Portal:Germany/Did you know/Archive

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The following items were presented in the "Did you know" box on Portal:Germany. Most, but not all of them were also on Template:Did you know on Wikipedia's Main page.

[edit] Previous DYK's

... that German chemist Albert Niemann was the first person to isolate cocaine in 1859?
... that the Cosmographia (pictured) by Sebastian Münster from 1544 is the earliest German description of the world?
... that the Academic Gymnasium Danzig, along with similar schools in Elbląg and Toruń, transformed Royal Prussia into a center of classical studies in the 16th century?
... that the neo-Nazi politician and member of the Bundestag Fritz Rössler, who resembled Adolf Hitler, had a habit of attending parliament drunk?
... that the 850-foot (260 m) Commerzbank Tower is the tallest building in Frankfurt, Germany, and in the entire European Union?
... that the World War II fighter ace Franz Barten is credited for shooting down a total of 55 enemy aircraft?
... the British MI6 tried to hire the Austrian-German physicist Josef Schintlmeister as a spy in the Soviet Union, where he had worked for ten years?
... that the 1945 loss of German U-boat U-864 during Operation Caesar, a secret mission to deliver technology to Japan, is the only known incident of one submerged submarine sinking another?
... that the game between FC Bayern Munich and 1860 Munich on 23 April 1945 in the Gauliga Bayern, ending 3–2, was the last official football game played in Nazi Germany?
... that the Gauliga was a German football league system introduced by the Nazis after they took over the country in 1933?
... that Friedrich Guggenberger's U-81 sank the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal (pictured) with a single torpedo?
... that Heinrich Barbl, an SS-Rottenführer, helped install piping for the gas chambers at Sobibór extermination camp?
... that HNoMS Honningsvåg was a German fishing trawler captured in the Norwegian Campaign and served the Royal Norwegian Navy throughout World War II?
... that Mathilde Ludendorff, a leader in the German Völkisch movement, claimed astrology was part of a Jewish effort to enslave the Germans?
... that U-boat commander Heinrich Bleichrodt refused to wear his Knight's Cross until his subordinate, Reinhard Suhren received one as well?
... that the German author Heinrich Böll's humorous short story Anekdote zur Senkung der Arbeitsmoral was written for a May Day broadcast on the Norddeutscher Rundfunk?
... that after competing for many years on a world-class level in the 400 metres hurdles, German athlete Heike Meißner tried competing in the 800 metres?
...that Siegfried Kasche, the Third Reich's ambassador to Croatia from 1941 to 1945, was tried for "complicity in deportations and murders" by a Yugoslav court and executed in June 1947?
...that despite winning the 1989 World Indoor Championships, West German 400 metres sprinter Helga Arendt failed to reach the final round at the European Championships one year later?
...that Fritz Schilgen was the final torchbearer (pictured) for the first Olympic torch relay at the 1936 Summer Games?
..that Emmy Noether was called "the most significant creative mathematical genius thus far produced since the higher education of women began" by Albert Einstein?
...that Carl Hans Lody was the first German spy to be executed in the United Kingdom during World War I?
...that East German sprinter Sabine Günther won three gold medals in 4 x 100 metres relay at three different European Championships?
...that East German athlete Henry Lauterbach competed on an international level in both high jump and long jump?
...that the asymmetrical monoplane BV 141 (pictured) is one of many military aircraft designed by Richard Vogt?
...that Abraham Esau was the head of the physics section of the Reich Research Council, Nazi Germany's centralized planning institution for almost all basic and applied research?
...that the SS Assyrian started life as a German merchant ship in the First World War and ended it as British merchant in the Second World War?
...that Princess Margaret of Prussia had her jewels stolen by American soldiers in the aftermath of World War II?
...that Karl Schnibbe was one of a group of three Hamburg teenagers (pictured) arrested by the Gestapo in Nazi Germany during World War II for distributing anti-Hitler pamphlets?
...that the utility of heavy water as a moderator in a nuclear reactor was demonstrated by Klara Döpel and her husband Robert in the 1940s?
