Hanau , Germany was bombed by British bombers (277 Lancasters and 8 Mosquitos of Nos 1 and 8 Groups) on 19 March 1945 during World War II, a few days before it was taken by the US Army. 85% of the city was destroyed. Hanau lost its old monuments, and the medieval section of the city was levelled. The ancient castle, arsenal, city theater and the birthhouse of the Grimm brothers were destroyed. Only half of the Walloon church still stands today. Hanau became a major garrison town in the late 19th century and was (and is) an important junction on the German railway system.
Kołobrzeg is a port city in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in north-western Poland with about 47,000 inhabitants. Kołobrzeg is located on the Parsęta River on the south coast of the Baltic Sea. It is the capital of Kołobrzeg County.
Demmin is a town in the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. It was the capital of the former district of Demmin.
Jörg Friedrich is a German author and historian. Friedrich is best known for his publication Der Brand (2002), in which he portrays the Allied bombing of civilian targets during World War II as systematic and in many ways pointless mass murder. An English translation, The Fire, was published in 2006 by Columbia University Press and met with widespread critical approval. For example, the New York Times said it "describes in stark, unrelenting and very literary detail what happened in city after city as the Allies dropped 80 million incendiary bombs on Germany..... There is... an edginess to Friedrich's writing and commentary, an emotional power."
During World War II, Braunschweig was attacked by Allied aircraft in 42 bombing raids. On the night of 14/15 October 1944, the attack by No. 5 Group Royal Air Force (RAF) marked the high point of the destruction of Henry the Lion's city during the war. The air raid was part of Operation Hurricane, which was designed to demonstrate the capabilities of the Allied bombing campaign. The attack caused a massive conflagration, that might have developed into a firestorm, and resulted in Braunschweig burning continuously for two and a half days from 15 to 17 October. More than 90 percent of the medieval city centre was destroyed, changing the city's appearance to the present day.
Darmstadt was bombed a number of times during World War II. The most devastating air raid on Darmstadt occurred on the night of 11/12 September 1944 when No. 5 Group of the Royal Air Force (RAF) bombed the city. 66,000 of the 110,000 inhabitants of Darmstadt at the time became homeless. Darmstadt lost between 12,500 and 13,500 inhabitants during World War II. The calligraphic memorial Darmstädter Brandnamen lists about 4,000 names. Darmstadt had several major industrial targets including Merck and Rohm and Haas chemical works as well as military communications networks.
Innsbruck, an Austrian city, was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938. It was bombed 22 times by the Allies in World War II, suffering heavy damage.
Aschaffenburg Hauptbahnhof is the main station of Aschaffenburg in the German state of Bavaria. It is located on the busy Ruhr– Frankfurt–Nuremberg–Munich/Vienna rail corridor. Deutsche Bahn classifies it as a category 2 station. It forms the boundary between the city centre and the district of Damm.
Hanau Hauptbahnhof is a railway station in Hanau in the German state of Hesse, and is a major railway junction east of Frankfurt am Main. It was opened in 1867, but the current building was built in the late 1960s. It is located about 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) south-east of central Hanau. It is classified by Deutsche Bahn (DB) as a category 2 station and has many train services, including Intercity Express, regional and S-Bahn services.
Philipp II was Count of Hanau-Münzenberg from 1512 until his death. He was the son of Count Reinhard IV and his wife, Katharina of Schwarzburg-Blankenburg.
Balthasar of Hanau-Münzenberg was a posthumous son of Count Reinhard IV of Hanau-Münzenberg and his wife Countess Catherine of Schwarzburg-Blankenburg.
Operation Tigerfish was the military code name in World War II for the air raid on Freiburg in the evening of 27 November 1944 by the Royal Air Force with about 2,800 dead.
Jakob Altmaier was a German journalist and a politician in the Social Democratic Party of Germany. He was one of few German Jews who returned to Germany after World War II and became active in politics.
Lothar Kettenacker is a historian of Germany in the twentieth century. He is a former research fellow and deputy director of the German Historical Institute London.
The aerial bombings of Hanover are a series of eighty-eight air raids by Royal Air Force (RAF) Bomber Command and the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) on the German city of Hanover during World War II. Collectively these air raids killed 6,782 persons, predominantly civilian residents. Around 1,000 aerial mines, 34,000 high explosive bombs, 900,000 incendiary bombs and 50,000 fire bombs were dropped. The most destructive and deadly air raid on Hanover was conducted by the RAF on the night beginning 8 October 1943, killing 1,245 persons, and is an example of carpet bombing of suburban and residential civilian targets laid out in the Area Bombing Directive of 14 February 1942.
Sven Felix Kellerhoff is a German historian, journalist and author who specialises in the history of the Nazi era.
Hartmut Barth-Engelbart, is a German author, songwriter and graphic artist.
The Hanau shootings occurred on 19 February 2020, when eleven people were killed and five others wounded in a terrorist shooting spree by a far-right extremist targeting a shisha bar, a bar and a kiosk in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. After the attacks, the gunman returned to his apartment, where he killed his mother and then committed suicide. The massacre was called an act of terrorism by the German Minister of Internal Affairs.
Michael Maaser is a German historian, archivist of the Goethe University Frankfurt.
Christine Fischer-Defoy is a German woman writer, film director and cultural historian.
The German Goldsmith's House is the former town hall of the old town of Hanau, which has been used as a museum for jewelry and hollowware since the beginning of the 20th century. The director since 2006 is Christianne Weber-Stöber, who holds a doctorate in jewelry history.