It's good to see Gauland's comment translated here as "birdshit" as it should be, rather than the euphemistic "bird poo" as it was widely reported in the English-language media - let's not do their job for them and play down the level of disrespect and disdain his remarks clearly evidenced.

This is it in a nutshell: fascism is all about ramming home one version of anything and delegitimising / subordinating to it all other versions that might exist. It's both fundamentally at odds with, and yet also uniquely enabled by the pluralistic possibilities promised by the internet.

"[Weimar] youth films affirm fixation to authoritarian behaviour precisely by stressing rebellion against it [...] [METROPOLIS] was more explicit than all others [...] In it, the paralysed collective mind seemed to be talking with unusual clarity in its sleep."

I would maybe not die, but certainly fight on this hill. My conviction is that suspense for its own sake is cheap, and if a film or TV series is well written, made, acted and thought-about enough, it should hook me even if I know exactly what's going to happen. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I first came across Kogonada through this video essay which shows pretty much the same thing happening in Hollywood 70 years earlier: kogonada.com/portfolio/wh...

Seeing as 'tis once again the season (and it's such a bloody brilliant film), I have an old Twitter thread on IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE that I'll find and post up here before the year is out - needless to say it includes bells and Dmitri Tiomkin.

Seeing as it's that time of year again - what song are they singing? Wrong answers only. I'll start: "I'm representing for them gangstas all across the world, (Still) Hitting them corners in them low-lows, girl"

#KeinVergessen: Heute vor einem Jahr, am 20. Dezember 2024 fuhr ein Mann in den Magdeburger Weihnachtsmarkt. Sechs Menschen wurden getötet, über 300 verletzt. Die grauenhafte Tat weckte sofort Erinnerungen an den islamistischen Anschlag auf den Berliner Breitscheidplatz vom 19. Dezember 2016. 1/x

A new play in Magdeburg explores the "baseball bat years" of sustained far-right violence against people of migrant backgrounds, left-wingers, punks and other target groups in the years immediately following reunification - a shocking part of the city's history I never learned during my time there.

‘Harder work than almost any album we ever did’: Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here turns 50

I thought B*ld was supposed to be the newspaper of "Soviel Liebe auf einmal"... Although they have now helped them get to €100,000, which I suppose is nice.

Unsere Abteilung Kommunikation und Öffentlichkeit war heute bei JMB-Kuratorin Tamar Lewinsky in der außergewöhnlichen, sehenswerten Hör-Ausstellung zu Claude Lanzmanns "Shoah", eröffnet anlässlich seines 100. Geburtstags. Auch online wird Interessierten viel zu diesem UNESCO-Weltkulturerbe geboten.

In the midst of so much else going on right now, it's a really lovely surprise to see that Radio 3 is reprising their Medieval Christmas edition of "Composer of the Week" from a couple of years back - genuinely one of my favourite listening experiences ever. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

To mark both the 50th anniversary of the death of #HannahArendt *and* the recent appointment of Misha Glenny as Melvyn Bragg's successor on "In Our Time", please enjoy this personal favourite episode of mine and excellent introduction to Arendt and her work. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Brilliant choice of Misha Glenny for In Our Time! He interviewed me at the Vienna Humanities festival a few weeks ago and he had the perfect wide-ranging interests and intelligence. As a fan of IOT I am cheering. www.bbc.com/mediacentre/...

Mystery solved - there was me thinking that Echoes had dissolved into light again... www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/2563607...

Neologismus / #WortDesTages: "Arschlochisierung"

The latest threat to UK modern languages is yet another faux pas. Nottingham and Leicester are taking a swing at language departments. But those proposing closures have taken their eye off the ball, say four linguists. www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/late... via @timeshighered.bsky.social

Oh no 😰 It's awful enough that these issues are affecting unis all across the country, but literally this combination was my undergrad degree, and it hits hard. I don't think many of my old lecturers are still there, but they set me on a good path, such a shame to see their legacy wrecked like this.

I don't know Pasolini or his films nearly as well as I feel I should, and don't think I can ever bring myself to watch "Salo", but he is nonetheless a fascinating individual, and his "wide-awake-ness" is especially urgent today. Worth a read! www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...

Verrohung, respektloses Verhalten und rechtsextrem motivierte Übergriffe: In den #Gedenkstätten nehmen Probleme mit offenkundig rechtsextrem beeinflussten Jugendlichen massiv zu. Politik, Schulen und die gesamte Gesellschaft sind gefordert. www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/kz-g...

Such a sad loss - I was reflecting just the other day on his energetic, propulsive, but also incredibly supple style of drumming. Listening recently to some of the numerous ECM sessions he sat in on over the years with Kenny Wheeler, John Abercrombie, Dave Holland et al was a revelation. RIP.