...that physicist Siegfried Flügge collaborated with Fritz Houtermans, Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, and others in an effort to create an atomic weapon for Nazi Germany?
...that Dauer Sportwagen converted Porsche 962C racing cars (example pictured) into street-legal road cars, then converted them back into race cars in order to exploit a rulebook loophole and win the 1994 24 Hours of Le Mans?
...that Germany still held 1.2 million Russian prisoners of war (pictured) in December 1918, nine months after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk obliged it to release them?
...that over 90% of Lithuanian Jews perished in the first few months of Operation Barbarossa in the Holocaust in Lithuania?
...that Max Noether, called "one of the greatest mathematicians of the nineteenth century", learned advanced mathematics mostly through self-study?
...that Nazi Germany's animal protection laws were the first in the world to place the wolf under protection?
...that Operation Himmler was a Nazi Germany false flag operation, intended to create an appearance that the German invasion of Poland was a defensive war provoked by a Polish attack on Germany?
...that Söflingen Abbey in Ulm, Baden-Württemberg is the oldest nunnery of the Order of Poor Ladies in Germany?
...that Heinz Guderian (pictured) and Adolf Hitler had heated arguments while planning for Operation Solstice, one of the major German offensive operations on the Eastern Front during WWII?
...that Adam Franz Lennig organized the first Katholikentag in Mainz in 1848?
...that Adolf Hitler never thought much of the Columbus Globe for State and Industry Leaders despite its iconic status in the U.S.?
...that the Reichstag dome was originally designed as a cylinder by its architect Norman Foster?
...that the 12th-century abbess Hildegard of Bingen published Scivias (illustration pictured) to share her religious visions?
...that the biggest tax investigation in modern Germany currently targets hundreds of individuals for possible tax evasion by moving assets to Liechtenstein?
...that Sparrenberg Castle in Bielefeld, Germany, was built before 1250 by the counts of Ravensberg?
...that the Port of Mainz was an important war harbour for the Roman fleet from which Roman ships patrolled the Rhine?
...that Hans Thomsen, the German Chargé d'Affaires in Washington, D.C. immediately prior to World War II, directed an effort to influence the foreign policy platform of the 1940 Republican National Convention?
...that architect Otto Königsberger illustrated his uncle Max Born's popular physics book?
...that about 12 million people were forced laborers in Nazi Germany during World War II, and less than 2 million received direct compensation after the war?
...that the first post-war survey of sympathy for Nazism in Germany was conducted in 1947 by the Allensbach Institute?
...that 3–5.5 million OST-Arbeiters (badge pictured), slave laborers from Eastern Europe, worked in Nazi Germany during WWII?
...that the German four-mast sailing ship Herzogin Cecilie (pictured), under Finnish flag after 1920, won the "grain race" from Australia around Cape Horn to Europe four times from 1926 to 1936?
...that Unsinkable Sam was a ship's cat of both the Kriegsmarine and Royal Navy during the Second World War who survived the sinking of all three ships on which he served?
...that Son Goku, a German rock band, is named after the protagonist of the anime series Dragon Ball Z?
...that Helmut Dähne holds the official motorcycle lap record on the 20.8 km (12.9 mi) long Nordschleife track in Germany since 1988?
...that St. Elizabeth's Church (pictured), constructed in memory of a Russian princess, is the only Russian Orthodox church in Wiesbaden, Germany?
...that the German Renaissance castle Schloss Brenz now regularly hosts concerts?
...that Böttcherstrasse in Bremen, Germany, is an unusual ensemble of expressionist architecture?
...that the Frauenfriedenskirche at Frankfurt am Main is an expressionist church, decorated with monumental mosaics?
... that Hermann Göring's chief art looter, Bruno Lohse, controlled a secret vault of looted paintings, discovered in Zurich in May 2007?
...that Tiefland, Leni Riefenstahl’s last full-feature film, made it into the Guiness Book of World Records on account of its long production time?
...that former Red Army Faction terrorist Stefan Wisniewski escaped from a reform school seven times in one year in his youth?
...that Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the doors of All Saints' Church, Wittenberg, Germany (pictured), in which he is also buried?
