Climbing in the middle of berlin, on a white hill directly at the schlossplatz, which rises out of the ruins of the palace of the republic? Before the last crude symbol of the gdr state is torn down this year, artists are taking over the direction there. In doing so, they are once again demonstrating an alternative to demolition and a possible use for the ruined palace, which in recent years has gained cult status as a venue for events.

The palace on schlossplatz. Photo: david baltzer

The project people palace – the mountain makes the building for the last time of the 4. Until 26. August for visitors. Along with 35 other artists, the architectural group raumlabor planned and built a walkable mountain in the center of the palace. Hiking trails crisscrossed the ruins. The tour is planned less as physical exercise than as an excursion into the present and history of the building, into a craggy concrete massif.

A cool breeze provides an alpine touch in the shady foyer of the palace, while outside the sun heats berlin up to over 30 degrees celsius. The artificial mountain grows up to a height of 44 meters and is supposed to protrude from the roof by 12 meters. A structure with a volume of 10.000 cubic meters, over which 5.000 square meters of special foil. From above it looks like a gigantic igloo. The summit looks like the matterhorn. "Volkspalast – der berg" is a walk-through and recorded spatial installation with performances, exhibitions and tours that provide "sensational insights into the building structure" of the palace ruins, promises artistic director amelie deuflhard.

Mount eventerest in the rough hall. Installation: raumlabor berlin

But why do you need a mountain? For benjamin foerster-baldenius of the architects’ group raumlabor, who initiated the project as the "artistic director of the mountain," this is a difficult question to answer. In its own way, the mountain creates a tabula rasa for the discussion about the schlossplatz, on which the city palace is to be rebuilt after the palace is demolished. Here the mountain offers itself as a projection surface for ideas and visions. As a place of longing, where thoughts can wander, to imagine berlin’s most central square even without preuben residence. Thus, the mountain as a space turned contradiction questions the function of the place: what else should go here??

Tour through the ruin. Photo: jorg brause

Visitors can meditate on this question on a circular walk through the concrete massif. There is not much left of the berlin prestige building of the gdr. When the asbestos removal was completed in 2003, a rusty steel skeleton and a lot of bare concrete remained, in which almost everything was removed except for the load-bearing walls and stairs. The whole a wide-ranging, gloomy emptiness.

Even though the people mocked the palace, which was opened in 1976, as "erich’s lamp store", the building enjoyed great popularity. Not only the people’s chamber resided in the house and not only official honors of the ‘working people’ were celebrated.

Here, the gdr television ballet danced in the event hall, which was a multi-functional wonder with all conceivable technical finesses. An ice skating show could also start there from time to time. The numerous restaurants, cafes and bars were open to the burgers. With 15.000 visitors a day, it was the most visited place in the center of east berlin. Somehow also a people’s house, where some fell in love on bales and then celebrated his wedding. In 1990 the lights went out.

Tour through the ruins. Photo: jorg brause

But 13 years later, visitors flocked again to the shell, where hardly any traces of its past remain. Thus, a tour becomes a search movement of memory and, with the mountain action, also for the future. When visitors cross the event hall on a bridge at a height of four meters, of which only the wooden skeleton of the rows of seats still stands, they are offered a panoramic view of the summit of the palace mountain, "mount eventerest".

A sound installation by paul plamper and julian kamphausen plays around the aisle, creating a connection between architecture and memory. They mix sounds from nature with stories of mountaineers, with recordings of original sessions of the parliament of the gdr, the cultural program of the palace, and they make a connection to the present with the berlin banking scandal.

But the joyful music is quickly forgotten when the walkers reach the foyer on a plateau in the auben gallery: not an idyllic location. There the exhibition "demolition and then? X ideen fur den berliner schlossplatz" the walkers with visions of the past and future of the palace. The demolition of the ruins is certain, but the future of the resulting empty space is still open. The reconstruction of the city palace has been decided by the bundestag. But because of the billion-dollar investment, there is still hope that something else could be built.

The mountain breaks through the palace. Assembly: space laboratory

Or stand still? At first glance, everything seems possible, including a new use for the palace. For example, as a miniature golf course, because with its many open levels there is plenty of space for this, free from the influence of weather conditions. At least that’s what viennese architect michael zinganel and his colleagues are proposing.

