Hofer Filmtage: Heinz Badewitz and Wim Wenders are testing the new ceiling cinema Weisse WandPhoto (detail): © Evelyn Kutschera Film

Top Ten German Film Festivals
Beyond the mainstream

Germany prides itself in having film festivals dedicated to almost every genre and region in the world. The scene is unique worldwide – and so diverse that one tends to almost lose track of them all. Film critic, Michael Kohler, presents his ten favorite festivals. [more …]
The Elbphilharmonie in HamburgPhoto ⓒ Iwan Baan Architecture

Elbe Philharmonic Hall
Landmark with a mission

The Hamburg Elbe Philharmonic Hall has opened its doors. From former critics there is now little to be heard. But it remains to be seen whether the Elbe Philharmonic can fulfil the promise its proponents have been making throughout the years.  [more …]
The grand hotel lobby of Grand Budapest Hotel” in the Görlitz department store Foto (Ausschnitt): Andrea David, filmtourismus.de/20th Century Fox Film

Locations in Germany
When Hollywood comes to Görlitz

The Saxon town of Görlitz is called “Görliwood”, because it is one of the locations, among many others in Germany, where Hollywood film teams regularly shoot their films. Let’s take a look at where the Hollywood dream factory shoots in Germany – and why? [more …]
Le fondateur du « Spiegel », Rudolf Augstein (deuxième en partant de la droite), accompagné de rédacteurs en 1947 Photo (détail) : © DER SPIEGEL Media

70 Years of “Der Spiegel”
A Guardian of Democracy

It was political revelations that enabled “Der Spiegel” to become the defining medium of the German press scene. Has the news magazine, however, still managed to retain its importance 70 years after it was first published? [more …]
Helmut Kohl ©gemeinfrei

Nachruf
Helmut Kohl glaubte an die kulturelle Dimension Europas

Mit dem Tod des Altkanzlers Helmut Kohl verliert das Goethe-Institut einen Freund und Förderer. In vielfacher Hinsicht war die Ära Kohl auch richtungsweisend für die Arbeit des Goethe-Instituts, besonders in den Jahren nach der Wende.  [more …]
Politics and the internetPhoto: © Blablo101/iStock Society and Current Affairs

The digitisation of politics
The new openness

Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat – social networks are becoming the most important platform for political communication in Germany. Though this is not without its downsides. [more …]
Audience Emancipated: The Struggle For The Emek Movie Theater ( 2016) by Emek Bizim İstanbul BizimPhoto (detail) © Dok Leipzig 2016/Emek Bizim İstanbul Bizim (collective) Film

Dok Leipzig 2016
Disobedience in all situations

The spotlight at the 59th Festival for Animation and Documentary Films in Leipzig was on Turkey. Numerous films and discussions showed how the cultural and film scene is coping with a country that is currently being torn apart by fierce social and political conflicts. [more …]
Rainer Viertlböck | Oktoberfest | cover picture of the book© Rainer Viertlböck (detail) | courtesy Schirmer/Mosel Visual Arts

Photobooks
Something to Touch

Ulrich Pohlmann, director of the Munich Stadtmuseum’s photographic collection, discusses the German photobook market, its specific features and its future in the age of digitalisation. [more …]
Book Fair, meeting of book loversPhoto (detail): © Frankfurter Buchmesse Literature

Germany at the Istanbul Book Fair
A sign of solidarity with readers

Germany is the guest of honour at the Istanbul International Book Fair. This could not have happened at a better time – despite or because of the political dissonances. [more …]
Illustration from the children’s book “Alle seine Entlein”Photo (detail): © 2007 Beltz & Gelberg in der Verlagsgruppe Beltz ∙ Weinheim Basel Literature

The illustrator Julia Friese
Aesthetically ingenious, entertainingly duck-filled

Economical line drawing, muted watercolour techniques and expressive colouration – Julia Friese has mastered the entire spectrum of the illustrator’s art. With great love of detail she illustrates children’s books, some of which are successful worldwide.  [more …]
“Dealer” (1999) by Thomas ArslanPhoto (detail): © Peripher Filmverleih Film

