magazine

TK

Environment
On thin ice
Changing natural and social environment
The Inuit culture is deeply root-
ed in the Arctic where these
people have lived for roughly
4,000 years. Only those people
who respect the laws of nature
and are extraordinarily adapt-
able can survive this long in the
harsh climate of Alaska, North
Canada, Siberia and Greenland.
“Western” civilization with its
modern technologies has an
enormous impact on the Inuit’s
traditionally family- and group-
oriented social structures.
Although modern technologies
make it considerably easier to
endure the brutal climate, they
also are having a tremendous
impact on the everyday life of
these people. Nonetheless, the
Inuit’s understanding of them-
selves is still characterized by
the desire for humans to live in
harmony with nature. But,
now, global warming is melting
the Arctic ice. Humans and ani-
mals have to adjust to their
changing environment. For the
Inuit, climate change does
more than make hunting more
difficult – wild animals veer
from their habitual routes or
have become so rare that
hunters must travel as far as
300 kilometers. People also
get lost in the expansive region
because they no longer have
familiar snowdrifts to guide
them. When the snow was still
hard and firm, the igloo could
be built within an hour. But,
today, it frequently can no
longer serve as quick accom-
modations en route. In some
places, even refrigerators have
become common sights to
conserve food in the home of
“eternal ice.” 7
»What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it is hiding a well.«
Antoine de Saint Exupéry
An old dream of humankind
has been fulfilled here: The
blooming desert. In the mid-
1980s, the Wadi as-Sirhan
in Saudi Arabia offered
residents of the town of
Tubarjal (below left) only
few opportunities to culti-
vate field crops. Then, a
large irrigation project was
launched – groundwater
was pumped up and the
first round fields were creat-
ed with the help of circular
irrigation. From the satel-
lite’s perspective, their fresh
green makes them look
almost artificial in contrast
to their surroundings.
»The evolutionary changes sweeping through
our natural and social environments require a tremendous amount
of forethought, adaptability and creativity.«
editorial
7

Never in the history of the world has the environment of the human race changed so
extensively, has the human race changed its environment so dramatically as it has in the last
150 years. Never before have we had such far-reaching knowledge about our environment as
well: From the conquest of the poles and the exploration of the seas to the discovery of DNA and
the first steps on the moon – the findings of great researchers and discoverers have fundamentally
altered our perception of the “impossible.”
By drawing on these accomplishments, we can gain the confidence we need to tackle the chal-
lenges lying ahead of us in the 21st century. Indeed, the urge to explore the new is just as neces-
sary today as it was yesterday. Yet, this search for further knowledge is being shaped by a new
need: the need to protect our planet from man-made threats and to sustainably manage momen-
tous social change processes. On the one hand, we face shortages of resources and climate
change. On the other, we are
confronted by population
A commitment to confidence growth, social aging processes,
pluralism of values and norms
as well as the disintegration of traditional social networks – the evolutionary changes sweeping
through our natural and social environments require a tremendous amount of forethought, adapt-
ability and creativity.
As a global technology corporation with about 190,000 employees, ThyssenKrupp has a particular
responsibility to bear. We are determined to help create a sustainable environment in which the
generations of today and tomorrow can prosper and thrive – in every important way.
Economic and social progress will contribute to improved quality of life. Environmental protection
will do so as well. New environmentally friendly technologies will strengthen the competitiveness
of our economy, secure jobs and bolster the financing of social advances. And the promising ideas
will arise in an environment that places value on every single individual and not only accepts
diversity but also promotes it. Most likely, we will be able to master the major global challenges
only if we are prepared to learn with and from each other.
By developing innovative, technically useful products and solutions, we also contribute to the envi-
ronmentally responsible creation of the future. The philosopher Karl Popper once said, “Optimism
is a duty.” In fact, we will meet the challenges of the future only if we approach them with con-
fidence and have the courage to try the unusual – if we replace “repair” with “design.” In this
sense, ThyssenKrupp has a duty to its environment – to every individual as well as to the world in
which we live. In the belief that people grow with the challenges they face. And with the optimism
that Jules Verne described as “all that is impossible remains to be achieved.”

Dr.-Ing. Ekkehard D. Schulz,

Chairman of the Executive Board of ThyssenKrupp AG

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

contents
TK Magazine | 1 | 2008

38
A good catch: Brazilian fishers profit from the removal
Environment of industrial waste in steel mill construction

views
26 What does environment mean to you?
The views of Ernst-Ulrich v. Weizsäcker and Wangari Maathai
forum
10 On climate change and changed perceptions
An interview with Professor Dr. Mojib Latif of the Leibniz Institute
for Oceanography in Kiel, Germany
18 It’s the balance that matters

24 worth_knowing
How to deal with the adversities of our environment

46 projects_news 22 World in figures

83 puzzle Where do happy people live?
88 review

24
Gold carries a heavy environmental backpack

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

30 66
CO 2: Algae are one of the harbingers of hope Protection against natural disasters:
in the fight against greenhouse gas emissions A question of adaptation

50 60
Wind power: Humans and the forces of nature:
Technology with leverage An ambivalent relationship

projects perspectives
30 Green wave 54 Old new world
What to do with CO 2? How demographic trends change our world
34 Environmentally friendly know-how transfer 60 Forces of nature
In Thailand, palm oil is being turned into biodiesel Revered, feared, used – but never tamed
38 Sustainable investments 66 Learning to live with danger
Residents and nature have a say in the construction Adjustment strategies for the age of increasing natural disasters
of a steel plant in Brazil 72 Changeable world
42 Cultural interpreters Manmade and natural change from the bird’s eye perspective
On dealing with differences in an increasingly diverse 78 When the soul cries for help
work environment Burnout – symptom of the high-powered society
50 Wind power 84 Planet of nomads
Transmitting lots of energy Professor Karl Schlögel on humanity on the move
52 Mobility
A respectful approach to the medieval city

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 forum_interview
10

»WE RISK LEAVING

THE RANGE
THAT’S GOOD FOR US.«
An interview with Dr. Mojib Latif, a professor at the
Leibniz Institute for Oceanography at the University of Kiel,
on the challenges of climate change

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 11

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 forum_interview
12

»Theoretically, it would be
possible to fully shift
the global economy to
renewable energy within
a few decades.«
Mojib Latif

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 13

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 forum_interview
14 Climate change was the hottest topic of 2007. What do
you think of the way that this public debate is being con-
ducted? Do you consider it problematic that complex re-
search findings on climate change are often reported by
the media with little nuance?
Mojib Latif: That’s the way things are in a media society. It
doesn’t matter what the topic is, there’s always a full range of
opinions. One day, you read that climate change is supposed-
ly the biggest problem ever. The next day, you hear that its
origins are thought to be completely normal and we have
nothing to worry about. This creates confusion and uncertain-
ty. And this is why it is important to have forums where these
things can be clearly presented so people can really under-
stand the problem. After all, no one would understand how a
car runs if you explained every detail, every nut and bolt – and
then perhaps you did it incorrectly as well. You have to con-
centrate on the essentials: the engine, the tires, the body.
Scientific models are similar. When it comes to discussing the
model’s quality, every scratch becomes an opportunity to say
the car can’t run at all because it has a scratch. Certainly, no
model is perfect, but this is completely irrelevant to forecasts
about large-scale, long-term climate developments.
The debate about climate change and the presentation
of the Nobel Peace Prize to environmentalists have
increased people’s awareness of the problems. But does
this really accomplish much?
A change in awareness does not necessarily lead to a change
in behavior. In general, all levels fail at this: the global political
community, the business world and every individual. At the
moment, everyone is trying to portray himself or herself in a
good light by supporting this issue. I call that perceived en-
vironmental protection. You constantly have the impression
that we Germans are the great role model. The numbers, how-
The climate expert
cautions against
the false sense of
security precipitated
by “perceived
environmental pro-
tection.”
ever, do not support this. Take CO 2 output: A German con-
tributes about 11 tons each year, a Chinese 3.5 tons and an
Indian 1 ton – admittedly, an American has 20 tons. For a long
time now, we’ve been calling for the “carbon justice” that
German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently demanded. If all
people are to have the same right to emit CO 2 and we want to
have some sort of soft landing, we have to meet one another
somewhere – perhaps at 2 tons per capita – which would
mean reducing the current level of more than 10 tons by a
factor of five.
How do you respond to people who maintain that climate
change has continuously occurred throughout the history
of Earth and the human race, positively affecting people
and animals during warm phases?
To a certain degree, that’s right of course. There are, however,
two major differences compared with the past. The first is the
speed of the change. From the last Ice Age to today, the
median global temperature has changed by around 4 to 5
degrees centigrade – over the course of 20,000 years. We’re
now talking about 4 to 5 degrees in 100 years, which is a con-
siderably different dimension. When change occurs so quick-
ly, ecosystems cannot adjust very well. The other difference is
the absolute level of the change. During the last big warming
period 125,000 years ago, it was about a half degree warmer
on average than today. At that time, the temperature was
about 16 degrees. Today, we’re discussing scenarios with an
average Earth temperature of 20 degrees – that is, 4 degrees
above this very intense warm phase. This means that both
the speed and the absolute level of the temperature would be
unparalleled.
Sure, we do well during warm phases – one of the reasons
why we humans were able to develop so incredibly well in the
previous centuries is the fact that it was warm and the climate
TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January
 15

»A change in awareness does not

necessarily lead to a change in behavior.«
basically remained stable. In the 100,000 years before, the
climate took a roller-coaster ride at a low level. Should this
massive warming now occur in such a short period of time, we
would leave the range that’s good for us.

Haven’t humans always found answers to environmental

challenges they had no idea about beforehand? Human
beings invented the refrigerator and air conditioning –
shouldn’t they also be able to come up with something to
address global warming?
I believe the point isn’t so much about how humans can adapt
as it is about how we don’t live sustainably on this planet.
Climate change is just one of many problems. We consume 3

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 forum_interview
16 3 the Earth’s natural resources – whether it is fossil fuels, fish,
forests, soil or water – at a level that is not sustainable.
Actually, at our level of resource consumption, we would need
two planet earths. I believe many people are far too unaware
that we’re biting the hand that feeds us. The point is, in fact,
that we are changing the basis of life for all organisms on this
planet. We shouldn’t always project this so much onto our-
selves and ask if we’re coping with this, if we can build levees
and so forth. That isn’t really the most important question.
The technology necessary for reducing greenhouse gas
emissions is already available and tested. Why is the
introduction floundering?
As a scientist, I always say that the climate problem would be
really easy to solve by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases
by 80 percent by 2100. Theoretically, it would be possible to
fully shift the global economy to renewable energy within a few
decades. Implementation, however, is a job carried out by
political leaders working with business. We have an abundance
of energy. Take for example solar energy: You only have to use
the energy the Sahara gets in an area about the size of the
German state of Lower Saxony – 200 square kilometers – to
meet the world’s energy needs. And we don’t just have the
sun. We have wind, water, geothermy, tides and all sorts of
other possible energy sources. If all countries would agree to
tackle this problem, it would go away in a few decades. You
could even do it with today’s technology.
How realistic is this kind of international solidarity?
With energy, I believe it will only work through the price. As
energy prices rise, alternative technologies are becoming
more and more competitive. Prices will explode at the latest
when demand for oil exceeds supply. Eventually – in perhaps
10 or 20 years – this economic pressure will compel us to
move forward with renewable energies as well as establish
them in the market more strongly. Politicians and major in-
dustries have really come to recognize this as an economic
necessity. At a meeting of Nobel Prize laureates in December,
Chancellor Merkel said: “We keep asking the wrong question.
We’ve always asked: How much does it actually cost us if we
do something? We should really be asking: What will it cost
us if we don’t do anything.” This question was certainly
answered after Niklas Stern presented his study: It will be
much more expensive if we don’t do anything.
Do you think that this change of thinking will happen soon
enough?
It depends on how one defines “soon enough.” The climate
cannot be predicted with precision. The European Union and
the German government have set the goal that by 2100 the
temperature should not rise by more than 2 degrees over the
pre-industrial era. But perhaps the threshold at which
irreversible changes begin lies at 3 degrees. Greenland is an
example of this. If warming exceeds a certain level, the melt-
ing of Greenland’s glaciers cannot stop. Then the sea level
will rise by 7 meters. Whether that will happen at 2, 2.5 or 3
degrees, no one knows. It is certain, however, that it will
happen. This is why it is so important that every effort is made
to limit the warming as much as possible.
Are there winners and losers in the climate change?
At first glance, we might see provisional winners – for example,
we could profit from tourism here on the North Sea and Baltic
Sea. But in a globalized world, thinking like this is much too
superficial. Global problems such as flows of migration and
political destabilization far outweigh the potential gains in a
few regions. The problem has to do with cause and effect
being separated in terms of both time and space. When we do
TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January
 17

»Actually, at our level of resource consumption,

we would need two planet earths.«
something today, we will not immediately notice the effects
because it takes a few decades for the climate to react. At the
same time, those who have been releasing greenhouse gases
into the atmosphere for years are far less impacted by the
consequences than developing countries. This has to trigger
political tension.
There doesn’t seem to be a cure-all, but how can we make
sure that individuals and consumers become aware of the
problem?
I see two important points here. First, I observe a complete
general loss of values: corruption, doping, environmental
destruction – these all belong together somehow. Each has to
do with getting rich at the expense of others. In this respect,
I believe we need a collective discussion on values in our
society. The second point is that protecting the environment is
always equated with giving something up. But this is simply
not true. We have to make it clear to people that it doesn’t
have to do with sacrifice, but rather a potential benefit to
quality of life, for example by slowing down our daily lives. 7
THE INTERVIEW WAS CONDUCTED BY ANKE BRYSON.
PHOTOS: OLIVER RÜTHER

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 forum_commentary
18

A MATTER
OF BALANCE
BY PROFESSOR DIETER BRODTMANN

Our well-being and our health are closely linked to our surroundings and our reactions to them.
Both are ultimately a question of – mental – balance. In spite of the stresses exerted by this very
same environment.

t the beginning of the 1990s, the health fund of a major
German industrial company made a really strange dis-
covery: The number of visits to the doctor’s office and of
prescriptions for tranquilizers and sleeping pills had
suddenly jumped among the fund’s male members
who were between 55 and 57. Why? A previously un-
A known virus? Hard to imagine. The true cause of this
phenomenon did not come to light until the focus shifted to a new
scientific approach on health, the idea of salutogenesis, a concept that
was developed in the 1970s by the medical sociologist Aaron
Antonovsky and that has been a fundamental tenet of all projects con-
ducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) since 1986. At the end
of the 1970s, Antonovsky was working in Israel, a true nation of immi-
grants, to determine whether ethnic heritage had anything to do with
how well women between 47 and 56 got through menopause. In the
project’s questionnaire, he added a question for women who came from
Europe: Were you ever in a concentration camp?
A comparison of these women with the group of respondents who were
spared this experience showed this: Only 29 percent of concentration
camp survivors felt really well. But 51 percent of the control group who

