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donate Summary of Merkur 12/2008
As the year comes to a close, we often begin to ruminate and think about getting older or even dying. In the December issue (number 715), Konrad Adam, Friedrich Pohlmann, and David Wagner help us along.
The issue opens with an essay by American political scientist Robert J. Lieber about the theories of America's decline that have blossomed in the last two hundred years and have practically created a genre unto itself. Will that old tale of downfall finally come true (as not few hope) with the financial crisis and the collapse of the US economy? Hopefully not, says Gustav Seibt; but the eight years of Bush have soured even an old friend of America like him. Capitalism and crisis are also at the center of Michael Stolleis's law column, the reviews by Wolfgang Kasper and Hans-Peter Müller, and last but not least a novel by Gottfried Keller, which Patrick Eiden urgently recommends.
The issue's third emphasis lies on Russia: Dina Khapaeva on the immorality and asocialness of the post-Soviet society and Ulrike Ackermann on the West's reactions to the Georgian conflict. Detlev Schöttker browses through Moscow's archives on a search for the sad fate of German writers in exile.
David Wagner
The new liver
"And then came the call: we have a new liver for you. I had been waiting for this call, I feared and longed for it. It's because of that that I didn't turn off my phone for over two years."
David Wager tells it how it is: a liver transplant for himself. And because he is an author of distinction, we learn something about life and death that we didn't know before. We are afraid, and from time to time we have to laugh.
Published 2008-12-01
Original in German
© Merkur
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