Deutschland the Dull
‘This is a German election and a Brit may argue you wouldn’t expect a flamboyant spectacle. But the current lethargy is a peculiar one’
Politics, Ideas and the Arts
Publisher Be Damned
The feud at Germany’s most respected publishing house reads like a passage from Vanity Fair written by Thomas Mann
Assessing Angela
‘At the election in September, Germans will have to decide whether Angela Merkel’s modesty and prudence are proof enough of her virtue’
Turkish Wrath
‘Despite the Turkish origins of most of the victims, the Munich court failed to allocate a single press seat in the Zschäpe murder trial to a Turkish media outlet’
Germany’s Surprising Scepticism
‘Germany is seeing a definite increase in Euroscepticism—and now it’s coming from the Left too’
Dirty Old Mensch
'"You could certainly fill a dirndl," the elder statesman said, before taking her hand, kissing it and propositioning her'
Trashyplatz
‘Strolling around Alexanderplatz one cold but sunny afternoon, I was surprised at just how trashy it is’
Olympian Angst
'Germans longed for Olympic medals as validation, but were surprised at how London rose to the occasion'
The Wagner Family Soap Opera Rolls On
'The Wagner family has never let Bayreuth and the festival out if its grip — today it is still run by two of Richard's great-granddaughters'
From Art as Life to Blood and Soil
'While between 1895 and 1945 the German debate over how to be modern resulted in a global killing-field, a group of artists in Worpswede set down their visions for a 20th century
Betrayed by Günter Grass
'I was fond of my father's old friend Günter Grass. I'd like to think he knew better'
We’re Good Europeans Yet They All Hate Us
In 1953 Thomas Mann called “not for a German Europe, but a European Germany”. Now we have both—and neither is happy