Andrea Newerla, 45, has a doctorate in sociology and most recently worked as a senior scientist at the Paris Lodron University in Salzburg on intimacies, online dating and relationship patterns beyond heteronormative standards. Her research findings serve as starting points for a new perspective on our intimate relationships and provide the basis for her book’s consideration of changing social obligations. She is one of the best-known voices in sociological intimacy research.

Ms. Newerla, your new book is entitled “The End of Romanticism”. Who is dictating what to whom? As soon as we are born we grow up with a certain type of story, from fairy tales to Disney movies to Hollywood romantic comedies. They all have a pretty similar storyline: two people meet and fall in love and are happily ever after. And we try again and again to write down this kind of history for ourselves. In doing so, however, we experience more and more often that we fail and do not endure this romantic love relationship to the end.

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