Germany's Political and Cultural Establishment Prepares to Stand Up to Putin and His Allies
Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.
To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis.
Help us build the better media Britain deserves
In warm spring evening sunshine in the centre of Leipzig a group of mostly young activists are trying to garner support for a petition. Large, glossy and clearly professionally printed posters call for an end to "the war against Russia".
The activists are largely ignored by the shoppers and commuters making their way to the entrance of the nearby station. The only interaction I witness involves a young man who stops to say the best way of ending the conflict would be for Vladimir Putin to just withdraw from Ukraine.
Germany's artistic institutions have distanced themselves from Russia in the immediate aftermath of Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Valery Gergiev, for (and as an) example, was sacked as the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra's chief conductor when he refused to condemn the attack. He had held the post for seven years.
But there has nevertheless been an appetite to explore Russian works in the light of the country's current leadership and actions, something that perhaps has reached a peak in Leipzig with the staging of Tchaikovsky's Dame Pique (Queen of Spades), quickly followed by a full-on Shostakovich season across the city's Augustus Square at the Gewandhaus concert hall.
'Total Information Collapse' and the Tribunal of Truth
Peter Jukes, Co-Founder and Executive Editor of Byline Times, on the urgent need for media accuracy and why joining Impress, the independent press regulator, is the best way for us to uphold those values
Peter Jukes
Loosely based on an 1834 story by Pushkin, Tchaikovsky's opera was first performed in 1890, but it has been brought bang up-to-date in a new production that premiered in Leipzig on 10th May 2025.
All the soldier characters are in modern Russian army uniforms, and the set was clearly designed to evoke a Ukrainian battlefield of Beckett-like bleakness sometimes contrasted or combined with grand aristocratic interiors.
The plot involves gambling, an obsessive and destructive love affair, insanity, and revenge. It is safe to say there are no winners. The second act concludes with praises being sung to an autocratic Russian ruler while bodies are thrown into a pit. Here, the ruler was Catherine the Great, but the Putin parallel is clear.
The new production features sex, murder, domestic violence, drug-taking and drunkenness, and it is hard not to see it as an unflinching and brutal criticism of Russian aggression and society.
At the work's conclusion the characters - by this time reduced to zombie-like grotesques - are all absorbed into the mud of the battlefield.
Elsewhere
To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis.
Help us build the better media Britain deserves
In warm spring evening sunshine in the centre of Leipzig a group of mostly young activists are trying to garner support for a petition. Large, glossy and clearly professionally printed posters call for an end to "the war against Russia".
The activists are largely ignored by the shoppers and commuters making their way to the entrance of the nearby station. The only interaction I witness involves a young man who stops to say the best way of ending the conflict would be for Vladimir Putin to just withdraw from Ukraine.
Germany's artistic institutions have distanced themselves from Russia in the immediate aftermath of Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Valery Gergiev, for (and as an) example, was sacked as the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra's chief conductor when he refused to condemn the attack. He had held the post for seven years.
But there has nevertheless been an appetite to explore Russian works in the light of the country's current leadership and actions, something that perhaps has reached a peak in Leipzig with the staging of Tchaikovsky's Dame Pique (Queen of Spades), quickly followed by a full-on Shostakovich season across the city's Augustus Square at the Gewandhaus concert hall.
'Total Information Collapse' and the Tribunal of Truth
Peter Jukes, Co-Founder and Executive Editor of Byline Times, on the urgent need for media accuracy and why joining Impress, the independent press regulator, is the best way for us to uphold those values
Peter Jukes
Loosely based on an 1834 story by Pushkin, Tchaikovsky's opera was first performed in 1890, but it has been brought bang up-to-date in a new production that premiered in Leipzig on 10th May 2025.
All the soldier characters are in modern Russian army uniforms, and the set was clearly designed to evoke a Ukrainian battlefield of Beckett-like bleakness sometimes contrasted or combined with grand aristocratic interiors.
The plot involves gambling, an obsessive and destructive love affair, insanity, and revenge. It is safe to say there are no winners. The second act concludes with praises being sung to an autocratic Russian ruler while bodies are thrown into a pit. Here, the ruler was Catherine the Great, but the Putin parallel is clear.
The new production features sex, murder, domestic violence, drug-taking and drunkenness, and it is hard not to see it as an unflinching and brutal criticism of Russian aggression and society.
At the work's conclusion the characters - by this time reduced to zombie-like grotesques - are all absorbed into the mud of the battlefield.
Elsewhere
Activity