For some reason lists of the greatest Christmas movies ever made have never featured what is clearly the undisputed correct answer: an East German film about a clown dressed as Santa who steals a washing machine from a five-year-old, who won it at a Leipzig fairground Der Weihnachtsmann heißt Willi

Frohe Weihnachten! x

Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.

I had my first experience of going to a Verbraucherzentrale (in Frankfurt Oder) for advice today and I cannot praise them highly enough. Really helpful, patient and impartial (without being indifferent).

Brąz ("Bronze") by Stanisław Biżek (1981) 📍Szczecin, Poland

Przyszłość nie jest już tym, czym kiedyś była. The future is not what it used to be.

Enjoyed the exhibition “Habe ich den Film erfunden?‘ Max Skladanowsky – Pionier, Visionär & Hochstapler” , which draws on the Skladanowskys’ Nachlass at the Bundesarchiv Berlin-Lichterfelde. There is a super (free!) catalogue to accompany the exhibition too: www.bundesarchiv.de/publikatione...

I always recommend students to come to screenings of the films we are studying rather than watching them alone because of the different experience you get watching in a group. And sometimes, I confess, I include films and ask myself if they are not a bit too familiar for university course.

What a strange campaign. A key reason women feel unsafe isn't because of the mistaken idea something bad might happen (but luckily a considerate man will just cross the street), but because violent crime does happen. And keeps happening.

Celebrating the delivery of a successful Geschichte und Film seminar with a visit to the Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig exhibition, “Unser Sandmännchen in Leipzig”

German fusion cooking

I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture. They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1

I would argue one of the aesthetically funkiest railways stations in Germany... ...anyone recognise where it is?

Weather vanes seem to have avoided denazification efforts in this town...

“No, I’m not. I’m not going back in there again, not this time, never going back, never.” On the count of three, it’s time to channel your inner-Marlon Brando….. 1, 2, ….

A bold slogan for the German market 👀

Los geht’s! It’s lovely to be back in Hamburg for the 38th Cinefest Kongress, this year on the theme “Zwischen Schreibmaschine und Filmkamera Literaten und ihr Verhältnis zum Film”.

Schöne Sprachen… sowie Französisch 😂

I don't know how politicans and civil servants working at the UK Home Office can look themselves in the mirror. But then they probably don't out of fear at who's looking back. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

I am currently filling out a Gantt chart that requires me to declare what I will be doing in October 2030. I would like to point out that I still haven’t decided what I am having for dinner this evening.

Important to remember that OpenAI has an agreement with Canvas since this summer.

Seizing the opportunity of an unexpectedly warm afternoon to take teaching outside and onto the Ziegenwerder. I dare say that the @viadrina.eu is the only university in the world where I can say “If you are facing Poland, you are group one. If you are facing Germany, you are group two”.

I genuinely thought I had the option of inserting a 50 cent coin

Public service post: If you are visiting Berlin for the first time this week and are wondering why certain Berliners seem surprisingly happy today: (1) they are Berliners who work in Brandenburg (2) that's not happiness, it's smugness

Froher Reformationsbrötchentag an alle, die ihn feiern

A huge thanks to @bniven.bsky.social for coming to speak to BA history students at @unileipzig.bsky.social today about the background and reception of the East German DEFA film (and 2015 remake) “Nackt unter Wölfen”.

A fascinating and very thought provoking evening: it was a real pleasure and honour to be able to moderate the pre- and post-screening discussion by Bill Niven @bniven.bsky.social for the screening of “Jud Süß”.

Looking forward to the discussion!

Very much looking forward to moderating the discussion by Bill Niven @bniven.bsky.social on the production and reception histories of the 1940 National Socialist film Jud Süß at Halle's Puschkino on Wednesday 29 October. puschkino.de/film_2491/ju...

