Search Results for: Second World War

It seems like the Cube House of Rotterdam is stranded above roads and stuck next to the harbor by the strong wind that blows from the sea. But this popular tourist attraction is also a bizarre architectural experiment and this is the main reason why we decided to spend some time there during a cold January afternoon.

The Rotterdam Cube House: An Architectural Wonder

Netherlands (category), Rotterdam (category)
6 min read
12/08/201917/11/2024

It weighs more than three tons, and it was buried and almost forgotten deep in a forest around Berlin. But nowadays, you can visit the head of Lenin at the Zitadelle Spandau in an exhibition focused on German history.

The Unearthed Head of Lenin at Zitadelle Spandau

Berlin (category)
5 min read
10/07/201909/06/2026

These Budapest Bullet Holes are how I called them before I realised what do they mean. I first saw them when I was walking around the Parliament Building, and I thought it was a little bit weird to have small iron balls over a wall. For a moment I thought it was some kind of abstract art and then I remembered the scars of the Second World War in Berlin and everything connected.

Budapest Bullet Holes: A Memorial to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution

Budapest (category)
3 min read
27/05/201902/04/2025

When you walk along the Danube Promenade, next to the Hungarian Parliament Building, you will find a memorial called Shoes on the Danube Bank. The monument was conceived by Can Togay, with the help from sculptor Gyula Pauer, to remember and honor the Jews that were murdered by Arrow Cross, a fascist militia, during the last months of the Second World War in Budapest.

Steps to the River’s Edge: Budapest’s Shoes on the Danube Bank

Budapest (category)
4 min read
24/04/201912/03/2024

Back in 1988, one year before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Tilda Swinton took her bike and cycled round the Berlin Wall, together with the filmmaker Cynthia Beatt. What they created came to be known as Cycling the Frame and it’s a beautiful and surreal document that shows a city scarred by a wall that cut it in half.

Cycling the Frame: When Tilda Swinton cycled by the Berlin Wall

Berlin (category), Cycling (category)
3 min read
19/03/201902/06/2025

The House where the Wannsee Conference happened during the Second World War belonged to Reinhard Heydrich, who got the house as an entertainment center for those who belonged to the SS and their families. And Reinhard Heydrich was an essential man inside the Nazi Party. Above him, only Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler. He used the house as a meeting place for 15 other officials that got together to decide something that was described in a bureaucratic way. But, without any euphemistic terminology, those people had lunch while they talked about how the Holocaust would happen.

A Visit to the House of the Wannsee Conference in Berlin

Berlin (category)
6 min read
04/01/201920/01/2025

The Lübecker Salzspeicher are six historical building, wholly made of brick, that used to function as salt storehouses from 1579 on. Salt was mined around Lüneburg and brought to Lübeck over the Stecknitz Canal. From there it was shipped around the Baltic region. This trade was one of the reasons why Lübeck was so influential in the Hanseatic League.

Lübecker Salzspeicher: The Historical Buildings where Nosferatu was filmed

Germany (category), Lübeck (category)
5 min read
13/11/201804/12/2024

Located in the western outskirts of Berlin, the Berlin-Grunewald station was used to deport Jews to ghettos and extermination camps in the east. Today, where all of this happened, there is the Platform 17 Memorial inaugurated in January 1998 to commemorate the deportation done by Deutsche Reichsbahn during the years of Nazi Germany.

Platform 17 Memorial Berlin: A Site of Holocaust Remembrance

Berlin (category)
5 min read
30/10/201812/03/2024

I moved to Neukölln back in early 2012 and, since then, I have been taking pictures of the neighborhood. Some people would say that I take too many photos of the area! After a bar conversation about the hidden beauty of where I live, I decided it was time to share my favorite places. These the best photo spots in Neukölln according to Fotostrasse.

The Best Photo Spots in Neukolln: Where to take pictures in the coolest Berlin neighborhood

Berlin (category), Photography (category)
11 min read
24/10/201813/04/2024

One of the most important sights in Kaliningrad is Immanuel Kant's Tomb, the most important citizen of Königsberg. The philosopher never left his hometown and everywhere you walk around in the city, you’ll see tourist souvenirs mentioning his importance to the area.

