Tomorrow is Here

Navid Kermani is not only one of Germany’s most distinguished writers and public intellectuals, he is also an outstanding public speaker who mesmerizes audiences with his well-crafted sentences and turns of phrase. Whether he is speaking about the plight of refugees or delivering a eulogy at his father’s graveside, Kermani finds words that surprise his listeners, enlighten them, provoke them, disturb them or move them to tears. As a German of Iranian descent whose parents settled in Germany, Kermani is particularly sensitive to the issues raised by migration and the perceived tensions between Islam and the West. His speeches are a powerful demonstration of how much we stand to gain by adhering to the values of openness, tolerance and mutual respect for the beliefs and practices of those from other cultures who live among us.

Editorial Note Preface    On the Presentation of the Special Award of the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize to the Iranian Writers’ Association On the Death of the Unborn Sofía On the 65th Anniversary of the Promulgation of the German Constitution     On Receiving the Joseph Breitbach Prize At the Public Commemoration of the Victims of the Paris Attacks      On Receiving the Peace Prize of the German Publishers’ Association    Eulogy for Rupert Neudeck     Eulogy for Jaki Liebezeit  On the Twentieth Anniversary of the Founding of the Department of Jewish History and Culture    On Receiving the State Prize of North Rhine-Westphalia Eulogy for Djavad Kermani  Eulogy for Karl Schlamminger     On the Seventieth Birthday of FC Cologne     In Memory of Egon Ammann   Dinner Speech at the Investment Conference of Flossbach von Storch AG    Keynote Address to the Congress of the International Association for Analytical Psychology   Statement before the Opening Reading of the Harbour Front Literature Festival  On Receiving the Hölderlin Prize of the City of Bad Homburg vor der Höhe  On a Concert by the WDR Symphony Orchestra in the Broadcast Series ‘Music in Dialogue’    Epilogue: On My Bookseller, Ömer Özerturgut      Notes