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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Writer Burkhard Spinnen tries to give definition to the thin line between literature and politics. Ukraine struggles to find a coherent national identity as Poland and Germany try to reach a common understanding. Comprehensive schools seem doomed to failure in Berlin. And high rises are now measured for their curves, not their height.
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Elfriede Jelinek gave her head over to director Nicolas Stemann for his world premiere of "Ulrike Maria Stuart." The fact that the Berlin staging of "Idomeneo" is not to be cancelled doesn't even register on Al-Jazeera's radar screens. Die Welt takes a compassionate look back at Wilhelm Furtwängler. And with a double bill of Strauss and Rihm, Kent Nagano has truly arrived in Munich.
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The Habermas-eats-evidence affair is overblown, writes the SZ, and fatuous according to the FAZ. Jürgen Habermas gave first aid classes in the Hitler Youth, but he didn't swallow the incriminating document when confronted with it years later. Hungarian writer György Dalos looks back to 1956 which preceded the "Kadar-sausage" era. And the NZZ reports on the inevitable advent of PR creep into the blogosphere.
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Singer Wolf Biermann growls out a protest song about the German betrayal of Israel today. Composer Wolfgang Rihm recounts a lesson in spicy composing he received from a star cook. Writer Tahar Ben Jelloun says Morocco should step in to stop its youth fleeing. And Charlotte Gainsbourg has finally freed herself from the musical clutches of Big Papa.
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Author Peter Nadas remembers the burning significance of spilt milk during the Hungarian Uprising. Another Hungarian writer, Zsuzsa Bank, remembers how her parents were squashed into history books. The NZZ looks at why the Cultural Revolution has never been so taboo in China. The TAZ has murderous thoughts at the Rebbecca Horn retrospective. And Swiss writer Michel Mettler describes what goes through peoples minds when they find out he lives in Aargau.
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This year's Donaueschinger Music Festival is bursting at the seams with contemporary music fans. An exhibition of works by concept artist Stephen Willats shock-freezes time. The Bremen exhibition "I'm busy" looks at our neurotic approach to work. And the jury's out on whether curator Klaus Biesenbach, new head of MoMA media, is a networking genius or just plain slimy.
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The taz portrays Faiza Guene, the "Francoise Sagan of the banlieus", and her second novel "Dreams for the Crazy." The feuilletons commemorate the start of the Hungarian Uprising 50 years ago. György Konrad remembers it as riot of language; Die Welt looks at why Janos Kadar left his country to the Soviet tanks, and writer George Hodos remembers the real start of the uprising.
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Historian Niall Ferguson said George Bush would do well to take a lesson from Winston Churchill in matters of POW handling. The SZ is staggered by the provincialism of the Federal Court judge who suggested Berlin sacrifice culture to its 60 billion euro debt. For Die Tageszeitung, Russia's hopes lie in the insolubility of its questions. And Die Welt reports on the oldest civilisation in South America.
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Neil MacGregor, head of the British Museum, sees cultural history in three dimensions at the newly opened Bode Museum in Berlin. Die Zeit learns about killer cocktails at the fast-paced film festival in Korea. Die Welt remembers Imre Nagy, leader of the Hungarian Uprising of 1956, as a political slowhand. Stefan Krohmer's film "Summer 04" blends French elegance and German earnest. And the taz talks fashion for the underclass.
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The feuilletons take up the "Unterschicht" or underclass debate. Sociologist Heinz Bude says Germans have to face the gulf between those who live in a world of opportunities, and those who don't. Political scientist Herfried Münkler explains why atomic weapons could once more become a viable option for countering lunatic states. And a group of architects who have shaped the face of Berlin argue about the nicest place to have a quiet drink.
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After she got everyone in a flap by cancelling Mozart's "Ideomeneo" where the heads of Muhammad and friends all roll, Kirsten Harms' staging of "Germania" at the Deutsche Oper has audiences booing and critics scratching their heads. The Ensemble Modern turns 25 this year, and the FR portrays percussionist Rumi Ogawa. And despite no one ever having heard of him, Kai Hensel is one of the biggest names in German theatre.
