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This is the grave of Rudolf Virchow 🪦
📜 A pioneering German physician and anthropologist
💉 He’s known as the “father of modern pathology”
🔬 Virchow made groundbreaking discoveries in leukaemia research
🏥 His work laid the foundation for understanding many diseases
🌳 He was laid to rest in the Alter St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof in Berlin in 1902
These eagles can be found on the grounds of the 1936 Olympics 🦅
⛏️ Originally, they held swastikas, but they were removed after the war
🏟️ They were part of architect Werner March’s design for a colossal stadium and training area; it was all design to project power and impress athletes and visitors
🗣️ Some argue they should stay as reminders of history, painful though they may be
🧐 Others think it’d be best to remove them
For me, it’s quite shocking to see such overt symbols of the party. While the Olympic grounds are filled with info boards and context, the danger of glorification still exists. I’m quite torn on this one.
📸 Have you ever seen these Berlin statues?
🗿 They’re Gneisenau, Blücher, and Yorck
⚔️ These are the legendary Prussian generals who helped push Napoleon out of Berlin and Prussia, and were crucial in his ultimate defeat
🏛️ Many streets and monuments in Berlin refer to victory over the French, be it Napoleon at the beginning of the 19th Century, or France’s 1870-71 defeat that led to the formation of Germany
🇫🇷 When France became one of Berlin’s occupying powers after WWII, they took over a German military base, stuffed it with their own soldiers, and named it “Quartier Napoleon”
🌳 You can find these three lads to the left of the Staatsoper on Unter den Linden… just peek behind the big tree
The glass eye of Taduesz Rogowski
🏚️ Rogowski was a survivor of both Dachau and Sachsenhausen concentration camps
✊ He was interned following his arrest in 1940 - he was a member of the resistance in occupied Poland
⚠️ Due to the brutal conditions of his internment, he lost an eye - he was issued with this replacement in the infirmary at Sachsenhausen
⚖️ After the Soviet liberation of the camp, he became a lawyer
Pipe post! Berlin’s pneumatic post system was established in 1865
📸 This is Berlin’s old imperial post office
🐴 Alongside stables, postmen, and regular post, this was the nexus of a huge system of tubes!
💨 Compressed air was used to transport mail through underground in little capsules
🏢 the network connected post offices, government buildings, and other institutions
📏 eventually, there were more than 400 kilometers of tubes running beneath the city
📈 Millions of messages were sent by Berliners each year
📞 …the rise of telephone and the division of the city by the Berlin Wall were the death knell for the pipe post
🛑 the final pneumatic tube message was sent in 1976
Have you ever been to a live podcast recording?
🎙️ Join me & Pip for some stories of escapes to the West!
🍹 We’ve got a lovely venue in Kreuzberg where you can come, hang out, and help record the next episode of History Flakes
++The details++
📆 Fri, Aug 16
🕰️ 19:00
📍 House of Color, Gneisenaustrasse 66
🚇 U7 Südstern
🤗 We’d love to meet you all and have a nerdy great time together
💍 Monika Schaar married on the 8th of September, 1961
🧱 This was less than one month after the Berlin Wall went up
🏚️ Her parents, trapped in East Berlin, couldn’t attend the wedding
💐 After the ceremony the newlyweds stood outside Schaar’s parents’ apartment at Bernauer Strasse 9 - tearfully, Schaar’s parents lowered flowers down to them
🏗️ Eventually, the building where Schaar’s parents lived would be demolished to make way for the Berlin Wall
🪧 This market, set into the ground where the house used to be, tells her story
🏛️ The Reichsbank building in Berlin was designed by architect Heinrich Wolff and completed in 1938, featuring a neoclassical style with a stone façade and grand columns - typical of Third Reich-era architecture
💰 During WWII, the Reichsbank managed Germany’s gold reserves, which were moved to various locations to avoid Allied capture
❓ Some of this gold went missing, leading to ongoing speculation about its fate, including theories of hidden or stolen treasure - the mystery will likely never be solved
🇩🇪 The building was used by the Zentral Komitee of the East German government, and is now used by the German foreign office
