Overview

Welcome!

From 2012 till 2014, I published a series of articles covering Berlin’s history. I had to stop, since I passionately started working as a tour-guide.

Here is an overview of all the articles I wrote. Good luck!

(Bi-)Weekly updates —

2014:

• The Holocaust and the Holocaust Memorial. A few insights, evoking many questions…
• Making Berlin ‘Judenfrei’. The decimation of Berlin’s jewish population by railway deportations.
• Debunking the Hitlerbunker. About the myths of Hitler’s death and his last accommodation.
• Das Buddhistische Haus. A far journey within Berlin.
• Between grieve and glory: the Soviet War Memorial in Treptower Park.
• The flopped Stalinallee (1949-1961). What happens with a birthday gift to the Red Tsar.
• Motorflugplatz Johannisthal-Adlershof. Berlin’s first airport and its life after death… Is this Tempelhof’s future?
• The Czech Embassy. A representative of brutalism.
• The Berlin Wall. Unifying two parts of town.
  

2013:

• A confusing (hi)story. The Memorial to Polish Soldiers and German Anti-Fascists.
• The Koppenplatz. A tiny park with a huge history.
• The ‘Dicke Marie’. All we know about Berlin’s oldest oak.
• The Schwerbelastungskörper. How a Nazi Triumphal Arch would end up in a sinkhole.
• The cone? An ant hill bunker? Or is it a concrete cigar? The bunker at the RAW-Gelände.
• The Fichtebunker in Kreuzberg. How a gas holder made it through World War II.
• The Hochbunker Heckeshorn. Hard to miss, yet hard to find.
• Humor and cabaret in Berlin #1. The introduction the new arts, the year 1901.
• The Waldbühne. A normal venue with a peculiar history.
• The Friedhof Grunewald-Forst. The history of a graveyard whose days are numbered.
• A half-blind communist with a sharp eye for the future. Marinus van der Lubbe (1909-1934) and his Reichstag Fire.
• Historical tales from the Görlitzer Park (1865-2013). Görli’s fallen King and its upcoming nobility.
• The unchristian history of Berlin’s churches. The barracks in Neukölln and the forced labourers at the graveyards.
• Hanami in Berlin. The Japanese Cherries at the former death strips.
• KZ-Außenlager NCR in Berlin-Neukölln. The concentration camp for female jews in a densed neighbourhood.
• Warnecke & Böhm. Expropriation and forced labour in Berlin-Weißensee.
• Dadaism in Berlin. The radical opponents of the establishment and their (un)organised contradictions.
• The first experience as a forced labour. The Durchgangslager Rehbrücke and its slave trade.
• Berlin’s Arbeitserziehungslager. The penal camps for forced labourers in Berlin-Wuhlheide and Großbeeren.
• The bloody Klinkerwerk complex. How Sachsenhausen’s infamous subcamp became a full-grown concentration camp.
• Forced labour in Sachsenhausen. Weapons and toys, death and rescue.
• The Schönholzer Heide. From ‘Traumland’ to forced labour camp.
• The Black History of the Tempelhofer Freiheit. The concentration camp and the forced labour – the remembrance and the future.
• The coupe d’etat which only brought losers. The Kapp-Putsch in Berlin and its lost remembrance.
• The Fabrikaktion and the Rosenstraße protest. Discussion and remembrance about a public demonstration against the Nazi regime.
• The attempt to kill Hitler. Claus von Stauffenberg – the 20 July Plot and his position in History.
• Aktion T4 in Berlin. The mass murder on disabled patients.

2012:

• The heritage of declined rulers. Schloss Schönhausen – Prussia and East Germany.
• Trümmerberge and Trümmerfrauen. Artificial hills and the social myth.
• Indestructable love in Berlin. A lgbtq+ history since 1896.
• Kurt Tucholsky (1890-1935) – advocate of the dying Weimar Republic.
• The 1953 Uprising.
• ‘Cayo Ernesto Thaelmann’ – how an Altona-born workman fought himself a way to rest in the Cuban beach.
• Built for the nobility – used to exchange Cold War spies. The Glienicker Brücke and its remarkable life story.
• The Porajmos in Berlin. The ‘Zigeunerrastplatz’ in Marzahn and the memorial sites which came too late (1933-2012)
• The most popular Swabian in Berlin: Georg Elser – his attempt to kill Hitler in 1939 & his monuments now.
• Unter den Linden, the summer of ’78. Two failed attempts to assassinate Kaiser Wilhelm I.
• The Luisenstädtische Kanal. A nonexisting canal in a likewise district.
• The Teufelsberg. A ruinated history.
• Hitler’s guillotine in Berlin. The Plötzensee prison and the nowadays Gedenkstätte.
• Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde: a socialist heaven.

