Category: Europe

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Press in the 1970s

In the 70s there were many so-called underground or alternative papers printed. For people in bigger cities or in cities with universities, the 70s flourished with independent journalism which addressed small audiences. Each access to printing materials and paper allowed to go it alone for groups of society that did not feel they were adequately represented by established media. Some of these “underground” papers published texts that could be considered going against the dominant legal principles. Topics like feminism, birth control, abortion or more left wing political statements against private property had to fight to reach their audiences. The cold war period created another overarching threat to the representation of all opinions. Hence some groups we t underground to function as they wanted and how they interpreted the freedom of expression and being published. (Image: BNF Exhibition Underground 2026-6). 

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Considerations about Space

As is true for most architects, for example Le Corbusier, they are mostly remembered for their actual realizations (Scharoun, Mies van der Rohe), rather than the grand designs prepared for an architecture competition. Henri Gaudin has not only left concrete implementations of his ideas, but also several books on his perception and ideas about “concepts of space” (“Considérations  sur l’espace”), which comprises architectural ideas about “empty spaces“. Additional sources of inspiration were a relentless pursuit of drawing and designing what he saw, for example while travelling.  The BNF has received the extraordinary donation of the journals of Henri Gaudin, which allow to trace his continuous search for innovative representations of what creates a space, the impression of space and the relationship between spaces.
His travels with the TGV in France filled a complete “carnet” (booklet). Architecture is surely not about concrete. In the best cases there is a lot of research happening “backstage”, sometimes in small spontaneous sketches that can have a very lasting impact on many people’s perception of space later on. His own landscape drawings were an interesting inspiration for his architectural work as well. “Image: Landscape drawings by Henri Gaudin, BNF Paris 2026-6, Galérie des Donateurs).

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No mow May

For the sake of biodiversity we have learned how important it is to allow our gardens to grow during the month of May. Lots of insects shall benefit from the larger diversity of our greens. Equally, it is the perfect time to “collect” “pollen” from lots of neighbors’ gardens and fields, which will eventually show up in another garden. It is a bit similar to sharing flowers and plants in your local environment.
We just have to be careful about invasive species that have been quite successful to “surf” on the “No mow May” gardening wave.
In May 2026 the effects of global warming have been particularly felt in France. “Meteo France” has reported the very warm French month of May in 2026. Similarly, for most parts of Germany, particularly in the South West, the average temperatures were well above the 2° target already (Deutscher Wetterdienst).
With quite some rain before, the climate throughout May 2026 has favored rapid growth and advances in the blooming of the whole vegetation. You might have seen gardens in your neighborhood that looked very different from previous years for those who tried a “No mow May” in 2026.

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Dry January

There is a health trend to pass a sober, “dry January” after the X-mas and New Year festivities. It seems to be rather popular, so that the French wineries have started a marketing campaign of a “French January“. We shall see what the battle of marketing campaigns means in the end for the health of our liver (Study Link). It might lead to changes in consumer behavior of the following kind. Take advantage of good price offers for French wine and champagne in January and drink it as of February.
For addicts of the “carneval season” this should not be too difficult, jointly with a couple of friends. Alternatively, you might not be bothered and continue a moderate consumption across seasons. Moderate consumption, however, is the tricky part of alcohol consumption. Medical guidelines (health of liver) have evolved recently to count each drop of alcohol into your total consumption in either fluid litres of pure alcohol or the equivalent measured in grams. 

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History as Science

There are persons entering history and there is the science of history. Whereas the former persons may sometimes enter for very dubious reasons into history, responsible for killing people, the science of history draws on a whole lot of evidence, social, economic or demographic, to evaluate a person’s legacy or the merits of an epochal change. In the development of this scientific approach towards history, rather than a purely chronological, family structure or narrative-oriented approach, Marc Bloch has been a central figure. His research and exemplary own biography as student of history at the ENS in Paris, teacher and later Member of “La Résistance” is honored by an exhibition on his life and time at this formidable French institution of teacher training. In an exhibition in the ENS library you can even inspect a list of the books taken out by Marc Bloch as a student as well as his experiences as a student in London or Berlin before the 1st World War. A strictly science-based approach to history made him an influential historian and social scientist beyond his lifetime. (Image: Salle Marc Bloch at ENS Library Paris 2026-5) 

