The World Upon Their Shoulders

Posted bySarahPosted inArt, PhotographyTags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

 

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Entrance to a building complex in Kreuzberg, Berlin, edited with Snapseed

 

On one of my occasional strolls through the streets of Berlin, I came across this magnificent entrance to a building complex that´s situated right beside the Catholic Church of St Bonifatius in Kreuzberg.

In the middle of the oak leaf (?) wreath the date of the buildings completion has been added, 1891/1892.

Curious as ever, I started googling what other things had happened in 1891 as soon as I got home. This is what I found:

– Tsar Nikolaus II. escaped an assassination attempt in Japan, the so called Otsu incident

– the developing liquid Rodinal for black/white photography has been patented

– for the first time stamps could be purchased from an automat (London)

– the Wr. Wrigley Jr. Company has been founded in Chicago

– the first telephone call between Paris and London took place

– Stanford University in California is opened and accepts their first students

– Paul Gauguin begins his ship voyage to Tahiti

 

Would you like to add more occasions of historical importance to my short list?

 

Published by Sarah

Artist & Illustrator

54 thoughts on “The World Upon Their Shoulders”

  1. Wonderful photography, Sarah! And a magnificent piece of art and architecture… thank you for such interesting information and history. Hope everything is well and take care,my friend. 🙂

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    1. Thanks so much, Iris! I really liked doing this kind of post and the lovely response it got and think I will do something alike again. There’s so much stunning architecture in Berlin and coupling it with historic anecdotes helps me always to remember most of it 😄 Wish you a lovely weekend! 💕🐨

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  3. Great post, Sarah! One of my favorite artists is Max Ernst who was born in 1891 in Germany. He was an artist who created all kinds of surreal art. I loved his collages best of all. Here’s one of them:

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  5. I love the rabbit trails like this – (and it happened to me last month with Plantation Florida 1993) – and with your list – I was just reading that England invented stamps and because of this – they do not have to have their country on the stamp – but all others do – so I liked that tidbit the most…

    and to add a tidbit….
    does a dress from 1892 count?

    maybe it would be the dress someone would wear to go out with the count with the ruby-red vest….
    ?
    ha!

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    1. Thank you so much, Yvette! 🙂
      They might not have to have their country on their stamps but they have to have a picture of the Queen on it! And might the silhouette be as tiny as it goes…it has to be there 🙂 Just love this!
      Do you have a special dress in mind? Which one might it be??
      Haha! Yes, when worn going out with the Count that would definitely make it well worth to be mentioned in history! 😉

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      1. well I included a photo of the dress – did it come through? And I will share it on my next art digest (this weekend) and I will have to note your ruby-red vested Count… k?

        and true about the Queen on those stamps

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      2. Ah – I had to change to my proper website! Now I see it and it’s beautiful!! Thank you so much for adding this – I’ll try to copy it for his Lady 😉 The Count will be ever so pleased 😄 Oh, and of course it would be okay for me if you’d mention him!! More than that – it would be fantastic! 😄😚
        Going to bed now, talk to you soon. xxxxxooooo

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    1. Thank you, Lana!! 🙂 I think it´s amazing to realize that many things we now take for granted were in their babyshoes just over a mere century ago… makes me humble at the speed with which everything nowadays seems to develop…

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  7. A lot of things had happened in that year 🙂 Gabriel Lippman produced a colored image directly in the camera using some technique I know little about 🙂 For this he received the Nobel Prize for physics. Evolution of color photography didn’t go that way though because the results could not be copied, but I guess this had some importance for science.

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    1. Thank you for adding another interesting scientific fact, Inese! 🙂
      The evolution of photography was a long and tedious one, a lot of trial and error 😉 We wouldn’t be were we are now if it were not for those scientific pioneers, even though most people use only digital photography which has nothing to do whatsoever with what has been there before…

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      1. You would be surprised to know how many people are using early photographic processes these days 🙂 I know people who work with pinhole camera – you can easy make it from a shoe box, and use wet-plate Collodion process.

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      3. It was always fashionable, because it is unique 🙂 I have a few pinhole pictures myself, taken with a shoe box, and I have a wet-plate portrait on glass. Must share how I got it some day 🙂

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  9. Okay, did anyone else notice that in order to discover the date of the building one has to look straight up? That in itself is a cool thing about your photograph. And given the implied height of the ‘ceiling’ – without your zoom lens, what average person walking under the archway would even be able to read that date easily?
    Love your perspective on both the photo and its resultant art-history discussion.

