Russia’s President Putin is taking an ever more revisionist view of Russia’s pivotal role in the outbreak of World War II.

German soldiers lifting the Polish-German border crossing on 1st September 1939. Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction but with all the internal and external pressures facing the European Union, the Polish parliament’s unanimous vote followed by its 2017 research bureau’s ‘legitimate claims against the Federal Republic of Germany’ for war reparations have to be among the most surreal. No one could have envisaged at the inauguration of what became E.U. with the treaty of

I know the Third Reich is always top of all history curriculums and just as popular these days is refighting the Second World War via on-line computer games. The History of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, Prussia and the intricacies of Central European history are rather more complex and harder to absorb. As I mentioned in my book and in various blogs most countries teach their history through the means of carefully selected national curriculums. Curriculums that

See the image of a popular souvenir I’ve seen on sale at any number of souvenir shops in Slask (Silesia) this one in Szklarska Poreba. The Polish text translates as ‘If you always want to have money and for it never to run out, you need to have a Jew at home to look after your money. A Jew for money’. And you are supposed to rub the Jew’s Polish Grosz coin for luck. When I have mentioned this to any number of English, German, American and Polish friends, either after a short

The BBC2 documentary entitled `Savage Peace` has to be the most vivid and graphic account of the atrocities committed against German civilians after the Second World War yet, shown on British television. The programme was unequivocal in stating the Allies connived in the ethnic cleansing of tens of millions of Germans from their homelands calling their unprecedented exodus `the largest ethnic cleansing in history and an atrocity hidden in plain sight.` George Orwell simply ca

The Order of the Teutonic Knights fought perhaps the most successful of all the crusades along the shores of the eastern Baltic creating a ‘Knights kingdom’ and laying the ground work for the future Prussian state, founding over one hundred towns and over one thousand villages. This monumental achievement would endure for over seven hundred years, three hundred years longer than the so called ‘New World’ has been in existence. One British historian has noted that the Order’s

Germany has over 1,250 breweries offering over 5,000 different brands. That’s four times the number of the rest of the EU combined. Germany also boasts quite a number of the oldest breweries in world dating back to the early 11th century, among the most famous of which are the Weihenstephan brewery in the town of Freising in Bavaria, and the Weltenburg Abbey brewery in Kelkheim on the Danube also in Bavaria. There is also no shortage of varieties with an array of different ty

Barbarossa’s son Heinrich VI had the Richard I, the king of England, kidnapped on his return from the Third Crusade and incarcerated in the imperial Reich castle at Trifels, in an act of vengeance for Richard`s alleged murder of one of Heinrich`s relatives. Richard was held prisoner until a ransom of some 150,000 Marks was paid, prolonging the rule of his unpopular brother King John and the exploits of his legendary adversary Robin of Loxley/ Huntington or wherever he may hav

While France may offer Europe’s widest selection of cheeses (over 300), the largest and most varied type of breads to eat with them come from Germany, with over 600 different types of bread on offer for all occasions. #germany #bread

The first Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne (Karl the Great as he is known to the Germans) was not French! The Franks were a Germanic tribe originating east of the Rhine from what is modern day central western Germany. Charlemagne’s native tongue was the old high German dialect, which was also the language used at his court in Aachen. The first document to appear in what can be termed the old Gallo Romance ancestor of ‘French’ (the oaths of Strasbourg of 842) was not even writte

In England we often associate France with artistically creative and the mouth watering cakes found in fine old patisseries, but I’ve not found a greater variety of cakes or cake shops anywhere in Europe than in Germany. Whereas the tradition of taking elevenses and afternoon high tea has been in decline in England for years if not decades the ‘Kaffee und Kuchen Stunde’ (Coffee and Cake hour) is a popular in Germany as ever. Even the smallest villages will usually have two or