Now in its 10th year, lit.COLOGNE has become more politicised than it ever intended. Program director Regina Schilling talks about trouble with China and visits from Nobel Prize winner Herta Mueller and artist Ai Weiwei.

Some say Mel Ramos revolutionized art in the 1960s by melding it with advertising. A Tuebingen museum has devoted the first retrospective ever to the Californian who says he paints pictures of women, not women.

Soprano Measha Brueggergosman just released her second album on Deutsche Grammophon. It pays tribute to night time, with European works in five languages.

Reality trumped fantasy at the Oscars. The Iraq war drama «The Hurt Locker» took best picture, beating favorite «Avatar» and making its director, Kathryn Bigelow, the first woman to take home the Best Director prize.

As Hollywood celebrates the Oscars with all the usual glitz and glamour, German movie «The White Ribbon» is a contender for best foreign language film. It’s been a good year for German-speaking actors and filmmakers.

As Hollywood celebrates the Oscars with all the usual glitz and glamour, German movie «The White Ribbon» is a contender for best foreign language film. It’s been a good year for German-speaking actors and filmmakers.

Today, art is largely an urban phenomenon. Despite this, some artists still seek refuge in colonies tucked away from the bustle of everyday life. One such place can be found outside the German city of Stuttgart.

They are more likely to smoke, drop out of school, and die younger: German men are being surpassed by women in terms of health and education.

When it comes to travel, Germans are world champions. As it turns out, so is the German language. Many Germans words were adopted abroad several hundred years ago – and have stayed.

Germans reminisce most about the 1970s and more than half view their country as open-minded. A recent compilation of surveys gives new insights into what Germans think and how they view themselves and their country.