Memories and hints of a travelling IT professional.
During Nazi times many Germans became guilty by working for or collaborating with the regime. But where does personal responsibility begin? That is a question that becomes evident when visiting the Erinnerungsort Topf & Söhne at Erfurt. It is located in the administrative building of a factory founded in 1878 by Johann Andreas Topf. It produced brewery machines, ventilation systems and ovens.
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The German capital city Berlin stands for history, politics, art, culture and party. For tall buildings, monuments and endless streets. There are the rivers Spree and Havel; you can find many parks, but to relax in nature you also never need to ride very far. A good option for this is the Pfaueninsel (‘peacock island‘), a river island within the Havel close to the ‘border’ to Potsdam. It is since 1990 part of the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage at Berlin and only accessible by ferry boat.
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The Kreuzberg is with 66 meters height the highest elevation of Berlin. Since the 15th century this ‘mountain’ was used to grow wine grapes. Today it is covered by a nice park that many Berliner use for a walk. On its top you’ll find the Prussian National Monument for the Liberation Wars – it was erected in 1821 after the victory against Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815. Initially it was planned to create a vast church in Gothic-style to commemorate this, but it was to costly.
Continue reading “Viktoriapark”
The Volkspark Humboldthain is a beautiful garden in the north of Berlin. Construction works started in 1869 at the 100. anniversary of the birth of Alexander von Humboldt. It includes a nice rose garden and since 1942 a massive amount of concrete: with the use of forced labor a high-rise bunker with an anti-aircraft warfare position was built, the Flakturm Humboldthain. Flak is an abbreviation for Flugabwehrkanone meaning anti-aircraft gun.
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The Waldbühne Berlin is a fantastic open-air stage in the Murellenschlucht valley close to the Olympiastadion of Berlin. More than 22,000 persons can attend concerts and other events there; the biggest outdoor stage I’ve ever seen. It was built in 1936 for the Olympic summer games following the design of a Greek theatre. The creation was initiated by Joseph Goebbels and the layout included a VIP box for Adolf Hitler. You can still today guess in which time it was built by looking at the artworks at the entrance gates.
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Everyone who has ever travelled by highspeed train to Berlin knows Spandau: It is the last stop before you reach Berlin Hauptbahnhof. Not too many tourists leave the train there, but there would be a good reason: the city has one of the oldest fortresses of the high renaissance period, the Zitadelle Spandau. It is located in the northeast of the historic city center within river Havel.
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Amalie Emmy Noether is probably the most important woman in the history of mathematics and left a strong footprint in modern algebra. She did so facing strong resistance caused by the fact that she was a woman, Jewish, and on the left politically. Emmy Noether was born at Erlangen in 1882 and started her studies at Göttingen. She returned to Erlangen after one semester until she received her PhD in mathematics there.
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When in 2023 Christopher Nolans movie Oppenheimer came to cinemas worldwide the history of Julius Robert Oppenheimer also came back to focus. How should he be remembered? As a genius physicist? Or is the leader of the Manhattan project and creator of the first atomic bomb, the destroyer of the worlds (a quote from the Bhagavad Gita), responsible for the death of so many people at Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Or did he save many lives by helping to end World War II (as he stated himself); at a point in time when Nazi Germany already had surrendered? A question also relevant for the city of Göttingen, as Oppenheimer was living and working there for some time.
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The Rosengarten (rose garden) of Göttingen is a forgotten place close to the new town hall building and the city center, just behind the Wallanlagen. Some people might walk from the Cheltenhampark via the Albanifriedhof to the Rosengarten and discover lots of beautiful roses there – but it is typically not a place you’re visiting on purpose. Younger citizens might remember that school’s out parties where once celebrated there, others might have been at this place because it is the schoolyard of the Bonifatiusschule.
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Claude Monet is a famous French painter born at Paris in 1840. In the middle of his long career he became the founder of Impressionism, starting with his famous work Impression, soleil levant. It is an art style I like very much and to see the works of Monet you should typically visit Paris: at the Musée Marmottan Monet or the Musée de l’Orangerie for his water lilies (‘Les Nymphéas‘). But did you know that you can find the largest collection of his works outside France at the Museum Barberini of Potsdam, Germany?
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