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The Week in Germany: Culture

August 31, 2007

Readings: TWIG Cannot Cover it All - But We Can Tell You Where to Find it!

As you might imagine, the TWIG editors spend a lot of time sifting through the mountain of information available on the Internet about Germany. For those of you who are not quite as surflustig, we continue our roving weekly selection of links to top-notch writing about Germany on the Web. If you like TWIG, you might find these stories interesting as well.

Happy Reading!

Ernst Tugendhat: 'The time for philosophising is over'
In an interview that recently appeard in the left-leaning Berlin daily Die Tageszeitung (taz), correspondent Ulrike Hermann stayed up until midnight talking to philosopher Ernst Tugendhat about Heidegger, the fear of death and unfounded speculations on brain research. Some transatlantic food for thought from the Tugendhat, exploring why his lectures have not always been as well received in English-speaking countries as in Germany: "In England and the USA, people have a different way of approaching questions, particularly with me, because my style of thinking is rather Anglo-Saxon. Many German colleagues have it easier in America because there people think, oh, that's some German profundity that's so profound that it can't be understood anyway."

Fear of the Standstill
Also writing for taz, Katrin Bettina Müller waxes lyrical on a host of performances now playing at the Tanz im August international dance festival in the German capital. As the festival's website sums up, formal musical and choreographic questions are addressed this year through the works of Xavier Le Roy, Yvonne Rainer, Jonathan Burrows, Édouard Lock and his company LaLaLa Human Steps or Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker / ROSAS, who opened the festival with a celebrated homage to Steve Reich. These works are contrasted by more narrative or content-driven concepts as in the pieces of Jean-Claude Gallotta, Gisèle Vienne, matanicola or Olga Pona, which approach classical themes in dance theater such as love, friendship and death in a refreshingly unconventional manner.

If you Like Very Long Plays ... this will grip you from lunch until midnight
The Economist gives a positive nod to Tuscan-based, German drama maestro Peter Stein, who specializes in putting up very long plays, for his new production of "Wallenstein," starring acclaimed Austrian film actor Klaus Maria Brandauer. Stein's "performance proves him to be one of Germany's most potent theatrical conjurors", the Econoomist concludes. Read more about the production, which premiered in Berlin, by clicking here.

Fatih Akin, a Turkish-German Cinematic Wunderkind
The latest edition of Deutschland Magazin, featuring a very cool pop-art inspired cover and touting all manner of cool things made in Germany, provided this portrait of the talented Turkish-German director Fatih Akin who has gained international recognition in recent years, notably for his riveting 2003 drama Gegen die Wand (Head-On) and his most recent film Auf der Anderen Seite (The Edge of Heaven). You can read other articles from the latest issue of the magazine by clicking here.

Angelina Jolie: 'Acting and politics are sometimes a very bad combination'
Continuing their trend of providing a transatlantic platform for prominent Americans from politics, business and entertainment, the mostly American-born editors of Spiegel Online International recently posted an interview with the pillow-lipped cinematic and humanitarian goddess Angelina Jolie, who is rumored to be relocating to a new home in Berlin with Brad Pitt and their growing brood of international children.

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