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On the hundredth anniversary of Hannah Arendt's birth, Israeli historian Idith Zertal explains why the political philosopher still provokes controversy in Israel, while the Berliner Zeitung thrills at the sheer sex appeal of Arendt's intelligence. The NZZ looks at reactions in the Turkish press to Orhan Pamuk's receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature. Die Welt enjoys the quixotic wheelchair constuctions by the trap-maker of German contemporary art. And Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi conducts Sibelius' doom-and-gloom "Kullervo".
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This year's Nobel Prize in Literature goes to Turkish author Orhan Pamuk. The feuilletons voice unanimous approval, stressing the author's literary merit above and beyond political considerations. Pamuk's publisher tells how he identified the author immediately as one who could explain the East to the West and the West to the East. The NZZ tells why Pamuk gave up painting for writing, and composer Tayfun Erdem talks about his friend Pamuk, whose work he's never read.
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Russian philosopher Michail Ryklin and Chechen journalist Mainat Abdullayeva both evoke the climate of fear in Russia after the murder of Anna Politkovskaya. Die Zeit previews the Bode Museum, Berlin's "Sleeping Beauty," which will reveal its sculptural treasures when it reopens in a week. And Le Corbusier's silo to God, the St. Pierre Church in Firminy, is now complete after a 40-year construction delay.
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Perlentaucher prints one of the last published texts of Anna Politkovskaya. Historian Saul Friedländer disagrees with his colleague Götz Aly on what the Nazis were really after. Die Welt discusses fears that RomeFilmFest is blowing too much money on stars. The FAZ sees Toronto putting itself on the map of cultural metropolises, and Vladimir Sorokin offers a glimpse into an anti-Western, Chinese-fuelled Russia of the future.
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Nobel Prize winner Imre Kertesz explains the deadly paradox of writing in freedom. The second ArtBeijing trade fair suggests the Chinese art hype is on the wane. Romanian artist Peter Jacobi illuminates his Holocaust memorial. And the FAZ praises Anna Politkovskaya's relentless pursuit of the truth.
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All of the papers comment on the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. For the FAZ, her head on a platter was a perfect birthday present for President Putin's 54th. Der Standard prints an interview with the journalist from 2005, where she talks about the risks for her and her informants. The Berliner Zeitung does not expect much sympathy from Politkovskaya's Russian colleagues, while the taz calls her murder the death blow to moral Russia.
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The NZZ finds new appreciation for Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany's curses. Artist Rebecca Horn is glad to give the public something to talk about other than body landscapes. James Ellroy, author of "The Black Dahlia," enjoys living in a vacuum. And the taz asks if Germany's literature industry has a focus.
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Die Zeit takes a look at the current crop of American geeks. The taz - following Foreign Minister Steinmeier - reconsiders Germany as a cultural nation. Vaclav Havel is honoured in his multifariousness on his seventieth birthday. Feridun Zaimoglu warns of the growing threat of white trash. And artist Olafur Eliasson takes Kandinsky at his word by showing his work in varying lights.
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Various positions on India, country in focus at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair: V.S. Naipaul suggests that India may never know literary greatness while Kiran Desai marvels at a country being bombarded with tiramisu and French brandy sniffers. A podium discussion on the cancellation of "Idomeneo" provides a stage for feminine antics. And Islam critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali talks about the fallibility of the Prophet.
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V.S. Naipaul on the happiest people in the world: the Bangladeshis. Another Indian writer Mahesh Dattani on public tonsil exploration in Germany. Austrian cabaret artist Alfred Dorfer on the dire political situation in his country. And historian Dan Diner on Saul Friedländer's lastest Holocaust book which focuses, unusually these days in Germany, on anti-Semitism per se.
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