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  10. This is such a marvelous posts and I love the comments 🙂
    Couldn’t resist to google too…Kaiser Willem II of Germany visited The Netherlands for three days in 1981 🙂 And Phillips started its factory (glow-lights) then…Ah, so many more interesting happened in that year….

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    1. Thank you very much, Patty! 🙂
      Hehe, I guess there´s a little mistake with your numbers 😉 But don´t worry, it happened to me too when I was writing this post 😉 😀
      Thank you for adding more historical facts! I feel like I could write a book now! 😀
      Have a fantastic weekend dear! xoxoxo

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  14. I absolutely LOVE them! And for my congtribution to your list, I offer the birth of Mikhail Bulgakov in Kiev. His Master and Marguerita is one of my all time favourite books so he is my pick but I have had the greatest fun looking at all sorts of historic facts from your dates. Have a super lovely week, my friend! xxx

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    1. Thank you sooo much, Osyth! 😄 Love your contributed fact especially because I recently decided that I need to involve myself more into Russian literature – and to my utter embarrassment haven’t read this one yet. (The only other book that begins with “Master” in its title that I’ve read was written by one of my favourite writers, Patrick O’Brian 😉) Wish a wonderful week and awesome weekend too my friend! 😄 xxxxxxx

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      1. Don’t get me started on Russian literature …. I can bore for any country on it but I don’t know the book you refer to so my tradeoff is that I am off to seek it out! Xx

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      2. So far I only read Tolstoi and Dostojevski but really need to remedy that soon. Somehow I like reading Russians in winter… 😉
        The book I was referring to is “Master and Commander” by Patrick O´Brian, it´s the first in a historical series and is settled in the Napoleonic Wars. I love these books very much as I always had a very soft spot for everything nautical 😉 The first book has even been made into a film starring Russel Crowe and Paul Bethany, and it´s actually a damn good one! Have a spectacular weekend and I hope I´m going to read something by you very soon again! 😉 🙂 xxx

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  15. Lovely photo. You have such great buildings there. Okay, here is my 1891 contribution:
    May 5 – The Music Hall in New York (later known as Carnegie Hall) has its grand opening and first public performance, with Tchaikovsky as guest conductor.
    Source: Wikipedia
    Cheers

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    1. Thank you so much, Chris! I’m just learning from the best 😉
      Wow! Didn’t know that one about Tchaikovsky who is by the way one of my favourite componists. This is really fun letting you all contribute with more interesting facts, love to learn something new each day! Maybe I should make more of this kind of post… Cheers! 😄

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      1. It was a cool post and a few people chimed in with their chosen historic events. They play Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture at our annual 4th of July concert. It is a lot of fun with the cannons and bells. Cheers

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      2. Thank you, Chris! It´s awesome which different facts are being chosen by the others! Wow! Cannons and bells accompanied by Tchaikovsky – that must be a sight, or rather a sound to behold! Cheers!

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  17. It may surprise you, Sarah, we play a game in England to a.. Ahem professional standard, called football and it was around this time, 1891/92 that the penalty kick was first introduced. I’m not sure why I’m mentioning this to my friend in Berlin… 😉

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    1. Yes, I have heard that the English play it too 😉 Didn’t know about the first penalty kick – thank you for adding this interesting historic fact, Phil! 😄
      Maybe you felt like mentioning it because of 1930?? 😉 Or is it because football is a game played by 22 men running after a ball for 90 minutes and which the Germans win? 😉😇

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      1. I think I mentioned it as part of my therapy in trying to recover from the penalty shoot outs of 1990 and 1996. 😪 The first game of football I can remember watching was the Germans beating the English 3-1 in 1972. 😱 I was 5. You’ve been beating us more often than not ever since 🤕 So the therapy has some dark roots to dig out but… It’s only a game ⚽️🏆🍺 🙂

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      3. I’m guessing your cousins are frustrated England supporters and your English is good because you’ve spent a lot of time taunting them. 🙂 Being English their German won’t be half as good. We’ve always got 66. (We’ve only got 66) 🙂

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      4. Hehe! Yes, they´re quite frustrated, and it doesn´t help that they actually like Bayern München 😉 Oh, and I would never taunt them – they are both nearly 6,5 feet tall!
        Yes, you´ll always have ´66 😉 And who knows what the future holds… Don´t give up hope! 🙂

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