Die Grenze und die Grenzziehungen in der Essayistik von Karl-Markus Gauß

The article aims to investigate the border phenomenon and the demarcation of political and cultural borders in Gauß’s selected essays. Gauß’s essay writing originates from the European tradition of (self-)critical observation and is particularly concerned with European issues. The Austrian author examines the mechanisms of subordination and separation, the relationship between the centre and the periphery, and considers the concepts of border, nationalism, and regionalism in the Enlightenment spirit of prejudices criticism. He also recalls the Iron Curtain as the ideological border between Eastern and Western Europe and its implications. The article summarizes Gauß’s reflection on the essence of borders as artifi cial constructs and on the border’s ambivalence as a sphere of experiencing differences and a contact zone.