Presseurop |

Slovakia | Green light | Cartoon (The New York Times, New York)

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 14:48:04 +0100

(Cartoon) (Cartoon)

Pirate party | Children of Marx and Microsoft (Süddeutsche Zeitung, Munich)

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 17:22:07 +0100

They demand transparency and direct democracy, and almost one in ten voters in Berlin gave them their vote. The Pirate Party is no longer just a party for Net-nerds in hoodies, but represents demands from across society. (Article)

Germany | Über alles, but nice (The Guardian, London)

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 16:29:01 +0100

After a turbulent 20th century, Germany has emerged as Europe’s economic and political powerhouse. As the European Union becomes increasingly tight-knit, this major role, it seems, is one the reunified country isn't entirely eager to take on. (Article)

European of the week | How I survived the Irish boom (The Times, London)

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 12:32:28 +0100

Irish author Julian Gough got through the Celtic Tiger years on little more than love and fresh air. Now resident in Berlin, here’s his tale of staying sceptical (and broke) as the rest of the country went mad (and bust) on property fever. (Article)

Cities | The spirit of urban renewal (La Stampa, Turin)

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 17:14:01 +0100

A number of declining ex-industrial European cities like Bilbao, Berlin and Lille have succeeded in using culture to buck the downward trend. But a fancy new opera house or mega-museum is not enough to kindle the urban renewal dynamic: an open mind for the unexpected and even inefficient is also an indispensable ingredient. (Article)

A town in Europe | Berlin, the new Tel Aviv (Süddeutsche Zeitung, Munich)

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:48:50 +0100

"You’ve never experienced a city like this one before,” they say. Berlin is the European city of choice for Israelis. Above and beyond bitter remembrances of expulsion and extermination, what they seek there now is, first and foremost, fun. (Article)

Cinema | Europe sweet-talks Hollywood (Süddeutsche Zeitung, Munich)

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 15:57:57 +0100

For years, European film boards have been competing with offers of tax breaks and subsidies to lure major US film producers to their studios. France is the latest country to adopt such a strategy, but it still lacks the appropriate infrastructure. (Article)

Cities | Artists - the vanguard of gentrification (Die Zeit, Hamburg)

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:07:06 +0100

In virtually every major European city, long-established locals and artists are fighting against the gentrification of their neighbourhoods. But the arty types are falling out of favour, observes the author Tanja Dückers. No longer hailed as the rebellious vanguard, they are actually bent on joining the establishment. (Article)

European of the Week | Helene Hegemann, the art of cut and paste (Berliner Zeitung, Berlin)

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:29:33 +0100

She’s the new star of the German literary scene. At 17, Helene Hegemann has already beguiled the critics with a novel about disoriented and unrestrained youth. The only problem is she lifted whole passages off the web. But she admits it – and ushers in a new take on plagiarism and “authenticity”, writes the Berliner Zeitung. (Article)

Cinema | Bread and circuses at the Berlinale

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:39:50 +0100

Dieter Kosslick, director of the Berlinale for the past decade, has come out with yet another witticism in the punning slogan "Happy Bärsday" (i.e. Happy Bear’s Day, the bear being the official symbol of both the film festival and the city of Berlin). But as the 60th edition of the Berlin filmfest gets underway, the Tagesspiegel has lashed out against "German cinema’s leading lobbyist". Between "mass and class”, Kosslick clearly opts for the former, bewails the Berlin daily. The Berlinale has grown, to be sure, and its director is as “funny” as ever. But he has failed to “cosmopolitanise” the event. "In his profoundly Social Democratic efforts to come across as the people’s cinematic benefactor, Kosslick has over-compartmentalised the Berlinale.” Worse still, “By rolling out the red carpet for [untried] German filmmakers he is provincialising the International Film Festival.” Instead, opines Der Tagesspiegel, the director ought to try to attract more masterpieces to compete with Cannes and stop giving the official competition short shrift.