Past such thought-provoking walks, visitors then continue to wander over the mountain area populated by artists. Not only the building inspired the artists to routes. The mountain not only fills a void, it becomes a theme itself. After the tour, hikers must choose whether to continue on the path of pilgrims, philosophers or mountaineers. For those who set out as philosophers or pilgrims, theory and contemplation are on the agenda. The palace becomes a three-story agora, where, for example, hannah hurtzig and moritz rinke put on a "berlinum" about the disappearance of the palace.

Eight international architecture bureaus staged the mountaineer’s path as an adventure trail on which they make use of the building’s adversities. There you have to climb to cross ravines that gape into the concrete floor everywhere. Visitors can only move in a rope team – artists create a performance as a rescue operation. It is clear that alois trenker, whose idealization of the alpine homeland is alluded to, is not far away.

The palace becomes an urban adventure. A farewell tour that shows many alternative ways to revive berlin’s central square as a public place against all odds.

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Graphic: tp

How the terror group financed itself? – part 4 of the telepolis series on the "nsu"

How expensive is the underground and where is the underground? – blending a landscape.

The nsu crimes reveal a strange east-west anatomy. The assassinations were carried out in the west: nurnberg, munich, hamburg, koln, dortmund, kassel, heilbronn – the only exception being rostock. But there the victim also came from the west, from hamburg. The robberies, on the other hand, all happened in the east: chemnitz, zwickau, stralsund, arnstadt, eisenach.

Murders outside – robberies at home? Like the murders, the robberies are said to have been committed by uwe bohnhardt and uwe mundlos alone and without exception – at least according to the federal prosecutor’s office.

Part 3: an interceptor at the crime scene during the crime

How did the three suspected right-wing terrorists finance themselves in the 13 years of their illegality, from the time of their escape from jena in january 1998 until their discovery in november 2011?? This is the question. And the catch of the indictment is: by the 15 robbery traps on banks and a supermarket. But on closer inspection, there are as many inconsistencies as in the murder series.

Beate zschape’s statement to the munich higher regional court, in which she confirmed almost one-to-one the prosecution’s unproven theory that the two uwes were the sole perpetrators, does nothing to change this. Rather, zschape’s behavior itself fits into these inconsistencies.

The first robbery – and the first questions

The terror series began with a robbery – and with it the questions begin. On 18. December 1998, two masked and armed men robbed an edeka supermarket in chemnitz and stole about 30.000 german marks. During the escape they shot around. Two perpetrators? Bohnhardt and mundlos? That is not so sure.

For there is a witness who claims to have seen three masked men. A young man, then 16 years old, shot at by one of the fugitives and narrowly missed, as he described to the higher regional court in munich in june 2015. The third person is said to have been smaller than the other two, perhaps a woman. This witness was long considered missing. The indictment of the federal prosecution states: "the witness who witnessed the incident and pursued the perpetrators could not be identified." the complete truth is: he was investigated and also questioned at that time, but these investigation files no longer exist. You can read that in the indictment as well: "they have been destroyed by the chemnitz public prosecutor’s office."

In fact, the files were destroyed in 2005 and all data were deleted in 2006. Why, the authority can no longer understand – "for lack of available data", as it explains, it is possible that this was done by "accidentally" happened. The documents should not have been destroyed, robbery expires only after 20 years. Events at the chemnitz public prosecutor’s office that remind us that the office also lost investigation files on the neo-nazi and undercover agent ralf marschner from zwickau, who is to be counted among the nsu trio’s entourage, as was learned in 2016.

Of all things, a witness who can refute the official two-factor theory disappears from the files. The young man from the edeka store was finally found again during follow-up investigations by the federal criminal police office in 2015. However, the murder weapon from the robbery was never found, not even in the trio’s belongings.

Robberies in the neighborhood?

Eight of the robberies were carried out in chemnitz alone, three in zwickau. Cities where the trio had lived. Several banks are located in the immediate vicinity of different residential addresses that it had used, for example, in the same strabe. A robbed post office in chemnitz was located directly next to a hairdresser’s store where mandy s. Who was a member of the nsu and is still considered a suspect, was working there. She is one of the nine suspects under concrete investigation. Robbery objects in the immediate vicinity? What could have been useful for a possible robbery, however, would have meant a high risk of discovery in the event of a robbery.

Were bohnhardt and mundlos really the bank robbers?? They alone? Were there really only two? In none of the banks were clear traces of the two uwes found, fingerprints or dna substance. The investigators of the chemnitz police amed in their crime hypotheses that a third perpetrator could have been waiting in a getaway vehicle.

