Free Lecture: Ben Schott on "Schottenfreude"

Friday, November 1, 2013, 6:30 - 8pm

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Schottenfruede cover

Ben Schott, best known as the creator and designer of Schott’s Original Miscellany and its three sequels, will speak at The Cooper Union about his newest work, Schottenfreude: German Words for the Human Condition

In it Schott invites readers, wordsmiths, and Deutschophiles to explore the idiosyncrasies of the human condition auf Deutsch. In what language but German could you construct a word for new car smell, the urge to turn and glare at a bad driver you’ve just overtaken, Sunday-afternoon depression, or the ineffable pleasure of a cold pillow?

Schott, who lives in New York and London, is a contributing columnist to the New York Times op-ed page and a regular contributor to the Times of London.

Located in the Frederick P. Rose Auditorium, at 41 Cooper Square (on Third Avenue between 6th and 7th Streets)

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.