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 19

had avoided the concentration camps felt this way. Who would have
thought differently?
While mulling over the findings one night, Antonovsky came up with an
idea that would revolutionize thinking about health. He asked himself:
Wasn’t it this very 29 percent of women who had survived the hell of the
concentration camps and then wandered around the world as “dis-
placed persons” whom nobody wanted before finding a home in a
country that ended up fighting three wars? What enabled women who
had gone through all of this turmoil to still feel healthy during one of the
most difficult phases of a woman’s life? 3

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 forum_commentary
20 3 Why did this group remain healthy (and satisfied), despite the most
trying of conditions, while others in the same situation became ill
(or dissatisfied)? The question no longer was directed toward the
pathogenesis and the risk factors responsible for it – “What makes a
person sick?” Rather, it was addressed to the salutogenesis and pro-
tective factors: “What enables someone to remain healthy in spite of all
of the risk factors that he or she faces – and frequently unavoidable
ones at that?”
It’s all about the base
At its heart, health is a problem of balance: We have to try to maintain
a balance against everything that threatens to throw us off balance. For
this reason, people feel healthier and more satisfied as they increasing-
ly succeed in counteracting the “stress factors” they face. These could
be pathogens, noise, excessive work demands or air pollution. But we
can become our own stress factor as well, putting ourselves under con-
stant pressure and overextending ourselves – for this reason, some
people do more for their health and well-being than even the best con-
stitution can withstand over a long period of time. The question of
whether and how we succeed in counteracting these stress factors de-
pends in part on our arsenal of our protective weapons. These include
stress management strategies, an intact immune system, knowledge
about health, financial security and a favorable genetic makeup. We
»Protective factors are not enough.«
cannot cover all bases in this regard. But we certainly can cover some
of them.
But these protective factors – Antonovsky called them “resistance re-
sources” – are not enough in themselves. Imagine a person who is
standing on the middle of a see-saw and is trying to maintain his or her
balance against all external forces. The skill that this person needs to
maintain balance can be compared to health resistance resources. Still,
the see-saw’s base is even more important. If it is small, the best skills
in the world cannot prevent the person from taking a tumble. The base
must be wide and stable.
Even then, this broad base is not enough for a person to remain healthy
and become happy. In the end, the key factor is whether a person is pre-
pared to mobilize his or her resistance resources in the fight to fend off
the stresses. That cannot always be taken for granted. But the concept
of salutogenesis helps us understand it.
Under this concept, the base’s width and stability primarily depend on
two factors. The first is a person’s belief that he or she is leading a
meaningful life. The second, which is inseparably bound to the first, is
a positive feeling of self-worth. If a person’s belief in his or her own life
and the feeling of self-worth are continually shaken, the base of the
entire balance system literally collapses.
The loss of the ability to counteract health-threatening stress factors
can be triggered in particular by deep socially related experiences of
 loss. For instance, when an older person loses the only social connec- 21
tions that provide meaning to his or her life upon the death of a long-
time spouse. Or when a long-term unemployed person receives rejec-
tion after rejection and has the feeling of self-worth shaken to the core
as a result. Conversely, intact social relationships are the supreme
protective factor. Anyone who lives alone is living dangerously.

Protective factors in meaning to life

Everything that advances the feeling that a person’s own life has a pur-
pose, the feeling of self-worth among people, their social integration
and social recognition directly promotes their health. And no amount of
jogging, organic food, multi-vitamins or even French red wine can
replace it.
This leads back to the phenomenon described at the beginning of the
article and the cause of it. You also need to know that the discovery was
made at the same time that the industrial company was prodding
employees to enter early retirement at the age of 55. Many gladly
accepted the offer, not least because of the generous severance pay the
company was offering – but they did not realize that their unplanned
retirement would send them plunging into a deep mental “abyss.”
When they left their jobs, they lost not only a core element in their lives
but also an important social reference point. Many were not prepared
for the task of giving new meaning to their newly acquired “unlimited”
spare time and to view themselves as being valuable. And they had
trouble creating a new social environment overnight. The company’s
health fund felt the effect.
After finally pinpointing the cause, the company and the health fund
developed a project: retirement-preparation courses in which people
approaching retirement and their spouses, who are also indirectly
affected by such a change, make a variety of preparations to deal with
their future new lives. This paid off both in terms of increased satisfac-
tion for retirees and the health fund’s budget.

Strengthening people as people

The key question then becomes this: How can people be strengthened
as people – and not just as physical beings? Given the important role
that the social dimension plays in staying healthy and becoming ill, all
of those who have managerial authority over other people – in a com-
pany, political setting, school or anywhere else – must constantly ask
themselves whether their area of responsibility offers a working atmos-

Professor Dieter Brodtmann phere that gives people the feeling of being appreciated and integrated.
Anyone who grants other people the freedom to act on their own in
Professor Dieter Brodtmann was a professor of sports groups, entrusts responsibility to them and contributes significantly to
pedagogy in the Department of Education at the University maintaining health and substantially reducing illness-related absences
of Hanover until he retired and became a professor emeritus. from work. 7
For more than 20 years, the focal point of his research has ILLUSTRATION: TINA BERNING
been the incorporation of salutogenetic thinking into school
sports and the athletic activities of older people. As part
of this work, he has served as an adviser to the German
Ministry of Education and Science, various cultural ministries,
and the German Sports Federation. 7

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 forum_world_in_figures
22

THE HAPPIEST PLACE IN

The pursuit of happiness definitely seems to be one trait innate to human beings. Democritus, Aristotle and Epicurus spent
time thinking about the highest state a human could attain, the “eudemonia.” Happiness is a subjective feeling. Still, scientists
continue to try to objectively measure happiness and satisfaction to identify the environments where people are happiest.
This was exactly the goal of researchers at Britain's University of Leicester: To create a global map of the “gross happiness
of society,” they analyzed 100 studies from institutions such as the World Health Organization and UNESCO in which
approximately 80,000 people were surveyed. The result: the “World Map of Happiness.”

Happiness › money
But poverty can create unhappiness: The three least happy countries in the analysis
were Burundi, Zimbabwe and Congo. Switzerland (2) and Luxembourg (10) placed
well as small, prosperous countries.

Optimism = well-being
The happiest people in this study, the Danes, assessed their own health and
well-being much higher than an objective analysis would allow. Satisfaction with life
also turned out to be correspondingly higher.

happy average unhappy

For all maps © Copyright 2006 SASI Group (University of Sheffield) and Mark Newman (University of Michigan). www.worldmapper.org

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 23

THE WORLD
Happiness › sunshine
Despite long winters and more rainy days, four of the top 10 countries were located north of the 49th parallel: Denmark, Iceland, Fin-
land and Sweden. The only tropical paradise among the lands of happiness was the Bahamas. The six European countries (Switzerland
and Austria are also part of this group) among the top 10 had one thing in common: They have high standards of living, functioning
health-care and educational systems, relatively low unemployment, and rather less social stratification.

Residents of smaller countries with

more cohesive societies and a greater
feeling of national belonging ranked
themselves higher than people in the
most populated countries of the world.
China ranked 82nd, India 125th and
Russia 167th. The United States
proved an exception, with a ranking
of 23rd.

Smaller = happier

Mediocrity ≠ dissatisfaction
In the study, Germans ranked 35th among 178 nations. Regular surveys into the satisfaction of Germans with
their place of residence show that the happiest Germans live on Lake Constance and in Stuttgart, Starnberg and
Osnabrück. Munich and Sylt, on the other hand, ranked in the middle of the pack. Does moderation and
convenience count more than lifestyle?

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 forum_worth_knowing
24
Danish roots
The widely used word
“environment”
can trace its
roots back to
German and
Danish. In
the early
19th cen-
tury, the
Scottish
philosopher
Thomas Carlyle
first used “envi-
ronment” to render
the German word “Umwelt”
in English. In turn, “Umwelt” likely
originated from the Danish poet Jens
Immanuel Baggesen (1764-1828).
Living in Hamburg, Baggesen was
looking for the German equivalent to
the Danish word “omverden,” mean-
ing “surrounding land” or “surround-
ing world.” At the beginning of the
20th century, biologist Jakob Uexküll
described for the first time how
human beings influence the environ-
ment through their activities and are
exposed to their effects. The word
“environment” as a synonym for a
nature at risk from the impact of
people took on added significance as
the environmental movement arose
in the early 1970s. 7
In 1975, two-thirds of the global
population lived in rural settings. In
2008, cities constitute the natural
environment for more than half of the
world’s inhabitants. By 2030, this
will grow to two-thirds.
Source: United Nations Population Division
The true weight of things
How much does 1 gram of gold weigh? One gram, of course. Or what
about 540 kilograms? That’s the weight of the “environmental back-
pack” that the precious metal lugs around, gram for gram. This figure
is the result of work by Professor Friedrich Schmidt-Bleek, the presi-
dent of the French Factor 10 Institute, who came up with it by em-
ploying a concept known as material input per unit service, or MIPS.
In showing what has to be extracted from nature and used to make a
product, Schmidt-Bleek reveals the hidden environmental costs result-
ing from our economic activities. MIPS shows that the average com-
puter’s environmental backpack weighs 14 tons because it contains a
large amount of precious metals.
Blue jeans carry around 30
kilograms because so
much water is needed to
grow cotton. Schmidt-
Bleek pulls together
and updates his rather
surprising views – in-
cluding a conclusion that a
disposable solution is con-
siderably better than recycling
for many products – in his 2007
book titled “Nutzen wir die Erde richtig?” –
Are We Using the Earth Correctly? (published in Ger-
man by Fischer Verlag). Those who read it will think twice about print-
ing out an e-mail – after all, every gram of paper requires 15 grams of
materials to produce it. 7
TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January
 25

WHO WAS IT?

Around the world with solar energy
At the age of 14, Louis Palmer sketched his dream on a piece of
paper. About 20 years later, on July 3, 2007, his dream began to
unfold: traveling around the world for the first time in a solar-powered
car – 50,000 kilometers and 50 countries in 15 months. The resource-
ful visionary from Switzerland has already covered half of Europe,
the Arabian Peninsula and portions of Asia. In December, he reached
an important destination at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in
Bali. The trip’s start and end are set (Lucerne) – invitations from
people who champion climate protection worldwide determine the rest
of the journey’s stops. Palmer named his car “Solar Taxi” because
companions are expressly welcome to join legs of this journey. There
is also plenty of room – thanks to a special trailer that transports the
solar cells. Including the battery operation, the electric car covers up
to 400 kilometers a day. The “Solar Impulse” will be much faster. The
first crewed circumnavigation of the world in an airplane powered
solely by solar energy is set to start in May 2011. 7
www.solartaxi.com | www.solarimpulse.com
More than 9 million people around
Where others
were aiming high, …
… he couldn’t get anywhere near deep enough. The
son of an attorney, he founded the French navy’s
Undersea Research Group, set a world record at 91.5
meters in “free diving” (without a breathing apparatus)
in 1947, and designed the first compressed-air diving
apparatus that made it possible to dive unencumbered
without a heavy suit. He also constructed diving vessels
and underwater laboratories. His love of diving and
passion for movie making fueled his popularity: His
documentary films revealed the great diversity of the
oceans to the world, bringing to light both the environ-
mental richness beneath the surface and its vulnerability.
In doing so, he helped environmental protection be-
come one of the primary challenges of our time. For his
film work, he was awarded an Oscar and the Palme
D’Or prize in Cannes. He became world famous through
his expeditions on the “Calypso,” a research ship that
also served as a floating lab. He spent an average of four months
a year on the world’s oceans, reporting on his work as an ocean re-
searcher in 50 books and around 70 films and television series. The
diving pioneer and underwater filmmaker became an ardent advocate
of the oceans and found-
ed an organization to
safeguard the Earth’s
water systems. He re-
ceived numerous honors,
including the U.N. Envi-
ronmental Award. Nick-

the globe have created a virtual named the “descendant

existence in the Internet world

of Noah” by the French
press, he was named one
called Second Life. It seems, how- of the most popular people

ever, that few users are comfortable from France in surveys

in the environment that they have

for decades. When Bill
Murray parodied him a
created for themselves: The share few years ago as “Steve

of active users is estimated to be Zissou” in the film “The

only 1 percent.
Life Aquatic,” the U.S.
actor wore a red wool hat
– the trademark of this
ocean researcher. 7

TURN TO PAGE 83 FOR

THE ANSWER.

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 views
26

»The Earth deserves to be called our home. All cultures know

that one does not destroy one’s own home.«
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Ernst-Ulrich v. Weizsäcker, Dean of the Brent School of Environmental Science
and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara
 views
28

»It is evident that many wars are fought over resources which are now
becoming increasingly scarce. If we conserved our resources better, fighting
over them would not then occur. Those of us who understand the complex
concept of the environment have the burden to act. We must not tire, we must
not give up, we must persist.«
Prof. Wangari Maathai, Kenyan environmentalist, Deputy Minister of the Environment and Nobel Peace Prize laureate
 projects_CO 2

30

Algae: carbon-dioxide
eaters and a promising
solution in the fight against
climate change

GREEN
WAVE
In the debate about environmental
protection, carbon dioxide often
plays the role of the bad guy.
A number of programs aimed at
reducing and sequestering CO2 are now being
studied in research aimed at getting a handle
on this greenhouse gas – which, at certain
levels, is essential to life.
TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January
31
ver the years, Växjö has not been much of an
attention-getter in Europe. To tourists, the
city of 80,000 residents in southern Sweden
has little to offer. It has not been the home
of any major conferences or star-studded
gala evenings and award ceremonies. Even
O the local soccer team, Östers IF, is a strictly
minor-league affair. To put it bluntly: On the surface, Växjö
seems like nothing more than a good name for a line of
shelves hawked by a major Swedish furniture company.
Beneath the surface, though, something is pulsating. And,
week after week, delegations of scientists, politicians and
journalists make the trek to Växjö in order to examine a project
that could make the rest of Europe green with envy. Thanks
to a sophisticated energy-supply system that is largely based
on incinerating biomass, the city produces the lowest amount
of carbon dioxide (CO 2) per capita in the entire continent –
only 3.5 tons per year. By comparison: Germany pumps out
about 10 tons in the same period and the United States
nearly 20 tons.
The attention that the small Scandinavian city and its energy
policies are receiving is no accident. Ways to deal with CO 2 are
the hot topic in all discussions about environmental protec-
tion. At times, one can even get the impression that CO 2 is the
biggest scourge facing the human race. Floods, hurricanes,
droughts – all weather disasters are attributed to the green-
house effect, the result of excessive amounts of CO 2 in the
atmosphere.
Disrupted cycle
The relationship cannot be denied. In the atmosphere,
CO 2 works with other gases to prevent solar
radiation that is reflected from the Earth’s surface
from completely returning to space. Instead, a por-
tion of this radiation rebounds back to Earth. In
moderation, the greenhouse effect is vital, helping
create the very basis of life on Earth. If solar radiation
were not redirected back to the surface, the average
temperature on our planet would be minus 18 degrees Cel-
sius instead of plus 15 degrees Celsius.
Condemning CO 2 per se would not be a good idea,
particularly because the carbon cycle is one of nature’s most
important cycles. In photosynthesis, the fundamental meta-
bolic pathway for life, plants aided by light and water turn the 3
 projects_CO 2

An employee
32 inspects a boiler at
a test facility for a
CO 2 -free, lignite-
fired power plant
in the eastern
German town of
Schwarze Pumpe.

