Elizabeth Ward

You can get your revenge on 8 March 😉

A locker. In the coin slot to lock it, there is a sticker that reads: 1/2 Euro

I genuinely thought I had the option of inserting a 50 cent coin

Public service post: If you are visiting Berlin for the first time this week and are wondering why certain Berliners seem surprisingly happy today:
(1) they are Berliners who work in Brandenburg
(2) that's not happiness, it's smugness

Ein Gebäck mit Zuckerguss, getrockneten Früchten und Konfitüre in der Mitte. Es soll einer Lutherrose ähneln.

Froher Reformationsbrötchentag an alle, die ihn feiern

What a wonderful opportunity for the students to be able to discuss the film with the very same scholar whose work they had been reading to understand the film. And above all, what fabulous conversation we all had around authenticity, competing narratives and the (hi)stories we tell.

A screen with a PowerPoint about the film

A huge thanks to @bniven.bsky.social for coming to speak to BA history students at @unileipzig.bsky.social today about the background and reception of the East German DEFA film (and 2015 remake) “Nackt unter Wölfen”.

A huge thanks to the Mitteldeutscher Verlag and the Puschkino in Halle for the excellent organisation - and of course to Bill.

The event was part of the Wir Festival in Halle, a cultural festival promoting the coming together of people to defend the values of tolerance, respect and solidarity.

It is the first time I have seen the film in a cinema with other people and the audience discussion with @bniven.bsky.social about the film, its production and its postwar afterlife was really interesting.

Cinema seats

A fascinating and very thought provoking evening: it was a real pleasure and honour to be able to moderate the pre- and post-screening discussion by Bill Niven @bniven.bsky.social for the screening of “Jud Süß”.

Looking forward to the discussion!

Screenshot of the event (available via the link)

Very much looking forward to moderating the discussion by Bill Niven @bniven.bsky.social on the production and reception histories of the 1940 National Socialist film Jud Süß at Halle's Puschkino on Wednesday 29 October.

puschkino.de/film_2491/ju...

Vor kurzem hat ein Nachbar von mir ein Familienmitglied in unserem Wohnhaus ermordet. Eine Tragödie in mehrfacher Weise. Keiner der Politiker:innen der CDU (oder AfD) hat sich dafür interessiert. Der Täter war ein weißer Deutscher, geboren in Deutschland. Da kann man wenig Schlagzeilen machen, na?

Ich wohne seit 5 Jahren in diesem Land und alle Fälle von sexueller Belästigung, die ich erlebt & beobachtet habe (und in die ich eingegriffen habe, während alle anderen Fahrgäste schweigen blieben), wurden von weißen Männern begangen, die mit Berliner, Brandenburger oder Sächsischem Akzent sprachen

Imagine what American media would be saying if this was happening in an EU state

A personal opinion is that if an archive is moving to ‘structured content releases’, it is no longer an archive but a private comms repository. What an incredible loss to our understanding of UK culture and heritage.

I love your owl! 🤩

A plant with eyes on it

The plant has become wild and has shoots going off in lots of directions

At the start of the week, I bought an emotional support plant to get me through the first teaching week. (I am a millennial - we have no emotional resilience.)

After a week with me, my plant seems to have developed a form of Stockholm syndrome.

(For non-millennial readers who were spared the joys of the English education system in the 2000s, “food technology” was one of many attempts to rebrand Home Economics: basically cooking. Food tech had nothing to do with technology or, quite frankly, more often than not anything resembling food.)

A pizza with tiramisu topping

This type of abhorrence takes me back to GCSE food technology when 14 year olds were tasked with coming upon with a “novel” take on a perfectly well-functioning dish, the results of which frequently bordered on a hate crime.

Former army barracks, now the university language centre

First teaching day of the @viadrina.eu semester done 🌟

Six hours, three seminar groups, super students, no major technology fails.

Now I’m off to lie down in a darkened room.

#SALE ends Thurs! Use code GSA25 for 35%off ALL #GermanStudies #GermanHistory books:bit.ly/46iWObl

@nikolasfunke.bsky.social
@klingstedt.bsky.social
@chewschaper.bsky.social
@duerrbortolotti.bsky.social
@philiphahn.bsky.social
@herrehrig.bsky.social
@elizabethward.bsky.social
@kyfrack.bsky.social

Wieder ein schlechter Tag für die AfD im Osten.
Deklassiert in der OB-Stichwahl in Frankfurt (Oder) und sogar in Eisenhüttenstadt - wo sie sich echte Hoffnung machte - deutlich verloren.

A bottle of ginger shot called “Gold Shit”

👀

Drink that much ginger shot and I think your poop might be more than golden…

(The Goldeimer company does some great social and environmental work, though)

🤣🤣

Sign for Halloren beauty product range

For all those times you have thought, “if only I could smell like East German chocolate” - Halloren has finally delivered the goods.

How is this repeatedly made into a policy issue - by *all* parties - when the blunt fact of the matter is that grown adults who are obliged to pay for their own education, and relentlessly pursued to repay their loans, should be able to study whatever the fuck they want.

A corridor of the former prison

A very powerful visit to Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, a powerful museum space located in the US's first penitentiary and which reflects on the origins of incarceration, the decisions made and their consequences, and the far-reaching structural inequalities today.

Standing behind the Rocky monument, looking out onto Downtown

Looking along the suspension bridge

Looking down onto a street with skyscrapers in the distance

First time in Philadelphia - and I love it here

A monument to Kermit the Frog and Jim Henson. The two are shown in conversation, with Kermit's hand on Jim's

Kermit and Jim

📍 University of Maryland, College Park

Three soldiers in combat

A bronze relief of corn

Mason seated and resting next to the constitution

A graffiti-style inscription reading: Kilroy was here

Washington memorials pt 6

17. Three Soldiers (Frederick Hart, 1984)

18. Holodomor Genocide Memorial (Larysa Kurylas, 2015)

19. George Mason Memorial (Faye B. Harwell and Wendy M. Ross, 2002)

20. World War II Memorial (Friedrich St. Florian, 2004)