One efficient method to probe the direct vicinity of SMBHs in nearby galaxies
is to make use of the detection of flares from tidally disrupted stars (e.g.,
Lidskii & Ozernoi 1979, Rees 1988). The first few excellent candidates for the
occurrence of this process in non-active galaxies have emerged recently. Here,
we present a review of these observations, compare with variability in AGN, and
discuss theoretical implications. We concentrate on the cases of NGC 5905 and
RXJ1242-1119, and report results from a systematic search for further X-ray
flares from a sample of >100 nearby galaxies.Comment: 6 pages incl. 2 figures, needs agnsymp.cls; to appear in `ASCA/ROSAT
Workshop on AGN and the X-ray Background' (Tokyo, Nov. 1-3, 1999), T.
Takahashi and H. Inoue (eds). Typo in equation (1) corrected. Preprint and
related papers also available at http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/~skomossa
