The German poet and novelist Herman Hesse was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946. He depicted in his work the duality of spirit and nature, body versus mind and the individual's spiritual search outside the restrictions of society. In his masterpiece, Das Glasperlenspiel, Hesse describes Man's spiritual search in the form of a complicated and ever-lasting play. In his acceptance speech at the Nobel Banquet in the City Hall, Stockholm on December 10, 1946, just after the termination of the Second World War, Hesse expressed his view on the future of mankind in the following way:
My ideal, however, is not the blurring of national characteristics, such as would lead to an intellectually uniform humanity. On the contrary, may diversity in all shapes and colours live long on this dear earth of ours. What a wonderful thing is the existence of many races, many peoples, many languages, and many varieties of attitude and outlook. If I feel hatred and irreconcilable enmity toward wars, conquests, and annexations, I do so for many reasons, but also because so many organically grown, highly individual, and richly differentiated achievements of human civilization have fallen victims to these dark powers. I hate the grands simplificateurs, and I love the sense of quality, of inimitable craftsmanship and uniqueness.
These words also have a resonance in today's world. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the destruction of the Iron Curtain between capitalist and socialist countries have not produced harmony in world politics. New frontiers have awoken between Islamìc and Christian civilizations and aggressive terrorist groups have come to dominate the arena of world politics.
What is even more alarming has been the growing gap between political views expressed on the American and European continents. Historically, the United States is the daughter of Europe. Now it has become a young cuckoo that has exceeded Europe in power and dominance. Continuity in philosophy and ideology has ended, to be replaced by a more or less hidden animosity between the partners. The statements and arguments of the present United States government are not well understood in Europe and there is a fear of an ever-growing disagreement between the continents. In this context I find it important that educated people in Europe and America should communicate more with each other. This is something that the founders of this transatlantic scheme originally had in mind.
The present project with higher education institutional European partners from
Finland, the Netherlands and Italy and North American partners from Canada fulfils
all the optimistic hopes of increased communication between the two continents.
It has produced fresh knowledge and insights into cultural dialogue and the
results may be used with future student generations. I can feel in the working
process and outcome of the project the same kind of desire for diversity and
uniqueness that was expressed in Hesse's speech sixty years ago.