“The Final Tie-Break”

Tax evasion: Dramatic new events in the Boris Becker case. All attempts at reaching an agreement have failed. The pubic prosecutor’s office in Munich has filed charges against the three-time Wimbledon champion. Now the case is to be taken to court and the world star could face the previously unthinkable: prison. The charge is enormous: tax evasion to the tune of 10.41 million marks between 1991 and 1993. The figures concerned are so huge, that if found guilty only one punishment would be logical: a prison sentence, with a maximum term of ten years, but two or three years being more likely.

“German Mezzogiorno”

Eastern Germany: No chancellor, no matter of which party he is a member, can significantly reduce unemployment in the eastern statesduring the next few years. Politicians and economists both are clueless. The only advice is: invest, wait and hope – for at least 20 more years.

“Eastern Runaway”

Traffic: Millions have been put into East German states in the form of subsidies to build airports, which are to bring about the much-wanted job miracle. The dream of the badly needed economic miracle has taken on a very concrete form in eastern Germany: it is made of bitumen, is two or three kilometres long and up to 45 metres wide. Local and regional politicians are hoping that sweeping runways will make the ailing economic upswing in the East take off at last – cargo jumbos and charter carriers as job machines. But despite all the enthusiasm over possible air traffic hubs or 24-hour cargo transport centres, none of the airports have so far managed to establish themselves as a driving economic force.

“Money Leads You into Temptation”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with the head of Siemens, Heinrich von Pierer, 61, about the newly kindled predatory capitalism in the United States, the loss of investor confidence, and the consequences for the European economy, as well as the question as to what his five grandchildren have to do with the crisis in the mobile phone business:

“I think our own three-stage model is exemplary: a guaranteed basic salary, a performance-related variable, and on top of that stock options. … The 30 DAX stocks use entirely different control mechanisms. We have executive boards which monitor each other, independent supervisory councils which watch over the board of directors, auditors … We have a strong balance sheet and positive cash flow. … So conditions are favourable for us. And in certain sectors I could well imagine further acquisitions.”

“Nothing Deters the Hard Core”

SPIEGEL interview with terrorism expert Peter Waldman about the potential danger emanating from the Al-Qaida network, the psychology of radical terrorists and violence as a means of communication:

“I think military campaigns are counterproductive. An immediate effect can certainly be observed, that’s true, but terrorists have different time horizons and different criteria for success than our politicians. … There are three basic forms of terrorism. One of them was influenced by Marxism. This branch is currently insignificant but could flare up again in the context of the anti-globalisation movement. The second type is religious terrorism, and although that’s on the advance right now I’m sceptical as to whether it can overtake the third type: tenacious, and currently clearly dominating, ethnic nationalism. … Islamic terrorism opposes globalisation under a very specific set of circumstances: the secularised, hedonistic, power-conscious lifestyle represented by the USA poses a real challenge to convinced Muslims. … The USA can no longer avoid trying to understand these people’s cosmos, because these fanatics are capable of striking back. They can do terrible things.”

“Ghost Ship in Space”

Aerospace: Very little research will be possible at the International Space Station if the radical cost-cutting plans proposed by the new head of NASA are implemented. Will the flying lab end up as a space hotel? A total of 16 countries, including Germany, are involved in the construction of the celestial monument. But the cost is getting totally out of hand precisely in the leading nation, the United States. Its European partners are considerably annoyed; they were never overly keen on taking part anyway. It was the Americans who asked for support with the construction of the outpost in space in the early 1990s.

“Murky Sea of Blood”

The Sudan: Since 1983, a war has been raging in the Sudan between the Islamic north and the Christian/animist south. A cease-fire in the Nuba Mountains has raised hopes for peace, but the Norwegian Tore Christian Jenssen, a member of the Joint Military Commission which is supposed to monitor the cease-fire, says: “This cease-fire is a farce”. Jenssen is not alone in his assessment. The US intelligence agencies have reported that the government has moved soldiers from the Nuba Mountains to the regions of Wahda and Western Upper Nile in the south of the country. Tens of thousands of people there have fled before the attacks of government soldiers, into the vast, inhospitable swamps.