3 CO 2 contained in the atmosphere into oxygen and glucose. An engineer at

the Brandenburg
Once the plants decay, the CO 2 is released back into the University of
atmosphere or is stored in layers of soil. This process creates Applied Sciences
in Cottbus, Ger-
fossil fuels like coal, crude oil and natural gas that humans many, checks a
have been using for a long time in industrial production and gauge of the first
oxyfuel test facility
home heating. at the Jänsch-
And this is the root cause of the problem: When humans use walde power plant.
Instead of being
fossil fuels for their own purposes, CO 2 is emitted into the air, released into the
and these emissions disrupt the equilibrium that has emerged atmosphere, the
CO 2 produced here
through evolution. The effects are well known: The atmosphere is liquefied before
is warming, poles and glaciers are melting, the sea level is being permanently
sequestered.
rising, and natural disasters are increasing.

An unavoidable conflict of interests

Today, the amount of CO 2 in the atmosphere is about one-third
higher than it was before the Industrial Revolution began
about 200 years ago. Another cause for worry is reports that
the oceans, those huge natural depositories of CO 2, can no
longer absorb the necessary amounts of CO 2. For instance,
British researchers have determined that the storage capacity
of the North Atlantic has been cut in half since the middle of
the 1990s. As a result, large amounts of the greenhouse gas
can no longer be absorbed.
At the same time, global competition among industrial nations
is fueling expansion of production capacities and, thus, the
increased use of energy. A conflict of interests appears to be
unavoidable: On the one hand, fossil fuels are an essential el-
ement if electricity production is to be economically secured in
future decades – in Germany alone, demand is expected to

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

rise by 40,000 megawatts over the next 20 years. On the 33
other hand, using today’s technology to burn fossil fuels
under the previously described environmental conditions is a
highly controversial matter. One thing is certain: Fossil fuels
will continue to play a leading role because increased use of
biomass and renewable energies like solar, wind and water
power cannot meet the demand.
How can the problem be defused? “One possibility is the
environmentally friendly use of power plants that are fired by
fossil fuels and produce the lowest amount of emissions
possible,” said Dr. Bodo Gehrmann, project head in research
and development at ThyssenKrupp VDM GmbH. “Providing
the necessary technology is one of the most important devel-
opmental tasks that we face today.” In cooperation with other Setup of a drill head over the bore hole for the underground CO 2 test
sequestration site at the German National Research Center for Geo-
industrial and scientific experts, the company is taking part in sciences in Ketzin, Germany
the COORETEC Initiative sponsored by the German Ministry for
Economics and Technology. As part of COORETEC (CO 2
Reduction Technologies), experts are exploring an array of
solutions designed to meet the challenge of excessive CO 2 that. “We will be far enough along at the beginning of the next
emissions. decade. Preparations are already moving forward at full
Among other things, researchers are delving into the possibility speed. In cooperation with power-plant operators, boiler pro-
of separating CO 2 during the energy production process and ducers and the makers of components and piping, we are
then sequestering (storing) the greenhouse gases in such doing our part as material developers to ensure that boilers
places as oil and natural gas fields, coal beds or deep seas. can be heated to 700 degrees,” said Dr. Jutta Klöwer, head of
This technology is being examined by an EU project called research and development at ThyssenKrupp VDM. Some day
“CO2SINK” conducted in the eastern German city of Ketzin, an soon, delegations of politicians, scientists and journalists may
experiment in which 60,000 tons of CO 2 will be pumped into a no longer be making treks to Växjö. Instead, they may be
saline aquifer (a water-bearing stratum of rock with high saline touring the world’s first 700-degree power plant. 7
content) that lies 600 to 800 meters beneath the Earth’s TEXT: JAN VOOSEN
surface over the next few years. Layers of clay lying over the
aquifer are expected to seal the underground storage site and
keep the CO 2 out of the atmosphere.

Searching for the best solution

But COORETEC raises another question: How can efficiency of
power plants fired by fossil fuels be increased through the use
of new materials to cut the amount of CO 2 released into the
atmosphere? “The goal is to increase the efficiency of the
power plant from nearly 40 percent to more than 50 percent,”
Gehrmann said. To do so, the steam temperature must be
raised from 600 degrees to 700 degrees. In its production
program, ThyssenKrupp VDM has materials with the necessary
high-temperature strength for use in the hotter environment:
These materials include the nickel alloy Nicrofer 5120CoTi and
Nicrofer 5520Co as well as the modified product Nicrofer
5520CoB. “In producing these materials, the key concerns
were that they should be able to withstand the temperatures,
could be processed well, could be welded and would be high-
ly resistant to oxidation and corrosion,” Gehrmann said.
It is still uncertain when the first fossil-fuel power plant that
uses the increased boiler temperatures can go into operation.
It certainly will not be much longer – Gehrmann is certain of
Green helpers
Thanks to their ability to naturally consume carbon
dioxide, algae are also an interesting candidate for
environmental study. An idea being pursued by
international researchers is cultivating algae in
locations where large amounts of CO 2 are produced:
right next to power plants. The emissions are
directed through a bioreactor filled with algae. The
algae, in turn, consume the carbon dioxide, create
biomass and reproduce. The process has a bene-
ficial side effect as well: After consuming the CO 2,
the algae can be turned into fish food, construction
materials or even biodiesel. But there is still a long
way to go before a major technical
operation using algae will be
possible. 7

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 projects_thailand
34

DIESEL
UNDER THE PALMS
When know-how travels around the world, arvesting is backbreaking work. The fruit of the oil
palm hangs in thick bunches the size of pumpkins
it can have many interesting encounters
high above under the tree’s leaves. The worker
with local resources. In Thailand, Western stretches, extending a long, thin metal pole that
technology has come across indigenous reaches all the way to the crown of the tree. Sweat
drips from his forehead. He jerks and tugs until at
palm oil – with the added benefit that all
materials from production can be used to
make biodiesel.
H long last the reddish bundle crashes to the ground.
Several hundred walnut-sized palm-oil fruits are lodged within a
shaggy 30-kilogram clump like this. And they yield one of Asia’s

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January


most valuable raw materials – palm oil. Palm oil can be found in
margarine, ice cream, skin lotion and adhesives. But the multi-
functional substance has never been as coveted as it is today. This
is because palm oil is perfect for producing biodiesel. As a result,
demand for palm oil has risen sharply in past years – and the raw
material will continue to get more and more expensive: In 2006
alone, its price increased by nearly 20 percent to reach previously
unimagined levels.
For some time now, Germany has been adding biodiesel – usually
TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January
Palm groves in southern Thailand: Providing 35
increasingly coveted resources
methyl ester from rapeseed – to car fuel to lower oil consumption.
Southeast Asia, a region that generates the lion’s share of the
world’s palm oil, is now following suit.
The Thai government, for instance, has decided to add 5 percent
biofuel to diesel through 2011. This amounts to consumption of 4
million liters of palm oil methyl ester every day. It was obvious to
the Thais that they needed modern, highly efficient production
plants to reach this goal. In a reflection of this understanding, the
ThyssenKrupp subsidiary Uhde GmbH, long active in Thailand, is now 3
 projects_thailand
Hauling away the
36 30-kilogram palm
oil bunches in Map
Ta Phut
»The appeal of this
procedure is that all of the production materials can be used.«
3 carrying out an ambitious project for the subsidiaries of Thailand’s
petrochemical giants PTT Chemicals, Thai Oleochemicals Company
(TOL) and Thai Fatty Alcohols Company (TFA): a plant complex with
an annual production of 200,000 tons of biodiesel and 100,000
tons of fatty alcohol for detergents, cleaning agents and cosmetics.
The construction site is the industrial location of Map Ta Phut,
about 150 kilometers southeast of Bangkok. After only a little more
than 18 months of planning and construction, the methyl ester
plant went on line at the end of last year. Production in the fatty
alcohol plant will start in the spring. Oil from the kernels of the palm
oil fruits feeds the fatty alcohol plant. The kernel oil contains short
fatty-acid chains with only six to 14 carbon atoms. These fatty
alcohols are ideal for cosmetics and cleaning agents because they
liquefy at room temperature as well as penetrate skin pores. In
contrast, oil from the fruit’s pulp is best suited for biodiesel. Its
fatty-acid chains are 16 to 18 carbon atoms long and therefore
ideal for producing biodiesel.
Optimal use
“We definitely didn’t reinvent every wheel for our first biodiesel
plant,” says Klaus-Dieter Gaber, project manager at Uhde. “For the
esterification procedure, we’re drawing on a method from the
southern German company AT Agrartechnik as it allows quite
flexible use of different oils.” This is because the Thais do not want
to limit themselves to palm oil in the future. They also want to use
spent cooking fats. AT Agrartechnik’s procedure adds methanol
and a catalyst to the palm oil. As a result, glycerin holding the fatty-
acid chains is released. The
finished biodiesel remains. The
appeal of this procedure is that
all production materials can be
utilized. Even the catalyst – when mixed with sulfuric acid – can
be sold as fertilizer after use. In turn, the glycerin can be refined
into high-grade pharmaceutical glycerin – a raw material that PPT
Chemicals wants to use in its own plants.
A proven licensed process from Cognis Deutschland, a raw chem-
ical supplier, then comes into play. It converts the palm kernel oil
into raw methyl ester and separates it into individual particles
under vacuum. The actual manufacturing of fatty alcohols takes
place under 300 bars of high pressure at 300 degrees Celsius
using hydrogen. Sophisticated high-pressure technology is needed
to do this. The raw fatty alcohols manufactured this way are
divided into fatty alcohols of various chain lengths after separating
the methanol. These high-grade fatty alcohols can be subsequently
refined into various products.
The Thai operator will initially supply both of its plants with palm oil
from Malaysia – one of the world’s largest palm oil producers after
Indonesia. In coming years, it is to be increasingly cultivated in
Thailand. This effort will be especially directed at existing agricul-
tural lands, including those with trees used for rubber production.
According to experts, deriving oil from palm trees is particularly
sustainable because the palm trees yield fruit for up to 20 years.
The time and effort are also significantly less than annual biodiesel
plants that have to be replanted and cultivated each year. This
is why Kongkrapan Intarajang, the chairman of TOL and TFA, is
certain the plant complex represents a step in the right direction for
a new market. 7
TEXT: TIM SCHRÖDER | PHOTOS: HARTMUT NÄGELE
TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January
 37

The Uhde construction team (from left): Sathit Apaijit, Peter Röhr, Vinai Kunthakan

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 projects_brazil
38
The future of fishermen at Sepetiba Bay
is being improved through the removal
of industrial waste.

A GOOD CATCH
In Sepetiba Bay, near the city of Rio de Janeiro, a massive project is under way: A steel mill
is being built in accord with local residents – and nature.

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 39

fter five hours of discussion, Rodrigo Abreu was

running out of patience. The fisherman from Santa
Cruz, a town of 10,000 people, confidently walked to
the speaker’s area, took the microphone in his
hand and, in just a few sentences, summed up the
words that were on most of the other fishermen’s
A minds: “The new steel mill is a great opportunity
for our town. It will create a lot of new jobs, including for our
children. Now, let’s go home. We have work to do tomorrow.”
Rodrigo Abreu was one of many town residents who attended the
first of three public hearings designed to inform them about
ThyssenKrupp’s plans to build a new steel mill in Sepetiba Bay
near Rio de Janeiro. The hearing was scheduled for 5:30 in the
afternoon. It finally began about an hour later – with a hearty meal.
“That’s the way things work here,” said Dr. Gunnar Still, director for
environmental affairs at ThyssenKrupp Steel AG. The residents
came with their families, ate, drank and joined in the lively discus-
sion. “The residents’ interest was much greater than we are used
to at home,” Still said.
During the hearing, many people, including Rodrigo Abreu,
expressed their concerns and worries, and they did so in a business-

»The residents’ interest was

much greater than we are used
to at home.«
like manner, always trying to finish their comments within the five-
minute period allotted to each speaker. The attempt by a minority
to use the forum as a place to stir protest against the German
investor never got off the ground. After the courageous comments
by Rodrigo Abreu, some of the residents looked a bit stunned for a
moment. But then most of them stood up, went along with his
request – and headed home.

Better perspectives
Rodrigo Abreu is one of numerous fishermen who earn their living
along the coast here. Day in and day out, he heads to sea in his
small boat in the wee small hours of the morning, casts his nets
into the water and hopes to return home in the evening with a catch
that will enable him to feed his family. Sure, Rodrigo Abreu had his
own doubts about the steel mill that the corporation from Germany
suddenly wanted to build here. But, he, like most of the residents
in the region, quickly came to the conclusion that he supported
the plan. 3

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 projects_brazil
40 3 It may appear at first glance that the steel mill would cut a swath in
the region’s countryside. But, all things considered, there is a
feeling of unanimity that the plan would help the local people and
environment.
There are countless examples of these benefits. Most of all, the
plant will bring a large number of new jobs to the region. In addi-
tion to the nearly 13,000 jobs that the company has already creat-
ed primarily in the automotive and elevator business in Brazil, the
new plant will add about 3,500 direct jobs and an estimated
10,000 indirect jobs. This development also offers Rodrigo Abreu’s
children the realistic possibility of getting a good job. In broad
terms, the region’s standard of living, schools, kindergartens and
infrastructure will profit.
The residents themselves are very much interested in these bene-
fits, too, as this example shows: The company had planned to build
a road for heavy construction vehicles around nearby Santa Cruz to
Sepetiba Bay: mangrove forests, fishing grounds,
ensure that the vehicles would avoid residential areas. But the direct access to the Atlantic.
residents wanted something entirely different: a street running
right through the middle of the town. “We just couldn’t figure that
one out,” Still said. But the explanation was just as logical as it was
puzzling to the Germans: Santa Cruz has no good streets. For that
reason, the residents were willing to put up with the heavy vehicles
for a few years – so that they could gain a new, long-term means
of transport.

