Conrad Haas: The 16th Century Rocket Pioneer
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 9, 2021
In 1961, a professor at the University of Bucharest, made a surprising discovery in the archives of the city of Sibiu, in Romania. It was a ...
Showing posts with the label Germany
The Pumps That Keep Germany Dry
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 1, 2021
The Ruhr valley in North Rhine-Westphalia was once Germany’s industrial heartland producing coal and steel, the two very essential raw mater...
Hitler’s Monster Railway
Kaushik Patowary
Feb 27, 2021
Hitler’s megalomaniac plans for Germany included a monumental new railway. This railway was supposed to connect the most important cities i...
Mäusebunker: Berlin’s Mouse Bunker
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 26, 2021
Sitting squarely in the middle of Berlin is a monstrous-looking building with façade of solid grey concrete, punctured by long ventilation t...
Why Julius Caesar Built a Bridge Over The Rhine And Destroyed it 18 Days Later
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 4, 2021
In the early summer of 55 BC Julius Caesar had already begun his conquest of Gaul three years earlier. At that time the eastern border of th...
The Dambusters Raid of 1943
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 11, 2020
On the night of 16–17 May 1943, a squadron of the Royal Air Force conducted a daring mission deep into German territory to destroy two dams ...
Fokker’s Synchronizing Gear And The Birth of Fighter Planes
Kaushik Patowary
Oct 16, 2020
The first airplanes to join the First World War were not made for combat. They merely played the role of an observer, scouting enemy positio...
The Disgrace of Gijon: The Match That Changed World Cup Football
Kaushik Patowary
Sep 21, 2020
For the first time in the history of FIFA World Cup, the 1982 edition of the tournament in Spain saw 24 teams take part instead of the usual...
The Erfurt Latrine Disaster
Kaushik Patowary
Sep 1, 2020
Deaths are always unfortunate and even more so if they occur as a result of an accident. But sometimes there are incidents that have particu...
The Uranium Cubes From a Nazi Nuclear Reactor
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 31, 2020
In the summer of 2013, Physicist Timothy Koeth of University of Maryland received an unexpected gift from one of his friends. It was a small...
Schuttberg: Germany’s Rubble Mountains
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 7, 2020
Scores of hills dot the edges of many German cities, but these are not natural. They are known as Schuttberg, or “debris hill”. Schuttberg...
Büsingen am Hochrhein: The Town Torn Between Two Countries
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 2, 2020
Büsingen am Hochrhein is a German town with a lot of Swiss character. That’s because this small town on the Rhine is entirely surrounded by ...
Dürkheimer Riesenfass: The Giant Cask
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 30, 2020
The historic town of Bad Dürkheim lying on the edge of Palatinate Forest on Germany's oldest wine routes, is well known for its vineyard...
Dürer's Rhinoceros: A 16th-Century Viral Fake
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 16, 2020
Five hundred years ago, Europe saw its first rhinoceros in more than a thousand years. The animal was fairly common during Roman times see...
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...
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...