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Nature as a concept

We all hold implicit or explicit concepts of nature in our minds. There are few countries that have “battled” over the course of history with changing and often “politicised” concepts of nature. The exhibition in the DHM “Deutsches Historisches Museum” on “Nature and German History, Faith – Biology – Power” is convincing with this cross-disciplinary approach to the subject. The chronological structure of the exhibition starts with Hildegard von Bingen’s vision of nature embedded into the huge diversity of plants with almost spiritual power. Admiration of plants and the animal world, however, became an economic resource just like gold and slavery during colonization, being followed by industrialization as the epitome of man’s power over nature. Counter movements have been on the rise in the 2nd half of the 20th century. Another power struggle over how and who defines the dominant concept of nature in the 21st century. As nuclear energy, bombs and waste redefined the long-term consequences of “treating” nature, the battles about the prevailing concept of nature intensify. The exhibition in Berlin 2026 is a fine example of a historical perspective on the relationship between society, nature and technology, where the concept of nature becomes a malleable concept between the other two players or systems. (Image: Metamorphosis of the silk moth, DHM 2026-5)

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Security and Popularity

With webpages it is a bit like in the world of glamour. The more popular a webpage becomes, the more you have to invest in security features.
In a parallel webpage project, the choice has been to go for a popular name for the webpage and blog activities. After a year of sporadic blogging the site has become a regular target for hacking attempts by means of login attempts. This has led the administrator to previously allow only one single login attempt before banning login attempts from the same IP-address for several days. This does no longer allow a misspelling of the tricky password on your own behalf or the password-manager, if you happen to use one.
Security becomes a “sine qua non” condition for web-users as well as web-developers. We usually take only sufficiently care of this point, when it is “almost” to late. With 16.000+ login attempts over the time of about 1 year and 6 running locked-out IP-addresses, I almost gave up already on another domain with a more popular name. External backups become another necessity to prepare for the eventual failure to access own content and data bases.
Actually, I feel rather safe going out at night as a man in Europe, but the dangers of the global access to a web-page feels much less safe most of the time.

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Litfaß Advertisement Column

Berlin has renovated some of its early say notice boards and advertising columns. The original „Litfaßsäule“ has already the round column shape where you clued a poster on the sirface so that it was visible to several persons interested to look and read. After more than 150 years after its invention, Berlin has digital advertising columns which resemble the original Litfaß design. Rather than the spectator walking around the column, the column now turns around in a steady manner so that nearby you can see the whole advertising content from all points in the neighborhood. Simple change, but a remarkable improvement in the reach of the advertisement. Retro-lighting increases the duration of the effects as well. Mass communication and commercial innovation can sometimes just improve on an existing marketing channel, and still reach a specifically targeted audience.  

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Renovated sacred architecture

The 18th century catholic St-Hedwig Cathedral in Berlin has been renovated in the 2020s. The sacred building benefits from its central location in Berlin near “Unter den Linden”, Staatsoper, Staatsbibliothek and Humboldt University. The remarkable round shape of the church and its dome appear small from the outside between the high buildings in the surroundings. The size becomes more visible from the inside. The renovation made the choice to clearly define the center of activities again with the “altar” in the middle surrounded 360 degrees by the audience. Every visitor will be fascinated by the sound design of this renovated sacred architecture. The organ, orchestras and choirs have to handle this with care. Speech is transmitted with astonishing clarity. The sober interior focuses on essentials and might give the impression to be in a protestant church rather than a catholic one.
Silence or rain on the roof become an experience in itself, believing or not.