Carting off the old, preserving the good

As these examples show, the company has energetically worked
during an extensive process related to investment preparations to
address the ideas of local residents as well as 129 interest groups.
“After all, we have no intention of invading Brazil like colonialists,”
Still said. “Rather, we want to achieve a balance of interests with
local residents.” Because environmental protection represents one
of the most important aspects of the project, the fishermen
became one of the primary discussion partners. As a result, the fishermen have been dealing with the contaminated
At first, men like Rodrigo Abreu expressed worries about the soil for years.
possible negative impact that the steel mill would have on fishing At the same time the steel mill is being constructed, ThyssenKrupp
grounds. In fact, the opposite is true. That is because the soil along is investing in work to shave away layers of sediment in areas
the coast was contaminated for decades by a zinc plant that is now where the harbor basin and the access channel require it and then
out of operation. Waste water from the zinc plant as well as a to store it in a secure, modern underwater disposal area. “Thanks
nearby aluminum facility was channeled into the sea – untreated. to this work, the contamination is being removed,” Still said. And

Construction of the steel mill is to be completed at the beginning of 2009.

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January


the fish are gaining a more hospitable habitat – a positive “windfall
gain” of the steel mill.
The idea for the new plant originated in 2004. One argument for it
was Brazil’s extensive deposits of iron ore. But the company had
other important reasons for deciding in May 2006 to erect the plant
at Sepetiba Bay: The direct access to the Atlantic creates
significant logistics benefits. The area is also located at the end of
a rail line that can transport ore from the country’s interior to the
ports. The first slabs are to be produced at Sepetiba in the spring
of 2009. The plant will then produce around 5 million tons of steel
each year.
The technology used at the new steel mill will “meet all inter-
national environmental standards,” said Dr. Karl-Ulrich Köhler,
executive chairman of ThyssenKrupp Steel AG. As a result, envi-
ronmentalists were a regular discussion partner in the project. One
reason for these discussions was the unique environment created
by the dense, seemingly impenetrable mass of roots in the
brackish wet regions along the tropical coast of Sepetiba where
fresh water and salt water converge: the mangroves. The bizarre
TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January
41
tidal forests provide effective protection against erosion and surge
waves while offering a home to all sorts of animals. “Preserving the
mangrove forests was a fundamental issue for us,” Still said. For
this reason, the company is building a nearly four-kilometer bridge
that will extend over the mangroves and run from the port to the
steel mill. The forests remain untouched.
»The fish are gaining a more
hospitable habitat.«
All of these efforts spelled out in countless discussions and
hearings won over the residents and fishermen. The emotional, but
always civil hearings with the Brazilians frequently lasted late into
the evening. Once, though, the people suddenly packed up their
things and took flight. But, there turned out to be a good reason for
their action: Nobody wanted to miss an important game between
two local soccer teams.
TEXT: DANIEL SCHLEIDT
 projects_integration
42

THE CULTURAL
INTERPRETERS
International migration is spreading – and so is the cultural variety of our
own personal environments. On the job, “cultural communicators” like
Seyahn Savas and Peter Trube serve as a type of translator who helps
people deal with the differences.

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 he buzz word “globalization” can conjure up visions of
companies’ conquering global markets or merging with inter-
national partners, of managers’ jetting from continent to con-
tinent or of container ships’ plying the world’s oceans. These
associations are hardly wrong. But globalization actually has
many more faces. In Duisburg, these faces are worn by people
T like Ali Güzel, Hennes Urban, Xhevat Busatovic, Annegret Finke,
Hassan Sahin, Uwe Gaertner, Peter Trube and Seyhan Savas. As
their names show, these employees at ThyssenKrupp Steel repre-
sent cultural diversity. But, most of all, it is their work as “cultural
communicators” at the steel mill in Duisburg-Hamborn that clearly
shows how globalization has reshaped our social environment –
and how people can find ways of dealing with this change and to
view this diversity as an enriching development and to take advan-
tage of it.

From a continent of emigrants to a destination of

immigrants
The need to address intercultural conflicts on the job is a relatively
new phenomenon in Germany – and for many other European
countries as well. After all, Europe was a continent of emigrants
from 1750 to around 1960. During this period, about 70 million
Europeans left the continent and went off to find their good fortune
elsewhere. But during the past 50 years, all countries in western
Europe have turned into destinations for immigrants, including
even the formerly “traditional” emigrant countries of Ireland and
Spain.
In Germany, the era of large-scale immigration began in the
middle of the last century: In 1955, the national government con-
cluded the first agreement to recruit Italian workers. Since then,
millions of people have found jobs in German companies. As so-
called “guest workers,” Italians, Spaniards, Greeks and Turks earned
money for their relatives at home and assumed they would be stay-
ing only temporarily – just as the Germans did. But, little by little, it
became clear that these guests would stay: Family members
followed, and the old homeland became nothing more than a va-
cation destination. “We sent out a call for workers and got people,”
the late Swiss author Max Frisch once said. The “guest workers”
became citizens of their new countries. And as the years passed,
the face of society changed, and customs evolved. After all, the
immigrants did not check their culture at the border cloakroom.

Unwanted conflicts
In everyday life, this transition did not and still does not occur with-
out conflicts. “The cause of intercultural disputes can be really 3

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 projects_integration
44

A neutral view: Cultural communicators find solutions when conflicts arise.

3 simple things,” said Seyhan Savas, a works council member who

is one of 70 cultural communicators in the Duisburg-Hamborn steel
mill. “Here’s an example: The Turkish employees want to be sure
that their chicken filet is not cooked on the same canteen grill that
was used to prepare pork. If that does happen, they will suspect
the German colleague of doing that intentionally. But he may
not have thought anything of it.” The cultural communicators fre-
quently face such unexpressed con-
flicts. Savas said the job was one of
»The cause of intercultural disputes can be really simple things.« expanding horizons. “As cultural
communicators, we are neutral out-
siders. We listen to both sides and
then try to come up with a way to get around the conflict.”
The cultural communicators began working at the plant following
the attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. And the rea-
son was clear: Following the attacks on the World Trade Center, the
mood was “noticeably more aggressive,” said Peter Trube, anoth-
er works council member who serves as a cultural communicator.
At the time, Seyhan Savas also noticed “that many Muslims felt
they were being treated as if they themselves were behind the
attacks.

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 45

People were ostracized, and personal attacks occurred. In the

break room, the German colleagues would sit on one side and the
foreign colleagues on the other, and neither side would reach out
to the other one.” In the wake of such experiences, Savas, Trube
and other union workplace representatives from IG Metall proposed
that the plant should introduce cultural communicators who could
help spot and defuse intercultural conflicts.
The idea was warmly welcomed because it reflected an approach
that had already been taken. In 1996, the company concluded a
labor-management agreement “on promoting equal opportunities
for foreign and German employees.” “There was already an aware-
ness of the issue,” Trube said. “When we introduced the cultural
communicators in 2002, the company’s management was very
receptive to them.”
The future cultural communicators – 30 of them at first – were se-
lected from the union workplace representatives in the individual
divisions and attended several training courses. Since then, How do people interact in German companies? And what is important to
Brazilians? Cultural communicators will also help the new colleagues from
Brazil like Cássio Vieira Rezende from Belo Horizonte.
employees are regularly trained as cultural communicators. “There
is a whole lot of interest. We make sure that the cultural communi-
cators reflect the diversity in the company: German colleagues
make up half of the representatives and the other half consists of
all sorts of nationalities, including Turks who make up more than
three-fourths of the international workforce. And we maintain a
good age and gender mix to ensure that all points of view are con-
sidered,” Savas said. The high share of Germans among the cul-
tural communicators is “rather unusual” in this area, Trube said. ThyssenKrupp Steel is investing in a new steel mill in Brazil (see
“Many Germans think that migrant work is only a job for foreigners. page 40) and is training Brazilian employees at its installations in
But it is important that the Germans make up 50 percent of our Duisburg. “We and several other colleagues attended a seminar to
ranks – after all, intercultural conflicts always involve both sides.” get ready for the colleagues from Brazil and get to know their men-
One issue that the cultural communicators have to address is lan- tality. Then, we had to explain to the new colleagues just who we
guage. “Of course, the company language is German in principle. are: In Brazil, there are no words for ‘co-determination’ or ‘works
But when foreigners get together, they frequently use their native council.’” Trube said. With the aid of interpreters, the first contacts
languages. When Germans are present, though, they expect the have been made to the Brazilians at the steel mill. To really break
group to use German because they would feel shut out if they did the ice, a joint soccer tournament is being planned. “Maybe that’s
not,” Savas said. “We always say that using a native language is another stereotype: Brazil means soccer. But when you talk about
not a problem. But you have to be sure to speak German among such stereotypes and prejudices, you learn from one another,”
colleagues who can’t speak the other language.” Savas is Turkish. Savas said.
But, as a matter of principle, she speaks only German with her col- Both cultural communicators are happy because the company’s
leagues – even the Turkish ones. “Some people have a problem increasing international character is making their work more inter-
with that and can’t understand it. That’s when I really have to put esting: “Right now, the Brazilians are here. Colleagues from the
my own personal cultural communications to work,” she said with United States will soon follow because we are building a new plant
a smile. there. We have never experienced this level before. Up to now,
we have been focusing on the cultures that we already have: Turks,
Diversity continues to spread Italians, Russians, Poles, Croats, Serbs. It will really be exciting
For the past few months, Savas and Trube have been really seeing to have Brazilians and Americans on board, too.” 7
just how helpful their experience as cultural communicators is: TEXT: ALEXANDER SCHNEIDER | PHOTOS: OLIVER RÜTHER

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 projects_news
46
Saving icebergs in Shanghai
Iceberg ahead: Even the small visitors lent a hand in the effort to prevent the huge block
from melting away.
3 In one spot, something was banging.
Back in a corner, something was smok-
ing. Over there, something was being
pounded, and over here something was
being cranked – hand-operated genera-
tors were busy trying to create a little
chill for the icebergs melting in the humid,
late-summer heat of Shanghai. But it
was not just this unusual local sight that
astonished visitors to the technology ex-
hibition in Shanghai’s Science and Tech-
nology Museum. There was much more
to see and try during the “Technology
Days,” an event presented by Thyssen
A nearly everyday form of transportation in
China: the Transrapid
Krupp during the Golden Week from Sept.
30-Oct. 6, 2007, on 2,500 square meters
of space.
The exhibition, conducted under the
motto of “Solutions for a Clean Future,”
included around 50 exhibits. Most of them
were provided by ThyssenKrupp itself.
Others came from such partners as
Shanghai’s Tongji University and the
Clausthal University of Technology in
Germany.
No matter whether the topic was materials
that enable modern desalination plants to
work more efficiently and sustainably,
state-of-the-art processes to filter pollu-
tants from the air or resource-conserving
automobile construction – the aim of the
exhibition was to make visitors aware of
the huge global challenges that await the
world: the sparing use of raw materials
and the environment in a century of
rapidly increasing mobility and previously
unseen levels of economic activity, par-
ticularly in the host country itself.
The fact that the concept was welcomed
by Chinese officials underscored the im-
portance of the international transfer of
know-how in the age of globalization. At
the exhibition’s opening, Chinese Eco-
nomics Minister Wan Gang stressed that
the country’s government was determined
to break the link between economic
growth and carbon-dioxide emissions.
An exhibit already well known in China
showed just how this push was being
applied to everyday life: About 12 million
people have already ridden in the
Transrapid on the trip from Pudong Inter-
national Airport to downtown
Shanghai – in eight
minutes instead of
the one hour re-
quired by a car.
The exhibition
offered some
surprises as well –
TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January
 47

for example, Andrea Niehaus, director of

the German Museum in Bonn, introduced
Chinese visitors to the wonders of the
Chinese lotus flower: how, with the help
of nanotechnology, the mystery of the
“rolling drop” was solved and turned into
a practical application. This application
employs the “lotus effect,” a phenome-
non largely unknown in China that pre-
vents dirt, honey or ink from leaving be-
hind any trace on the leaves of the lotus
flower. By applying this principle to real-
world products, roofing tiles and auto
sheet metal can be protected from grime
and corrosion.
The Technology Days are part of the
“Discovering Future Technology” initiative
that ThyssenKrupp launched in 2004. An-
other part of this initiative is the IdeasPark
that will be held from May 17-25, 2008,
in Stuttgart (www.zukunft-technik-
entdecken.de). 7

Hands-on technology: large-diameter slewing

bearings from a wind turbine

Colorful ride from the Oslo subway

Lighting with an
environmental impact
3 Light does you good. Who would know this better than the Scandina-
vians, those residents of the north who are starved of light during winter?
In planning for public places like train stations, airports and shopping
malls, lighting is playing a bigger and bigger role. ThyssenKrupp Elevator
provides its customers with an innovative lighting system that offers an
individually adjustable variety of constantly changing light settings – from
simple shifts in color and running lights to slowly progressing lighting
transitions. Through the application of modern LED technology, the use of
electricity and materials decreases as well. The escalators that project 20
colors in the Oslo train station “National Theater” thus help both Nor-
wegian commuters and the environment. 7

