Focus

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?

One striking feature of Neue Musik is how difficult it is to grasp. Thousands of actors are constantly reinventing Neue Musik in hundreds of places in Germany. This is an attempt at an overview.

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.

Sic Mundus Creatus Est... Creepy forests, sinister nuclear power plants, time-bending storylines and a host of stellar performances make Dark “Must See TV”.

How much are your morals worth? What would you sacrifice to be a player in the male-dominated banking world? The series is about the European financial market, but its relevance is global.

The first German-made drug tale is about an 18-year-old from Leipzig who goes by the name of “Shiny Flakes” on the darknet and in whose bedroom the cops discovered 320 kilograms of narcotics. (Not) a tutorial.  

The reunification has put Germany back on the world map of graphic novels. A look back at 30 years of German comic history.

Comic-strip artist Olivia Vieweg writes to entertain her readers with characters that battle monsters like zombies. She focuses on strong women set against East German backdrops and explores the exceptional value of friendship. And she shows that entertainment doesn’t have to be apolitical.

Interview with writer and illustrator Nora Krug about her book “Belonging”, living as a German in the US and the potential of graphic memoirs to deal with the past. 

A group of men and women from Brandenburg refused to watch idly as people die in the Mediterranean. With their ship Sea-Watch, the helpers rescue refugees from the deadly trap.

All children are supposed to have equal educational opportunities – that sounds good in theory. In reality, however, many pupils of migrant origin experience discrimination. A number of initiatives in Berlin are committed to changing this.

They establish magazines, make films and organize festivals: many refugees make an active contribution to the cultural scene in Germany.

Having emerged through the cracks in a declining system of cultural production and distribution, outside the official institutions and businesses dedicated to literature, another literary scene exists in Quebec and renews itself daily.

Underground has become complicated. Because it assumes that there are norms that must be protested against.

Toronto has a thriving underground scene, so naturally these performers and artists need spaces where they can showcase their work.