The World’s Largest Brick Bridge
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 10, 2020
Before the age of steel and concrete, bricks and stones were the only two materials available to architects and bridge designers hoping to s...
Showing posts with the label Germany
Clever Hans: The Horse Who Could Do Math
Kaushik Patowary
May 29, 2020
In a paved courtyard surrounded by high apartment houses in the northern part of Berlin, a small crowd had gathered to watch an old high s...
Pervitin: The Wonder Drug That Fueled Nazi Germany
Kaushik Patowary
May 25, 2020
When Heinrich Böll, the German writer and Nobel laureate, was a young man in his twenties, like many able-bodied youths of his time, he jo...
Vennbahn: The Railway That Created a Peculiar Border Problem
Kaushik Patowary
May 14, 2020
Germany and Belgium’s border problem. Photo: gunnsteinlye/Flickr Along the German-Belgian border runs an old disused railway track, the ...
Rettungsbojen: The Floating Rescue Buoys of The Luftwaffe
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 13, 2020
During World War 2, both the RAF and the Luftwaffe lost a large number of pilots at sea. The British used a couple of high speed boats that ...
The Historic Meeting on Elbe River
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 10, 2020
April 25, 1945, is a date few remember. But it was a significant day in the history of the world. On this day, American troops sweeping in...
The Hanging Cages of St. Lambert's Church in Münster
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 12, 2020
If you crane your neck and look up while standing in front of St Lambert's Church in Münster, Germany, you can make out three iron cages...
Hessy Levinsons Taft: The Jewish Woman Who Was Hitler’s “Perfect Aryan Baby”
Kaushik Patowary
Feb 24, 2020
Hessy Levinsons Taft, a retired chemistry professor at St. John's University, New York, has an amusing story to tell. When she was only ...
The Mysterious Sky Battle Over Nuremberg in 1561
Kaushik Patowary
Feb 18, 2020
Throughout history, many observers have reported seeing strange things in the sky. Some of these sightings were, in all probability, natur...
Scuttling at Scapa Flow: When The German Navy Sank its Own Ships
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 27, 2020
The Armistice of 11 November 1918, that ended hostiles between the Allied and the Allies, left little for negotiation. The Germans were give...
The Last German Surrender
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 24, 2020
The weather station where 11 German soldiers were trapped, forgotten by the fallen Nazis. Weather played an important role during the Se...
The Cottbus MiG-21 Crash of 1975
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 18, 2020
On Schmellwitzer Street in Cottbus, in northeast Germany, stands an old five-story apartment building. High up on the face of the building...
Mödlareuth: The German Village Divided by The Cold War
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 13, 2020
The village of Mödlareuth in south Germany, straddles the border between the two federal states of Bavaria and Thuringia. For more than 14...
Bremer Loch: The Hole of Bremen
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 13, 2020
Image credit: dcabrerizo/Flickr There is an unusual donation box installed beneath the streets in front of the State Parliament building...
Repurposing Old Industrial Sites As Public Parks
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 27, 2019
The public park Landschaftspark in Duisburg-Meiderich, Germany. Image credit: mini_malist/Flickr Landschaftspark, or “landscape park”, of ...
The Zeppelin Spy Basket
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 19, 2019
One of the most perilous positions in the crew of a German Zeppelin during the First World War was that of the aerial lookout, whose job was...
Bridges With Buildings—Part 2
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 5, 2019
During the Middle Ages, it was common to have buildings built on top of bridges. These spaces were rented out to shopkeepers and merchants, ...
The Berlin Candy Bomber
Kaushik Patowary
Oct 31, 2019
Following the end of World War 2, Germany was broken up and divided among the Allies as one divides war booty. The western half was occupie...
Soda Locomotives
Kaushik Patowary
Oct 29, 2019
An interesting type of locomotive engine that found very brief and limited use in Europe, as well as in America, was the soda locomotive. ...
Carl Wilhelm Scheele: The Unlucky Chemist
Kaushik Patowary
Oct 22, 2019
You know Bad Luck Brian. Now let me tell you about Hard-Luck Scheele. Carl Wilhelm Scheele was born in 1742 in Stralsund, in present day Ge...