...that Vorpostenboot, the patrol boats that the Kriegsmarine used in World War II, were in fact modified fishing ships?
...that the Sturmtrupp-Pfadfinder, founded in 1926, were the first coed Scout association in German?
...that despite its northern location, the Ahr produces more red wine from grapes like Pinot noir than any other wine region in Germany?
...that the future headquarters of the European Central Bank will be located at the Frankfurt Grossmarkthalle (pictured), the former wholesale markets, an example of expressionist architecture by Martin Elsaesser?
...that the German Agricultural Society sets the assessment scale for the German wine classification system?
...that during the War of the Spanish Succession, 10,000 French soldiers attempted to take Schloss Hellenstein, a castle near Heidenheim in the Swabian Alb, but retreated without firing a shot because it was deemed too costly to attack?
...that the German 15 cm sFH 18 was the first field gun to use Rocket Assisted Projectiles?
...that Heinrich Steinhowel, a 15th-century German scholar and humanist who was physician to Eberhard, Count of Württemberg, is better known for translating Aesop's Fables into German?
...that the Zoological Garden of Hamburg built the world's largest primate house in 1915, only to see most of the monkeys starve to death during World War I and the zoo go bankrupt in 1920?
...that some members of the Nazi SS became eligible for their 25-year SS Long Service Awards well before their completion of 25 years of service?
...that the role of Osmin in the German opera The Abduction from the Seraglio was tailor-made by Mozart for Ludwig Fischer?
...that the Nobel laureate physicist Theodor W. Hänsch works at the faculty of the Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics?
...that the Tierpark Hagenbeck zoo of Hamburg, Germany (pictured) was the first to use moats instead of cages to separate the animals from the public?
...that the man intensely reading in Carl Spitzweg's oil portrait The Bookworm represents the inward looking attitudes that affected Europe during the time of its creation?
...that Nationalism and Culture, the magnum opus of German anarchist Rudolf Rocker, was lauded by three Nobel Prize laureates?
...that German rock band Grobschnitt have incorporated pyrotechnics and sketch comedy into their extended performances since the mid-1970s?
...that Ernst Heinrich August de la Motte Fouqué, a Prussian general and confidant of Frederick the Great, was wounded thrice in the Battle of Landeshut, fought in 1760 during the Seven Years' War?
...that Judeopolonia was a proposed buffer state between the Russian and German Empires with a projected population of 30 million Jews, Poles, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Lithuanians, Latvians, and Baltic Germans?
...that the National Assembly (opening session pictured), Germany's legislature from 1919 to 1920, convened in Weimar to remind the World War I Allies of Germany's cultural history such as the Weimar residents Goethe and Schiller?
...that as a result of his role in the Peasants' War, the German Renaissance painter Jerg Ratgeb was executed by being torn apart by four horses?
...that the Zentrale Stelle (Central Office) was established in 1958 by the West German government to investigate war crimes committed outside Germany by Nazi forces?
...that the first major anti-nuclear demonstrations in Germany took place in 1975 in opposition to the construction of a proposed nuclear power station in Wyhl?
...that both former German Federal Minister of Labor Norbert Blüm and former Secretary of State of France Alain Vivien have been recognized with the Leipzig Human Rights Award?
...that Berlinka (pictured) was a partially constructed highway built by Nazi Germany that was intended to span the Polish Corridor from Berlin to Königsberg, Prussia?
...that after World War II, the Soviets took nearly 100 tons of uranium oxide as reparations from a facility of the company Auergesellschaft, accelerating their development of the atomic bomb by a year?
...that the German national rail strike of 2007 is the largest strike in history affecting Deutsche Bahn?
...that by providing government assistance to vineyard owners so they could replant and redesign their vineyards, the Flurbereinigung restructuring of the late 20th century had a dramatic impact on the German wine industry?
...that Anna Seidel, a German Sinologist and expert on Taoism, risked the death penalty by hiding a Jewish friend during World War II?
...that the German scientist Günter Wirths was brought to the Soviet Union after World War II, where he later was awarded a Stalin Prize for his contribution to the Soviet atomic bomb project?
