Jan und Cornelis de Heem

Zwei Stillleben zeigen luxuriöse Arrangements aus Früchten, Austern und anderen Genussmitteln in dunklen Innenräumen mit feinen Lichtspielen. Die stillen Dinge erzählen von Raum und Zeit, experimenteller Mathematik und Optik, fragilem Reichtum und Lust sowie von der atemberaubenden Meisterschaft der Künstler, die sich darin verewigt sahen: Jan de Heem, Künstler internationalen Rangs und zentrale Figur der Stilllebenmalerei Hollands und Flanderns im 17. Jahrhundert, und sein Sohn Cornelis de Heem, der das väterliche Vorbild mit eigenständigen Erfindungen und naturgetreuen Details bestechend umsetzte. Das Buch widmet sich neben biografischen, ikonografischen und ikonologischen Fragen dem Raumerlebnis dieser beiden Stillleben abseits unserer perspektivischen Sehgewohnheiten.

Germany’s Mother Courage of taboo breaking

Naturist, stunt pilot and sex pioneer – today Beate Uhse has cult status, but in the 1970's she was despised. She was a trailblazer for sexual enlightenment, built an international emporium out of nothing and is regarded as Germany's most successful businesswoman of the 20th century. Committed to the education of women on matters of contraception, she started out in the late 40's by selling information brochures on the topic. This provided her with the necessary seed capital to expand her mail order business for "matrimonial hygiene". Soon Uhse had over a million customers and was able to open the world's first sex shop. But in her personal life things didn't always turn out the way she wished. Katrin Rönicke provides a gripping portrait of the private and professional life of this extraordinary woman.

Settecento Castle conceals a secret world. A world ruled by beauty, perfection – and unimaginable cruelty.

Hidden away at Settecento, the shady 'Tsar' runs a modern-day boarding school modelled on Baroque-era music academies. Here, highly gifted boys are trained – and castrated – to enable them to sing the most spectacular roles, like the castrati of Baroque music. When Timo, a young boy with a magical voice, flees to Vienna and his mentor Matteo sets off in search of him, the music world is forced to confront reality. Matteo becomes a street singer and is both the hunter and the hunted. The Tsar is on his tracks and, in order to find Timo, he has to hold his own in the tough world of the homeless. Imbued with the sounds of Baroque opera, Daria Wilke's breathtaking story tells of a secret society that is prepared to pay any price for beauty.

Ein zeitgenössischer Reigen über Vertrauen und Verrat, Intimität und Fremdheit

Eine namenlose Frau reist alleine nach Lissabon, Berlin und Brüssel. In jeder Stadt beginnt sie eine Beziehung: einmal mit einem Mann, einmal mit einer Frau und zuletzt mit einem viel jüngeren Mann. Drei Begegnungen zwischen Anonymität und Begehren, drei Großstädte, drei Paare, die sich im Trubel einer atemlosen Gegenwart finden. Alle sind auf der Suche, versuchen aber zugleich im Schutz der Unverbindlichkeit zu bleiben. Immer wieder lässt die Frau sich auf Nähe ein, Intimität entsteht, ohne zu wissen, ob der Andere Gefahr oder Trost bedeutet. Immer wieder wird dem Fremden die Türe geöffnet, um nicht in der Kälte und Einsamkeit der Großstädte zu ersticken. „Trost“ erzählt mit großer Unmittelbarkeit von der Liebe in Zeiten der Rastlosigkeit.

In kräftigen Farben und zarten Tönen erzählt Ibrahim von einer verbotenen Liebe in Zeiten politischen Aufruhrs.

Für den Drogendealer Reza ist der Einbruch in das Vorstadthäuschen der Witwe Binta Zubairu bloß die Routine eines heißen Vormittags. Einen Herzschlag später wissen beide: Das, was hier geschieht, dürfte nicht sein. Die Anziehungskraft, die sie erfasst, das Begehren, das ihnen selbst ein Rätsel bleibt, verstößt gegen alle Regeln der traditionellen muslimischen Gesellschaft der Stadt Jos. Und doch: Vor dem Hintergrund der politischen und religiösen Gewalt in Nigeria entfaltet sich die sinnliche, kämpferische und verzweifelt unmögliche Liebesgeschichte zwischen einer alternden Frau, die ihren Sohn verloren hat, und dem um 30 Jahre jüngeren Anführer der Gang des Viertels. Ein üppig erzählter Roman, das lebendige Porträt einer zwischen Tradition und Moderne zerrissenen Gesellschaft.

