"Secret Operation Fürstenberg"

Contemporary history: Years before the Cuban missile crisis, the Soviets had already secretly sent atomic weapons abroad. Unknown to their East German brothers in arms, they deployed nuclear missiles in the German Democratic Republic. For 40 years the records of the operation remained under lock and key. Now Moscow’s military authorities have allowed Western historians to study the course of that major operation for the first time. The material released proves that it was the GDR that was the first overseas base for Soviet medium-range missiles, and not Cuba in 1962 as previously assumed by military historians.

Airbus/Boeing: Doubts have been raised as to whether the Super-Jumbo airliner will be built at all.

"Excitement in the Doll’s House"

Austria: The idyllic Ausseer Land is preparing itself for an onslaught by the world’s press – the television network CBS and the Simon-Wiesenthal-Centre intend to send divers to search for Nazi records in Lake Toplitz. The conviction "that there are documents to be found in Lake Toplitz concerning the transferral of German capital" was voiced by Simon Wiesenthal in a letter to the Austrian Minister of the Interior in 1963. Almost 40 years later the Simon-Wiesenthal-Centre in Los Angeles is supplying its name, CBS the necessary funding and the Oceaneering Advanced Technologies Group, renowned for salvaging the Titanic and Lucona, is providing divers and remote-controlled submarines – for the most determined attack on legendary Lake Toplitz to date. Paralytic with fear since Jörg Haider’s electoral success, Austria now hopes the Americans will clear up a chapter of National Socialist history.

"I’m Not an Office Worker"

Interview with Bodo Hombach on the hostility from EU Commission concerning his activities as Special Co-ordinator for the Balkans and his mission’s prospects of success:

"The intention behind the accusations against me and the way they are formulated are too obvious. Those are German domestic political affairs that are being given a free rein. … The political level that I am dealing with in the EU, among the G-8 states and in Southeast Europe, is satisfied with my work as the conductor of a large orchestra. … The stability pact has created a completely new spirit in the region, in a surprisingly short space of time. Countries are working together that only a short time ago refused to attend conferences on Southeast Europe because they said they weren’t part of that region. … I have clear ideas about what the projects currently being discussed will cost. But it would not help the debate if I were to quote some figure as being the minimum amount. … If my expectations are not fulfilled at the finance conference, there will be no basis for a successful implementation of the stability pact. … There is no general consensus among those who back the stability pact for working together with Serbia as long as Milosevic is in power."

"Burst Pipe above the Heart"

Medicine: There are few complications that physicians are as afraid of as a ruptured aortic wall. So far there has been little doctors could do to help those with damage to the aorta’s internal walls. But now for the first time there is hope of a less dangerous treatment for patients threatened by ruptures. A team of Hamburg cardiologists, radiologists and vascular surgeons has for the first time in the world found an elegant way of repairing such damage to the main supply line. With the help of a support cuff, or “stent”, which they manoeuvre up one of the two leg arteries to the site of the damage, the doctors are able to seal the leak from within. Over 50 patients have already been treated by the team since November 1997. One of them died, but the others were all discharged with a clean bill of health.

"Our Flower is Blooming"

Computers: The former scientific town Akademgorodok in far-off Siberia has become a stronghold for software companies. Despite tempting offers from the West, the Russian computer freaks would rather remain in the barren wastes and write their programmes for global companies there. Over 1500 people work in the scientific town as programmers, Web designers, but also as accountants or secretaries. Almost 50 new computer companies have been set up in the last ten years.

"The Somewhat Different War"

Part 3 of the SPIEGEL series on the war in Kosovo: Was the attack on the Chinese embassy no mistake after all? Was Nato secretly planning a ground war? Why did Milosevic really give in? Seven months after the end of the fighting in the Balkans, some of these mysteries can now be solved.

"Divine Rosa"

Contemporary history: She was a revolutionary of the Wilhelminian Empire; her assassination in Berlin in 1919 by soldiers of a volunteer corps made her a martyr of the German left wing beyond the SPD. On the anniversary of her death, hundreds of thousands make the pilgrimage to Rosa Luxemburg’s grave. Her most famous observation – "Freedom is only the freedom of those who think differently" – is quoted by authorities in the FDP (liberals) and the PDS (successor to the former East German Communists) alike, as though it were the most natural thing in the world. She was many things that it was better not to be during her times: a revolutionary when women did not yet have the right to vote; a Polish citizen when Poland was divided; a Jew at a time of repeated pogroms; and in addition she had a limp as a result of one leg being shorter than the other due to a hip disorder in her youth.

"Secret Recipe"

Smokers: Do cigarette manufacturers use added substances to get consumers addicted? Victims are hoping that the legal proceedings instituted by a former tobacco worker in Trier will shed light on the matter. The victim’s lawyers are not so much focusing on the carcinogenic effect of smoking – any smoker is likely to be aware of that risk, and there is not much to be done here under German law. The more serious accusation is that, according to the lawyers, cigarette manufacturers deliberately put additives in their cigarettes to get their customers addicted and hence turn them into loyal buyers. The German Association of the Cigarette Industry, on the other hand, say that smoking "does not lead to an addition in the classical sense, like alcohol". The claim that additives are used to increase the addiction is, it says, a "deliberate falsehood".

"A Fanatic of Colour"

Exhibitions: Vienna is discovering the late works of Paul Cézanne. The inspired painter, usually ridiculed by his contemporaries, left behind a surprising number of unfinished works. Cézanne redefined the term completion: to him it did not only occur once every millimetre of a painting was meticulously covered in pigment. It was this charm of the provisional, the reduction to the essentials and the dedication to colour, which many modern-age painters admired – and which inspired them in turn to experiment for themselves.

SPIEGEL cover story about Christian Democrat leader Wolfgang Schäuble and the party donations scandal