Stories: Germany

Stories connected to Germany.

• From “load a gun” to “invite to a birthday.”In Wangerooge Frisian, onlidder once meant “to load,” as with a ship or gun. Contact with German appears to h…
• A German cake became an internet in-joke.Black Forest gateau, the chocolate-and-cherry cake, appeared in the 2007 game Portal. Its role in the game he…
• He opposed slavery and secession. Then was drafted by the Confederacy.German-born Dethloff Willrodt moved to Texas and opposed slavery and secession, yet was conscripted into the…
• An elephant once roamed Europe. Mature bulls averaged about 13 tonnes.The extinct straight-tusked elephant lived in Europe and western Asia during the Pleistocene. Fully grown mal…
• Its score was lost at sea. The reconstruction was lost in war.Kōsaku Yamada composed Japan's first symphony in 1912. He said the score was lost in a maritime accident afte…
• He asked for his grandfather's remains. A treaty had already promised their return.Tanganyikan chief Adam Sapi Mkwawa began seeking the return of his grandfather's skull from Germany in 1948.…
• The singer was performing in Italy. 'She' was also appearing in Germany.After Haiducii's cover of 'Dragostea din tei' became popular, impersonators lip-synced at several booked appe…
• A thin silver sheet was too fragile to open. CT scans revealed its words.A third-century silver amulet found in Frankfurt in 2018 contained a rolled-up sheet. Researchers used high-r…
• A publisher was 92. He still rode his bike to work.German publisher Hans Dieter Beck, who headed the legal side of C. H. Beck, usually cycled to work. His last…
• In 1919, work for women was scarce. She found a job using her husband's name.After World War I, Maria Einsmann used her husband Josef's clothes and insurance card to find work in Germany…
• A 1323 regional agreement explicitly outlawed abducting brides.The Statutes of Upstalsboom, ratified among Frisian regions in 1323, covered public order, courts and currenc…
• A nuclear-fission scientist and his wife sheltered a Jewish musician during the war.German chemist Fritz Strassmann helped discover nuclear fission. During World War II, he and his wife Maria h…
• An old legal term pictured the womb as a fortress.Some Old Frisian legal documents on protecting children and pregnant women use a compound word meaning 'fortr…
• A U.S. college recruited a German player it had never seen play.In 2020, American football player Leander Wiegand was offered an athletic scholarship by the University of Ce…
• He fenced in Berlin, then judged another fencing match.Bernardo de la Guardia, Costa Rica's first Olympic athlete, competed in men's sabre at the 1936 Berlin Games.…
• Few major battles did not mean little sufferingThe War of the Bavarian Succession in 1778–79 became known as the Potato War. Large armies maneuvered, with r…
• This experimental railcar used an aircraft-like pushGermany’s Schienenzeppelin used a rear propeller for propulsion. In 1931 it reached roughly 230 kilometres pe…
• Hands replace rackets and a shuttle replaces the ballIndiaca is played across a net using the hands to strike a large feathered shuttle. Its heavier base and feat…
• Her son’s blotting paper became a coffee filterMelitta Bentz experimented with blotting paper from her son’s notebook in a perforated container to improve c…
• The 1988 patent followed years of developmentOphthalmologist Patricia Bath conceived a laser device for cataract surgery in 1981. Following research inclu…
• Schuhplattler strikes the soles as well as the thighsEastern Alpine Schuhplattler combines stamping and clapping with flat-handed strikes on shoe soles, thighs an…
• The convincing shape could upset the first customersGermany’s spaghettieis shapes vanilla ice cream as noodles, with strawberry sauce and white toppings resembli…
• Eszett also acquired an official capital optionGerman ß is a distinct letter, not a form of B. It was traditionally capitalized as SS. In 2017, the Council…
• Currywurst puts the flavour in the sauceGerman currywurst serves sausage with curry-flavoured sauce, commonly involving curry powder and tomato sauce…
• Goethe admired Howard’s cloud classificationBritish meteorologist Luke Howard proposed a cloud classification in 1802, naming types including cumulus, st…
• The photographer had feathersGerman pharmacist Julius Neubronner developed pigeon photography in 1907. A small camera travelled on a pigeo…
• A coffee habit became a cantataBach’s Coffee Cantata, written in the 1730s, is a secular comic work. Its fictional father tries to make his…
• The leaning tower stands on timber foundationsSuurhusen’s church tower in Germany leans noticeably. A local historian explains that groundwater preserved i…
• His captors doubted the parachute-free escapeIn March 1944, RAF airman Nicholas Alkemade jumped from a burning bomber without a usable parachute. Trees an…
• A street called the fire’s endHamburg’s great fire began in May 1842. After three days and nights, a change in wind and the remaining old c…
• An artist fills damaged walls with LegoJan Vormann’s Dispatchwork uses colourful Lego bricks to fill gaps in urban walls. A dull damaged patch becom…
• A rat king is a group with tangled tailsA rat king is a group of rodents whose tails are tangled together. A German museum holds a 32-rat specimen re…
• Munich’s beer-price dispute became a riot in 1844In May 1844, beer-price increases prompted protests in Munich, Bavaria. Workers and artisans took part, and t…