Books of the Month October: Comfort in the Mind – Culture

The author of “Measuring the World” reports on the life of one of the great directors from the Weimar Republic, GW Pabst, who fell into oblivion after his death. His story is of course ideally suited to the questions that concern Kehlmann in “Lichtspiel”: Why did someone who was also called “the Red Pope” because of his socially critical works and who had already escaped to the USA return to Nazi Germany in 1939 back? Or: How do you notice the loss of all morality when your own corruption occurs in slow motion? Kehlmann fulfills all expectations in this novel – but in the end it is little more than a series of impressively good scenes.

Asterix: The White Iris

The new volume by illustrator Didier Conrad and copywriter Fabcaro is the best issue in a long time. The story is about a revolutionary idea that initially makes Caesar’s jaw drop. Positive thinking? None of his advisors have yet suggested this as a way to finally completely conquer Gaul, which is unfortunately still only almost completely occupied. But his “chief medicus” Visusversus, who brings the suggestion into play, is convinced: At a time when even the simple legionnaires are paying more and more attention to their work-life balance, eternal war can no longer be pursued.

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Alex Schulman: Final stop Malma

The new novel by bestselling Swedish author Alex Schulman is set on a train traveling from Stockholm to the fictional Malma. There are three people in it: Harriet, a ten-year-old girl, is going to a funeral with her taciturn, cool father. Oskar, a 35-year-old man and father, is traveling with his wife. The two have argued so bitterly that it is clear that they are going to separate; she just wants to show him a place from her childhood again. Yana, a young woman, has a photo album with her and is looking for her mother, who disappeared from her life early on. A journey into a family’s painful past.

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Christina Morina: A thousand departures

A pretty big spring and summer excitement was (once again) the way the GDR’s past was dealt with in literature. Dirk Oschmann and Katja Hoyer presented controversial analyzes on this. How beneficial, however, if source-based studies look more at the facts for a change. Just like the historian Christina Morina did with her book “A Thousand Awakenings”. In this brilliant history of democracy comparing East and West Germany since the 1980s, a lot can be learned about the very different understanding of the state in East and West, why the desire for a new constitution failed after 1990 and how East German stubbornness can be identified.

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Sabine Fischer: The chauvinistic threat

There are a few Putin books, and not just since Russia’s attack on Ukraine in February 2022. But the analysis by Sabine Fischer from the Science and Politics Foundation adds a very appropriate facet to the interpretations. Accordingly, the Kremlin ruler’s regime is based on an “extreme cult of masculinity.” The background to Russia’s war of annihilation is therefore a mixture of nationalism, sexism and autocracy. And this policy is directed both internally and externally – Europe and the West would have to arm themselves more strongly here, because, as you can see, Russia’s chauvinism does not stop at its western borders.

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Carlo Masala: Conditionally ready to defend

With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, countless observers have become prominent in trying to explain the situation. Carlo Masala is the godsend among German war experts – an expert, not a waffler. You could say that the professor of international politics at the University of the Bundeswehr in Munich is in business. He calls for more weapons for Ukraine. He accuses the Germans of having a schizophrenic relationship with the Bundeswehr – and of a misguided policy towards Russia. Wishful thinking. Greenness. The turning point announced by the German Chancellor a year ago was, he says, born out of pure fear. But now comfort has returned to people’s minds and offices. To the detriment of the Germans. And Ukraine.

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Florian Illies: Magic of silence

Caspar David Friedrich, the darkest of all romantics, is celebrating his 250th birthday next year. This is already casting shadows, exhibitions, books, and in these turbulent, bloody and terrible times, Illies’ “Magic of Silence” is exactly that: magic. Silence. Consolation. What a miracle book. And not just enthusiasm, Illies admits: “Some of Caspar David Friedrich’s pictures are weak, some are trying. No, not everything is masterful with him, fortunately he was not a god, but a human being.” But: “Nature pauses for a moment when Friedrich sees it, she holds her breath for him.”

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