Dramaturgie im zeitgenössischen Tanz ist ? positiv gemeint ? ein heißes Eisen. Idealerweise sind Dramaturginnen und Dramaturgen während der Erarbeitung eines Stücks die besten Freunde der Choreografen.
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It all started with the devastating defeat of the Social
Democrats in
North Rhine-Westphalia; after 39 years in power, they lost the state
elections on May 22 to the CDU. With 37.1 percent of the vote (5.7
percent less than in 2000), the SPD had its worst election results in
the state in 50 years. At the same time the defeat marked the end of
the
last state government coalition of the SDP and the Green Party.
Two things followed: Chancellor Gerhard Schröder immediately declared that he wanted to schedule new elections
in
the autumn of this year. Following a self-initiated parliamentary vote of
non-confidence in his leadership, Schröder now awaits German President
Köhler's decision on whether elections can be held this fall. And in their
anticipation, a new leftist alliance has been founded, the
Linkspartei, bringing together the PDS (successor party to the East
German communist party) and the WASG (the West German Electoral Alternative
for Labour and Social Justice). Polls show the new alliance could win ten
percent of the vote.
The probable fall election has stirred up German politics in a major way: What will become of the labour-oriented SPD? Will the
Linkspartei replace the Greens as Germany's third strongest party? And
above all: What do the conservatives want? We have put together a
collection of articles.
The last rock 'n' roller of German politics
Joschka Fischer, Germany's Foreign Minister and figurehead of the Green Party,
has announced that he will be stepping back from the political front
line with the end of the red-green government. In an interview with the
taz, Fischer reflects on what this means for his party, his country and himself.
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What was Schröder on?
There
was something surreal about Gerhard Schröder's appearence on national
television last night. Although his party was second in the polls,
Schröder saw the victory quite clearly as his own. And anyone who saw
matters differently, an idiot. Arno Widmann asks the question that is on the minds of many Germans today: what was Schröder on?
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Indulging a penchant for paradox
What
do you get when you cross Left and Right? Gerhard Schröder the double
paradox: a chancellor who backs social protest against his own
policies, and a ruler who deprives himself of power in a bid to reclaim
it. By Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht
read more
Standing in file
Tanja Dückers
writes a huffy retort to Eva Menasse's recent claim that German
writers' refusal to take a public stance in the federal election
campaign reflects opportunism.
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Writers! Break free of your routine!
Why I'm getting involved in the current federal election campaign. By Eva Menasse
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Sighing, sweating, screeching
The run-up to the German federal elections is awash with blood, sweat and tears as Schröder, Merkel and Co. give their all. But the voters aren't having any of it. By Jörg Lau
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Merkel's a total cutie!
Christoph Schlingensief's
controversial "Parsifal" is showing at the Wagner Festival for the
second year running. He talks to Tina Hildebrandt and Stephan Lebert
about hero impersonators in politics, zombies in Bayreuth and
pre-election Germany.
read more
The big lie
Sociologist Ulrich Beck
explains why German politicians' idea of full employment is an illusion
and why Kafka's works belong to the classics of sociology.
read more
What do the conservatives want?
If Germany's conservatives win the coming elections in September
they'll be more powerful than ever before. But what do they actually
want? By Gustav Seibt
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Who are Germany's new young conservatives?
Now that Gerhard Schröder has admitted failure to himself and the rest
of the world, German conservatives are being summoned back from
political Siberia and pushed into the spotlight. But are they even
still alive? By Mariam Lau
read more
Writers warn about Linkspartei
A group of German writers have signed a public condemnation against what it sees as dangerously populist sentiments behind the new 'Linkspartei'.
read more
Merkel's new middle
The Germany that makes the headlines is one of hedge-fund 'locusts' and
burgeoning numbers of unemployed. Don't believe the hype: the upcoming
German federal elections will be fought out in the middle. But unless
the Germans stop expecting to be spoon fed by the state, and get
proactive, little will be gained by a change of government. By Paul Nolte
read more
The Berlin Republic
So cunning is history: The cornerstones of the Berlin Republic – the
departure from the social market economy, the rediscovery of war, the
mistrust of the state for its citizens, the historicisation of the
Holocaust – were laid by the West German 68ers. An attempt by a member
of the old German Federal Republic to come to terms with the country he
lives in. By Arno Widmann
read more
Loveable losers in the Ruhrpott
The surprising defeat of the SPD in the state elections in North-Rhine
Westphalia has set a process in motion that will probably result in new
federal leadership in Germany. Writer and comedian Frank Goosen describes in an interview what his fellow Ruhrpotters think about this, if anything at all.
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Why the Russian youth have tolerated the political situation in their country for so long and why they are no longer tolerant. The poet Natalia Klyuchareva explains the background to the protests on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow on December 10th. Image: Leonid Faerberg
Filmmaker and theatre director Andres Veiel disagrees with the parallels currently being drawn between left-wing and right-wing violence in Germany. The RAF is the wrong model for the Zwickau neo-Nazi group, the so-called "Brown Army Faction" responsible for a series of murders of Turkish small business owners. Unlike the RAF, this group never publicly claimed responsibility for their crimes. Veiel is emphatic - you have to look at the biographies of the perpetrators. An interview with Heike Karen Runge.
Germany has been rocked by the disclosures surrounding the series of neo-Nazi murders of Turkish citizens. In the wake of these events, Former GDR dissident Freya Klier calls for an honest look at the xenophobia cultivated by the policies of the former East Germany, where the core of the so-called "Brown Army Faction" was based. And demands that East Germans finally confront a long-denied past. (Photo: © Nadja Klier)
In response to the arson attack on the offices of the Parisian satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on November 2, Danish critic and semiotician Frederik Stjernfelt is nauseated by the opinions voiced against the publication, especially in the British and American media. Why don't they see that Islamism is right-wing extremism?
Activist and author, Andri Snaer Magnason is among the Icelandic guests of honor at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair. His book and film "Dreamland" is both an ecological call to action and a polemic. "The politicians took one of the most beautiful parts of Iceland and offered it to unscrupulous companies," says the author in a critique of his native country. By Daniela Zinser 
In their book "Lügendes Licht" (lying light) Thomas Worm and Claudia Karstedt explore the darker side of the EU ban on incandescent bulbs. From disposal issues to energy efficiency, the low-energy bulb is not necessarily a beacon of a greener future. By Brigitte Werneburg
The malice of the American media in the case of Dominique Strauss-Kahn is a symptom of sexual uptightness that borders on the sinister, and the feminists have joined forces with the religious Right to see it through. We can learn much from America, but not when it comes to the art of love. By Pascal Bruckner
Published a year ago, the controversial book "Deutschland schafft sich ab" (Germany is doing away with itself) by former banker and Berlin Finance Senator Thilo Sarrazin sparked intense discussion. Hamed Abdel-Samad asks: what has the Sarrazin debate achieved beyond polarisation and insult? And how can Germany avoid cultivating its own classes of "future foreigners"?
A Dutch action group for free will wants to give all people the right to assisted suicide. But can this be achieved without us ending up somewhere we never wanted to go? Gerbert van Loenen has grave doubts.