The Berlin School
Cinema full of Surprises and Dangers

In the middle of the nineties the filmmakers of the “Berliner Schule” (The Berlin School) created radically new images of German society. Their films still have so much to say about their country.
  [more …]
Wolf Haas was awarded the Bremer Literature Prize for his novel “Verteidigung der Missionarsstellung”Photo (detail): © Lukas Beck Literature

German Literature and Humour
Ironic, funny, artistic

In a book published in 2013, two German writers lamented the fact that humorous literature was thought very little of in Germany. However, things are beginning to change in that respect. [more …]
Tweet of the Foreign OfficeScreenshot twitter.com/AuswaertigesAmt Society and Current Affairs

#Brexit
Tweets on the Referendum

On 23 June 2016 the majority of the British people voted for Brexit, the withdrawal of Great Britain from the EU. The world’s reaction ranged from consternation to approval. Here a compilation of Twitter messages.
  [more …]
A flavourful new tastePhoto (detail): © Brent Hofacker - Fotolia.com Modern Life

Craft Beer
More than Amber Nectar

For 500 years one of the world’s first traditional food ordinances has been defining beer culture in Germany. But this is changing - Craft Beer has boldly ventured onto the scene. [more …]
El Congo AllenPhoto (detail): © gezett Literature

Berlin Poetry Festival
Global Tones

No country more beautiful” (Kein schöner Land) – the heading under which the 17th Poetry Festival gathered together 150 poets from 37 countries and showed that poetry is capable of broadening horizons and building bridges. [more …]
Exhibition View, Simon Vogel, (2016)Photo (detail) © Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland GmbH Design and Fashion

Bauhaus Design
The Bauhaus is dead – long live the Bauhaus!

Is the Bauhaus still relevant? The Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein posed this question to sixty artists, designers and architects in advance of its Bauhaus exhibition. Their answers give some indication of the far-reaching importance of the Bauhaus to this day. [more …]
Hauschka rehearsing with members of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.Photo (detail): © Ralf Dombrowski Music

Neo-classical
The Unexciting Mixture

Their names are Max Richter, Hauschka and Nils Frahm, and they are pioneers of a trend that blurs the old boundaries. For “neo-classical” has reached an audience that has little use for the concert tradition. [more …]
Scene from “Rozsika”;Photo (detail): © Tobias Dahmen/Avitall Literature

Graphic Novel
A Second Life for Holocaust Victims

A Jewish girl who was killed in the Holocaust lives on in a graphic novel, teenagers helping to write the continuation of her story. An interview with Avitall Gerstetter, a cantor for the Jewish Community of Berlin and the initiator of the project “We will call out your name”. [more …]
German Chancellor Angela Merkel;Photo (detail): © Bundesregierung/Jesco Denzel Society and Current Affairs

Centre-oriented
How the German conservatives became liberal

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has made the CDU a more socially-oriented party and has broken with the conservative dogma. Now there is increasing resistance to this approach. Matthias Geis takes stock. [more …]
“Guten Tag, Ramón” by Jorge Ramírez-SuárezPhoto (detail): © Twentieth Century Fox Film

Refugees in Contemporary German Cinema
Welcome in German

A “welcome culture” for refugees and asylum-seekers has yet to be established in many cases in Germany. It is not only politicians and society who need to step up to the plate – filmmakers can also do their bit. [more …]
Cycling in DublinPhoto: GI Irland Modern Life

Urban development
Cycling in Dublin and Berlin

Burkhard Horn speaks about his unusual and enriching experience when he came back to Ireland after 25 years to talk about Berlin's policies on cycle traffic at the National Bike Week in Dublin.      [more …]
Ulm SynagoguePhoto: Yohan Zerdoun Architecture