🏡 The 1936 Olympic Village
🏚️ today, it’s a mixture of ruins and renovations 🏠 ✨
📆 The village took 2 years to build, and would eventually house over 4,000 athletes and be run by more than 1,000 staff
🎙️ Celebrities like Max Schmeling, the world-famous German boxer came to visit, concerts were played
🎊 The village was a scene of international celebration and cooperation, set against the backdrop of N**i Germany
☝️ There isn’t a huge amount to see today, but I’ll have a video up on it soon
🔜
The man who almost single-handedly killed Adolf Hi**er
🔧 Georg Elser made use of his experience working in a clock factory and an explosives factory
💣 In the mid-1930s he made his own bomb, all by himself
📅 10 months after scoping out a beer hall where the N**i Party would have a meeting/celebration every year in November in Munich, Elser got a job there
🪓 After work each night he would carve a niche in a column by the stage where Hi**er would hold the same speech at the same time every year
⏱️ By early October the bomb was in place, on a 30-day timer
💥 On the night of November 8, 1939, it went off exactly as intended
🕰️ It had been timed for the end of Hi**er’s speech
❗ The problem? Hi**er had left 13 minutes before
🌫️ Misty weather had meant that he would have to take the train back to Berlin instead of his plane
🚨 Elser was arrested shortly after the blast
⛓️ After months of interrogation and torture, he was locked up in Sachsenhausen concentration camp
🪦 Just before the end of WWII he was transferred to Dachau, where he was executed
🐻 The Künstlerhaus St. Lukas is an artist residence and studio house in Charlottenburg. I came across it when I saw this bear statue at the entrance!
🏛️ It was founded by architect Bernhard Sehring in 1889/1890
🎨 The building is covered with fun sculptures and there appear to be many more in the courtyard. On my list to come back to…
Originally part of ‘Luftgaukommando III’, these buildings were among the most important used by the Luftwaffe during WWII, coordinating operations and intelligence
🏢 After WWII, these buildings were repurposed by the U.S. Army and became integral to the American military presence in Cold War West Berlin
🎩 Today, these historical buildings have been transformed into fancy apartments - the Third Reich-era eagles are still visible over the entrances
🗺️ You can find the buildings in Zehlendorf; Clayallee 174, 14195 Berlin
July 25 - check for tickets!
☝️ History Flakes is a Berlin History podcast hosted by Jonny Whitlam and Pip Roper, two seasoned and increasingly wizened city tour guides who are occasionally funny
📆 We’ve spent a combined 25 years communicating Berlin’s history to surly Grandpas, sulking teens, and your intense uncle who has a large collection of WWII memorabilia (does he have anything from the Allied side? No, no he doesn’t).
❓ And we’ve fielded questions / statements such as:
🤔 ‘Who put the fake bullet holes in this old building?’
😬 ‘Did Hi**er build the Berlin Wall to hide doing the Holocaust?’
🇨🇦 ‘You’re not talking enough about CANADA!!!…(or REAGAN)’
Join us for a live recording as we discuss the lives of two of Berlin’s most fascinating children, field your questions and share a drink! 🍸
East Germans fleeing to West Berlin had to be processed as refugees. It was a scary time for many people - just waiting on the big decision - would they be allowed in? Would they get through background checks? Interrogations? Are there Stasi agents hiding among the refugees? (Yes).
Here's a short video I made about the whole thing. Check out the museum in Marienfelde for more!
It genuinely makes me so happy to get reviews like this!
🎧 This one was for one of my audio tours that I made together with @
🙋🏼 Want to do an audio tour?
👉 Check out the link in my bio to find out more
Getting around Berlin in 1954 🚇
🗺️ This S & U-Bahn plan has dots on certain stations
🚩 Notice how they’re all in East Berlin?
🧱 The plan was published in the East, but before the Berlin Wall went up
🚃 The dots show you the stations in the “Democratic Sector”
🗳️ Which was an optimistic name for East Berlin…
👆 Can you find your home station?
🏰 Nestled in Schöneberg at Winterfeldtstraße 21 is one of Berlin’s best examples of Brick Expressionism
🎩 Designed by architects Otto Spalding & Kurt Kuhlow, the building was finished in 1929….
