Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

BerlinCompanion

@berlincompanion.bsky.social

1.9K followers 520 following 1.4K posts

Berlin: things curious & forgotten | Berlin Companion Audio-Walks App | Tagesspiegel: Aus der Zeit | Berlin Companion Podcast| To support my work, go to https://buymeacoffee.com/berlincompanion

buymeacoffee.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

BerlinCompanion @berlincompanion.bsky.social · Feb 26

Good morning #Berlin & Beyond!

And we are live 📻

You will find the last episode of Season 2 of my Berlin history podcast here or on all major platforms. Ta!

S2E10 TUNING IN - ENIGMA'S BIG BERLIN SISTER

Podcast-Folge · Berlin Companion Podcast · S2 F11 · 18 Min.

podcasts.apple.com

3 12

BerlinCompanion @berlincompanion.bsky.social · Jul 22

HAHAHAHA!

Im schwäbischen Dialekt wird die Stubenfliege mit etwa sieben Millimeter Körperlänge als „Mugg“ bezeichnet. Die Bezeichnung Muggeseggele geht ursprünglich auf das lateinische saccellus, sprich den Hodensack zurück.

1 1

BerlinCompanion @berlincompanion.bsky.social · Jul 22

Great question! I have to delve into it:)

BerlinCompanion @berlincompanion.bsky.social · Jun 18

incredible!

BerlinCompanion @berlincompanion.bsky.social · Jun 13

Ich ebenfalls:-) Hat was.

1 1

BerlinCompanion @berlincompanion.bsky.social · Jun 13

Correct - or rather, already corrected:-)

BerlinCompanion @berlincompanion.bsky.social · Jun 13

Controversial & fearless. Outspoken, irritating, unconventional. How did this tiny, limping Jewish lady from eastern Poland managed to move millions? Regardless of whether you agree with her line of thinking or not, Rosa Luxemburg was and is a legend.

#OTD in 1919 she was buried in #Berlin. Again.

RED ROSA’S LAST JOURNEY: THE SECOND FUNERAL OF ROSA LUXEMBURG

Today in Berlin: 13 June, 1919

theberlincompanion.com

2 3 21

BerlinCompanion @berlincompanion.bsky.social · Jun 13

Inspired by drinking water;-)

GERMAN WORD OF THE DAY: TIRNKWASSERVERORDNUNG

GERMAN WORD OF THE DAY: TIRNKWASSERVERORDNUNG

Trinkwasserverordnung aka TrinkvW stands for German “Drinking Water Ordinance”.

theberlincompanion.com

2 10

BerlinCompanion @berlincompanion.bsky.social · Jun 9

It’s not every day that a man or a woman are born that would go on to discover a new planet.

But even that event feels rarer than the birth of a person who’d refuse to take credit for the discovery.

In June 9, 1812 one such man was born: Johann Gottfried Galle.

IT CAME FROM THE OUTER SPACE: A MODEST GENIUS IS BORN

Today in Berlin: June 9, 1812

theberlincompanion.com

3 5

BerlinCompanion @berlincompanion.bsky.social · Jun 8

A big city is like an onion: with nearly endless layers of stories & images. Let’s unpeel another one for Berlin: where the world-famous Olympiastadion stands today, Berlin already had an Olympic Stadion before. Pity that the only thing that was missing was the Olympia itself. Twice…

#OTD in 1913

PATRIOT GAMES: DEUTSCHES STADION OPENED IN BERLIN

Today in Berlin: June 8, 1913

theberlincompanion.com

1 8

BerlinCompanion @berlincompanion.bsky.social · Jun 6

Imagine U live next to someone: U bump into each other in the staircase, chat about prices of apples or wine, meet when picking up children from the Kita.

And then they're wrapped up by a terrorist squad & charged.

Incredibly as it sounds, that's exactly what happened in Berlin #OTD in 1990.

INGRID FROM MARZAHN

Today in Berlin: 6 June, 1990

theberlincompanion.com

1 6

BerlinCompanion @berlincompanion.bsky.social · Jun 5

Namibian? That’s fascinating! I’ve just done some genealogy research there - what a mad piece of German history this is.

BerlinCompanion @berlincompanion.bsky.social · Jun 5

Very much so. And Ali Aziz's original grave site is still marked with the stone and a plaque in Urbanstraße (on the Carl-von-Ossietzky School grounds).

1 1

BerlinCompanion @berlincompanion.bsky.social · Jun 4

Muss absolut den Film sehen! Das Busch ist brilliant.

