526 jüdische Nordhäuser:innen wurden im Nationalsozialismus entrechtet, verfolgt, deportiert, ins Exil oder in den Suizid getrieben oder ermordet. Seit vergangenem Sonntag erinnert am Rathaus in #Nordhausen eine im öffentlichen Stadtbild weithin sichtbare #Gedenktafel namentlich an sie. 1/x

Marlene Dietrich in front of the Gedächtniskirche, West Berlin, 1960. Photo by James Whitmore www.life.com/history/a-he...

“Sich regen bringt Segen” (moving brings blessings) is from a poem by Friedrich Rückert from 1838. It appears on what looks like a ghost sign at Ritterstr. 2a (Berlin-Kreuzberg), one of the few buildings that survived WW2, especially the air raid on 3 Feb. 1945 that devasteted the neighbourhood.

Wer gewappnet ins Weihnachtsfest gehen möchte oder ein Geschenk braucht: Beide Funktionen könnte das Buch »Present Past. Wie Nachfahren ihre NS-Familiengeschichte erforschen« erfüllen. Es erscheint Ende November im Metropol Verlag.

“Sich regen bringt Segen” (moving brings blessings) is from a poem by Friedrich Rückert from 1838. It appears on what looks like a ghost sign at Ritterstr. 2a (Berlin-Kreuzberg), one of the few buildings that survived WW2, especially the air raid on 3 Feb. 1945 that devasteted the neighbourhood.

After asking my students if they remember Mr. Bean & Dr. House (only a bit of misdirection), I showed them the last 5 mins. of Black Adder (WW1). When it was finished, I could see & feel that they were touched by it. Told them that 11:11 on 11 Nov. in the UK is very different from German Fasching.

Danke, Möringen und Mieste passen nicht. Also Miesterhorst. Post davor gelöscht wegen Rechtschreibfehler.

“Unnecessary travelling prolongs the war”

An einem verfallenden Bahnhofsgebäude in Sachsen-Anhalt taucht eine nach 1945 übermalte Parole aus dem Zweiten Weltkrieg wieder auf: „Unnötige Reisen verlängern den Krieg“

Does it appear far-fetched that a public school with a partly religious background was less prone to following Nazi ideology?

The border crossing point at Oberbaumbrücke on the evening of 10 Nov. 1989 - the 2nd day of when the Berlin Wall was suddenly open. It is a collage I made shortly after and as I did not want to rip off the photos, I scanned the page, adjusted each image a bit and rebuilt the collage digitally.

Hey look, it's me

They did the Monster (Budget) Slash youtube.com/shorts/4Iu3g...

„Und der Mob stand dabei, johlte, schrie und klatschte Beifall...“ Tagesspiegel-Autorin Irma Edom rief vor 80 Jahren zur Erinnerung an die Pogromnacht auf. @tagesspiegel.de #OTD 1945 #Tagesspiegel80 www.tagesspiegel.de/gesellschaft...

"Es war nicht eine kleine Zahl von Verbrechern, es waren Hunderttausende einer sogenannten deutschen Elite, Männer, Jungen & entmenschte Weiber, die unter dem Einfluss verrückter Lehren in kranker Lust diese Taten begangen haben." Thomas Mann 9. November 1938

1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️

Two panels commemorating the contribution of Black American soldiers towards the liberation of the Netherlands in World War Two have been quietly removed from a cemetery in Limburg. It follows a complaint by right-wing think tank The Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission.

Does anybody know if prints from digital photos are better when you order them (from Rossmann, DM etc., takes several days) than when you print them at a machine in the shop? I don‘t know if it‘s the file/smartphone cam or the printer that makes the photos a bit harsh and dark.

Save the date: Release-Veranstaltung am 16.12. in Berlin!

🎤 🫳 www.spiegel.de/ausland/absc...

Do not use GLS for your packages! If you cannot stay at home on a workday to wait for a delivery (a window of four hours!), they will try again the next day (when you are at work again), then send it to a depot outside of Berlin where you can pick it up (travelling time 2 x 1.5 hours).

Holy s… - just spoke to a contemporary witness, a man who went to my school in 1941-1946 (no regular lessons between 1943 and 1945): In our old gym first Wehrmacht soldiers and later Eastern European POWs or forced labourers were kept! He also told me about the bomb that’s left traces until today.

Off to the cemetery in a few. Not for a late Halloween-related activity but to find the graves of two former colleagues… 🙁 I’ve realised that taking care of the history of a place also means dealing with people dying. Collecting death notices is one thing but one should also honour the graves.

“Goodbye Lenin” - one of the best films ever made

iOS26 is ugly.

There used to be another bunker on the other side of Udelfangen with a good view of the surroundings but I couldn’t find any traces of it. kulturdb.de/einobjekt.ph... kulturdb.de/einobjekt.ph...