(News in brief)

Nightlife | Paris, city of... lights out (Cafebabel.com, Paris)

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:46:32 +0100

Once a nightclubber's paradise, Paris has lost much of its old magic. Chief culprits are anti-noise laws, smoking bans and sky-high rents. But a group of nightlife professionals are striking back, cafebabel.com reports. (Article)

Germany | Thou shalt not shop on the holy Sabbath

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:08:53 +0100

It's written in scripture, enshrined in the German Basic Law and has just been confirmed by the German Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe: we’re to take Sundays off. Starting in 2010, the nation’s shops will remain closed on all but eight Sundays a year, even in December. The court found for the Catholic and Protestant churches of Berlin against the over-liberalisation of the Sabbath in the capital. Frankfurter Rundschau points out that the judges grounded their ruling on religious traditions, to be sure, but also on social rights and the protection of the family. “This is a potent signal aimed at that Berlin odd couple, namely the [left-wing] coalition and retailers: Sundays and holidays are not be sacrificed on the altar of commerce and consumption,” sums up the Frankfurt daily.

(News in brief)

Germany | BMWs ablaze in bobo Berlin

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:14:22 +0100

Cars are burning bright by night in Berlin: 267 autos have been charred this year to date, reports the Frankfurter Rundschau. Whilst the tabloids fulminate against those “damned anarchist arsonists terrorising” Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Porsche owners by torching their fancy cars in such rapidly gentrifying neighbourhoods as Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg, Berlin-Mitte and Pankow, the police have yet to come up with an effective strategy to quell the arsonists. According to Berlin’s intelligence service, these firebugs are from the left-wing autonomist scene and, the paper explains, they light into manifestations of the newcomers’ conspicuous consumption, holding them accountable for driving out the artists and students who used to live in these erstwhile working-class neighbourhoods. To fight the phenomenon of rampant gentrification, the FR adduces the example of Hamburg, where a bunch of artists got the city senate to try to buy back a neighbourhood threatened with a huge development project and restore it with their help.

(News in brief)

France-Germany | Burying the hatchet (Presseurop, )

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:37:59 +0100

November 11th – commemorating the French victory over Germany in World War I – is now to become a Franco-German holiday. Yet another step towards closer amity between the two big European nations, heralds the press on either side of the Rhine. (Article)

Germany | After the Wall (Presseurop, )

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:41:16 +0100

Today, on 9 November, a reunified Germany and a peaceful Europe will celebrate the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall - an event hailed by the European press, which nonetheless notes that the end of the Cold War has yet to bring all of the expected benefits to the Old Continent. (Article)

After 1989 | Blooming boho Berlin (Les Inrockuptibles, Paris)

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:52:45 +0100

Since the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Berlin has been blasting borders right, left and centre. Art, music and the “new tribes” are flourishing on the rubble of the past. A tour of the freest city in Europe. (Article)

Tower of Babel | Like talking to a Berlin wall (Cafebabel.com, Paris)

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:30:43 +0100

140 kilometres of wall crumbled in 1989 and hundreds of European expressions arose as it fell. Cafebabel.com's linguistic tour of Europe is flavoured this week by the 9 November event. (Article)

Autumn 1989 | The Wall fell in Leipzig (Die Zeit, Hamburg)

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:39:18 +0100

The Berlin Wall is the symbol of both divided and reunified Germany. But 20 years ago, on 9 October, the first mass demonstrations against the East German regime took place in Leipzig. Had it not been for Leipzig, the Wall would never have come down, writes Die Zeit. (Article)

Culture | The new squatocracy (Cafebabel.com, Paris)

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:56:58 +0100

Squats have always provided a venue for alternative lifestyles and experiments in artistic creation, but in recent times, an increasing number of squatters in Paris and Berlin have succeeded in transforming illegally occupied spaces into legal art galleries and respectable cultural centres. Could this benevolent trend herald the end of squatting as we know it? (Article)

Germany | A spate of car-burnings in Berlin

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:31:56 +0100

In the past several months, the number of car-burnings in Berlin has soared. By July 1, 2009, it had reached 85, compared to 113 for all of 2007, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung reports. "The only clue the police have as to the reason for these arson attacks is anonymous messages claiming responsibility for the deeds, in which the wrongdoers express their distaste for 'luxury cars' and their desire to 'hurt the rich.'" Many in Berlin left wing circles suspect that the culprits belong to radical leftist fringe groups. How should one judge these actions? "Berlin's champagne socialists sympathise, more than anything else," the Swiss daily tells us. Political discourse, it pursues, is full of attacks on "the rich", whether on the part of Die Linke (The Left party) or the media. Even the conservatives seem to have abandoned "the rich" as a political base. "Does this hostile climate promote the autonomist scene?" the NZZ wonders. "Does it legitimise vandalism?"

(News in brief)