Islamist terrorism and Western surveillance – a menacing interplay.

Terrorist attacks and radicalisation directly cause oppression in Western society. The fear of "Islam" is associated with the expansion of the surveillance state. But how does Islamist terrorism impact us? Are fears of "foreign infiltration" justified? Or do they rather serve as a pretext for massive government intervention in our freedom? Christa Chorherr tirelessly shows how big the dangers of Islamism and terrorism in Europe really are – and what the consequences are for us all: state "protection", which degenerates into the escalating use of endlessly collected personal data and which leads to the increasing loss of our privacy.

From the Keeping Uncalm series, in co-operation with the Akademie Graz

Theweleit describes the laughter of killers using a selection of case studies, including German soldiers in British prisoner of war camps during WWII, who are said to have told each other about the atrocities they had committed with considerable mirth. The laughter masks another aspect of killing for pleasure however; the cold rationality with which murderers speak when they justify their acts in public. Anders Breivik’s defence in court starts to sound like a statistical analysis of Norwegian immigration figures, for instance. Theweleit’s essay reveals the language of justification as a foil for sadism, because, according to the author’s provocative argument, anything can be ‘justified’; we should avoid believing a word of it.

April in Stein tells of life and survival in prison, forced labour and political resistance, but above all the mass murder in Krems for the first time.

During the Nazi tyranny, the prison in Krems-Stein was the largest in the "Ostmark" or ‘Eastern March’; the Nazi’s name for Austria. This was where dissidents were imprisoned – communists and "saboteurs", resisters from Austria and Eastern Europe. On April 6 1945, the prison governor opens the gates of the prison when faced by the advancing Red Army, but the SS, SA and local people hunt and kill hundreds of political prisoners in an unprecedented massacre. Some manage to escape, some survive by hiding in cellars, and their reports form the basis of Robert Streibel’s polyphonic panorama.

Medical innovation is always accompanied by those who resist it – no life shows this better than that of Ignaz Semmelweis.

A journey through the life of the great fighter for the health of mothers and medical progress. "Wash your hands": this rule of hygiene is taken for granted. That this was not always the case is revealed through the history of the 1818-born Semmelweis, who worked as a gynaecologist in Vienna. He had to fight hard for it to be recognised that doctors’ dirty hands were infecting child-bearing women. His life story, which is of immense importance still today, let’s us look deep into the fascinating world of scientific discoveries and intrigue.

From the series "Keeping Uncalm" in cooperation with the Academy Graz and DIE PRESSE

Discussions about the threat of privacy from phone hacking scandals and computer-aided searches are commonplace. Anna Kim draws a line from the development of the historic repeal of privacy in interrogation to the current use of digital technologies for government encroachment. In interrogation, the individual was always subdued for the arbitrary good of the public. Anna Kim tells the outrageous interrogation techniques and strategies from ancient history leading up to the dictatorships of modern times, where it was perfected through excessive tailing and show trials. The result is an unusual genealogy of surveillance as a publicly sanctioned violence.

Kann Religion unschuldig sein?

Adolf Holl embarks on a journey into the spirit world. He's looking for passage between the real and the shadow world. He succeeds in India, the place of longing for so many trying to make sense of the world. One finds what the West has lost – but also the bloody, bloodthirsty, and even the ultimate evil: Lord Shiva, the goddess Kali and the reborn Hitler ... Like an explorer of foreign continents Holl explored the contact points of the visible and the invisible worlds of Western thought and Eastern wisdom, of rulers and prophets. An invitation to an expedition through the endless expanses of religions. Adolf Holl, born in 1930 in Vienna was ordained a priest in 1954. His book "Jesus in Bad Company" (1971) brought him into conflict with the Catholic Church. In 1976 he was suspended from the priesthood. He now works as a writer and freelance journalist. He’s won numerous awards, including the Austrian State Prize for Cultural Journalism (2003) and Axel Corti Prize (2006).

Otto describes a cruel reality that surpasses all fiction.

Hans-Dieter Otto tells of the worst disasters in human history from antiquity to the present day: from massive earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, huge storms and cyclones, which humans seem just as unprepared for as famine and devastating epidemics. Is there really no heaven watching over us? This book describes what the accidents meant for each affected civilization; the many that perished and the ones who managed to return to normal. A readable, shattering kaleidoscope through suffering and misery and the terrible helplessness of man. Hans-Dieter Otto, born in 1937 in Berlin, is a lawyer and non-fiction author who lives in Ahrensburg. His "Encyclopedia of Miscarriages of Justice" (2003) became a bestseller, followed by "In the name of Error: Errors of Judgment in Murder Trials" (2006), "Encyclopedia of Unpunished Killings" (2007). His hobby, military history, was reflected in the publication "Missed Victories. Tragic Loss in the Austrian History of War "(2012). In "Above Us Only Sky?" (2015) he focuses on the worst natural disasters in human history.