...that IKB Deutsche Industriebank was the first European bank to announce substantial losses from the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis?
...that the Comoedienhaus theater (pictured), built in 1782, the first theater of performing arts in Frankfurt, Germany, played host to concerts by Mozart, Schiller and Goethe, among others?
...that the Nachtigall Battalion of the German army consisting of Ukrainian volunteers actively participated in the murder of around 4,000 Jews of Lviv in July 1941?
...that the Treaty of Reichenbach signaled both Prussia's first retreat from the policies of Frederick the Great, as well as the beginning of its decline?
...that popularity of German Minority, a party of the German minority in Poland, has been steadily declining since its establishment?
...that two male lovers of German film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder committed suicide?
...that German nuclear physicist Heinz Barwich had illegal contacts to the Soviet secret police NKVD during Nazi rule, and then spied on the Soviet Union for the West while working in East Germany?
...that Albrecht Dürer's Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate (pictured) is one of 16 woodcuts completed between 1501 and 1511, which display the Virgin as an intermediary between the divine and the earth, yet with a range of human frailties?
...that in 1959, Barksdale Hamlett, the U.S. commandant in Berlin, threatened to forcefully prevent the East German government from flying its new flag over elevated railway stations in West Berlin?
...that Milly Witkop and her common-law husband Rudolf Rocker, both notable anarchist activists and writers, were denied admission to the United States in 1898, because they refused to get legally married?
...that in 1966, Heinz Waaske created the smallest 135 film camera made to that date, the Rollei 35?
...that the Züschen tomb and the Lohra tomb in Hesse, Germany, are prehistoric gallery graves belonging to the Late Neolithic Wartberg culture?
...that Astronomische Nachrichten, founded by H. C. Schumacher in 1821, is the world's oldest extant astronomical journal?
...that St. Trudpert's Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Münstertal in the southern Black Forest, was plundered during the Peasants' War and destroyed by the Swedes during the Thirty Years' War?
...that the megalithic Altendorf tomb in Hesse, Germany contains bones from at least 235 individuals from the New Stone Age?
...that the 13th century Prussian Crusade commanded by Hermann Balk led to the conquest and gradual Christianization of the Old Prussians by the Teutonic Knights?
...that German physical chemist Max Volmer became head of a design bureau for the production of heavy water in the Soviet Union after the Second World War?
...that Tirpitz the pig (pictured) rescued after the sinking of the SMS Dresden became a ship's mascot on one of the cruisers that sank the Dresden?
...that Nikolaus Riehl researched the production of uranium in Nazi Germany, nuclear weapons in the Soviet Union, and the civil use of nuclear power in West Germany?
...that the German children's series Bibi Blocksberg has been criticised because it can give a negative view of politics to children?
...that Peter Adolf Thiessen, who helped develop Soviet nuclear weapons after World War II and received a Stalin Prize, first class, for his efforts, had joined the Nazi Party as soon as 1925?
...that the only remnants of Mecklenburg Castle, a medieval castle located in present-day Germany, are parts of an earthen wall?
...that Turkish-German professional boxer Hülya Şahin, the undefeated junior flyweight world champion, is the only female member of her club Universum?
...that Sophie of Schönburg-Waldenburg, born in Potsdam, Brandenburg, became Princess of Albania in March 1914 (arrival pictured), but had to leave the country just six months later because of nationalist turmoil?
...that German physicist Walter Gerlach helped prove the fact that electrons spin?
...that Fritz Bleyl was one of the four founders of Die Brücke art group in 1905, but left two years later and never exhibited again?
...that Fred Astaire, Marlon Brando and Nick Nolte were all born to German-American families in Omaha, Nebraska?
...that in late 1992, the German Ministry of the Interior banned the neo-Nazi groups German Alternative (DA), Nationalist Front (NF), German Comradeship Alliance (DKB), and the National Offensive (NO) all within a month?
...that the Wendish Crusade of 1147 was a largely unsuccessful campaign of Saxons and Danes against the Polabian Slavs concurrent to the Second Crusade?
