Latest news with #Goethe
Telegraph
4 days ago
- General
- Telegraph
The four berry recipes you need this summer – from tarte aux fraises to a simple raspberry sorbet
I've hunted all over northern and central Europe for wild berries, either picking them myself or paying for the fruits of someone else's labour. I eventually got to eat the hardest to find, the cloudberries of Scandinavia (the colour of salmon flesh), on a farm in Norway. I say farm but most of the food they dealt with was wild – fish (Arctic char and trout), reindeer, wild mushrooms and berries. Our first meal there was waffles with ice cream and cloudberries; the berries taste of musky soft apple flesh and were scooped from a big plastic ice-cream tub full of them and their syrup. Our eyes were as wide as dinner plates as our host ladled them on to our waffles. I know they're rare, but clearly not way up high in northern Norway. Even the sweet and simple strawberry – a berry of childhood as it has none of the tartness we come to like when we're older – weaves a kind of magic. In Iceland, where they're grown in geothermally powered greenhouses, you would think that they had special powers. In Scandinavia strawberries are associated with Frigg, the Norse goddess of marriage, who was so possessive that she wanted them all to herself. The Vikings are said to have believed that when a child dies it ascends to heaven as a strawberry. The seeds symbolised the souls of babies. That's not such a sweet idea but it chimes with Goethe's belief that only children and birds knew how strawberries should taste. I find the best in all of them. Strawberries are innocent, I get the tartest cultivated blueberries I can find, cook with wild blackberries when they're in season and love the raspberry most of all – well, apart from the Arctic raspberry, which is known as the 'prince of berries' in Russia. That one's still on my list of 'berries to eat'.
The Guardian
19-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Goethe immortalised the shaming of German women 200 years ago – we're still at it
Every nation has literary classics that shape its cultural identity. Germans have Faust, Goethe's play about the successful but dissatisfied scientist Dr Heinrich Faust, who makes a deal with the devil. Faust has been performed, referenced and read in schools for more than two centuries now. Interestingly, the most tragic character in this tragedy is not the protagonist, but his 'love interest', Gretchen – a teenage girl groomed by the old man, impregnated and socially ostracised. Her solution? She drowns her 'illegitimate' newborn child, accepts her death penalty and rejects Faust's offer to save her from prison. In God's mercy, the Christian girl seeks salvation and off goes Faust with the devil to new adventures in Faust, Part Two. What would Gretchen do today, I wonder. Her fate is not only a result of sexual abuse and an inherently misogynistic morality, but also nonexistent reproductive rights. In today's Germany, abortion is still illegal under the criminal code. It is nonpunishable under certain conditions, particularly during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, but nonetheless, in practice a modern-day Gretchen might have difficulty finding a doctor willing to perform a termination, depending on where she lives. Moreover, Gretchen might be intimidated by the stigma, which is not just societal but enshrined in German law. For decades now, the so-called paragraph 218 that criminalises abortion has been subject to political debate. Poland and the US are living proof that, even if not prosecuting anyone for carrying out or procuring an abortion is the accepted practice, that can be toppled quickly when ultraconservatives are in power. The last German government, under the Social Democratic party's (SPD) Olaf Scholz, made an attempt to reform paragraph 218 before losing power, but failed. Obviously, nobody expects the current German government, led by the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), to take any progressive decisions on the right to physical self-determination. But what is now happening at the Bundestag goes further than preserving this outdated law – which must surely fall foul of international human rights standards. After weeks of an orchestrated rightwing social media campaign, the election by the Bundestag of three new judges to the constitutional court (Germany's highest court) was unexpectedly cancelled last week. The reason: one of candidates, Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf, a 54-year-old jurist and professor, stands accused of holding extremist leftwing positions, because she supports the decriminalisation of abortion. Anyone who has listened to or read Brosius-Gersdorf's judicial reasoning knows that she fully relies on the German constitution in her arguments and carefully