In the summer of 1918, the world is knee-deep in blood: the war has already claimed millions of victims, the Spanish flu is spreading, and in Russia, the revolution is turning into a civil war. The old order of Europe is shaking and will soon fall. A whole generation - the Generation Y of the last century - stands on a pile of rubble and looks into an uncertain future. In the summer of 1918, the book of a young man, which will create a stir, is published by Duncker & Humblot: Ernst Bloch's "The Spirit of Utopia." In the face of horror, inspired by the philosophical currents of the turn of the century and fueled by the alternative life concepts of reformers and anarchists on Monte Verità, Bloch describes humanity as a being radically inclined towards utopia. It is a work that captures its time in thoughts and words in an unparalleled way.