Welt-Teilen - Plädoyer für ein entgrenztes Europa.

This article examines how the subject of European borders is addressed and treated in different literary, journalistic and artistic formats. Based on Kant's idea of a federation of enlightened states with a republican constitution which can lead to perpetual peace and on his conviction that the rights of men, as citizens of the world, shall be limited to the conditions of hospitality, the article discusses several works and initiatives by German-speaking authors and performance artists and by one New Zealand-Scottish-Bulgarian author from the last decade. These works reflect transcultural and transnational relationships and constellations, thus opposing the rise of nationalism and advocating for a Europe without borders. The works and initiatives analysed include Robert Menasse's pro-European speech collection Heimat ist die schönste Utopie. Reden (wir) über Europa as well as his article co-authored with Ulrike Guerot "Lust auf eine gemeinsame Welt. Futuristischer Entwurf für eine europäische Grenzenlosigkeit" and their jointly initiated European Balcony Project for the proclamation of the European Republic. Furthermore the initiative "Erster europäischer Mauerfall" by the artist collective "Center for Political Beauty" and Kapka Kassabova's novel Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]