"We Need a New Ideology"

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with Günter Grass, Peter Glotz and Markus Lüpertz - all friends of the German Chancellor - about the decline of German social democracy, the mistakes made during reunification, the illusions of the welfare state and the question as to what holds together a nation:

Peter Glotz: "The SPD is trapped. The trap consists firstly of the fact that the financial basis of the welfare system was not addressed for 16 years. Secondly it consists of an economically totally mismanaged reunification, which is now depriving the government of any power to invest. Then there is also the Brussels stability pact and in that context it's very difficult to move at all. ... I see despondency and faintheartedness all over the country, also in the SPD."

Markus Lüpertz: "I have the feeling that Germany is no longer governable on account of [reunification]. Because there is no national identity, no self-image of feeling in any way German. ... You can make people understand that there's less available now and that less is going to be shared out, so long as they believe in themselves. If that's not the case - as we are seeing at the moment - we have pure egotism, which is expressed in the form of money."

Günter Grass: "Our experience is of two German nations existing side by side for 40 years. It was not only us in the West who reconstructed our country; in the East, too, reconstruction took pace within the limited possibilities available. The disregard for East German achievements - keeping to our field of art for the moment - the way in which everything that was produced in the GDR, despite dictates and censorship, was denigrated, that was shameful. ... It's also a question of the scandalous discrepancy between people who have been disqualified from our welfare system and the horrendous sums of money that the bosses of banks and big business pay themselves. That's no longer justifiable in a democracy."

"Distant Inauguration"

Politicians: The Soviet empire fell 13 years ago. But all over the world, politicians who were trained in Moscow are still in the top echelons of power - particularly in Africa. Nikita Khrushchev invited thousands of Third World students to Soviet universities, and not only educated them there, but also infiltrated them carefully before sending them back to their home countries - as a long-term ideological weapon, so he thought. His call was heard particularly in Africa; among the political elite it was considered chic to send one's offspring to Moscow for a free education. However, the comprehensive introduction of Socialism failed on the Dark Continent, and the Soviet empire has been gone for almost 13 years. Nevertheless, some of those who once went to Moscow have indeed achieved high offices - and are still around despite the debacle of their communist instructors.

"All or Nothing"

Macedonia: Albanians and Slavs are once again confronting each other in an implacable face-off. Both sides want supremacy in the country - if necessary at any cost.

"Mafia in Power"

SPIEGEL interview with Bujar Bukoshi, 57, former Prime Minister of Kosovo and chairman of the liberal "New Party of Kosovo", about the future of the province:

"All the governing party, including President Ibrahim Rugova's LDK, has its corrupt substructure which manipulates invitations of tender and privatisation, and which is based on a clan system: when a minister employs 200 of his relatives in the apparatus of state, then he's basically bought his electorate. Bribes are handed out everywhere, particularly when it comes to smuggling petroleum. ... The Serbs should be citizens with equal rights and they should tell us their conditions for a joint state. They must be given top executive positions; that's where their strength used to lie - in the railway services, in mining or in air traffic control."

"Dirty Secret"

China: Guiyu in the south is the world's computer cemetery - with terrible consequences for public health and the environment. In one workshop alongside the next, young men and women cannibalise thousands of computers. The consequences are dramatic. The smell of acid and melted wires lies over the villages. Corrosive liquids, used to extract the gold, seep from the factories, running away into the soil or straight into the water. The streams which flow through the settlements and fields have become sewers. Many of those who live nearby have strikingly black teeth.

"Sinful Kittens"

Art market: The Berlin painter Martin Eder likes his pictures to be vulgar. In the United States, his Lolita art is celebrated as "hot"; in Germany, his breakthrough is imminent. His favourite subjects are cuddly kittens and fluffy dogs, which sometimes look maltreated and usually like little monsters, as well as scantily clad Lolitas, preferably with a nymphomaniac look on their face. Particularly North America, normally so prudish, has discovered Eder, who is in his mid-30s, as a wonder boy. His paintings are attracting a lot of attention - particularly among people who have demonstrated a sure feel for a good investment. Since German museums and cities are still shying away from his salon eroticism, Eder is heading for the provincial Emsland (following earlier exhibitions in Potsdam and Augsburg, the town where he was born).

"Diseases from Heaven"

Medicine: Some illnesses only seem to occur because the people affected receive something in return: time off, a pension, consolation. In Germany, useful illnesses such as whiplash and pension neuroses are costing billions - while in poorer countries, such conditions are unknown. As a rule, they are trifling conditions that cannot be explained in physical terms. Only once patients, doctors and lawyers get together do they turn into health problems costing billions. In countries where no compensation is paid, on the other hand, the same complaints heal quickly or do not occur in the first place.

"Extra Momentum for Hercules"

Olympic Games: The ancient Greeks certainly didn't make things easy for themselves. But sports scientists from Cologne have been carrying out a series of experiments to find out precisely what strains their well-trained bodies were subject to. They wanted to determine the specific techniques that were called for when using the sports equipment of the day, and the role played by their sports gear. It all culminates in the question: How strong were the athletes of antiquity? The researchers only started getting close to the reported achievements once they began to use the same aids as the Greeks: on old vases, for instance, long-jumpers are portrayed holding strange weights in their hands.

"Two Hours Flat Out"

Health: Millions of men suffer from impotence. Even Viagra has not always solved men's biggest problem. Now a clinic in Thuringia is offering special training courses against erectile dysfunction. Applicants first have to undergo a medical check-up and diagnostic programme to rule out physical causes. This is followed by the main component of the "multidisciplinary treatment concept": discussion groups "among men" in which Rainer Hartwich and his team talk about psychosomatic problems and demonstrate technical erection aids. Alongside these, there are seminars for conquering back lust and eroticism - and daily gymnastic exercises to achieve the necessary fitness. According to Rainer Hartwich, the main thing is to break the vicious cycle that leads to the crisis of the loins. Men put themselves under so much pressure that this leads to a full-blown fear of failure. And before long, there's nothing going any more.

"Wasting Disease of the Poles"

Geology: The Earth's magnetic field is decaying. Will this protective shield against cosmic radiation break down in the near future? Ice cores taken at the South Pole are to solve the mystery. The Earth's magnetic field has been becoming weaker for 150 years now, and computer models predict that it will soon collapse entirely. It is considered likely that the north and south poles will reverse their positions in about 2000 years. This could be dangerous, because the magnetic field stretches out around the Earth like a protective umbrella, blocking off hazardous radioactive radiation from outer space. During the pole reversal, this protective shield will disappear for a while. Only once the North Pole has arrived in the south will the field gradually be restored.

"Power from Renewable Resources"

Electric power: The biogas industry is facing a boom. In the long run, ten percent of electricity might be generated using manure and plants grown for energy production. Farmers stand to profit most of all. Until now, biogas has had rather a sordid image: the industry literally smelled like shit. For the most part, operators fed their fermentation vessels with manure, enriched with rotten potatoes, old cooking fat, leftovers and stale bread. The only thing that kept them going financially was the money they received for disposing of the waste. Now the industry faces completely new opportunities, which could substantially alter agriculture in Germany. The biogas makers' credo is 'Plant power, not for vegetable stock but for light bulbs'. In future, maize and clover straight from the field are to provide the lion's share of their raw material.