📞 when it served as the exchange for long-distance phone calls made by the Deutsche Reichspost
🛠️ It’s now a listed building
🚀 used by telecommunications giant Telekom, alongside a startup hub
and I had a great time seeing the sights with Arden University!
🚇 Is Alexanderplatz Berlin’s most famous U-Bahn station?
🗓️ As Berlin became a world city the U-Bahn network, opened in 1902, grew and grew
☝️ Eventually, Alexanderplatz would become the largest underground station (by floor plan)
🎸 First came today’s U2 line in 1913, then the famous section with its green tiles, would open in 1926, bringing today’s U5 to the station
🎨 Alex would take its final form in 1930, when the North-South line, now the U8 was connected
👻 Access to the U8 would be closed off to East Berliners during the Cold War, making it on the city’s infamous ‘Ghost Stations’
🚉 Trains carrying West Berliners would rattle through the station, but wouldn’t stop
🌟 Behind the facade of Berlin’s Zionkirche lies a tale of rebellion
📅 Erected in 1873, the Zionskirche was designed by August Orth in the Neo-Romanesque style
🌍 Situated on the edge of Berlin’s Mitte district, the Zionskirche has seen a lot of history
🕊️ During the Cold War, in the last years of the East German regime, it became a centre of resistance, hosting groups that opposed the rule of Erich Honecker’s SED
⚔️ This isn’t the only time this church would be associated with resistance…
🗣️ Famous for its association with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a pastor and anti-N**i dissident that paid the ultimate price for his resistance
🍃 Today’s a real hidden gem - its tower offers great views of the city, especially the TV Tower, but it’s only open on Sunday afternoons!
These ‘Stolpersteine’ that caught my eye
🏠 It’s usually people that live in the buildings they’re set in front of that do the research, allowing the memorials to be laid by the Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) team
📖 In this case, the story of the Jewish family, the Samuels, that lived here until being deported and murdered by the N**is, is up in the window for the world to see
✍️ I’ve summarised the story below. If you’d like to visit, head to Rhinower Straße 11
Here’s their story:
The Samuel family, including Marion and her parents Cilly and Ernst, lived in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg from 1935 until their tragic deaths in Auschwitz in 1943. Forced out of Arnswalde by N**i sympathisers, they moved to Berlin for safety and anonymity. Ernst opened a cigar shop, but by 1937, lost it due to N**i policies. Despite hardships, they stayed in their small apartment, part of a community of working-class families. Marion attended school, enjoying a brief period of happiness at a Jewish school, where she learned about Jewish culture away from persecution.
However, the situation worsened in 1941 when both parents were forced into labor. In 1943, during a N**i roundup targeting Jews in forced labour, the “Fabrikaktion”, the family was arrested. Marion, initially alone, was later joined by her father in a collection centre before being deported to Auschwitz. Separated from her family, Cilly would never see her husband and daughter again. All 3 were murdered in Auschwitz. Marion was 11 years old when she was sent to the gas chamber.
In 1999, the Marion Samuel Prize was established to remember Jewish children killed in the Holocaust, bringing Marion’s story to light.
In October 2023, three Stolpersteine were laid outside their home.
German beers & Stalin’s ears 👂
🙌 It was an absolute pleasure to take these lads on a Cold War Berlin tour today!
