Media: A financial poker game has erupted over the restructuring of Leo Kirch’s multifarious empire, the likes of which have not been seen before in Germany. Never before have the largest German banks duped and tricked each other as dramatically, sometimes even making fools of themselves.

“The Texan and His Rogues”

Cover story: President George Bush has harshly criticised Iraq, Iran and North Korea and put them at the top of his hit list, turning the war against terror into a world-wide hunt for anti-American baddies. But the three states which have suddenly become the focus of the Manichaeian world view, with which Americans reduce complex problems to manageable confrontations between good and evil, have nothing with which to confront the dominant USA in military terms. Nevertheless this superiority appears to offer Washington’s strategists only deceptive security. In their defenceless impotence, so the strategists believe, the “underdogs” are only left with an “asymmetric response”, resorting to unconventional means and weapons. And as Osama bin Laden chillingly demonstrated on September 11, even the greatest military dominance can offer little effective protection from these. That is why Bush is now making every effort to deprive so-called rogue states of such means, before they can be used against America. Yet even Bush’s allies doubt that the accused regimes are as dangerous as he claims.

“Entirely New Scenarios of Menace”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with the president of the Federal Intelligence Service, August Hanning, on the structures and backers behind international terrorism, America’s campaign against evil, and the continuing threat posed by Bin Laden’s Al Qaida cells:

“The issue of promoting international terrorism does not apply to North Korea at all at the moment. Iran, too, has to be viewed more discriminatingly … Saddam’s lack of willingness so far rightly justifies the USA’s demand of implementing effective United Nations inspections. Iraq is accused of purchasing weapons of mass destruction. That is the decisive point. … Western services – including the [German] Federal Intelligence Service – were aware that terrorists were being trained in Afghanistan. We also know that up until September 11 this was receiving support from Pakistan and from other countries. No one was able to envisage the dimension of the attacks of September 11. … I think that the structures of Al Qaida in Afghanistan have indeed been destroyed, because they have been deprived of their state protection. But to this day we don’t know what structures exist in Europe, and to what extent they too have been damaged or destroyed. There is still a lot of work to be done there.”

“Everyone Has a Right to Survive”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with Rolf Krebs, president of the world-wide Pharmaceutical Manufacturer’s Association, on expensive drugs and large profits, exploding medical costs and his ideas about a fundamental reform of the health services:

“On average we have to spend about 500 million dollars on a successful product. And you’ll only find margins of 30 percent in the United States. European companies are about half that, if they’re good. … We simply can no longer afford to provide standard health care services according to the definition of the World Health Organisation, WHO, that “you have to feel fine”. The system of support should only go into action when there is an acute threat to life. … Certainly chronic diseases should also be covered in addition to the treatment of acute illnesses. To do that would require a contribution rate of about ten percent of people’s gross salary. With the rest of the money people could then buy drugs for self-medication, if they chose to do so.”

“On Drugs”

Corporate groups: The head of DaimlerChrysler, Jürgen Schrempp, no longer trusts the forecasts of his own US restructuring expert. Now bankers are accusing the group’s president of “deliberate deception”. What gave rise to such harsh accusations by the otherwise restrained bank was a strange spectacle revolving around the restructuring plans for Chrysler, which Schrempp presented on February 26 of last year. According to those plans, the entire DaimlerChrysler Group was meant to achieve an operative profit of 5.5 to 6.5bn euros by the year 2002; but now instead of profits of at least 5.5bn euros, it only expects “distinctly more than” 2.6 billion. However, the architect of the global corporation does not want to state the reasons for this – namely the difficult situation at Chrysler – because that would mean admitting that the US subsidiary has long become a liability for the entire group.

“Million Dollar Action in Maryland”

Justice: A number of legal actions are to establish who is to blame for the railway disasters of Eschede and Brühl – expensive court cases also threaten in the United States. In the Brühl accident, two Americans were among those injured; and an American woman was also injured in the railway accident of Eschede, in which 101 people lost their lives in June 1998. The problem for the German railway company Bahn AG is that US courts are liable to award millions of dollars in damages to victims. And once the American judges have accepted the claim of an American citizen, Germans can follow suit. In addition, the German civil action is starting this week before the Berlin Regional Court. Six test plaintiffs are demanding damages for the effects of the ICE disaster on their lives.

