Neues aus Bullerbü. www.tagesspiegel.de/meinung/lese...

I had a roommate years ago who always had get rich quick schemes and one was political merchandise where he just wouldn’t pay for the rights to the photos and art. Today he’s a wildly wealthy fund manager who got his start in business via a celebrity billionaire fraudster.

Probably my favourite long late antiquity piece of art. The so-called "palimpsest" fresco in Santa Maria Antiqua in Rome shows consecutive layers of paintings from the sixth century (Mary as empress of heaven) all the way to the seventh and early eight century. The level of detail is just amazing.

As a historian, I truly like the "foreverized pastness" part of this. And I agree, on a daily basis we are floating towards a permanent establishment of badly manipulated memories. A plural of nonsense histories. #skystorians

💌 Einladung | Ihr seid ein Verein oder eine Initiative, die sich für Weltoffenheit und eine solidarische Gesellschaft einsetzt? Stellt euch beim #gedenktag für die Opfer rechter Gewalt am 18.10. vor. 📩 Rückmeldung bis 12.10. an [email protected] www.blindeflecken.com/gedenktag#ei...

In many ways, iconic imagery of past protests are often a poor guide to the present because they are so deeply rooted in local conditions of a specific conflict and its informational environment.

Less dramatic in time, but I remember reading about a public exchange on the future of Germany in the 1950s between Weimar era Chancellor Heinrich Brüning and Stalingrad Field Marshall Friedrich Paulus and seemed deeply wrong chronologically.

Überwachungsstaat.

I'll be back at the @unierfurt.bsky.social on November 25 to speak about "Illiberal Fundamental Rights in Germany from the State Socialist Past to the Populist Right Wing Present" combining some of my older research on the GDR with recent work on the AfD and the far right.

Das Vorgehen von Polizei und Staatsanwaltschaft in Berlin steht deshalb seit Langem in der Kritik. In vielen Fällen entpuppen sich Vorwürfe vor Gericht als nicht haltbar. taz.de/Nahost-Konfl...

We are excited to welcome this year's Medieval History Seminar participants tomorrow! 📣 The seminar will bring together Ph.D. candidates and recent Ph.D. recipients (2024/2025) in medieval history from American, Canadian, British, Irish, and 1/3

In general, coverage of higher education seems to be primarily conducted by people who hate faculty, students and all parts of administration that are not connected to donor relations and fundraising.

New paper out with @dasalgon.bsky.social: “Far-Right Agenda Setting: How the Far Right influences the Political Mainstream” doi.org/10.1017/S1475676525100066 #openaccess in @ejprjournal.bsky.social🧵

Attacking the rule of law: from rhetoric to arson

Eine kritische Biographie über Björn Höcke legt Frederik Schindler vor, der für „Die Welt“ über die AfD schreibt. Er hat viele Detailinformationen – auch zu den frühen Jahren des rechtsextremistischen Politikers – zusammengetragen:

A last-minute addition to the syllabus? Anna Dobrowolska's recent monograph is an exciting read. 📚🗃🌈🗃

Menschen sagen in eine ZDF-Kamera(!), dass sie ihre Meinung nicht frei sagen dürfen, weil sie schon mal auf Facebook gesperrt wurden. Ein soziales Netzwerk wird eher als öffentlich-rechtliche Institution wahrgenommen als die Öffentlich-Rechtlichen selbst.

35 years ago today, the German Democratic Republic ceased to exist and its territory was absorbed into the Federal Republic. If you want to learn more about the rise and fall of the GDR on this auspicious #TagderEinheit, you can check out my new book: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/german-de...

Eine erstaunliche Äußerung. In mehrerlei Hinsicht. www.deutschlandfunk.de/kulturstaats...

Gauze https://www.wikiart.org/en/paul-klee/gauze-1940

Other explanations for the voting patterns: Even before 1989, the 'block parties' were a limited form of political pluralism. Due to the accessibility of Western media, East Germans were familiar with West German parties before 1989. They had also experienced the Volkskammer election in March 1990.

We are alarmed by reports that Germany is on the verge of a catastrophic about-face, reversing its longstanding and principled opposition to the EU’s Chat Control proposal which, if passed, could spell the end of the right to privacy in Europe. signal.org/blog/pdfs/ge...

This looks like a great volume (due out Feb next year)! I'm really pleased that I was able to contribute a chapter. Mine is: "The Bastille and the Roundabout: Popular protest and the revolutionary past of the Gilets Jaunes" 🗃️ #FrenchHistory #SkyStorians

The massive lithium finds in Germany offer the possibility of creating a grand compromise where the environmentalists get e-cars and the the anti environmentalist get a lot more open pit mining.

