Culture 2015: People who left their mark

A look at the artists who shaped the world of culture in 2015.

The year began with the January 7 Islamist terrorist attack against the satirical magazine "Charlie Hebdo" in Paris which left 12 people dead, including many of the magazine's staff members. By terrible coincidence, the new book "Submission" by French author Michel Houellebecq, a satire in which a Muslim is elected president of France, was released the same day as the attack.

"Taxi," shot in secret by Iranian dissident Jafar Panahi, was awarded the Golden Bear at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival in February. The director himself, banned from filmmaking and under house arrest in Iran, was not in attendance but his niece was there to receive the award.

Although German pop star Helene Fischer released her album "Farbenspiel" ("Play of Colors") way back in 2013, one of its songs "Atemlos durch die Nacht" ("Breathless Through the Night" was awarded the ECHO hit of 2015. And the singer continued her successful year with her new Christmas album "Weihnachten," even edging Adele from the German charts toward the end of the year.

Nobel Prize laureate and taboo breaker Günter Grass, the German writer behind works such as "The Tin Drum," "Cat and Mouse" and "The Flounder," was an unruly spirit throughout his life. Grass was an engaged citizen, seen by some as a "moral authority," by others as a hypocrite. He died on April 13.

Over the summer, US actress Claire Danes was in the German capital shooting scenes for the first episodes of the fifth season of American political thriller "Homeland," in which she stars as Carrie Mathison. Unsurprisingly, the show has since become quite popular in Germany.

Israeli author Amos Oz and his German translator Mirjam Pressler were awarded the International Literature Prize by the House of World Cultures in Berlin for the novel "Judas" on July 8 - and that during the year that saw the 50th anniversary of the establishment of German-Israeli diplomatic relations.

After being granted the freedom to travel by Chinese authorities, dissident artist Ai Weiwei, together with his son and his son's mother, has made Berlin his new home. Through his heavy presence in German media, Ai has received much acclaim for his works - but also plenty of criticism.

Erpenbeck's new novel, released in August, has captured the zeitgeist. "Gehen, ging, gegangen" ("Go, Went, Gone") is all about Germany's most controversial topic of the year: the treatment of refugees.

In September, theater artists Rimini Protokoll staged the play "Adolf Hitler: Mein Kampf, Volumes 1 & 2" during the Weimar Arts Festival. The ensemble's stated goal: to demystify the book. A new critical edition of "Mein Kampf" is set to be rereleased in German bookstores in January, now that the copyright on the work has expired.

Navid Kermani, the German-Iranian author and professor of Islamic studies, held a moving speech after receiving the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in Frankfurt's St. Paul's Church on October 18. Kermani ended his speech with prayers for peace and for the victims in Middle East.

Austrian-German actor Christoph Waltz took on the role of villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the 24th film of the James Bond franchise. The film's glamorous world premiere, attended by numerous stars and British royals, took place on October 26 in London.

Almost 7 million people went to the theater to see "Honig im Kopf," ("Head Full of Honey"), Til Schweiger's tragicomedy that deals with Alzheimer's disease. But the actor and director received even more media attention for his commitment to the refugee cause and his fight against xenophobia. The German edition of GQ magazine chose him as its "man of the year."

On December 10, Belarusian author and investigative journalist Svetlana Alexievich was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in Stockholm. Her books tell the stories of simple people and, at the same time, reflect the history of an entire era.