“I’m No Prophet”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with head of Deutsche Telekom Ron Sommer on the sharp drop in the value of Telekom shares, the anger of the shareholders and Telekom’s controversial real estate transactions:

Of course I’m also responsible for the price of the shares. But the collapse in the price is not confined to Telekom alone. This is a global stock market issue, and it involves a fundamental problem: how can financial systems be improved in such a way that companies are not all lumped together? It is inexplicable why all the companies in a particular industry should collapse on the stock exchange at the same time. It would be more logical to me if Company A were to collapse because it was in trouble, and Company B stayed up because business was going well for it. If that kind of distinction existed, Telekom’s shares would be valued distinctly higher. … The rumours about the alleged incorrect valuation of our real estate property has been around for as long as I’ve been with Telekom. With a balance sheet total of 250 billion, the devaluation by just under four billion marks has never played any role on the actual marketplace.

“The Perpetrators Were Polish”

SPIEGEL interview with Avigdor Niewawieki, one of the few survivors of the Jedwabne pogrom, on anti-Semitism and collaboration during the Second World War:

I find it terrible that many Polish people still won’t face up to their country’s anti-Semitic past. They’ve got to realise that the cheering perpetrators were Polish. On the morning of the worst killings they even came along with horse-drawn carts to loot the houses of the dead Jews as soon as the pogrom was over. … Relations between Jews and Poles became worse and worse in the 1930s. Most of the traders on the market of Wisna were Jews. Attacks became more and more frequent, stalls were smashed or looted. Often nationalist groups were behind these attacks, such as the Narodove, who organised the boycott of Jewish stores from 1936 onwards. Wisna even had an anti-Semitic co-operative, set up by the nationalists to prevent Polish people from having to buy from Jews. So the Jedwabne massacre was preceded by a long previous history. The perpetrators didn’t just appear out of the blue. … Some of my relatives were hidden by Poles, too. But far more were killed either by Poles or with their help. Many Polish people collaborated with the Germans.”

“We Are to Be Made into Slaves”

SPIEGEL interview with the Mufti of Jerusalem, on Israel’s acts of violence and the new intifada of the Palestinians:

A war would be entirely to Sharon’s taste. Except that the world isn’t going to give him the go-ahead for that, nor will even his own people, who are by no means only made up of friends of Sharon. … The intifada will only die down when Israel’s machinery of oppression is switched off and when the settlers who are firing away at random give up their Wild West manners. Before that, nothing goes.

“You Only Win If You Want to Win”

Candidate for chancellorship: Bavarian prime minister Edmund Stoiber denies having any aspirations, while at the same time preparing to challenge Chancellor Schröder in the 2002 general elections. He has arranged for his new biography to be published at the end of the year. He has always adroitly adapted his views to suit his office, and his career has not been dominated by any single political issue that is close to Stoiber’s heart, if anything it has followed a particular method – and that method is not very different from the Chancellor’s.

The Commission for Immigration, set up by the German government under the leadership of the former President of the Parliament, Rita Süssmuth, is to present the results of one year’s work. The Commission establishes that Germany is, in fact, no longer just German, but a country of immigrants, like the US. And, also like the US, Germany needs to start fighting for qualified personnel on an international level.

“Frozen into a Ritual”

Parliament: Almost without resistance, the Bundestag is allowing itself to be disenfranchised. More and more laws are made in Brussels, Chancellor Schröder takes care of the rest in consensus talks, committees and expert councils. The more often councils and government committees present completed concepts, the more parliament has no option but to simply approve preconceived decisions. The growing trend towards focusing on individuals in political reporting is also moving the parliament out of the limelight. The public stage-managing of politics focuses on the doers, decision-makers, movers – in other words the Chancellor, his ministers, and maybe the leaders of the parties and parliamentary groups. What goes on behind the scenes – the time-consuming committee work, endless group meetings, hearings – elicits no response and is unsuitable for being communicated in short 30-second sound-bytes.

DER SPIEGEL has taken a look at the records of Katharina Witt compiled by the Stasi, the former East German internal intelligence agency. Witt has filed to prevent the release of these documents. DER SPIEGEL reveals what they contain.