evaluates the rights of the mother and the embryo depending on the phase of pregnancy. In the early phase, according to Brosius-Gersdorf, the mother's rights predominate. In the later phase, as soon as the embryo is viable, the embryo's right to life has to be protected. Claims that Brosius-Gersdorf is in favour of abortions until the ninth month of pregnancy are blatant lies, spread by rightwing media as well as far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) politicians. The fact that Brosius-Gersdorf, who was nominated by the SPD, also argues for a ban on the AfD due to the classification of it by German intelligence as rightwing extremist might have been the real trigger for the propaganda campaign against her. Other accusations have circulated around the jurist's recommendation for compulsory vaccination during the pandemic, and allegations that her PhD thesis was plagiarised (which were proven to be false). But not until the focus fell on her allegedly radical views on abortion did the mobilisation succeed. Parts of the governing coalition – 50 to 60 Christian Democrat MPs – raised doubts about her nomination, which led to postponement of the vote, which will probably now be delayed until after the summer recess. Appointments to the constitutional court require a two-thirds parliamentary majority in a secret ballot. Her critics now expect Brosius-Gersdorf to withdraw, although the SPD, Greens and the leftwing party Die Linke continue to uphold her nomination. Sign up to This is Europe The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans – from identity to economics to the environment after newsletter promotion Now, all of this might sound very familiar to those who have followed the US culture wars of the past decade. Some commentators speak of the 'Trumpification of German politics', since the whole debacle is founded on fake news and defamation. But the stigma of abortion itself is not an imported phenomenon. It is part of German cultural identity, perpetuated by the Gretchen tragedy, which has never really gone out of date. Paragraph 218, by the way, is a relic from the 1871 criminal code and almost as old as Faust. Gretchen would certainly be surprised that so little has changed when it comes to bodily autonomy. Fatma Aydemir is a Berlin-based author, novelist, playwright and a Guardian Europe columnist
New York Times
05-07-2025
- General
- New York Times
A Century Ago, Adolescents Weren't Fully Human
A parent could be forgiven for thinking that adolescents are primitive. They speak in monosyllables ('Food!'), if they speak at all. Their cognition can described as dim. ('Where are my shoes!? Oh, they're on my feet.') As a group, they seem to be not merely not-yet-mature-humans but not-yet-fully-humans-at-all — Homo habilis maybe, Neanderthals at best. Take heart in this impression. A century ago, when adolescent psychology first emerged as a field of study, that was exactly the thinking: Teenagers are literally not fully evolved; they are pre-human. The main proponent of this idea was G. Stanley Hall, a psychologist and educator at Clark University who in 1878 had received, from Harvard, the first doctorate in psychology awarded in the United States. At the time, adolescence was not just a mystery but a nonentity. For centuries leading up to the Industrial Age, young humans went directly from childhood into the work force and reproductive mode. The economy permitted no room for semi-productive adolescents, much less anything like teen culture. There had been echoes of teen angst. William Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' appeared in 1597. 'The Sorrows of Young Werther,' the 1774 novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, tells the story of a young man who, in pursuit of love, navigates melancholy, euphoria, suicidal ideation and, eventually, unrequited feelings that end in tragedy. The book was part of a late-18th-century German literary movement known as Sturm and Drang, which identified tumult and stress as defining characteristics of impulsive, romantic young people. Hall, born in Massachusetts in 1844, came of age amid major social and demographic change. With improvements in medicine, sanitation and living conditions, the life span of the average American was increasing, from roughly 40 in 1800 to near 50 by 1900. Progressive reformers sought to combat the ills of industrialization and called for compulsory elementary education; gradually, more working-class families opted for high school, because more learning could lead to better wages. These forces combined to wedge a new time period between childhood and adulthood. Hall was among the first scholars to try to name and explain it.'Up until Hall, there was an amorphous general notion that there was this period of life that was different,' said Dr. Laurence Steinberg, a psychologist at Temple University and expert on adolescence. 'What Hall did was connect the dots. He was the first person to put it all together.' He added, 'He had some ideas that were wacky and some that were brilliant.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Egypt Today