She will probably be remembered for one or two certain things, but I watched "Hobson's Choice" for the first time a short while back and thinking she was incredibly assured in what was one of, if not her first major film role. RIP.

An essential listen for those who need to hear it (or be reminded) from Timothy Snyder of the insidious games that the Tr*mp administration is playing with historical awareness and facts. snyder.substack.com/p/when-anti-...

35 years ago, Germany was reunified.

Whaaat, did not realise this had happened 😢 I won a ticket to see Hermeto Pascoal at the LJF a few years back having never heard of him before, and it was one of the most life-affirming gigs I've ever been to: he seemed to spend half the time hugging people on stage. He will truly be missed.

There really needs to be a GIF of Max Giermann as Klaus Kinski saying "Soll das ein Witz sein?" precisely for this sort of occasion, but this will have to do for now (ignore the captions at the top): youtube.com/shorts/UXvQA...

I thought I had seen her name mentioned on here a couple of days ago and wondered if something had happened, but it seems to be official now, so: RIP #ClaudiaCardinale - anyone who can take on Klaus Kinski for screen presence earns my immediate respect www.theguardian.com/film/2025/se...

‘Resistance is when I put an end to what I don’t like’: The rise and fall of the Baader-Meinhof gang www.theguardian.com/news/2025/se... via @theguardian.com @jasonburke2.bsky.social

Interesting how this MI6 promo opens literally with the SIS Building at Vauxhall in a crosshairs - is it that no one remembers the rocket launcher attack in 2000, or are they just riffing on it...? www.linkedin.com/posts/foreig...

I've always regretted not taking the opportunity to visit while just up the road in, but wanting to make up for it now after reading this - love those lines 😁

It's actually a little spooky rereading Roszak's foreword to the 1995 edition and seeing so much foreshadowing of what we're now experiencing 30 years later, indeed as it was seemingly happening back then all in plain sight:

I've often thought how big tech and AI display totalitarian attitudes towards the individuality invested in identity, creativity etc (ie breaking down to build up again), and @leaypi.bsky.social hits the nail on the head just how key dignity is to this - or rather its denial in the name of profit.

Sad news to hear obviously, but a (semi) retirement well deserved after years of service and dedication to what continues to be a fantastic show and a fixture of my listening week. All the very best and thanks to Melvyn, and excited to see how the programme will evolve under a new host!

"Gunterdammerung", anyone?

I wrote this with the aim that it would be a durable piece, relevant every time there's a flare-up of far right violence or as far right ideas make further advances into the mainstream. Hope people find it useful.

Die Mohrenstraße ist Geschichte. Seit heute gibt es mitten in Mitte die Anton-Wilhelm-Amo-Straße. Unter den Augen vieler Menschen wurden die neuen Straßenschilder feierlich enthüllt. Zahlreiche Redebeiträge, Diskussionen und musikalische Beiträge erinnerten an den langen Weg zur Umbenennung.

Understandable outrage in Germany as the last surviving member of the NSU terrorist cell - and the only one to face justice for their crimes - is being considered for a rehabilitation programme that may bring forward their release, despite still withholding key details about the group's activities.

Some definitions/explanations here - just don't look up "goonen": www.giga.de/tech/sybau-w... So how long until "skibidi" becomes "Jugendwort des Jahres" too...?

"Lord, grant me the confidence of" etc etc

Bernard Herrmann’s handwritten “Prelude” from VERTIGO (1958).

Ronald Searle's fabulously evocative drawings of the building of the Berlin Wall in August 1961 and the months afterwards. Originally published in Punch magazine; in the collection of the Imperial War Museum.

'Known as hibakusha in Japan, the survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the only people in the world with firsthand experience of the horrors of nuclear warfare' ...

13 August 1961: the Berlin Wall goes up in Sebastianstraße (via Bundesarchiv)

After a torrid 100 days, Germany’s Friedrich Merz is mocked as a ‘dead man walking’. He must fight back | John Kampfner

anti-Algerian pogrom in the GDR 50 years ago; v good research into a neglected event

On this, only the latest of sombre anniversaries this year, let's leave aside for a day the arguments over right or wrong, and consider the objective human cost. Let's leave today for the victims - then and afterwards - and for the "hibakusha" whose suffering continued long after their survival.

Well worth checking out this online exhibition from @wienerlibrary.bsky.social - if nothing else, a worthy reminder of the power of strength in numbers, and of how communities have come together in the face of adversity in the interests of what's right for everyone rather than just for themselves.

4 August 1965: building work starts on the television tower on Alexanderplatz in East Berlin. Here's a photo gallery showing how the Fernsehturm took shape. www.rbb24.de/panorama/bei... via @rbb24.de