Monday 2 April, 2007

Süddeutsche Zeitung 02.04.2007

Gustav Seibt is drunk with joy over an exhibition in Weimar on the birth hours of the German classic. "Duke Carl August, who at 18 was already in the government, entered into a bourgeois-courtly marriage with his new artist friends – primarily the best seller author Goethe – without any formal fussiness. At the home of his mother, the young duchess Anna Amalia, one sat by candlelight at a round table on tippy stools. What distinguished Weimar's magic moments at the end of the 18th century from comparable highpoints in cultural history – Athens in fifth century BC, Rome under Augustus, Florence in the Quattrocento, Rome in the High Renaissance, in the court of Louis XIV – seems to have been the invaluable attribute of intimacy."


Neue Zürcher Zeitung 02.04.2007

In an interview with Beat Stauffer, the Tunisian intellectual Abdelwahab Meddeb comments on European multiculturalism: "It seems to me that we have to be careful with multiculturalism. Of course, it's very important that we in Europe take a serious look at other cultures and their values. But multiculturalism is no 'auberge espagnole,' no place where you can leave everyone to do and be what he or she wants. Basic values cannot be allowed to disappear. We have to look closely at what things mean. The veil is a symbol. What does this symbol mean? If this symbol contradicts my own values, why should I accept it?" (here an interview with Abdelwahab Meddeb on "Islam's heritage of violence")

German-Romanian writer Richard Wagner defends his Romanian compatriot Vintila Horia, who, like Emil Cioran and Mircea Eliade, was sympathetic to fascism and after the war made unpalatable to Western audiences by newspapers like L'Humanité on the basis of material furnished by the Romanian secret police. "Certainly, in the 30s Horia published articles like 'The fascist miracle,' and he should be held to account for that. But what do his inventive historical novels from the 60s, which have protagonists like Ovid, Boethius and Plato and deal with the theme of exile as a form of existence, have to do with that? It's like ignoring 'Being and Time' because Heidegger had Nazi sympathies for a short time, or refusing to print Celine's 'Journey to the End of the Night' because of his 'Bagatelles pour un massacre' and his role in the Vichy government."


Der Standard 02.04.2007

Reflecting on the confessions by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed that were extracted with the use of torture, philosopher Slavoj Zizek warns of an acceptance of torture in both discourse and praxis: "Are we aware of what lies at the end of the tunnel we've opened through the normalisation of torture? An important detail in Mohammed's confession gives us a clue. It's been reported that the questioners were subjected to 'waterboarding,' and could stand it on average no more than 15 seconds, after which they were ready to admit to anything and everything. Nevertheless, Mohammed did not gain so much as their reluctant admiration when he withstood the procedure for two and a half minutes."


Saturday 30 March, 2007

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 31.03.2007

There's still one year left to go until the 100th anniversary of Herbert von Karajan's birthday. Music critic Eleonore Büning jumps the gun and expresses hope that not just the myth, but also the musical talent of the long-time conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker will be remembered. The hagiographers are bad enough, she writes. "But then there are also the 'critics' who see themselves as progressive, and repeat Theodor Adorno's dictum of 'the genius of the economic miracle,' accusing Karajan of a limited repertoire, an entertainment-oriented musical aesthetic, a perfectionism born from his belief in progress, technical coldness and an unscrupulous misuse of power that only increased the more powerful Karajan became. However even the most stalwart Karajan-hater will admit straight off that he was an outstanding orchestral educator, an able bandmaster and, yes, an extraordinary musical talent. But criticism of his cultural and political role prejudices people's power of musical judgement."


Die Welt 31.03.2007

Writer Thomas Brussig became famous with his novel "Helden wie wir" (heroes like us), whose protagonist worked as an informer for the East German secret police. Now Brussig has been informing readers of Berlin's boulevard paper BZ about the city's red light district. He talks with Elmar Krekeler about what he discovered there. "My wife needed some persuading. In the end we reached the compromise: I can go, but I can't go all the way.... In fact I had no idea what I was getting into. That's where I really learned the meaning of temptation. I don't have any problem fasting for weeks and then watching people eat. But in my investigations I got into situations where I just about had a fit. I had to keep thinking of Odysseus having himself tied to the mast. What you commonly think of as temptation is a rabbit's fart compared to what I went through."


Die Tageszeitung 31.03.2007

Christian Semler has taken a look at the exhibition "Dictatorship and Everyday life in the DDR" in the German Historical Museum and is not entirely satisfied. "The exhibition misses the opportunity to show – with particular examples – how, despite political powerlessness, the regime's subjects had a relatively strong standing, for example through the demand for labour. Or how they could, with a bit of imagination, subvert, if not directly oppose, state power. The category of 'Eigen-sinn' (self-will) which has been applied to East German citizens by researchers of everyday life in the GDR and by historian Martin Sabrow in his essay in the catalogue is nowhere to be found in the exhibition itself."