German Class 212A and 214 submarines were the first in the world to undertake long dives independent of external air sources.
The German government is pushing to prevent foreign investors buying a majority stake in submarine maker Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW), the Spiegel weekly reported on Sunday.
Representatives from the German economy ministry were in talks with two German companies that have expressed an interest in HDW, which is currently owned by steelmaker ThyssenKrupp, Spiegel said, without naming its sources.
Also involved in the talks is Abu Dhabi MAR, which owns interests in other European shipyards and which is eyeing a minority stake in HDW, Spiegel said.
HDW specalises in submarines powered by fuel cells and has supplied navies around the world, including Israel's. Because of the firm's sensitive area of business, a sale of the company would require government approval.
Thomas Kossendey, state secretary in the defence ministry, told an industry conference in September that Berlin wanted to ensure that the design and construction of military vessels "stayed in German hands."
Showing posts with label Germany. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Germany. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Germany: Springtime for Hitler comedy, To Be or not?
Should Germans laugh about Adolf Hitler? The Deutsche Theater in Berlin last week gave its own "Yes" answer by staging a theatrical version of "To Be or Not To Be," Ernst Lubitsch's 1942 cult movie that satirizes Germany's takeover of Poland.
The play centers on a group of theater actors in Poland who drop their SS play for Shakespeare's "Hamlet" in order not to provoke Nazi Germany, which nevertheless overruns the country.
In the ensuing months, famed actress Maria Tura and her husband, the egocentric theater star Josef Tura, become entangled in an outrageous spy plot that pulls the ensemble together one last time for a final play to save their lives and their country: Relying on their old SS costumes and their acting qualities, they stage an SS parade and in the end even produce a naked Hitler to intimidate a local Nazi brute, and to fly off into freedom.
The Lubitsch film is now an all-time classic, but it took years until it was really respected. When it was unveiled in 1942, at a time when it felt like Hitler might prevail in Europe, the movie was thrashed.
"To say it is callous and macabre is understating the case," The New York Times scathed, and Life asked how "Hollywood could convert part of a world crisis into such a cops-and-robbers charade."
The Deutsche Theater interpretation, stuffed with Nazi memorabilia (usually illegal to display here in Germany) such as swastikas, Fuhrer paintings and a blow-up Reichsadler, did not raise eyebrows. That had been done by the Mel Brooks-authored musical "The Producers," which opened at the nearby Admiralspalast -- where Hitler once had his own VIP box -- earlier this year to rave reviews and considerable controversy.
The German press had extensively discussed whether Germans could and should laugh at Brooks' play without guilt. In Berlin, this discussion became especially meaning-laden.
The city's buildings still bear the scars of World War II in the form of bullet holes. From here, the real Hitler plotted a war and atrocities that killed 20 million people. The Nazi era still burdens Germans with a sense of collective guilt. While Hitler may be dead, neo-Nazism isn't.
Germany saw an upshot of far-right extremism in the 1990s, with hoards of bald-headed neo-Nazis torching asylum homes and clashing with German police. The democratic reaction was swift: Hundreds of thousands of Germans marched peacefully against xenophobia and neo-Nazism.
Over the past years, a series of plays and films have taken World War II as a subject, with "The Downfall" dramatizing Hitler's last days in the bunker. So the stage seemed set for "The Producers," which was a success. Laughing at Hitler seemed to be a liberating experience for Germans, and they did so many times at the second premiere of "To Be or Not to Be."
It was a pleasure to watch the slapstick talents of Bernd Moss, as Joseph Tura, and of Ingo Huelsmann, as his villain-counterpart Professor Silewski, who is trying to rat the entire Polish resistance only to be denied by the actors. Joerg Gudzuhn gives off a ridiculous Bavarian SS brute, and Juergen Huth a frighteningly real-looking Hitler -- heaven thanks that he loses his pants in the end.
Critics from Berlin-based newspapers thrashed the play because they said it offered nothing substantial beyond the film, and that the many comical scenes didn't reach below the surface. That might be true, but sometimes, it's not necessary to laden a play with extra meaning. Instead, why not take it what can be -- and is two hours of fun.
The play centers on a group of theater actors in Poland who drop their SS play for Shakespeare's "Hamlet" in order not to provoke Nazi Germany, which nevertheless overruns the country.
In the ensuing months, famed actress Maria Tura and her husband, the egocentric theater star Josef Tura, become entangled in an outrageous spy plot that pulls the ensemble together one last time for a final play to save their lives and their country: Relying on their old SS costumes and their acting qualities, they stage an SS parade and in the end even produce a naked Hitler to intimidate a local Nazi brute, and to fly off into freedom.
The Lubitsch film is now an all-time classic, but it took years until it was really respected. When it was unveiled in 1942, at a time when it felt like Hitler might prevail in Europe, the movie was thrashed.
"To say it is callous and macabre is understating the case," The New York Times scathed, and Life asked how "Hollywood could convert part of a world crisis into such a cops-and-robbers charade."
The Deutsche Theater interpretation, stuffed with Nazi memorabilia (usually illegal to display here in Germany) such as swastikas, Fuhrer paintings and a blow-up Reichsadler, did not raise eyebrows. That had been done by the Mel Brooks-authored musical "The Producers," which opened at the nearby Admiralspalast -- where Hitler once had his own VIP box -- earlier this year to rave reviews and considerable controversy.
The German press had extensively discussed whether Germans could and should laugh at Brooks' play without guilt. In Berlin, this discussion became especially meaning-laden.
The city's buildings still bear the scars of World War II in the form of bullet holes. From here, the real Hitler plotted a war and atrocities that killed 20 million people. The Nazi era still burdens Germans with a sense of collective guilt. While Hitler may be dead, neo-Nazism isn't.
Germany saw an upshot of far-right extremism in the 1990s, with hoards of bald-headed neo-Nazis torching asylum homes and clashing with German police. The democratic reaction was swift: Hundreds of thousands of Germans marched peacefully against xenophobia and neo-Nazism.
Over the past years, a series of plays and films have taken World War II as a subject, with "The Downfall" dramatizing Hitler's last days in the bunker. So the stage seemed set for "The Producers," which was a success. Laughing at Hitler seemed to be a liberating experience for Germans, and they did so many times at the second premiere of "To Be or Not to Be."
It was a pleasure to watch the slapstick talents of Bernd Moss, as Joseph Tura, and of Ingo Huelsmann, as his villain-counterpart Professor Silewski, who is trying to rat the entire Polish resistance only to be denied by the actors. Joerg Gudzuhn gives off a ridiculous Bavarian SS brute, and Juergen Huth a frighteningly real-looking Hitler -- heaven thanks that he loses his pants in the end.
Critics from Berlin-based newspapers thrashed the play because they said it offered nothing substantial beyond the film, and that the many comical scenes didn't reach below the surface. That might be true, but sometimes, it's not necessary to laden a play with extra meaning. Instead, why not take it what can be -- and is two hours of fun.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)