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Post-sacred architecture

As with our human bodies, and in many instances already, sacred architecture follows a life course pattern. The thriving religious communities build and expand their faith to larger audiences. In these expansionary phases of the faith many monumental buildings, known as sacred architecture, as well as splendid interiors or artefacts enter the “built faith”. After the peak of membership and in periods of contraction, the question of how to scale down the splendors starts to arise.
Eventually, the ceding of the sacred architecture to the non-believing communities comes into consideration. The sacred architecture needs to find its place in the evolution of societies as well as urban and rural local space. Depending on the intentions and resources of communities, post-sacred architecture has to redefine its purpose for its own survival.
An interesting example of post-sacred architecture constitutes the “Friedrichswerdersche Kirche” in Berlin. The use as a historic exhibition space for sculptures of the 19th century works particularly well in combination with an active program on art, architecture and history. The statue by Ludwig Winckelmann (image below) depicts the reflection on and about a miniature sculpture in space. The post-sacred use of this fine and luminous architecture continues to reach an enlightened audience.

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Brancusi polyartist

The joint exhibition by the “Neue Nationalgalerie” Berlin and the “Centre Pompidou” Paris has the simple title “Brancusi”. The name of the artist Brancusi stands for a very singular approach to take sculpture into the 20th century by way of abstraction. Brancusi used all sorts of materials like lime stone, bronze, wood and marble. Additionally, he was very conscious of the fact that especially for sculptures the “mise en scène” plays a vital role. Brancusi excelled in this in a rather unique way, mostly by confronting different materials with each other. Sculptures, for him, were architecture in miniature. Such a polyartist approach to sculpture pushed him to use photography and video to not only promote his own work, but to exploit these relatively new techniques to enhance the effect of his sculptures.
Maybe it took almost 100 years that by means of the “not-so-social media” not-instant, anytube and tikytok, this “modus operandi” would capture a whole generation of youth to follow in his footsteps without knowing it. The polyartist Brancusi is a unique milestone, not only using lime stone, on the trajectory of sculpture beyond the early 20th century. The links to other innovative artists chosing abstraction, Picasso or Modigliani, as well as musicians like Eric Satie, reflect the importance of social networks for mutual encouragement when treading new paths in art.

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Family Archaeology

The archaeology of family bonds is an interesting branch of both archaeology and genealogy. The mixing of hunter-gather populations with settled populations seems a rather ancient fact (study link). Analytical DNA comparisons reveal that nearby groups had indeed contact and even intermarriage occurred more than 5.000 years ago (Mattila et al. 2026). The evidence is based on data from a cemetery where several persons were buried in the same grave.
The study by Blöcher et al. (2026) demonstrates that in the late phases of the Roman empire along the Roman frontier in Germany a mixing of Romans with local populations a similar process took place. Whereas genetic structures persisted until the 6th century, the Central European genome as we know it today refers back to the 7th century. The inter-generational transmission seems to be an important driver of diversity. The high infant mortality together with an earlier mortality of women than men at that time show the accomplishments of modern medicine to safe infants and mothers from the hazards surrounding family formation and survival.

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Jobs First

The Berlin demonstration of the 1st of May has chosen to put „Jobs First“. Jobs before profits is a widely accepted claim by trade unions to highlight the importance of work in our societies. Particularly in times of robots and AI taking jobs away, this motto is well chosen as a principal risk in 2026. The current technological innovations seem to aim primarily at the maximization of profits for companies rather than the benefits for society as a whole.  The Berlin parade on the 1st of May managed to achieve a great mobilization, which is a great success for the labor movement and a demonstration of power and solidarity when in many countries basic employment rights and even the 1st of May as a social tradition is attacked.

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Evaluate Web analytics

An own webpage “schoemann.org” allows to gain interesting insights into the skills needed for the internet era and the security as well as cost structures for running such a business endeavour. Taking stock of basic web analytics, therefore, should be on the agenda from time to time. Towards the end of April 2026, it is about time to look into some simple statistics again. The host of this webpage offers access to some anonymous statistics (see below). The number of daily or weekly visits of the webpage are suitable to get a basic idea about frequencies of visits. Average daily visits are still below 1000 daily visits, but there are peaks of 3000+ and even 5000+.
Whereas the distribution across weekdays (no peaks on weekends, correlation with bad weather not tested yet ;-)) is rather random compared over months. However, the topics which received most attention are do not seem to be random. In 2026-4 the most attention has been raised with “Abduction of Europa”, followed by a brief entry on “Confessions” a philosophical topic in a broad sense (Stats below 2026-4-27. Next in popularity are 2 entries of my scientific “fail collection” which reflect on take-home-messages from the “Flop exhibition”, quite topical in combination with the 40th commemoration of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor explosion and pervasive contamination across Eastern Europe.
(Image: Page visits between 2026-3-29 to 2026-4-27 compared to month before same year)

