Guanajuato, Gto., August 30, 2017.- On the next September 1st, the book "Viena. Una ficción" by Dr. Andreas Kurz will be presented. He will lend his view to know the country that saw him born, which was one of the summits of culture in the 20th century, but also caused two world wars with more than 80 million casualties.

In his nostalgic vision, somewhat "melancholic, sad sometimes" of Austria, he commented on the culture that produced at late XIX century, when without fear of nationalisms, he can affirm that Vienna was, perhaps, the universal cultural center, "I even dare to say that more than Paris."

The book tries to explain specific things about Austria's culture, literature, idiosyncrasy, the vision of the inhabitants regarding WWII, when the nationalism was a traumatic experience and rare phenomenon produced: for decades, there wasn't a critical clash to that traumatic past.

"I dare to say that there's an inversion of the roles between victims and that is something that barely, from 80s, 90s, there is an idea being discussed, that possibly who really created WWII, where we find the roots of antisemitism, of fascism, is not all Germany but Austria", he sustained.

So that is an important topic in this published essay, insisting in the role of Austria, which is decisive in the development of the antisemitism of WWII.

Dr. Kurz arrived at Mexico in 1994 as an exchange student with UNAM, he stayed for a year and a half and went back to his country to, at late 1998, comeback to Mexico.

Today, Austria is a democratic country, a republic that works and enjoys of social peace and economic wellbeing, he sustained, but for his personal life and work opportunities, almost 20 years ago he stayed in Mexico.

His book is a relief, he accepted, thing that he himself thinks is strange because of his situation, however, his vision changed in 2014 when he lived again in Vienna in a sabbatical.

Returning –but not definitely—to Austria, and with the certainty that he would return to Mexico, caused a bit of nostalgia, he revealed.

This feeling coincided with the offer of "Cabeza Prusia", an editorial in Puebla who asked for an anthology of the articles he writes in "La Jornada Semanal" about Austrian culture and writers.

He used the invitation to write something completely new and "Viena. Una Ficción" happened, a country where near the 1900s really important things in culture start to occur, i.e. psychoanalysis is developed which is decisive for our modern time, "El Circulo de Viena" comes to change our way to think.

Musicians such as Arnold Schönberg emerge with the dodecaphonic music, wonderful writer such as Karl Kraus, painters such as Gustav Klimt and all that happens in a reduced time window, barely a few decades where Vienna is the world's cultural center and decisively influences our modernity.

The book, will sell for $200 MXN, on the day of the presentation –September 1st in the French Alliance—may be acquired for $100 MXN, and then, it will be available in Gandhi bookstores, "Fondo de Cultura Económica" and Educal bookstores. It is a co-edition of Caligrama and Librería Profética.

Dr. Andreas Kurz is Director of the Department of Spanish Letters of the Division of Social Sciences and Humanities (DCSH) of Campus Guanajuato of the University of Guanajuato.