Controversial & fearless. Outspoken, irritating, unconventional. How did this tiny, limping Jewish lady from eastern Poland managed to move millions? Regardless of whether you agree with her line of thinking or not, Rosa Luxemburg was and is a legend. #OTD in 1919 she was buried in #Berlin. Again.

Inspired by drinking water;-) GERMAN WORD OF THE DAY: TIRNKWASSERVERORDNUNG

It’s not every day that a man or a woman are born that would go on to discover a new planet. But even that event feels rarer than the birth of a person who’d refuse to take credit for the discovery. In June 9, 1812 one such man was born: Johann Gottfried Galle.

A big city is like an onion: with nearly endless layers of stories & images. Let’s unpeel another one for Berlin: where the world-famous Olympiastadion stands today, Berlin already had an Olympic Stadion before. Pity that the only thing that was missing was the Olympia itself. Twice… #OTD in 1913

Imagine U live next to someone: U bump into each other in the staircase, chat about prices of apples or wine, meet when picking up children from the Kita. And then they're wrapped up by a terrorist squad & charged. Incredibly as it sounds, that's exactly what happened in Berlin #OTD in 1990.

That feeling we all know: sitting at home, unkempt but happy, enjoying a nice meal & an occasional burp, when a sudden knock on the door rips U out of Ur slumber. An unexpected guest ante portas! That's how Friedrich Wilhelm II must've felt as someone told him Ali Aziz Efendi'd just arrived in town.

Feeling a tad weary, a bit bleak today? Whatever U do, don't follow in #Berlin-born Prussian polymath's Alexander von Humboldt' footsteps & try one of his famous self-experiments: in 1790s Humboldt put a zinc electrode in his mouth & a silver one up the hole on the opposite, well, pole.

Oh god, one hopes!

#OTD 1913 a very special railway line opened in #Berlin: at least half of its passengers - despite travelling in what you could call comfy conditions (sleeper carriage, no less), left the train a bit stiff… Get your earphones ready: today sth to listen to:-)

02.06.1967 - a watershed moment in Berlin’s/German history. Would student protest movement have radicalised as it did without a policeman pulling a trigger that night? Legitimate protest was quenched with cruelty many of its perpetrators knew only too well: from the darkest chapter in history.

In Berlin 2 things are certain: at least once a week your S-Bahn line won’t run, &, if you don’t keep your bike in the flat OR nail it to the ground + surround it with a repellent magnetic dome, sooner or later it will be stolen. A tradition of bike-theft in Berlin began exactly 137 yrs ago today.

No other city in Europe can compete: #Berlin is the greenest capital on the continent. With its woods and parks, it is unsurpassed. #OTD 1923 one of the largest of the parks opened. theberlincompanion.com/p/light-in-t...

Good morning #Berlin & Beyond! A Blast from The Past An old double-decker bus type MAN SD200-SD80 (or so I am told) passing by in 2025. Berliner Allee, Berlin-Weißensee.

Widely popular series “The Queen’s Gambit” revived keen interest in chess. Filmed in #Berlin, it inspired a lot of city exploration: Karl-Marx-Allee, Frankfurter Tor, Taut school in Lichtenberg, Haus Cumberland, etc. But the link btw chess & Berlin is stronger Another page from my Berlin Calendar.

Go swimming. Not in #Berlin lakes but an indoor pool: one whose architecture will leave you floating on your back, marvelling at the endless beauty of the roof construction (something you might not be doing on a daily basis anyway). #OTD 1930 Stadtbad Mitte opened for service. Subscribe, y'all🌞

Were this 1910 you would see me rushing to #Berlin-Johannisthal to watch people like Alfred Frey, Mellie Beese or Robert Thelen perform their magic. Were it 1910 on May 23, I wish I were on Potsdamer Platz or Unter den Linden watching this historic event: Berlin Calendar Strikes Again

Were this 1910 you would see me rushing to #Berlin-Johannisthal to watch people like Alfred Frey, Mellie Beese or Robert Thelen perform their magic. Were it 1910 on May 23, I wish I were on Potsdamer Platz or Unter den Linden watching this historic event:

Warszawa-Express. Always wins the race😉 Berlin-Köpenick (Hirschgarten)

A legendary automobile racing car, fast cars, young count and a tragic crash. This is the stuff that some of the best headlines are made of. Exactly 93 years ago today in Berlin. Berlin Calendar keeps chugging along.🚂📅📅📅

Big plus of being a time-traveller? You can never be late: it might be 11.15 PM, but we'll still make it in time to see the first soccer game played in Berlin after the war. Less than 2 weeks after 3rd Reich finally threw in their towel, 2 teams met in Berlin-Lichtenberg on the pitch. May 20, 1945

And should you ask yourself, why 1900 and not today, here’s the answer: (And I don’t mean the change of the street name to Kapelle-Ufer) #Berlin #tristesse

In case you need anything, I’m off to 1900. You’ll find me on Friedrich-Karl-Ufer, watching barrels being unloaded not far from Kronprinzenbrücke. I hear they have red wine 🍷

#OTD 1958 the wooden tower on top of Berlin's Müggelberge stood up in flames. In 1960 rose from ashes again. After many more dramatic twists and turns, it's still there for all eager hikers and strollers, and for fans of the re-united Berlin to behold and enjoy. Another page in Berlin Calendar📆🌞

Good morning #Berlin & Beyond! Fixing your broken hard disc can yield sth positive, too. I have stumbled upon a copy of my absolutely favourite cartoon which I saved in 2011: perfect Monday morning comment from the one and only Gary Larson.