In the Footsteps of a Philosopher: Visiting Immanuel Kant’s Tomb in Kaliningrad

Kaliningrad (category)
5 min read
28/09/201815/01/2025

It’s 2018, and there are still some Lenin statues left around Germany. We visited one of these statues in Berlin, and we continue looking for them around the country. One day we got lucky, and we managed to find two of them on the same day. That blessed day was back in October 2016 when we took our bikes north and went to Fürstenberg to do some urban exploration.

Hunting Down Lenin Statues in Fürstenberg

Urbex (category)
6 min read
14/09/201810/12/2023

Highgate Cemetery is a large burial place in the North of London where more than 50.000 graves where 170.000 people are buried. The area has the status of a nature reserve and is known about a large number of famous people buried there. Like Douglas Adams, Malcolm McLaren, Michael Faraday, George Michael, and Karl Marx.

Highgate Cemetery: A Visitor’s Guide to London’s Most Famous Cemetery

London (category)
6 min read
08/09/201812/11/2024

The Bunker Museum in Kaliningrad is, technically called the Blindage Museum, and it tells the history of the last days of the Second World War. These are the last days of Königsberg and inside you can see how the city fell to Soviet Forces.

Bunker Museum in Kaliningrad: Documenting the last days of Königsberg

Kaliningrad (category)
5 min read
20/08/201812/11/2024

The original Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church is known in German as Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche. It was built in the 1890s by a Kaiser Wilhelm II and his consort Augusta Victoria as an initiative to counter the German socialist movement by a return to traditional religious values.

Understanding the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the Heart of West Berlin

Berlin (category)
6 min read
17/08/201827/04/2024

Exploring the Abandoned Flugplatz Rangsdorf Close to Berlin

Urbex (category)
6 min read
29/07/201821/02/2025

Sometimes I go on Youtube and search for movies related to Berlin in any way. This is how I discovered some of the youtube videos I have written about here, and this is how I found out about Background to Berlin, a NATO Information Service movie that explains, in a little less than 30 minutes, the history of the German capital from 1945 to 1961.

Background to Berlin: A NATO Information Service explaining everything about Berlin from 1945 to 1961

Berlin (category)
3 min read
25/07/201808/10/2024

Flugplatz Brand: Abandoned Barracks and Bunkers Close to Berlin

Urbex (category)
7 min read
30/04/201818/02/2024

Back in 1999, local historian Christian Bormann found something that it wasn’t supposed to be lost. Nine years after demolition began, he found a piece of the Berlin Wall, somehow forgotten in the woods between a train station and a supermarket. More than 80 meters of the original Berlin Wall, built in 1961, is standing there, some with the V-shaped brackets that once had barbed wire on it. It’s hard to believe that something with this historical importance was lost and this is why we went there to see it with our own eyes.

The Newly Found Original Berlin Wall that was lost in the woods in Schonholz

Berlin (category)
5 min read
05/02/201823/05/2024

You can still see the tall gothic tower of St. Nicholas Church from almost anywhere in Hamburg. But this Gothic Revival church doesn’t mark the skyline of the city like it used to when it was the tallest construction on Earth, from 1874 to 1876. Nowadays, the church is the second-tallest structure in Hamburg and a memorial to everything that happened during the Second World War.

The View from St. Nicholas Church in Hamburg

Germany (category), Hamburg (category)
8 min read
14/12/201717/03/2026

I was in Kaliningrad in the last days of October 2017, and the House of Soviets caught my attention since I arrived in the city. The building can be found in the middle of the central square of Kaliningrad, close to where the Königsberg Castle used to be but not quite there. The House of Soviets was built over the moat of the castle, and you can clearly see this in the following picture. There you can look at the ruins of the castle and the abandoned building in the back.

The Monster of Kaliningrad: The Story of the House of Soviets

Kaliningrad (category), Russia (category)
7 min read
22/11/201730/10/2024

When you live in Berlin, you end up exploring the same neighborhoods all the time. It’s easier like that, but you might miss a lot of great spots. To fix this, I decided to explore a famous part of Berlin that I usually don’t visit often. Because of my lack of knowledge, I decided to spend 48 hours there just to see what could I see and do in one of the most famous areas of the German capital.

Exploring Berlin City West in 48 Hours of Art, Design and Great Food

Berlin (category)
17 min read
13/09/201719/03/2024