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 projects_news
48
Mid-calorific power plants are highly efficient as waste-fueled
power stations.
Purifying process
3 A glowing, viscous mass that
gradually cools and finally turns into
rock as hard as granite or basalt –
something that sounds like the birth
of a planet is actually a sophisticated
form of recycling: Every day, the Oxy-
Cup shaft furnace at ThyssenKrupp
Steel in Duisburg not only produces
pig iron from the residual matter of
steel operations, but also ensures
that the slag produced in the process
is turned into a valuable construction
material. Of course, that does not
happen by itself – ThyssenKrupp
Steel has developed processes that
affect the cooling shaft-furnace slag
Energy from waste material
3 More electricity, minus coal:
This is the principle employed by
so-called mid-calorific power plants.
Such plants use waste material from
recycling facilities or industrial waste
instead of fossil fuels. In spite of
garbage-separation efforts, not
everything that lands in trash cans
can be recycled. For this reason, a
mixture of paper, plastic, wood and
packaging remains left over following
waste treatment – the so-called
“middle calorie.” The heating value
of the middle calorie is roughly that
of dry lignite. But it is CO 2 neutral
because it contains renewable
materials. ThyssenKrupp Xervon En-
ergy, a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp
Services, is working on a new
mid-calorific power plant: In Bremen,
in such a way that a crystalline, high- Stones to stones: In the shaft furnace, pig iron is
produced from agglomerated bricks – and armor
stones are made from the slag created
density and hard material is created:
armor stone. Something that once in the process.
was a waste product thus becomes a
marketable product that is particular-
ly popular in gardening and land-
scaping. And because the rock is
created from residual material, it
conserves natural resources. 7
Germany, the regional energy pro-
ducer swb is building such a facility.
ThyssenKrupp Xervon Energy is
providing the moving grate stoker
over which the fuel travels during
the incineration process as well as
secondary systems. Thanks to the
use of state-of-the-art systems
engineering, the mid-calorific power
plant is highly efficient: It uses the
combustion heat much better than
waste-fueled power stations. As a
result, the power plant will be able to
replace 70,000 tons of coal as fuel
each year. Construction started in
Bremen in September 2007. At the
beginning of 2009, the plant is to
supply electricity to around 60,000
households in the northern German
city. 7
TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

»Something that once was a waste product
becomes a marketable product.«
Gentle safety
3 Anyone who thinks about stain-
less steel will have a hard time
imagining that the material can with-
stand a violent automobile accident.
But in areas like the B pillar – which
connects the vehicle’s body to the
roof – stainless steel is a sensible
and promising alternative. As a
result, the weight of cars can be
reduced and resources can be con-
served because the vehicles use
TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January
less energy. And no compromises on
safety have to be made either. This
conclusion was reached by Thyssen
Krupp Nirosta as part of the project
called the “Next Generation Vehicle”
(www.ngvproject.org), which studied
possible uses of stainless steel in
automobile construction through
such research as crash tests. If the
makers of stainless steel have their
way, vehicle designers will have a lot
49
more to do with stainless steel in the
future. Today, engineers can already
show how this material can be used
in other ways in the auto industry to
reduce vehicle weight or to reduce
the number of parts and, thus, costs:
For instance, stainless steel made by
ThyssenKrupp Nirosta is used as
crash components in the Porsche
Carrera GT and as part of the body
construction in the Audi A8. 7
 projects_wind energy
50
Transmitting lots of power
Wind-power plants, as the name
says, have to transmit a lot of
energy. Once the wind kicks up
and the rotary blades start to
turn, the turbine house swings
into motion. The so-called
nacelle containing the generator
is situated on the top of the
tower, directly behind the hub.
The energy turning the rotor is
transmitted to the generator,
which converts the wind energy
into electricity. The remaining
energy is transmitted to the
turbine house through the
bearings. Up until a few years
ago, double row bearings were
used in the process to direct
wind loads and the weight force
to the nacelle. In new alternative
design concepts, only one
slewing bearing is needed. As a
result, the size and weight of the
nacelle are smaller. Rothe Erde,
a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp
Technologies, has developed
a special process to harden
the tracks of such constantly
rotating slewing bearings. In this
process, the carrying capacity of
the bearings is ensured through
the use of inductive boundary
hardening. As a result, storms
can pull and tug all they want –
but the bearings will continue to
do their job and play their part
in getting clean energy from the
wind to our wall sockets. 7
 projects_escalators
52
A respectful approach to the
medieval city
When the old and the modern
meet, tension can arise. Such
was the case in the northern
Spanish town of Vitoria/Gasteiz
when officials considered
connecting the modern, lower
section of the Basque capital
with the medieval Old Town
located on a hill. In the past,
the only way to reach the area
was unevenly worn steps. The
new idea was to expand the
street network, cutting deep
swaths into a city that had
evolved over centuries. But
there was an alternative that
spared both the environment
and the aesthetic feelings of
residents and visitors: With the
help of seven escalators, up
to 9,000 people per hour can
reach the medieval Vitoria, with
no emissions and little noise –
and they also have a breath-
taking view of the city and the
surrounding area thanks to the
metal-glass structure designed
by the local architects Roberto
Ercilla and Miguel Angel
Campo. For this innovative
work, ThyssenKrupp Elevator
received the “Project of the
Year Award” 2007/2008 from
the magazine Elevator World
in the category “Automatic
People Mover.” 7
 perspectives_demographic change
54

20.2%
20.5 %
24.1%
North America
335 million 62.7 % 15.9 %

Europe
733 million
63.5 %

NEW OLD WORLD

Demographic shifts will change the world we live in drastically over the
next 30 years – with good prospects for “Silver Agers.”

10.2%
29.8 % South America/
Latin America/Caribbean
569 million
61.2 %

World 11.6 % Some continents are “younger,” some “older” –

but in 2005, even in old Europe the number
28.3 % of over-60-year-olds was still below 25 percent
while, in young Africa, the number of under-
15-year-olds stood at over 40 percent. Turn
to the next double page and, once again, the
61.4 % picture looks very different.

■ 0 – 14 ■ 15 – 59 ■ 60 +
Source: United Nations Population Division
The size of the pie charts reflects the absolute proportion of the global population.

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

10.2%
of all Asians were over
60 years old in 2005

28.3 %
55

Asia
4.01 billion

62.7 %

5.6%
Africa Australia/Oceania
35 million
41.1%
944 million

16.7%
53.4 %
24.9

61.O %

hilling scenes: one-third of senior citizens
under the poverty line, collective housing for
poor pensioners, old people begging on the streets, home
care for the rich only and a “voluntary early death” option
listed in the catalogue of health insurance benefits. These
shocking images were brought to German
C screens by the country’s ZDF channel in January
2007, in the three-parter “2030 – Revolt of the elderly.”
Although the “demographic thriller” was presented as fiction
and was deliberately exaggerated, this horror scenario left
many viewers fearful of becoming neglected and destitute in
old age. Indeed, not just on our screens but also in real life,
the demographic change underway in large parts of the West-
ern world is leading many people to make bleak predictions. 3

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 perspectives_demographic change
56

2050
28.2%
18.0%
23.1% 44.1%
17.1%
14.6 %

55.6 %
50.9 %

58.3%

18.0 %
29.5% 11.5%
28.0 %
57.8% 61.7 % 21.6%
18.4%
56.9%

Forty-two years from now, the age structure of the

global population has already changed significantly.
With the exception of Africa, the proportion of the
population that is of an employable age (15-59) has
shrunk everywhere.
(Legends: see page 56)

Source: United Nations Population Division

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January


3 Some even fear the imminent decline of the West. Certainly, it
is already an accepted fact that the generational change
cannot be reversed. Already within less than 30 years,
statisticians have estimated that every second German will be
over 50 years old. By the middle of the century, there will
be more 65-year-olds than 15-year-olds. The population is
shrinking and aging.
That said, the new environment that is being created by
demographic change also promises many opportunities that,
to date, have barely been acknowledged – both for the older
and the younger generations. Problems that currently trouble
both politicians and the public will disappear naturally within a
generation: There will be enough nursery and crèche spaces
for fewer children. Young people who, at present, simply
cannot find apprenticeship openings, will be able to pick and
choose from a range of training positions, and overcrowded
lecture halls will become a thing of the past. The need for well-
educated women, who want to continue their careers after
time out to have children, will be greater than ever before. The
threat of skills shortages that, even today, is cause for grave
concern, will (inevitably) lead to highly motivated and experi-
enced people over the age of 50 being reemployed, having
been forced out of their jobs in recent years by the obsession
with youth that has gripped so many companies. In short:
There will be more room – both in the workplace and outside
– for everybody, and people will benefit from better education
and job prospects for a long and fulfilling professional life.
Now that sounds promising!
Unutilized resources
We are not there yet though – in today’s world, it is the young
and dynamic who get the opportunities. In many companies
there are barely any employees left over the age of 50 but
plenty in their thirties, who will reach the peak of their careers
within just a few years. This imbalance is particularly crass in
Germany: With employment among 55-64-year-olds at just
42 percent, Germany trails well behind Sweden (70 percent),
New Zealand (67 percent) and Switzerland (65 percent).
It is a curious irony, for example, that the engineering industry
– which has long warned of a drastic shortage of skilled work-
ers – goes to great lengths to entice specialists to come to
Europe from the other side of the world and yet, at the same
time, there are skilled employees in the local market who are
unable to get jobs simply because they have already passed
50. Dedicated professors are being forced into early retire-
ment because of rigid age limits, despite the fact that students
could benefit from their comprehensive knowledge of their
subjects. German emeritus professors do not always then
TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January
57
choose retirement: an increasing number are taking up jobs at
American universities where their excellent qualifications are
obviously better valued.
In this country, we no longer seem to trust in the ability of older
people to think creatively, or be innovative, dynamic and pro-
gressive. Only few people have grasped the fact that there
needs to be a considerable shift in attitudes: away from the
fixation with youth and beauty and toward recognition of ex-
perience and expertise. This would enable a lasting solution to
the “problem case: demographic change.”
Tapping into the wealth of experience
Meanwhile Asians, and especially the Japanese, have a com-
pletely different approach to age and older people. While the
West is characterized by its drive for progress, constant
change, the struggle between young and old and its
»In eastern culture,
age commands respect and
admiration.«
enthusiasm for everything that is new, in the Far East, respect
for tradition is very highly valued. However, this by no means
prevents progress – if that were the case, then Japan would
not be one of the leading industrial nations. In eastern culture,
age commands respect and admiration. Age is not a stigma
but proof of a full life and of experience that both can and
should be passed on to the next generation. This applies both
within the family and in professional life. The young learn from
the old; they use and value their experience.
This Far East-inspired philosophy is beginning to find a foot-
ing here, too. For example, in “Experience Germany,” an
initiative launched by the German Senior Citizens’ League
(DSL), which has an advisory board of experts who have the
express support and backing of banks and businesses. The
“Experience Germany” initiative places retired former high
performers back in the German economy, where they work as
independent consultants and experts. Those behind the
initiative emphasize that these retirees are important sources
of knowledge, extremely well educated and trained and have
a wealth of experience gathered over decades. Companies
can no longer afford to waive these valuable resources. And 3
 perspectives_demographic change
58

Men 80 +
Women
75 – 79

70 – 74

65 – 69

60 – 64

55 – 59

50 – 54

45 – 49

Developing countries 40 – 44

35 – 39

30 – 34

25 – 29

20 – 24

15 – 19

10 – 14

5 – 9

0 – 4

300 250 200 150 100 50 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
million
80 +

75 – 79

70 – 74

65 – 69
In contrast to
industrial nations,
60 – 64 developing coun-
tries have very
55 – 59
young populations.
50 – 54
Children and
youths make up
45 – 49 one third of the
population in
40 – 44
Industrial nations 35 – 39
developing coun-
tries and, in Africa,
42 percent of the
30 – 34 population is under
the age of 15.
25 – 29
This is because
20 – 24 of the high level
of fertility in
15 – 19 many developing
countries.
10 – 14

5 – 9

0 – 4

300 250 200 150 100 50 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
million

Source: United Nations, World Population Prospects: The 2000 Revision, New York 2001.

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January


3 there is a growing number of companies in which heads of
personnel are starting to recognize the long-term benefits that
the right mix of ages, experience and background can bring to
a team or project.
Several large German industrial and automobile groups have,
for some time now, been working with mixed-age teams,
in which experienced employees and young experts work
together to achieve more efficient, optimized results. Those
with years of experience know how to handle clients, they are
able to draw on their experience to better deal with complex
situations and they are more socially competent.
These points are confirmed by the founders of the job portal
www.expertia.de, the first Internet job exchange for job
hunters over 50. They emphasize the specialist skills of Silver
Agers: “Our experts bring maturity and experience with them
and this makes them well able to cope with both successes
and failures. They know what they can do and where their
limits lie. They take a relaxed approach to problems and crises
that arise on the job, they have years of on-the-job experience
and recognize risks and pitfalls. They know how to tackle
things. Our experts are also very socially competent because
they have become familiar with a broad range of personalities
in the course of their careers – former bosses, employees
and colleagues. They often have a steadying influence in team
conflicts.”
The new world of the young old
Indeed, never before have older people been so vital and
able-bodied. Today’s 60-year-olds are mentally and physically
significantly younger than the 55-year-olds of earlier genera-
tions. They take an active interest in life and certainly have
expectations for their retirement. A recent Roland Berger
study, carried out on behalf of the German government,
showed this disparity and drew attention to the positive effects
our aging society is having on growth and employment. Ger-
many can profit greatly from the economic benefits of “age”
in the coming years and decades. That said, ideas about how
to address this growing sector of the market need to go well
beyond anti-aging creams and stair lifts. The leisure and
tourism industries, service and housing sectors, new media
and communications, financial services and, above all, health
and care sectors are on the brink of an enormous boom – if
we are to believe the signs of the times.
Already, the desire for eternal youth and beauty has created a
whole anti-aging industry, which has seen rapid growth.
Lifestyle products, food supplements and diets sell well.
Indeed, there is a vast amount of fascinating new research
taking place: Typical age-related illnesses such as Alzheimer’s
TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January
59
and diabetes, vascular diseases and osteoporosis are
being researched ever more intensively and treatments are
improving.
One thing is certain, considering the amount of effort that is
being put into conquering age-related illnesses and ailments:
Scientifically-based geriatric medicine is definitely not helpful
to an excessive obsession with youth. Serious gerontologists
stress that their aim is to find a way to extend the happy,
healthy part of our lives. To this end, we leave you with an
observation made by an English gerontologist on his idea of
growing old happily: “My choice would be to die aged 90 –
shot by the jealous husband of a lover.” 7
TEXT: DR. MELANIE THIELKING
Verging on the bizarre
The obsession with youth has sprouted curious
shoots. In the U.S., in particular, many older people
have given cult status to their efforts to stay young.
And even in Germany, there’s an ongoing stream
of new anti-aging ideas:
Anti-aging medicine: Specific use of hormones,
melatonin, DHEA, consumption of soy products,
green teas and certain fatty acids are all supposed
to stave off age-related ailments and slow down the
aging process.
Neurobics: The aerobics program for the brain.
Neurobics exercises employ all five senses to im-
prove our mental fitness.
Facial jogging: Targeted exercises that stimulate
the facial muscles and improve blood circulation in
the face through gentle massage, lymph drainage
and acupressure.
Well-aging: The right balance of amino acids in the
body, a workout that targets deep torso muscles
and a diet containing the right foods are supposed
to have a mobilizing and juvenescent effect on the
body. 7
 perspectives_the forces of nature
60

WORSHIPED, FEARED,
BUT NEVER TAMED
We feel magically drawn to the very things we fear most. A feeling of ambivalence that clearly arises
about the forces of nature: Anything than can bring a blessing can also produce a curse. Throughout
history, the human race has sanctified and feared the wind, water and sun – while still trying to put
them to good use.