...that soon after German reunification, the Greifswald Nuclear Power Plant in the former East Germany was shut down due to conflicting technical requirements with the West?
...that the book Historia naturalis palmarum, by German botanist Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, was described by E. J. H. Corner as "the most magnificent treatment of palms that has been produced"?
...that the German neo-Nazi party German Alternative was banned in 1992 after the group was associated with an arson attack on an asylum seekers refuge?
...that Adolf Hitler served in the 6th Bavarian Reserve Division during World War I?
...that in 1991 Heinz Barth, former Obersturmführer in the Waffen-SS, was granted a "war victim" pension while in jail for war crimes for involvement in the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre of 1944?
...that the 42nd Infantry Division, which was formed in 1912 and fought both on the Eastern and Western Fronts of World War I, was the last regular division created in the Imperial German Army?
...that according to Allied intelligence, the 27th Infantry Division was one of the very best German divisions in World War I?
...that before turning to acting, Ulrich Mühe, the star of the Academy Award-winning 2006 film The Lives of Others, was a border guard on the communist side of the Berlin Wall?
...that Paradise Camp is a documentary, explaining how Nazi officials fooled the Red Cross into believing the Jews were being well cared for?
...that Alexander Eugen Conrady abandoned his native Germany in disgust, settled in England, and there designed optical instruments used by the British in World War I?
...that German artist and cartographer Augustin Hirschvogel is the first person known to have used triangulation in surveying?
...that over 15,000 men of the battle-hardened 10th and 11th Divisions of the Imperial German Army were disbanded following World War I?
...that part of the first line of the Berlin U-Bahn was built as an elevated railway (pictured), because the City of Berlin feared that an underground railway would damage one of its new trunk sewers?
...that the first railway in Germany, the Bayerische Ludwigsbahn, was originally mostly horse-hauled because of the high cost of importing coal from Saxony?
...that the German historian Albert Brackmann argued that the Poles should be pushed farther eastwards, into the Ukraine?
...that the first shot fired by British Empire forces in World War I was targeted at the German ship Pfalz which was departing Melbourne, Australia as Britain declared war on Germany?
...that Operation Salaam was a World War II covert operation led by the aristocratic explorer László Almásy in order to insert two German spies into British-held Cairo?
...that during the Schmalkaldic War, the Imperial Duke Eric II fled from the Battle of Drakenburg (etching pictured) by swimming across the Weser River?
...that a portion of the Palatine Library returned to Heidelberg in 1816, almost two centuries after it was looted from city by the Catholic League?
...that Gabriele Kohlisch is one of only two people to ever win World Championship gold medals in bobsledding and luge?
...that the author of the term Third Reich predicted that "Germany might perish because of the Third Reich dream"?
...that Johann Christoph Altnickol, Johann Christian Kittel, and Johann Caspar Vogler were all students of Johann Sebastian Bach?
...that the Bonn–Oberkassel train ferry was one of six train ferries that commenced operations across the Rhine in Germany in the late 19th century?
...that the Kirchberg convent, built in 1237, is one of the oldest female church houses in all of central Europe?
...that the test for enrollment at Germany's Helmut Schmidt University involves not an intelligence test, but military training and troop procedures?
...that the Scientology Task Force of Hamburg, Germany reported on what it called brainwashing in Scientology's Rehabilitation Project Force?
...that the Brothers Grimm were amongst the Göttingen Seven, university teachers who protested changes to the constitution of the Kingdom of Hanover in 1837?
...that German-born Richard Lieber started the trend of American state parks having inns and charging fees for using the parks, so that citizens would appreciate them more?
...that the 200 km/h maximum speed of the Munich-Nuremberg Express makes it the only regional train in Germany fast enough to not impede ICE traffic?
...that the Hungarian Gold Train was a 1944 Nazi operated freight train that carried stolen Hungarian valuables to Berlin, but never reached its destination?
...that Nazi officer Reiner Stahel commanded the garrison of Warsaw during the uprising of 1944?
...that Flaschenhals was a micronation created in the Rhineland after the Armistice of 1918?