The CDU attracted far less support in Brandenburg and some areas of Mecklenburg-Pomerania, where the SPD dominated heavily. While the strength of the SPD in these states is still observed today, the underlying reasons for these spatial variations have hardly been studied.

Mein Beitrag zum #TagDerEinheit: Vor ein paar Jahren habe ich die Tweets von #Baseballschlägerjahre für meine Masterarbeit gesammelt. Twitter ist heute X und viele der Tweets von damals sind verschwunden. Deshalb habe ich ne WebApp gebaut, in der man die Tweets nachlesen kann:

Universities considering capitulating to the Trump “conditions” should use this real world example to understand they will simply be destroying their own institution. bsky.app/profile/nich...

This book would be a great introduction to the GDR and its significance - for students, say - but in the way it so skillfully weaves themes and events, it's also a great read for those of us who already know bits and pieces of the story of East Germany.

Die andere Seite der Medaille. zweiteroktober90.de

35 years ago today, the German Democratic Republic ceased to exist and its territory was absorbed into the Federal Republic. If you want to learn more about the rise and fall of the GDR on this auspicious #TagderEinheit, you can check out my new book: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/german-de...

Apple did something very similar to the people of Hong Kong in 2019, removing an app that allowed protesters to track police movements via crowdsourced information: gizmodo.com/apple-sells-...

Das erklärt zu viele wissenschaftliche Karrieren.

Helga Paris. für uns (Kehrer Verlag, 2025): www.kehrerverlag.com/de/helga-par...

Facebook kindly reminding me that this was six years ago.

One of the overarching themes of contemporary politics is self-professed conservatives tearing down institutions that were explicitly created to prevent the repetition of some historical catastrophe.

"In 2012, 60 trans-related articles were published by Britain’s media. By 2022, it was more than 7,500, according to figures from Trans Media Watch. The media is not responding to public rage against vulnerable minorities; it is helping to create it." www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/709...

Die CDU hat im sächsischen Niesky gemeinsam mit der AFD und dem bekannten Neonazi Thomas Christgen (ehem. NPD/Schlesische Jungs) einen Abwahlantrang gegen die Oberbürgermeisterin eingereicht. Begründet wurde der Antrag nicht. 1/2 www.saechsische.de/lokales/goer...

OMG this William G. Young opinion that just dropped (12:30pm) in AAUP v. Rubio. It begins with a postcard sent to Chambers and Young's reply card: "Trump has pardons and tanks, what do you have?" WGY: "We the People of the United States — you and me — have our magnificent Constitution"

BREAKING: WE WON!!! 💥 💥 💥 Federal Judge William G. Young ruled today in our lawsuit against the Trump administration that the policy of arresting, detaining, & deporting noncitizen students & faculty members for their pro-Palestinian advocacy violates the 1st Amendment. Full ruling here:

Neue @correctiv.org-Analyse: Die AfD betreibt eine Dauerbeschallung auf Social Media mit dem Begriff „Remigration“. Das Begriffsverständnis bleibt dabei bewusst doppeldeutig, ist aber regelmäßig rechtswidrig.

hey @nytimes.com: there is no counterpoint here. There are no credible legal experts who would EVER say that the US military has any right or authority to blow civilian craft out of the Caribbean and kill their crews from afar without any provocation. There is no other side to this question.

Der Nachtzug Berlin-Paris soll wieder eingestellt werden, da die französische Bahn sich aus der Partnerschaft zurückzieht. Unterzeichnet diese Petition für den Erhalt!

Call for applications! 📣 The German Historical Institute London is seeking a Research Associate with a particular research interest in medieval history (with a focus on late medieval English history) for a part-time project position to start on 1 February 2026. 🤝 1/3

Historiker Volker Weiß spricht im Interview darüber, wie die extremen Rechten die Geschichte umschreiben und instrumentalisieren. "Die historisch-fiktionale Gegenerzählung ist inhaltlich ein Angriff auf die Demokratie." www.kontextwochenzeitung.de/zeitgeschehe...

It took some time for them to arrive, but now they'll keep me occupied 📚🗃

Something that seems to be emerging in Germany with generational change is a new kind of GDR nostalgia that is no longer connected to lives experience but a kind of fan culture based on an internet curated mishmash of contextless imagery and state produced texts.

The dinky paper straws that come with Capri-Sun packs are a legitimately concerning gateway to reactionary anti environmental policy.

“There is no state or federal law that prohibits instruction on gender identity in college classes.“ This sentence is essential. They aren’t even bothering to pass laws now. The SB17 law in Texas specifically exempts instruction! They are just making things up and calling it law.

Had a great time at the inaugural @elu-society.bsky.social conference in Prague and greatly appreciate the complimentary Czech snacks that will fuel my trip back to Berlin

Second, and particularly important, part of the SWAIL interview is out ⬇️