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12/11/2024

Due to popular demand, here are four more pay what you want tours you can join *this weekend* 😀

📆 On Saturday the 16th it’s Karl-Marx-Allee in the morning and Weimar Berlin in the afternoon.

📆 Then, on the 17th, Jewish Berlin under the “Third Reich” followed by a Berlin Wall History tour

🙋‍♂️ Want to sign up?  📲 Check my Story or the link in my bio!

02/11/2024

I was very lucky to spend yesterday with a wonderful school group. I’ll be honest, school tours can be challenging, but this lot were so full of questions and insights, I could really tell they were engaged and interested. What a pleasure!

31/10/2024

Comment “Tour” to sign up

or go click the link in my bio 😉

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🗺️ This weekend I thought I’d do two opposites - Karl-Marx-Allee workers’ paradise on Saturday, and its exact opposite, the Grunewald district on Sunday

📆 Yes, Nov 9 is a crazy day in German history, a (failed) revolution, an actual revolution, another failed revolution, terror, and another revolution… let’s watch out backs that day, yeah?

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REMEMBER - only sign up if you 100% definitely actually intend to come. If you can’t make it in the end, that’s cool, but cancel your ticket online so someone else can have it.

29/10/2024

Tränenpalast – the “Palace of Tears” – once marked the divide between East and West Berlin 😢

🛂 Built in 1962, this border crossing at Friedrichstraße station saw countless emotional farewells, as families and friends were torn apart by the Berlin Wall

🚉 West Berliners could visit the East for short trips, but East Berliners rarely got the chance to go the other way, making goodbyes here especially heartbreaking

✨ Today, it’s a museum where visitors can explore stories of separation, escape, and everyday life in divided Berlin

24/10/2024

The Berlin Airlift Memorial at Platz der Luftbrücke ✈️

🌍 It commemorates the huge effort of 1948-49 airlift that kept West Berlin supplied during the Soviet blockade solely by air

💼 Food, water, clothes, medicine and more were needed to keep a city with a population of 2+ million alive

🛬 At its height planes were landing in West Berlin almost once per minute

☝️ You have to think how terrifying it must have been for Berliners to have British and American flying overhead - WWII ended only 3 years before the airlift began

🕊️ 78 pilots and crew lost their lives ensuring food, fuel, and supplies reached the city

🇬🇧🇺🇸🇫🇷 Think how that changed the Berliners’ perception of the Western allies - those who destroyed the city were now risking their lives to save its people

⚡️ Over 2 million tons of supplies in less than a year

🧱 West Berlin would never face a serious, sustained blockade again, even when the Berlin went up

🐹 Nevertheless, supplies were kept on hand, just in case

🚇 You can find this memorial at Platz der Luftbrücke - it’s easily accessible via the U-Bahn station with the same name

22/10/2024

A bomb from the U.S. Army Air Forces’ 1945 raid on Oranienburg 💣

⚛️ In March 1945, over 600 bombers targeted this town to destroy a uranium facility linked to N**i nuclear research

🚫 The aim? To stop the Soviets from seizing it as they advanced towards Berlin

🔎 Despite the devastation, Soviet forces still found enough uranium here to boost their own atomic bomb project

🧨 This bomb, now safely displayed outside the historic post office near the train station, reminds us of that day, March 15, 1945, when this small town was hit with an air raid so big that usually it would have been reserved for major cities

💣 unexploded bombs are still regularly found in the area to this date

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Fun fact! About 2 years ago, while leading a tour around the Sachsenhausen memorial for @ my group and I actually heard one of these bombs being blown up. The explosion was intentional, it had been deemed that this bomb, found during routine checks for these kinds of things, was just too dangerous to dispose of any other way. That means that just once in my life have I heard a singular WWII bomb explode. I can tell you, it was a brown pants moment for all of us. It caught us all off guard.

It really made us think how terrifying it would have been to hear 600 bombers flying overhead, each of them dropping as many bombs as they could. It must have felt like the end of the world to the people of Oranienburg. What would the concentration camp prisoners have thought?

