I love that this happened in a German class

The shortlisted titles include novels and novellas from authors and translators spanning four continents, with stories that range from Japanese-controlled 1930s Taiwan to the streets of Tehran in 1979. n.pr/4dV4ynP

How Kraftwerk’s 22-Minute Song “Autobahn” Became an Early Masterpiece in Electronic Music (1975)

Secret tricks to get much better results out of the very dreadful 'Google search' these days, plus other search engines for specific things. Statospherically useful for researchers. open.substack.com/pub/cardcata...

18-21 March 1793: under the influence of the French Revolution, declaration of the first democratic republic on German soil in Mainz hand-colored engraving of the Liberty Tree and pikes erected there on 13 January: "Peace to the Peoples, War on Tyrants" (link in alt text)

Today marks the anniversary of the Refugee Act of 1980 — a bipartisan promise that the U.S. would remain a refuge for people fleeing persecution. The Act codified a simple but powerful idea: that we can be a nation of laws and a nation of welcome. 46 years later, that balance feels fragile.

RIP Len Deighton, who has died at the age of 97. The film version of "Funeral in Berlin", which stars Michael Caine, has lots of footage of 1960s Berlin - and some very bad puns.

In memoriam: Jürgen Habermas (1929–2026), “philosopher, social theorist and defender of humane Enlightenment values.” He helped to transform postwar Germany’s, and the world’s, public sphere for the better. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/14/b... www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

What would we think if Iran bombed an American school? My column looks at how Trump and Hegseth are undermining the rules of war -- not clear war crimes but getting into territory that is horrifyingly ambiguous. Please read: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/14/o...

We've had the solution to the Strait of Hormuz problem for decades

Literary translator pals: a new competition, in honour of the late, great David Bellos. For unpublished samples. More details here: janklowandnesbit.co.uk/prize #xl8 #literarytranslation 🌐

This happened at the institution where I work when I'm not writing and translating things German. Please take care of yourselves, everyone, and hug your loved ones. And support elected leaders who will enact tighter gun laws.

The U.S. was responsible for a strike on an Iranian elementary school, an ongoing military investigation found. The inquiry said the strike — which Iranian officials said killed at least 175 people, most of them children — was the result of a targeting mistake. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/u...

'Eins, zwei, drei': Never thought we'd see a UK Eurovision Song Contest entry that consists of someone yearning to count in German and preferring the Euro as a currency to the British pound. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XR2...

I love this! Especially because I'm about to work on the first sentences of a new translation.

Sometimes walking out of your history class is the best way to demonstrate that you learned something in your history class. wapo.st/4aF0iqG

The latest version of Firefox allows you to block all AI "assistants" etc with one button. OK, so they're turned on by default, but the "what's new" screen after the update made it really clear how to turn them off... 🥳

“In Berlin, world events are for ever on the cinema doorstep and keep on spilling inside.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/a... www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...

Millward was handing out a text that had hung under the president's portrait one week earlier. www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...

Doing a thing with Mack the Knife and came across this.... Oh to have gone to see Frank McGuinness' The Thrupenny Opera back in '91. www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGj0...

Jetzt kann ich darauf hinweisen: Gerade das Nachwort zu meinem neuen Buch über die Zeit in den USA rund um die fatale Wiederwahl Trumps beendet. Was bedeutet das für die Demokratie dort und bei uns? Es erscheint am 27. Mai bei Siedler @penguinbooksusa.bsky.social share.google/W0RPbFgY6Yie...

As it is en vogue to describe Germany’s political landscape as resembling “Weimar conditions,” its worth taking a closer look at the era’s high levels of political fragility. In just 14 years of existence, the Weimar Republic saw 20 different governments. On average, a cabinet lasted only 244 days.

German poster for the 1964 Disney film adaptation of Erich Kästner's 'Emil und die Detektive'. Kästner was born on 23 February 1899. (2/2)

Wow.

"Writing is a magical and mysterious process that makes it possible to think differently." I remember reading this essay by Lynn Hunt when it was first published in 2010, and it's even more timely today. www.historians.org/perspectives...

