A time warp image exemplifying how time flies faster than we can comprehend....From a Lufthansa poster celebrating 25 years of airmail service in 1944. "Tempus Fugit"... already in ancient times the Romans felt that time flies. Today it seems that time flies even faster. Think about our own lives flitting along with incredible changes in… Continue reading An 1844 German postal coach encounters its evolution just 100 years later
The inauguration of the Berlin Siegessäule (Victory Column) is depicted here in an 1873 artist's rendering of the ceremony conducted by Kaiser Wilhelm I...the image in gold is a close up of the Victoria statue atop the column, as it appears today. 1873 Originally, the Victory Column was designed by Heinrich Strack in 1864 to… Continue reading Inauguration of the 1873 Berlin Siegessäule (Victory Column)
This is an interesting and charming little painting by Adolph von Menzel and a somewhat unusual subject matter for Menzel. It caught my attention for those reasons but even more so when I saw its title, Blinde Kuh (Blind Cow). Blinde Kuh is a game, like Blind Man's Bluff, but it’s also a common German… Continue reading Beautiful girl purposely bumping into a knight in full armor…Blinde Kuh?
From the early 1930’s until 1945, the German movie industry rivaled Hollywood in terms of quality, distribution and popularity. It was the golden era of Europe's film industry…with the high point in 1942 when 1.067 billion people were in paid attendance throughout Europe. The movie poster shown here features Zarah Leander and Viktor Staal in… Continue reading Once upon a time the German movie industry rivaled Hollywood
Max und Moritz, the iconic terrible duo who were involved in many bad pranks, are known to all in German speaking lands. This image shows the boys playing a practical joke...pouring gun powder into a smoker’s pipe so that they could later laugh about the results of their prank. These two comic-book-like characters… two young… Continue reading Bad boys Max and Moritz were created by Wilhelm Busch over 150 years ago
Mothers Day will be celebrated in Germany this year on May 12th, just as it is here in the United Sates. A lot of German customs and practices…for example Kindergarten and the Christmas Tree…were adopted here in the US, but Mothers Day is the opposite. It started as an American holiday, officially first celebrated in… Continue reading A lot of German customs and practices…for example Kindergarten and the Christmas Tree…were adopted here in the US, but Mothers Day is the opposite.
The Image above is from a book, History of Clothing, from a page showing outfits from the first third of the 16th century. The three men at the right are Landsknechte, or servants of the land, demonstrating the very colorful and unique clothing that was worn by these mercenary soldiers. Maximillian I... who reigned the… Continue reading Landsknechte are probably best known for the variety and flamboyance of their unconventional uniforms
"Dinner at the Ball" captures a moment in time during the high point of peace and prosperity in the German Empire. It was 7 years after the German unification of 1871 and was the era of Kaiser Wilhelm I and his Chancellor Bismarck, who created a booming economy and a foreign policy that produced 43… Continue reading Most of Menzel’s paintings were quickly gathered up by museums and patrons in Germany
The 1904 unveiling of the Wagner Memorial in Berlin’s Tiergarten Park was a major social event, interestingly thanks to the opera singer Ludwig Leichner, who donated the Memorial to the city of Berlin. The event was memorialized in a painting by the famous artist, Anton von Werner. He was commissioned to capture the unveiling ceremony,… Continue reading The Wagner Memorial in Berlin was donated by an Opera Singer in 1904
Königsberg, 1937 The photo above was taken in 1937 in Königsberg, the beautiful 700 year old medieval city that was once the capital of East Prussia. In that peaceful and optimistic year, none of the residents could foresee the terror that would befall them only seven years later. Summer 1940. My parents lived in Königsberg… Continue reading Precious family photos that survived WWII
For People Proud of their German Heritage 