🚇 The red marble decorating the walls of U-Bhf Mohrenstrasse was long-rumoured to have come from Hi**er’s New Reich Chancellery, which was just across the street
🗺️ But it turns out it just comes from a place nearby the same supplier, in the German state of Thuringia
🪧 There has been a campaign in recent years to change the name of the station due to racist connotations with the current one
🥕 In the meantime locals have turned the O into an Ö, changing the meaning to “Carrot Street”
Tucked away in Nollendorfplatz U-Bahn Station…
…is a memorial for “Hochbahn” (elevated railway) workers that lost their lives in WWII
Amazingly, Berlin’s U-Bahn kept running through the vast majority of the war
It finally ceased operation in April 1945, as allied bombs and the advancing Red Army made it impossible to continue
Gesundbrunnen U-Bahn station 🚇
🚈 The deepest on Berlin’s network
☢️ Like a few other stations in Berlin, this one has a Cold War-era nuclear bunker inside
🧱 The Berlin Flak Tower in Humboldthain Park was erected as a seven-storey bunker to shield Berlin from aerial assaults during WWII, completed between October 1941 and April 1942. It was one of 3 such towers built in Berlin (the other two being Zoo & Friedrichshain)
📸 Note: the historical photos show the Zoo tower and the Hamburg one
🌃 The construction required an estimated 90 million Marks and the labor of around 800 men, including forced and foreign labourers, working in continuous shifts
💥 It comprised a main G-Tower for weaponry and an L-Tower for fire watch and command, with walls up to 2.5 meters and ceilings close to 4 meters thick, providing air-raid shelter for about 16,000 civilians
😲 All 3 towers were so strong that they survived the war intact
🌲 Post-war attempts to demolish the structure, built with steel reinforced concrete, were abandoned due to the difficulty and danger involved; instead, it was covered with rubble and trees, creating an artificial hill
⛰️ Humboldthain is the only “surviving” flak tower of the three constructed in Berlin - the Zoo tower (pictured) was destroyed by the British occupation after WWII, in 1946. The Friedrichshain tower was covered with earth and sits beneath the Volkspark Friedrichshain
☝️ Guided tours offer access to three out of the seven original floors and are available exclusively with Berliner Unterwelten
++++++
Image Rights
Zoo Flak Tower
Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-M1203-316 / Donath, Otto / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE , via Wikimedia Commons
Hamburg Flak Tower
Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
I think I post about the Kino International every time I go there
🍿 It’s one of my favourite buildings in East Berlin
🎥 It opened with the premier of a Soviet movie in 1963
🎬 Despite now being over 60 years old, it doesn’t feel dated it feels just as grand as ever
🎞️ Make sure you visit before it closes for a couple of years in April!
++++++
Also, Poor Things was great!
A little curiosity I came across today…
🚂💨💨
On October 28, 1903 an electric train travelling from Zossen to Marienfelde broke the world speed record (presumably the fastest anything had ever gone at the time?)
It travelled at a speed of 210.2 Km/h (130.6 mph)
So, now we both know that. Cool?
The ‘Hochhaus’ on the Weberwiese
🌆 It looks similar to the buildings in the more famous Karl-Marx-Allee (formerly Stalinallee)
🏢 Of course this is no accident, but this tower came first…
👷🏻♂️ … served as a guide for the coming buildings, and was handed over to its residents 1 year before ‘Stalinallee’ was finished
☝️ A sign on the front of the building says it was *the* first residential tower block to be built in a Berlin that still sat in the ruins of WWII
✍️ A quote from playwright Bertolt Brecht sits above the entrance:
“Peace in our country,
Peace in our city,
That it may look after,
Those who built it”
It’s hard to imagine how brave one would have to be to resist the N**is
🤯 Not only that, but to organise a group of like-minded people, knowing that torture and death awaited you if found out
📚 I don’t yet know the stories of this workers’ group in detail
☝️ But I do know that lots of German communists stuck to their beliefs through the darkest of times during the “Third Reich”…
…and that they both risked and gave their lives to get intelligence out of the country to the Soviet Union during WWII.
🏙️ The streets around here in Lichtenberg all bear the names of those that were immeasurably brave…
…and I’m going to find out more about them soon!
