Is there a solution to the brewing conflicts between nationalities? A compelling report from London to Transylvania.

A Hungarian prime minister makes a Jewish billionaire into public enemy number one for the sake of an anti-European election campaign. In Barcelona, nationalist politicians go to jail for a vague dream of freedom, and Britain's EU opponents orchestrate Brexit as a fight against German supremacy. Europe is undergoing the greatest crisis since WW2. Konrad Kramar has visited the current hot spots of trouble. Beyond the bluster of populist campaigning and anti-European agitation, he shines a light on the rifts in nations and societies and traces them back to their origins in war, violence and displacement. Kramar explains why current politics has no answers to these crises and shows where solutions might be found.

This biography of the unconventional biochemist is an inspiration and invitation to all women to go their own way.

Renée Schroeder is a multi-faceted woman. A biochemist based in Vienna, she fought her way to the top of the international scientific community. No small undertaking for a woman in this field. Now in her 'unretirement', she has started a new career on her own farm, researching wild herbs. Renée Schroeder's life has never been conventional. Born in Brazil in 1953, her family moved to Luxembourg when she was a child and then to the Austrian town of Bruck an der Mur. After training in Munich, Paris and the US, she settled in Vienna to build her career. A staunch atheist, she has fought many battles relating to science and feminism. This is a compelling biography about an extraordinary and strong-minded woman.

A wonderful book that takes the reader on new journeys across time and place.

Peter Rosei has always been on the move, led by an unfailing curiosity for landscapes and cities, people and their stories. 'The Great Road' for the first time brings together the chronicles of his travels across five decades and three continents. We get to know Peter Rosei as an acutely observant and knowledgeable traveller, who is open to impressions and images, scents and sounds. He steadily approaches the unknown and brings it close, without diminishing its fascination. This wonderfully labyrinthine book takes us from Peking to Los Alamos, from Seoul to Moscow, from Paris to Texas via Bratislava and Istanbul, brimming with the author's appreciation for the vibrancy of the world and the diversity of human life and survival.

A clever book about the explosive power of a tiny word – about the We that excludes and the We that can include us all.

Michael Köhlmeier's contemplations on We are a plea for an inclusive community. The We can soothe, because it offers the lonely I a home and a notion of where it comes from. This We can provide integration. It is close to the I, it tells stories. But We is also a uniform that can be worn. Anyone can become the enemy of this We, it turns us into opportunists and dogmatists. This military We generates myths to sanction ideologies. But how does one We turn into the other? How does intimate family history turn into an ardent desire to kill and die for something that nobody has ever seen? And what can be done to prevent this transformation? The great raconteur Michael Köhlmeier delves deeply into the two-faced nature of We.

Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky (1897–2000) was one of the first women to study architecture in Austria and is still considered one of the most widely known and influential architects of her generation.

Her Frankfurt kitchen design brought her world-wide fame, while her imperturbable lust for life was exemplified by the brisk waltz she enjoyed with Vienna's mayor on her 100th birthday. In these autobiographical recollections she offers up highly personal portraits of famous contemporaries such as Otto Neurath, Josef Frank and Adolf Loos, explains why the Frankfurt kitchen was truly revolutionary and tells us that she wanted to become an architect in order to improve ordinary people's quality of life

Die maßgebliche Biografie auf aktuellstem Stand

A highly successful biography, this book by the Viennese music journalist and author Monika Mertl presents the personality, artistic intentions and unconventional development of Nikolaus Harnoncourt, the famous Austrian conductor, from cellist to conductor, from ancient music specialist to universalist with a distinctive image. More than 15.000 copies of the original German edition, published in autumn 1999, have already been sold. Beyond the conventional biography, Mertl’s book is an invitation to meet the man behind the brilliant facade of artistic success, to reflect on music as well as on questions of partnership, family, religion, philosophy and humanity.

Germany’s Mother Courage of taboo breaking

Naturist, stunt pilot and sex pioneer – today Beate Uhse has cult status, but in the 1970's she was despised. She was a trailblazer for sexual enlightenment, built an international emporium out of nothing and is regarded as Germany's most successful businesswoman of the 20th century. Committed to the education of women on matters of contraception, she started out in the late 40's by selling information brochures on the topic. This provided her with the necessary seed capital to expand her mail order business for "matrimonial hygiene". Soon Uhse had over a million customers and was able to open the world's first sex shop. But in her personal life things didn't always turn out the way she wished. Katrin Rönicke provides a gripping portrait of the private and professional life of this extraordinary woman.

Settecento Castle conceals a secret world. A world ruled by beauty, perfection – and unimaginable cruelty.

Hidden away at Settecento, the shady 'Tsar' runs a modern-day boarding school modelled on Baroque-era music academies. Here, highly gifted boys are trained – and castrated – to enable them to sing the most spectacular roles, like the castrati of Baroque music. When Timo, a young boy with a magical voice, flees to Vienna and his mentor Matteo sets off in search of him, the music world is forced to confront reality. Matteo becomes a street singer and is both the hunter and the hunted. The Tsar is on his tracks and, in order to find Timo, he has to hold his own in the tough world of the homeless. Imbued with the sounds of Baroque opera, Daria Wilke's breathtaking story tells of a secret society that is prepared to pay any price for beauty.

Otto Wagner's diary of his final years – published for the first time.

October 26th 1915 was a fateful day for Vienna's leading architect and city planner. It was the day his wife Louise, 18 years his junior, died of cancer. Wagner had started to keep a diary when Louise was first diagnosed and continued to regularly record his memories of better days and comments on current developments. He intended the diary to be a memorial to is unparalleled love for Louise, yet it also reveals the misanthropic despair of a great artist. He considered himself to be at the peak of his craft and felt a Habsburg victory was close, bringing fresh opportunities to realise his plans. But old age afflictions and the miseries of WW1 took a growing toll on his day-to-day life. Rampant anti-Semitism, suffering and paranoia increasingly defined his thoughts. Three years on, the death of this patriarch coincided with the end of the Habsburg empire.

Chemistry is the most joyful science of our time.

Everything consists of a few building blocks, the elements. Nature, people, every single thing. One-hundred-and-fifty years ago, St. Petersburg scientist Dmitri Mendeleev applied a systematic order to all matter. Every element found its permanent place in the periodic table. But the periodic table has always been more than just a chart in the chemistry lab. Michael Pilz brings it to life by recounting the story from the beginning, and looking into the future at the end. He tells us about the old ores and elements of nature and about the antique concept of the four great elements. From the divine art of alchemy through to the scientific world of the periodic table and beyond, he provides a cultural history of world views and describes chemistry as the most joyful science of our time.