“Prada Instead of Puma”

Fashion: Sports manufacturer Adidas wants to enter the luxury market. A star designer is to catapult the company, based in Herzogenaurach, into the haute couture. Yoji Yamamoto has recently become the creative director of Adidas, the world’s second-largest sports manufacturer after Nike. Catwalk and jogging shoes? The characteristic three stripes in classy boutiques instead of on department store shelves? Herzogenaurach in Paris? Things are to grow together here, which at first glance would not appear to fit.

“Melting Giants”

Climate: Scientists in Munich are tracing the dramatic retreat of the Alpine glaciers with the help of historic postcards. Their report reveals more clearly than ever before, just how far the glaciers in the Alps have already melted. Between the beginnings of industrialisation in the middle of the 19th century and 1975, the white giants lost about one third of their surface area and about half their volume. Over the past quarter of a century, they have been shrinking more and more rapidly, in the meantime another 20 to 30 percent of the volume of ice has gone. The melting of the glaciers is not only devastating for the mountains; the major European rivers Rhine, Rhone and Po have their sources there. If the armour of ice disappears, the Munich researchers say, drinking water supplies will also be jeopardised in the long run. Furthermore, the rapid erosion will pose a threat to people and villages.

“Truly German Sounds”

Music: Conductor Christian Thielemann will be setting the tone at the Bayreuth Festival, which begins next week. Does the musical director of Berlin’s German Opera House also have what it takes to become the new master of the Green Hill? Next Thursday, the star from Berlin will be allowed to open the Wagnerian festival with a new production of “Tannhäuser” (directed by the Frenchman Philippe Arlaud). Apart from this, he is supervising the “Meistersinger”. Whatever this diligent director of music still manages to achieve or to make a mess of – one thing is certain, and he himself is well aware of it: he can only make the definitive leap into the world’s elite in Bayreuth. And the date is already set: summer 2006. That is when Thielemann will be conducting the new “Ring” there, and the Wagnerian community is already licking its lips for it today. Because festival director Wolfgang Wagner was daring enough to hire an outsider for the production, whose nomination astonished insiders and whose name arch-conservative Bayreuth pilgrims only utter with a shudder: Lars von Trier.

“Bike with a Turbocharger”

Bicycles: A new high-tech bicycle is outstripping even motor scooters. Thanks to an electric booster it achieves top speeds of almost 100 kph. Instead of switching itself on when the muscle power of the rider begins to flag, the electronically controlled motor assists the cyclists more, the harder he pedals. Its effect is therefore more like that of a turbocharger rather than a stand-in for flagging performance. So far, the electric bike is something of a bird of paradise with no hope of being marketed. About half a million euros have been spent on the project to date, making a single electric bike more expensive than a luxury twelve-cylinder Mercedes.

“Always Going at Full Speed”

SPIEGEL interview with the four-time world champion Massimiliano “Max” Biaggi, about the jostling among competitors, the accusations of arrogance, and macho antics on public highways:

“I’m not as crazy as many people believe. It's just that the demands on the racing circuit have increased enormously over the past few years. If I want to be successful I have to push myself to my physical and mental limits in the race and in training. And when I'm not sitting on the bike I spend practically every minute racking my brain as to how I can optimise it. In short, I'm always going at full speed. So in my private life I look for a contrast to stress and noise: peace, slowness. To me, slowness means relaxation. … This accusation that I am arrogant annoys me. Why should I put on a show? I have my own style. I want people to notice me because of my personality, not because of a show.”

“Disturbing the Peace in the Woods”

Legends: A 200-year-old mystery is to be solved. Is it indeed “Madame Royale”, the daughter of Bourbon king Louis XVI, who is buried in a woodland grave in Thuringia? The dead woman was nameless when she was laid to rest here in funeral robes of white satin in front of torch-bearing servants at the sixth hour in the morning of 28 November 1837. Was she merely “Sophia Botta, single, from a middle-class Westphalian family, fifty-eight years old”? Or was she in fact a blue-blooded asylum seeker, as local researchers into the Bourbons keep trying to prove with the help of new clues?