Twenty-five years after his cult TV series, Kir Royal, director Helmut Dietl has now come released a sort of ?sequel? for the big screen. Zettl focuses on the high-flying career of a ruthless media man in Berlin. As satire, however, the frigid figures in Zettl fail to warm up to viewers. ...
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The Grässlin family is opening an art space in Sankt Georgen, a tiny town high up in the Black Forest. Their collection of sculptures and installations is scattered throughout the locale, to the amazement of the international public and the locals alike. By Ulrich Stock
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20 years after the "Historikerstreit" there is a new lesson to learn in contemporary history: the repugnant aspects of the twentieth century can not be reduced to the major totalitarian dictatorships and they can not be cleanly distinguished from all that we now view as progress and success. By Götz Aly
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The neo-Expressionist painters known as the "Neuen Wilden" were once
what the artists of the Leipzig School are today: international stars,
celebrated by the press, courted by collectors. Twenty-five years after
the pinnacle of their success, they are now fighting for a place in art
history. Cornelius Tittel paid them a visit. (Image: Rainer Fetting, "Self Portrait", 1999)
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The glories of the German football team bring out the poet in Robert Gernhardt. The only thing higher than his lofty lyricising are the chances of his team winning the World Cup.
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2006 is the 150th anniversary of the death of German poet Heinrich Heine and the debate surrounding this year's literary Heinrich-Heine Prize is currently filling out the feuilletons. Here we publish writer Georg Klein's compilation of his top ten favourite Heine quotes on that most controversial of subjects: religion.
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Update: Romanian-German poet Oskar Pastior was imprisoned in a Soviet Gulag from 1945 to 1949. The new novel of this year's Nobel laureate Herta Müller is based on interviews with Pastior and other Gulag survivors.
The prestigious Georg Büchner Prize for literature is to be awarded to poet Oskar Pastior. Martin Lüdke welcomes the long overdue decision to honour the work of a mild mannered word wizard.
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In his film debut, Benjamin Heisenberg develops a credible drama in which the fear of terrorism is part of a broader sense of social disorientation. "Sleeper" tells a story of personal betrayal in a world that is as rational as it is paranoid. By Sven von Reden
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For a while, Sir Simon Rattle rode a euphoric wave at the Berliner Philharmoniker. Now critic Manuel Brug feels that his novelty is wearing off, fast.
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On May 5, the tone of John Cage's organ composition "As Slow as Possible" changed in the St. Burchardi church in Halberstadt. A major moment in a piece that will last 639 years. By Thomas Gerlach
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At just 21, Turkish-German singer
Muhabbet is the new pop icon of Germany's immigrant youth. One hit single has been downloaded over a million times, and now his new album, "R'nBesk" has just come out. With his
music he wants to "make things happen in Germany." By Thomas Groß
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Crisis is nothing new to the press. Newspapers will continue to exist, alongside the Internet, soon in paperless form. They must offer their readers exclusive news, bold opinion and captivating language. Mathias Döpfner, head of the Axel Springer media empire, answers Rupert Murdoch.
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Berlin's favourite Russian writer Wladimir Kaminer sat on the scriptwriting jury at this year's Theatertreffen festival. He recounts the horrors of reading plays by the kilo and reminisces about his own dubious-sounding contributions to the dramatic arts.
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When did I start thinking about feminism again? Last year, the year of my sixth male boss in a row. For us young women, equality of the sexes went without saying. Then we
flirted with old-fashioned roles, and now we're suddenly back in a
man's world. Along with henna hair, drooping breasts and dungarees, have we abolished equality? By Heike Faller
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I want to see Turks en masse waving the German flag. Jobs, rules, the German language and free religion – these must be the pillars of a new German society. Today's West Germans, East Germans and foreign Germans are perhaps only the forefathers of the curious folk we will be in thirty years. And then, what belongs together will grow together. An appeal by Feridun Zaimoglu.
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The FIFA World Cup is approaching lickety split and Germany, being Germany, is all set. Only two things remain to be done. Germans have to learn how to smile and their team has to learn how to kick left. By Moritz Rinke
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