Philosopher Peter Sloterdijk and mediologist Régis Debray read the non-texts on American and European banknotes

Régis Debray knows what a media event is. He himself was one when he combed through the Bolivian forests with Che Guevara in the 1960's – a man whose image became the icon of an era, the last available symbol of heroism and beauty in politics. Today Debray is a "mediologist". He examines the correlation of images, their reproduction and their circulation, their political programs and the emotions they evoke. Debray is a representative of a line of research that one would call political iconography in Germany.

It was the controversial German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk who introduced Debray in the packed auditorium at the Ludwigsburg Film Academy. The Frenchman, he said, is more able than anyone else to read non-texts. Debray started with the interpretation of a seemingly simple thing, with a banknote. What message does a dollar bill convey, what message a euro? What sort of conclusions does the observer draw about the "collective unconscious" from their images?

Euro banknotes depict Europe as a continent of windows and bridges, of arches and aqueducts. But since they do not exist in the real world, Debray calls them "frozen symbols." The bridges lead nowhere, the windows do not open onto the view of a landscape.

Communication gestures, Sloterdijk added, that have lost their content and meaning. Identity is created with the absence of identity. There is, Debray continued, no name, no motto, date, not even an animal on the euro bill. This image of Europe is more like a corporate logo than a political image. This is a symbol of a community that renounces history and political will and instead has settled in a nowhere land.

The one dollar bill is the exact opposite. It portrays the image of George Washington, a great man. On the other side, Debray identified the history of the West assembled in images and maxims: Christianity in the motto "In God we trust," ambition and the power to resist in the symbol of the eagle holding the emblems of war and peace – an olive branch and arrows. Then, inscriptions in Latin, the motto "annuit coeptis" saying that God favors American independence, and the maxim of the new world order, "novus ordo saeclorum," tying in with Virgil's prophecy in his fourth eclogue – the emphasis of the accordance with Providence.

Seen from a symbolic-political perspective, these are two completely different ideas of community. Thus Debray also offered a diagnosis of the relationship between Europe and the United States. It is paradox, Debray said, that Europe is in the process of creating an image which corresponds to its own view of the United States: that of a country with no history based on materialism and consumerism.

The small map of Europe on the euro bills lacks definite borders. The EU is a bit darker, northern Africa and Turkey are depicted slightly paler. If Europe today has become "boring" – Debray mentions the low French turnout at the European elections – then only because it can't define its outside anymore.

[EuroTracer's Comment: Beside the above interpretation of the euro banknote designs one should consider the "official" interpretation by the European Central Bank as outlined in the catalogue of the euro banknote design exhibition. It says that the windows and gates on the front side of the banknotes symbolize the spirit of openness and cooperation in Europe, while the bridges on the back side are symbols of the connectivity and relatednes of the peoples of Europe with each other and with the world. This might sound idealistic and rather visionary, but certainly not suffering from an "absence of identity": this spirit the designer Robert Kalina tried to express is as european as it gets.]

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