East Germany
Levelling up: don’t copy the Germans
‘Germany has succeeded in levelling up where we have not,’ Boris Johnson claimed back in July last year, when talk…
Why the far-right flourishes in East Germany
A spectre is haunting Germany — the spectre of the AfD. Having come to prominence on a wave of anti-migrant…
Life after death
The coronavirus crisis offers theatre a golden opportunity to break free of the structures that have held it back for years, says William Cook
A blast from the past
If you had to choose one book that both typified spy fiction and celebrated what the genre was capable of…
The Jezza effect
Corbyn the Musical feels like it comes from the heart. Did the writers live through the 1970s when the hard-left…
Class of ’83
No one remembers this now but there really was a period, not so long ago, when the Eighties were universally…
Teenage terrors
One of the great moments of my student life was opening the door and seeing visitors step back, shocked. I’d…
Art from another planet
‘Some day we shall no longer need pictures: we shall just be happy.’ — Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter, 1966…
Beautiful and damned
For centuries hailed as the home of poetry, music and liberalism, Weimar was ruthlessly exploited by the Nazis and later served as a showcase for communism, says Philip Hensher
A military port
Alas, the ’63 ports are beginning to fade. I came to that conclusion the last time I tasted a Warre’s,…
Leave Ukraine to the Russians
‘You can’t always get what you want,’ chorused Mick Jagger, ‘but if you try some time/You just might find/You get…
The wrong side of the barricade
Historians still argue over whether the regime of the GDR can be called a totalitarian one. Some say that the…