Ich wohne seit 5 Jahren in diesem Land und alle Fälle von sexueller Belästigung, die ich erlebt & beobachtet habe (und in die ich eingegriffen habe, während alle anderen Fahrgäste schweigen blieben), wurden von weißen Männern begangen, die mit Berliner, Brandenburger oder Sächsischem Akzent sprachen

Imagine what American media would be saying if this was happening in an EU state

A personal opinion is that if an archive is moving to ‘structured content releases’, it is no longer an archive but a private comms repository. What an incredible loss to our understanding of UK culture and heritage.

At the start of the week, I bought an emotional support plant to get me through the first teaching week. (I am a millennial - we have no emotional resilience.) After a week with me, my plant seems to have developed a form of Stockholm syndrome.

This type of abhorrence takes me back to GCSE food technology when 14 year olds were tasked with coming upon with a “novel” take on a perfectly well-functioning dish, the results of which frequently bordered on a hate crime.

First teaching day of the @viadrina.eu semester done 🌟 Six hours, three seminar groups, super students, no major technology fails. Now I’m off to lie down in a darkened room.

#SALE ends Thurs! Use code GSA25 for 35%off ALL #GermanStudies #GermanHistory books:bit.ly/46iWObl @nikolasfunke.bsky.social @klingstedt.bsky.social @chewschaper.bsky.social @duerrbortolotti.bsky.social @philiphahn.bsky.social @herrehrig.bsky.social @elizabethward.bsky.social @kyfrack.bsky.social

Wieder ein schlechter Tag für die AfD im Osten. Deklassiert in der OB-Stichwahl in Frankfurt (Oder) und sogar in Eisenhüttenstadt - wo sie sich echte Hoffnung machte - deutlich verloren.

👀 Drink that much ginger shot and I think your poop might be more than golden… (The Goldeimer company does some great social and environmental work, though)

For all those times you have thought, “if only I could smell like East German chocolate” - Halloren has finally delivered the goods.

How is this repeatedly made into a policy issue - by *all* parties - when the blunt fact of the matter is that grown adults who are obliged to pay for their own education, and relentlessly pursued to repay their loans, should be able to study whatever the fuck they want.

A very powerful visit to Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, a powerful museum space located in the US's first penitentiary and which reflects on the origins of incarceration, the decisions made and their consequences, and the far-reaching structural inequalities today.

First time in Philadelphia - and I love it here

Kermit and Jim 📍 University of Maryland, College Park

Washington memorials pt 1 1. Vietnam Women's Memorial (Glenna Goodacre , 1993) 2. Korean War Veterans Memorial (Cooper-Lecky Architects, 1995) 3. National World War I Memorial (Joseph Weishaar, Sabin Howard, Phoebe Lickwar, 2021) 4. National Native American Veterans Memorial (Harvey Pratt, 2020)

Very happy to be back in Washington DC for the @thegsa.bsky.social conference! (For the avoidance of doubt: Conference venue *very* much not pictured)

Delighted to see my Art of Resistance out in paperback with @berghahnbooks.bsky.social The cultural analysis is still so relevant, Austria not an exceptional case. The Far Right and the cultural protest it engenders is now geographically wide-reaching.

It's the German Studies Association conference @thegsa.bsky.social! Come visit us at our booth, and remember to use code GSA25 for 35% off ALL #GermanStudies titles until 16th Oct 2025: bit.ly/46iWObl #theGSA2025

It's the @thegsa.bsky.social conference this week which also means it's that time of the year when I get to experience the world through the eyes of a morning person #jetlag

The final image to flash on my screen before I disembarked in Washington DC

It's the #GermanHistSoc2025 @germanhistsoc.bsky.social! Check out our #OpenAccess #GermanHistory titles: bit.ly/3VxOMos incl. @claudiakreklau.bsky.social @duerrbortolotti.bsky.social @philiphahn.bsky.social @herrehrig.bsky.social @chewschaper.bsky.social @elizabethward.bsky.social @timondegroot.com