“It’s War, Man”

Brazil: Rio de Janeiro is drowning in violence. After bestial murders there is a cry for vigorous action and harsh measures, but the police is among the most corrupt in the world. Now a new chief-of-police is to sweep the place clean - once again.

“The Battle over Little India”

Great Britain: The English town of Leicester will be the first European city with a white minority. Some people fear it could become a “powder keg”, particularly since political parties are turning the topic of racism into an election issue. The town itself says: “We are a model.” Is it right?

“Expiring Forgeries”

Crime: Some six months before the introduction of the euro, time is running out for tax evaders and gangsters. Hot and forged bank notes have to be put on the market. Banks and building societies around the country are, in fact, reporting more and more cases of suspected money laundering, as they are legally obliged to do when they come across dubious transactions.

“Sound of Pebbles”

Linguistics: The Caucasus is home to a Babylonian multitude of languages. Many of them only survive in a few remote mountain villages. Linguists have worked out that a language dies somewhere in the world every 14 days. The Caucasus is particularly hard hit by this extinction of languages. In linguistic terms the Caucasian languages are particularly valuable because they do not belong to the family of Indo-European languages, for which plenty of written sources exist. The base twenty system of counting that is widespread among Caucasian languages, and which departs from the decimal system that is advancing throughout the world, shows that the demise of languages involves more than just a few strange gutturals. As Russian author Vyacheslav Ivanov put it, every language that disappears takes with it its own model of the universe.

“Clinical Trials in Two Years’ Time”

SPIEGEL interview with stem cell pioneer Peter Mountford on the opportunities offered by embryo research, the drugs of the future and the ethical limits of biotechnology:

If you put a stem cell inside a body, it grows and unfolds its beneficial effect. This means it holds the potential for genuine healing. The first products will be liquids full of stem cells which come from some foreign donor. The problem of the rejection response therefore still needs to be dealt with. … Business and ethics are two very different things. I doubt whether a technology should be permitted because it has commercial benefits. But of course economic considerations are always there in the background. You can’t hide the fact that a huge industry could arise from this, though as yet the beef is in research.

“Skyward on Usedom”

Space travel: He wanted to fly to the moon and he designed a weapon of terror, the V2: Wernher von Braun, chief rocket engineer in Peenemünde, wrote a precarious chapter in the history of technology. Now a museum is being set up on the disused test site, revealing the shady beginnings of space travel. First came the Nazis, then the National People’s Army NVA, and finally the Federal Property Administration. The site covers an area of 25 square meters and is regarded as the birthplace of space ship travel. Now the dilapidated rocket site is to be turned into Germany’s most extensive monument. If everything goes as planned, small groups of visitors will soon be stomping around the no-go zone, accompanied by a guide to lead them through the grounds which are contaminated by ammunition. Internal plans provide for a total of six different routes through the rocket jungle.

“Mass Grave by the Launch Pad”

SPIEGEL interview with historian Jens-Christian Wagner on former German President Heinrich Lübke’s role in the deployment of concentration camp inmates in Peenemünde:

“Heinrich Lübke was the chief building supervisor in Peenemünde. What is clear is that between 1943 and 1945 he was responsible for the deployment of concentration camp inmates … The picture of an immaculate Peenemünde on the one hand, and a hell-hole in the distant assembly tunnels in the Harz mountains, is no longer tenable. There were two concentration camp outposts on the site. … Lübke was the head of the Schlempp construction team on Usedom, which put up buildings for the later arms minister Albert Speer. Lübke drove ahead the planning in Peenemünde and co-ordinated the various firms. And as the building supervisor he was responsible for the deployment of personnel.”

“In Long-Tail Paradise”

Pets: Over the past thousand years the brown rat has come closer and closer to human beings. The more complex and densely populated a human settlement, the happier rats feel – which is why New York is their world capital. Town rats have become far larger over the years than country rats. They are stronger, more fertile and more versatile. They learn. Rats test their food. When a rat dies, the other rats avoid the bait. They avoid places where traps are set up. They use a town’s infrastructure as though it had been made just for them. The more networked the city, the more mobile the rats. According to pest controllers, the rats know the subway maps better than the rail workers themselves.