Berlin Never Forgets
Berlin obviously is a city steeped in history: everywhere you look you'll see a marker, monument, building, or something else that's meaningful. I doubt anyone is surprised. However, this street…
Paternoster Failure II
Twice I've attempted to ride a paternoster lift (elevator); twice I've failed. My first attempt was Stuttgart, Germany City Hall which has a working paternoster. Unfortunately, our arrival corresponded to…
Random Learnings #50
Sovetsk, Russia is part of the Kalingrad enclave, physically separated from mainland Russia. It's even further separated from mainland Russia as planes can no longer fly over the Baltics but…
Random Learnings #43
Lebensraum is often attributed to Hitler and the Nazis as a component of Germany's imperial and racist visions towards the east, and contributed to the Holocaust as killing the Jews…
Random Learnings #40
The Carnegie Museum of Art is currently exhibiting the works of the German artist Beate Kuhn. I initially read a contemporary biography in German: despite my sehr schlecht school-boy Germany,…
Random Learnings #39
Karl Marx popularized - but did not create - the slogan From each according to his ability; to each according to his needs that is most often associated with communism.…
World War I Era Maps
My interest in maps - especially older maps - has grown over the past few years, and on a Monday in late February I spent a few hours in the…
Random Learnings #35
How To Overthrow Democracy Alfred Hugenberg was a German industrialist and politician whom, between the world wars, hoped to overthrow the Weimar Republic by influencing public opinion, rather than constitutionally…
Cool Photos #3
A rainy evening walking around Munich, circa 1991. My camera is an Olympus OM/2 35mm camera with a 50mm/1.6f lens and loaded with 3200 ASA black-and-white film . As I…
(Very) Short Berlin Trip
After exploring Poland for four days, my final stop before flying home was a night at the Berlin airport hotel. So after dropping off my car, dumping my bags in…