Other updates:

• Re-shaping the ‘U-Bahn Spinne’? A new design for Map of the Berlin Underground – and the old ones.
• Recommended: Red Army Soldiers’ graves (& their memorials)
  
• The project ‘Enthüllt. Berlin und seine Denkmäler’ (‘Revealed. Berlin and its statues’) in the Zitadelle Spandau. The statues’ history and their future.
• Guided tour. Thirteen baracks for forced labourers during World War II (2nd of December)

Project Hans (Heinrich) Müller: an ode to the architect.
Early 2014, I’ve visited about thirty buildings created by Hans Müller. So far, he is my favorite architect within the German capital. This page is an overview for the articles that I published.

• Hans Heinrich Müller’s architectural work in Rummelsburg & Oberschöneweide
• Hans Heinrich Müller’s “Gleichrichterwerke”
• Hans Heinrich Müller’s Electricity Stations in the Berlin districts of Wittenau, Reinickendorf and Spandau
• Hans Heinrich Müller’s constructions in Berlin-Wedding
• Hans Heinrich Müller. His creations in Berlin-Mitte
• Hans Heinrich Müller in Neukölln. The Umspannwerk Richardstraße
• Hans Heinrich Müller’s “Ab- &Umspannwerke” in the Berlin districts of Köpenick and Adlershof
• Hans Heinrich Müller’s Abspannwerk in Berlin-Wilhelmsruh
• Hans Heinrich Müller in Charlottenburg. The Umspannwerk Leibniz
• Hans Heinrich Müller’s buildings in Prenzlauer Berg
• Hans Heinrich Müller. Two buildings in Kreuzberg
• Hans Heinrich Müller’s Kraftwerk in Berlin-Moabit
• Hans Heinrich Müller in Steglitz. The start of an architect (1909-1919)

Hanami in Berlin. The Japanese Cherries at the former death strips.

Due to the Tropical Christmas that was in contrast to former year’s Siberian Winter, the cherry trees are already fully blossoming.
For this years’ Hanami celebration, one can either go to the ‘Garten der Welt’ at the 13th of April, or visit the former death strip between Berlin-Lichterfelde and Teltow on Sunday the 27th of April.

Histories from the capital of the 20th century

Lees hier de Nederlandse versie van deze update op de site van Jonge Historici Schrijven Geschiedenis.

I am not going to lie about it. This update is about an open-air celebration of a traditional event which probably isn’t there to celebrate yet. This might seem a bit absurd, although nothing is wrong with a Sunday picnic anyway – regardless what the tradition instruction you. Upcoming Sunday, April 28th, the 12th hanami or Kirschblütenfest (cherry blossom celebration) is announced at the former Totestreife (death strip) in Teltow – a former GDR district at the southern border of Berlin-Lichterfelde. About 50 market stands will provide in Japanese products and food during the event. A couple of honourable guests from Japan are invited. What is this tradition all about? What is the history of this event? And what does the tree mean to Berlin nowadays?

Hanami (flower viewing) is a Japanese celebration of the…

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Welcome,

Dear audience,

your host of this blog -Joep- welcomes you to read about historical thrills in Berlin, for being the ‘capital of the 20th century’. For 25 weeks, I wrote extensive updates each Friday. Thereafter, the updates will be posted biweekly. My updates are supported by historical material, mostly photos. In addition I usually try to find out what is left of the history – or what is there to remember it.

When it comes to themes, one can expect that I may focus relatively much on my favorite – namely the history of Nazi Germany and the GDR. Though I like to seek for the good intentions in political development plans, which are often a witness of self-overestimation, the darkest and most inhumane sides of political regimes catch most of my interest – meaning torture and death. To a lesser extent, I am interested in the historical ways of spending leisure. Among them are the history of the German cabaret and the activities of historical youth cultures. For the rest, the blog provides in a variety of topics – from train stations till historical figures.

Because my historical interest does not stop after the borders of Berlin or Germany, I launched another blog about this which I gave the title History for Hipsters. Although the topics and style are more personal, you are welcome to visit it!