Frankfurter Rundschau, 16.08.2005

Birger Priddat, professor of economics and philosophy, sees corruption as a growing industry. According to the German Federal Criminal Police Office, the number of cases of corruption has increased by a factor of five, from 258 in the mid 1990s to 1,243 today. "The attempt to remain sober in the analysis of corruption must not be misunderstood as its legitimation. Corruption payments are illegal payments. They reward services that cannot be assigned to the market or to a work contract. But corruption is a signal: it indicates an entrepreneurial spirit which is apparently not accepted, not wanted and not integrated in current enterprises (or in their management)."

Heinrich von Kleist's play "Penthesilea" has a reputation of being impossible to put on. But Stephan Kimmig's staging at the Salzburg Festival has more than a few engaging moments, writes Peter Michalzik. "Just what kind of elation did Susanne Wolff feel once she had become Penthesilea, once she had triumphed over Achilles (who was no longer Alexander Simon), when she could sit next to him and caress him? Was it love? Was it theatre? She tells him the story of the state comprised of women, the Amazons, and the dream of women ruling themselves, entirely without men. Something happens here, something she had never experienced before. She no longer speaks the text, it speaks her. She comes to see what has always been lurking inside her, she has the feeling of being herself for the first time. She sits there very calmly, in an out-of-body experience. This is how Stephan Kimmig must have dreamed Kleist's 'Penthesiea' when he decided to stage it, and in fact at times the production does come close to his dream."


Der Tagesspiegel, 16.08.2005

"Federal cultural policy has only fully developed since Berlin has been the capital." For Rüdiger Schaper, the current SPD-Green government's experiment with a Capital Cultural Fund in Berlin and Federal Cultural Foundation was a success. As a next step, he now calls for the creation of a federal Ministry of Culture. Such a ministry would also do a better job of funding the arts in Berlin, and provide a welcome counterbalance to CDU chancellor candidate Angela Merkel's alarming lack of enthusiasm for the "cultural capital". "Merkel shows considerably less zeal for culture in Berlin than the previous CDU chancellor Helmut Kohl did, probably for fear of the CDU state premiers and their cultural sovereignty. Merkel loves to gush about a 'deep knowledge of folk songs and folk poetry'. You can't get more provincial than that."


Süddeutsche Zeitung, 16.08.2005

Alexander Kissler explains why Pope Benedict XVI is not warming to the German people, especially since the student revolts of 1968. "Ratzinger's lectures in Tübigen were disrupted with whistles. Pamphlets were distributed saying the representation of Christ on the crucifix was a 'sadomasochistic glorification of pain'. Some students of Protestant theology are said to have shouted 'A curse on Jesus!' Ratzinger blamed a 'small circle of functionaries for taking things in this direction', and suspected an academic elite was behind the 'violent explosion of Marxist theology'. The instigator was Ernst Bloch, also a professor at Tübingen. According to Ratzinger, the fruits of the student revolt are still maturing today."


Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 16.08.2005

Marta Kijowska would have like to have visited the poet and Nobel Prize winner Wislawa Szymborska in her studio, but she was not granted entry. "Szymborska is not comforatable talking about herself and she absolutely hates talking about poetry. She's apparantly only done it twice in public: when she was awarded the Goethe Prize (1991) and when she won the Nobel Prize (1996). This latter distinction did nothing to change her defensive way. To the contrary, since the 'Stockholm Tragedy' – as the prize is called among her friends – she is in fact at war with the media. She hardly gives interviews and turns down all photo shoots. She lives withdrawn and modestly. In her three room apartment on the edge of Crakow, there is room for two things: her books and all the absurd-excessive objects that she is constantly being given by her friends. Those who have witnessed one of her outbreaks of enthusiasm, or has heard her assertion that the first thing she would rescue if her apartment were to go up in flames is a casket-shaped silver box out of which a silver bird picks out cigarettes, gets hooked on her appreciation of life."


Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 16.08.2005

In an interview with Frank Schirrmacher and Jürgen Kaube, senior CDU politician Kurt Biedenkopf explains that the demographic problems of an ageing Germany were not discovered yesterday: "In 1977 I founded the Institute for Economy and Society in Bonn, together with Meinhard Miegel. We were convinced that the enormous problems already facing our country in those days had to be researched and publicly addressed. Apart from the consequences of the declining birth rate, we were concerned about the effects of the quickly increasing national debt, the aberrations in the labour market and the growing pressure on the social system. Even in those days it was clear to us that in view of these demographic trends, it would not be possible to maintain an old-age provision system financed through allocations."