"Farewell to Paradise"

SPIEGEL cover story: For decades, working hours became shorter and shorter in Germany. But over the same period, unemployment rose virtually unstoppably. Now the realisation is sinking in that Germans will have to work longer hours again if they want to secure their affluence. Following the oil crises in the 1970s and 80s, the industrial nations seemed to have reached the limits of their growth. Increasing computerisation and automation further fostered the suspicion that a large proportion of existing jobs in the production industry would in future disappear. As post-war baby-boomers were entering the job market, many signs indicated that there would be far fewer job opportunities in the future. So what could be more obvious than to spread the apparently declining amount of work among a larger number of people? But what seemed to many people like a patent remedy twenty years ago has in the meantime turned out to be a disastrous mistake.

"We Have to Be More Daring"

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with the head of BASF, Jürgen Hambrecht, about the 40-hour week, the secret strengths of Germany as a business location, the charm of a grand coalition and the resistance against GM foods:

"It is not simply a matter of the number of working hours a week, most of all it's about becoming more flexible, also in terms of our workforce's way of thinking. ... What is true is that we have to become better in Germany. We have to become as much better as we are more expensive than others. ... The only thing that Germany still has is a network of well-trained minds. ... We simply have to use our know-how in different ways, we have to be more daring, take more risks. We need to totally change our fundamental attitude towards innovation. ... And it looks as though the necessary reforms can no longer be achieved by one party on its own. The top leaders of the country have got to get together and bring about a change. ... I definitely feel that in Germany's current situation, a grand coalition could move the country forward. ... Green genetic engineering will win through in Germany, just as the red kind did. ... In truth, unnecessary concerns are being raised. There are hundreds of studies about the safety of green genetic engineering, but not a single indication of its harmfulness."

"The Encourager"

Reforms: In his first speech as President of Germany, Horst Köhler has called for an era of renewal. He intends to talk the Germans out of their weak-spiritedness. The political and economic elite of the land applauded him for it; the people are still hesitant.

"Jihad against Terror"

Saudi Arabia: Terrorism has reached Saudi Arabia. The kingdom's leaders are in a dilemma. How can the house of Sa'ud maintain its rigid state ideology of Wahabism, while at the same time entertaining relations with America, its most important strategic partner, whose Middle East policies are antagonising more and more sections of the population? Is there ultimately only one form of rule that can guarantee the future of the royal family: a constitutional monarchy?

"The Oil Will Flow"

Interview with businessman Prince Walid ibn Talal, nephew and financial adviser to the king, who suffers from a severe heart condition, and a business associate of Leo Kirch:

"No one knows exactly how many terrorist there are in Saudi Arabia, but it appears to be a small, isolated group. ... The majority of Arabs and Saudis think that the United States is doing too little in Palestine, indeed that it does whatever Israel wants. ... We have made incredible progress. An election date has been fixed within this year for half of all community councils - that's a huge step for Saudi Arabia. ... So far we've been too soft on the terrorism issue. But now our survival depends on the destruction of these terrorists."

"Drums of War in the Southwest"

Namibia: The government in Windhoek is starting to dispossess white farmers, the first Germans are leaving the country. President Sam Nujoma wants to push through a land reform along the lines of the example set by Zimbabwe, stirring up resentment against whites and threatening them with violence.

"Theory of Life"

Evolution: The ornithologist Ernst Mayr merged evolutionary theory and genetics to create a unified theory of all life. Now the scientist, whom many colleagues regard as the most important living biologist, is celebrating his 100th birthday. Mayr backed his theory, published in 1942, with a wealth of circumstantial evidence. In it, he described how species change as a result of tiny genetic mutations, and how their numbers only ever increase if a population is physically divided up into several sub-populations. With this, Mayr succeeded in producing a grand synthesis of Darwin's and Mendel's theories.

"That Fits Together Wonderfully"

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with evolutionary biologist and Harvard professor Ernst Mayr about the search for birds of paradise, the origin of species and the arrogance of physics:

"The physical revolutions were greatly exaggerated. These trail-blazing theories may well have changed everything in the world of physics. But did they have any influence on the thinking of the average German? I would dispute that. ... Geneticists proved that adaptation is based on very small changes from one generation to the next - and with that they had cracked the first problem. But they still couldn't explain the diversity, because the number of species does not increase as a result of adaptation. Taxonomists had made more progress in that respect. They had compared populations at different locations and noticed that one species splits into two new ones particularly when a physical barrier - a sea, a mountain range or in the case of smaller species even a river - divides their habitat. My friend Dobzhansky and I discovered that what the geneticists were doing and what the taxonomists believed fitted together wonderfully. The two only needed to be brought together. ... Molecular biology contributed important findings, of course. But on no issue did it lead to any change in the actual theories."

"Wolves in the Red Cedar Forest"

Ecology: Logging is threatening the last cold rainforests on Earth. In Norway too, conservationists are fighting to protect tiny remnants of this biotope, overgrown with lichens and mosses.

"Forgotten Shock"

Aids: For years, the number of registered HIV infections in Germany had been dropping; now it is on the rise again, most of all in the big cities. For many, the disease has lost its horror. It is in fact precisely the successes of Aids research which carry new risks. The combination therapies introduced in the mid 1990s can keep the virus in check for years, even decades. But people who seem healthy for longer are also sexually active for longer - and can continue to transmit the virus, often even in the form of resistant strains.

"Blood Clot in the Brain"

Medicine: New studies are feeding an old suspicion - chirotherapeutic treatments of the neck vertebrae can lead to a stroke. The weight of the evidence is so heavy that many chiropractors have become more self-critical too. Other chiropractors, on the other hand, are really taking the offensive.

"There's Never Been So Much Narration"

Literature: This summer, German-language authors are shining with brilliant stories, not least of all at this year's reading competition in Klagenfurt - from which a total outsider has emerged as the winner, with his excerpt from a novel. And now the book fair is expecting to see an offensive by the novelists. Again and again, particularly the younger generation of authors has displayed a noticeable tendency towards a new pleasure in narration, impressed by European and US examples, and reinforced by new educational approaches at German universities. Strikingly, narratives are increasingly the domain of female authors. The unvoiced hope of the prose competition remains the major form: the novel. The forthcoming book fair promises plenty of these. Many of the up-and-coming generation are putting in an appearance with extensive novels.

"The Messenger of Misfortune"

Photography: People are fascinated by pictures of disasters, and one of the most fascinating of those who take such pictures is the Mexican Enrique Metinides. Even art galleries have begun to celebrate his style. He himself awaits the next disaster. For more than 50 years he worked as a police reporter. He saw people stabbed, burned and electrocuted, hanging from a power pylon. He saw them shot, torn apart, hit by lightning or by falling rubble, chopped in two by the wheels of trains, crushed by machinery, suffocated, poisoned, drowned, buried by mud. There is no sense of pornographic pleasure in the pictures. Enrique Metinides did his job like Red Cross workers do theirs. He never wanted to achieve anything through his photographs. They are not a call for justice, not an accusation, and they neither intend to arouse pity, nor produce a thrill or anger: "All I ever wanted to do was to take the pictures that I'd seen in the cinema as a child."