Otto Wagner's diary of his final years – published for the first time.

October 26th 1915 was a fateful day for Vienna's leading architect and city planner. It was the day his wife Louise, 18 years his junior, died of cancer. Wagner had started to keep a diary when Louise was first diagnosed and continued to regularly record his memories of better days and comments on current developments. He intended the diary to be a memorial to is unparalleled love for Louise, yet it also reveals the misanthropic despair of a great artist. He considered himself to be at the peak of his craft and felt a Habsburg victory was close, bringing fresh opportunities to realise his plans. But old age afflictions and the miseries of WW1 took a growing toll on his day-to-day life. Rampant anti-Semitism, suffering and paranoia increasingly defined his thoughts. Three years on, the death of this patriarch coincided with the end of the Habsburg empire.

Chemistry is the most joyful science of our time.

Everything consists of a few building blocks, the elements. Nature, people, every single thing. One-hundred-and-fifty years ago, St. Petersburg scientist Dmitri Mendeleev applied a systematic order to all matter. Every element found its permanent place in the periodic table. But the periodic table has always been more than just a chart in the chemistry lab. Michael Pilz brings it to life by recounting the story from the beginning, and looking into the future at the end. He tells us about the old ores and elements of nature and about the antique concept of the four great elements. From the divine art of alchemy through to the scientific world of the periodic table and beyond, he provides a cultural history of world views and describes chemistry as the most joyful science of our time.

With courage, humour and honesty, four women confront the big question of what kind of life we should, can and want to have in our old age.

Four women at the end of a life stage – and at the beginning of a new one, in which they strike out on an unconventional path with humour and solidarity. Ella finds herself alone in her large period apartment. Finally alone? Or lonely after all? There's Rada, the Rumanian carer of her deceased husband, and Ella's sister, the colourful Maggie, who has returned after her international career. And there’s her neighbour Luise, who's been left for a younger woman. What kind of life do they want to have in their old age? What's possible? What's permitted? Will they be invisible or invincible? Fulfilled or frustrated? And most importantly – will they each live alone or all together? Their answer is brave and unconventional – and soon Ella's large apartment is full of life and heated discussions about politics, family ... and sex.

Die Überwältigungskraft des Reinhardt’schen Theaters

Noch vor Ende des Ersten Weltkriegs wurden die organisatorischen Weichen für Festspiele in Salzburg gestellt. Anlässlich des 100-Jahr-Jubiläums der Salzburger Festspiele, das 2020 gefeiert wird, stehen im zweiten Band einer Schriftenreihe Max Reinhardt und die Erforschung seines Lebenswerks im Zentrum der Betrachtung. Im Frühjahr 1918 erwarb Max Reinhardt Schloss Leopoldskron, das er als barockes Gesamtkunstwerk wiederauferstehen ließ und das als Keimzelle seiner Festspielvision zum Mittelpunkt des kulturellen Lebens der Stadt wurde. In der Ausgestaltung von Schloss Leopoldskron und seiner Nutzung manifestierte sich Reinhardts genialisches Gespür für theatralische Wirkung – dieser Lust am Theatralischen und Sinnlichen spüren die Beiträge des Bandes nach.

Does the market have limits, and who sets them?

With reference to the current demands for an 'ethical economy', Ute Frevert explores the difficult relationship between capitalism and morality, and asks whether all goods and services should be categorically and indiscriminately priced into the capitalist market model. Against the backdrop of current debates around common commodities such as water, and services such as assisted dying and prostitution, this question is more relevant than ever. Equally compelling are Frevert's observations on the expectations of fairness, justice and solidarity held by those who participate in today's globalised markets, be it as producers or consumers. What are the consequences of these expectations? Can they effect changes in the markets? And how have morality and economic practices developed in the course of modernity?