The German native had already recorded his “message to my grandchildren” in November, while hovering 400 kilometers above the Earth’s surface, in the Cupola View Module of the International Space Station (ISS). On Dec. 18, Alexander Gerst, commander of the Soyuz MS-09 on its 57th ISS expedition, finally posted his speech online. After 197 days in space, Gerst and his Russian colleague, Sergey Prokopyev, along with United States astronaut Serena …

No. On a sunny morning in this beach town south of L.A., Moritz Wagner does not look much like an NBA star. He’s not dressed like many of his fellow pro-basketballers – flashy designer suits, heavy gold chains, extravagant headgear. Perched on a parapet in front of a Manhattan Beach Café, his baggy green clothes paint the picture of a surfer making himself comfortable after a few hours on the …

London 1919, disgruntled locals were gathered around a donation stand holding rotten apples in sign of protest against the two sisters who were collecting funds for the children of the war. They were insulted as traitors. „Feeding the enemy’s children“ just after World War I was quite a provocation, but also a very courageous act.

This didn’t suffice to intimidate the sisters; Eglantyne Jebb and Dorothy Buxton continued their fundraising …

On Sept. 5, 2015, Angelique Kerber began composing a text message on her cell phone. She was sitting in the locker room of the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York after her match against Victória Azárenka. It was an exciting, gripping, first-class match, perhaps the best of the entire tournament, but Kerber had lost. She was now in a state of desperation, struggling with herself and her defeat. The message …

In 2017, I became a German citizen. The decision to become deutsch was not made lightly and was surprisingly emotional. The American presidential election and my personal abhorrence of Donald Trump played a major role, but my choice was actually a natural outcome of my personal reality. Both of my parents had died, there was no house in the US to keep up and no legacy to pass on, plus …

Cornelia Funke talks about the high regard many Americans have for Germans, but also about German anti-Americanism and how the world can overcome nationalism.

The German Times: The German- American relationship has reached a new low point. Do you notice this in your private life?

Cornelia Funke: I live in California, the “out-of-control” state. No one in my circle of friends or acquaintances voted for Trump. This is not surprising, …

The music that led us to one another was Dvořák’s Piano Concerto in G minor. One night, after listening to the radio and hearing a recording I had made with the Northwest German Philharmonic Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein, who would have turned 100 this summer, invited me to play the piece with him and the New York Philharmonic. We became close friends, and soon he and his family were regular guests …

The townspeople of Weimar had never come across the likes of a Johannes Itten. The bald instructor at the Staatliches Bauhaus, or simply Bauhaus, often wore a monk’s habit of the Mazdaznan movement while exuding esoteric worldviews from literally his every pore – his philosophy included strict vegetarianism and, by all accounts, bounteous amounts of garlic. His unusual teaching methods quickly made the rounds in this once serene former ducal …

WHITHER WEST?

Joschka Fischer is afraid. As Fischer turns 70 this year, this one-time rebel who crusaded against capitalism and the state back in the late 1960s only to join the establishment as German Foreign Minister from 1998 until 2005 for the Green Party, now dons the mantle of Elder Statesman. It’s a role he assumes with such gravity that it borders on caricature.

His latest work, a geopolitical analysis …

It is, generally speaking, very hard not to notice Cristiano Ronaldo. In the case at hand, the former Real Madrid star was singing along to the official Champions League anthem just prior to the start of the second-leg quarter-final against his team’s cross-town rival Atlético: “Die Meister – Die Besten – Les Grandes Équipes – The champions!” Back then, in April 2015, the egocentric Portuguese player was ridiculed for mouthing …