Berlin
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Jason Punk Caption 🎸 I thought I knew Kreuzberg, but seeing it with @jason_paulhonea was completely different! 🏚️ Jason told me about the the rise of the punk scene, and I learned about legendary venues and wild tales from West Berlin in the 70s, 80s, and 90s 🎤 The best part? Jason knows way more than we showed in this video! 🔥 If you want to experience Kreuzberg like I did, get in touch with him and book a tour. He’s incredible! ++++++ 📸 Kreuzberg Mittenwalderstr., ca. 1900 Ungenannt Public domain via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Oranienstr., 1945 Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-J31328 CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Kreuzberg 1980s Zapf Truck Joachim Dulitz (adulitz) CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Suicide (band) Lkdccommonwiki CC0 via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Wire (band) Fergus Kelly CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Nick Cave 1986 Yves Lorson CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Roland S Howard 2007 Kingsley Nash CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
🔍 I was lucky enough to get a private tour of the Humboldt Forum with Timo! 🏛️ There are amazing things to see inside here, and a lot of it is available for free 🌍 Together we saw some highlights from the Ethnological Museum and the Asian Art Museum 🇵🇼 My favourite was the Bai from Palau! ❓ Have you been to visit? What surprised you the most? ++++++ 🙏 Thanks to @staatlichemuseenzuberlin and the @humboldtforum
Born in 1923, Gad Beck faced immense danger in Nazi Berlin: he was both Jewish and Gay 💪 Despite the risks, he bravely helped fellow Jews, even disguising himself as Hitler Youth to save his lover 📢 In 1943, Beck was among those detained during Goebbels’ final push to deport Jews from Berlin 🕊️ Their families, led by courageous wives, protested for days on Rosenstrasse, demanding their loved ones be freed 🎉 Against all odds, the protests succeeded, and the prisoners were released 🏳️🌈 Beck survived, later becoming a voice for LGBT rights and sharing his incredible story with the world ++++++ 📸 Hitler Reich Chancellor’s office, 1933 Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-15347 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en>, via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Gad Beck, 2000 James Steakley, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Lebensmittelkarte Mark Brandenburg, Niederbarnim Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-H26799 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en>, via Wikimedia Commons 📸 HJ Uniform WerWil, CC BY-SA 2.5 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5>, via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Goebbels Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-J31305 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en>, via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Brandenburg Görden prison Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-11695 / Georg Pahl / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en>, via Wikimedia Commons
📅 The Berlin Wall went up on this day in 1961 🇩🇪 After years of citizens fleeing the country, East Germany was facing an existential crisis 🚧 Rather than listening to the people and making changes to improve the country and system of government, the ruling party, the SED, decided to take drastic action 🛡️ Overnight, almost 40,000 troops & volunteers rolled barbed wire around the perimeter of West Berlin (ca. 160km/100 miles) 🌅 On the morning of August 13 countless people were cut off from friends and family ⚠️ Should they want to cross the new border, they risked being shot ⏳ The next days were incredibly tense 🏃♂️ Thousands of Berliners took the risk and jumped over 🏢 Many of them jumping from the windows of Bernauer Strasse 🛏️ They leapt into catch sheets and onto mattresses 📆 On August 22, Ida Siekmann, who had previously left her house, entering West Berlin as she did so, every single day, joined them 😢 In a tragic accident, she fell to her death 🕯️ Over the next 28 years at least 139 more victims would follow 💔 Countless more had their lives torn apart by the Wall
Did you know that Berlin’s iconic Brandenburg Gate stands in a square named after the people of Paris? 🏛 Built in 1791, inspired by ancient Athens, the Gate was once the Prussian king’s entrance to Berlin 🐎 The Quadriga, the statue atop the Gate, symbolises victory, but it didn’t always look the same… 🇫🇷 Napoleon showed upand had the statue nicked! 🔨 Following his defeat, the statue was returned, and the newly-designed Iron Cross, which had already been awarded as a medal to the generals who defeated Napoleon, replaced the Roman eagle 💪 It became a symbol of Prussian strength and victory 🏆 and to really make it clear, the square beneath the Brandenburg Gate was renamed Pariser Platz ++++++ 📸 Eiffel Tower Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons 🖼️ Friedrich Wilhelm II Anton Graff, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 🖼️ Johann Gottfried Schadow Bautsch, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons 🖼️ Napoleon entering Berlin Charles Meynier, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 🖼️ Karl Friedrich Schinkel Carl Joseph Begas, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 🖼️ Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Bulow Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Jesse Owens, a black US athlete, became the star of the 1936 Olympics, much to the annoyance of the Nazis 🏃🏾♂️ Owens won gold in the 100 metres on August 3, 1936 📏 The next day, he faced tough competition from Germany’s Luz Long in the long jump 💪 Both athletes excelled, it went right down to the wire 👟 On his third and final jump, Long equalled Owens’ second jump, 7.87 🏟️ The crowd, including Hitler, went crazy, cheering for long as he ran to the edge of the stadium 🥇 Owens then took his final jump, setting an Olympic record: 8.07 metres 🤝 Long embraced Owens and the two fell to the floor together, with 100,000 people in a packed out stadium cheering them ⚫️ Long was warned by one of Hitler’s henchmen, Rudolf Hess, to never embrace someone like *that* again ✉️ Owens and Long became and remained friends after their competition 🗺️ …until