Beyond thalassophobia

German vice-chancellor Robert Habeck is a writer, with more than twenty books to his name: fiction, drama, literary criticism, and non-fiction. An author who becomes second-in-command in one of Europe’s most powerful nations is something extraordinary. It is tempting, therefore, to find parallels between his literature and his politics, to read his fiction for glimpses of Green political futures, to chart a literary turn in German politics. It is tempting, too, to read his literary criticism for similar clues. He has pondered aesthetics and genre theory; we wonder which political genres he will fit, and which he might break. He promises newness — but a newness of what? How experimental can a literary politician be?

This essay was amended on 29 June 2022 to correct the first name of Uwe Barschel, which was earlier stated as Rainer.