Outsiders past and present, absentee fathers, a famous stolen skull, and how anyone can make the world a slightly better place are the themes of some new German novels for young adults.

Michael Stavarič is a master of dystopia. In his latest novel, the earth has perished. Some people have managed to escape by spaceship, but only one of them makes it alive to a frozen planet, where her memories of the Inuit and of Arctic explorer Fridtjof Nansen help her survive.

In the latest children’s books, we read not only of first love but also about a boy who feels like a girl and how normal it is to be “disabled.” And then there’s a comic book about a childhood in the 1970s and a comic book with poems.

Visitors to museums and archives usually interact with exhibits locked in display cases in darkened rooms. Yet modern technology has given us ways to more directly experience art and cultural artefacts. Coding da Vinci is an open, cultural data hackathon that digitally brings museum pieces to life.  

University teaching has become increasingly specialised over the centuries. But the topics addressed in research today increasingly require an interdisciplinary approach.  Leibniz Association president Matthias Kleiner sees a renaissance of universal research. 

Carbon offset schemes promise to compensate for the emissions caused by private individuals – as air travellers, for instance – with donations to climate projects. But are they not just a way of salving guilty consciences?  

Over the past 120 years, Marxist ideas have undergone frequent revivals on the silver screen.

German television shows tend to have a bad reputation for poor writing and cheap productions not suited for an international market and audience. Now series like “Deutschland ‘83” and “Babylon Berlin” are putting a new shine on that tarnished image. 

Who are they and how do they live? The advertising and media world has discovered a new target group: Generation Z, fully digitalized since birth, is coming of age. But on screen they are (still) representing the lives of Millennials.

In 2019, global problems found their way into the German scene: Climate crisis, displacement from inner cities, Israeli-Palestinian conflict – it seemed as if the club culture was no longer the hedonistic playground it was meant to be. However, the year’s musical trends put a stop to that.

While we’re ushering the old year out these days, the conclusions drawn are of significant weight considering that 2019 is the end of an entire decade. The new decade beckons, smiles, threatens. The twenties of the 21st century! In order to make a good transition, we need to know what we’re leaving behind. What’s resonating in our ears, what’s stayed in our hearts, what debates have we been having and what can we simply put in the bin?

The German classical music scene is still preoccupied with #MeToo and what to do about dirty old men. And grappling with badly needed renovations.