SPIEGEL cover story:

German-American friendship. The current conflict will not be easy to resolve, because the Germans are sticking to their position. Germany is even hoping that the Europeans will come round to its own point of view once the war starts, a development which would strengthen the self-confidence of the Germans.

“Fear of an Ice Age”

SPIEGEL-Interview with the US journalist Jeffrey Gedmin about the quarrel between Berlin and Washington:

“I get the impression that the German side is thinking in terms of a catalogue of measures, along the lines: Tell us whether to write out a cheque here or there, or to send a few more soldiers to Kosovo or Afghanistan, and then surely everything will be okay again. … It isn’t going to be that simple. Too much damage has already been done, and Washington’s annoyance goes deep. …It’s not simply a matter of the debate over which is the correct foreign political approach. Schröder has stirred up fears of a war as if it were German soldiers who would be dying in Baghdad. When in fact the US government hasn’t even asked Berlin to make any military contribution. … I firmly believe that we will achieve a Security Council resolution which will clear the way for taking action. I just cannot imagine that Germany will stand aside while Americans, Britons and maybe even Frenchmen fight against Saddam.”

“Clean Streets”

The Germans in New York are once again afraid for their reputation. The New York Times has written that growing anti-Americanism in Germany is not a problem for America, “but a major problem for the Germans.”

“People against People”

Terrorism: A German citizen arrested in Indonesia on suspicion of terrorism is thought to be an important figure in the mujahedin network – he is believed to have made propaganda for Al Qaida. The case of Reda Seyam is explosive, because for the first time, evidence is mounting that radical Islamists from Germany might also play a role in Al Qaida’s Asian network.

“VW Has to Become More Weather-Proof”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with Volkswagen’s CEO Bernd Pischetsrieder about his collaboration with his predecessor Ferdinand Piëch, gaps in the company’s programme of models, and his own personal goals:

“In terms of profits, we are going to have the second best year in the history of our company. If that’s a crisis, then we’re happy to live with it. … We’ve drawn up a plan for the next ten years, on how to stagger the models of all our brands in such a way that the group is no longer subject to such strong fluctuations. … We are in fact lacking minivans, SUVs and convertibles in a number of different classes of vehicles. At the moment our programme comprises about 75 percent of all possible types of vehicle. But we want to cover almost 90 percent, and we have already come quite a long way towards achieving that goal. … The management structure is crystal clear. There is a group board of managers which is responsible for the business of all the different brands. I am the head of that group board.”

“The Spectre of Deflation”

World economy: Once Japan was the country of economic miracles, now it is a long-term invalid. It is over ten years since the speculation bubble burst in Japan, and the country is still in a crisis. Are the United States and Europe threatened by a similar disaster? Ottmar Issing, chief economist of the European Central Bank, sees no indication that similarly dramatic developments could take place in America or Europe, and accordingly the ECB sees no reason to act. Critics accuse the Frankfurt monetary watchdogs of underestimating the threat just as their Japanese counterparts did in the early 1990s. The pressure on the ECB is growing. Even more than in the USA, where Alan Greenspan has already pushed interest rates down to a record low, Europe – and particularly Germany – is haunted by the spectre of deflation.

“Just Keep Calm, Okay”

German armed forces: The fatal crash of a Tornado jet has revealed just how poorly some of Germany’s airforce pilots are trained. The general in charge of safety is demanding that consequences be taken. In a confidential final report (“For internal use only”) Klaus-Peter Stieglitz, the brigadier general who was in charge of air safety in the airforce at the time, accuses the armed forces of severe failings – the first time this has happened after a Tornado crash. His main criticism is that the pilot was apparently inadequately trained for the extremely demanding Nato exercise. Due to a lack of money and because the pilot was burdened with other duties by his home squadron in Cochem, he was only able to prepare inadequately for his duties in the USA.

“The Land of the Golden Mountains”

Cyprus: Surprisingly, this little island republic has this year advanced to become the second largest investor into Russia – thanks to Russian flight capital which is flooding back into the country. But the post-Soviet elite is not having to give up its jewels, furs and million-dollar villas around Limassol because of this either.

“The Power of the Comrade Monks”

Tibet: For the first time in 20 years, envoys of the Dalai Lama have visited their Himalayan home. But it is too early yet to hope for an easing of tensions: the Chinese continue to rule with an iron hand. One thing is certain: the return of the Dalai Lama would represent a considerable risk to the Chinese rulers. Because the “Reincarnation of Compassion” still holds an enormous religious and personal attraction for Tibetans, as a Buddhist leader, as a saviour and as a symbol of freedom.

“Horse-Trading with Saddam”

Exports: More and more German companies are secretly withdrawing their claims for damages stemming from the days of the Gulf War. The Iraqis are promising lucrative new deals in return. Although the United Nations has to authorise every shipment to make sure that no arms-related goods reach the country, the decision about awarding contracts still lies with Iraq.

