Reviled as a racist by some, celebrated as a defender of the west by others, Thilo Sarrazin has written a book on the slow death by immigration of the German republic. He must be thrilled that "Germany is abolishing itself" is flying off the shelves; less so that it has been almost uniformly slated by press and politicians alike. For this though, the former SPD finance senator and Bundesbank board member only has himself to blame.  By Joachim Güntner

Even in the golden age of modernism, Tom McCarthy reminds upcoming authors in the Guardian, writers didn't have it easy. In Le Monde, Andre Glucksmann rails against the deportation of the Roma in France. Das Magazin explains how to pull a collapsing small town back onto its feet. In Elet es Irodalom, Laszlo Földenyi delights in being sucked into paintings by Uri Asaf. Nine writers look into the hollow eye sockets of the future in NZZ Folio. Vanity Fair delves into the horrors of the Greek economy.

SPD politician and Bundesbank board member Thilo Sarrazin has published a book about the state of the nation that has had the media and politicians hopping mad for an entire week. "Deutschland schafft sich ab" firmly locates the blame for the decline of Germany with the country's fast-growing Muslim population. We present a selection of the voices from the booming chorus of disapproval and the few who have dared to say that much of this criticism is missing the point.

UPDATE: Christoph Schlingensief has died. Regarded by many as a genius, for others he was a provocateur or merely a con artist. While still undergoing chemotherapy he travelled to Burkino Faso to oversee work on the opera village which is being built there on his instigation. His memoirs are due to be published in September. He talked to Thomas David about his obsession with Africa, the importance of disturbing the peace and why he didn't become the man he wanted to be.

This year's theatre festival in Bregrenz hosted the world premiere of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's Auschwitz opera "The Passenger" from 1968. His biographer David Fanning introduces the life and music of this incredibly prolific composer, whose work somehow failed to emerge from the shadows of the Iron Curtain.

Former East-German novelist Christa Wolf has spent a lifetime writing against forgetting and the repression of guilt. But the will to remember, it seems, has not been enough to prevent her from doing exactly that. Her biographer Jörg Magenau reviews her new autobiographical novel "Stadt der Engel", which ends in Death Valley. Perhaps 'dead end' would have been more to the point. Photo:©Susanne Schleyer

Robert Schumann was born 200 years ago on June 8. The conductor and composer Heinz Holliger, who has devoted his life to the study of Romantic master, talks to Claus Spahn about the his labyrinthine imagination, erudition and incredible modernity. He also dispels a string of clichees that have consigned so much of the Schumann's work to musical oblivion.

Joachim Gauck was a leading oppositional figure in the GDR. After the fall of the Wall he became the first Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Files. He is now director of the "Against Forgetting ? For Democracy" association in Berlin and has just been nominated as a candidate for the next German president. He talks to Joachim Günther about Ossis and Wessis, opposition, conformism, and the long-term psychological effects of a dictatorial regime.

Apitchatpong Weeresathakul, the Thai film maker who has just won the Palme d'Or in Cannes, talks to Cristina Nord about the political situation in his country and his films.

As rector of the Albert Ludwig University in the winter of 1933/34, Martin Heidegger gave a seminar which was said to contain decisive evidence of the total identification of his teachings with the principles of Hitlerism. Now, thanks to his son Hermann Heidegger, the secret transcripts of this seminar "On the Essence and Concepts of Nature, History and the State" have been published for the first time. By Alexander Kissler

Olivier Roy is one of Europe's leading experts on Islam. His new book "Holy Ignorance" is due to be published this autumn. Eren Güvercin talks to him about issues central to the debate about Islam in Europe, from revolutionary milleniarism to Muslim Luthenarianism.

The historically strained relations between Russia and Poland seem to be improving at long last, thanks to the considerable show of Russian sympathy at the funeral of the Polish president Lech Kaczynski. It remains to be seen whether these positive developments will continue beyond a short-lived expression of mourning. An interview with Arseni Roginski, the president of the Russian human rights organisation "Memorial", by Ulrich M. Schmid.

The new novel by Nobel laureate Herta Müller tells of a harrowing experience which will leave an indelible stamp on its survivor for the rest of his life. Her book stems from interviews with the poet Oskar Pastior and other Gulag survivors. An excerpt in English.

Hungary swung sharply to the right in its recent elections, in what the new premier Victor Orban called "the great transition". Peter Nadas talks to Jörg Lau about the lack of stability in his country on the eve of its EU presidency, and about the responsibility of the west.

In Timbuktu, Islamic Africa is rediscovering its written culture. Charlotte Wiedemann travelled to the site of the oldest library south of the Sahara to report on the race for influence over this ancient heritage, played out on a small stage of sand and parchment.

The Dutch polder model is under threat. The PVV party of Dutch Islam critic Geert Wilders stands a good chance of victory in the next elections, which have been been brought forward to June. In the election campaign the Dutch elite will be hard pushed to steer political debate or discuss key issues in any nuanced way. By Hans Maarten van den Brink

The Austrian writer Josef Haslinger talks about his sexual encounters with paedophile priests as a boy in a Catholic boarding school. Instead of joining the chorus of moral outrage, he acknowledges the full spectrum of feelings that these episodes provoked, and argues that simple criminalisation is not the way forward.
Photo: Josef Haslinger by Tom Langdon

Artur Domoslawksi's biography "Ryszard Kapuscinski non-fiction" sparked controversy even before it was published. Not only does it show the legendary reporter warts and all, it also shows where the reportage ends and fiction begins.  Polityka's Daniel Passent meets the author who, in spite of it all, still regards Kapuscinski as his friend and master.

Since its publication in January, Helene Hegemann's novel "Axolotl Roadkill" has been at the centre of a debate whose vagaries of terminology have allowed the seriousness of the case to be downplayed. Philipp Theisohn wishes the literary establishment would drop all its talk of intertextuality in favour of a more democratic category: plagiarism.

The director Werner Herzog is the president of the jury at this, the 60th Berlinale. Katja Nicodemus met him in Los Angeles to discuss burning Lilliputians, how it feels like to be unsuccessfully shot at, and the life of a lone Bavarian wolf in Hollywood.