Peter Studebaker, his brother, their wives and a cousin arrived in America from Germany in 1736. Industrious, they began making farm equipment, then wagons and Army wagons. The families burgeoned and so did the business – Studebaker became the largest wagon manufacturer in the world. They advanced to making fancy horse-drawn carriages. In the 1850s,…
Category: Germany
The year was 2007
Can you imagine being caught in a thunderstorm and finding yourself 33,000 feet in the air? It was actually two clouds coming together. This happened to Ewa Wisnierska, a Polish paragliding champion who competed for Germany. The first paraglider would have to be Icarus, who made wings out of feathers and wax, flew too close…
The Year was 1916
Thanks to Steve Ellis for this idea! Should we blame farmers? What about school bus drivers? No. For Daylight Savings Time, we must blame World War I. Making optimal use of daylight was an idea that was used even in ancient times. The Romans adjusted their water clocks for every month. In 1895, a New…
The year was 1938
Magda was fed up. She wanted a divorce. But she did not ask her husband. Instead, she asked Adolph Hitler. Not only had Hitler arranged her first meeting with Joseph, but years later, he had set up Magda and her husband and their six adorable blond, blue-eyed children as the poster family for the Third…
The year was 1370 BCE
It was summer in Jutland, 3,387 years ago. A lovely young woman, probably not quite 18 years old, was enjoying the weather. She was about 5’3” and had short blond hair. She was wearing what may have been her favorite outfit – a woven woolen top that had a boat-neck collar and elbow-length sleeves. It…
The year was 1818
Tonight was Christmas Eve. The organ at St. Nicholas church in Oberndorff was broken. In the afternoon, Father Josef Mohr, 26, walked a couple of miles from St. Nicholas to his friend Franz Gruber’s home in the nearby town of Arnsdorf, to give him a six-stanza poem he had written two years earlier. Franz, a…
The year was 1888
In 1871, Berthe Ringer, 22, was so impressed with her fiancé Karl’s business that she invested her own money and became a partner. A year later, when she married Karl, she lost her status – a wife could not legally own or invest in a business in Germany. Still, Berthe worked side-by-side with Karl for…