DER SPIEGEL has access to internal documents that shed light on the true course of events surrounding the sale of the Telekom shares by Deutsche Bank. The bank sold 44 million Telekom shares just one day after advising customers to buy them, leading to a sharp drop in the share price by over 20 percent.

DER SPIEGEL has new information about the wheelings and dealings during the take-over of Mannesmann by Vodafone.

“No Compromises?”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with Ford manager Wolfgang Reitzle on quarterly reports, golf tournaments and his strategy for the luxury brands Jaguar, Volvo, Landrover, Aston Martin and Lincoln:

“As luxury brands spread further and further, so they lose a little of their individuality. … If cars with a star on their bonnets are sticking out of five garages in your neighbourhood, you might consider whether you wouldn’t stand out more with a different brand of car. And that’s one of the opportunities for our strategy. … The Ford Motor Company expects us to achieve higher returns than the mass market business. And the budget talks leave nobody much room for long-winded excuses. … But we have to find the right balance between delivering good results in the short term, and pursuing a long-term strategy. … The Volkswagen Group is undoubtedly a very interesting manufacturer in Europe. But Ford is so busy with its own business and the premium group that there’s no room for take-overs of that kind at the moment."

“Sarajevo Salsa”

Bosnia Herzegovina: Six years after the end of the bloody siege by the Serbs, Sarajevo remains a city of ruins – and incurable psychological wounds. The first ray of hope comes from a peaceful invasion: backpackers from the West are finding their new paradise here. Can Sarajevo, the Olympic city of 1984, undergo a renaissance again now? Or is this town, which was besieged for longer than any other in recent times and bombarded with two million grenades, condemned to eternal hatred between hostile ethnic groups? The nightmares are becoming fewer. They are being replaced by hope. Optimism, based on history. Because the town of Sarajevo was always a very special place, a symbol of the peaceful and mutually stimulating cohabitation of different cultures.

“Poor Fairy-Tale Country”

Brunei: The ruling Bolkiah clan is struggling to avoid financial collapse. Even selling off all the possessions of Prince Jefri, who had fallen out of favour, has failed to change the tide. For through his family’s absurd extravagance the ruler has already severely ruined the once flourishing prosperity of his oil sheikhdom with its mere 320,000 inhabitants. Political resistance against the course taken by the royal head of state is at best restrained. Since 1962, the Bolkiahs have been ruling with the help of the “Internal Security Act”, a kind of emergency law which largely waives civil rights and allows opponents of the regime to be persecuted at will.

“Deadly Hunt”

Contemporary history: In 1944, after an Allied air raid, the people of Rüsselsheim fell upon US pilots being held as prisoners of war. Six men died. One survivor is now returning. The pilots had no idea that people in Germany were in the mood for lynching because of the terror bombing by the Allied Forces. Berlin historian Jörg Friedrich estimates that there were over 100 cases of lynching during the Second World War.

“Code Name ‘Fritz’”

Series: A bitter realisation in Prague – the Czech communists, too, co-operated with proven German Nazi criminals. They were used as agents against West Germany – in return for being spared from prosecution. Staff at the Department for Documenting and Solving the Crimes of Communism (UDV) in Prague are laboriously burrowing through files that were treated as secret classified information for decades under the socialist regime – with good reason. Because – much as in the case of former East Germany – what the workers at the UDV are now uncovering destroys the last nimbus of communist ideology: the supposedly radical fight against National Socialism and fascists.

“The Real Women of the Demimonde”

Authors: Throughout his life, the writer Heinrich Mann had a bizarre penchant for plump women – drawings recently discovered in the USA now show just how strong this really was. Heinrich Mann’s liking for excessively fat, ‘loose’ women does not only reveal the typical tastes of his time, but also a life-long defiance, a pointed demonstration of not-belonging in his refusal to pursue this inclination covertly. Right to the end, he challenged the morals, the tastes of the bourgeoisie, and ultimately the laws of his father.

"Positively Butchered"

SPIEGEL cover story: The skull and crossbones are undergoing a renaissance on the oceans of the world. More and more often, yachts, freighters, but also tankers are being plundered and hijacked. Japan already sees its main supply artery as being seriously threatened, while pirate hunters worry that ships with no one at the helm could cause environmental disasters. The International Maritime Bureau (IMB), an organisation of banks, insurance companies and shipping companies in London, registered 469 attempted attacks by pirates over the past year – 56 percent more than the year before. But many incidents are not even reported in view of the resulting paperwork this involves, so the number of cases that go unreported could well be three times as high. The estimated damage caused by pirates comes to about three billion dollars a year. And last year 77 people died at the hands of pirates.

“Selayang, Oh God, Can You Hear Us?”

The Strait of Malacca is a pirate’s paradise. They come from the impoverished coast of Indonesia and raid ships carrying the treasures of the world economy. The most recent victim: a tanker belonging to Shell. On board: 3500 tonnes of fuel oil and a crew of 14. Piracy pays. 500 dollars for a murder on board, a month’s pay for an ordinary seaman. A dock worker who reveals what cargo a ship is carrying gets 1000 dollars, a captain who allows himself to be bought off gets 10,000 dollars, and a pirate can make 20,000 dollars per operation. But the people at the top can earn many hundreds of thousands of dollars with 3500 tonnes of oil, and a great deal more if the ship subsequently sails for them. Who is on which side, who are the goodies and who the baddies, is a matter of chance, and things could be entirely different again tomorrow.

“War against the Whole World”

Pirate shipwrecks: Pirates left behind only few concrete items – in particular their ships. The schooners and brigantines were lost for centuries. But over the past years, archaeologists and professional treasure-hunters have used state-of-the-art technology to find a number of pirate ships. The most recent discovery was made by the German Klaus Keppler, head of the treasure-seekers’ joint-stock association “Sea Explorer”: in the middle of May he not only located Henry Morgan’s “Jamaica Merchant” off the south coast of Haiti, but also another large square-rigged vessel dating back to around 1670, which probably belonged to the fleet of the legendary buccaneer Morgan.

“Hunting Fever in the Promised Land”

Boxing: Promoter Klaus-Peter Kohl showed great skill in turning two Ukrainian heavyweight boxers into German brand products. But now that Vladimir Klichko appears to be strong enough for America, his career planning seems to have got stuck. The powerful US boxing managers are haggling for the white world champion. The US market has been waiting for a man like Vladimir Klichko for a long time – young, smart and jovial. Meanwhile Kohl is doggedly defending his treasure and dreaming of a combine of European television networks to create a counterweight to the USA. But it seems doubtful whether the Klichkos will remain loyal to the German manager who paved the way for them, once the powerful US promoters start offering them fame, title fights and million-dollar fees.