Culture

Elon Musk, who this week topped Forbes' Billionaires list for the second year in a row, is on course to become the world's first trillionaire. On top of his extreme wealth, Musk is bound to remain in the spotlight due to his polarizing views, including his active support for Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany party. His Tesla plant near Berlin also recently made headlines, as a works council election that concluded on March 4 left the factory non-unionized. Germany's largest union accused Tesla of intimidating staff. Ahead of the vote, Musk himself warned that if the union gained influence, the expansion of the factory, which has around 10,000 employees, could be jeopardized. Musk is "a declared opponent of any kind of union organization in his companies," filmmaker Andreas Pic...

It was an idea US President Donald Trump first floated in October last year: a triumphal arch in Washington, DC to mark the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence on July 4. Speaking to donors at a White House dinner, he revealed several scale models, inspired by Paris' Arc de Triomphe — earning the project the nickname, "Arc de Trump.” When asked by a CBS news reporter who the arch was for, he reportedly pointed to himself saying "me,” adding that it would be "really beautiful.” Donald Trump holding up a model of an arch in October 2025Image: RS/MPI/Capital Pictures/picture alliance He revisited the idea early this year, favoring a 250‑foot version — a structure that would tower over other recognizable city landmarks like the Lincoln Memorial (about 100 feet tall) and ...

A tool of endless potential or a technology that threatens democracy via deepfakes? While AI-generated imagery has made its way into our everyday lives, its impact on society is still being explored. The exhibition "Fake! Early Photo Collages and Photomontages," which can be seen at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam until May 25, takes a step back from the ongoing discussion to remind us that images were faked and manipulated way before the invention of Photoshop or AI. A 1908 photomontage shows how manipulated images were popular long before PhotoshopImage: rijksmuseum.nl"As soon as photography was invented, some 187 years ago, images have been changed, altered, manipulated — sometimes for bad reasons, sometimes for just entertainment," exhibition curator Hans Rooseboom told DW. Different t...

The Renaissance artist's name recently made headlines as claims of a secret deathbed trove of artworks and a rediscovered bust surfaced. But what do we actually know about his life?

The goal of many young parents in Germany is for both partners to be able to work, spend time with their children and share household responsibilities. In practice, however, patterns often persist that favor men in mixed-gender couples. Women are still significantly more likely to work part-time, while men are more frequently the primary earners. This imbalance is reflected in the latest gender pay gap data from Germany's Federal Statistical Office. The figures for 2025 show that the gap remains wide. German sociologist Jutta Allmendinger said the discrepancy was not for a lack of good intentions. Allmendinger is an honorary professor at Free University of Berlin and sits on several advisory bodies, including the German Ethics Council. She served as president of the WZB Berlin Social Sci...

A video trend is going viral among Dubai influencers. The reels show an expat enjoying a picturesque moment in the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), while a caption appears, asking: "You live in Dubai, aren't you scared?" — referring to current regional geopolitical tensions amid the US-Israel war with Iran.   The caption that follows always offers the same answer: "No, because I know who protects us." The words appear on top of images of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Emir of Dubai and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, as well as his son, Crown Prince Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, Minister of Defense of the United Arab Emirates. A melodramatic pop hit accompanies all those reels: "Papaoutai (Afro Soul)," an AI-generated cover of the original s...

When the trailer for "The Devil Wears Prada 2" came out in early February, fans of the Hollywood favorite immediately recognized the familiar faces — seemingly untouched by the passage of more than 20 years. But while the characters may look the same, their world has shifted, and it's the direction their lives are taking that's creating intrigue. Rather than revisiting the original story for the sake of nostalgia, the new film positions itself as a contemporary update. After all, the worlds of fashion and media are walking a very different runway than they were in 2006. Within 24 hours, the trailer had amassed more than 222 million views and climbed to fifth place on YouTube's trending charts. The message was clear: the world was ready for the return of Miranda, Andy, Emily and Nigel. ...

Berlin International Film Festival director Tricia Tuttle will remain head of the Berlinale, but must accept certain guidelines, as reported by German press following a crisis meeting held by the Berlin International Film Festival's supervisory board, the Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin (KBB) on Wednesday.   A "consultative forum" and the development of a code of conduct for all cultural events funded by the German state are being planned, Minister of State for Culture Wolfram Weimer announced. Tuttle faced political backlash following pro-Palestinian speeches at the festival's awards ceremony on February 21. Among them, Syrian-Palestinian director Abdallah Alkhatib accused Germany of accepting to be "partners of the genocide in Gaza by Israel" as he received an award for best...

It sounds like the plot of a screenplay, but it happened to two Berlin film students in real life.  Moritz Henneberg and Julius Drost had created an animated short film for their final project at university. "Butty" tells the tale of a household robot that gets kicked out when it can't do its job properly. When the two filmmakers posted the work on YouTube, this touching tale quickly went viral. After generating a huge amount of hits, the duo decided to submit their work to festivals — but they were in for a shock: Organizers told them the film had already been submitted under a different name.  How could that have happened? US student Samuel Felinton had downloaded the film, made minimal edits, given it a new title, "T-130," and got rid of the original credits. As the alleged autho...

An emergency meeting Thursday morning of the organization that manages the Berlin International Film Festival, or Berlinale, has left the future of the festival's current head, Tricia Tuttle, open-ended, as the festival continues to reel from controversy related to the Israel-Hamas war.  The meeting had been called by State Minister for Culture Wolfram Weimer to discuss incidents at the recent Berlinale in which, among other things, artists expressed solidarity with Gaza and criticized festival and jury leadership for their approach to handling the conflict within the festival sphere.  Weimer's office issued the following statement after the meeting:  "This morning, a meeting of the supervisory board of the KBB GmbH [the Berlinale management organization] took place in the Chancellery. ...