Long was 🇺🇸 Despite his success, Owens returned to a segregated US, with recognition coming years later ++++++ 📸 Owens, 3/4 Portrait Acme News Photos, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Owens jumping Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R96374 CC-BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Crowd Saluting in Stadium FOTO:FORTEPAN / Lőrincze Judit CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Jesse Owens Podium Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-G00630 / Unknown authorUnknown author CC-BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Olympic Stadium, 1936 Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R82532 CC-BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Hitler saluting, Olympic Stadium Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe sygn. 1-M-878-95 Public domain Public domain USA via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Long & Owens arm in arm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1inifMJ0xio CC0 via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Rudolf Hess Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1987-0313-507 CC-BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
🏗️ As Berlin prepared for the 1936 Olympics, the Nazis began removing “undesirables” from society 📜 Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick ordered the removal of Sinti and Roma, labelled “gypsies” 📅 On July 16, 1936, around 600 Roma and Sinti were relocated to Marzahn 🏚️ The Marzahn camp was placed between a cemetery and sewage dump 💔 Conditions were abysmal: overcrowded, unsanitary, and plagued by disease 💧 Limited access to water and sanitation led to rapid illness spread 🍞 Inmates had ration cards marked “Z” for “Zigeuner,” restricting access to goods 🔍 The camp was later used for pseudo-scientific racial “research” and forced labour ⚫️ In 1943, prisoners were sent to Auschwitz, where many were killed ++++++ 📸 1936 Running Olympic Flame Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1976-116-08A CC-BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Olympic Flame in front of the Berlin Cathedral No machine-readable author provided. Hubicka~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims) CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Crowd Saluting in Stadium FOTO:FORTEPAN / Lőrincze Judit CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Jesse Owens Podium Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-G00630 / Unknown authorUnknown author CC-BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Wilhelm Frick in the Sudetenland Bundesarchiv, Bild 121-0008 CC BY-SA 3.0 DE via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Guards at the Marzahn camp Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1987-035-25A CC-BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Marzahn, 1985 Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1985-0723-004 / Zimmermann, Peter CC-BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Marzahn Prisoners Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1987-035-18A CC-BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Marzahn Memorial Today MarsmanRom CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Alfred and Gustav Flatow were among Germany’s first Olympic gold medal winners at the very first modern Games in 1896 🏅 Alfred was particularly talented, he won four medals, including three gold ✡️ They were Jewish athletes, symbolising a time when Jews were relatively accepted in Germany - of course this would contrast sharply with the horrors to come ⚠️ With the rise of the Nazi regime, Jewish life in Germany, including for the Flatows, deteriorated rapidly 🚫 The Flatows were banned from organised sports despite their achievements ⚫️ They were sent to Theresienstadt concentration camp, where Alfred died of starvation in 1942 and Gustav in 1945 🕊️ Today, a road to Berlin’s Olympic stadium and a sports hall in Kreuzberg bear their name ++++++ 🗺️ Europe, 1942 Goran tek-en, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Theresienstadt Andrew Shiva / Wikipedia
📮 Can a postcard save a life? 😊 Alice Licht, born in 1916 to a Jewish family in Berlin, dreamed of becoming a doctor 🚫 Anti-Semitic laws in 1933 forced her to retrain as a secretary instead 🔥 In November 1938, Kristallnacht destroyed her parents’ store, and lead to severe restrictions on Jews: they would eventually go into hiding 🏭 By early 1941, Alice was compelled to work in an artificial silk factory, then met Otto Weidt who helped Jews. 📝 Feigning illness, she became Weidt’s secretary, hiding from Gestapo raids and securing a hiding place for her parents 🚂 In early 1943, Alice and her parents were deported but Weidt was able to send food and clothing to them in Theresienstadt ⚫️ Eventually, Licht and her parents would be sent to Auschwitz ✉️ On the way to Auschwitz, Alice threw a postcard from the train, telling Weidt what was happening 🗺️ Weidt tracked Alice down in Christianstadt camp, and was able to hide food and clothes for her 🕊️ In 1945, Alice escaped during a prisoner transport, returned to Berlin, survived the war, emigrated to the US, and later moved to Israel before passing away in 1986. Her story is commemorated in Otto Weidt’s Workshop for the Blind museum 🪦 Weidt passed away in 1947. He is among the non-Jews commemorated at Yad Vashem in Israel ++++++ 📸 Licht & Weidt Hanay, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Hitler’s first cabinet Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-H28422 CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en> via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Goebbels Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Theresienstadt Andrew Shiva / Wikipedia 📸 Auschwitz Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Gross Rosen Gordon Roemhild, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons 🗺️ Eastern Front, 1945 Gdr, Wikipedia (EN) user, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Use your laptop for best results! 🗺️ The 2024 Olympics are here, so what better time to look back at Berlin in 1936, the year the Summer Olympic Games came to Hitler’s Berlin? 🔍 You can zoom in, explore, see what’s changed (Hermann Göring Strasse?), what’s the same, and where you live! 💡 Just tap the link in my bio and the article will pop right up!
