Posts Tagged: Der Spiegel
things people climb
1

Thrill Seeking Daredevil Seeks Thrills, Dares Devil

| April 25th, 2012

"I recently climbed to the top of the statue of Peter the Great in the center of the city one night—100 meters (330 feet) up and onto his head. We climbed up while the guards were sleeping. A weather vane was spinning in the wind on the very top. Below, the sun was slowly rising over Moscow. The city was asleep, and it was like life was frozen. I was the happiest person on Earth. I only need to look down to forget all my problems." —Yikes! Wait a minute! I thought the rule was "DON'T look down!" Der Spiegel's as-told-to by leading Moscow "roofer" Marat Dupri (and [...]

What a World
2

Germans Still Into Sadomasochistic Fetish Gear, Nazism

| January 5th, 2011

"He wore sadomasochistic gear and his face was covered with a mask. When his identity was checked, the man said he was a slave to his dominatrix who had ordered him to walk through town clothed like that." —You wonder if things would have turned out differently for this guy had he been walking through the village of Jamel, in Northeastern Germany, which has become such a safe haven for neo-nazis that children raise their arms in the "Heil Hitler" salute to passersby on the street. In Gunzburg, where he was, the police officers who stopped him, "told him to desist from this in future."

Quicklink
21

Cobra Baby On Loose

| March 23rd, 2010

"The walls, floor and ceiling of O's attic apartment were dismantled and the two units on the ground floor below were also carefully searched. Flour was strewn on the floor in the hopes of collecting tracks. Strong, double-sided tape was installed to perhaps trap the cobra baby. The fire department even brought in mini-cameras to search the tightest and most inaccessible corners. To no avail. On Sunday, the search was called off and the renters were told they would have to find alternate accommodation for eight weeks-by which time, it is assumed, the snake will have starved to death." -Bedbugs are bad. A cobra that escapes from a [...]

People Who Eat People
4

Sometimes German People Eat People, Too, Y'know

| October 18th, 2011

"I think it would be mistaken to conclude from these bone finds that this was cannibalism or has some cultural background. In Germany too, corpses are dilettantishly discarded, that doesn't just happened in the Second or Third Worlds." —Adolph Gallwitz, professor of police psychology at the police college in Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany, makes a good point about a pile of human bones found on the South Pacific island of Huku Niva. Local police think the bones may be the remains of a German engineer, Stefan Ramin, who went exploring the island with a local hunter and has been missing since October 9th. Some say that the bones betray [...]

Animals
11

How Can We Stop The Beavers?

| November 5th, 2010

Controversy is flaring in the Oderbruch region in the German state of Brandenburg, because a thriving beaver population there has been digging into the dikes along the Oder river, weakening the levee and threatening the 20,000 human residents of the marshy area with flooding.

9

Madonna, Iggy Pop, the Sexual Revolution and Islam

| October 13th, 2009

"Just look at these young people. They are burning up with passion. They have such a lust for life, and yet they are so inhibited. People in the Middle East are poets, writing poetry from morning to night, and what do they write poetry about? About desire. The little boy in the street does it, and so do the construction worker and the academic. They are all writing poetry about the same subject, the subject that is suppressed more than anything else." Der Spiegel has a fascinating interview with German-Turkish writer Seyran Ates, who apparently listens to Madonna and Iggy Pop (maybe she was at last [...]

What a World
8

The World's Largest Private Yacht Just Left A Hamburg Shipyard A Few Weeks Ago, But There Are Already Two Bigger Ones In Production

| January 31st, 2011

"In the case of the Roma, the owner's wife didn't only want to have all furniture handles embellished with Swarovski stones. She also insisted the surfaces of the closets be covered in the exclusive skins of rays. Gehr, a master carpenter by trade, faced a challenge: Where could he get ray skins? What was the best time of year to buy them? How do you work with the stuff? What did it cost? And what should he estimate? When all the questions had been answered, and the furniture had been upholstered in ray skin, the owner and his wife came to Lunestadt in Lower Saxony to see the result. [...]

What a World
10

Run, Dino, Run!

| May 12th, 2010

A large bear is causing a stir in Italy. Having woken from winter's hibernation and wandered into the cattle-farming region between the northeastern cities of Belluno and Vicenza, the 385-pound creature, nicknamed "Dino" by the local press, is very hungry. And has been treating the local livestock like the never-ending-pasta-bowl deal at Olive Garden that makes Americans so obese. (He has even eaten horses, like people do in France.) Local farmers want him to feel a little less like family when he's there. In fact, they want him shot dead. But, as Der Spiegel reports from neighboring Germany, the Italian Internet is mounting a rescue effort.