22-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Egypt Today
Egyptian documentary MEMOIRS OF M.A. DRAZ screens exclusively at London's Aga Khan Library
Following its successful release in Egypt, screening at Cairo's Goethe and French Institutes as well as Zawya cinema, the highly acclaimed Egyptian documentary MEMOIRS OF M.A. DRAZ by Maggie Morgan will be screened exclusively at London's Aga Khan Library on June 24th at 5 pm. The event will be attended by several noteworthy individuals, including the Egyptian ambassador to London and his wife, the consul general and his wife, producer Noha El Kholy, and the grandchildren of M.A. Draz. MEMOIRS OF M.A. DRAZ is a poignant documentary that delves into the extraordinary life of Azharite scholar Mohamed Abdallah Draz. After decades of his passing, his great-granddaughter uncovers a treasure trove of letters, diaries, and photographs that piece together the life of a man she had only known through childhood stories. The film explores themes of education, equality, and the importance of preserving cultural heritage, showcasing Draz's progressive views on gender equality long before the rise of feminism in the Middle East while also taking viewers on a journey from Draz's humble beginnings in Mahallet Diyay to his scholarly pursuits in Paris, highlighting his commitment to providing equal opportunities for both his daughters and sons. Days after the release of the film at Cairo's favorite indie cinema, Zaywa Cinema, the Egyptian documentary MEMOIRS OF M.A. DRAZ soon became the talk of the town, with critics highly praising it, including esteemed Egyptian film critic Mahmoud Abd El Shakour, who hailed it as 'one of the best films of the year in terms of idea, structure, and topic.' MEMOIRS OF M.A. DRAZ world premiered at the eighth Aswan International Women Film Festival, where it won the Rasheeda Abdelsalam Special Jury Award and the Euro-Mediterranean Award. Elevating the documentary to an unforgettable cinematic experience, the film has garnered critical acclaim for its hauntingly beautiful narration by actor Sedky Sakr and the evocative musical score by Khaled Al Kammar. Directed by Maggie Morgan and co-written alongside Taghreed El-Asfoury, MEMOIRS OF M.A DRAZ was produced by Noha El-Khouly; lensed by Amgad Reyad, Olivier Dury, Emad Nabil, and Akram Mamdouh; and edited by Amgad Shafik and Tamer Abdullah.
The Age
20-06-2025
- The Age
Port guide: Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany
This article is part of Traveller's ultimate guide to cruise ports. See all stories. This once dull financial capital is Germany's most overlooked city but is lively, cultured, and has buzzing neighbourhoods and great dining and shopping scenes. Who goes there A-Rosa, Avalon Waterways, Emerald Cruises, Riviera Travel, Scenic, Uniworld and Viking are among companies that sail the Main River. Itineraries are varied, with some concentrating on the Main between Frankfurt and Nuremberg, and others sailing longer journeys onto the Rhine and Danube which are connected by the Main River and Main-Danube Canal. Cruises also run in winter during the Christmas-market season. Sail on in Your ship sails right into downtown Frankfurt, marked by the small skyscrapers of the business district. If you're heading downstream, you'll first pass Gerbermuhle set amid greenery and chestnut trees on the port side. Goethe stayed at this former summer residence of a Frankfurt banker (now a hotel) for a month in 1815 and fell in love with Marianne von Willemer, whom he immortalised in poetry. Berth rites Ships dock at several locations along Untermainkai or occasionally at Osthafen depending on the cruise line. There are no terminals, with passengers disembarking onto quays and promenades. Untermainkai is a convenient location, with the old-town centre a 20-minute walk, and lively Sachsenhausen district located just across the river. Going ashore The medieval core, almost all recreated after World War II bombing, centres on the red sandstone cathedral and buzzy Romerberg Square. The Gothic city hall is worth a squizz. Goethe House was the birthplace of Germany's most famous writer and, even if you aren't literary, is a fine showcase of middle-class, 18th-century living. If you're a fan of views, head to the observation deck atop Commerzbank Tower. Frankfurt is leafy, but the best park might be 19th-century botanical Palmengarten, which often hosts summer concerts. Save some time to plunder the shops. Pedestrian Zeil is upmarket, Hauptwache mid-range, and Goethestrasse packs in some fine antiques.
