USER:NIET-0-LEUK DID YOU KNOW

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... that Europe's Mother-in-Law, Amalie of Baden, entertained the Russian Tsar, Prince Metternich, the King of Prussia, as well as his son, the later Wilhelm I of Germany, Kaiser of Germany, in Bruchsal's baroque château, after Napoleon's demise in 1815?

... that the Thomaskirche in Leipzig is famous for being the place were Johann Sebastian Bach worked as cantor?
... that because of the way it looks Munich's Allianz Arena is nicknamed Schlauchboot (Ger. for inflatable raft)?

the Heilbronn is nicknamed Käthchenstadt after Heinrich von Kleist's play Das Käthchen von Heilbronn?
that the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania is a political party holding an absolute majority in the city council of Sibiu?

that Bad Frankenhausen is the only one of the five German Barbarossatowns that never saw the Emperor Frederick I "Barbarossa"?
that the organ of St. Stephan's Cathedral in Passau is the largest cathedral organ in the world, with 17,774 pipes and 233 registers?
that in 1939 the Riesaer SV's Willi Arlt was the youngest ever German national team football player, at age 17?

that according to legend, the money for the construction of Lübeck Cathedral came from a diamond-encrusted crucifix borne by a deer shot by Henry the Lion?
that in the late 1700s the Lilienthal Observatory was the best equipped observatory in the world?

that the long-running German TV show Aktenzeichen XY... ungelöst is the only German television format to have entered the United States, where it is produced by Fox as America's Most Wanted?

that the names for Germany in other languages have six separate roots?

that the Deutschhaus building in Mainz was the seat of the first democratically elected parliament in Germany during the Republic of Mainz?
that DELAG is considered to be the world's oldest airline?
that the Mainz Sand Dunes are a rare example of steppe vegetation in Germany?

... that Gustav Killian performed revolutionary treatments on the bronchi?
... that in 1919, the discharge of the chief of police of Berlin led to a general strike and accompanying fighting known as the Spartacist uprising, in which over 500,000 workers took part?
...that Eilhart von Oberge's German poem Tristrant, dating to the late 12th century, is the earliest complete version of the Tristan and Iseult legend in any language?

...that the Pariser Platz in Berlin is named after the French capital in memory of Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813?
...that the village of Mödlareuth was called "Little Berlin" because it too was divided by a wall during the Cold War?

...that Russian Jewish painter Marc Chagall created the windows of the St Stephan church in Mainz as a sign of Jewish-German reconciliation?

...that the theme of the Kyffhäuser Monument suggests a connection between the Holy Roman Empire and the German Empire?
...that Ulrich IV, Count of Württemberg reigned the County Württemberg together with his brother Eberhard II, but wanted to divide the county between both of them?
...that Hermann Klaatsch was one of the first scientists to advocate a clear division between religion and physical anthropology?

...that Luftwaffe ace Erich Rudorffer flew more than 1000 missions during World War II, and was shot down sixteen times by enemy flak and fighters?
...that Paul Haenlein was the first to create a dirigible airship which was powered by an internal combustion engine?

... that during the siege of Mainz, Goethe was a military observer and later wrote a book about it?
...that German poet and playwright Klabund was charged with treason for writing an open letter calling for the abdication of William II?
...that the Free Association of German Trade Unions was the only trade union in Germany to reject the Burgfrieden, a civil truce between the socialist movement and the German state during World War I?
...that Xanten Cathedral (interior pictured), entitled basilica minor by pope Pius XI, may be the biggest cathedral between Cologne and the North Sea?
...that the Blauhöhle, a huge cave system with more than 50m high caverns, is accessible by diving through the Blautopf, the source of the Blau?

...that Andreas Joseph Hofmann proclaimed the first republican state in Germany on March 18, 1793?
...that the German physicist Otto Laporte discovered what is known in spectroscopy as the Laporte rule?
...that St. Clement's Church in Büsum, Germany is furnished with items looted from Pellworm by the pirate Cord Widderich?
...that the medieval pirate Cord Widderich occupied Eiderstedt and made the Pellworm church tower his base?

