Spiegel Online 14.11.2006

In an epic-length interview with Spiegel Online editors Claus-Christian Malzahn and Andreas Brocholte, singer songwriter Wolf Biermann draws a few paradoxical lessons from the history of the GDR. "On a per capita basis, the Stasi, or secret police, had 20 times as many informers as the Nazis. Does that mean the GDR was 20 times as bad as National Socialism? Of course not. The powerful apparatus of informers employing so many highly-paid rascals, whether officers or unofficial employees, is striking proof that there were very many people in the GDR who had to be spied on and oppressed." See our features by Wolf Biermann here and here.


Frankfurter Rundschau 14.11.2006

Identifying herself as a "fanatic, professional, childless woman of 50 plus, a rather useless age," the author Cora Stephan takes up the woman / mother / children question. "I can, for example, no longer stand to hear the accusatory claim that this or that sprout whining for 'mummy' and 'chocolate' embodies my future and will pay my pension one day. In the best case, the little sprout will spend an eternity on his education, won't find a job in Germany, will – if female – according to the Eve principle, become a mother or overqualified housekeeper for her husband or will seek – if male – his fortune, or rather work, abroad. In the worse case, the sprout will remain a couch potato, in the care of mama and papa state. Whatever the case, the nutritional value of 'my' pension is minimal.... The 'achievers' who are paying 'our' pensions are not 'the youth' but rather the 30-50 year olds, a valuable minority, who subsidise the constantly growing public sector and have to pay the miraculously multiplying good deeds of politics."


Süddeutsche Zeitung 14.11.2006

Two texts are devoted to the horrible plans of the Gazprom company to pour its power into architecture. In front of Petersburg, the empire wants to erect an entire city: Gazprom city. All offices of note are taking part in the international competition: Jean Nouvel, Herzog and de Meuron, RMJM, Rem Koolhaas, Daniel Libeskind and Massimiliano Fuksas. Gerhard Matzig shudders. "This energy-architecture is worth seeing, but at the same time spooky. Defined by the best known architects of the present, the futurism that is supposedly represented here will soon have to turn to its own past. The Gazprom city project which Jean Nouvel claims is as groundbreaking as Paris' Eiffel tower once was, is anything but innovative. It seems as though a dying industrial sector, at the height of its power, is building eerily beautiful monuments."

Things do not look good for Saint Petersburg, Sonja Zekri writes: "Whereas conservationists are on the verge of tears at the sight of Moscow, where thousands of historical buildings have been destroyed to make room for either absurd copiesnew monstrosities, Saint Petersburg has long lived a life of poverty and intactness. Things started to change three years ago, with the 300 birthday celebrations. Other projects followed: Dominique Perrault designed an annex for the Mariinsky Theatre. Norman Foster is building an amphitheatre on the former New Holland military compound. A Silicon Valley type of technology centre and a miniature park are also in the works: Petersburg has awoken from its Sleeping Beauty slumber. But no project flies so brutally in the face of the city's character as Gazprom City."


Die Tageszeitung 14.11.2006

Stefan Reinecke is impressed by the minimalism of the films at the 30th documentary film week in Duisberg. Aesthetically most stunning was "Unser täglich Brot" (Our daily bread), Nikolaus Geyrhalter's look at the current state of industrial agriculture. "There are no interviews with workers, but rather pictures of cold beauty, like photographic still-lifes. The serial killing of fish, cattle, pigs and chickens is also to be seen, and blood sprays. But the horror that these pictures convey is more subtle. The fields, the greenhouses and abattoirs seem to be as unpeopled as the car factories. We see a world of machines, a system whose perfection is its perversion. 'Unser täglich Brot' is not a horror film, more a science fiction film. If Kubrick had shot a documentation about the agricultural industry, it would have looked roughly like this."

Katrin Bettina Müller reviews the book "Brakin. Brazzaville - Kinshasa. Visualising the Visible," which documents two visits in 2005 by a group of artists to the capitals of The Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) and The Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo-Kinshasa). "Initiator was the architect Wim Cuyvers. He works as an 'advising researcher' at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastrict, which supported the project. Cuyvers' approach to the two cities is seemingly simple: What do pedestrians learn from the public space in these cities? What does it betray to them? In an essay, however, Cuyvers makes clear at the start that even the concept of 'public space' falls apart on the terrain. For instance, he photographed street signs advertising privately run and guarded cemeteries. Together with refugee camps, they mark the cities' outskirts, as do the 'digital hotels' housing brothels and video sex shops. Accordingly, one of the maps in the book is called 'Edges of the city. Conglomerats of new cemetries, refugee camps and digital hotels'."