Frankfurter Rundschau, 19.08.2005

Peter Fuchs, a sociologist and practising Catholic, turns away in disgust from the "benumbing scene of sloppy sentimentality" at the World Youth Day in Cologne, where Pope Benedict XVI yesterday made his first apostolic pilgrimage. "What we see here is a mass spectacle worthy of Leni Riefenstahl (who filmed documentaries of the 1934 Nazi party congress in Nuremberg and the 1936 Olympics in Berlin). The comparison is not only formal, but also functional: there are giga-appeals to the emotions and unbridled expression of feelings, which are used as an instrument to blockade clear thinking. The sayings by German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder 'I feel, therefore I am!' and by Goethe, 'Feeling is everything!' take on new meaning today. Now we say: 'We feel, we are young, we are, and that's all!' It is more than telling that a well-nigh feverish and frenetic cult of the personality is at the core of this powerful display. But it has nothing to do with the collected, simple life of Jesus of Nazareth, who would have had nothing to do with this ruckus."


Die Welt, 19.08.2005

Conductor Daniel Barenboim and his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra – made up of young musicians from the Middle East (more here) – are in Spain rehearsing for an upcoming concert in Ramallah. Manuel Brug went to visit him. "There is no sign of disquiet or tension in Pilas, a former seminary 25 kilometres west of Seville. The bell tower shimmers in the heat, easily made out among the orange and peach groves. There is discrete surveillance at the entry of the campus-like grounds, with their wide courtyards and dormitories, chapel, pool and central auditorium. Heavy marching music can be heard through the thin doors: Daniel Barenboim is rehearsing Mahler's 1st Symphony. For many years, Barenboim was not particularly interested in young talent. 'I had other priorities', he says candidly. 'I like continuity and am no friend of master courses. That's why I hardly appear as guest conductor. In the short rehearsal times you have to be very target-oriented, and concentrate on the programme. I prefer to work on articulation, dynamic and phrasing, and take a relaxed attitude to strict parameters so as not to nail myself down too much. You have to retain your spontaneity. Like with this orchestra. It plays the way it does because we've been working together for years now.'"


Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 19.08.2005

The FAZ preprints excerpts from Jürgen Schreiber's book "Ein Maler aus Deutschland - Gerhard Richter " (a painter from Germany – Gerhard Richter) across two pages. Among other stories, Schreiber has researched into Richter's family members whose photos he painted in large formats in his early years. A tragic story lies behind the portrait of his aunt Marianne, for example. She was interned in a psychiatric clinic in 1938 and murdered in 1945. Schreiber writes: "The boy was still young when the doors of the psychiatric ward closed behind Marianne Schönfelder for ever. When little Gerd played too wildly, his mother would warn him: 'You'll end up like Tante Marianne'. She would blurt this out in moments of irritation, without worrying about the effect such a prophesy could have on a child. He got queasy at the thought. Over the years, Tante Marianne grew to be a frightening figure for him, a shadow over the entire family..."


Die Tageszeitung, 19.08.2005

Tilman Baumgärtel presents the film series "The Scene", which is available only on the Internet in P2P exchanges. The plot: "To gain prestige in the 'scene' of bootleggers and film pirates, Sandro and his gang upload the latest Hollywood blockbusters on the Internet, if possible even before they come out in the USA. To get the newest releases, Sandro maintains good contacts with people working in the film industry and at DVD printers. When he gets a new film, he organises the 'ripping' and publishes it on the Internet. His helpers go by the pseudonyms Teflon, Trooper and c0da, and are pure Internet acquaintances. He has never met them personally. They are not motivated by profits, what they want is a reputation in the 'Scene'."


Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 19.08.2005

Karl Lüönd reports on an symposium on the history of the newspaper taking place at the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz. "Two dozen participants presented their work, from some extremely specialised areas. Some of the findings could give a lesson in humility to journalists and editors particularly absorbed with their own importance. Research in England, France, Scandinavia and elsewhere confirms unanimously that the impetus for founding newspapers was not the spread of content, but of advertisements. In London in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, booksellers, theatre managers and holders of medical patents all invested in founding newspapers, to gain a platform for products they had on offer." Even the newspaper entrepreneur as "neutral 'content provider'" is an invention of the 17th century, we discover.