Frankfurter Rundschau 17.07.2007

Arno Widmann, former text editor of Vogue, recalls – in view of a new coffee table book brought out by Norberto Angeletti and Alberto Olivia - that the magazine was never avant garde. "On December 17, 1892, the first Vogue appeared, kicking and screaming. Vogue was the central organ of old New York society whose goal it was to send the nouveau riche back into their corners. They should learn their manners. The first issue was full of references to etiquette and correct behaviour. Vogue was a magazine from old New York and for old New York. And it was precisely this snobbishness that explains its success. Nothing interests the nouveau riche more than those who hold them in contempt."


Süddeutsche Zeitung 17.07.2007

Merthen Wortmann was allowed to watch as a selected pair of Documenta visitors was allowed to eat the art of Ferran Adria. "After four and a half hours, they are finally taking their coffee. How was it? Challenging. Stimulating. Fabulous. Was it art? Hard to say; but it was definitely an artistic experience. The man says, 'Some things, you suddenly taste again in a purity and intensity, as though it was a drug trip.' The woman says: 'I've rarely given so much thought to what I was actually eating.'"


Neue Zürcher Zeitung 17.07.2007

Tourism has been booming in Damascus since 9/11. But Mona Sarkis reports that the new, state-funded construction of buildings and streets often encroaches on historical districts. And there is growing resistance. "But tourism Minister Saad-Allah Agha Al-Kalaa sticks to his line: Hotels need the land. Still, more and more private individuals are standing up to say that this development must not destroy the old structures. May Mamarbachi was one of the first: Three years ago, the businesswoman bought an Arab house from the 17th century, which featured, among other details, a Christian fresco more than 200 years old – an historical rarity in Damascus. She painstakingly restored those eight rooms, which today are habitable as the 'Al-Mamlouka'-Hotel in the Christian quarter of Bab Touma."


Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 17.07.2007

The FAZ has launched a summer series on "The advance of Islamism – How dangerous is it, really?" The first instalment: A report from correspondent Paul Ingendaay in Spain. He spoke with, among others, Spanish journalist Jose Maria Irujo, who names three dangerous trends: "First of all, the alliance between North Africa and Al Qaida. Secondly, that Iraq has become a pilgrimage land and training site for Islamistic terrorism – as Afghanistan was before. And thirdly, since the attack of April 11, 2007 in Algiers, the emergence of suicide attackers in Maghreb. A real novelty. The date was of course chosen in homage to 9/11 in New York and March 11 in Madrid."


Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 16.07.2007

The State of Bavaria continues to prohibit the publication of a complete edition of Hitler's
"Mein Kampf." The FAZ asked Horst Möller, director of the Institute of Contemporary History in Munich, if an academic edition wouldn't make sense. "All inflammatory Nazi texts have been published in academic form - but not 'Mein Kampf.' I can't explain why it is that some voices, for fear of negative symbolic influence, say: not that one."