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Writing to yourself

Over more than 2000 years, humans have written in various forms about and to themselves. The “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius are one of the earliest and finest example of this tradition. Originally, the intention was to write something we call “journaling” today. Out of a motivation to understand yourself, others, your relationship with others and society’s evolution, Marc Aurel drafted in Ancient Greek (a kind of elite or secret code for his Latin-speaking contemporaries) originally with no intention to address larger audiences. The French translations and publications in 2026 still use as title for the Meditations “Pensées pour moi-même” (Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν). The kind of “inner dialogue”, or dialogue with yourself as a literary form, has become a philosophical tradition.
Roger-Pol Droit (2008) ascribes a similar literary style in his introduction to the “Confessions” by Saint Augustine in a recent French edition. In moving from a culture of oral traditions to a reading and writing tradition in Europe, the style of reflections about oneself and others shifts more and more to the printed formats. Originally reserved to some happy few, modern techniques of contemporaneous recording of sound and video enlarge the possibilities of input through transcriptions, editing, storage as well as analysis of own input.
The possibilities for a democratization of reflections of our own experiences have increased, and yet, AI might jump in very quickly to some already pre-established truths about ourselves in analyzing this data, which might be hard to fend off.

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Gardening Evolution

Researchers continue to study the impact of gardening on biodiversity and survival of insects. The study published by Tscharntke, Batáry and Vidal (2026) points our attention to the importance of areas in our gardens that are allowed to grow without mowing for several years. In many traditional gardening projects even in the 21st century, we observe a cut of grass-shoots in fairly regular time intervals, once a months for example. An English style lawn will be cut very short even more often than this. If we want to allow for an evolution of gardening and regaining biodiversity, we shall have to reserve substantial areas of a garden to allow grass-shoots to grow over several years (!). Such an evolution might be perceived in 2026 a bit like a revolution in gardening. Untidy spots are a response to “the need for unmown long-term refuges, protecting intact grass shoots for persistent insect populations” (Tscharntke et al. , 2026). The tree “Cercis siliquastrum” (Judas-tree) in the “Jardin des Plantes” in Paris dates back to 1785 and shows the impressive strength of nature to outlast changing gardening fashions even in a hotspot of gardening culture, history and evolution. Grass-shoots below might be allowed to last a couple of years as well.

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Urban rural voters

On Sunday 2026-3-22 local elections of the 2nd round took place in France and some parts and cities in Bavaria. The voters have in both instances confirmed the hypothesis that voters have very different preferences for political parties along the cleavage of urban versus rural voters. The sociological issue consists in the different socioeconomic as well as educational backgrounds of the populations. Across the 2 countries inner cities have environmental issues, safe transport and rents as major concerns. In rural areas a feeling of being disconnected and left behind is frequently the predominant concern, often in terms of lacking transportation infrastructure. Voters on the local level have a more direct connection to their elected politicians and scrutinize implementation as well as promises more closely. This is a much more complex issue for voters on the national level as more topics enter the equation. The political agenda, therefore, differs substantially for urban and rural voters. This is a tough challenge for the nationwide campaign teams to test the validity of their agenda locally as well. 