11. “Devastation in the Brain”

Medicine: Overtaxed parents shake their babies to death because they cannot stand their screaming. Although this form of maltreatment often goes unnoticed, modern x-ray techniques are now able to reveal it. There are no statistics on the number of children who really do die in this way or who survive the rough treatment severely disabled. Only at a few university clinics are paediatricians, radiologists and forensic experts looking into this special form of child maltreatment which is associated neither with bruises nor open wounds, nor any other visible injuries. A person who shakes a child once, will do so again. Manfred Oehmichen, a forensic doctor at the university clinics of Kiel and Lübeck, has also found that such maltreatment tends to be repeated. As with most violent offences, the perpetrators are “mostly men”: fathers, stepfathers, new partners – whether workers or civil servants – who lose control while looking after the child. According to Oehmichen, who has been consulted as an expert in 17 incidents where children were shaken to death, the offenders are often alcoholics.

“Kisch Inspired Us All”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with Lenka Reinerová, the last author still living in Prague to write in German. Persecuted by the Nazis, she fled via France to Mexico in 1939, where she lived together with Egon Erwin Kisch, Anna Seghers and other exiles until after the war. Having returned to Prague, she was imprisoned in the early 1950s in the course of the Stalinist purges. After the Prague Spring of 1968 she was once again banned from carrying out her profession:

“There was a kind of German-Czech-Jewish symbiosis [in Prague] at the time. Once Hitler came to power, things became more difficult, not least because the Führer kept kicking up a racket about Czechoslovakia on the radio. … In the middle of March, 1939, the Gestapo came looking for me. A telephone conversation with my sister saved my life. My entire family was killed. … When I turned 80 I went to the Jewish community and asked to be registered, that came from a sense of belonging. And okay, they don’t want anything from me. When I turned 85 I joined Amnesty International. Let’s see what I do when I’m 90.”

“The Furious Doll”

Literature: Following the books by Catherine Millet and Christine Angot, readers are now being shocked by a new French-language confessional novel. Nelly Arcan ruthlessly exposes herself as a “Whore” – a remarkable debut, which takes the tradition of pornographic literature to its black conclusion. It almost seems as if authors like Angot, Arcan and Millet had set out to destroy the fantasies which famous macho men created about sexual pleasure, female desires and emotions, and ultimately about their own magical powers of seduction. Perhaps this is the true result of the sexual revolution: the euphoria over liberation is eventually followed by the phase of coming back down to earth, the realisation how many illusions are involved in the conquest of the sexual peak. Perhaps the merciless description of destructive sexuality also aims at breaking one of the last taboos – at least in a society which is obsessed by fun, and which likes to present sex as an exciting, happiness-inducing drug.

“A Path in the Dark”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with world champion chess player Vladimir Kramnik about his battle against the world’s best computer, controlling one’s emotions while at the board, and the creative aesthetics of his moves:

“Deep Fritz is able to calculate more than three million moves a second – no human being can match that. So I have to prevent the computer from exploiting its computational powers. And I’ll do that by provoking positions which it doesn’t understand. The machine has to feel uncomfortable – if you can say that. … It won’t be long before no human being will be in a position to win a game of chess against a computer any more. … I’m confident that I’ll manage to win. … Because I don’t let anyone put me under pressure. It’s only with this attitude that I am able to be creative. And secondly because, unlike Kasparov or Bobby Fischer, I don’t have the attitude of having to destroy my opponent’s ego – even if it’s a machine. … Many people believe chess is only played from memory: that you memorise all the moves and recall them later on. That’s nonsense. There is a creative aesthetic in chess. … The fact that I don’t show my emotions doesn’t mean that I don’t have any. I control them. I don’t want to give away to my opponent whether I’m happy with a position or not.”

“Revolt at the Altar of the Poor”

Boxing: By winning his court case in New York, where he was awarded 31 million dollars, Graciano Rocchigiani is rocking the power of shady unions and functionaries. Insiders already view the court ruling in New York as a blow to the despotic rule of the boxing associations. This may well have been the impulse that was needed to bring the industry, hitherto viewed with some suspicion, onto respectable ground at last.

“Sweeping with Police Protection”

Consumers: Home owners and tenants are putting up a fight against the costly monopoly held by chimney sweeps. Modern technology makes many of their services superfluous, however throughout Germany the guild keeps a close watch to make sure that its lucrative monopoly, which it was awarded in 1935 by the Third Reich, is not encroached upon. The sweeps’ anxiety about their sinecure is perfectly justified. Technical advances and the liberality of the European internal market are putting them under ever increasing pressure. The days are over when soot had to be swept from smoky fireplaces by the bucket. Nowhere else in Europe, apart from Austria, are the duties of the sweeps – cleaning chimneys, monitoring emission levels – regulated as meticulously as in Germany, and no other country upholds a monopoly on sweeping chimneys. Following complaints from Germany, the European Commission is currently checking whether this monopoly actually conforms to Brussels’ requirements – plumbers, gas fitters and chimneysweeps from neighbouring countries are, after all, barred from working in Germany as a result.