1968 ? for some the year awakens memories, for others it is history. Images like those created by Michael Ruetz (born 1940) play a crucial role in our collective memory, mediating between contemporary witnesses and later generations....
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Baden-Württemberg's premier Günther Oettinger made a few off comments in his speech at the funeral of his predecessor Hans Filbinger last week. Namely that Filbinger, who had worked as a judge for the National Socialist regime, had opposed the Nazis. Having been rapped on the knuckles by Angela Merkel, Oettinger recanted, as little as possible. Then he granted himself an apology. Arno Widmann is not impressed.
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West Germany casts a mistrustful glance at Berlin, the city of lazy pleasure-seekers. And it comes down to this: the exhausted are envious of the detached. A polemic by Jens Jessen
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Citizenship tests are now all the rage in Europe. Britain and the Netherlands have made tests mandatory, and Germany is thinking of following suit. But opponents claim the proposed questions unfairly target Muslims and could not be answered by many Germans. Are you fit to become German? Find out with the 100 questions proposed by the German state of Hesse.
Send us your answers to: editor@signandsight.com. Thekla Dannenberg, editor and clever-clogs in German politics and history, will review your applications and notify you of her decision.
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There's a general feeling that the German economy is in the dumps, and that by refusing to spend their money, the Germans aren't exactly helping things. Author Peter Schneider muses on miserliness in one of the world's wealthiest countries.
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Germany's new grand coalition government has announced its objectives in the form of a contract: 143 pages of well-intentioned, naval-gazing blindness. The challenge facing Germany, says Arno Widmann, is not the aftermath of reunification, but a united Europe and globalisation.
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Moritz Rinke, playwright and astute observer of the passing political scene, comments on Gerhard Schröder's cozy relationship with artists and the media. And the fact that while everybody seemed to like him, nobody really got to know him.
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Joschka Fischer, Germany's former Foreign Minister and figurehead of the Green Party, has now announced he will be retiring from politics altogether. In an interview with the taz given in September 2005, Fischer reflects on what his coming retirement means for his party, his country and himself.
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There was something surreal about Gerhard Schröder's appearance on national television on election 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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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
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Tanja Dückers writes a 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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Why I'm getting involved in the current federal election campaign. By Eva Menasse
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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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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.
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The results of the federal elections have left Germany in something of a political muddle. After both mainstream parties (SPD and CDU) declared themselves victor, the coalition negotiations began. By October 18, a new chancellor has to have been named. We've put together a dossier of relevant articles on the elections and their aftermath: Arno Widmann writes that Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has dropped his media mask, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht describes the penchant for paradox hanging over the entire election, Jörg Lau runs over the spectrum of protagonists. Eva Menasse and Tanja Dückers debate the role writers should take in the election campaign...
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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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