Die Zeit, 22.09.2005

Author Juli Zeh regrets the exclusive concentration by the political parties on economic values during the recent federal elections in Germany: "The rhetorical concentration on job creation and economic growth is exacerbating the comparatively high trust in the state and the establishment in this country. The disadvantage of our guileless respect for social and economic progress is increasingly on the public mind. But as long as politicians' economic promises and the attitude of the media create the impression that "those people up there" can and will get economic matters under control for us, nothing will come of the prayer-wheel type demand for increased personal responsibility."


Süddeutsche Zeitung, 22.09.2005

According to Hamburg sociologist Heinz Bude, Gerhard Schröder failed to give the SPD a "new intellectual face". "What is missing is a social democratic narrative that would make the last chapter in the long history of German social democracy understandable in the context of the new social democratic era of Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Lionell Jospin and finally Gerhard Schröder. Something has happened that will set the standard for the future. What was it? ... In order to master this difficult ideological manoeuvre one needs to introduce a distinction between 'old' and 'new' social democracy. That's primarily what Tony Blair did. Today, 'New Labour' is the classic model of the dauntless continuation of the social democratic narrative. Gerhard Schröder neglected to take part in a similar clearing out exercise in the SPD, which is why there is nobody to play the part of a sharp differentiator."

Thomas Thiemeyer presents the ideas of French historian and anthropologist Sophie Wahnich, who recently diagnosed in the journal Etudes a 'de-heroisation' and obsession with pity in contemporary representations of history: "For Wahnich, the aesthetic of 'de-heroisation' in recent exhibitions, which turns away from heroes and concentrates instead on victims, seems to express a change in French representation of the 20th century atrocities of war." Thiermeyer writes that for Wahnich, "the idea of history that lies behind this trend rejects the hero's struggle for a just cause as a legitimate political means, and instead condemns every form of violence. It prefers to commemorate innocent victims rather than soldiers. Moreover, erstwhile heroes have been recast as victims. Images and presentations show the soldiers not in heroic poses but wounded in trenches. Pity is the central affect of this way of thinking."


Frankfurter Rundschau, 22.09.2005

According to Dieter Rulff, the indecisive result of the federal elections is forcing the social democrats to address their inner conflicts, something "it had hoped to avoid doing on the way to new elections. Now the breast of SPD Bundestag members is no longer split. Now they can decide who they wish to embrace. There is no longer a new middle. Rather, two poles head the social democratic movement. Angela Merkel or Oscar Lafontaine, power or morals, a policy of supply or one of demand, cold or warm, Right or Left. Schröder's fight for reelection was not that of a leader, but of an opponent against Lafontaine and Merkel. That leaves the social democrats sitting like lone-ducks in the moment of their victory."


die tageszeitung, 22.09.2005

Do we need a grand coalition to actually get the reforms underway? "I hate the word reform in this context, " says political scientist Alfred Grosser in an interview. "Reforms are structural changes and what we're talking about are limitations which only cost those at the bottom. On the top, nothing will be touched. In France as in Germany, one looks to America and wants to earn as much as the American colleagues while the employees are expected to earn at the level of South Korea or Hungary. There is almost no difference between red and black." Nonetheless, Grosser thinks the grand coalition would be the most sensible thing – but without Merkel or Schröder.

Pop philosopher Diedrich Diederichsen (his German website here) is not unimpressed by "Der wilde Schlag meines Herzens" ("The Beat that my Heart Skipped") , French director Jacques Audiard's remake of James Toback's "Fingers". "This camera has only one goal. Bring me the head of Romain Duris. The backgrounds fade into psychedelic fuzziness. In the foreground, between him and the camera, three Russians are going by – instrumental to the story – but only they figure as blurs of colour. Because what we want to know is what's going through that head. Just that. He's a good-looking asshole who might have once been played by Delon. He deals in real estate, smashes apartment windows and puts rats in the cellars of houses where immigrants live, gambles, puts people under pressure and listens to contemporary dance music through high tech Sony earphones. But unlike Delon, he also has a psychology. Something is going on. In that head."


Die Welt, 22.09.2005

Gabriela Walde takes a look at the large, blood-red cubes announcing the exhibition of the works of Jörg Immendorff, which opens today in Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie. "The show offers a new take on Immendorff's paintings. It shows the 'old' political commentator and storyteller beside the 'new' private, filigree Immendorff. His social and political ambitions have given way to an escapist, almost elitist private mythology of the current day."


Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 22.09.2005

Paul Ingendaay opens the culture pages with a feature on prostitution in Spain, which is becoming increasingly visible and brutal, and worsening Spain's image abroad: "In Spain, sex in all its forms and masquerades is the most important branch of business apart from tourism. Who bears the brunt can be derived from the Spanish language. An 'homre publico' is a man who acts publicly in politics or in social life. By contrast the expression 'mujer publica' means 'prostitute'."