Religion and society
New Synagogues and Jewish Buildings in Germany and Ireland

In the night from 9-10 November 1938 over 1000 Jewish synagogues across Germany and Austria were attacked, damaged or burned to the ground. The historic synagogue in Ulm was one of them.  [more …]
FrankfurtPhoto: © Getty Images Architecture

Urban development
Bank Architecture in Germany and Ireland

While a raging discussion concerning banking and monetary policy within Europe continues apace as part of the European Union expansion as a whole, the architecture of its banking institutions, the European Central Bank [ECB], the German Central Bank [Bundesbank], and the Central Bank of Ireland, mirrors the divergent conditions between these bodies and serves to illustrate these growing differences.  [more …]
Garden WorkshopPhoto: Robert Moss Modern Life

Urban development
Community Gardens in Berlin and Dublin

Community gardens are a recent form of urban growing project. They are made by and for members of their local community. They are sustainable because they manage their own resources and maintenance, and they are also very inclusive because they can involve anyone who wants to join in.      [more …]
Empty SpacesPhoto: Loredana Rocca Modern Life

Urban development
Empty Spaces

Vacant properties can be found in Germany and Ireland. They exist in Dresden, the city of Baroque art and culture in east Germany, and in Dublin, the hip city of young creatives. [more …]
Fans GermanyPhoto: Christian Schwier Modern Life

Berlin 25
Germany’s unification generation

How Germany’s so called ‘unity generation’ – those born around 1989 when the Berlin Wall tumbled – view the country’s divided past [more …]
Fatih AkinPhoto (detail): © Achim Kröpsch Film

Fatih Akin
“My sense of home has expanded“

With his stories, which are set in Germany and Turkey, the auteur Fatih Akin has gained international recognition. [more …]
Gob Squad: “Western Society”Photo (detail): © David Balzer Dance and Theatre

Theatre and Participation I
Participation as interaction with the audience

Theatre presupposes participation. A new interactive model has re-defined the role and position of the audience: as mobile actor that actively co-shapes the reality of the performance. [more …]
Part of the cover of Stephan Brinkmann's „ Bewegung erinnern. Gedächtnisformen im Tanz“ (Remembering Movement – Memory Forms in Dance), 2012.Cover (detail) © transcript Verlag, Reihe TanzScripte Dance and Theatre

Remembering Movement
The Body as a Memory Medium

How do dancers memorise movement? Stephan Brinkmann casts light on this question in his dissertation “Remembering Movement – Memory Forms in Dance” from the perspectives of neuroscience, philosophy, cultural studies and dance techniques. [more …]
Erwin Wurm, Truck, InstallationPhoto (detail): © ZKM | Karlsruhe, Photo: Fidelis Fuchs Visual Arts

Peter Weibel on the festival Globale
“That made waves”

What effects are digitalisation and globalisation having on our world? The Centre for Art and Media Technology Karlsruhe (Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe /ZKM) is addressing this question with a large-scale exhibition both in urban space as well as in its own facilities. [more …]
Emrah DüzelPhoto (detail): © OVGU Society and Current Affairs

Memory research
“Digital Media Are a Blessing”

Has our memory capacity declined since we have come to rely on smartphones? Are we perhaps even at risk of suffering “digital dementia”? On the contrary, claims memory researcher Emrah Düzel. [more …]
Flo, 26, co-founder of a cargo bike collectivePhoto (detail): © Clara Migsch Modern Life

Bike Activists
"A life without bicycle is possible, but senseless"

For bike activist, bicycles serve not only as a means of locomotion; they are also a political statement and a symbol of a self-determined life. [more …]
Detective FilePhoto: Deirdre Mulrooney Dance and Theatre

Erina Brady
A forgotten pioneer of Modern Dance in 1940s Ireland

This is the story of Irish-German Modern Dance pioneer Erina Brady, winding back the Dublin years to the 1940s, a woman who was poetically named by her exiled father after Ireland itself - Erina, a personification of Éire. [more …]