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January


EXPLOITED –
The sun chariot of Trundholm, a sculpture from the late Nordic Bronze Age (about 1400
B.C.), represents the attempt to understand the movement of the sun. The Nordic idea was
refined by the Greeks and the Romans with their quadriga driven by the sun god.
TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January
61
Even in ancient times, humans knew
that all life on Earth depends on the sun,
Sun the burning orb that dominates the
Earth’s sky. Just about every culture has had an unmistakable
culture of the sun, from the Aztecs, Mayas and Incas to the
Egyptians, Greeks and peoples of the northern regions. Very
early on, the sun was viewed by humans as a natural clock. Its
return each morning was anxiously awaited and awakened by
magical rituals. And the determination of points in its orbital
path was used to create calendars and to predict important
annual events like the Nile flooding in ancient Egypt. Solar
eclipses fueled mass fear. People in ancient China were cer-
tain that a dragon would swallow the sun and tried to make the
monster release it by making loud noises.
Most likely, it was the ancient Greeks who viewed the sun as a
physical object for the first time. In describing the sun as a
fiery form of evaporation or a cloud, the Greek philosopher
and poet Xenophanes challenged in 500 B.C. a view that was
espoused earlier – and frequently in following centuries – of
the sun’s being a god.
Rudiments of a passive use of solar energy can be found in
the architecture of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and early ad-
vanced civilizations in South America. About 3,000 years ago,
Egyptians living under Pharaoh Akhenaten used solar energy
to open and close the gates of the temple. When the rising sun
warmed water in a large container near the temple, the water
and air expanded. The water then spilled out of the container
and flowed into a second container that was connected to the
gates by a rope. Using its weight, this container then pulled
the gate open. At sunset, the water would cool and flow back
into the big container as the pressure eased. A heavy rock
serving as a counterweight then closed the gates. 3
 perspectives_the forces of nature
62

“The Armillary Sphere,” woodcut by Albrecht

Dürer (1525): A celestial sphere reduced to
the main orbits of heavenly bodies shows the
geocentric global system from an exterior
view – here with the winds of the Earth shown
in human form.

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 In Aztec mythology,
Quetzalcoatl – the feathered serpent –
is the god of wind.
3 The principle of solar heating – the realization that solar power
can be concentrated on a glass or mirror – was applied long
before we began calculating time. It has been proven that
curved mirrors were used in ancient Greece and Rome. The
Greek philosopher Aristotle also reported in 350 B.C. that
sailors used distillation to turn seawater into drinking water
with the help of the sun’s energy.
But the active use of solar energy is an advance achieved in
modern times. During the 18th century, the naturalist Horace-
Bénédict de Saussure invented a forerunner of today’s solar
collector with his “hot box.” Based on de Saussure’s role
model, the French math teacher Augustin Mouchot construct-
ed a steam-powered solar engine in the 19th century. With the
discovery of the photoelectric effect, the French physicist
Alexandre Edmond Becquerel created the basis for today’s
solar cells in 1839. The first solar farm facility was erected in
1904 in St. Louis. Five years later, solar power was used to
TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January
heat water in California for the first time, and totally solar-
63
powered houses were built in 1932 in Chicago. The principle
of the solar cell was developed in 1954 in the United States.
Four years later, the first satellite equipped with solar cells was
launched into space.
Outstretched wings, flowing robes,
sweeping curls and billowing cheeks,
Wind he rolls in: Zephyr, the west wind,
blows the barefooted Venus standing in her seashell onto the
coast of Cyprus. This is how Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus,” one
of the most famous works of Renaissance painting, shows the
systematic resurrection of figures from ancient mythology –
along with its countless gods and personified forces of nature.
The west wind of Zephyr was not the only force that held a
special place in the hearts of ancient Greeks. Others were
Zephyr’s brothers, Notos (south), Boreas (north) and Euros
(east). Their winged, human appearance is only one of count-
less attempts by polytheistic peoples to lend a physical, godly
image to the wind: The Aztecs depicted their god Quetzalcoatl
as a feathered serpent. The Egyptians envisioned their wind
god Amun as a ram and as a man with a crown of
feathers. Forms of worship for him ranged from prayer
to blood and human sacrifices.
The aim of all sacrifices remained the same throughout
all cultures and times: gaining the good favor of the gods
who would tame the wind – naturally in the exact way that the
prayers wished. The use of wind energy is just as old as the
worship of wind gods. Like the wind god Amun, the
possibly oldest form of using wind energy is found in Egypt:
the sail. Egyptian vases depicting the earliest pictures of sail-
boats are more than 5,000 years old. And the success story
of this invention extended all the way to the 19th century: The
appearance of the steam engine put a temporary end to the
intensive use of wind energy. In the centuries that passed
between these two points, the achievements ranged from the
import of wind mills from Asia to Europe and to the constant
improvement of sailing ships, which evolved all the way to
five-mast versions. Some of the world’s most important
achievements would have been impossible without wind
energy, including the discovery of America and the research
journeys of Charles Darwin.
Still, the blessings of wind energy are closely linked to the
curse of wind energy. The flip side of the renewed enthusiasm
for wind-power stations and renewable energies is devastat-
ing storms that go by such names as “Katrina” and “Kyrill,”
storms whose power is measured by the Beaufort scale,
named after the British admiral who developed it in 1806 to
classify wind velocity.
Just like Beaufort, we still feel the immense strength of the
wind: Scientific research has replaced prayers and gods.
Satellites monitor the Earth’s weather. Gauges measure wind 3
 perspectives_the forces of nature
64
“The Great Wave,” woodblock by Katsushika Hokusai
3 velocity, air pressure, the temperature and humidity. Still the
force of nature remains the one in control. The velocity of wind
can certainly be measured, predicted and used in better ways
– but it is still a long way from being tamed.
The mammoth waves were
meters high, and they were
Water threatening to break at any
second. Like tentacles, their white crests reached out for the
small wooden boats riding helplessly on the angry seas. “The
Great Wave” by Katsushika Hokusai (1831) is a masterpiece
of Japanese woodblock art and a striking example of the
natural phenomenon that was burned into our collective
memory by the natural disaster of Dec. 26, 2004. The Japan-
ese word “tsunami” actually means “long harbor wave.” But,
today, it refers exclusively to those monster waves triggered by
seismographic tremors: underwater earthquakes or volcanic
eruptions. Stormy days turn the sea into a highly agitated
being. But so-called “freak waves” multiply its destructive
force – even container ships and supertankers can be
smashed by these gigantic masses of rolling water.
“Nothing in the world is softer than water. But when it attacks
hard objects, none can resist it in the end,” the Chinese
philosopher Laozi wrote in the sixth century B.C. Typhoons
that whip the sea, storm surges that burst dikes, rivers that
overflow their banks after long rains: The natural power of
water cannot be tamed – and humans must go to extreme
lengths to harness this power for their own purposes. Water
gives and water takes. As a deluge, it brings destruction; as a
baptism, blessing.
It is no wonder then that the human race has always had a
highly ambivalent relationship with water. Even water gods,
represented in Greek mythology by Poseidon, are ambiguous
figures. When in a good mood, Poseidon, who was fond of
frolicking with Nereids and Oceanids, created islands and
calmed the seas. But when he was riled, he shook the earth
TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

The statue of the Greek god
of the seas, Poseidon, in the
National Archaeological Museum
of Athens. Undated.
TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January
with his trident and churned the seas. Many tales of the sea 65
and creation are universal: Their themes run through cultures
like a river connecting all people of the world. The wellspring
of life lies in fresh water, not salt water: The first advanced
civilization between the Tigris and Euphrates arose only after
humans learned to irrigate their fields.
Today, rivers are used in many ways: They provide water for
agriculture and electricity production. They also serve as im-
portant trade and transport channels. It is hard to believe that
only about 3 percent of all water on our planet – an estimated
1.4 billion cubic kilometers – is available as fresh-water reser-
voirs. Most
of it is stored
in the poles
and mountain glaciers.
As a result, it is hard to believe just how
wasteful we are in our use of the precious liquid. The
United Nations Environment Program paints a drastic picture
in its latest report: In less than 20 years, fresh water will be in
short supply in many parts of the Earth, the agency’s experts
forecast. Even today, 3 million people die each year as a result
of contaminated water. Three-quarters of the Earth’s surface
is covered by water. Still, we call our planet “Earth.” “Water”
would actually be more accurate.
TEXT: ANKE BRYSON, SARAH BAUTZ, MARGIT UBER
A god who produces fruit: the river god Hapy, the personification
of the Nile and Nile flooding, is shown here on a relief from about
1490-1468 B.C.
 perspectives_disasters
66 Six-hundred-sixty tons of steel protection against
earthquakes: This sphere at the top of the 508-meter-high
Taipeh 101 Tower in Taiwan’s capital Taipeh serves as
a “tuned mass damper,” absorbing unwanted vibration
caused by earthquakes or strong winds.

LEARNING TO LIVE
WITH DANGER
Earthquakes, hurricanes, droughts, tsunamis, floods – natural disasters have been part of life for as
long as we can remember. However, the number of disasters has increased dramatically in recent years.
Mankind, it seems, remains a helpless victim of the raging forces of nature – that is, unless we manage
to develop effective warning systems and adaptation strategies.

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 67
n 1975, experts recorded a total 70
natural disasters worldwide. In 2006,
the figure was 395, almost six times
higher– and the number of victims has
increased disproportionately. There are
many reasons for these changes: the
I expanding global population and,
therefore, the growing number of people
who fall victim to such disasters. Millions of
farmers and day laborers stream into the
world’s overflowing megacities, many of
which are situated in vulnerable regions.
More and more people around the world
live in coastal areas and river valleys.
When storms and heavy rainfall cause
flooding, hundreds and thousands are
affected. It seems climate change is playing
a role too. It is seen to be the cause of
long-lasting droughts, extreme rainfall and
powerful storms.
This all sounds very worrying. However,
there are encouraging signs of a growing
belief that we shouldn’t take a fatalistic
approach to natural phenomena. We
can decide whether or not natural
events become disasters. But
for this, we need to recognize
the dangers and have prior
warning. The tsunami that
hit the coast of southeast
Asia in December 2004
came out of the blue.
Among other reasons,
this was because there
was no effective early
warning system for the
Indian Ocean. But even
had there been sirens
wailing and radios blaring
out warning messages,
disaster would probably still
have hit.
Natural disasters happen irregu-
larly. If there has been a long
period of calm, people forget. We
lose our sense of danger. In Thailand
and in India, people failed to recognize
the warning signals: The sea withdrew be-
fore the wave hit. Hardly anybody knew
what to do. 3

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 perspectives_disasters
68
The world’s most modern tsunami warning center is located in India. Within 13 minutes after an
earthquake it warns of the “monster waves.”
3 It was the same story with the floods in
Mozambique in 2002. Although the water
continued to rise after the heavy rainfall,
people stayed in their houses – for fear of
being burgled, but also because they
didn’t recognize the danger. And even in
New Orleans, people preferred to stick it
out at home – despite the threatening
satellite pictures on television and the
pressing calls for evacuation. They didn’t
realize how much water was building up
on the other side of the levees on the
Mississippi and Lake Pontchartrain. Sever-
al hundred people drowned.
False sense of security
For this reason, Thomas Loster believes
there is only one way to protect people
from the increasing number of natural dis-
asters – training in risk awareness. Loster,
chairman of the Munich Re Foundation,
which specializes in disaster prevention,
calls this the bottom-up approach. Disas-
ter management begins in the minds of
ordinary men and women – fishermen,
farmers. “Solutions like early warning
systems make sense. They get to the
people at the end of the chain of commu-
nication, but only if they know of the
dangers and can react accordingly.”
Awareness of the risks is the best protec-
tion in the face of a disaster. However,
many disasters show that the awareness
often simply isn’t there – this isn’t just the
case in developing countries, but also in
industrialized nations. Social geographer
Carsten Felgentreff, from the University
of Osnabrück, knows the psychological
mechanisms: “The safer people feel, the
more assets they accumulate. If disaster
hits, the damage is immense.”
The forest fires in California several months
ago were a clear example of this. Many
wealthy people had built their houses in
the dry forest areas around the cities, in
areas that have always been ravaged by
forest fires. Nobody ever seriously believed
they might one day be faced with a barrage
of fire. According to Felgentreff, the
problem can often be exacerbated by in-
surance. “It is paradoxical. Those who are
well insured take greater risks, because the
attitude is that the insurance will pay.”
After disaster has struck, people often re-
build in the same place – until the next dis-
aster hits.
Risk awareness can be learned
So it is knowledge of the danger that is the
key to successfully avoiding disaster. The
German Society for Technical Cooperation
(GTZ) in Eschborn takes this fact into con-
sideration in its development projects. In
the aftermath of the tsunami, the GTZ
launched a schools project in Indonesia
and Sri Lanka. Together with the education
authorities of both countries, GTZ experts
developed teaching materials for both
pupils and teachers, informing them about
natural dangers in the region – floods, vol-
canic eruptions, earthquakes and mud
slides. So far, more than 30,000 children
have learned not just how to read and write
but also about risk awareness. The project
proved its value in May 2006, when
an earthquake rocked the Indonesian
province of Yogyakarta. “The number of
victims would have been far higher had
A tsunami
warning tower
on the beach at
Patong, on the
Thai island
Phuket.
most children not recently learned at
school what they should do if an earth-
quake hit,” says Thomas Schaef, planning
specialist for international disaster man-
agement at GTZ.
Education is just one aspect of modern dis-
aster management. The most popular
model internationally, and the one recom-
mended by the UN’s International Strategy
for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), has several
pillars. GTZ also bases its projects on this
TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