🌟 One of the most successful spies in history 😮 and he got away with it all, too 🕵️♂️ Meet Markus Wolf, head of Stasi foreign intelligence 🗺️ From missions in postwar Berlin and meetings with Stalin 💔 to sending “Romeo Agents” to woo West German women 📸 and getting papped with his mistress in Sweden 🎢 Wolf led a wild life! 🎙️ Strap in for the first in a two-parter 🎧 Download History Flakes - The Berlin History Podcast today! ++++++ 📸 Markus Wolf Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1989-1208-420 / Schöps, Elke CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en> via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Sean Connery ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv / Fotograf: Comet Photo AG (Zürich) / Com_C13-035-006 / CC BY-SA 4.0 📸 Roger Moore File:Sir Roger Moore 3.tif: Allan warrenderivative work: Georgfotoart, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0> via Wikimedia Commons 📸 GoldenEye Movie Poster Fair Use, via Wikimedia Commons 📸 GoldenEye N64 Game Box Fair Use, via Wikimedia Commons
🏬 From one of the most successful stores in Berlin’s history… 🔥 …to a pile of ashes, never to be rebuilt 🌱 Wilfrid Israel used his money and power to buy the lives of his staff 🏚️ Eventually he would abandon everything he and his family had built 🇬🇧 Even in exile, in England, Israel worked to save Jews trapped on the continent in WWII 💔 Tragically, he would be killed when the Luftwaffe shot down his civilian plane in 1943 ++++++ 📸 Wilfrid Israel Ophirbaer, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Boycott of Jewish-owned stores, April 1, 1933 Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-14469 CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en> via Wikimedia Commons 📸 N. Israel Department Store, 1900 Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Berlin Börse (Stock Exchange) ca. 1900 Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Destroyed D. Lichtenstein Store Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1979-046-23 CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en> via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Damage in Kaufhaus Uhlfelder, Munich Bundesarchiv, Bild 119-2671-06 CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en> via Wikimedia Commons
Join us at the @comedycb on July 25 at 10pm! 📅 🎭 We’re honoured to be part of the @berlinfringe ! We’re one of loads of great, funny, and entertaining acts taking place this coming week! 🎟️ Grab your tickets and check out the other shows on offer. It’s an amazing lineup! 👋 See you there!
