|
6:00 PM-8:00 PM, PT
A Conversation with Monika Czernin
Live Conversation|"The Emperor Incognito: Joseph II's Journey through Enlightenment Europe". In cooperation with Open Austria.
-
Goethe-Institut San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
- Price Free and open to the public
Join author Monika Czernin, as she presents her highly acclaimed book The Emperor Incognito, in conversation with journalist and author Mario Herger. Together, they will explore why Joseph II's journey through Enlightenment Europe still offers important lessons for today. Presented by the Goethe-Institut San Francisco in cooperation with Open Austria.
RSVP Here
About the Book
It is the middle of the eighteenth century. Across Europe, the signs of crises are everywhere — yet only one ruler dares to take a closer look: Emperor Joseph II.
Traveling incognito, and without the customary pomp and entourage he sets out through the vast Holy Roman Empire and his Habsburg lands to see with his own eyes how his subjects live, suffer, and starve. He moves between worlds. He debates with kings and queens, lives the Enlightenment ideas of his time, and walks unannounced into hospitals, factories, and peasant homes. When he visits his sister, the French Queen Marie Antoinette at Versailles in 1777, he senses the Revolution looming.
The Emperor Incognito is the story of an extraordinary man in an age of upheaval: a ruler who spent a quarter of his twenty-five-year reign not on his throne, but on the road. His efforts were titanic, his ambitions radical, his frustrations immense. "Here lies Joseph, who failed in everything he undertook" was his self-written epitaph, and yet the modern Austrian monarchy was his achievement in a Europe in which progress was no longer determined solely by its rulers.
About the Speakers
Monika Czernin is an internationally renowned author and filmmaker. Her research focuses on key figures and turning points of European history, and her book, Anna Sacher and Her Hotel, spent many weeks on the bestseller lists in Germany. Czernin was awarded the Friedrich Schiedel Literature Prize in 2023 for The Emperor Incognito (German edition). She is a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Mario Herger is from Vienna, Austria, and has been living in the San Francisco Bay Area since 2001. He is a technology trend researcher and author, looking at the impact and meaning of new technologies for people, jobs, societies, and politics. He's interested in what makes societies more creative, innovative, and open-minded.
RSVP Here
About the Book
It is the middle of the eighteenth century. Across Europe, the signs of crises are everywhere — yet only one ruler dares to take a closer look: Emperor Joseph II.
Traveling incognito, and without the customary pomp and entourage he sets out through the vast Holy Roman Empire and his Habsburg lands to see with his own eyes how his subjects live, suffer, and starve. He moves between worlds. He debates with kings and queens, lives the Enlightenment ideas of his time, and walks unannounced into hospitals, factories, and peasant homes. When he visits his sister, the French Queen Marie Antoinette at Versailles in 1777, he senses the Revolution looming.
The Emperor Incognito is the story of an extraordinary man in an age of upheaval: a ruler who spent a quarter of his twenty-five-year reign not on his throne, but on the road. His efforts were titanic, his ambitions radical, his frustrations immense. "Here lies Joseph, who failed in everything he undertook" was his self-written epitaph, and yet the modern Austrian monarchy was his achievement in a Europe in which progress was no longer determined solely by its rulers.
About the Speakers
Monika Czernin is an internationally renowned author and filmmaker. Her research focuses on key figures and turning points of European history, and her book, Anna Sacher and Her Hotel, spent many weeks on the bestseller lists in Germany. Czernin was awarded the Friedrich Schiedel Literature Prize in 2023 for The Emperor Incognito (German edition). She is a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Mario Herger is from Vienna, Austria, and has been living in the San Francisco Bay Area since 2001. He is a technology trend researcher and author, looking at the impact and meaning of new technologies for people, jobs, societies, and politics. He's interested in what makes societies more creative, innovative, and open-minded.
Location
Goethe-Institut San Francisco
657 Howard Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
USA
657 Howard Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
USA