»Modern disaster management
requires empathy rather than
pure technology.«
TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January
A seismograph in the earthquake research center at Tokyo University
The tsunami early warning system developed by
the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences at the
University of Kiel relies on buoys linked to sensors
on the seabed to provide early warning of sea-
quakes and tidal waves.
model. The central aim is to prevent disas-
ter in the first place.
Disaster preparedness is therefore part of
the concept – including support for disas-
ter protection bodies such as Germany's
Federal Agency for Technical Assistance
and equipping rescue teams.
Application of disaster prevention mea-
sures is the third pillar: building measures
that help prevent catastrophes – earth-
quake-resistant housing and buildings that
69
can withstand hurricanes. Above all, when
rebuilding it is necessary to think about
prevention – true to the old adage that
“one learns from one’s mistakes.” Only by
doing this can the next disaster really be
avoided. In addition to this, suitable build-
ing laws and an intelligent approach to
land use can help avoid land in high-risk
areas, such as flood planes, being used for
development.
The last pillar – risk analysis – is usually
also the first step in any disaster protection
project. “Risk” is the magic word for disas-
ter experts, who define it as the mathe-
matical product of the likelihood that a dis-
aster will take place and the damage
potential – the material value or potential
loss of human life.
It was with a risk analysis that GTZ
launched a project in Bolivia’s highlands
almost five years ago. Here, in this water-
shed area of the Rio San Pedro, inhabitants
have, by all intents and purposes, ex-
perienced an increasing number of natural 3
 perspectives_disasters
70
Hot work: A volcanologist from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory takes a piece of magma from
the Pu’u ‘O’o lava flow.
3 disasters – assumed to have been acceler-
ated by climate change. Droughts set in
early in the year and last longer than usual.
Then, on the other hand, there is extreme
rainfall. Rivers swell to torrents, washing
away the parched earth and taking roads
and bridges with them. Even in so-called
good years, there has been barely enough
to eat. The younger generation has left the
region. Found work elsewhere as day
laborers.
From mitigation to prevention
Schaef and his colleagues’ aim was to in-
volve the inhabitants directly – “bottom-
up.” They got the villagers to draw pictures
showing where the dangers lay – where
mud slides had occurred, where the mud
slid to – and combined these results with
scientific data – for example, aerial photos
showing the elevation of the land. Local
farmers brought with them traditional
know-how about drought-resistant plants,
the Europeans contributed their expertise
on the construction of watershed basins
and shoreline reinforcement. Now, fours
years in, hillsides once barren of life have
been reforested. Small walls protect the
banks of rivers and streams from collaps-
ing when they turn to torrents. It has been
possible to involve both villagers and local
politicians in the project, says Schaef.
Villagers now know how to confront the
threat of disaster. Other regions in Bolivia
are already following suite. »Those who learn to live
The San Pedro Watershed project has
made it clear that modern disaster man- with danger won’t have to
agement requires empathy rather than
pure technology. Natural disasters are now make compromises.«
tackled differently to 10 years ago. Since
the end of the 1980s, research into natur-
al disasters had been driven forward by a
high-tech approach. Sophisticated early
warning systems were developed. Large
sums of money were invested in research-
ing earthquakes and other natural threats.
Now, more is known about the basic facts.
For example, Germany's National Research
Center for Geosciences, the GeoForschungs-
Zentrum Potsdam (GFZ), has created an
TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January
 71

atlas illustrating global earthquake trends,

and has played a leading role in the devel-
opment of the new tsunami early warning
system. Yet, while no expense has been
spared on new technologies, it is still not
possible to predict precisely when an earth-
quake will hit. For this reason, Japan has
given up on ever developing an infallible
earthquake early warning system and is
now putting its money into the construction
of earthquake-resistant buildings and a
robust infrastructure – for example, gas
networks that can be switched off within
seconds and emergency stop systems for
high-speed trains.

Empathetic help
Countries like Japan can afford such mea-
sures. But now, as before, it is still devel-
oping countries that are hardest hit by
natural disasters. Where money is already
short, disaster control isn’t exactly top of the
list of priorities – among other things, build-
ing roads is more important. Aid agencies,
therefore, try to incorporate disaster miti-
gation in other projects. A hospital that
needs to be built can be made earthquake
resistant. This, says Gerd Tetzlaff, Pro-
fessor for Meteorology at the University of
Leipzig, is disaster control as part of an
“ongoing process.” Wherever building work
is underway, disaster protection is taken into
account. A new levee, for example, would
be built higher than might otherwise have
been necessary.
Tetzlaff’s specialist focus is the influence of
climate change on the increase in natural
disasters. From a scientific perspective, he
U.S. scientists
installing a global
positioning system
(GPS) to measure
earth movements on
Mount St. Helens,
which last erupted
in 1980.
Amphibious houses in The Netherlands: The Dutch are preparing for rising sea levels by building
waterproof buildings. If rivers break their banks, the floating houses simply rise with the tide.
says, nobody can yet say with certainty
whether extreme weather conditions that
potentially lead to disaster are actually in-
creasing, although politicians of every
leaning regularly draw up new worst-case
scenarios. We still do not have all the facts.
As a result, Tetzlaff is not surprised that
central European states hesitate to invest
large sums of money in prevention mea-
sures that would ensure they are well
equipped to cope with natural disasters;
for example, money for the construction of
large polders or for flood planes along
rivers. As has always been the case, those
responsible for finding solutions find it
difficult selecting just a few preventative
measures and then carrying them out.
Going with the flow
As such, it would seem to make sense to
follow the example of the Dutch: They are
giving up the 1,000 year battle between
the North Sea tides and the construction of
dikes. “We can’t keep going on like this,
simply building the dikes ever higher,”
says Toine Smits, a water management
expert at two Dutch universities.
With support from the global conservation
organization WWF, Smits has developed
concepts for alternative protection mea-
sures against high water along the rivers
and coasts; measures that would enable
people to adapt to the natural dynamics of
the sea and rivers, not vice versa. Smits is
working on new housing and habitat con-
cepts that are not sensitive to floods. These
include floating greenhouses, or even whole
towns. Drifting bridges and roads already
exist in Canada, says Smits. In Maasbom-
mel, near Nijmegen, the construction firm
Dura Vermeer has built a first floating es-
tate. The houses stand on small pontoons
and rise and sink with the tides. Dikes are
still a necessity in many places, says Smits,
but they are not the only solution. There
are alternatives: Those who learn to live with
the water, and the dangers it poses, will not
have to compromise. And that applies
equally to other natural disasters. 7
TEXT: TIM SCHRÖDER

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 perspectives_fragile earth
72

CHANGEABLE
EARTH Throughout its existence, our planet has been
exposed to constant changes. But humankind has
accelerated this development – within just a few
years, people change the face of entire landscapes.
Sometimes, though, it is nature itself that causes
sudden changes, for example through volcano
eruptions or earthquakes. No matter whether the
change originates with humans or nature: It forces
all of Earth’s residents to continually adapt.

Santa Cruz, Bolivia, June 1975

A dense jungle and sporadic clearings – that is how the area northeast of the Bolivian city of Santa
Cruz looked just over 30 years ago. Distinct signs of settlements are noticeable only on the left bank
of the river Guapay.

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 73

Santa Cruz, Bolivia, May 2003

Forests to soy fields: Only a few decades later, fields dominate the land-
scape. The population of the department of Santa Cruz has grown from
30,000 to more than 1 million – people who cut down trees to build new
villages and cultivate crops.

TK Magazin | 1 | 2008 | Januar

 perspectives_fragile earth
74

Shishmaref, September 2005

“Permafrost soil” means permanently frozen soil. But what if the frost no longer
lasts throughout the year? Residents of the village of Shishmaref, located on an
island off the coast of Alaska, are getting to feel the consequences …

Shishmaref, October 2005

… as the coast is now eroding by an average
of 3.3 meters a year because the ground
is thawing and therefore losing its stability.
A number of buildings have already fallen
victim to the encroaching ocean. Now the
community has to decide whether to relocate
the village or build dikes.

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 75

Mount St. Helens, May 1980

Few volcano eruptions are as well-documented as
the eruption of Mount St. Helens in the U.S. state of
Washington. The surrounding picture-perfect mountain
landscape …

Mount St. Helens, September 1980

… was shaken up by a tremendous eruption on May 18, 1980. A cloud of hot ash
flowed into the valley, tearing down everything that stood in its way. What was left
behind was a “naked,” apparently dead environment.

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 perspectives_fragile earth
76

Upsala Glacier, 2004

Like most of the world’s glaciers, however, this glacier,
too, continues to retreat. The light patches on the rock
show how far the ice once extended.

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 Upsala Glacier, 1928
77
At Patagonia’s southernmost tip, the Patagonian Ice Sheet makes for one of the
largest contiguous areas of ice outside of the polar regions. Huge glaciers like the
Upsala Glacier flow down from the Ice Sheet.

Fragile Earth
The illustrated book “Zerbrechliche
Erde” (National Geographic), from which
these photos are taken, shows how na-
ture and humans alter the planet Earth.
The spectacular before-and-after pic-
tures illustrate the speed with which the
face of our planet can change and the
dramatic impact natural disasters and
human intervention have. The photos
open our eyes to the challenges facing
us today and illustrate the destructions
caused by, for example, hurricane Katri-
na in New Orleans or the tsunami off
the coast of Sumatra. The book also
illustrates land reclamation from the
sea, overflowing
cities and gigan-
tic transporta-
tion projects as
well as the im-
pact of tourism
and agriculture.

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 perspectives_burnout
78

WHEN THE SOUL

CRIES FOR HELP

Burnout is Western, industrial, capitalistic, an expression of a fast-paced,

high-powered society. Right? Do environmental factors also rob people of energy
in other cultural contexts?

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 79

Help, I can’t stand it any longer!

In the movie “One Fine Day” Michelle
Pfeiffer wears herself out as an
architect and single mom.

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 perspectives_burnout
80
ometimes it is one-fourth of all employees,
sometimes even one-third: Regular studies
and surveys show that large parts of the working popu-
lation in Germany feel affected by burnout. An
unequivocal definition of the concept, however,
does not exist. “Burnout” is not a diagnosis, but
S a metaphor. And a powerful one at that. Everyone
understands what it means “to be burnt out” – without having
so much as glanced at the long list of possible symptoms.
For lack of an official, universally accepted definition, tired-
ness and sleeplessness fall within this concept just as much
as general listlessness, an inner void, anxiety, dissatisfaction,
the feeling of being permanently overtaxed, mood swings and
many other negative sensations. At the same time, no symp-
toms are excluded: Proving that a patient clearly does not suf-
fer from burnout is all but impossible. If one were to seek a
general consensus among medical scientists, one would have
to draw on a combination of “emotional exhaustion,” “deper-
sonalization” and “reduced personal performance.”
Loss of control and desperation – typical burnout symptoms
Burnout seems to be particularly prevalent in occupations
requiring a high level of social engagement, such as teaching,
nursing or social work. And one thing is certain: The usual pro-
grams, which range from relaxation to psychotherapy, are not
always successful. Perhaps it is worth casting a look across
the cultural borders?
In search of the optimal balance of power
But – does burnout even exist in other cultures? Do residents
of Africa and Asia know the chronic state of fatigue, are the
peoples of the jungle regions of Papua New Guinea or the
mountain cultures of South America equally plagued by stress
and sleeplessness? Scientists have trouble answering even
this basic question.
Since an answer would need not only an empirically relevant
number of burnout sufferers, but also someone who takes
note, someone who has interest and – even if he or she does
not explain the phenomenon – someone who at least docu-
ments and reports it, perhaps even researching it.
TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

»The medicine man needs
a lot of time to call the soul
and restore it.«
The basic concept of the Western term “burnout,” as we un-
derstand it, seems hardly suited to international comparison.
In the West, the term burnout is inseparably tied to the work
environment. But the concept of “occupation” cannot be eas-
ily transposed to other cultures. The term “depersonalization”
also presupposes a Western notion of proximity and personal
relationships that cannot necessarily be applied to a Nigerian
village or a Chinese factory. The same is true for the idea of
“reduced personal performance.”
Finally, the self-diagnosis “burnout” presupposes certain
ideas of happiness, work and leisure, the time to reflect and
the capacity to observe in order to measure one’s own state
against an ideal. Only those who have experienced mental
equilibrium will be able to recognize a deviation from this
state.
At the same time, the basic idea of burnout is not actually all
that foreign to many cultures: “Losing one’s inner balance,”
“feeling empty” is considered an entirely legitimate descrip-
tion of ailment in East Asia. After all, traditional medicine there
TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January
81
Burnt out, plagued
by self-doubt and
sleeping problems
is based on the existence of “chi,” the breath of life that flows
through human beings and sustains their organs. This chi
must be nurtured. Put simply, we need to nourish it through
our food and our breath. If the chi languishes, traditional
physicians in China, Japan or Korea can draw on a whole
range of potent treatments, from acupuncture to relaxation ex-
ercises. Even geomatics, an omnipresent feature of East Asian
architecture and interior design, is actually nothing other than
the attempt to channel the planet’s energy forces into a favor-
able direction for humans and thus place humans in an opti-
mal balance of power. In principle, then, this, too, amounts to
a perpetual burnout prophylaxis on all levels.
Another striking aspect can be observed in East Asia as well:
“Work-life balance” would mean little to many people here.
There is no division between work and life, work is life and
when businesspeople sink into their sofas at the end of a hard
day’s work, the conclusion isn’t: “had a lot of stress,” but:
“earned good money.” Of course, that is a sweeping general-
ization. Nonetheless, demand for personal free time, the 3
 perspectives_burnout
82
One fine day
Anybody who lives like Melanie Parker in the movie
“One Fine Day” is a likely burnout victim. As a
stressed-out architect and mother, Melanie Parker
(Michelle Pfeiffer) wears herself out between busi-
ness appointments and daycare center. Indeed, the
double burden carried by people who constantly
find themselves torn between their families and
working environments is a key source of burnout.
For Melanie Parker, rescue on this day appears in
the shape of journalist Jack Taylor (George
Clooney), who finds that his divorced wife has
left their five-year-old daughter on his doorstep
on a particularly difficult
working day. Melanie and
Jack team up to successfully
juggle kids and career for at
least one day. 7
3 individual component of life, is generally significantly less in
Asia than in Europe.
A glance to the West is no less inspiring. Prof. Dr. Ina Rösing,
a psychotherapist, cultural anthropologist and institute direc-
tor at the University of Ulm hospital in southern Germany, has
for many years focused her research work on comparing the
“loss of soul” in the Andes and the Himalayas to burnout in
Western culture. She lived with the Quechua Indians for more
than seven years and brought home a whole host of revealing
observations: “Our society knows burnout as an occupational
stress syndrome. Even if this does not apply to the Indians liv-
ing from subsistence farming in the Andes in the classic
sense, they, too, face stressful factors. Their daily life consists
of an endless number of chores and conflicts. Illness and
death are everyday matters, medical care is rudimentary. Of
course, people can also feel overpressured in this environ-
ment,” emphasizes Prof. Dr. Rösing.
The Andes culture recognizes a large and a small soul. The
large soul corresponds to life, the small one, in turn, can get
lost or be stolen, for example, when a person is frightened.
The consequences, the list of possible symptoms, sound
familiar to Westerners: fatigue, listlessness, anxiety, feeble-
ness, paired with sleeplessness and mood swings. Even if the
trigger seems different, loss of soul appears to be comparable
to burnout. The reaction, however, differs considerably from
Western practice. A medicine man is summoned who, in
extensive talks, needs a good deal of time to determine his
diagnosis. In gentle one-on-one dialogues, he familiarizes
himself with the patient’s overall personal situation. Afterward,
he calls the soul and restores it.
Worries about the loss of the soul
The medicine man treats, continuously tends and nurtures the
patient for seven days while other village inhabitants assume
the patient’s daily chores. “The patient is freed from all the
burdens of everyday life to ensure he or she gets a chance to
retrieve his or her inner resources,” explains Prof. Dr. Rösing.
A strikingly similar approach has been adopted by Tibetan cul-
ture in the Himalayas. Here, too, people believe in several
souls, although these can reside not only within the body, but
also outside it. These souls, too, however can get lost or be
stolen and must be restored in surprisingly similar rituals.
“All these rituals and methods, which, perhaps, are hard to
transpose to the West, are based on one core idea: This is a
legitimate illness that is taken seriously,” notes Prof. Dr.
Rösing. Exactly this is what can hardly be said of Western cul-
tures. Sure, everyone is talking about the idea, and self-help
books on the subject pile high in bookstores. But the concept
still carries a social stigma. Management consultants or
managers, for their part, are certainly well-advised to keep
their burnout problems to themselves. They would probably
also not be allowed to take time out in the West.
The burnout gulf thus does not follow national borders, but
runs somewhere between the poles of individualism and
collectivity, between acceptance and rejection. Overcoming
this divide is certainly a cultural achievement as well. 7
TEXT: FRANÇOISE HAUSER
TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January
puzzle
filling in the blanks
Five questions – five solutions – five prizes
Environment refers to the world that surrounds people in various
contexts. Dramatic changes can be observed in nearly all areas: in our
social settings just as much as in our natural settings in which and from
which we live. We highlight five particular aspects of this, asking you a
83
Have you entered all of the solution words? If so, you should arrange the
letters written in the numbered boxes in an order that produces a word.
This word is our solution word. Please send a postcard bearing the so-
lution word to:

