Die Zeit, 28.04.2005

Hanno Rauterbeg and Claus Spahn review plans by Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron for a gigantic concert house in Hamburg, which involve transforming a disused cocoa warehouse at a cost of 196 million euros. "The plans include a public square 37 meters high, from which even the Alster river will be visible. Above that will be a luxury hotel, luxury apartments, and two concert venues: a philharmonic hall seating 2,200 people, and a chamber music hall for 600. The entrepreneurial tradition represented by the warehouse will provide the foundations for the building and house a parking lot. On top, however, culture will reign. An unusual, symbolic reversal of the usual run of things. As if an allegory for all of Hamburg, the building will make the repellent aspect of the storehouse more welcoming and its stoicism more relaxed, replacing strict rationality with artistic boldness."

Die Zeit reprints a speech given by George Steiner, professor of comparative literature at Oxford, at the opening of an exhibition on Friedrich Schiller's life and work. 2005 has been dubbed "Schiller Year" in Germany, marking the 200th anniversary of the poet's death. The exhibition, "Götterpläne & Mäusegeschäfte. Schiller 1759–1805", will run until October 9. Evoking the fervent enthusiasm for Schiller both in the Nazi era (where Schiller was seen as standard-bearer of National Socialism) and in communist East Germany (Engels called Schiller's "Cabal and Love" Germany's first political drama), Steiner comments on the poet's relevance today: "Homer and Virgil shine through Schiller's effusive language, as does Luther's translation of the psalms. But the real problem is that today we live in a radical anti-rhetorical climate. We find Schiller's ornamented language suspicious. We believe Georg Büchner's stuttering Woyzeck, and the short, naked sentences of Kafka and Beckett. Or those who recommend we should be silent, like Wittgenstein. In my view there are only two ways to keep Schiller's emphatic rhetoric alive. In contrast to Goethe, Schiller wrote for the ear. Often his meaning is hidden in the rhythm of the words. Schiller's works must be read aloud, in the manner of the rhapsodists of ancient Greece. And afterwards, you have to learn them by heart." (Here something to try)


Die Welt, 28.04.2005

A French no to the EU Constitution would "primarily be a no to President Jacques Chirac", writes social historian Hans-Peter Schwarz. The French are dissatisfied with the "government's negative economic performance" and its attempt to force Turkey into the EU "with a crowbar". Schwarz adds: "Many French fear for their own identity, and accuse the president of neo-Gaullistic megalomania in his desire to establish a 'European puissance' with France in the driving seat. In line with Chirac's dreams, once Turkey has entered, the EU could get big wheels turning in the Middle East on a par with America, against which - as he recently put it - 'the more human and better organised' France and Europe had to defend itself. But it is the French voters that are defending themselves."


Die Tageszeitung, 28.04.2005

Is the European Constitution "the key to furthering social policies in France and Europe as a whole", as Martin Schulz, socialist party leader in the EU parliament, maintains? The French voters are not convinced, writes Daniela Weingärtner. "In the minds of the French, the economic recession, the cheap competition from the East, the relocation of production locations there, and the Turkey debate have consolidated into a singe hate word: Constitution. The question so long and lovingly posed by European philosophers of all nationalities of whether expansion and consolidation stimulate or exclude, has long been decided by European citizens. It's not good to change too much too quickly, they say, and are setting to work on prescribing the Union a pause for thought."


Süddeutsche Zeitung, 28.04.2005

Recently, the memorials to the victims of National Socialism in Berlin have been criticised for providing a sometimes sloppy, partial picture of the past they are supposed to clarify. Several well respected historians have called for the memorials, chiefly the Topography of Terror, the German Resistance Memorial and the House of the Wannsee Conference, to be united under a single director. Now a new "draft paper" has assured the autonomy of the memorials. The federal body Stiftung Dokumentation der NS-Verbrechen (foundation for the documentation of NS crimes), does not see fit to impose any changes on the memorials. Criticism by historians Götz Aly (here) and Ulrich Herbert (here), documenting the academic dilettantism of the establishments, was ignored. Jens Bisky is appalled at the paper. For him it combines "East-German style self-satisfaction with a passion for insignificant detail." By alluding to their "civil engagement", the memorials have been able to prevent any future examination of their work. "Today 'civil' means receiving money from the state to have impunity from criticism and evaluation. It's a matter of having friends on the right side. The West Berlin culture of incest has won a small victory."
Click here for an essay in English on the state of the NS memorials by Götz Aly.


Frankfurter Rundschau, 28.04.2005

"Marx is in the air" declares Christian Schlüter. The FR has dedicated its culture pages to the topic today. We give two stories:

Russian writer Anatoly Korolyov describes the "kitschification of the Stalin era", currently taking place particularly in Russian films: "From the past only the sirloin – the Stalin era – is being digested artistically. Lenin is hardly being touched, and Kruschev and Breshnev are being ignored completely. This is because the defining style of the Soviet epoch was moulded under Stalin, the style of the all-embracing people's happiness and the permanent exhibition of party achievements. People became exhibits of the epoch, living arguments against the Western way of life, trophies of the communist party - and now they are trophies of the current government which dreams of a return at least to the supposedly glorious elements of this past. The contemporary viewer is being shown that the epoch of mass terror made people happy. And the high audience ratings show that many Russians welcome these fairytale messages, just as they love game shows and everything else as long as it doesn't show Russian reality in 2005."

Marx's "Das Kapital" has just been translated into Mongolian. It was a tough task, explain Dondog Batjargal und Helmut Höge. "Here are some examples: the Mongolian word for beer is 'shar airag' which means something like yellow or fermented mare milk; helicopter is 'nisdeg tereg' in Mongolian – flying car; the original word for farmer, which stems from the arrival of the Chinese in the Middle Ages, was the ironic 'Gazar saagch' or earth-milkers, now replaced by 'tariachin', a compound of 'tariaO' meaning cereal and 'chin' meaning maker; exploitation is 'Möljlög' which means something like bone-gnawing; wages or pay translates as 'ajliin höls' – the sweat of labour; the Mongolian word for economy, 'Ediin zasag', literally means thing-power; taxes or 'tatvar' come from the verb 'tatah' – which means to cover or to span - testing strength in a tug-of-war is called 'ols tatah' for example." (Read "Das Kapital" here in English and here in German.)