Sometimes tiny acts of defiance loom huge. Sometimes small protest leads to a bloodbath. Sometimes it is not easy to understand why anyone would put their life in line - until you do understand. On May 18, 1942 Herbert Baum Group set “Das Sovjet Paradis” on fire.

Just in time before midnight, today’s #Berlin Calendar page is all about good timing: on this day in 1868 the legendary (and still operating) horse racecourse Hoppegarten (originally Dahlwitz-Hoppegarten) opened in the presence of the King and his Master😉

Thanks to German engineering genius, Werner Siemens (later von Siemens), the 1st electric tram worldwide began operating on this day in 1881 in today’s #Berlin-Lichterfelde. Here’s s short recap.🚋

"None of those lucky enough to travel to the south of the country can deny that the instant you see the iron railway bridges and that Albrecht-Dürer-Tower imitation at Anhalter Bahnhof again, belongs to the most dreadful moments of your life. 'Well, that's that then! Taxi, please!'

New day, new Berlin Calendar page - with a shameless plug for my wonderful "Berlin Companion Audio-Walks App"😎 NOT-SO-SMOOTH SAILING: BERLIN'S VANISHED CANAL theberlincompanion.com/p/not-so-smo...

Brutal but the happy look on that old gentleman's face;))

A video with historic images of Warsaw's airport (see last posts) from 1932 (year it opened) until 1992. Mind you, that building AND that sign above the main entrance? Superb! www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiid...

Meanwhile in Warsaw/Warszawa Shuttle bus to the Airport Warszawa-Okęcie, waiting in front of the Polish Airlines LOT building, 1934. Warsaw's airport opened on April 29, 1934. Between 1910 and 1934 Pole Mokotowskie (Mokotów Field) served as an airfield (cntd to be used) Photo 1: Willem van de Poll

This is too important not to share! On the day when another Holocaust survivor, Margot Friedländer, is being buried in Berlin✊ substack.com/@krassenstei...

If you’ve ever been to Rummelsburg, even in passing, you couldn’t have missed it. The giant body of Berlin’s largest power plant which once provided electricity to 75% of all households. #OTD 1927, after 2 yrs of construction, Großkraftwerk Klingenberg officially opened.

Before every earthquake there are signs. Catastrophes don't come unannounced: not to those who keep their ear to the ground. Here's how one of those early tremors caused a wave that reached as far as the Dow Jones Temple in NYC. #OTD 1927: #Berlin stock exchange market came a-crashing...

Good morning #Berlin & Beyond! Hanging There U-Bhf Hallesches Tor was built in such a way that a big chunk of it literally hangs above the Landwehrkanal. An ingenious piece of engineering that survived the heavy shelling in the last days of WW2. And a piece of engineering beauty 🌞

#Berlin's statue of Friedrich Wilhelm IV before Alte Nationalgalerie was 1 of 6 mounted monarchs that once looked twds Stadtschloß: Great Elector from Lange Brücke, F II from Unter den Linden, FW III from Lustgarten, Wilhelm I from Nationaldenkmal, and F III before Kaiser-F-Museum:

To write you need two things: a laptop (or pen and paper, if you are thus inclined) and time to think. The following text was inspired by my having both and by the sound of the big orange rubbish van outside my window. On a Monday in #Berlin.

On this day in 1896 #Berlin’s crème de la crème gathered in a rather unlikely place: surrounded by fish, monkeys and lobsters, they gasped and Oh’ed at the sight of unseen wonders. Who would have thought that a street corner of Unter den Linden and Schadowstraße could hide such surprises…

Muttertag🌞🧡

A Boy in The Sun Sculpture by Werner Stötzer, corner Hosemannstraße and Ostseestraße, Berlin-Pankow

They say that History likes to repeat itself: 1st time as a tragedy, 2nd time as a farce. But what, if it is a tragedy every time? Over & over again does our species prove that if there's sth we truly excel at, then it is making the same mistakes & never remembering the lesson until it is too late.🧵

Berlin Balconies🌞 Berlin-Weißensee

Ulrike Meinhof, a bright, well-educated young journalist suddenly abandons the straight road & enters the dark side. She died #OTD 1976 by hanging herself in a high-security prison in Stuttgart. But her story did not end there - it ends in Berlin. Here’s another page from my #Berlin Calendar.

O-oh! If you need anything from Berlin’s administration today, you might have to wait again. Council offices partly brought to standstill today.

Went shopping.

It's not easy writing these days about Russia or its history. The country I once admired so deeply has become a rogue state itself. But that should not stop us from showing respect to the sacrifice of so many soldiers and civilians in fight vs 3rd Reich. Here’s a Berlin Calendar page: today in 1949

A piece of vocabulary that EVERY language needs but few have. German word of the week!🥸

Good morning, #Berlin & Beyond! A quote to kick off your day: "Berlin is like a bridge without any railing. You are allowed to fall off. Unlike in other cities of the republic." From "Die Stadt in 15 Zitaten", from @tagesspiegel.de , 2019. Photo own.

“Dahlin’, when you are dead, you are dead. That’s it.” Well, that might be true - but not if you are Marlene Dietrich. #OTD 1992 the fabulous performer, a living work or art and a Berlinerin to the bone died in Paris. She would be buried in her hometown. Read and share. There is a song in it, too.