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Tag Archives: history

Germany’s Historic Ghost Stations Posted by on May 8, 2019

Guten Tag! Today’s post is about die Geisterbahnhöfe – ‘ghost train stations’. This is a term you may already be familiar with, but in German, this word has a significant and interesting history. So, let’s delve right into it! Throughout this post I may refer to the word in its singular or plural form, so…

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Nazi Symbols In Thailand Posted by on Mar 20, 2019

Guten Tag! You may know that in Germany it is illegal to publicly display a Nazi symbol, be it on clothing or otherwise. Doing so can land you three years in jail (it is not illegal, however, if it is for the purposes of art). It is also illegal to do the Nazi salute, say…

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German TV Series: Deutschland 86 Posted by on Mar 13, 2019

Guten Tag! If you’re not aware already, there is a new, German series on TV in the US, Australia and the UK. It is called Deutschland 86. This is the sequel to the 2015 series, Deutschland 83. The first series followed the story of a young man from the DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik aka. East…

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Did JFK Really Call Himself A Doughnut In German? Posted by on Feb 8, 2019

It happened way back in 1963, but still the question comes up: Did John F. Kennedy really call himself a doughnut during his famous speech in West Berlin? At the end of a speech in which the president showed solidarity with the citizens of West Berlin following the erection of the Berlin Wall, Kennedy said…

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The origin of Stollen Posted by on Dec 25, 2018

Stollen is a traditional German Christmas cake that is still very popular to this day. In this post I will explain what exactly it is and how it came about. The first ever Stollen dates back to 1545. Nowadays, Stollen is made out of flour, butter, yeast, raisins, almonds, marzipan and spices like cinnamon and…

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November 9 in German History Posted by on Nov 14, 2018

Guten Tag! November is a big month in German history, as many significant historical events happened on or around November 9th. In fact, so many things have happened throughout history on November 9th in Germany that this date is now known as der Schicksaltag – the ‘fate day’. Today I’m writing about two events from…

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The Phonetic Alphabet in Germany Posted by on Oct 16, 2018

Over the past few months I have been using the telephone more and more at work, which means when someone wants to spell their name or address to me they use the phonetic alphabet (also known as Funkalphabet). At first I was completely unprepared and once they started to spell something I would begin just…

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