One of those who has been intensively involved in the nsu scandal since 2012 is clemens binninger (cdu), a member of the bundestag’s first committee of inquiry and currently chairman of the second. His assessment is: "bohnhardt and mundlos have certainly committed bank robberies. The question is whether they really committed all of them. It is conceivable that there were several perpetrators in this bank robbery series or that not all of them were committed by the two of them."

Behind this is the recurring question of whether the nsu actually consisted of only three people.

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The shareholders of the scandal-plagued japanese industrial group toshiba surpassed the chairman of the chairman of the company, osamu nagayama,. This is so unusual in japan. Observers evaluate this as a breakthrough to make japan’s scanned companies more transparent and accountable.

The deduction of nagayamas had preceded an independent examination. She has loud new york times uncovered that conductors of toshibas have worked with the japanese government to burst prere on investors. Accordingly, the toshiba group management council was worried about the plan of the in-singapore-accessible rough action effissimo capital management, to elect a new supervisory rate.

Fuhrungsfarfte toshibas then turned to officials of the japanese ministry of commerce to jointly move effissimo capital management. The 139-page examination report of three independent investigators describes how the management toshiba’s hand should have worked in hand with government officials to influence the result of the last-year-old annual general meeting. A high-ranking toshiba manager even demands that company and government the renitentians actions "mess up". Among the officers mentioned is today’s prime minister yoshihide suga.

No confidence in nagayama

The tactic was successful for the time being. The then ceo nobuaki kurumatani became short year ago, but just, re-elected. But effissimo was able to enforce the independent examination. After publication of the report, toshiba boss kurumatani had to throw the towel, as two more high-ranking managers and two administrative rate.

Nagayama, formerly ceo chugai pharmaceuticals and board member sonys, was not involved in the scandal. He stayed in office for the time being. But the shareholders were not convinced that toshiba does enough to tackle the serious premieges against the company. After a passionately guided annual general meeting and much criticism, the 74-year nagayama had to take his hat. Since friday evening, the satoshi tsunakawa certain satoshi tsunakawa certain in april is also chairman of the board of directors, at least before.

Paradigm change for japanese company

Nagayamas along is highly unusual for japan’s conservative corporate culture, in which corporations such as toshiba declined with little jerking on interests of private actionaries. "Given the importance of toshiba as a top company and the high positions of the government officials involved and management, the vote is a message of domestic investors, that misconduct and briefing in the past are analyzed and not more long-tolerated", said justin tang from the investment consultant united first partners in singapore bloomberg. "This result is a sign of a paradigm shift in japan and becomes activist investors, whether foreign or domestic, only encourage."

Once a historic name in japan, toshiba has shrunk dramatically after years of management errors. After a balance sheet scandal, the company had to pay a record penalty. Then toshiba had to send his nuclear daughter into the bankruptcy, which cost billions. Three decades ago, although toshiba invented the flash storage stick, but was forced to sell the large part of his once lucrative chip business because of the nuclear losses. This deal brought fresh capital – but also new, more committed actions.

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In the wake of the emissions scandal, hesse has joined bavaria in suing volkswagen for damages. The state had lost about 3.9 million euros due to the loss in value of volkswagen shares, hesse’s finance minister thomas schafer (cdu) explained on friday. The lawsuit should be filed with the braunschweig regional court in the coming days, she said. "Anyone who invests his money in shares must also accept losses. However, we do not have to accept losses caused by the fact that a joint stock company has violated its notification obligations. Vw has done so," said schafer.

Hesse reportedly held volkswagen shares until the emissions scandal came to light. They were part of a package of equipment for the country’s supply backlog. Around 2.2 percent of the shareholding had been affected.

At the beginning of august 2016, bavaria had announced that it would sue volkswagen for damages due to the consequences of the diesel scandal. Like other plaintiff investors, bavaria ames that volkswagen informed too late about the risks of the emissions fraud. The stock had been on a downward slide after the scandal broke a year ago. Volkswagen had so far rejected all investor complaints as unfounded and emphasized that it had duly fulfilled all notification obligations.

[update]

In the volkswagen emissions scandal, baden-wurttemberg now joins bavaria and hesse in taking legal action against the carmaker. "There are currently indications that vw did not publish insider information on manipulated emissions values without delay," the finance ministry said in stuttgart on friday. At the time the diesel affair became known, the state held a total of around 64,600 volkswagen shares in two special funds from a so-called pension fund and a pension reserve.600 shares in volkswagen.

"In order not to let a possible statute of limitations expire, the state will now file a lawsuit for the pension fund before the competent district court in braunschweig."According to an initial calculation, the amount of damage could be estimated at about 400.000 euros.

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