F.A.Z.-Institut
question about each one. Those who find the right solutions and who
also have a little bit of luck can be among the winners of five attractive
Redaktion ThyssenKrupp Magazin
prizes.
Postfach 20 01 63
This is how it works: Each question has only one correct solution word.
60605 Frankfurt am Main
Answer the questions in any order you like and write each solution word
on the crossword puzzle – it is up to you to determine where. Please The deadline for entries is May 15, 2008. All winners will be notified in
note that umlauts (ä, ö, ü) are spelled out (ae, oe, ue). writing. The judges’ decision is final.
Have a good time!

3
1 the shade. What was the raw material
2 5
4 Question 2
6 ingly fast-paced social environment.
Five winners of a € 100 voucher
for amazon.de will be drawn
from all contestants who sent in
the correct solution.
Question 1
Alexandre Edmond Becquerel is known
as the father of photovoltaics. In the
middle of the 19th century, the French
scientist discovered that a galvanic
element in the sun produces more
electricity than a galvanic element in
used by an American scientist to pro-
duce the first solar cell (with an ad-
mittedly rather low effectiveness of
1.5 percent), building on Becquerel’s
discoveries?
These days, burnout is known around
the world as a symptom of an increas-
As early as 1936, “stress” had been
identified and defined in a scientific
publication. “I have given all languages
a new word,” said the “father of stress
research” in summarizing his life’s
achievements. Who was this (last
name)?
Question 3
One of humankind’s oldest fears has
been that the reliable, irrevocable
laws of nature may be suspended.
Shakespeare also bestowed this ex-
perience on his protagonist Macbeth:
He only has to fear for his power and
life if a normally immovable part of
nature moves in his direction. Which
part of Birnam’s landscape ends up
marching toward Macbeth?
Question 4
Global warming is causing the “eternal
ice” of the poles to melt. As a result,
the dreams of the early discoverers
and today’s shipowners could come
true: faster ocean transit to Asia and
an ice-free northern ocean. A Scan-
dinavian managed the first complete
navigation of the Northeast Passage –
overwintering once – during the 19th
century. What was the name of the
ship he traveled on?
Question 5
Since the beginning of 2006, a village
in Germany has not only been covering
its residents’ complete energy require-
ments with regenerative energies, it
has actually produced twice as much
bioelectricity from the biomass pro-
duced by its local agricultural and
forestry businesses than it actually
needs. What is the name of Germany’s
first “bio-energy village”?

Solution from the page “forum_worth knowing”:

The person wanted for “Who was it”: Jacques-Yves Cousteau

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 perspectives_interview
»HUMAN HISTORY
IS A STORY OF MOVEMENT«
Is migration a natural phenomenon? And
how do worldwide migrations change our social
environment? An interview with the historian
and author, Professor Karl Schlögel, on the
“Planet of the Nomads”
Professor Schlögel, when media report on migration, they fre-
quently present it as a natural phenomenon. Metaphors like
streams of immigrants or floods of asylum seekers convey the idea
that nature is taking its course here. Is migration, a nomadic life,
actually part of human nature?
Karl Schlögel: It is a man-made occurrence to begin with because
people set themselves in motion. The use of such metaphors has some-
thing to do with a happening that is overpowering. It is beyond the
TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

»It amazes me
dimension that is normally believed to describe social processes. It ex-
ceeds the scope of legislation, of political decisions, of treaties. One can
decide at international conferences to close the borders. But this is
naturally a hopeless gesture against the real pressure of immigration
and the actual intelligence bundled in such human currents, both of
which will find their way. So, the metaphors are mainly the expression
of a thoroughly overpowering happening, against which the political
machinery is powerless. These processes can be steered or moderated
TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January
85
to a certain extent. But one cannot control what is happening. We are
also dealing here partly with an authentic natural occurrence, for
migration is triggered in many cases by natural disasters. For example,
droughts followed by famine or permanent inundation. Not all of
humanity’s mass flights are the result of wars or ethnic cleansing. There
are always more people fleeing natural occurrences.
A development that could spread?
I believe so. It’s amazing that people are so tenacious, although in some
of these regions these emergencies crop up again and again over the
years. Looking at the recurring reports of flooding in the Ganges delta,
how stubborn the human being is.«
one can only be amazed at how stubbornly people cling to their homes.
Or, take earthquakes. People have come to terms with living atop
tectonic fault lines – although it is clear that sooner or later big cities,
cities of millions, will lie in ruins.
Natural disasters or involuntary displacement by wars are extreme
situations. But what drives the typical immigration is often the
search for work, for economic sustenance. Can it be said that the
companies themselves drive this migration by making work at all
possible in the first place?
The main engine of immigration is certainly economic activity and there-
fore probably the companies – but not just them. They form the basis
for a livelihood. That applies not just to immigration, as we’ve seen it in
Europe. If wide swaths of Africa or Latin America are stripped bare and
the people flock from the countryside into the cities, then it is happen-
ing because there are apparently fewer and fewer possibilities to earn a
living on the land. That the population of entire continents is settling 3
 perspectives_interview
86
»The acceleration of movement causes
incredible complication of living conditions.«
3 down in these megalopolises is a development of historical dimension.
The year 2008 is always cited as the year in which more than half of hu-
manity for the first time lives in cities. This is actually an epochal date.
It means that the traditional life on the land is no longer the basic model
for more than half the population, but rather that they have had to build
new lives upon work in these conurbations.
One of your essays bears the title “Planet of the Nomads.” Is the con-
dition of movement, namely migration, the norm for human beings?
Human history is a story of movement. And there have always been mi-
grations, even across great distances. But there has been an incredible
acceleration. In the space of one generation there is suddenly the
phenomenon that practically no one dies anymore in the place where he
was born. This leap is a development of the most recent time, which is
associated with the scattering of the traditional, mainly the agrarian,
society. This has made relationships mobile, incomprehensible, actually
fluid. Previously one was embedded in a life that unfolded at one loca-
tion without major changes. Now, in the briefest of periods one changes
perhaps several times the place where one lives and works, encounter-
ing people whom one never would have met otherwise. It takes school-
ing, training in indifference, to cope with this complication of living con-
ditions. One just cannot become involved in everything; otherwise one
would go mad. The quarrels have to be ignored; some matters must be
blocked out. The cultural exertion of living with this complexity and with
this permanent motion is enormous. It is also an achievement of 20th
Century civilization that one no longer finds anything peculiar about
all this.
Are the migrants then the avant-garde of this cultural outcome be-
cause they above all are forced to cope with such permanent
movement?
Required of those who are compelled overnight to adjust to something
new, those who must make new arrangements and regain their footing,
or position themselves anew as they say nowadays, is the highest degree
of awareness, of intelligent organization of life, of ingenuity. More than
from those who have always been there and are assimilated. That
applies to a degree. But the avant-garde role of immigrants should not
be romanticized. The integrity of routines, the functioning of the daily life
of a big city – this is the work of those who have always been there and
keep the operation running. That is the condition which makes possible
the integration of new citizens. Perhaps you will ask whether there are
limits to this achievement. Yes, there probably are.
Has the limit perhaps already been reached, and are we therefore
increasingly seeking an anchor in virtual spaces in order to come
to terms with these incomprehensible living conditions?
Maybe we are looking for this in virtual spaces. Intensely, but in ideo-
logical, symbolic spaces: The booming new religiosity also has some-
thing to do with the need for specific orientation, a need which increases
as living conditions become more tentative and unfathomable. Even this
gigantic boom in nostalgia – clinging to specific places and subjects,
fixed locations in memory, you might say – is a complement to this
frantic acceleration of globalization. A personal place is needed on
which to drop anchor. Places play a large role anyway, today maybe
more so than the country to which they belong. A person then identifies
with just a city, not so much as a German or French citizen, but rather
that he lives in Paris, Berlin or Frankfurt. The concrete place takes on
importance in this way.
Is it also because people concentrate in the cities, conferring an even
greater importance on these places?
The cities are the principal venues where everything happens. It has
always been said that there has been an erosion in the significance of
cities. I believe it is the other way around. This achievement and this role
of the city, namely making the newcomers, the immigrants, the tempo-
rary visitors into permanent citizens of a community, has grown instead.
The city is the school of communal living, the school of settling conflicts,
the school which makes all sorts of strangers part of a community that
somehow functions. 7
THE INTERVIEW WAS CONDUCTED BY ALEXANDER SCHNEIDER | PHOTOS: NICOLE MASKUS
TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January
 87

Professor Karl Schlögel, historian

and author, was born in 1948 and
studied philosophy, sociology, eastern Euro-
pean history and Slavic languages at
Berlin’s Free University and in Moscow and
St. Petersburg. Today, he teaches eastern
European history at Europa-Universität
Viadrina in Frankfurt/Oder. In his essay
“Planet of the Nomads” he describes the
causes and effects of global migration as
an astute observer. Among his other pub-
lished works are “Im Raume lesen wir
die Zeit” and “Marjampole oder Europas
Wiederkehr aus dem Geist der Städte”. He
received Hamburg’s Lessing Prize in 2005.
In 2004, he received, among others, the
Sigmund Freud Prize for scientific prose
from Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und
Dichtung – the German Academy for
Language and Poetry.

TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January

 review
88
magazine
TK
Responsibility
Responsibility is one of our society’s
fundamental values. It means taking into
consideration the consequences of one’s
own actions, including their impact on
other people, our environment and our
world’s future. This issue highlights how
ThyssenKrupp perceives responsibility.
An interview with the Dalai Lama about
universal and individual responsibility and
a conversation with Gesine Schwan on
the responsibilities of governments and
businesses further illuminate the topic.
From flood protection for Venice through
innovative technologies facilitating the
responsible handling of emissions and
energy to tsunami help in southern India –
responsibility in its truest sense knows no
boundaries in a globalized world. 7
magazine
TK
Global Views
Global views can be the German photo-
grapher’s view of his temporary home in
Shanghai or the debate between propo-
nents and opponents of globalization. This
magazine deals just as much with journeys
across intercultural borders as with border-
crossing bridges. It is about scientists and
development engineers who apply new
processes and use new materials to open
up new avenues for technology in an in-
creasingly networked world and, thus, help
fight such global problems as water short-
ages. And it is also about entering new
markets. Internationality means pursuing
common approaches across national
borders and reaching common goals via
different avenues – and learning from each
other in the process. 7
The magazines can be ordered at
www.thyssenkrupp.com in the service
navigation area under “Publications.”
imprint
Publisher: ThyssenKrupp AG,
Dr. Jürgen Claassen,
August-Thyssen-Straße 1,
40211 Düsseldorf,
Telephone: +49 211 824-0
Project Management at ThyssenKrupp: Barbara Scholten
The contents do not necessarily reflect the views of
the publisher. Excerpts may only be reproduced with
attribution and if a sample copy is provided.
Publishing house and editorial offices: F.A.Z.-Institut
für Management-, Markt- und Medieninformationen GmbH,
Mainzer Landstraße 199, 60326 Frankfurt am Main,
Telephone: +49 69 75 91-0, Fax: +49 69 75 91-1966
Managing Directors: Volker Sach, Dr. André Hülsbömer
Project Management: Ludger Kersting
Editors: Anke Bryson (responsible), Alexander Schneider
Art Director: Wolfgang Hanauer
Authors: Sarah Bautz, Anke Bryson, Françoise Hauser,
Daniel Schleidt, Alexander Schneider, Tim Schröder,
Dr. Melanie Thielking, Margit Uber, Jan Voosen
Photos: Archivo Museo Salesiano (p. 77 top), Peter Arnold
(p. 28), David Ausserhofer/Intro (p. 26), Daniel Beltra/
Greenpeace (p. 77 bottom), Bridgeman Art Library (p. 65),
cinetext (p. 11, 78-82), corbis (p. 8, 9, 38, 66, 70), Getty
Images (p. 9, 24, 48, 50, 68), Hanauer Grafik Design (p. 22,
54-58), Huber/laif (p. 49), Lineair/Das Fotoarchiv (p. 40-41),
National Geographic (p. 75 bottom), Picture-Alliance/dpa
(p. 2-3, 6, 9, 24, 30-33, 60-65, 69, 71, 89), Vera Schimetzek
(p. 71 top), Solartaxi.com (p. 25), UNEP (p. 4-5, 72, 73),
USGS (p. 75 top), Tony A. Weyiouanna Sr. (p. 74), Javier
Larrea (p. 52), Zuder/laif (p. 68)
Lithography: Goldbeck Art, Frankfurt am Main
Printing: Kuthal Druck, Mainaschaff
TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January
TK Magazine | 1 | 2008 | January Environment
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