The most important natural history book of the Middle Ages. You have probably never heard of a book that was the most widely read text in the West for a millennium after the Bible: The Physiologus. But you are familiar with many descriptions of real or fabulous animals from it that have become proverbial: the lion that animates its young by breathing on them; the pelican that [...]
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The apocalypse as hope?
(Published 2014) The world is not coming to an end yet... At the beginning of the nineties of the last century, in a small, private circle around Carl Friedrich v. Weizsäcker (1912-2007), I listened to a lecture by Marion Gräfin Dönhoff (1909-2002), the grand old lady of German political journalism. Her presentation was characterized by the greatest optimism: the Iron Curtain had just [...]
Published in 2006 Three hundred years ago (1706) was the birthday of Benjamin Franklin (17.1.1706 - 17.4.1790), one of the most famous representatives of the "New America". As a typical representative of the Enlightenment, he was universally interested. His intelligence and his frugal, success-oriented life, ordered in the spirit of Puritanism, brought him scientific reputation, political influence and an almost fairy-tale rise, which [...]
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A wise advice of the Bible
(Published in GralsWelt 85/2014) In almost all religious groups there are fanatics who - with dogmatic intolerance - discriminate against, defame, even threaten with death dissenters from their doctrine or those who believe differently. This narrow-minded thinking has forced centuries of suffering, violence, oppression, expulsion and wars. Christianity, too, often did not follow the philosophy associated with charity [...].
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The Sputnik Shock
50 years ago, on October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union sent the first artificial satellite, called Sputnik (Russian = companion), into orbit around the Earth, marking the beginning of space travel. Published 2007 Weighing 83 kg, the spherical Earth satellite orbited the Earth in 96 minutes. It sent out beeping radio signals that were received worldwide [...]
100 years after the outbreak of the First World War on August 1, 1914 (Published in GralsWelt 83/2014) "Now the lights are going out in Europe, and none of the living will see them shine." This is how British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey (1862-1933), the man who, according to historian Golo Mann, "could have prevented the war," felt about the [...]
(Published in GralsWelt 84/2014, page 44) In August 2013, a strange report went through the media: An elite student was doing his internship at a major bank. Due to total overwork, the 22-year-old young man collapsed one day quite unexpectedly exhausted and died. The incident gives rise to some thoughts about the current formation of a new elite, [...].
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In the light of truth
Grail Message from Abd-ru-shin Verlag of the Grail Message Foundation Stuttgart, www.gralsbotschaft.org. “In the Light of Truth” is one of the most demanding of all book titles imaginable. But this work lives up to the highest expectations - provided one delves into it without prejudice. “What is truth?” Asked the philosophically educated Roman prefect Pontius Pilate in the year 30 the accused Jesus. This was silent. He, [...]
(Published April 2014) Long before the industrial age, an ancient city provided an example of capitalist economics. Carthage's advanced economy secured great success for the trading power, but came at the cost of many human lives. After its destruction by the Romans, the latter adopted the successful model, but were now inexorably heading toward their decay ... The New York of the [...]
Suhrkamp Verlag Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-518-42385-1 There are many writings about environmental issues. But Stephen Emmott's "Ten Billion" is unique. They deserved to be the book of the year! Emmott's stage play "Ten Billion" was also a sensational success in London. Stephen Emmott teaches at Oxford and runs a research laboratory for computational science. So has [...]
