“Castles of the Modern Age”

Monuments: The German federal authorities are paying 35 million euros to tear down most of the bunkers of Adolf Hitler’s Western Wall. Between 1936 and 1940, Hitler built some 15,000 bunkers along Germany’s western frontier. Most of them were blown up by the Allied forces after the war, but about half of these ruins still exist. With a few exceptions, the bunkers are now to be dismantled over the coming years. The Federal Government feels obliged to act, because the General Law on the Consequences of War demands that all dangers to human life and limb be removed – and people could after all injure themselves on the remains of the bunkers. However, historians and archaeologists are lamenting the demolition, while former soldiers are outraged at the disrespectful treatment of the walls among which their comrades died.

“Blind Spot”

Doctors: For years, the brains of the RAF terrorists Baader, Ensslin and Raspe were stored in Tübigen University Hospital – now they have disappeared. Three missing brains, from the heads of the RAF at that – an absolutely incredible mishap. However, the real scandal is the circumstances surrounding this sort of accident. Because in Germany the fate of organs from forensic post mortems is either totally unclear, or at best governed by regional laws – this way, that way, or not at all.

“Dagger in the Heart”

Islamists: The fundamentalist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir has stepped up its propaganda in Germany enormously. Its aim is a theocracy and the eradication of Israel. The German authorities for the protection of the constitution have been observing the increase in Hizb ut-Tahrir’s propaganda since the attacks of September 11 with some concern. Experts are afraid that the group could infiltrate more moderate Muslim organisations in Germany and radicalise them. In terms of their objectives, the Hizb ut-Tahrir are scarcely distinguishable from Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaida.

“Built up from Bomb Craters”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai about his wartime experiences with the USA and the dominance of that superpower, the difficulty of building up his country’s economy and the hazardous business of opening it up politically:

“Vietnam has endured unspeakable suffering and has had to make sacrifices. … While other countries were achieving a high standard of economic development, we had to build up our country from bomb craters. … The late effects of Agent Orange are an unusually heavy burden for Vietnam, and this issue will continue to occupy us for several generations to come. … Since Hanoi and Washington established diplomatic relations in 1995, our relationship has made great progress. Recently we concluded the so-called “Bilateral Trade Agreement” which is sure to give a great boost to our mutual exchange of goods. But there’s no doubt that there are still many questions that need to be solved. … The apparatus of state has got to be made more transparent. … Our new political line, which has been in force since the 9th Party Conference of the Vietnamese Communist Party, links economic reforms with political renewal. But as an Asian nation we have very distinctive cultural, historical and political values.”

“A Tiger About to Spring”

Vietnam: Southeast Asia has a new capitalist star pupil. The heirs of the revolutionary Ho Chi Minh are opening up the country for foreign investors and sparking off an economic boom. The main driving force is former Saigon, where a remake of the film based on Graham Greene’s novel “The Quiet American” is being shot. To foreign investors, the strict regulation by the communist party is not entirely a disadvantage. While businesses are withdrawing from Indonesia, Malaysia and even Thailand for fear of further attacks by Muslim terrorists, Vietnam was recently voted the safest country in Asia in a survey carried out among business executives. It is not only rice and coffee, for which Vietnam is now the world’s number two export nation, that bring foreign currency into the country, but also shoes, electronics, textiles, and fish products. In the clothing industry, producers who have exhausted their export quota in China for exports to Europe and the USA, are now moving to this country with its cheap labour. As yet, Vietnam still lacks a modern infrastructure. But the far graver problem is the rampant corruption and an army of overstretched and incompetent cadres. In good old apparatchik fashion they are resisting every attempt at change and often pocket profits for themselves.

“Fighting on Changing Fronts”

Columbia: With the help of the USA, newly-elected president Horacio Uribe wants to put an end to the decades of violent outbreaks in his country – by waging war against the civil war which is now also raging with immense brutality in the cities. But so far, both sides have only suffered losses. Columbia could be one of the richest countries in the world. But the country is systematically destroying itself: socially divided, with a few wealthy oligarchs on one side and the vast majority of the population on the other, owning nothing. 22 million Colombians live in poverty, 11 percent of the population in total destitution, one adult in five is unemployed, and almost all are helplessly exposed to the violence of a nation-wide civil war with constantly changing fronts: a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla force, bands of drug dealers and a militant, so-called self-defence army (“Autodefensas”), the paramilitaries, are all fighting to gain the upper hand.