By this point, Sachsenhausen was pretty much at its most crowded, the prisoners would have known the end of the “Third Reich” was near, but would have likely felt like they themselves were in a hopeless position. Would the air raid have given them hope that the end was that bit closer? Or terrified them, thinking that they might have been hit?

21/10/2024

At first, you might think this is the Berlin Wall. In fact, it’s a completely different wall loaded with Cold War history 🇵🇱

🧱 This piece of wall comes from Gdańsky’s Lenin shipyard, where in 1980, L**h Wałęsa led the strike that started the Solidarność (Solidarity) movement

⚒️ Solidarność began as a trade union, fighting for better working conditions, but quickly grew into a national movement challenging the communist regime

💪 It became the first independent trade union in a communist country, and helped bring down Poland’s communist system, inspiring other movements across Eastern Europe in the late ‘80s, including in East Germany

📅 The wall was installed here on 17 June 2009, just a few metres from where the Berlin Wall once stood, marking the anniversary of the 1953 East German uprising, where Soviet tanks and soldiers brutally shut down East German protests

16/10/2024

Beaten to death & silenced to death: to the homosexual victims of National Socialism

🙏 This memorial stands outside Nollendorfplatz station, home of Berlin’s gay district pre- and post-N**i dictatorship

🔕 Beaten to death we can understand, but what’s meant by “silenced to death”?

❌ The fact is that tolerance towards homosexuality took a long time after the N**is were defeated

☝️ In fact, it remained illegal to be gay in both East & West Germany until the late 1960s, though the East were more tolerant in this regard

🇩🇪 That meant that when the two Germanys were founded in 1949, gay men that had been forced to wear the pink triangle in the concentration camps were the only group that couldn’t talk about their experiences

🏳️‍🌈 Their sexuality, relationships, and true selves had to remain hidden

12/10/2024

Amazing group on today’s pay-what-you-want tour 🥰 Thank you all for coming. Look out for more tours in November!

10/10/2024

Willi Sänger was a German athlete turned resistance fighter ✊

⚔️ He worked as a key organiser for the Communist resistance against the N**is

📜 Sänger helped distribute the illegal magazine Die Innere Front, encouraging workers to resist

💥 He was arrested in July 1944 after his group was betrayed, having been infiltrated by a Gestapo informant

💀 He was sentenced to death

🪦 On 27 November 1944, he was executed by guillotine in Brandenburg Görden Prison

🇩🇪 In East Germany, he was honoured as a hero, with many streets and institutions bearing his name

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Image of Willi Sänger: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1988-1113-004 / CC-BY-SA 3.0

06/10/2024

Josef Thorak’s bronze horses were made in the 1930s for Hi**er’s New Reich Chancellery 🐎

🛠️ They symbolised N**i ideals of strength and power - just look at how over the top the muscles on the horse are

🕵️‍♂️ but they vanished after WWII, long considered smashed to bit in the war…

📦 It turns out the Soviet army moved them to Brandenburg, where they were hidden until the late ‘80s

🎭 After being traded on the black market in the chaos around the end of the Cold War, they resurfaced in 2015 during a raid led by the police and art detective Arthur Brand

⚖️ After legal disputes one of these monumental horses is now on display in the Spandau Citadel - the exhibit of ‘forbidden statues’ is well worth a visit!

05/10/2024

🌳 The Humboldthain Flak Tower, constructed between 1941 and 1942, was one of three towering anti-aircraft bunkers built to defend Berlin from Allied bombers. These colossal structures were designed to withstand intense bombardment, with reinforced concrete walls up to 3.5 metres thick

🛡️ Armed with four twin 128mm anti-aircraft guns on the upper platforms, the Humboldthain tower could fire at enemy planes flying as high as 14,800 metres. It also had smaller 20mm and 37mm guns positioned to defend against low-flying aircraft

💥 Ultimately, the towers provided psychological support, and physical protection for Berliners; in terms of shooting down planes and stopping bombs from hitting the city centre, they failed

💣 during air raids and the battle of Berlin they could offer shelter to over 10,000 civilians at a time

💀 Conditions inside were tense, and stressful. Civilians were left to wonder what kind of world they would walk outside to - would their home still be standing? What their friends and family be killed?

