✍️ Babel Young Writers' Competition! Write on your specialist linguistic topic and you could be published in Babel 🏆 Here's previous winner Claudia Bensi on Dutch and American English: babelzine.co.uk/wp-content/u... 📜 See pinned post for this year's guidelines

"I don't believe there is anything in the whole earth that you can't learn in Berlin except the German language" - Mark Twain, author of The Awful German Language, 1880.

Berlin, Potsdamer Strasse, 3 August 1960. I post photographs taken on my many Berlin visits in the 1950s and 1960s. 180 unique historic street images of East and West Berlin are in my book "Berlin in the Cold War" (Amberley Publ.). #Berlin

»Wir schweigen nicht, wir sind Euer böses Gewissen, die Weiße Rose lässt Euch keine Ruhe.« Am 22. September 1918 wurde Hans Scholl geboren.

22 September 1945: Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR) is created to replace the short-lived British broadcaster 'Radio Hamburg'. It would then be split into two entities - NDR and WDR - in 1956. www.ndr.de/geschichte/c... via @ndr.de

Smile like you mean it, says the skeleton from a 1493 medical broadside from Nuremberg. #bookhistory #skystorians

Historically, the word 'nest' consists of two parts. The part 'ne-' is related to 'nether', while '-st' is related to 'sit'. The distant ancestor of 'nest' meant "place to sit down". 'Nest' is also related to Spanish 'nido' and its Romance relatives. Click my new graphic to learn more:

Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack, a crack in everything That's how the light gets in Leonard Cohen, geboren am 21. September 1934

Rethinking language education in the school curriculum in England www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Things got colourful in Düsseldorf.

"Die blauen Schwerter – Meißen in der DDR": a new exhibition outlines the diplomatic importance of Meißen porcelain for the East German state www.mdr.de/nachrichten/...

A bit warm for a record but still damn fast #SebastianSawe #BerlinMarathon

21 September 1982: stamps issued in the GDR depicting flowers in autumn (1/2)

21 September 1978: stamp issued in the GDR depicting East German cosmonaut Sigmund Jähn

21 September 1978: stamps issued in the GDR to mark the joint Soviet-East German space mission

21 September 1976: stamps issued in the GDR depicting East German bridges. This stamp depicts the Elbbrücke in Magdeburg.

21 September 1959: stamps issued in the GDR to mark the Soviet 'Lunik 2' becoming the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the moon

21 September 1953: mining engineer Otto Fleischer is put on trial in the GDR for alleged sabotage and spying www.swr.de/swrkultur/le...

"Meine Damen und Herren, der Fahrdienstleiter hat nicht mit einem pünktlichen Zug gerechnet, weswegen wir hier noch kurz warten müssen. Aber gleich dürfen wir mit Verspätung in Frankfurt einfahren!" (Christina Thom) #BahnAnsagen

21 September 1945: the signing of the Schweriner Grenzvertrag defines the Western border of Poland between Świnoujście and Gryfino www.ndr.de/geschichte/c... via @ndr.de

21 September 1945: a British survivor's account of life in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp www.theguardian.com/world/2018/s... via @theguardian.com

„Menschenrechte haben kein Geschlecht“ Hedwig Dohm, geboren am 20. September 1831 in Berlin.

Münster, jetzt

For folks in Germany, arte is airing a travel documentary about the palaces and gardens of Sanssouci tonight at 8:15pm, or check it out in the Mediathek. www.arte.tv/de/videos/11...

„Ich brauche Heiterkeit und das Bewußtsein meiner Bevorzugung.“ Thomas Mann, Tagebuch, 20. 9. 1938.

Berlin bekommt eine Helmut-Kohl-Straße. Im Bezirk Mitte soll dafür ein Teil der Hofjägerallee – zwischen Siegessäule und Tiergartenstraße – umbenannt werden: rbburl.de/helmutkohlstr

Cato Bontjes van Beek, geboren 1920 in eine Künstlerfamilie. In Berlin schließt sie sich dem Widerstand gegen die Nazis an, besorgt Essen und Medikamente für französische Kriegsgefangene und jüdische Verfolgte. Am 20. September 1942 wird sie verhaftet. Sie ist 21 Jahre alt. 1/2

As we keep saying: when the humanities are in trouble, the sciences are, too; generally, at UK universities, the sciences are cross-subsidised by the arts and humanities. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Your weekend Umlaut also comes from Essen.

