Berliner Zeitung 25.04.2007

On May 2, German Minister of the Interior Wolfgang Schäuble will convene the second Islam Conference in Berlin (more on last autumn's conference here). The meeting is meant as a forum for exchange and understanding between the state and German Muslims - not only those in official organisations. One representative is Turkish-German writer Feridun Zaimoglu. In an interview Michaela Schlagenwerth, he criticises female critics of Islam such as Necla Kelek and Seyran Ates as one-sided: "The biggest bulwark against fundamentalism is formed by devout members of Muslim associations. If you start attacking these people for their piety and belief, and if you never tire of calling on them to join the forces of reform, you end up not arguing factually at all, but just fomenting riot. Feminism and a right-wing attitude aren't mutually exclusive. And it can't be the case that reformed 68ers, right-wing conservative populists and right-wing feminists join hands and set themselves up as the defenders, the foot-soldiers of Western civilisation." See our features by Feridun Zaimoglu here.


Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 25.04.2007

To mark the start of the Islam Conference, journalist and sociologist Necla Kelek reiterates her critique of Islam. "In its 1400-year history, Islam has hardly taken root in Europe. It knows no individuality, its image of humanity is not equipped for modernity, which needs responsible individuals.... Islam not only claims to be a belief, it also stands as a religion for the unity of life, belief, rules and politics. It's in direct conflict with secularisation. Islam tries to demand collective rights from its followers, whereas an enlightened society protects the rights of the individual above all else." Read more articles by Necla Kelek.


Frankfurter Rundschau 25.04.2007

Historian Wolfgang Kraushaar summarises and comments on the paradoxical development in the discussion on the RAF (Roter Armee Faktion) this spring, which has come about, he writes, thanks to Michael Bubacks (news story). His determination to find out which individual was responsible for actually pulling the trigger on his father has got the ball rolling, particularly with Peter-Jürgen Boock's reference to Stefan Wisniewski who, at least officially, was never a suspect: "All of a sudden two state authorities are under obligation to provide concrete information. The pressure which for weeks has been applied to the RAF perpetrators is now impacting the side of the state. And those mostly conservative powers, who have continued to demand that no stone be left unturned in the investigation of the RAF perpetrators, are now being obliged to prove that they will be no less relentless in their pursuit of the truth on the side of the German secret services."


Süddeutsche Zeitung 25.04.2007

In a long interview with Franziska Augstein, essayist and poet Peter Rühmkorf talks about Klaus Rainer Röhl and Ulrike Meinhof, about keeping a diary, his poems and why he has never written a novel. On the subject of Andreas Baader he says: "Bader acted like pimp with his women. That all these girls, who came from nice, decent homes came under the spell of this guy who to me immediately seemed like a pimp, as well as being physiognomically unpleasant, with his revolting cunt-speak. I never understood it. I can only put it down to mass paranoia."


Die Tageszeitung 25.04.2007

200 years after it was published, Kerstin Decker rereads Hegel's "Phenomenology of Spirit," giving a whirlwind tour of the book and offering the following advice: "Some feel the 'Phenomenology' is the most difficult work in the history of philosophy. But in fact Hegel wanted to write a simple book for the man on the street. He even took out the paragraphs so you don't just stop reading in the middle. Don't forget, the consciousness whose development we follow doesn't stop for a break either. On its journey to itself it soon becomes - always keen to find out more - 'self-consciousness,' and then the consciousness of the natural sciences and history, before arriving at 'absolute spirit' (religion, absolute knowledge). But the most important thing is how you go at the book. You've got to read the "Phenomenology of Spirit" in a completely different way than you would Kant's critiques, for example. Not one word at a time, but in tempo! A good bottle of red wine can't hurt either. Then at one point it practically reads itself, and the unfailing effect of any Hegel reading sets in: the reader becomes one with God."

"Deliberately dishevelled" is the impression David Lynch's new film "Inland Empire" makes on Diedrich Diederichsen. "The mood improves, at least in the first hour, with every self-reference and in particular with every Lynchism. And it seems that the artist is using these gritty, ne'er complete, overly grainy images to say: "Hi, it's me, I can't do things any other way, don't take it too seriously. I just have to have one of these weird rooms, where there's always something behind the wall.' Alright, alright. Enjoy yourself some more with your new DV camera and your old friend Laura Dern, why don't you!"


Neue Zürcher Zeitung 25.04.2007

Alfred Zimmerlin reports from the "Wittener Tage" for contemporary chamber music at Haus Witten in North Rhine-Westphalia. "The programme was kicked off by Peter Ablinger's cycle 'Voices and Piano' (1998-2007), which investigates the sound of the human voice. His piece fills the room with recorded voices of poets like Ezra Pound and Rolf Dieter Brinkmann (more here), the cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the composer Morton Feldman, the actress Hanna Schygulla and Mao Zedong. The piano duplicates and accentuates aspects of the vocal timbre: the melody, rhythm and vowel formants among other elements, all stressed to varying extents. Not entirely new, certainly, but performed here in a way that astonishes for its poetry and diversity, perfectly accompanied by pianist Nicolas Hodges, whose feeling for tonality cannot fail to impress his listeners."