Politics and/​or Culture — What forms Europe?
Markus Prutsch 

As part of the exhibition Europe: Ancient Future, Dr. Markus J. Prutsch will speak about Europe in his role as Senior Researcher of the European Parliament. From the perspective of a historian, Prutsch approaches the shaping forces of Europe, reflecting on the role of politics as well as culture.

He poses the question of how a European identity could be conceived in view of the rather large differences between the individual, European states. The answer cannot lie in the strengthening of nationalism, but requires a historical reflection of Europe as a space of common cultural as well as political values. These should not be determined from above, however, but rather require the promotion of citizens’ initiatives and civil society, which the historian Prutsch illustrates by means of several projects. It becomes clear that Europe and the EU are living projects and ideally are supported by a broad basis that negotiates and updates the common European history again and again. In this respect, the lecture goes beyond the current status of the Union and continues to think Europe in a larger context.