📅 August 7, 1936, at Berlin’s Poststadion ⚽ Germany take on Norway in the Quarter Final of the football at the Summer Olympic Games… 👀 …and Adolf Hitler is in attendance. He’s going to see his first ever football match 😲 Shock! Norway go 1-0 up within 6 minutes 😡 Hitler is furious, and Goebbels is in dismay, scribbling away in his diary 🥅 The Germans, pushing up front in the second half, can’t break through the Norwegian defence 🎯 Magnar Isaksen puts a second ball in the onion bag right at the end of the game 🏆 Norway win 2-0, Hitler storms out 🥉 Norway go on to take bronze, Germany go home with nothing ++++++ Image credits in order of appearance Olympic Flame Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1976-116-08A / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en>, via Wikimedia Commons Hitler in the Olympic Stadium Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-G00372 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en>, via Wikimedia Commons Rudolf Hess Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1987-0313-507 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en>, via Wikimedia Commons Goebbels with Microphone Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1987-0313-507 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en>, via Wikimedia Commons Goebbels Speech, Lustgarten Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-17049 / Georg Pahl / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en>, via Wikimedia Commons
📅 In the dying days of WWII, the Red Army rolled up to the impregnable Spandau Citadel in the North-West of Berlin 🔊 After trying to blast the Germans out with sound, they opted instead for negotiations 🚩 Two Soviet officers approached the main entrance, carrying a white flag 🪜 A rope ladder was dropped down for them 🗣️ After climbing inside, short and intense negotiations took place 🪖 The Soviets, Grishin and Gall, explained just how hopeless the German situation now was ⏳ They left having given the Germans an ultimatum ⏱️ After a few hours, the Germans surrendered 🏰 The Citadel was saved, as were the civilians taking refuge inside of it 🔬 In the aftermath, the Soviets discovered that the Citadel wasn’t being used as a gas defence lab, as the Germans had been pretending ☣️ Instead, it was being used as a chemical weapons lab 💉 The Germans had been working on sarin there 🧑🔬 The SS officers they had been dealing with were in fact scientists, Doctors Koch and Jung 🚢 Koch and Jung were transported to the Soviet Union, where they refused to produce nerve agents for Stalin & Khrushchev 🏡 As prisoners of war, they were eventually sent home in the 1950s ++++++ Source: Berlin: The Downfall 1945, by Antony Beevor
Tempelhofer Feld over the centuries… ✈️ Originally established as Tempelhof Airport in 1923, it was one of the world’s first commercial airports 🏰 Before the airport though, the area was used as a Prussian military parade ground 🏞️ and before that, it was a Knights Templar estate going all the way back to the 13th Century! 🏢 In 1936, the fascists built the huge airport building here 🚨 During WWII, it was used by the Luftwaffe and in the Cold War as a base for American forces during the Berlin Airlift in 1948-49 🌳 It remained in use as an airport until 2008, when it was transformed into a vast public park 🎉 The perfect place to go for a nice walk and listen to a podcast! Subscribe to History Flakes - The Berlin History Podcast *NOW* and discover loads about the mad history of our favourite city
Palace for the people? Palace for the Kaiser? What do you think? The Palast der Republik was one of East Germany’s most beloved buildings There’s a great exhibition on it in the Humboldt forum You can really get a sense for how grand, exciting, and futuristic it was If you’ve ever wondered why people loved the Palast der Republik so much, definitely go and check out the exhibition in the Humboldt Forum! ++++++ Image Rights 📸 Palast der Republik, black & white Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1986-0424-304 / Junge, Peter Heinz CC-BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Berliner Schloß, 1900 Album von Berlin; Globus Verlag, Berlin 1904 Public domain via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Palast der Republik at night, 1976 Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R0821-400 / Kohls, Ulrich CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Palast der Republik Western facade, 1980s Lutz Schramm from Potsdam, Germany See http://www.lutzschramm.de/ CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0> via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Inside the Volkskammer, Jan 1989 Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1989-0901-034 / Settnik, Bernd CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE via Wikimedia Commons
One of my favourite Berlin facts… …but a sad story 🏭 After WWII Fromm’s factory fell into the Soviet Sector 🚩 The communists deemed Fromm a member of the exploitative capitalist class… ⚫️ …and worst of all, they said he was pro-Nazi 👩⚖️ His descendants received compensation only after the Berlin Wall came down, in 1994 and 2016 ++++++ 📚 Are you interested in the book I showed in this video? It’s called “Geschichte Berlins in 60 Objekten” (The History of Berlin in 60 Objects). I love it! It’s written by Maritta Tkalec and published by BeBra. I have no connection with the author or publisher. I received the book as a Christmas present and I just think it’s brilliant! I don’t know if there are plans to make it available in English. ++++++ Image Rights Fromm Gedenktafel OTFW, Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Scheunenviertel Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1987-0413-501 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons Europa Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-P062899 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons El Dorado Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1983-0121-500 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons
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