Daniel Kehlmann

Daniel Kehlmann is going on tour with his new novel »Africa«

A colonial order is taking shape, whilst one of its negotiators desperately tries to cover up a personal fraud. In his new novel »Africa«, Daniel Kehlmann transports us to Berlin in the winter of 1884/85. At Bismarck’s invitation, representatives of European states, the USA and the Ottoman Empire are there to discuss trade, territorial claims and the rules of colonial expansion. African representatives are not involved. The final act forms the basis for the subsequent partition of Africa into colonies.

Legation Councillor Strinetzky sits at the negotiating table on behalf of Austria-Hungary because the ambassador is unable to attend: Franz Liszt has dedicated a piano piece to him, which needs practising. Strinetzky himself has had substantial sums of money transferred to a fictitious expert named Dr Waldbach in order to finance his affair with an actress. When a real Waldbach turns up in Berlin, the fraud threatens to be exposed. Strinetzky must raise 5,000 guilders. To make matters worse, a Prussian officer challenges him to a duel in the Grunewald.
Burdened by these worries, Strinetzky wanders through the conference and, under pressure of all things, develops a talent for negotiation. His private panic unfolds in the polished language of diplomacy. The novel shows how responsibility can dissolve into procedure. Its humour draws attention to the banality with which history is made.

Following »Lichtspiel», Kehlmann once again chooses a historical setting in which an individual becomes part of a political catastrophe without grasping its scale. Daniel Kehlmann reads from »Afrika«. The discussion will focus on how literature transforms historical reality and brings the colonial past into the present.

Daniel Kehlmann, born in Munich in 1975, lives in Berlin and New York. With »Die Vermessung der Welt«, he achieved one of the greatest successes in contemporary German-language literature. »Tyll« was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2020; whilst the English edition of »Lichtspiel« was also shortlisted in 2026 and caused a sensation internationally.