⚫️ As the Red Army approached in the dying days of the war, many Berliners, particularly women, decided to jump from the towers’ stairs, choosing death on their own terms instead of brutal treatment, particularly r**e, at the hands of the invading army

🚇 Today, the tower’s partially surviving structure can be visited in Humboldthain Park, a short walk from Berlin-Gesundbrunnen station. Though much of it was destroyed and buried after the war, parts of the bunker remain accessible via Berliner Unterwelten’s tours

03/10/2024

The Bunker am Heckeshorn in Wannsee was built in 1943 during WWII 🏗️

🏢 It was a key air defence command centre for Berlin, coordinating Flak units and fighter planes

📡 After the war, it was used for communication during the Berlin Blockade/Airlift - one of the most important episodes of the Cold War

🏥 In the 80s it became an emergency hospital with room for 400 patients

🛑 Today, it’s closed to the public, but is sometimes open for special tours

⛑️ The bunker walls are made from 4m-thick (12 foot) steel-reinforced concrete - hard to get rid of - and so, it’s still here today!

02/10/2024

Arno Breker was perhaps Hi**er’s favourite sculptor 🏛️

🎨 His Berlin studio was built so that he could continue making huge statues for the N**i’s ever-growing number of construction projects and monuments

🚫 Breker mostly didn’t use the studio much though - he worked in another one out of town, safe from WWII bombs

⚒️ Post-war, having survived the war mostly intact, it became a workspace for other artists

✨ Today, it’s Kunsthaus Dahlem, showcasing modernist art, and home to a lovely cafe ☕️

30/09/2024

Hans Poelzig’s Neue Sachlichkeit vision at its finest 🎬

✨ Built in 1929, the Babylon Kino is all about clean lines and minimalist design

📐 The New Objectivity style, the hot new thing at the time, shines through with its straight lines and smooth curves

🎞️ Berlin was one of the most important places in the world for film when the Babylon Kino opened

🎥 Movies such as Nosferatu, Sinfonie der Großstadt, and Blue Angel were landmark pieces of cinema

🫀 The Babylon is a great place to see them today! Not only do they show films from the birth of German cinema, but they do themed movie runs, and some of the old movies are accompanied by a live organ player, just like the old days - perhaps the last showings of their kind in the world!

29/09/2024

The grave of men who tried to kill Hi**er

🪦 They’re not buried here anymore, though

👨🏻‍✈️ On July 20 1944, Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg planted a bomb in a briefcase beneath a table at a meeting with Hi**er

💼 He then boarded a plane back to Berlin – the plan, alongside 1,000+ high-level co-conspirators: stage a coup at the height of WWII

✈️ As Stauffenberg was flying back to Berlin, news broke that Hi**er survived, and the plot had failed

🪖 That evening, Stauffenberg and four others – Friedrich Olbricht, Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim, Werner von Haeften, and Ludwig Beck – were executed at the Bendler Block, Wehrmacht HQ

🗺️ They were buried - just for one night - in the Alter St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof cemetery. Their bodies were then moved to an unknown location

🇬🇧 Following the failed plot and Hi**er’s rage directed at his own men, due to which around 2,000+ people were executed, British forces decided to stop trying to kill Hi**er. Their thinking was that someone mad in power was less dangerous than someone more capable

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My opinion:
Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators are often lauded as heroes. Certainly some of their actions were bold, and may have saved the lives of many concentration camp victims, among others.

We must remember though, that many of them wanted to continue fighting WWII, albeit more effectively than Germany was doing up to this point.

