In late April 1945, Joe Polowsky was about to be part of a historic event that is at a crossroads of the 20th century. It would change his life forever. It was the first encounter of American and Soviet troops in Nazi Germany, the meeting at Torgau. During Spring of 1945 allied forces were on …
I am just back from a cycling holiday on Mallorca. This is a great way to do some enjoyable cycling while the weather at home is not so encouraging. If you are planning a trip to Mallorca as well or are looking for a tour on the island, here is my tip: You should take …
A ship built 102 years ago in Germany is the main ferry on a big African lake today. The MV Liemba has a fascinating history. Kigoma is a small port town in Tanzania, East Africa. More than 1,000 km away from the ocean, it lies on the shore of Lake Tanganyika, the longest fresh-water lake …
The Kokoda Track is a great example of how a historic route can be meaningful for people today. Site of a decisive jungle campaign in the Pacific War, it is a place for both commemoration and personal challenge today. Every year several thousand people travel to Papua-New Guinea to walk a jungle track across the …
Melbourne was neither the biggest nor the oldest city in the Australian colonies in 1854. Yet on 12. September of that year the inhabitants gathered to watch cutting edge technology in their town. The opening of the first railway line in Australia. Let’s take a closer look why modern transportation made its way to that …
In Panama, the shores of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are only about 60 km apart. This makes the isthmus a truly strategic location for global transportation. A hundred years ago the Panama Canal was opened and since then allows ships go directly from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific. This obviously was not possible …
November 2014 saw the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. To celebrate the event, light bulbs were placed along a 15 km stretch of the former border in the heart of Berlin. For a whole weekend 8,000 of these lights showed where the city had been divided by the wall for almost …
After loosing the Battle of the Marne, the German offensive according to the Schlieffen plan had failed. The exhausted First Army had to retreat and entrenched north of the Aisne river on the slope of the Chemin des Dames (Ladies path) ridge. The allied forces soon attacked the position without success and entrenched as well. This …
Nanteuil-le-Haudouin was briefly occupied by German troops on 03. September but was on the open flank of the Germans on the days after that. The main body of the First army was engaged fighting the French and British forces from 05. September in what became known as the battle of the Marne. The French high …
In late 1918 the French high command resided in Compiégne. A place in the forest close to the city was chosen for the armistice negotiations with the Germans. Here, railroad tracks for artillery support ran parallel and on those parallel tracks 50 m apart, the two delegations came in by train. The German delegation was …
