"I Won't Tolerate Yes-Men"

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with the head of DaimlerChrysler, Jürgen Schrempp, about his style of leadership and his controversial strategy, the restructuring of Chrysler and the consequences for the Mercedes-Benz brand:

"DaimlerChrysler is undoubtedly the most innovative company in the automobile industry. It also has the best set-up on a world-wide scale, if you look at our position in Europe, North America and Asia. … When assessing us, you also have to look at our market capitalisation. In 1995 it came to just 17 billion euros, today it comes to 50 billion. That makes us the most valuable car group after Toyota. … We are certain that we can turn Chrysler into a success story again. … Mitsubishi offers us the opportunity of building up a position in Asia that corresponds to the importance of this region. … Our possibilities at Mitsubishi will further strengthen Chrysler, that's part of our strategy. … The DaimlerChrysler group as a whole with all its brands is globally balanced and thus very much more stable than a company."

"If Necessary Even the Atom Bomb"

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf about the threat of a war with India, the hunt for the Taliban leaders and al Qaida terrorists who have fled from Afghanistan, and the trial of the suspected murderer of American journalist Daniel Pearl:

"I find the conjecture that Bin Laden died a natural death in the mountains - as a result of his kidney disease - quite plausible. Whether dead or alive, I think it likely that he has not left Afghanistan. The same is true of Mullah Omar, who still seems to enjoy great respect with his tribe. … Kashmir's blood flows through our hearts. There can be no doubt that the resistance movement in Kashmir against the Indians is a legitimate popular movement originating in the country itself. There is no one in Pakistan who does not sympathise with this movement. The Indians have reduced a legitimate fight for freedom to cross-border terrorism - which is very convenient. … Nuclear arms are only conceivable as a very last resort. We behave responsibly. And I am so optimistic and self-confident as to believe that we are also able to defend ourselves by conventional means, even though, in their delusion of being a major power, the Indians are going around buying the most up-to-date weapons."

"Harmony Is the Top Priority"

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with Chinese President Jiang Zemin about the need for further economic reforms, the social crisis, the persecution of dissidents and religious believers, and his country's collaboration in the coalition against terrorism:

"Our main concerns continue to be reforms and opening up the economy. We want to improve the standard of living of all citizens. To do this, we are going to continue to boost domestic demand. At the same time we have to perfect the framework for the market, finance and regulatory system. Our state-owned enterprises need a modern management organisation. In addition, we are planning to develop the high-tech industry more rapidly. … In view of certain shortcomings within the system, but also because of the moral failures of some functionaries, there have indeed been cases of bureaucracy and abuse of power in our society. We are confronting that problem and taking vigorous action against the abuses. … It isn't true at all that opposition members or religious believers are thrown into prison. I may be an atheist, but I am very interested in religion. The Chinese constitution guarantees all citizens freedom of worship. There are over 100 million religious believers in our country. One thing is certain though: in a state like China, where the rule of law applies, everyone has to abide by the law, whether they are devout believers or not. That's the same with us as in other countries. If anyone is sentenced by a court, then only because they have broken the law and not because they believe in some religion or other."

"Natural Condition"

Court cases: The Chancellor has let himself in for a grotesquerie. This week, Hamburg judges are having to examine the question whether or not Gerhard Schröder dyes his hair. It is not just Schröder's vanity that has driven him to take legal action. The head of government is reacting harshly because it is his political opponents who are cavilling at his hair, and Schröder therefore feels his credibility as a politician is being jeopardised.

"Under General Suspicion"

Authors: Cultural critics are preparing for a bizarre literary debate. Do successful books like Günter Grass's novella "Im Krebsgang" or Bernhard Schlink's novel "Der Vorleser" play down German guilt in the Holocaust and the Second World War? These days it is popular to mingle literary criticism and political condemnation. Of course critics can and must differ in their opinions, but the combination of political discomfort and the assertion of the object's literary unworthiness is nevertheless striking. Reactions like this are undoubtedly also linked to the huge success with the general public. Books by Grass and Schlink sell extremely well - and in Germany, literary success gives rise to misgivings.