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Myths debunked

There has been careful research on the use, or not, of color in classical Greek sculpture. More than 40 years of research have documented that what was long believed as monochrome sculptures, have in fact been very colorful specimen. The collection and researchers linked to the “Liebieghaus Sculpture Collection” can be inspected with experimental versions of the colors of the classical Greek time. “Gods in Color”, an exhibition by the Liebieghaus, provides a view of the rich colors of classic statues like the “archer” using the chemicals of the time to produce more or less durable or resistant colors. See also the archaic Greek Sphinks at The Met Museum.
Brinkmann and Koch-Brinkmann have spent close to 50 years on this research and attempts to convince the public of the “monochrome myth” of Greek sculptures. Research alone did not convince people, they seemed to need to see the colorful versions eye to eye to believe. The broader social science interest is to realise how much time it can take to re-establish scientific facts once they have been “eradicated” previously. (Image: Statuettes of classic Greek actors, lower row, BNF Paris)  

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Defense strategies

Technological developments of drones, aircrafts, rockets and satellites take a lot of time. In order to produce not only prototypes, but ready-to-use weapons, it needs advanced engineering competencies and capacities as well. The arrival of hypersonic rockets, that fly at the speed of 5 Mach necessitate a rethinking of defense strategies to be able to react in ever shorter time spells to external threats. The European Defence Fund intends to spend almost 3 billion € over 7 years to prepare our defense strategies in the EU for the next generation of lethal weapons.
On 2026-3-4 the Iran-regime made use of such a fast rocket, but it was possible to intercept its flight just in time by NATO-allies. Yes, unfortunately “rocket science” is back on the research agenda. In fact, this research has been ongoing across the world, just a bit more below the public radar.
Missions to the moon or mars have been intensified in recent years. This is not surprising or spectacular fact. For some it is surprising, that the number of countries (for example India) which are active in rocket science is increasing and spreading further across the globe. The multipolarity of the international political arena seems more evident in 2026-3.

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National interest

Especially in times of international conflicts, it is customary that politicians refer to “the national interest” as a justification for their actions beyond the state borders, commonly named foreign policy. There is a huge literature on the subject, in which the concept of the national interest is useful, (1) because it suggests some higher ranking political goal, (2) because it clarifies and prioritizes a country’s goals, particularly at times of military interventions and (3) because it “arouses the support necessary to move towards a realization of the goals” (Rosenau 1968, Int. Encycl. p.34).
A critical assessment of this concept in international relations should start with the democratic perspective that a country’s government is subject to regular elections, whereby the goals a previous majority had put forward, might substantially change as a new majority takes the lead. Continuation of the same foreign policies is not excluded, but at least subject to revision. In authoritarian regimes the definition of the national interest is probably more stable, because authoritarian leadership does not hesitate to define the national interest in “splendid isolation” from its people.
Overall, the concept appears to serve mainly communication purposes, both internally as well as towards the outside as in communicable foreign policy goals. Conflicts between countries can thus be named and become subject to diplomacy and international treaties. But we have to fill this with substance over and over again as new topics arise like climate change and global warming.

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Silence revisited

In most cultures, particularly western ones, we are less and less used to silence. Keeping silent for 1 hour is almost framed as an exercise of meditation. In the presence of other persons silence is often misinterpreted as not being interested or even intelligent enough to contribute to the conversation or discussion. Therefore, the title of the exhibition “Seeing silence”, which rediscovers and honors the paintings of Helen Schjerfbeck. Her Finish, Swedish speaking roots, with a broad European training in the arts, made her an accomplished painter in the impressionist’s tradition with a focus on painting portraits. The catalog from the exhibition (THE MET 2025) gives a great overview of her paintings when silence of her models tell stories. Portraits of women are particularly powerful examples of tranquility, and reading, but also uneasy silence in rocking chairs. The biographical sketch of Helen Schjerfbeck by Dita Amory sums up the vocation as “All I desire to do is paint” (p. 15). Towards the end of the 19th century and the 1st half of the 20th century this meant work in silence and she chose to work on silence as well.  (Image: catalog in library Brussels 2026-2) 

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Chess without Queen

It is perfectly possible to play chess without a player having a queen on the chessboard. This certainly gives an advantage to the opponent, but in case of a lack of an adequate strategy or being overly confident to win, the advantage can be compensated by the party who does not have a queen in the arsenal of weapons. The paper by Lissner & Warden (2026, p.109) on the new way of war following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022-2-24 states that “nuclear weapons have not given Moscow the coercive leverage many assumed they would.” Nuclear weapons hit the civilian population without differentiation the hardest, just as much as taking nuclear power plants as strategic war targets would do. What we have seen so far in Russia’s strategy is to use civil infrastructures of water and heating as targets within Ukraine as part of a kind of psychological warfare against the Ukrainian civil population. The more committed Ukrainian soldiers, even with the lack of a nuclear weapon, seem to hold the line against the Russian aggressor that so far has restrained from the nuclear option, if the Tschernobyl disaster has not been a precursor of a weaponisation of nuclear infrastructure.

