Süddeutsche Zeitung, 27.05.2005

"There is nothing in the text of the constitution that can explain the agitation on the part of the French," writes Johannes Willms. "Everything points to a victory for the French 'non'. But a good part of the responsibility also goes to the French own government, which used 'Europe' in the past as a comfortable scapegoat to deflect attention from its own faults and inadequacies. So it played a decisive role in creating an anti-European climate among large parts of the French public. And now it can no longer turn the tide."


Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 27.05.2005

The media page features a long interview with documentary filmmaker Georg Stefan Troller that is so interesting that the FAZ casts all layout rules to the wind and prints the last paragraphs in smaller type to fit it on the page. Troller, born in Vienna in 1921, fled throughout Europe to escape the Nazis. He later returned to Germany and began making movies in the 60s. As a filmmaker, he is modest about his power over words: "Let's say I know the limits of my own speech, which are a result of emigration.... Read Brecht's journal when he was in America. All of a sudden he can no longer remember the word 'Godfather'. Then when he wants to buy a car, he asks someone to 'ausfinden' the best car for him. 'Ausfinden' is not German. He took the English word 'find out' and translated it back into German. And Thomas Mann complains in a letter: 'The words no longer come unbidden.' He has to hunt for them. My language is an ersatz, a surrogate. It's no longer something I can take for granted, the way someone can who's always lived in his home country."

Joseph Croitoru reports on an fierce dispute in Israel over Theodor Herzl, father of the Zionist movement. "In recent years the neo-conservative Right has discovered Herzl as a modernistic visionary. With his Western-style belief in progress, they see him as a model and inspiration. For Leftist Israeli intellectuals like Tel Aviv political scientist Yoav Peled, on the other hand, Herzl is nothing but a typically European colonialist, whose arrogant attitude toward the Palestinians can only be criticised. The religious, too, are split over how they view Herzl."


Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 27.05.2005

Heribert Seifert discusses the challenge posed by immigration and related issues for the European media. Seifert quotes the general consensus of the many conferences, books and discussions on the topic: "'Immigrants are seldom mentioned, but when they are, it is in a negative context, particularly as criminals or as people who cost money and/or are dangerous.'" Seifert is not convinced: "By limiting the judgement to the scandalising impact of reporting, and excluding the reported events themselves, the emphasis has shifted: the moral imperative to protect immigrants from the impact of negative reporting weighs heavier than the professional obligation to inform the public as objectively as possible. If the public is perceived to be generally racist, xenophobic or demonstrating complex 'syndromes of group-related misanthropy', there is an onus on the media not to report in a way that depict minorities in a negative light." The result: "well intended paternalism" on the part of the media. On a constructive note, Seifert calls for better cooperation between European and minority media, lamenting the estranged relationship between the German and Turkish press in Germany. In this context, he is particularly impressed by the work of female Turkish journalists such as Necla Kelek, Seyran Ates and Serap Cileli, who have, in their discussions of forced marriage and honour killing, made integration a political issue and steered it out of the "culturalistic dead end".


Frankfurter Rundschau, 27.05.2005

The new anthology album of Mötley Crüe, the self-proclaimed "most notorious rock band of the world" has made Thomas Winkler reflect on the 1980s of his youth. And not through rose-coloured glasses. "In the 50s, kids emancipated themselves from their parents. In the 60s, they created a better world with promiscuity and in the 70s, they smoked weed until their own failure didn't hurt any more. In the 80s, on the other hand, in the decade of NATO re-armament, demonstrations against anti-nuclear power stations and AIDs, we assumed that before our first kiss, we would probably witness the end of the world or at the very least a deadly illness. Any inclination to get sentimental about those days should be treated with a little cynicism. Identification with Mötley Crüe and consorts? Even back then, we can't have been too young to notice what an embarrassment they were. Nostalgia is not an option for us. And now the horror returns. The only remedy: self-irony, which, coming from Mötley Crüe, is no more than an attempt to save their wrinkled asses in the present day."

Frank Castorf has premiered his six and a half hour production of "Crime and Punishment" at the Vienna Festwochen theatre and music festival. Folllowing "The Possessed", "The Insulted and the Injured" and "The Idiot", all of which were performed in Castorf's Volksbühne theatre in Berlin, "Crime and Punishment" is his fourth staging of a play based on Dostoevsky's literary work. The critics, however, were unanimously unimpressed. Stephan Hilpold writes: "With his encyclopaedic approach, Castorf gambles away a lot of the energy accumulated early on. After a strong start, he tells of Raskolnikov's confusion and disturbances with dramatical astuteness. At just the right moment he switches from the camera perspective into the visible play. Dirk Passebosc's video work just keeps getting better from one Russian production to the next. Unfortunately, as the evening goes on the long moments become more and more frequent. In the case of 'Crime and Punishment' this also results in content problem. Castorf completely ignores Raskalnikov's metaphysical resurrection, his turning toward God and his love for Sonya, and the production reaches its highpoint with Raskolnikov's confession. That's all Castorf has to offer. And after more than six hours it's a little slim."
For a deeper look into the German theatre scene, see our feature article "Fighting in the sandbox" by Peter Kümmel.