Moreover, these were wealthy, connected, and powerful people who had profited from the fascist regime. One might argue that 1944 is a bit late in the game to get serious about getting rid of Hi**er.

26/09/2024

👫 The boy and girl above these apartment are quite controversial…

🏗️ They’re part of the 1940 Grazer Damm estate, the largest housing project built by the N**is

🌃 The apartments were cheaply built, though the space between them, size of the courtyards, and gaps between buildings were designed to make them better withstand air raids

🙋🏼‍♂️🙋🏻‍♀️ Though they don’t have any N**i party identifying insignia, the boy and girl are clearly dressed in Hi**er Youth and Bund Deutscher Mädel (League of German Girls) uniforms

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Thanks (again) to excellent Digital Cosmonaut blog for providing so much excellent information about Berlin

25/09/2024

Next time you’re in U Rüdesheimer Platz, look up… 🪲

🦋 You’ll spot some cute & fascinating creatures!

🌿 The station is decorated with nods to the Rheingau wine region, after which streets in the area are named

🪲 There are loads of little details, but I wanted to show off these insect mosaics the artist Martin Meyer-Pyritz

🚇 The station itself dates back to 1913, when it was on Line A, today it’s on the U3

🛠️ Ever noticed these little guys?

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Videos

A Nazi symbol at the Lichtenberg Town Hall? 🏛️ 🚨 79 years after WWII, a swastika is still visible 📸 A couple noticed it in their wedding photos ⚒️ The symbol was added in 1937 but partially hidden after the war 🗣️ Local politicians are pushing for its removal 🏰 But the building is protected as a historic site ❓ Should it stay or go? ++++++ Source: Birgit Bürkner, “Streit um Hakenkreuz-Rathaus Lichtenberg,” B.Z., 19 September 2024

🏠 Berlin still has some surviving Third Reich architecture… but not what you’d expect 🌲 These picturesque houses near Krumme Lanke were built for SS officials and their families 🏡 The houses were influenced by the garden city movement and “Heimatschutz” style 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 They were designed to create an ideal community for the ‘perfect’ citizens 🛠️ Built between 1938 and 1940, only half of the planned houses were completed 🌍 After WWII, the homes were used to house refugees and resistance fighters 📜 In 1992, the houses were placed under memorial protection ++++++ 📸 Garden City Diagram Ebenezer Howard (1850-1928), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 📸 SS Men Bundesarchiv, Bild 101III-Lerche Stereo-046-03 Lerche, Karl-Gustav / CC-BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons 📸 SS Men in Berlin Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-H15390 / CC-BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

🕵️‍♂️ There’s a missing museum in Berlin… and that’s actually a good thing! 🏛️ In 1886, a grand museum opened on Königgrätzer Str 🌍 It was called the Royal Museum of Ethnology, a symbol of Berlin’s empire 🧭 Just a year before, the Berlin Conference divided Africa 🧠 The museum’s mission? To prove the superiority of Europeans 🔬 and so, German scientists measured skulls to justify colonial rule; if they could prove that the people they were oppressing were inferior and less-developed, they could justify their brutal actions ⚰️ As the want for skulls increased, so did the number of skulls coming to Berlin 🇳🇦 As Germany perpetrated the Namibian genocide at the beginning of the 20th Century, even more skulls could be sent here 🏢 so many skulls were brought here in fact, that they needed to create a larger facility in Dahlem just to store them 📜 Today, while some skulls have been returned, many of them remain in Berlin 💀 Finding provenance will likely be impossible ++++++ 📸 Adolf Bastian Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons 📸💀 Phrenological Skull Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) CC 4.0 Wikimedia Commons ✍️ The Phrenologist Archibald Standish Hartrick OBE RWS (7 August 1864 - 1 February 1950) Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons 📸 Colonial Troops in German Southwest Africa Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R24738 / Autor/-in unbekannt / CC-BY-SA 3.0 📸 Herero Prisoners in chains Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons ✍️ Skulls being sent to Germany Public Domain, via Wikipedia

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