The appeal of money

19 February 2010. Even in their time, men of letters such as Lessing and Goethe were fascinated by money, which actually is no more than printed paper to which value is ascribed. A series of public lectures that will start at the University of St.Gallen on 25 February 2010 will focus on the issue of "Money and Literature".

Multi-faceted and colorful nature
Money has always had a very special appeal for literati – not only because they had to earn it with their writings but also on the strength of its very own particular multi-faceted and colorful nature: we cannot eat money, we cannot dress in it and we cannot heal any illnesses with it, yet it is necessary for survival in all these respects.

Since the invention of paper money at the latest, money has not been worth a fraction of what is printed or minted on it, yet it can be exchanged for material goods.

Intrinsic poetic quality
Thus money, as Goethe well knew, has an intrinsic poetic quality, and its nature is therefore closely allied to literature. The lectures will refer to literary texts by, among others, Lessing, Goethe, Keller and Schnitzler in order to provide an introduction to the cultural history of money from the 18th to the 21st centuries.