj kaj aliaj institucioj kun lingvo ne\u016dtrale-homa por tiuj regnanoj, kiuj ne volas a\u016d ne povas uzi instituciojn kun tiu a\u016d alia genta lingvo, kaj de \u0109ia reciproka batalado de lingvoj a\u016d religioj pro regado mi devas teni min flanke, \u0109ar \u011di estas nur batalado inter unu maljusta\u0135o kaj alia.<\/p>\n

Mi konscias, ke en tiuj landoj, kie la lo\u011dantaro estas pli-malpli unugenta, \u011di longan tempon ne komprenos la maljustecon de regado de unu lingvo a\u016d religio super la aliaj kaj \u011di per \u0109iuj fortoj batalados kontra\u016d la egalrajtigo de \u0109iuj lingvoj kaj religioj, kaj la defendantojn de tiu \u0109i egalrajtigo \u011di persekutados kaj super\u0135etados per koto. Sed mi neniam konfuzi\u011dos per tiu \u0109i persekutado, memorante, ke mi batalas por absoluta vero kaj justeco, ke nenia popolo povas scii, kio fari\u011dos kun \u011di morga\u016d, ke la egalrajtigo de \u0109iuj lingvoj kaj religioj forigos la ka\u016dzon de \u0109iuj militoj kaj malpacoj inter la popoloj, ke \u0109ia ago kontra\u016d la devizo \u201ela regno por la regnanoj\u201c kaj \u0109ia perforta\u0135o de unuj regnanoj kontra\u016d aliaj restas \u0109iam perforta\u0135o, e\u0109 se \u011di estas farata de grandega plimulto kontra\u016d malgrandega malplimulto, kaj ke fortika feli\u0109o de la homaro estas ebla nur tiam, kiam por \u0109iuj popoloj kaj landoj ekzistos justeco egala kaj absoluta, dependanta nek de loko, nek de tempo, nek de forto, kaj kiam en \u0109iu regno ekzistos nur homoj kaj regnanoj kaj ne gentoj.<\/p>\n

Mia nacio mi nomas la tutecon de \u0109iuj homoj, kiuj lo\u011das mian patrujon, de kia ajn deveno, lingvo a\u016d religio ili estas; sed al mia nacia nomo mi devas \u0109iam aldoni la vorton \u201eHomarano\u201c, por montri, ke mi alkalkulas min al mia nacio ne en senco \u015dovinista. La aron de \u0109iuj honoj, kiu havas saman devenon kiel mi, mi nomas mia gento. Mian nacion mi ne devas nomi per la nomo de ia gento, mi devas \u0109iam nomi \u011din \u2013 almena\u016d en parolado kun homaranoj \u2013 per la ne\u016dtrale-geografia nomo de mia regno a\u016d lando. Se mia interparolanto deziras scii ne sole al kiu politike-geografia, sed anka\u016d al kiu etnografia grupo mi apartenas, tiam mi aparte nomas al li mian genton, lingvon, religion k.t.p. Ekzemploj: Sviso-Homarano, Peterburgia Homarano, Varsovilanda Homarano.<\/p>\n

\u201eLib\u00e9ration\u201d \/ Bernard-Henri L\u00e9vy
\n<\/strong>\u201eSufi\u0109e de ‘konstrui E\u016dropon’!\u201c estas la krio. Anstata\u016de ni rekonekti\u011du kun nia \u201enacia animo\u201c! Ni remalkovru nian \u201eperditan identecon\u201c! Jen la komuna agendo de la popolismaj fortoj, kiuj inundas la kontinenton. Ne gravas, ke abstrakta\u0135oj kiel \u201eanimo\u201c kaj \u201eidenteco\u201c ofte ekzistas nur en la imago de demagogoj.<\/p>\n

E\u016dropo estas atakata de falsaj profetoj, kiuj estas ebriaj pro rankoro, kaj deliras pro sia \u015danco okupi la spotlumon.<\/p>\n

E\u016dropo kiel ideo disfalas anta\u016d niaj okuloj.<\/p>\n

Por tiuj, kiuj ankora\u016d kredas je la hereda\u0135o de Erasmus, Dante, Goethe kaj Komenio, estos nur hontiga malvenko. Politiko de malestimo kontra\u016d intelekto kaj kulturo estos triumfinta. Estos eksplodoj de ksenofobio kaj antisemitismo. Katastrofo estos trafinta nin.<\/p>\n

Nia fido estas en la grandioza ideo, kiun ni heredis, kiun ni kredas la sola forto sufi\u0109e potenca por levi la popolojn de E\u016dropo super ili mem kaj super ilia militema pasinteco. Ni kredas, ke \u011di restas la sola forto aktuale sufi\u0109e virta por kontra\u016dstari al la novaj signoj de totalismo, kiuj kuntrenas en sia kil-ondo la malnovajn mizerojn de la mallumaj epokoj. Tio, kion ni riskas, malpermesas al ni rezigni. Nia generacio eraris. Kiel la adeptoj de Garibaldi en la 19-a jarcento, kiuj mantre ripetis \u201eItalia se far\u00e0 da s\u00e8\u201d (Italio faros sin mem), ni kredis, ke la kontinento kuni\u011dos memstare, sen nia bezono batali por \u011di, a\u016d labori por \u011di. Jen, ni diris al ni mem, \u201ela direkto de la historio\u201c. Ni devas fari klaran rompon kun tiu malnova konvinko. Ni ne havas alternativon. Ni devas nun batali por la ideo de E\u016dropo a\u016d vidi \u011din perei sub la ondoj de popolismo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

3 lenticular transparent prints Berlin 2022 When the exhibition was presented in the \u00a0Jewish Museum Munich in 2022 a special installation of Arnold Dreyblatt completed the show. With texts in German, English and Esperanto by:\u00a0Agnes Heller, Ludwik Zamenhof, Bernard-Henri L\u00e9vy, Andr\u00e9 Glucksman, Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Jaques Derrida \/ J\u00fcrgen Habermas Daniel Cohn-Bendit We are still […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":624,"menu_order":18,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"categories":[54,44,67,76,70],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasteuropeans.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2659"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasteuropeans.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasteuropeans.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasteuropeans.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasteuropeans.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2659"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasteuropeans.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2907,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasteuropeans.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2659\/revisions\/2907"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasteuropeans.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasteuropeans.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasteuropeans.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasteuropeans.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}