"Allah's Man in the Shadows"

Islam: He comes from Stuttgart, his partner is called Bin Laden, his god is Allah - the architect Bodo Rasch does up the holy sites of Islam in Saudi Arabia. Dr. Bodo Mahmud Rasch is a trained carpenter, has a PhD in architecture and is a devout Muslim. He is 58 years old and the Sir Norman Foster of the Middle East - the man for the big stuff. If the mosque in Medina needs a couple of gold domes, if a master builder is needed for the holy sites of Islam, if princes, emirs or sultans want to redesign their parks - they call for Rasch. Between 1995 and 1998 he built a new tent city for the pilgrims on a vast area of 2½ million square metres. The fairy-tale staff of the Arab world, crown princes, sheikhs and sultans, accept him as their equal. Because they notice that he understands them because he wants to understand them.

"A Basin Full of Scorpions"

One part of the cover story: For thousands of years the reality of the Mediterranean region between the cedars of Lebanon and the gorges of the Negev desert in which, according to divine promise, "milk and honey" were meant to flow, has been a true vale of tears. The fertile land along the banks of the Jordan have always lain on the periphery of powerful ancient kingdoms. The disputed terrain has supplied the battlefields for a war lasting three and a half thousand years, which has repeatedly descended upon the country like a plague and whose loss was bewailed by the Biblical prophets - and not only by them. As though the country didn't already have enough problems with its fate as a plaything of worldly powers, it is also burdened by the doctrines of the three big monotheistic world religions. Jews, Christians and Mohammedans tend the roots of their respective faiths here, which gives their clashes a special keenness and dynamism, because each of them insists on the exclusiveness of their own claim to salvation. The latest drift into chaos of almost uncontrollable attacks and counterattacks once again proves that the combatants - Jews, Christians and Muslims alike - have always stuck to the principle of "an eye for an eye". Theologians may point out that this principle is not a call for revenge; but those thirsting for revenge have always used it as a form of legitimisation. It is a hatred that even overcomes the far less devout. Neither Prime Minister Ariel Sharon nor Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat is regarded as a religious member of their respective camps, yet their dispute still takes place within the reference system of Old Testament irreconcilability. The motto is: whoever stops first, loses.

Headline will be communicated on Monday

Opium apparently was widely consumed during antiquity. Researchers are finding more and more evidence that opium use spread from the ancient Egyptians, Romans and Germanic peoples to the Chinese. It subsequently fell into disuse in the West and was re-introduced from China much later.

"Rioting in the Attic"

Opera: Vienna's State Opera House has until recently been the proudest bastion of old-fashioned, outdated musical theatre. Now its director Ioan Holender is sweeping out the attics - amidst protest from the press and the audience. Bit by bit, Holender has ventured out of the no-go zone of a musical nursing home, with Wagner's "Rienzi", Verdi's "Sicilian Vespers" or the "Woman without a Shadow" by Richard Strauss, replacing the familiar culinary singing lessons by avant-garde stage experiments. Coinciding almost exactly with his sorties into contemporary musical theatre, Viennese feature writers have begun to wail. Meanwhile, Holender's new guest directors regularly take their bows to hailstorms of booing.

"A Fiendish Solution"

Part III of the SPIEGEL series about the flight and expulsion of the Germans from Eastern Europe. Following the barbaric war and the "wild" expulsions, the Allies wanted to achieve peace at the Potsdam Conference. But instead they caused a further humanitarian disaster. Over six million more Germans were forced to leave their houses and homes.

"A Terrible Trauma"

Why are the Poles are more conciliatory towards the Germans and their sinister past than the still suspicious Czechs? Perhaps it was easier for the Poles to forge conciliatory ties with the former aggressor because many of them had themselves been driven from the eastern areas of their own country when those were given to the Soviet Union in 1945. Exiles seem to have a better understanding for other exiles. Perhaps the Czechs are still tormented by a kind of collective unease because - unlike the Poles - they cannot look back as proudly on their own resistance against the German invaders. And because they kicked out their own (former) compatriots after the war.

"The Quest for the Monster Wave"

Surfing: In its search for more and more spectacular sites, the surfing community has struck lucky in the Amazon delta. When the tide rises at full moon in springtime, the jungle town of São Domingos becomes a Mecca for surfers. In the Indian language Tupí-Guaraní, the word "pororoca" means "loud destructive noise". Between January to April, the monstrous tidal bore ploughs its way up the rivers of the Amazon delta at full moon like an avalanche, washing away the foundations of huts and jetties, tearing trees and canoes along with it, even capsizing large boats. Every year, surfers and spectators from all over the country come to the Pororoca Championships in São Domingos do Capim, 300 kilometres from the mouth of the Amazon. For days, the poor, sleepy jungle hamlet is in an uproar, when the full moon brings the pororoca at the end of March.