the 1st venice novelist. and the swiss writer luc us air force has just won germany's top literary prize. the night watch by rembrandt is right now being restored under the watchful eye of well anyone who wishes to see the painstaking restoration process the painting is nearly 400 years old and it was lost restored after a knife attack on it in 1975 that restoration has started to discolor a bit and the rice museum in amsterdam has decided it is such an important painting that the public should be allowed to see it as its current renovation proceeds. operation night watch cutting qurna is allowed to get right up close to the rembrandt painting the chemist is in charge of a team of 20 researchers restoring the nightwatch is the chance of a lifetime. who is afraid of many other one was kind of pigments did he use 400

years ago we saw and how has the condition changed i'm certain that it will gain a lot of information from these investigations and that will be able to dive deeply into the analysis of this artwork the painting is famous for several things its size measuring 16 square metres and weighing 170 kilograms the way rembrandt created the perception of motion and what traditionally would have been a static military group portrait and the use of light in shadow it's well known that the master painted himself into the scene but what secrets might the work be hiding. my days in america the 1st step is using this macro x. ray fluorescence analysis to scan everything bit by bit and analyzing the layers from the vanish to the canvas it tells us something about the way rembrandt worked on paper back that's of vital importance because the plan is to clean the painting repair damage and make this a bill details that had previously been hidden. the work was successfully hidden

from the nazis during the 2nd world war it's been vandalized 3 times including being stabbed 13 times with a kitchen knife in 1975 that. the last time the painting was restored behind closed doors back then this time the work is visible to the public the 20 researchers are working in a purpose built 60 square metres last cube in the middle of the museum set up by a specialist company from france. the we must restore it now and it's fantastic that we can do that publicly the night watch deserves to be treated with the utmost care if we were to simply take it down from the wall and restore it in the studio and we have to rush the word term optional. it's all planned to take more than a year the visitors don't mind this is absolutely spectacular to see how much work the museum has put into it in terms like renovating and preserving the best out of this painting this is an interesting experience especially because we have related

to the man in the white clothes he's our great uncle from 12 generations back or so as we found out from studying our family tree and jada some of them come in in force and also before and there may be other surprises in store over the next months from now kathleen curnow is concentrating on unlocking the chemical secrets of rembrandt's color spectrum. now germany is celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of to head off on tom he was a journalist and author most probably best known for effie breeched just one of many novels featuring strong female characters form tama is also known here in germany as the pioneer of travel guide publishing many volumes about his journeys through parts of the state of brandenburg which surrounds my colleague adrian kennedy has been tracing his steps. we begin at the end

here at the french cemetery in berlin light the mortal remains of. the great writer is buried alongside his deal wife media. fontana traveled frew his beloved brandenburg mostly by train and coach i've got myself settled up with an e-book to follow the front cycle path trails our journey takes us away from berlin and to. the town in which the writer was. by having lunch appointment with a man who knows all about sport. ate and drank. this isn't just the food fun town or could it. be the food that you have proven. yes i search for all the books. wrote a letter to his wife he has a cold. ok very good

try. enjoy thank you. was born here his father ran this pharmacy the present pharmacist nicole conrad sees it as a great responsibility to continue the tradition. the main front. an exhibition is at the. museum there's a whole room dedicated to the novel effete priest one of a number of works by phone with strong female leads here i have a close encounter with the male noir penis and the fontana's. is an authentic running from the time we can be 100 percent sure that it has fontana's fingerprints on it if you could a forensic scientist in here he would definitely prove this stood in front on his

home. a little bit. of work. mind journey brought me near. and to the landscape he loves. and i learned that fun is absolutely relevant today. and our intrepid fallen tama reporter is here with me now is rick kennedy plenty of eating and drinking in your phone tom the journey this is that how you got closer to the great man well yes i think it's well established that from time to eat and drink he said himself he was not a fan of half portions so that was part of the process of getting inside fun town

and just taking one for the team but of course i did ask people along the way what fun time now has to say to people around the world in the 21st century many people see him as a kind of proto feminist because he wrote many novels with strong female characters who broke with tradition think is a bit of a push to say he was a feminist but he was a man who was very interested in women in their emotions in feelings and in the white. they were constricted by society an interest in women that was very rare that simon which is by no means universal to do a pioneer in other ways as well in the sort of travel guide yes my journey took me to many places that he describes in a 5 volume work that gives a detailed picture of brandenburg original journey not spectacular as the outs but were also to offer free 1000 plus likes for example this travel journal was one of

his early successes but not published till he was in his early forty's for the time of course initially started a career as a pharmacist and only turned full time till it in his thirty's and i believe actually concerning knoebels would be an inspiration for late starters absolutely because the major novels he didn't start to much later in life indeed a few brace which we talked about. which was a kind of german madame bovary and put germany back on the european and at the time he didn't write in so his seventy's and. muse well you had this hope for me yeah as you were you say seventy's is a good start. you also had a musical encounter as well tapas bar that's why much of the soundtrack to the journey comes from a wonderful funtown album from the band taught in dick i met up with top found

right rep current singer katrina frank in out repeating rep set fontana's exquisite poet means to music and i think we can take a listen to one track called john maynard on the show. we'll. be sure. this song tells the tale of the heroic american steamboat captain who saves all the passengers but dies himself one of many poems that this song tells the tale of a heroic american steamboat captain who saves all the passengers but dies himself one of many poems that fontana wrote about a u.s.

and british daring to he was posted in london he travelled in scotland he was even imprisoned as a spy in france at one point in his journalistic career obviously led a very eventful life to a progressive man and another progressive manager kennedy thank you very much i'm off to write my 1st novel it did you got a bit of talk about. staying with a literary theory the swiss author lucas baer force has just been awarded the most important german literary prize by the german academy of language and literature. would most probably be as well known today as go to all schiller if he has died aged just 23 and the prize awarded in his name has sometimes seen as a precursor for the nobel prize for literature good to garson heinrich berger 2 such instances so watch out for lucas bear false is more about him.

so the state of the world to listeners everything that is happening or not happening right now is there's no other way to say it's disgusting. he says criticisms of the rich west research sharp and unsparing he says writers have to get involved and he does in his books essays and plays such as the guys or the elephant mind it's a play. about the obsession with power and helmut kohl the former german chancellor is never mentioned by name it's a provocative reckoning works and deference is a wonderful human virtue which is unfortunately completely inappropriate and. so is his 1st novel $100.00 days is about the genocide in rwanda and in koala he addresses his brother's suicide the academy found his worth prize where the due to the way be a 1st constantly experiments with the drama and novel formats gone small you and i

the one hand he finds new and unique solutions using a very precise and visually strong language which is nonetheless completely transparent to the reader and i'm not the other hand he allows people to remain and have magic and then mention. just this year's prize will be handed over to the provocative look at a ceremony in november. that brings us the end of awesome culture for today don't forget the website d.w. dot com slash culture where there's more on all today's topics but also lots of cultural news from all around the world also on facebook at g.w. culture so.

so the summer of cups is almost finished the women's world cup a cup of america and the gold cup are. we take stock of the highlights. a missed opportunity. i'm glad. it's clear to me.

it's been 15 years since the monday. he was the 1st man to walk on the moon. as a small boy he dreamed of the stars. as a pilot decent anything no matter how dangerous. to go to the pole. as an astronaut he took part in the greatest adventure in history. but he wrote a legend. simply a human being. was neil armstrong starts july 20th on t.w.

. this is. italy takes another step to block migrants from reaching is sure to cheer you minister. just migrant reception center in sicily that has

not stopped carrying rescued refugees from. also coming up tonight europe.