“None of Us Think It’s Ideal”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder about his part in the undignified squabbling over the immigration bill in the German upper house, his relationship with Joschka Fischer and the solitude of power in an election campaign accompanied by token strikes:

“I wasn’t involved in all the fuss that was staged there. … To me, all the excitement over this is artificial, intended to hide the fact that there was in fact no real reason to reject the bill since our positions were almost identical, but that they wanted an election turmoil. Beyond that, one cannot seriously talk of a constitutional crisis, as you are doing … The discussion about restructuring the Federal states is like the Loch Ness Monster: it keeps turning up again and again. Of course it would be sensible [to re-examine the federal structures in Germany] … If the majorities [in this autumn’s general elections] permit, we will continue the coalition.”

The end of the Kirch media empire

“The Nimbus of Untouchability”

SPIEGEL interview with Eva Joly, former Parisian examining magistrate and investigator into the Elf Aquitaine affair, about the international phenomenon of corruption and the problems associated with the battle against it:

“In Oslo I am going to be working as an advisor to the Ministry of Justice in setting up an international unit against corruption and money laundering. As an examining magistrate in Paris, I got to know the system of corruption very well. … I experienced the years in which I worked on the Elf affair as a process of drying up inside. My joy in life and my personal happiness suffered greatly as a result. … Most politicians and managers with whom I dealt simply negate the reality. … The problem of corruption and cross-border white collar crime is quite simply denied on an institutional level. For instance, the European Union has no organ that pursues such crimes across its borders.”

“A Lack of Honesty”

SPIEGEL interview with the political scientist and expert on constitutional law Olivier Duhamel about the presidential elections, the accusations levelled at President Chirac concerning his involvement in scandals, and the discontent of the French people:

“The long period of cohabitation has dimmed the perceptions of the electorate and blurred the differences. The two main candidates are simultaneously the two heads of the executive power. That’s why the French people don’t really know who to reward or punish. … The leniency towards Chirac displayed by all the parties, especially his own, can be explained by the arrogance of the top politicians and functionaries, who in France still like to think that the state rightfully belongs to them. This attitude has got to change radically, and that’s also why the President’s immunity against criminal prosecution has got to be restricted.”

“Just Going and Living There”

Russia: Moscow believes that danger threatens from the East. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese are flooding from the densely inhabited provinces of the huge empire into the sparsely populated neighbouring country. So far, the government lacks any concepts for dealing with the mass immigration. Over 115 million Chinese live in the provinces bordering on Russia, and one in ten of them is unemployed. At the same time, Russia’s population figures are rapidly dropping. Among the Russians, envy of the prosperous neighbours mingles with self-pity, anger at far-off – and allegedly far too China-friendly – Moscow, and contempt for the helpless regional authorities: an ambiguous mood is fermenting in the region between Lake Baikal and the Pacific Ocean, as yet wavering between fear and respect in the face of the population explosion right on its doorstep.

“A Wind from the Right”

Europe: The end of a political era – the dream of a “social democratic Europe” is over. From Oslo to Lisbon, right-wing populists of the Haider type are mobilising prejudices and new majorities – to the right of centre – with the help of simple slogans. Not long ago, the political situation in Europe looked very different. But the “Third Way”, over which social democratic leaders competed with one another almost more than with their political opponents, led straight to a political dead end. The social democrats and socialists largely have themselves to blame for the European-wide swing to the right. In their search for solutions that would reconcile social justice with economic necessities, the socially weak and the social democratic programme itself all too often fell by the wayside.

“Plantations by the River”

Environment: Is the Amazon jungle not a primeval forest at all? Scientists suspect that the Indians cultivated the rainforest over thousands of years. A mysterious black soil helped them to do so. “Terra preta”, black earth, is the name given by the indigenous population to the two or three thousand year old type of soil. Its secret lies in its extremely high proportion of incompletely burnt biomass. Many researchers believe that terra preta was made by man. Precisely the old agricultural methods of the Indians could in future help to better reconcile the interests of nature conservation with those of the local population.

“Kids Love Technology”

Education: Not far from Washington, educationalists from all over the world are admiring one of the most up-to-date primary schools: totally networked, pupils there are being trained to become multimedia pros. No one is afraid of the technology (except for a few of the teachers). “Computer Science” is not taught as a subject at Mantua Elementary, because at this school computers are a natural part of every curriculum anyway. In short: Mantua offers an opportunity to study what computers can turn people into. Yet strangely enough this pioneering school of the information society, in which everyone is supposed to learn how to find out everything, is hampered by two taboos. At Mantua, Darwin’s theory of evolution is not taught in biology lessons, out of consideration for the religious sensitivities of some parents. And the situation is similarly strange when it comes to sex education.

“Into the Next World under Anaesthetic”

Physicians: German doctors commit suicide more often than members of other professions – and they go about it with deadly perfection. Doctors, of all people, who are actually meant to save lives, end their own twice as often as members of other professions; among female doctors the suicide rate is even four times higher than average. So far there has been very little research into the reasons behind the increasing tendency among physicians to commit suicide.

“Run, You Bastards!”

Part two of the SPIEGEL series about the flight and expulsion of the Germans from Eastern Europe:

After the Red Army had marched into the Eastern Provinces of the German Reich, the “wild expulsions” began. Millions of people were kicked out of Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia and Hungary. Was it the spontaneous reaction of those who had been oppressed by the Nazis, or a coldly calculated pressure group policy?

“The Bitching War is Useful”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with four-time Olympic winner Isabell Werth about the mystic relationship between riders and their horses, her life after Gigolo, and shortcomings in the way dressage is presented:

“The harmonious interplay between horse and rider calls for years of intimate, almost mystical familiarity between the human and the animal, a kind of inward growing together. And building up a relationship like that once again with a new horse takes years. … Gigolo never belonged to me, but he was – and still is – my horse. … We also need greater transparency in the way points are awarded and exercises that work better on television. In addition, we need commentators who are better at explaining the criteria applied in a particular figure to the audience, and of course stars and myths as well.”