Britons find nudity hilarious. Germans take it very seriously. An apostil by Roger Boyes ...
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Jürgen Habermas laments the swelling feel-good patriotisms in Europe and the flagging communal European spirit. The EU will only be able to fulfill its international mandate if Europeans learn to form a common front, and to recognise that the Polish plumber and the Portugese winegrower are key to European unity.
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I decided about a year ago to live without a headscarf. It makes a difference if you're obeying duties outlined by others or those based on your own conclusions. But calling for Muslim women to remove their headscarves is as futile as calling on Germans to stop drinking beer, because it must be the result of genuine consideration. By Emel Abidin-Algan
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Ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has just written his memoirs "Decisions", in which he relates at length what a smashing job he made of everything. And along the way he reveals a singular lack of literary talent. Writer Georg M. Oswald journeys into a rosy past.
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After being restituted to the heirs of its former Jewish owner by Berlin's senator for culture, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's "Berlin Street Scene" will be auctioned off tomorrow at Christie's in New York. Critics argue whether the heirs really did have a legal claim to the painting. By Brigitte Werneburg
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Revolution with a whiff of dementia. Nicolas Stemann stages Elfriede Jelinek's play "Ulrike Maria Stuart" in Hamburg's Thalia Theatre. Intelligent septuagenarian RAF schlock horror, says Christopher Schmidt.
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West Germany casts a mistrustful glance at Berlin, the city of lazy pleasure-seekers. And it comes down to this: the exhausted are envious of the detached. A polemic by Jens Jessen
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Mother's friend E. can't move her hands. Mr W. scalded himself in the shower. Mrs A. fell down in the kitchen and Mrs H. was trapped among thorny roses. Perhaps it's time to get Mother to a safe place. In coming decades the number of over-80s will grow from three to ten million, more than one third of whom will need care. But where? And how? Susanne Mayer looks at why we are overtaxed when Mother or Father become care cases.
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In a recent speech in Israel, singer, song-writer and polemicist Wolf Biermann castigated Germany for misjudging the tragedy in the Middle East conflict and sympathising with radical Muslims out of patronising contempt. (Photo: Hans Weingartz)
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With 23 premieres in 8 concerts over 48 hours, the Donaueschinger Musiktage is one of the major festivals for contemporary music. And for those who think that's a white elephant, think again. This year's edition was bursting at the seams. By Peter Hagmann
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The Berlin cut-price label Picaldi has cornered the jeans market for hoodies, dolies and rappers. By Johannes Gernert
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Some people will think: "Not another book on the Holocaust!" But historian Saul Friedländer depicts the "Years of Extermination" with tremendous power and drama. His narrative style is much like that of a film director, elegantly combining individual stories with world events. By Dan Diner
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Berlin's Museum Island is perhaps the most important museum complex in the world. It was embellished this week with the reopening of the Bode Museum, housing the finest display of European sculpture anywhere. Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, takes us on a first-ever tour of European history in three-dimensional form.
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There's no quenching German thirst for the organic lemonade in a Bionade bottle. The factory can't meet demand and has sent Coca Cola packing. Cornelius and Fabian Lange describe the rise of the Bionade empire out of the ashes of the failing Peter brewery in what was once a failing region in Germany - soon to be home to the Bionade valley.
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Historian Joachim Fest's memoirs of his youth, "Ich Nicht," document an elitism that seeks to distance itself from petty-bourgeois National Socialism, and form a counterpoint to the prevailing culture of memory in the Federal Republic of Germany. Although the historical establishment tended to view Fest askance, his recollections document a genuinely cultivated German bourgeoisie. By Jens Bisky
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The Arab intellectual behaves like a despotic father. No internal family matter may be exposed to the outside world. Regardless of what the reality may be, a facade of unbroken unity must be maintained. In private talks you hear opinions that are radically different from what is published in the newspapers the next day. By Khalid al-Maaly (Image © Brigitte Friedrich, Cologne)
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