“I’ve Got the Butterflies”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with government advisor Bernt Rürup about the problems facing the social security system, his plans for fundamental pension and healthcare reforms, and the danger of failure:

“For the first time, we have the chance to secure the social security systems, which are badly in need of reform, jointly for the future. And it’s not as if there hadn’t been any reforms in the past. But often the problems of one system were solved at the expense of another. Now all systems are being dealt with at the same time. That is the charm and the challenge of this committee. … Reforms cannot make the increasing age of the population go away, but you can distribute the cost of this more wisely and more justly. The demographic problems could be defused if we were able to prolong the period in which people were in paid employment, because then each individual would make payments over a longer period and draw a pension over a shorter one. … In the short and medium term, the greatest potential for lowering social security payments lies not in the pension system, but in the healthcare system. That’s easier to reorganise because there are no proprietary claims to deal with here.”

“There Was No Holding Us”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with US writer John Updike, 70, about his latest book “Rabbit Remembered”, the transformation of the American middle classes, and his generation’s obsession with sex:

“Too much religion makes you crazy and cruel. You become a fanatic Muslim, a Christian fundamentalist or some other kind of radical. On the other hand, a little bit of faith can do no harm: so as to endure the basic terror of life. At least, that’s how the main character in my book, Janice, feels about it. … The social class that is known as the middle class today, is more affluent than the one I was born into – also because nowadays most Americans regard themselves as middle-class, even if they have a million dollars, or two or even more. … That issue [Editor’s note: adultery] is no longer anything like as important as it was for my generation. To us it was virtually an entrancing subject – the rich had always done it. But for the middle classes it was a new thing to have enough of a padding to be able to afford the luxury of desiring someone other than one’s own spouse. My novel “Couples” described that historic moment which has long passed. Nowadays people get married later, have lots of sex before marriage. … That poor guy [Editor’s note: Clinton]! A sexually frustrated man, imprisoned in the White House, afflicted with an ambitious and probably cold and embittered wife, he lets himself be seduced – and gets a terrible thrashing for it. I felt sorry for Clinton, he had my sympathy.”

Report on the left-wing American political activist Michael Moore, who is agitating against the Bush administration as a book-writer, documentary film-maker and one-man show.

Physics: A mysterious type of radiation is keeping physicists in suspense. Terahertz or T-rays lie in the frequency range between infrared and microwaves; they are present everywhere but very hard to detect. Now they are supposed to improve cancer screening, astronomy and airport security. Experts are hoping that the terahertz rays will lead to breakthroughs in the search for water in outer space, help them to warn against anthrax spores, measure the ozone hole and recognise skin cancer, develop new drugs, and protect air transport against terrorists. But the sudden interest has particularly been kindled by an important innovation: the generation and measurement of terahertz waves with the help of semiconductor devices. Once the new types of lasers and detectors have become standard components it is hoped that, as with computer technology, prices will plummet and a huge market will be opened up.

“The Seeing Blind”

Brain research: A new form of surgery has given Mike May back his eyesight. Now the Californian can see the world like a newborn: he has to laboriously learn to distinguish balls from cubes, and his wife from a stranger – providing a unique opportunity to study the miracle of vision. Although he can readily distinguish a circle from a square, real physical bodies with all their shadows and reflections are too confusing for him. May has to touch most things in order to recognise them. It is unlikely that May will ever learn to make better use of his eyesight. His vision can scarcely be tied up with his other senses any more.

“I Like Being the Beast”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with Garri Kasparov about his reputation as the bad boy in the world of chess, his battle against the processing power of computers, and a possible future as a politician in a democratic Russia:

“I’m really keen on winning back the world championship crown which I held for 15 years. And I don’t know who could beat me once I’m really motivated. … The dispute with Karpov was politically coloured. He stood for the communist system, was pampered by its representatives. I belonged to the opposition. Every chess world champion also reflects the social conditions. Kamnik stands for the stock-market generation of the Neuer Markt, without any ideology, and with an obsession for numbers. … I’ll only go into politics if I can really change something, make a difference. At the moment I don’t see the opportunity for that. … Chess should be taught as a school subject all over the world. It promotes intellectual debate. It teaches humility in defeat.”

“Forbidden Love”

Scandals: It’s an affair revolving around sex, marital battles and a hushed-up rape. In the jubilee year, stories being told by a royal butler are catapulting the British monarchy into a crisis. And Prince Charles, the main figure in this soap opera, does not appear to be up to the role. The old, sordid stories are all rising back up to the surface again, and are joined by new, even more sordid ones. The Royals, who no longer have an empire to lead, only a family life, are the perfect protagonists for a huge moral scandal – based on their poor example, society can debate over what is still considered tolerable, and what isn’t.