In der Werbung ist oft davon die Rede, dass etwas schön kross ist. Doch verwendet man dieses Wort im Alltag tatsächlich - und wenn ja, wo? Wie die Karte zeigt, ist kross nur in Deutschland im Gebrauch. Man könnte es also als Teutonismus bezeichnen. atlas-alltagssprache.de/r13-f4h/?child

Good morning #Portsmouth Wishing everyone a lovely #weekend

PHOTO OF THE DAY. LIFE magazine photographer, Margaret Bourke-White, takes a photo from the 61st floor of the Chrysler Building, New York City (1934). 📷 Time magazine

#ICYMI earlier this week, Railway Work, Life & Death project co-lead Mike Esbester was interviewed for Actualitatea Feroviara! Great to have the chance to highlight our work, especially to think about the potential for international collaboration! actualitateaferoviara.com/2025/09/15/m...

East Berlin, Alexanderplatz, 9 September 1959. I post photographs taken on my many Berlin visits in the 1950s, 1960s. 180 historic street images of East and West Berlin are in my book "Berlin in the Cold War" (Amberley Publ.). #Berlin #DDR #GDR

„In Österreich 🇦🇹 wird darüber nachgedacht, #Shrinkflation via Aufkleber sichtbar zu machen. In Frankreich 🇫🇷 ist das bereits verpflichtend.“

Railway Chur - Arosa - unterwegs mit dem Zug zwischen Chur und Arosa #chur #arosa #bahn #zug #eisenbahn #schweiz #switzerland

Der Erste Deutsche Herbstsalon wurde am 20.9.1913 in den Lepke-Ausstellungsräumen in der Potsdamer Straße eröffnet: Herwarth Walden stellte auf einer Fläche von 1.200 qm 360 avantgardistische Werke von Futurismus bis Kubismus aus. August Macke und Franz Marc hatten die Hängung der Bilder übernommen.

20 September 1988: stamps issued in the GDR to mark 500 years of the Schiffer-Compagnie in Stralsund (1/2)

20 September 1977: stamps issued in the GDR to mark the 60th anniversary of the October revolution in Russia

20 September 1972: film promotion on East Berlin's Alexanderplatz for the GDR / Soviet / Bulgarian science fiction movie 'Eolomea'

20 September 1945: a transit camp for refugees is opened in Friedland in Lower Saxony. It soon becomes packed to capacity. www.ndr.de/geschichte/s... via @ndr.de

The world's largest folk festival takes place in Munich every year, attracting 6-7m visitors. Oktoberfest opens its doors on Saturday. The origins go back to 1810, when the marriage of Bavarian Prince Ludwig I & Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen was celebrated.

NEW BLOG POST! We look back at a summer of work with Didcot Railway Centre, including museum interpretation, a visitor leaflet & offering walking tours! All focused on Didcot's staff & their lives - as found through their accidents! #Railway200 www.railwayaccidents.port.ac.uk/didcot-railw...

Art is what?!

Die Bombe ist entschärft.

Is German really an unattractive language? www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n8S... (via SWR Wissen)

A little thread: Like so many cities in Brandenburg, Jüterbog has a beautiful city hall - one which dates back to c. 1285, with several additions until 1507. 1/9

Im Weg stehende E-Scooter sind besonders für blinde und sehbehinderte Menschen gefährlich. Der Blindenverein ABSV will vor Gericht erreichen, dass der Berliner Senat das Parken stadtweit nur in festen Stationen erlaubt. Doch für deren Ausbau fehlt Geld.

Languages aren’t just school subjects - they’re keys to connection. Portuguese got me breakfast first in Cascais, Spanish saved a New York taxi fare, and Albanian made me feel local in Pristina. A language creates opportunities and leads to unanticipated moments. albarolanguages.com/2022/08/07/w...

Endstation, Berlin, Potsdamer Platz, 29 August 1962. I post photographs taken on my many Berlin visits in the 1950s and 1960s. 180 unique historic street images of East and West Berlin are in my book "Berlin in the Cold War" (Amberley Publishing). #Berlin