Der Tagesspiegel, 26.07.2006

Nazi hunter Beate Klarsfeld has prepared an exhibition about more than 150 Jewish children deported via the Nazi-era Reichsbahn railway company, which she wants to show in German train stations. A similar project was tremendously successful in France. But the Deutsche Bahn will have nothing to do with it, reports Thomas Lackmann: "Private images of murdered children at the 'authentic location' of their deportation – in contrast to the workings of today's anonymous machinery. The Deutsche Bahn says nothing of anxieties about customer pleasure. Instead, in talks with the creators of the exhibition, the spokesperson maintains that Deutsche Bahn is not the legal successor of the Reichsbahn. That is the Federal Republic of Germany. There are security problems. Train stations are an undignified location for such a theme! The Bahn does not have enough money or personnel. They do not want to disturb their five million daily customers, but would be happy to show the photographs near the train stations, or at the Ministry of Transportation, or at the Nuremberg Train Museum."


Die Tageszeitung, 26.07.2006

On the opinion page, writer Zafer Senocak meditates about the clash of cultures, and believes that neither bombs nor dialogue will contain Islam: "But how would it be to carry on a self-critical dialogue – an internal dialogue, a debate within one's own camp? To hold, for example, the US government accountable for the crimes it committed in Iraq? Would such an approach strengthen or weaken the Western values it seeks to defend? How would it be if the Iranian president heard the same protest about his unbearable Holocaust denial from Muslim clergy as he hears from the West? Only then can there really be a dialogue, an exchange of ideas and values." But isn't the idea of self-critical conversation also a Western one?


Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 26.07.2006

Islamic scholar Maurus Reinkowski gives a knowledgeable overview of Lebanese history and concludes: "In any case, Lebanon has had a major setback in its attempt to seek a new path, independently of Syria and the conflicts of old. But in fact this is not at all to the advantage of Israel, which would profit most from a well-meaning Lebanese neighbour. This demonstrates the dilemma of Israeli politics, and the futility of all endeavours so long as the fundamental problem, namely the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, has not been solved."


Die Welt, 26.07.2006

Manuel Brug portrays Christine Schäfer, a downright idiosyncratic soprano who has just released a new CD featuring Schubert's "Winterreise". Brug calls the recording "fragile and jarringly cold," and continues: "Starting today, Schäfer will sing the role of Cherubino in Mozart's 'Le Nozzi di Figaro' at the Salzburg Festival. A blond, lucid soprano child, an unkissed eros, still innocently unaware of sexual appetite. Her almost vibrato-less tone, her brilliant infatuation, unsullied by the sweat of youth, her opaque, porcelain figure – that may well be a matter of taste."


Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 26.07.2006

Despite having a few things to say against Johnny Depp's second pirate film "Pirates of the Caribbean 2,"Michael Althen still thoroughly enjoyed it. "The film is so craftily written that in one dialogue it picks up on the old surrealist joke that the image of a key is not in fact a key. This, too, is not a pirate film, but merely its tongue-in-cheek image. When Depp thrusts his knife into a sail to slow his fall, he repeats a stunt performed by Douglas Fairbanks in 'The Black Pirate.' But Anthony Lane in the New Yorker was not entirely wrong when he quipped that Depp is less Fairbanks than he is Mary Pickford."

Gerhard Rohde has heard composer Johannes Maria Staud's "Music for Cello and Orchestra" at the Salzburg Festival, which is dedicated this year to Mozart. "Staud's work picks up on the tribute to Mozart. It starts with an entire orchestrated version of Mozart's sketch KV annex 46 (374g), before making an abrupt transition to the world of new music. The solo cello (played by the good-humoured Heinrich Schiff) and orchestra surge vehemently forward, often with tiny moments of friction. The notation 'Wild and over-accentuated' is written repeatedly in the score, as is 'unleashed' and 'agile and accentuated'... With its impetuous forward thrusts, Staud's composition reminds one of some of Wolfgang Rihm's pieces. It is compelling for its compactness and finely tuned tonalities."