Saturday 12 March, 2005

Die Welt, 12.03.2005

Friedbert Pflüger, member of the federal Executive Committee of the conservative CDU, writes that strange longings came over him when he visited the RAF exhibition at the Berlin Kunst-Werke. The exhibition features works on the iconography and media images surrounding the terrorist Red Army Faction. Pflüger writes: "I was on the point of attacking the works! In the exhibition ... I felt a desire for a little 'spontaneous rule breaking' and 'violence against material things'. But not being a '68er, I decided not to engage in 'liberating resistance' against the 'structural violence' of the exhibited works. Instead I decided to write this article." For Pflüger, most of the works are attempts to make the RAF presentable, and bear the message: "The terror was certainly 'regrettable', but ultimately the goals of the RAF were very good." One example, "Hans Niehm's 'Hollywood Boulevard' is a monument to terrorist Holger Meins. The murderer's name is set within a five-pointed star from the famous 'Walk of Fame'. Only an in-depth look at the catalogue reveals that the work is meant to be an 'ironic look at the star cult' of the RAF. Doesn't the picture do much more to add to the star cult?"


Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 12.03.2005

In the literature section, poet Olga Martynova (here a poem of hers in German) reflects on Joseph Brodsky's posterity. "In Pushkin's day, people often said this or that poem copied Pushkin, and everyone knew what was meant. A generation later this reproach no longer had any common currency. Pushkin had become what he remains today – a poet without intonation, who can't be tied down, who can do anything, like the sea god Proteus who could change his shape at will. The same is happening with Brodsky today. A few decades ago, people had a solid understanding of what distinguished Brodsky's poetry. That's no longer the case today."


Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 12.03.2005

The debate surrounding Berlin's National Socialist memorials continues. Disagreeing with Ulrich Herbert and Götz Aly (see In Today's Feuilletons, Friday 4 March and Tuesday 1 March), Christine Fischer-Defoy of the "Topography of Terror" foundation, located on the site of the former Nazi headquarters in Berlin, argues in favour of the "authentic sites" and against the proposition that the memorials be united in one central body. "People go to the idyllic House of the Wannsee Conference, where the 'Final Solution' was agreed on, to trace the murder of the European Jews. They go to the courtyard of the Stauffenberg Street memorial, where the conspirators of the failed assassination against Hitler were shot, to reflect on the possibilities and limits of resistance. And they visit the Gestapo grounds to learn how and why respectable neighbours became desktop criminals. These memorials would lose interest for visitors if they tried to provide one definitive statement about National Socialism."

Kolja Mensing sings high prise of Louis de Berniere's latest novel,"Corelli's Mandolin", which has just appeared in German translation as "Traum aus Stein und Federn". "'Corelli's Mandolin' is no more and no less than an attempt to capture in literary form the history of the end of the Osmanian Empire and the founding of modern Turkey.” The novel follows two narrative lines: “While describing the everyday life of the city of Eskibahce and the greater and lesser dramas of its countless fictitious inhabitants, de Berniere also tells the story of an anything but fictitious character... Mustafa, born in 1881 in Thessaloniki to Turkish parents. Named 'Kemal' or 'the perfect one' at school for his extraordinary talents, he makes a steep career in the military and many years later goes down in the history books as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder the Turkish nation." This combination of "detailed historic synopses" and "fantastic stories" draws comparisons with Tolstoy's "War and Peace". Mensing writes: "But more striking than the similarities are the fundamental differences. Because while Tolstoy described war in the middle of the 19th century as a natural force that comes over humanity, elevating history metaphysically to 'the unconsciousness of mankind', Berrnieres, born in 1954, traces... how the carefully worded decisions of politicians and commanders form the basis of the further catastrophes of the 20th century and their remarkable consequences."


Die Tageszeitung, 12.03.2005

Cambridge economic historian Adam Tooze accuses Götz Aly of having 'simply miscalculated' in his latest book "Hitlers Volkstaat" (see In Today's Feuilletons, Thursday 10 March, 2005). Aly puts forward the thesis that Hitler mobilised support for his "dictatorship of benefits" through the exploitation of the occupied countries and the Jews. Tooze supports Aly's initial proposition: "The characterisation of the Holocaust as robbery and murder is something we have become used to in recent years. The courts and historians tend to understand this process as an act of private sector enrichment. A false assessment, as Aly's work amply demonstrates." But Tooze notes many flaws in Aly's calculation of war benefits to the public treasury. "Aly miscalculates badly, he proceeds asymmetrically. On the German side, he only considers taxes as contributions to the war. In the case of the foreign contributions, he takes all the revenue together, irrespective of how it was financed." Accusing Aly of disciplinary myopia, Tooze writes: "If Aly could prove that the financial injection from abroad really made it possible for the war costs to be redistributed, then his thesis would be very convincing. At least three generations of economists have worked on this question. But Aly calculates in his own way." Tooze concludes: "To describe the society of Nazi Germany as a dictatorship of complaisance is utterly missing the point."


Monday 14 March, 2005

Frankfurter Rundschau, 14.03.2005

"Is German culture really so poor that it cannot accept such a rich inheritance?" Hungarian author György Dalos is worried about the fate of Werner Schweikert's collection of almost 50,000 German translations of 20th century literature and 20,000 editions of German authors. Since Schweikert's recent death, there have been no offers from the German state to help purchase the collection, while Russia has expressed interest. "In the Federal Republic of Germany, there is no lack of institutions that are ready and almost predestined to give such a collection a worthy home. Evidently, the will to house the Schweikert collection, and the recognition that the expense should be borne, is missing today at both the federal and state levels."


Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 14.03.2005

Hubertus Adam visited "Die Neuen kommen! Weibliche Architektur der 20. Jahre", an exhibition of modern women architects in the Kestner-Museum in Hanover, and discovered works that "throw light onto careers that have been widely ignored by architectural historiography until today. Paula Marie Canthal, for example, who together with her fellow student and husband Dirk Gascard was a rising star on Berlin architecture scene in the late 20s. The illustrated magazines printed her picture, and she won competition after competition. After 1933, an order from the Maharaja of Indore for a luxury train allowed Canthal to emigrate to England."