Frankfurter Rundschau 21.03.2007

Author Ingo Schulze speaks in an interview about his most recent book "Handy" (mobile phone - more here), which has been nominated for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize, and the East-German perspective in his work: "The East-German perspective is that of the newcomer, the new arrival, who can never really have the same feel for things as someone who's been there all along. I mean we had completely different experiences in East Germany, and now we wonder at things that someone who grew up in the West sees as completely normal, maybe even basic. And doesn't only apply to Germany. When you read Orhan Pamuk or Arab authors, the West is a point of reference, but from outside. Most people in the world are 'outsides' or 'newcomers'."

Ina Hartwig introduces a magazine brought out by the Neue Rundschau on "Historical Material" in which writer Antje Ravic Strubel describes her GDR past. "In general I think writers waste a lot of time worrying about their past; so much of life is invented anyway. Every memory consists of perhaps five percent fact, the rest is alcohol. One's own past is at best material that doesn't need researching."


Neue Zürcher Zeitung 21.03.2007

"A Roman lightning bolt" has hit the 68-year-old El Salvador-based Jesuit Jon Sobrino, as Andreas Batlogg and Michael Sievernich - both Jesuits - report. "A 'Notificatio' or 'explanatory notification' published on March 14 warns against several ideas of the prominent liberation theologian, classifying them as 'either misleading or dangerous.' At the same time, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi (also a Jesuit) stressed that this is by no means an official judgement." The authors remind readers that the Pope was never a friend of liberation theology. "In May, Pope Benedict XVI will inaugurate the fifth plenary session of the Latin American Bishops' Council, which had already spoken out for a 'preferential option for the poor' in Medellin (1968) and Puebla (1979). Will the Pope make a clean sweep of things in the run-up to this meeting? The 'option for the poor' is expressly mentioned at the start of the notification as an essential mission of the Church. What signal is the Pope giving by having the notification - which he approved on October 13, 2006 - published now? Is it a reaction to inside manoeuvring among Bishops and Cardinals in Latin America and the Vatican who favour entirely different options? Are old scores being settled here?"


Die Welt 21.03.2007

The Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding, given out each year at the Leipzig Book Fair, has been awarded jointly this year to German historian Gerd Koenen (see our articles by Koenen here) and Russian philosopher Michail Ryklin. Eckhard Fuhr writes short profiles of the two, saying of Ryklin: "He translated Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno into Russian, but above all French (post) structuralists like Barthes, Foucault, Deleuze and Derrida. His most recent book reflects an alarming political experience he and his wife Anna Altschuk had in Putin's Russia: the trial over the exhibition 'Caution, Religion!' in Moscow, which Ryklin sees as the first ideological trial of the post-communist era, one that exemplifies the growing rift between Russian and the West." See our feature "Nobody is safe anymore" by Ryklin here.


Die Tageszeitung 21.03.2007

In a seasonal and observant essay, Cord Riechelmann describes the song of urban starlings. "They are highly receptive to the song of other birds such as sparrows, blackbirds or crows and they weave the sounds of dogs barking, cats purring or frogs croaking into their recitations. In the city they will play back the sound of the traffic, imitating cars starting up or braking, police sirens and construction site noise. To human ears, their songs are like subtle recordings of their surroundings and their various sound patterns. The songs become a sort of biography of the singer and its sociological ontology."


Süddeutsche Zeitung 21.03.2007

A number of CDU politicians have suggested introducing consumer protection measures for the German language and putting a stop to English-creep, much to the amusement of Jens Bisky. "As part of the campaign for 'Lively German', 'The Society for the German Language' is searching for a German equivalent for 'spam'. Of the 298 suggestions for 'slogan', they finally settled on 'Spruch' although 'Knacksatz' and 'Kaufkitzel' also made it into the final round. (...) Parliament resolutions, competitions and prizes are not going to solve the problem. Anyone who treasures the wealth and beauty of the language should ensure that people read classical German literature from Lessing to Brinkman, and that children learn to recite poetry. It's not the daft 'service point' that is so scandalous, but the fact that children go to school for years on end in Germany without learning the language. The fight against Anglicisms will go down in history as another ineffectual attempt by a terrified bourgeoisie to delay its world's demise."