BlätterEurozineBlätter2014-01-24 Heftbeschreibung Blätter 1/2014Wolfram Wette
1914: The German will to future warfare
Since the Fischer-controversy 50 years ago the dispute about which country was responsible for World War I seemed to be settled -- at the cost of Germany. However, the new book of Christopher Clark "The Sleepwalkers" casts doubt on this assumption. Wolfram Wette, historian and scholar of peace studies, argues against this -- as he and others see it -- falsification of history. He proves that the German will to lead a war had grown strong even before 1914 -- and that especially the military elites had no interest in preserving peace.Jeremy Scahill
Secret and dirty: Obama's "intelligent war"
Obama was awarded with the Nobel Peace Price in 2009 in the expectation that he would break with his predecessors' war policy. Four years later, things have turned out differently: The investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill shows how a system of special forces was institutionalized under Obama -- a system that is primarily used to facilitate targeted killings. All this happens beyond the law and under the state secrets privilege of the US government.Manfred Quiring
Caucasian Cracks: The Olympic Games in Sochi
While the olympic rings since ancient times stand for understanding among nations, the this year's winter games in Sochi might follow a different spirit. Longstanding foreign correspondent in Russia Manfred Quiring expects the games to heat up regional conflicts. In the run-up to the games there have already been numerous human rights violations -- according to the author this is above all a consequence of president Putin's claim to great power status.Thomas Moser
The NSU complex: Who will investigate the Secret Services?
Until today the investigations into the National Socialist Underground's serial killings have provided us with more questions than answers. However, increasing evidence points to the unthinkable: the NSU-complex as a co-operation of neo-Nazis and secret services. Investigative journalist Thomas Moser analyses the latters' deep entanglement and tremendous cover-ups. He argues that only continued parliamentarian and judicial investigations are able to break up the service's silence.Tim Engartner
The great mail robbery
The privatization of the Federal Post Office and its consequences
More than 20 years ago the German "Bundespost" went public -- with serious consequences especially for the employees. Tim Engartner, social scientist at the University of Frankfurt am Main, analyses the situation: While the company's profits are increasing more and more, employees suffer from job cutbacks, wage reductions and precarious working conditions.Jürgen Reuß and Cosima Dannoritzer
Buy, dump, rebuy
How we ruin our world consuming
Christmas, the "feast of love", has mutated to a celebration of consumption long time ago. However, the piles of gifts are only symbols of the excesses of western societies focused on economic growth. The journalists Jürgen Reuß and Cosima Dannoritzer demonstrate how products are purposefully designed with shortcomings to break at an early stage. This practice exhausts natural resources and is responsible for huge amounts of waste -- with dramatic consequences for future generations and all those people who are excluded from consumption through poverty.Christoph Fleischmann
To whom belongs the time?
Man within the rhythm of capitalism
Every day we experience technological innovations which are supposed to facilitate people's lives. However, time seems to run short for individuals, and people seem to rush more and more. Christoph Fleischmann, theologian and journalist, searches for explanations for this apparent paradox. He finds them in the development of capitalism since Late Middle Ages -- in accelerated heteronomy executed by money and in changes in the sense of time. The "spirit of capitalism" becomes the producer of permanent burnout.Joachim Perels
The negated guilt
How Theodor Eschenburg justifies the civil service of the Third Reich
The dispute about the role of the political scientist Theodor Eschenburg during and after the NS-era also provoked a passionate debate in the journal "Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik". The lawyer Joachim Perels shows how Eschenburg uncritically protected some NS-officials -- like Globke, Krosigk and Weizsäcker -- in his articles published in the German weekly magazine "Die Zeit". Eschenburg's example reveals a spirit of the "Era Adenauer", which apparently still needs to be accounted for.The full table of contents of Blatter 1/2014