The Battle of Verdun is rightly considered one of the more horrendous and lengthiest battles in history. Lasting almost 10 months between February and December 1916, the Battle of Verdun cost an estimated 700,000-800,000 casualties (dead, wounded, and missing) in an area no larger than 10 square kilometres. The German assault which commenced on February…
Tag: Germany
Martin Luther’s 95 Theses Remembered
Today we remember Martin Luther, a priest and scholar, who, on October 31, 1517, on the doors of the All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Germany, nailed his 95 theses. Luther has been widely accepted as the father of the Protestant Reformation, but earlier attempts at reforming the Roman Catholic Church were made by a number…
70th Anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day
May 8th marks the 70th anniversary of the signing of Germany’s unconditional surrender in 1945. In the wake of Adolf Hitler’s suicide on April 30, 1945, Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz was appointed President of the Third Reich in the final 20 days before surrender. Provisionally signed in Reims, France on May 7th, Germany’s full unconditional…
The Battle (and rape) of Berlin 1945
This year we will mark 70 years since the end of World War II. It is difficult ethically to weigh loses in one battle over loses in another in a means to declare which conflict was more brutal and severe. However, symbolically the battle for Berlin, which ended on May 2, 1945, was the zenith…
The Bombing of Dresden in February of 1945
“On the evening of February 13 the catastrophe overtook Dresden: the bombs fell, the houses collapsed, the phosphorus flowed, the burning beams crashed…” – Viktor Klemperer, diary 1945 It is ironic that a German city would come to symbolize a war of such brutality and inhumanity. Dresden was an architectural and cultural prize representing a…
Seventieth Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz
Today marks an important and symbolic anniversary in European and global history: 70 years since the liberation of Auschwitz by the Soviet army. Death, war and destruction have been a constant of human history; but the attempt to exterminate an entire people systematically demonstrated new levels of human-orchestrated horrors in the 20th century. The message…
Hitler’s old house gives Austria a headache
What do you do with the house Hitler was born in? For years the building in the Austrian town of Braunau am Inn has been rented by the Austrian interior ministry to prevent misuse by neo-Nazis. It was once a day-care centre for the disabled. Now it is empty, as the owner has not agreed to…
The Leonardo hidden from Hitler in case it gave him magic powers
One of the world’s most famous self-portraits is going on rare public display in the northern Italian city of Turin. Very little is known about the 500-year-old, fragile, fading red chalk drawing of Leonardo da Vinci but some believe it has mystical powers. There is a myth in Turin that the gaze of Leonardo da…
Discovery of two vessels from WWII convoy battle off North Carolina
A team of researchers led by NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries have discovered two significant vessels from World War II’s Battle of the Atlantic. The German U-boat 576 and the freighter Bluefields were found approximately 30 miles off the coast of North Carolina. Lost for more than 70 years, the discovery of the two…
Polish President marks anniversary of German invasion with address to Bundestag
Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski has delivered an address to the German Bundestag in commemoration of the Nazi invasion of Poland 75 years ago. Polish relations with Germany have developed at an extraordinary pace following the fall of the Iron Curtain, and certainly serves as a model for historical reconciliation among fellow European nations. Let us…
Podcast: The Nazi-Soviet Pact
Although this past August 23, 2014 marks the date in which the Nazi-Soviet Pact (also know as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) was signed in 1939, History Today is featuring a podcast delivered by Roger Moorhouse to discuss the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939-41. You can read Roger’s article on the subject, Under Two Flags , in the…
Leuven’s legacy: Century after razing of Belgian library, cultural destruction a wartime norm
A century after German forces burned down the Leuven University library, Marie Legrand still has visions of the horrid scene. Even the scent of smoke she smelled as a 3-year-old stings in her mind to this day. The First World War had started weeks earlier and Belgium had slowed Germany’s march on France much more…
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