The disturbing relevance of Arendt's work is well-known. Nowhere is this more evident than in her three-volume work, “The Origins of Totalitarianism”, published in 1951.

Hannah Arendt was a smoker – as countless iconic photographs reveal. Katharina Holzmann asks how this simple ritual shaped the philosopher’s thinking.

With Kinder des Schattens (Children of the Shadows), publisher Matthias Naumann presents, for the first time, a comprehensive anthology of Israeli theatre texts on the Shoah from 1948 onwards. The collection brings together 15 plays – many newly translated into German – offering a compelling insight into how Israeli theatre has explored memory, trauma and identity. We spoke to Naumann about the project's origins, the role of theatre in the culture of remembrance and the challenges of translation.

Rainer Maria Rilke, one of the most important poets of literary modernism, was born 150 years ago. In this interview, literature professor Sandra Richter explains what made him who he was as a person and why his work is still worth studying today.