...that students who finish a doctorate at the Georg-August University of Göttingen traditionally kiss the Gänseliesel (pictured), a statue in the center of Göttingen?
...that the standing army created during the Thirty Years' War by Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, developed into the Prussian Army?
...that the German actor Heinz Rühmann was 42 years old when starring as a high school student in the 1944 film Die Feuerzangenbowle?
...that the medieval Margraviate of Brandenburg was called "the sandbox of the Holy Roman Empire"?
...that NV Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw was a firm created by Germany in 1922 to illegally manufacture submarines?
...that Gerhard Schröder sponsored a star for Dieter Hildebrandt on the Walk of Fame of Cabaret during his time as Chancellor of Germany ?
...that in 1263 Fürstenfeld Abbey was founded by Ludwig the Severe of Bavaria as a penance for killing his wife?
...that the Berlin Stadtbahn is built mostly as an elevated railway line with viaducts totalling eight kilometres of length, including 731 masonry viaduct arches?
...that German toymaker Richard Steiff's invention of a toy bear received highest honors at the 1904 Saint Louis World's Fair?
...that Walter Arthur Berendsohn, who succesfully nominated Nelly Sachs and Willy Brandt for their respective Nobel Prizes, wrote Die humanistische Front, the seminal book on German exile literature?
...that Richard Strauss helped the German composer Heinz Tiessen obtain a job at the Berlin State Opera in 1917?
...that no two of the more than 1000 windows in the Waldspirale residential complex in Darmstadt are identical?
...that the Way of Human Rights in Nuremberg, Germany has a sculpture and engraving dedicated to each article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
...that in 1843 the German missionary Hermann Mögling published the first ever newspaper in the Kannada language?
...that German-born Richard Lieber started the trend of American state parks having inns and charging fees for using the parks, so that citizens would appreciate them more?
...that the 200 km/h maximum speed of the Munich-Nuremberg Express makes it the only regional train in Germany fast enough to not impede ICE traffic?
...that a portion of the Palatine Library returned to Heidelberg in 1816, almost two centuries after it was looted from city by the Catholic League?
...that before turning to acting, Ulrich Mühe, the star of the Academy Award-winning 2006 film The Lives of Others, was a border guard on the communist side of the Berlin Wall?
...that the book Historia naturalis palmarum, by German botanist Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, was described by E. J. H. Corner as "the most magnificent treatment of palms that has been produced"?
...that the only remnants of Mecklenburg Castle, a medieval castle located in present-day Germany, are parts of an earthen wall?
...that cryptologist Harry Hinsley's realisation that German weather ships were the Achilles' heel of the Enigma code led to the capture of the weather ship Lauenburg?
...that Sophie of Schönburg-Waldenburg, born in Potsdam, Brandenburg, became Princess of Albania in March 1914, but had to leave the country just six months later because of nationalist turmoil?
...that German physicist Walter Gerlach helped prove the fact that electrons spin?
...that Fritz Bleyl was one of the four founders of Die Brücke art group in 1905, but left two years later and never exhibited again?

...that the Zoological Garden of Hamburg (pictured) built the world's largest primate house in 1915, only to see most of the monkeys starve to death during World War I and the zoo go bankrupt in 1920?
...that Astronomische Nachrichten, founded by H. C. Schumacher in 1821, is the world's oldest extant astronomical journal?
...that St. Trudpert's Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Münstertal in the southern Black Forest, was was plundered during the Peasants' War and destroyed by the Swedes during the Thirty Years' War?
...that the megalithic Altendorf tomb in Hesse, Germany contains bones from at least 235 individuals from the New Stone Age?
...that Albrecht Dürer's Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate is one of 16 woodcuts completed between 1501 and 1511, which display the Virgin as an intermediary between the divine and the earth, yet with a range of human frailties?
...that in 1959, Barksdale Hamlett, the U.S. commandant in Berlin, threatened to forcefully prevent the East German government from flying its new flag over elevated railway stations in West Berlin?
...that the first major anti-nuclear demonstrations in Germany took place in 1975 in opposition to the construction of a proposed nuclear power station in Wyhl?
...that both former German Federal Minister of Labor Norbert Blüm and former Secretary of State of France Alain Vivien have been recognized with the Leipzig Human Rights Award?

