SPIEGEL Surfs the Web The Bridge at Remagen
The Miracle at Remagen
The Remagen railroad bridge in southern Germany has been immortalized in books and film, and for good reason. In the history of World War II, the bridge plays a central role. Miraculously, it alone among the bridges spanning the Rhine on Germany's western border was taken intact by the Allies. That allowed them to transport troops and artillery quickly into Germany and greatly sped up the invasion of the Ruhr industrial area, key to their plans for victory. The bridge's capture came exactly 60 years ago, on March 7, 1945. You can read a history of the bridge's importance , or look at a series of photos on the Rhine crossings.
Freebird Martha Flaps Her Wings Once Again
Homemaker extraordinaire Martha Stewart was released from jail on Friday morning following a five- month stint for lying about insider trading. Martha fans are, of course, beside themselves with joy. Ever on the look-out for new looks, Martha undoutedly has a host of new prison-inspired suggestions for American housewives. Martha herself is delighted to be out, but in an open letter on her Web site , she also says that her time in the clink taught her a lot and she laments that she will be leaving a number of new-found friends. At the same time, Martha's most die hard friends are campaigning for President Bush to issue her a pardon and have even posted a video of Martha boarding her private jet for the trip home. (Not surprisingly, the Web site's homegrown poll has found that 70 percent of Americans believe Martha is being treated unfairly by the media.) Finally, what would American homes look like if Martha were a goth?
German Culture in English
Perlentaucher, German for "pearl diver," has long been one of the best-kept secrets of the German Internet. Each day, its editors cull the pages of the feuilleton sections of the country's top newspapers and present the best of the lot. What the heck is a feuilleton page, you might be asking? Imagine a philosopher like Jacques Derrida hijacking the Washington Post "Style" pages and you'd get a pretty clear idea -- you get everything from musings and rants on the Iraq war to meditations on this season's Prada. At times insightful and entertaining, at others simply pretentious and impenetrable, the feuilleton pages play an important part of the national dialog here. Since its inception, Perlentaucher has done a great job of filtering the best of the German feuilleton into small, well-written truffles. This week, Perlentaucher launched Sign and Sight , the latest entrant in the growing English-language media in Germany and the first continental European companion to Arts & Letters Daily , a Web site American intellectuals have long known and loved. The site includes Perlentaucher's respected daily press review along with translations of a handful of editorials from major German media.