BerlinCompanion @berlincompanion.bsky.social · Jun 4

That feeling we all know: sitting at home, unkempt but happy, enjoying a nice meal & an occasional burp, when a sudden knock on the door rips U out of Ur slumber. An unexpected guest ante portas! That's how Friedrich Wilhelm II must've felt as someone told him Ali Aziz Efendi'd just arrived in town.

THE TURKISH SURPRISE

Today in Berlin: June 4, 1797

theberlincompanion.com

1 1 6

BerlinCompanion @berlincompanion.bsky.social · Jun 4

1806 portrait of Alexander von Humboldt by Friedrich Georg Weitsch (source: bildindex.de/document/obj...)

Front page of the 1797 edition of Humboldt's book on self-experimenting (read it all here: play.google.com/books/reader...)

Bildnis Alexander von Humboldt | Friedrich Georg Weitsch | Bildindex der Kunst & Architektur - Bildindex der Kunst & Architektur - Startseite Bildindex

bildindex.de

BerlinCompanion @berlincompanion.bsky.social · Jun 4

Or you can listen to @greg_jenner 's brilliant weekly podcast, where he and his guests explain the phenomenon of vital electricity & Humboldt's humble yet acutely painful attempts at testing its limits;-)

bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...

BBC Radio 4 - You're Dead to Me, Vital Electricity

Join Greg and his guests in the 17th century to learn all about "vital electricity".

bbc.co.uk

1 3

BerlinCompanion @berlincompanion.bsky.social · Jun 4

The part of his report where "helle Blitze" (bright lightnings) occur before his eyes was probably the least painful outcome of the experiment... I'D rather have some coffee instead😂

You can read all about it in Humboldt's 1797
"Versuche über die gereizte Muskel- & Nervenfaser"

1 1

BerlinCompanion @berlincompanion.bsky.social · Jun 4

Feeling a tad weary, a bit bleak today? Whatever U do, don't follow in #Berlin-born Prussian polymath's Alexander von Humboldt' footsteps & try one of his famous self-experiments: in 1790s Humboldt put a zinc electrode in his mouth & a silver one up the hole on the opposite, well, pole.

1 2 8

BerlinCompanion @berlincompanion.bsky.social · Jun 4

Or the Vienna and Prague Corpse-Trams.

BerlinCompanion @berlincompanion.bsky.social · Jun 3

Oh god, one hopes!

Felipe Torres Medina @felipetmedina.bsky.social · Jun 3

For sale. 200-year-old condom. Never used.

The Guardian @theguardian.com · Jun 3

Dutch museum displays 200-year-old condom: ‘We suspect it was never used’

BerlinCompanion @berlincompanion.bsky.social · Jun 3

#OTD 1913 a very special railway line opened in #Berlin: at least half of its passengers - despite travelling in what you could call comfy conditions (sleeper carriage, no less), left the train a bit stiff…

Get your earphones ready: today sth to listen to:-)

TAKE THE L-TRAIN: LAST STOP "STAHNSDORF"

Today in Berlin: June 3, 1913

theberlincompanion.com

1 1 11

BerlinCompanion @berlincompanion.bsky.social · Jun 2

02.06.1967 - a watershed moment in Berlin’s/German history. Would student protest movement have radicalised as it did without a policeman pulling a trigger that night?

Legitimate protest was quenched with cruelty many of its perpetrators knew only too well: from the darkest chapter in history.

THE LETHAL LEBERWURST: WHEN THE SHAH CAME TO BERLIN

Today in Berlin: 2 June, 1967

theberlincompanion.com

BerlinCompanion @berlincompanion.bsky.social · May 29

Leider nicht (und ich frage mich selbst warum) aber es ist eine Wunderbare „Challenge“ sie zu finden ✊

BerlinCompanion @berlincompanion.bsky.social · May 29

In Berlin 2 things are certain: at least once a week your S-Bahn line won’t run, &, if you don’t keep your bike in the flat OR nail it to the ground + surround it with a repellent magnetic dome, sooner or later it will be stolen.

A tradition of bike-theft in Berlin began exactly 137 yrs ago today.

BICYCLE THIEVES

Today in Berlin: 29 May, 1888

theberlincompanion.com

2 24

BerlinCompanion @berlincompanion.bsky.social · May 27

That's only one of the reasons - Berlin actively protected its green areas from an early stage on. First because they were royal hunting grounds (mostly) and then because a group of people decided it would be the best thing to make sure the forests stayed. Waldvertrag (Forest Treaty) was ingenious.

1 2