Die Zeit 01.03.2007

Italian philosopher Paolo Flores D'Arcais explains in an interview the widespread disappointment in Italy's Leftist government under Romano Prodi. Instead of clearing up Berlusconi's legacy, he says, the Left has followed merrily in his footsteps. "One campaign promise was to revoke all the laws that were tailored explicitly to Berlusconi's personal problems. But until now only one has been repealed – by the constitutional court and not by the government. There has not been any reform at all of the judiciary, just a massive amnesty. And this was welcomed by both the Right and the Left, as both have people facing court cases in their ranks."

The erstwhile French Left, from Andre Glucksmann to Pascal Bruckner, from Alain Finkielkraut to historian Max Gallo, all stand behind the conservative presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy – and feel a correspondingly strong aversion to socialist candidate Segolene Royal. Michael Mönninger attempts to shed some light: "In contrast to Royal, Sarkozy puts thinkers on the defensive while seeking their expertise. And because the intellectuals are keen to be useful again, they are now prompting the Right, long considered anti-intellectual, to reflect and develop concepts." What the intellectuals don't like about Royal is her populism, but also, Mönninger conjectures, her preoccupation with political odds and ends with which they, as representatives of the world spirit, can't be bothered: "Certainly, their aversion can also be put down to the fact that civic debate on battered women, micro-credits, problems with social security and how to find a job are not for intellectual universalists, who feel overtaxed by such day-to-day matters."


Frankfurter Rundschau 01.03.2007

Are the Germans stylising themselves with films and books on the carpet bombing of Germany and the expulsion from Eastern Europe as victims of the Second World War? Of course there were German victims, says British historian Sir Ian Kershaw in an interview, but Germany was not victimised as a nation. "The carpet bombing was an atrocious means of war directed at the civilian population. No one would condone it today. Yet Germany had the possibility of preventing it. An early surrender would have put an end to the bombs. The victims of the National Socialists had no way of ending their suffering. That's why the bombing is fundamentally different from crimes carried out in the name of the Germans, not just the annihilation of the Jews, but also the crimes perpetrated on civilians in the occupied territories, especially Eastern Europe. The crimes of the Nazis were ideologically conditioned. The bombing, I'd like to stress once again, was a cruel means of war."

Peter Michalzik has done the rounds among the current crop of artistic directors in view of a few key positions that are soon to become available. "Politicians can only make personnel decisions when they have a clear concept for the theatre, and where should that come from? A few years ago, when a few new appointments were made, the trend was towards the typus Matthias Hartmann, who will take over the Burgtheater in 2009. Smart, integrative, faithful to the text, a bit tame. Elmar Goerden and Amelie Niermeyer in Düsseldorf are representatives of this category. Today this trend has obviously passed. And politicians are not interested in the false debate that has been raging in the theatre world: blood vs classicism, naked skin vs the text. That's just a hyped discussion hyping itself."


Neue Zürcher Zeitung 01.03.2007

Francois Zabbal, Director of the Institute du monde arabe, portrays in an interesting little essay the dismay of Arab intellectuals and politicians over the barbaric conflicts between Sunnites and Shiites. "For Amr Moussa, the general secretary of the Arab League, it's the Americans who have let the evil spirit out of the bottle – which, however, implies that the evil spirit existed already. And does this attitude not amount to an a posteriori justification of Saddam Hussein's rule by force – and all authoritarian Arabic regimes which could care less about the personal and political freedom of their subjects?"


Die Welt 01.03.2007

In a short essay, sociologist Wolf Lepenies suggests that the social and natural sciences get over their mutual antipathy. He does not support the decision of the Technical University of Berlin to eliminate the social sciences. "Today we should be thinking about the soul in the age of the Internet, about people in the Google era, about Web 2.0 and 'Second Life' - the virtual 3D world in which we can create alternative existences. It's high time to redefine the place of the social sciences at Technical Universities. Simply sending them away is not a very contemporary solution."


Süddeutsche Zeitung 01.03.2007

Christian Klar, the former RAF terrorist who has applied for amnesty and release from prison, where has has been sitting since 1982, sent a "greeting" to the Rosa Luxemburg Conference in Berlin. It was printed in the leftist paper Junge Welt and began: "Dear friends, the theme of this year's Rosa Luxemburg Conference – 'It could be different' – pays tribute, in my understanding, to the inspiration that has been coming from various countries in Latin America. In the last two decades, the socially destructive recipes of the international owner class have been challenged by the rights of the masses and on top of this, new perspectives are being worked on."
For Willi Winkler, the letter suggests that Christian Klar is thinking of the future but living and talking in terms of the past. "Klar charges the 'international owner-class' only because he's not familiar with terms like Private Equity and Hedge Funds."