Writing is thinking. It's not some marginal boring task you can skip. It's the heart of it.

In memoriam: Hessy Levinsons Taft (1934–2026). She was celebrated as “the ideal Aryan baby” on the cover of Sonne ins Haus, “a distinction complicated by the fact that she was Jewish.” She later moved to the US and became an accomplished chemist. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/w...

Abigail Spanberger will make history when she becomes Virginia’s first woman governor today. The inauguration ceremony begins at 12:00 p.m. and Lt. Gov.-elect Ghazala Hashmi and Attorney General-elect Jay Jones will also be sworn in. Follow our special coverage: virginiamercury.com/2026/01/17/s...

“[I]n a sense, a translator is always like a fan. You’re always in this position of admiration, but you are also emulating the author.” Sarah Gear interviews translator Jen Calleja on the art, politics, and livelihood of literary translation. At Asymptote: buff.ly/3WmFKtX

Emilie Flöge (1874-1952) was an innovative Art Nouveau Austrian fashion designer who aimed to reform dress designs for women. Though (typically) not noted widely by history, she influenced the work of her companion, the artist Klimt and featured in his work #WomensArt

Madame, your Trabant 601 DeLuxe awaits...

ICE and Border Patrol have maybe 50k active officers combined. The Nazi SS had about 250k in 1939. The fact that I’m making serious comparisons to Nazi Germany highlights how bad things have gotten. And it also shows how much worse they could be. It’s important to keep both of those in mind at once.

One of the most unforgettable images capturing the vibrant promise of the new year, by the great Bauhaus artist László Moholy-Nagy: 7 A.M. (New Year's Morning), c. 1930 www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...

Every bit of this 🧵. Recently saw a high-end lingerie store's products described as "laundry" because that's what the machine spat out for "Wäsche." Even one lost sale is more than it would have cost for a human to have done it right.

The missing painting is Musik, by Gabriele Münter. But even if you don't have it, go see her other work at the Guggenheim. Her paintings are beautiful!

Actually, it's exactly the duty of an artist. To take a stand through their art.

“In Germany, ‘How are you?’ is anything but simple..." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Marlene Dietrich (BOTD 1931) on the set of A FOREIGN AFFAIR (1948) with director Billy Wilder.

A new boxset from Eureka Entertainment collects five films from the DEFA archives, taking in film noir, Expressionism, melodrama – and denazification Murderers Among Us: Owen Hatherley Picks Over the ‘Rubble Films’ of Post-War East Germany buff.ly/kI4ynxe

Carol of the Bells in # Kyiv subway. Voices of the Embassies of Germany, France, and the United Kingdom came together to perform Shchedryk in the Kyiv metro as a sign of solidarity with Ukraine. Thankful to everyone who stands with us!

The Best of Neon 2025: Gone fishing.

It used to be that the United States would use Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty to transmit truth across the borders of repressive regimes. Now the work of American reporters, having been censored, is being smuggled across the border to reach Americans.

13 staff members, 11 countries, 9 languages: The WWB team recommends our favorite books in translation from 2025. Read our picks here:

The “stammtisch” — a weekly meeting in Manhattan founded in 1943 by artists exiled by the Nazis -- has ended after the last of the original members died www.nytimes.com/2025/12/20/n...

In memoriam: Rosa von Praunheim (1942–2025), “a key figure of the New German Cinema movement who made taboo-breaking films about queer life and scandalised the country when he outed German celebrities on live TV.” amp.dw.com/en/pioneerin... www.theguardian.com/film/2025/de...

Modernist bird apartment block in Berlin’s Hansaviertel cause if not here, where else?

Biedermeier. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... The case for denial

Apropos to this, German universities led the world until 1933, especially in the natural sciences. Indeed, US research institutions were built on the German model. But Germany never regained what it threw away in the years immediately after 1933.

Both Germany and the U.S. have reneged on their promises to vulnerable Afghan allies. newrepublic.com/article/2039... www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

“I didn’t expect so many people would be so risk-averse.”