...that Berlinka (pictured) was a partially constructed highway built by Nazi Germany that was intended to span the Polish Corridor from Berlin to Königsberg, Prussia?
...that after World War II, the Soviets took nearly 100 tons of uranium oxide as reparations from a facility of the company Auergesellschaft, accelerating their development of the atomic bomb by a year?
...that Tiefland, Leni Riefenstahl’s last full-feature film, made it into the Guiness Book of World Records on account of its long production time?
...that Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the doors of All Saints' Church, Wittenberg, Germany, in which he is also buried?
...that Vorpostenboot, the patrol boats that the Kriegsmarine used in World War II, were in fact modified fishing ships?
...that Helmut Dähne holds the official motorcycle lap record on the 20.8 km (12.9 mi) long Nordschleife track in Germany since 1988?
...that St. Elizabeth's Church (pictured), constructed in memory of a Russian princess, is the only Russian Orthodox church in Wiesbaden, Germany?
...that the German Renaissance castle Schloss Brenz now regularly hosts concerts?
...that Böttcherstrasse in Bremen, Germany, is an unusual ensemble of expressionist architecture?
...that Princess Margaret of Prussia had her jewels stolen by American soldiers in the aftermath of World War II?
...that Karl Schnibbe was one of a group of three Hamburg teenagers arrested by the Gestapo in Nazi Germany during World War II for distributing anti- Hitler pamphlets?
... that Mevlüde Genç, a Turk living in Germany who had lost five of her family members to Neo-Nazi violence in the Solingen arson attack of 1993, went on to advocate tolerance between Turks and Germans?
... that German chemist Albert Niemann was the first person to isolate cocaine in 1859?
... that Das Königsprojekt was the first of three science fiction novels written by the German author Carl Amery?
... that Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry was founded as Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Psychiatrie by King Ludwig III of Bavaria in 1917?
... that the Phylax Society, the first German Shepherd Dog club, disbanded because members could not agree whether the dogs should be bred for working or appearance?
... that after winning a bronze medal at the 1997 World Championships in Athletics, German shot putter Stephanie Storp began playing basketball?

... that the 1961 German film The Miracle of Father Malachia was finished only seven hours before its premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival?
... that the German Renaissance Little Masters specialized in very small engravings (example pictured), often treated erotically?
... that the Division of Altenburg in Saxony led to a war between two brothers in 1446 known as the Bruderkrieg, or Saxon Brother War?
... that German geologist Heinrich Edmund Naumann discovered a new species of fossil elephant in Japan?
... that the Prussian state railways was the largest German company by number of employees in 1907?
... that the SS-physician Alfred Trzebinski, who was involved in the homicide of 20 children at the former school Bullenhuser Damm, was executed by hanging in 1946?
... that Renaissance woodcuts by Hans Wechtlin cover both the chivalric ideal of war and graphic details of war wounds?
... that Schloss Vollrads claims to be the oldest winery of Germany?
... that the meaning of " Der Pleier", the pseudonym of the 13th-century author of the romance Garel, is unknown, though it might refer metaphorically to glassblowing?
... that Albrecht Dürer's Great Piece of Turf shows plants such as cocksfoot, creeping bent and hound's-tongue?
... that Kunz von Kaufungen kidnapped Frederick II, Elector of Saxony's two sons, Ernest and Albert, just four years after he commanded Frederick II's forces during the Saxon Fratricidal War?
... that the sculpture Berlin, created as a testament to East and West Berlin being close yet separate, was commissioned for the city's 750th anniversary?
... that German rugby club SC 1880 Frankfurt adopted a red and black strip after a set of friendlies in 1894 against the English club Blackheath F.C., who also played in those colours?
... that in 1844 Friedrich Gottlob Keller (from Krippen, Germany) invented the wood-grinding machine for papermaking, being first to successfully produce paper from a wood pulp?

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