1,000 Years of Fun at The Fair

Emperors, Kings, and other rulers had the prerogative of granting the right to hold markets and fairs. Markets were regular affairs held on a specific day of the week every week; fairs were intended to be much larger and would be held over several days or even weeks once a year. Both were intended to strengthen local business and provide additional tax income.

Awkward: Gestapo Burial in Berlin Jewish Cemetery

German history researcher Johannes Tuchel made a series of very awkward discoveries. The discoveries shed light on post-war Germany and how it was (not) run by the allies, on the the machinations of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and on what happens when sloppy research replaces real hard graft. Now he did the real hard work and here is what he found.

Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Müller

Mysterious Anna, Empress of Rome

She was left out of most historical accounts and had the misfortune of ending up on the losing side twice over. But she was one of the few women in history (maybe even the only one) to be an Empress Consort twice. The historical traces of her are rare, and Wikipedia has her story mostly wrong in any language I am able to read. We talk of Princess Anna of Byzantium, Empress of Rome.

Vienne

How a House Became a Home in Georgian London

What is it that turns a house into a home? And if you don’t have a house, do you still have a home? And where is that? In her book, these questions were answered time subjectively by historian Amanda Vickery and illustrated together with some persistent medieval ideas that hamper our life still today.

Surviving Shipwreck Three Times

People think they are lucky when surviving ship wreck. What to say about Violet Jessop who survived no less than three major disasters on sea? Would you have gone back onto a ship after surviving the sinking of the RMS Titanic? Would you have gone onto the RMS Titanic in the first place after being in the collision of the RMS Olympic? And would your ship of choice have been the HMHS Britannic? Violet Jessop did all that.

Violet Jessop