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Peace and war again

“If you want peace, prepare for war”. This is one of the famous citations from Vegetius an early Roman general. For centuries we have been aware that peace and war are not opposites in a broader sense. Preparation for war can resemble war, if a country’s economy is already heavily turning towards production of weapons and intensifies research in dual use technologies. Political terminologies that shift to a vocabulary using more belligerent language may also be interpreted as a early signs of a shift in balance between peace and and early warnings on war. 4 years of the war of Russia on Ukraine territory have left traces in our vocabulary as well as budgets devoted to the preparation of a defense in Europe.
More countries of the EU state openly what is in their “national interest”, as if they were ready to go to war (Charap & Haukkala 2026) to in case major elements of the national interest were endangered. In going back to Clausewitz’s writing, a long historical line can be drawn from the Crimean War(s) to Putin’s imperialist war of 2014 and 2022 trying to capture Ukrainian territory, irrespective of enormous human losses.
Another lesson from these historical events might be: Let’s not forget to prepare for peace during the hot conflict.

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Short circuit electrification

The electrification of the automotive industries is well under way. However, there is still the resistance of a few warriors from a village called “Gaulle” that fight the imperial forces that dominate these markets. The abundance of cars with batteries and electricity-based traction keeps growing, More utility vehicles shift over to this technology as well. With India and China making significant shifts in this direction, the market has made a significant technological shift until the beginning of 2026. The share of hybrid or solely electric power in cars has risen sharply, but a small segment (10% of diesel engines seems to survive or is only slowly petering out in the coming decade. The publication by Béla Galgóczi (editor) demonstrates the challenges this poses to the companies, their employees and the automotive sector as a whole, as it comprises a large amount of employment and technologies in the traditional supply chain as well. The need for a substantial and costly shift has started, but the downsizing of companies, as electric cars need far fewer pieces than conventional ones, could offer an opportunity, if the skilled employees can be converted to other productive use.
A single sector study offers a lot of “deep” insights into a sector, but the opportunities and openings in other not to distant sectors tend to be overlooked. The European sovereignty in the area of military, standardised technology, which is also still based on many precision and metal components might come as a rescue not only to Ukraine, but to Europe as a whole.

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External-Internal Threat

In a time perspective of at least since the German unification of 1990, we have to reconsider the perception of what constitutes an external versus an internal threat. Prior to the implosion of the Soviet Union and the Glasnost years, the external Russian threat has been transformed across the globe into more hybrid threats coming from internal forces which have been “instrumentalized” by external forces. In an essay by Valentine Faure (Le Monde 2026-2-21) this twist to internal politics has been described as a form of new forms of interference of external forces into European internal political, economic and social affairs. In fact the basic strategy is as old as the famous Trojan horse, but the strategy has been refined and to work over much longer time spans as well as in other scientific applications. Any form of powerful, interested party would rather use the soft power of persuasion than brutal force to reach political objectives. Corruption and buying votes, directly or indirectly, has become a legitimate way in this hybrid or open use of power from the inside of a society than through a more traditional external affairs strategy. The confrontation of the bipolar world made it easy to put emphasis on external military power. A multilateral as well as more multilayered international political arena precludes to some extent the bipolar confrontation as conflicts on several frontiers  increases risks exponentially. In search of other strategies it seems plausible to turn to hybrid as well as disguised external force. Europe and democratic systems in general are more vulnerable than autocratic states, because the belief in an open form of society is part of its DNA. Open societies shall have to sharpen their sensory systems to transformed external to internal threats.