...that in 1843 the German missionary Hermann Mögling published the first ever newspaper in the Kannada language?
...that the congress hall on the site of the former Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg has been converted into a museum (entrance pictured)?
...that the Way of Human Rights in Nuremberg, Germany has a sculpture and engraving dedicated to each article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
...that the expulsion of Poles by Germany was contemplated in the 19th century and implemented in the 20th?
...that no two of the more than 1000 windows in the Waldspirale residential complex in Darmstadt are identical?
...that Klaus Traube worked on building the German fast breeder in Kalkar when he changed his view about nuclear power, went into opposition and was considered a security threat by the German secret service?
...that the Dehousing Paper, presented to the British War Cabinet in 1942, advocated for a strategic bombing campaign of German cities?
... that despite his commitment to historical accuracy, Albrecht Altdorfer's masterpiece The Battle of Alexander at Issus is depicted as occurring in the Alps, in 16th century costume?
...that chemist Hugo Stoltzenberg developed the poison gas used by Germany at the 1915 Second Battle of Ypres in Belgium, the first time it was used on the Western Front?
...that the prototypes for the World War II German U-boat fleet were designed by a Dutch company and built in Finland at the Crichton-Vulcan shipyard?
... that despite his commitment to historical accuracy, Albrecht Altdorfer's masterpiece The Battle of Alexander at Issus is depicted as occurring in the Alps, in 16th century costume?
...that the Master of the Playing Cards was a 15th century German engraver and the first major master in the history of printmaking?
...that the soldiers of the Black Brunswickers dressed entirely in black and wore hats with Death's Heads on them to reflect their commander's hatred for Napoleon?
...that the bestselling 1906 erotic novel Josephine Mutzenbacher is thought to have been written by Felix Salten, the author of Bambi?
...that the SS in Nazi Germany were above civilian law, answering only to the SS-run Hauptamt SS Gericht?
...that German textile artist Gunta Stölzl was the only female "master" of the Bauhaus?
...that German physicist Max von Laue wrote Acta Crystallographica, which dealt with the absorption of x-rays under interference conditions, while in French military incarceration in 1945?
...that the Tyska kyrkan in Stockholm, Sweden, is situated in the oldest German ecclesiastical parish outside Germany?
...that German settlement in Bulgaria dates back to the 13th–14th century?
...that on March 21, 1943, Rudolf Christoph von Gersdorff (pictured) tried to kill Adolf Hitler in a suicide attack in Berlin, but failed because Hitler left earlier than expected?
...that, after a heavy bomb raid on the city of Heilbronn, raining fragments of the blast were lodged in cattle in the surrounding countryside, and that this meant days of slaughtering for veterinarians?
...that the Altdeutsche Tracht, a Renaissance-influenced fashion, was popular in Germany during the last years of the Napoleonic wars as a sign of resistance against "French fashion foolishness"?
...that the gravestone of Abraham von Franckenberg, a 17th century mystic, is covered with as yet undeciphered mystical symbols?
...that Julius Fromm invented the latex condom in 1914 and marketed his invention under the name Fromms Act until he was forced to sell his business under Nazi rule?
...that German Luftwaffe fighter ace Walther Dahl shot down 128 enemy aircraft in the Second World War, including a USAAF B-17 that he rammed in 1944?
...that the Bienwald (satellite image pictured) is a large forested area in the southern Pfalz region of Germany, near the towns of Kandel and Wörth am Rhein?
...that German toymaker Richard Steiff's invention of a toy bear received highest honors at the 1904 Saint Louis World's Fair?
...that Walter Arthur Berendsohn, who succesfully nominated Nelly Sachs and Willy Brandt for their respective Nobel Prizes, wrote Die humanistische Front, the seminal book on German exile literature?
...that Richard Strauss helped the German composer Heinz Tiessen obtain a job at the Berlin State Opera in 1917?
...that Lothar-Günther Buchheim, author of the 1973 novel Das Boot, refused to give his Expressionist paintings to a museum unless it would also display his collection of curiosities?
