Victory in Europe Day
8 May 2022 | Author/Destination: Around the World / Rund um die Welt | Rubric: General Reading Time: 8 minutes
8 May 1945 – Winston Churchill waves to crowds in Whitehall in London © War Office official photographer, Major W. G. Horton
Brewer’s Star
25 April 2022 | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union | Rubric: General, Living, Working, Building Reading Time: 7 minutes The brewer’s star (also: beer star, beer pointer, brew star, in the Upper Palatinate also Bierzoigl and Zoiglstern) is a six-pointed star (hexagram) that is used as a guild sign for brewers and maltsters. The brewer’s star is also the symbol for the issuing office of the house drink of a brewery, which is therefore also called “star” or “stars”. The six-pointed Zoigl star, which is formed from two interlocking equilateral triangles, symbolizes the three elements involved in brewing, fire, water and air, and on the other hand the ingredients water, malt and hops that were common in the late Middle Ages. In the house book of the Mendelschen Zwölfbrüderstiftung from 1425, a brewer named Hertel is shown at a brew kettle with a brewer’s star. There are (so far) various hypotheses about the origin of the brewer’s star. read more…Schloss Wolfsgarten in Langen
20 April 2022 | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time: 7 minutes Schloss Wolfsgarten is a former hunting seat of the ruling family of Hesse-Darmstadt, located in the German state of Hessen, approximately 15 kilometers south of Frankfurt am Main. The hunting lodge was established between 1722 and 1724 by Landgrave Ernst Ludwig of Hesse-Darmstadt. read more…Ahrenshoop Baltic Sea Resort
30 March 2022 | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union | Rubric: General Reading Time: 7 minutes Ahrenshoop is a municipality in the Vorpommern-Rügen district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany on the Fischland-Darß-Zingst peninsula of the Baltic Sea. It used to be a small fishing village, but is today known for its tourism and as a holiday resort. read more…Portrait: Richard Wagner, composer, theatre director, polemicist, conductor
23 March 2022 | Author/Destination: Editorial / Redaktion | Rubric: Portrait Reading Time: 6 minutes Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, “music dramas”). Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk (“total work of art”), by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama. He described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung). read more…German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
21 February 2022 | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union | Rubric: General, Universities, Colleges, Academies Reading Time: 7 minutes
Main building, formerly the bulding of the Freemasons’ lodge ‘The Three Swords’
© panoramio.com – Michael aus Halle/cc-by-sa-3.0