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EU Presidencies Review

There is a turnover at the EU presidency every 6 months. A full cycle of all presidencies takes 13 and a half years as each presidency lasts the same length irrespective of country size. CY 2026 is the current one, where CY does not only stand for “see you” in smartphone slang, but for Cyprus in 2026. The procedure to determine a working program for the Council presidency is well established and unresolved matters keep coming back in regular time intervals. The big overarching topic in 2026 is EU autonomy facing up to new challenges of the multilateral world. In the EU presidencies small countries can showcase their concerns and demonstrate what their preferred topics and proposals of solutions are. It is also a chance to make people aware of why they have been eager to join a political, cultural and economic union in the first place. Already in the founding documents the issue of security and defense were addressed. They are again on the top of the agenda in the enlarged EU. The multi-ethnic and multi- religious experience of Cyprus, a country that has lived through multiple strategic dominations over centuries, can probably teach us a lot about how difficult it is to be autonomous if other more powerful countries have put an eye on your territory. Choose your allies wisely. (Image: exhibits Cyprus at BNF 2026, CY2026EU) 

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Cyprus Aphrodite

The legendary tales about Aphrodite and Cypriote cultural heritage have inspired not only a series of conquerors, but also composers of the romantic period in the 19th century. Somehow in praise of monarchy, Fromental Halevy composed the Opera “La Reine de Chypre”, inwhich the last Queen of Cyprus had to abdicate in the medieval era.  As a formidable example of French opera style, Richard Wagner transcribed it for salon-type recitals for voice and piano. The ballet music by Franz Schubert “Rosamunde, Fürstin von Zypern“ is yet another romantic piece built on the legendary associations with the island and its history. The exhibition “Cyprus at the BNF” in Paris proposes a transversal view across centuries based on their multiple collections. The western bias of what we in the western hemisphere of the world defined as being of interest becomes visible and transparent. The oriental perspective has been complemented by a small selection of exhibits from the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation. A critical perspective on what enters our collections and archives is a great scientific accomplishment, at times when biased views from politicians have become more common again. 

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Time to prevent

If we take a medical life course perspective, we shall become aware that for each event there shall be a time to prevent it. From a scientific and socio-economic point of view, this is the crucial time to prevent failure of an organ, duration of an illness, death or an otherwise disruptive event. Taking our lung or liver as examples we intuitively know that there is a long time spell during which we have a chance to work on prevention. The monitoring of the early onset of disease is (Ge et al. 2026), potentially, a very cost-saving way as well in addition to avoid humans suffering later on in multiple ways. From a theoretical point of view it will be interesting to “think intervention as prevention” already, rather than the predominant way of intervention “post-hoc”, which means after the onset of disease. This implies a rather complete overhaul of medical research just as much as social research to guide policy makers interested in the “survival” of our social security systems as we know them currently in Europe. (Image is illustration in book on fairy tales: Beckmann in exhibition at Kunstbibliothek Berlin, 2026)

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Multilateral world

In the relatively brave new world of 21st century, it is not only a question of how the super powers like the USA, China and Russia shall push their strategic goals, but also what role so-called „Middle Powers“ will play. Europe and the European Union will have to make up their minds, whether they want to belong to one or the group, individually or jointly. New as well as shifting alliances seem to be a realistic scenario. Coalitions of middle powers will be effective counterparts to the threat of domination by a single or joint brutal force of superpowers. The power of interference of middle powers in the confrontation of superpowers is considerably higher if they were to collaborate more effectively than with each of the superpowers previously in a simple 2 opponents game of chess, much more familiar to us so far. (Image: Game of chess with 4, 5 or 6 players on the same board, here adapted from chessboard for 4 players, source: greenchess.net webpage)

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Art Station

Mobility takes time. All people who travel frequently know the long waiting times at train stations. Be for commuting between places or long distance travel, we can hardly escape from the moments when time gets long and longer. The Paris train station Gare de l’Est has brought art in form of posters to the station as a kind of accessible micro-exhibition. The cooperation with the Petit Palais in Paris allows to give more people a taste or at least an appetizer to art work. Most people rush by, but some spend some minutes reading, inhaling exhaling, and continue to their destination or next date. In the battle for attention such initiatives like art in the station hold societies together. People with very different horizons cross each other for short moments in time.