“Loyalty to the Fried Potato”

Cover story: Australia. In the land of their dreams, new Australian citizens of German origin are regarded as being hard-working and adaptable. Their economic success, on the other hand, is limited. Many have had a career in middle management and are now settling on the waterside, in other words in clearly preferred locations. However, material Australian fortune is rather a relative affair. Some people can only make ends meet by taking on a second job several times a week.

“The Marathon Man”

Cover story: Australia. When Dieter Baumann won Olympic gold in 1992 for the 5000 metre track event, he became the symbol of clean sports. He enjoyed the role and lived it to the full – until performance-enhancing substances were discover in two of his urine samples. Since then, he has become the leading figure in a battle of faith.

“The Holy Witch”

Cover story: Australia. Cathy Freeman is to win the gold medal in Sydney for the 400 metre race, and demonstrate that the situation of the Aborigines is not really that grim after all. The icon of the nation is proving to be unruly, however. Cathy Freeman’s problem is that she is in what is known in Australia as a “no-win situation”. She can only make mistakes. No longer enjoy anything. Not even run around the track in the stadium as though floating on air – because she bears the burden of her continent’s history. And she has got tangled up in the jungle of expectations and feelings of guilt, and the chaos of a private problem which escalated at the wrong time and became a national disaster.

“The SPD Won’t Know What’s Hit Them”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with Bavarian leader Edmund Stoiber on the expansion of the EU to the east, the weak euro and the new family policy:

“It is important to convince people that European integration in the direction of Central and Eastern Europe is an absolute political necessity, because it allows us to secure medium and long-term political stability. … Schröder is making a mistake by naming concrete dates for membership. The date will depend on the fulfilment of membership criteria, including the economic ones. This would also be an important signal to the financial markets in order to stabilise the euro. … The effect of the euro’s weak external value is one of redistribution: the export industry profits by it, whereas savers, employees and the middle classes are among those to lose because of imported inflation. … In the USA, everyone in charge understands that in the long term a strong currency and a strong economy go together. This conviction has to be credibly communicated by Europe too. … It must be made possible to spread out the three year parental leave over a period of eight years. In addition, we want to implement the legal right to work part-time in private enterprises too. Furthermore, the offers for all-day care at schools need to be expanded.”

“Money Was Embezzled”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with French businessman Pierre Léthier on the part he played in the Leuna deal, his relations with German politicians and the investigations being conducted by the international judiciary.

“A Stage for the Politicians”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with Libyan mediator Rajab Azzarouk on rivalry and failings during the negotiations over the release of the hostages on Jolo.

EMC

Internet: The US company EMC is profiting from the huge flood of data on the Internet. Within just a few years, it has risen from an insignificant supplier to become a star of the computer industry.

“Gruesome Deaths”

Car industry: Following a series of accidents that cost 88 lives, Ford and its tyre manufacturer Firestone are in the pillory. Did the two groups negligently risk the lives of their customers? The series of accidents has now led to one of the largest recall campaigns in the industry, in which Firestone have had to replace 6.5 million tyres and Ford had to stop production in three factories for ten days.

“Poverty on the Showpiece Roads”

North Korea: Dictator Kim Jong Il has opened the door to his impoverished empire a crack. But the end of its isolation also reveals that nothing has changed inside the last Stalinist fortress. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, their former client North Korea has been cut off from the markets for raw materials and spare parts. North Korea survived the worst effects of the crisis, in the course of which an estimated two million people have died of starvation since 1994, thanks to Western food aid. Now it is hoping for fraternal help from the South, because in economic terms, the country is still floundering. Hard to believe that after the Korean War, North Korea initially overtook its enemy southern brother in terms of industrialisation. Now, however, the decaying cities and factories in the North look like a huge open-air museum for Stalinism. When the state does invest its scarce foreign exchange, this is usually to extol the god-like founder of the state Kim Il Sung and his now ruling son.

“The New Nearly-Patriots”

Zeitgeist: Taking stock on the tenth anniversary of German reunification, the result is surprisingly positive. The fears of many intellectuals about the dawning of a “Fourth Reich” have not been fulfilled. German, but happy? Hasn’t a new German normality long since emerged, shaped by Western Europe – far beyond the notorious discussions about how normal Germany is and is allowed to be? Hasn’t the holiday park Germany long said farewell to Old Germanic profundity and cryptic melancholy? But what do the latest outbreaks of violent, murderous right-wing extremism mean for this normality? Looking around the country in the autumn of 2000, there are certainly enough signs of a happy Germany, or in philosophical terms: of the conditions for the potential to be happy.

“The Fear of the Mysterious Woman”

German Armed Forces: The Bundeswehr is threatened by a battle of the sexes. Women will soon be able to serve as tank drivers and fighter pilots – a nightmare for many military officers. The Centre for Internal Leadership in Koblenz has already armed itself. In the autumn, company commanders and commanding officers are to take part in so-called “gender training” in order to gain “behavioural security” in dealing with women. There is little foundation for the “vague unease” of men, who feel that women are “pursuing” them into their last refuge, at least in terms of an actual threat. There won’t be any female combat colonels in the German army for quite a while to come, and certainly not in any great numbers.

“Zombies in the Garden Pond”

Biology: Parasites are far more than just uninvited guests at the dinner table. In the service of their own reproduction, they take control of the behaviour of insects, fish, mammals – and possibly also of human beings.

“A Farce without Humour”

Bayreuth: In the war of succession that is raging on the Green Hill, an unknown quantity has also become involved: Wieland Lafferentz, head of the Salzburg Mozarteum Foundation is Wagner’s great-grandson. Should he be chosen, Lafferentz would not turn Bayreuth upside down. Unlike the Heike Wagner/Weingarten team, which would like to expand the festival on a utopian scale in terms of its programme and length, he wants to adhere to “proven traditions”.