...that the Göttingen Academy of Sciences (pictured), founded in 1751 by King George II of Great Britain, is the second oldest of seven academies of sciences in Germany?
...that the German submarine U-777 was sunk in October 1944, less than 7 months after being launched?
...that the illumination method used in modern light microscope design was invented by 27-year-old German graduate student August Köhler in 1893?
...that four artillery submarines were among many uncompleted U-boat projects planned by Nazi Germany?
...that after one group he founded was banned, the neo-Nazi leader Michael Kühnen began a policy of regularly starting up new organizations in order to confuse the authorities?
...that Sausenburg Castle in Germany was destroyed in 1678 by the army of French Marshall Creque during the Franco-Dutch War?
...that Gerhard Schröder sponsored a star for Dieter Hildebrandt on the Walk of Fame of Cabaret during his time as Chancellor of Germany ?
...that in 1263 Fürstenfeld Abbey was founded by Ludwig the Severe of Bavaria as a penance for killing his wife?
...that the Berlin Stadtbahn is built mostly as an elevated railway line with viaducts totalling eight kilometres of length, including 731 masonry viaduct arches?
...that students who finish a doctorate at the Georg-August University of Göttingen traditionally kiss the Gänseliesel (pictured), a statue in the center of Göttingen?
...that the standing army created during the Thirty Years' War by Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, developed into the Prussian Army?
...that the German actor Heinz Rühmann was 42 years old when starring as a high school student in the 1944 film Die Feuerzangenbowle?
...that the medieval Margraviate of Brandenburg was called "the sandbox of the Holy Roman Empire"?
...that NV Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw was a firm created by Germany in 1922 to illegally manufacture submarines?
...that Murderers Among Us was the first German post-World War II film?
...that Andreas Joseph Hofmann proclaimed the first republican state in Germany on March 18, 1793?
...that the Blohm und Voss Bv 144 was an attempt by Nazi Germany to develop an advanced commercial airliner for post-war service?
...that the German physicist Otto Laporte discovered what is known in spectroscopy as the Laporte rule?
...that St. Clement's Church in Büsum, Germany (pictured) is furnished with items looted from Pellworm by the pirate Cord Widderich?
...that the medieval pirate Cord Widderich occupied Eiderstedt and made the Pellworm church tower his base?
... that during the siege of Mainz, Goethe was a military observer and later wrote a book about it?
...that German poet and playwright Klabund was charged with treason for writing an open letter calling for the abdication of William II?
...that the Free Association of German Trade Unions was the only trade union in Germany to reject the Burgfrieden, a civil truce between the socialist movement and the German state during World War I?
...that Xanten Cathedral (interior pictured), entitled basilica minor by pope Pius XI, may be the biggest cathedral between Cologne and the North Sea?
...that the Blauhöhle, a huge cave system with more than 50m high caverns, is accessible by diving through the Blautopf, the source of the Blau?
... that count Ulrich III purchased the towns Markgröningen (1336) and Tübingen (1342) and incorporated them into the County of Württemberg?
...that Luftwaffe ace Erich Rudorffer flew more than 1000 missions during World War II, and was shot down sixteen times by enemy flak and fighters?
...that Paul Haenlein was the first to create a dirigible airship which was powered by an internal combustion engine?
...that Philipp Jenninger resigned as President of the Bundestag after his speech commemorating Kristallnacht caused a political scandal?
...that the theme of the Kyffhäuser Monument (pictured) suggests a connection between the Holy Roman Empire and the German Empire?
...that Ulrich IV, Count of Württemberg reigned the County Württemberg together with his brother Eberhard II, but wanted to divide the county between both of them?
...that Hermann Klaatsch was one of the first scientists to advocate a clear division between religion and physical anthropology?
...that Ernst Kitzinger, a historian of Byzantine art, was forced to leave Germany in 1934 and England in 1940 because he was Jewish and German respectively?
...that Russian Jewish painter Marc Chagall created the windows of the St Stephan church in Mainz as a sign of Jewish-German reconciliation?
...that the Frankfurter Judengasse was the earliest Jewish ghetto in Germany?