(…) position). Only the top part still lies open. Maybe it was also meant to function as a strongpoint as is lies at the intersection of two roads that is also crossed by a brook at the bottom of a valley.

The Sanitätsbunker (medical bunker) in Udelfangen (near Trier) was photographed by my grandfather in 1939 when he was stationed in the area. It was probably destroyed and the remains are now hiding behind trees and shrubs (note that the 2nd photo in the 2nd row was taken from roughly the same (…)

On gdi.berlin.de/viewer/main/ (Karten > Fachkarten > Basisdaten/Luftbilder > Luftbilder 1954, Schrägaufnahmen) we can see that most WW2 ruins were removed by 1954. Does anyone know in what year most of the clearing was actually finished, i.e. in 1954 or earlier?

2/2 Uns fehlt ein Bild! "...ruft die Gedenk- und Bildungsstätte Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz deshalb alle Berliner*innen auf, zu Hause in ihren Fotoalben und Fotosammlungen zu schauen." www.ghwk.de/de/blog/samm...

"Es werde wohl nicht der letzte Fund sein, sagt Alina Bothe: 'Vieles liegt vermutlich noch in privaten Bilderalben. Aus Berlin, wo es 180 Transporte gab, haben wir bisher kein einziges Foto gefunden. Dabei hatten zehn Prozent der Bevölkerung in den 1930ern Kameras. Es muss diese Bilder geben.'" 1/2

Found the memorial card for a relative who died more than 20 years ago. Now that I have his birthday, day of death & the cemetery (the remaining relatives didn‘t remember), I was able to send an email to the cemetery administration to inquire about his wife‘s day of death. #FingersCrossed #Puzzle

It’s only when you are away from cities that you notice light pollution. The resolution on Bluesky is rather low but maybe you can help me count the stars. If I only remembered which way my iPhone camera was facing…

Hier noch mit Brückentürmen

The Hohenzollernbrücke, a bridge across the Rhine right next to Cologne Cathedral, was blown up by the German Wehrmacht on 6 March 1945. The tram tracks on the NE side show that there used to be another bridge section for cars, trams etc. that unlike the railway bridge was not rebuilt.

And suddenly Armin Laschet walks past you on the Hohenzollernbrücke in Cologne (only the bridge is in the photo)

Two memorials in Bullay (Rhineland-Palatinate): (1) A house “(b)uilt in 1913 by the Kahn family who lived here until they fleed in 1937” (2) Seven Stolpersteine (“stumbling stones”) for members of the Harf family: Arthur who fled to Brazil in 1935; Julius, Ida, Walter and Inge who fled to the (…)

Der Weinhändler Friedrich Jansen wollte den NSDAP-Bürgermeister von #Meldorf nach Kriegsende zur Amtsaufgabe bewegen. Daraufhin wurde er von jenem Bürgermeister Ferdinand Diekmann erschossen.

Gravestone at the cemetery in Eller (Rhineland-Palatinate): “Here our dear son and brother Emil Feiden is waiting for the Resurrection. *27 April 1920, +27 Feb. 1942 in a hospital in Dresden from frostbite injuries received near Moscow” On 26 July 1944, Richard (likely his brother) was reported MIA.

Let‘s find out if that laminated note from the two British couples still hangs in the hut on the Calmont (“warm mountain”, a hill on the Mosel river used for growing grapes). They wrote that they have been travelling here many times but it appears they never returned again.

Visited an elderly relative who was born and raised in Berlin - one of the three “items from the itinerary” (obviously different from the sightseeing planned for this trip). Now time for a longer trip back to where I am staying. Worth it, of course.

Air-raid shelter built in the 1940s according to plans by Leo Winkel (“Winkelbunker”) at Eurener Str. 33 in Trier. It is located on the grounds of an energy provider and not accessible. More info (in German): kulturdb.de/einobjekt.ph...

Memorial for deported Jews (Sichelstr., Trier): “The Bishop Korum House, which the Nazis confiscated in the 1940s, once stood at this location./Between 1941 and 1943, over 600 Jewish citizens from Trier and the surrounding area, including many children, were held here and in the former prison (…)

Trier’s Black Gate (Porta Nigra) in the dark.

I don’t remember what it all looked like but in 2000 or early 2001 I visited the White House when tourists were still allowed to. Must have entered through the East Wing. Still have a photo of me right in front of the White House after leaving. Don’t remember if cameras were allowed inside.

Picture of the East Wing demolition of the White House taken on my flight out of DCA.

Talking of relative dating - the time frame is clear. Wondering what’s the story behind it. Maybe it was a secret meeting point as this location is pretty well-hidden above the entry of a tunnel.

Slate: geologists and biology teachers with “relative dating” on their evolution syllabus may find this interesting.

Shall I venture to find that Wehrmachtbunker tomorrow or on Saturday as planned? I‘ll be in the area on Saturday anyway but tomorrow may be less rainy… 🤔