“Europe Needs Reforms”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with the current Spanish president of the European Council, José María Aznar, on the future of the European Union, its relationship with America and joint military action:

“So far we have always respected national differences within the Union. Our future success depends on our maintaining the right balance between unity and diversity. … In the fight against terrorism there must be no split in the international coalition. But to strike out against so-called rogue states that supposedly pose a threat is not the same as fighting terrorism. We will have to discuss this new vision of American foreign policy. … If the EU wants to be involved on a world-wide scale, we will have to set the course accordingly in political, technological and economic terms.”

“Exotic Horde”

Berlin: A Texan pension fund has discovered East German prefabricated apartment houses as a field for investment. In PDS-governed Hellersdorf, too, capitalism is emerging victorious. When the Texan “Lone Star Fund” bought up 3300 prefab apartments in East Berlin a year or so ago, the district mayor Uwe Klett, a member of the PDS (successor to East Germany’s former socialist government), remembers having been sceptical: “Because one always supposes that the Americans are only interested in making a fast buck.” Meanwhile however, the PDS politician and the supposed arch-capitalists are getting on wonderfully. The financial reserves of the Americans make it possible to implement unconventional design and sales strategies. Elsewhere, renovation work including the surrounding grounds takes five or six years, but the Americans manage it in a year and a half using huge teams and special logistics.

“Fare Dodger of Fate”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with author and translator Georges-Arthur Goldschmidt on the concealment of his Jewish origin during his childhood years in Nazi Germany, his eventful life as a mediator between the Germans and the French, and his autobiographical book “Über die Flüsse” (Over the Rivers):

“I was a devout, little Protestant rascal. My parents were very careful not to explain anything to me, they didn’t want to be Jews any more themselves. I only learnt of my Jewish identity when I was over 15 years old, in the French children’s home in 1943. … The French Republic behaved towards me like a good mother. Simple French people looked after me during the war. … Deep inside my soul I remained a German, that is the Hölderlinesque part of me. In political and social terms, I am a Frenchman. … President François Mitterrand appointed me councillor for Franco-German culture, which was a great honour for me. I found it wonderful to be allowed to represent France as a German and as a French national.”

“A Matter of Life and Death”

Literature: Writer Christa Wolf has been silent for many years. In her latest book “Leibhaftig” (Incarnate) she describes the nightmare of hospitalisation towards the end of the East German regime, grippingly and with a certain amount of black humour. An almost impenetrable network of hints and insinuations unfolds, in the style of narration of which Christa Wolf is such a brilliant master. She has continued to perfect this reluctance to name things, this paradox unity of revealing and concealing, presenting and retracting, ever since the short piece of prose entitled “Juninachmittag” (June Afternoon - 1967). Her novels ”Accident: A Day’s News” and “Sommerstück ” (Summer Play - 1989) have the same tone of a fascinating, hesitant narrative style, as the Stasi tale “What Remains and Other Stories” (1990) which she wrote in 1979 but did not publish until the GDR’s final summer. The pitiful German attempt at state socialism can hardly be illustrated better than by the example of this author’s own life. In the meantime, the former star among GDR writers has arrived in the Federal Republic. But “Leibhaftig” gives you an inkling of how hard Christa Wolf has found it to adapt and get used to the new reality.

“The Cape Town Cosmonaut”

Space travel: Mark Shuttleworth wants to be the first African to travel into outer space. The young millionaire will be paying for this journey to the International Space Station (ISS) from the fortune he made with his Internet company. At the moment he is mainly practising for life as a cosmonaut in the space centre of Baikonur: four hours of training a day in a flight simulator. In addition there are equilibrium tests which the prospective passenger has to endure strapped to a twisting, turning chair; a centrifuge which whirls him round in a circle until his actual weight of 78 kilograms feels like 620; and trips in an aeroplane along parabolic flight paths producing sudden weightlessness with a nauseating effect on one’s stomach. Nothing in his life so far has prepared Shuttleworth for such strains. Shuttleworth wants to offer his services to South African scientists as an assistant in space. The multimillionaire chose the experiments to be carried out in orbit primarily for their social implications; among other things he is intending to do tests related to Aids research.