...that Theo Osterkamp was the first German reconnaissance pilot to fly a land-based aircraft to England during World War I?

...that in 2003, German authorities foiled a plot by a neo-Nazi group to set off a bomb at the Ohel Jakob synagogue cornerstone ceremony?
...that the gate of the ruined Palais Strousberg was built into the modern British Embassy in Berlin - the only part of it left after the Second World War, complete with the old British coat of arms?
...that the Pariser Platz in Berlin is named after the French capital in memory of Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813?
...that the village of Mödlareuth was called "Little Berlin" because it too was divided by a wall during the Cold War?
...that the President of the Bundestag is ranked ahead of the Chancellor of Germany according to the German order of precedence?
...that Richard Stücklen was the longest serving member of the German Bundestag, winning election 11 times between 1949 and 1990?
... that Gustav Killian performed revolutionary treatments on the bronchi?
... that in 1919, the discharge of the chief of police of Berlin led to a general strike and accompanying fighting known as the Spartacist uprising, in which over 500,000 workers took part?
...that Eilhart von Oberge's German poem Tristrant, dating to the late 12th century, is the earliest complete version of the Tristan and Iseult legend in any language?
...that the German television comedy series Verstehen Sie Spaß, the German equivalent of Candid Camera, has been running non-stop since 1980?
...that funding for the Prussian Academy of Sciences was originally provided by giving it a monopoly on the sale of calendars?
...that modernization of the Ostkreuz station in Berlin, the busiest interchange station of the city's transportation system, has been proposed since 1937 and is due to start next year?
that the Deutschhaus building in Mainz was the seat of the first democratically elected parliament in Germany during the Republic of Mainz?
that DELAG is considered to be the world's oldest airline?
that the Mainz Sand Dunes are a rare example of steppe vegetation in Germany?
that the Neues Museum in Berlin, which was almost completely destroyed in World War II, is scheduled to be reopened in 2009, at which point it will house the bust of Nefertiti?
that an estimated 600 or approximately half of the originally manufactured Duesenbergs are still on the road as classic cars or "Oldtimers" and valued at about one Million dollars (US) each?
that the names for Germany in other languages have six separate roots?
that the orphanage in Düsseldorf-Düsseltal (founded in 1822) was financed in part by the sale of "original" Eau de Cologne - made of water taken from the Düssel?
that Operation Epsilon referred to a program by Allied forces at the end of World War II to determine how close the Germans had been to constructing an atomic bomb by listening to their conversations?
that the long-running German TV show Aktenzeichen XY... ungelöst is the only German television format to have entered the United States, where it is produced by Fox as America's Most Wanted?
that the Antique Temple at Sanssouci was commissioned by Frederick the Great to house his collection of antique artefacts, coins and gems?
that Wormatia Worms was one of the first football clubs to display advertising on their jerseys?
that according to legend, the money for the construction of Lübeck Cathedral came from a diamond-encrusted crucifix borne by a deer shot by Henry the Lion?
that in the late 1700s the Lilienthal Observatory was the best equipped observatory in the world?
that Bad Frankenhausen is the only one of the five German Barbarossatowns that never saw the Emperor Frederick I "Barbarossa"?
that the organ of St. Stephan's Cathedral in Passau is the largest cathedral organ in the world, with 17,774 pipes and 233 registers?
that in 1939 the Riesaer SV's Willi Arlt was the youngest ever German national team football player, at age 17?
that the moving of the Abu Simbel temple complex was done by Hochtief AG, the same company that built the Führerbunker?
that Heilbronn is nicknamed Käthchenstadt after Heinrich von Kleist's play?
that the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania is a political party holding an absolute majority in the city council of Sibiu?
that one of the oldest buildings of the University of Potsdam was built for the Gestapo and later used by the Stasi?
that because of the way it looks Munich's Allianz Arena is nicknamed Schlauchboot (Ger. for inflatable raft)?
that the Thomaskirche in Leipzig is famous for being the place where Johann Sebastian Bach worked as cantor?

Portal:Germany/Did you know/Archive

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