Ond Hundred Years of Future in 1910


The Exposition des Arts Décoratiefs Modernes, held in Paris in 1925, after the First World War, set the seal on what was by this time the widespread international diffusion of the futurists who, interpreting the theories of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876-1944) had already carried out a genuine ideological and artistic revolution in the previous decade, … Read more » “Ond Hundred Years of Future in 1910”

Fatal Attraction


Statue of Henry the Fowler in Quedlinburg. Photo: M. Koning

The great event in the tenth century was the re-establishment of the empire in Western Europe after the breakup of the Carolingian Empire in the period after 887. The dismemberment of this Empire, founded by Charlemagne in 800, was marked by an extreme political fragmentation. Eastern Francia, the German territories, extended from the left and … Read more » “Fatal Attraction”

The Forgotten WismarTribunal


The official inauguration of the Royal-Swedish Tribunal in Wismar on 17 May 1653 was a festive occasion. The Wismar Tribunal (Wismarer Tribunal) was the highest court of appeal of the Swedish territories on German soil. The Swedish Crown acquired West Pommern (VorPommern) and other territories, (including the cities Stettin, Stralsund, Greifswald, the bishopries of Bremen-Verden and Hamburg and the … Read more » “The Forgotten WismarTribunal”

Europeada


Newspapers around the world printed pictures of Indian tribes in the Amazon jungle in 2015. The discovery of new tribes in South-America was also hot news in Europe. The fate of these Indian tribes is uncertain. Contact with ‘civilization’ could mean the end. They are threatened minorities, not known and not beloved. Many Europeans are not aware … Read more » “Europeada”

English Gardens in Germany


English landscape gardens are a great contribution to architectural history. Although gardens were an invention of ancient Babylonians, to be continued by Roman patricians and reaching perfection in the Caliphate of Cordoba in the tenth and eleven centuries, the English style was unique. The French copied the ‘jardin anglais’, the Germans the ‘Englischer Garten’. The gentlemen … Read more » “English Gardens in Germany”