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Karen Liebreich (born 1959), MBE, is an author, historian and gardener.
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Karen Liebreich (born 1959), MBE, is an author, historian and gardener.
Liebreich was born in London, and educated at Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls. She studied History at University College London and the European University Institute, before completing a PhD at the University of Cambridge. She worked as the cultural assistant at the French Institute in London, and then as a producer at the BBC and the History Channel, where she worked on historical documentaries. Between 2005 and 2009, she ran a historic kitchen garden in Chiswick House, West London, and was the co-founder of Abundance London, a community garden and urban harvesting project. [1] In 2013, she was awarded an MBE for services to horticulture and education [2] From 2015 to 2018, working with Sarah Cruz also of Abundance London, [3] she created the Chiswick Timeline, [4] a vast, spectacular mural of historic maps of Chiswick from 1593 to the present day, covering almost 60 metres of the London Underground bridge arches crossing Turnham Green Terrace, including works of art by famous artists with links to Chiswick such as William Hogarth, with some specifically created for the mural by Sir Peter Blake [5] and Jan Pieńkowski. In 2020 she co-founded the Chiswick Flower Market, part of a project to reinvigorate the local High Road. She is a non-fiction author and occasional journalist.
In 2004, Liebreich wrote Fallen Order, an exposé of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in the 17th century. [6] While researching her doctorate, Liebreich discovered documents in the Vatican archives indicating that the Piarist Order, an order dedicated to providing education to poorer children, had covered up a sexual abuse scandal involving some of their priests. [7] This scandal had subsequently contributed to the order's temporary suppression in 1646.
In 2006, Liebreich wrote The Letter in the Bottle about her research to identify the mother who wrote a message in a bottle to express her enduring grief over the death of her son at the age of 13. [8] The 2009 French translation received substantial media coverage in France [9] and was dramatised for a BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play in December 2012. [10]
In 2009, Liebreich wrote The Family Kitchen Garden, based on her experiences restoring and preserving a historic kitchen garden in the grounds of Chiswick House. [11]
In 2017 Liebreich published The Black Page – interviews with Nazi Film-makers based on her first-hand interviews conducted in the making of various BBC documentaries. [12] An essay based on this on Brunhilde Pomsel, Goebbels's secretary, was published by the London Review of Books after the death of Pomsel in January 2017. [13]
In 2018, after more than three years' work, the Chiswick Timeline [14] was formally opened, with an accompanying book.
In 2020, Liebreich published An Objective History detailing her family's experiences during the Second World War.
Chiswick is a district in the London Borough of Hounslow, West London, England. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist William Hogarth; Chiswick House, a neo-Palladian villa regarded as one of the finest in England; and Fuller's Brewery, London's largest and oldest brewery. In a meander of the River Thames used for competitive and recreational rowing, with several rowing clubs on the river bank, the finishing post for the Boat Race is just downstream of Chiswick Bridge.
William Kent was an English architect, landscape architect, painter and furniture designer of the early 18th century. He began his career as a painter, and became Principal Painter in Ordinary or court painter, but his real talent was for design in various media.
Chiswick House is a Neo-Palladian style villa in the Chiswick district of London, England. A "glorious" example of Neo-Palladian architecture in west London, the house was designed and built by Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington (1694–1753), and completed in 1729. The house and garden occupy 26.33 hectares. The garden was created mainly by the architect and landscape designer William Kent, and it is one of the earliest examples of the English landscape garden.
Tommaso Campanella, baptized Giovanni Domenico Campanella, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, theologian, astrologer, and poet.
Delia Ann Smith is an English cook and television presenter, known for teaching basic cookery skills in a no-nonsense style. One of the best known celebrity chefs in British popular culture, Smith has influenced viewers to become more culinarily adventurous. She is also famous for her role as joint majority shareholder at Norwich City F.C.
Erin Patria Margaret Pizzey is a British ex-feminist, Men's rights activist and advocate against domestic violence, and novelist. She is known for having started the first and currently the largest domestic violence shelter in the modern world, Refuge, then known as Chiswick Women's Aid, in 1971.
Karen Armstrong is a British author and commentator of Irish Catholic descent known for her books on comparative religion. A former Roman Catholic religious sister, she went from a conservative to a more liberal and mystical Christian faith. She attended St Anne's College, Oxford, while in the convent and majored in English. She left the convent in 1969. Her work focuses on commonalities of the major religions, such as the importance of compassion and the Golden Rule.
Johanna Maria Magdalena "Magda" Goebbels was the wife of Nazi Germany's Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. A prominent member of the Nazi Party, she was a close ally, companion, and political supporter of Adolf Hitler. Some historians refer to her as the unofficial "first lady" of Nazi Germany, while others give that title to Emmy Göring.
Catherine Anna Yronwode is an American writer, editor, graphic designer, typesetter, and publisher with an extensive career in the comic book industry. She is also a practitioner of folk magic.
Rochus Misch was a German Oberscharführer (sergeant) in the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH). He was badly wounded during the Polish campaign during the first month of World War II in Europe. After recovering, from 1940 to April 1945, he served in the Führerbegleitkommando as a bodyguard, courier, and telephone operator for German dictator Adolf Hitler.
John Randall Bratby RA was an English painter who founded the kitchen sink realism style of art that was influential in the late 1950s. He made portraits of his family and celebrities. His works were seen in television and film. Bratby was also a writer.
Helmut Kunz was an SS dentist who, after the suicide of Adolf Hitler, was ordered to administer anesthetic to the six children of Joseph Goebbels before they were killed.
Günther August Wilhelm Schwägermann served in the Nazi government of German dictator Adolf Hitler. From approximately late 1941, Schwägermann served as the adjutant for Joseph Goebbels. He reached the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer (captain). Schwägermann survived World War II and was held in American captivity from 25 June 1945 until 24 April 1947.
Angela Maria Hartnett is an English Michelin-starred chef. A protégée of Gordon Ramsay who became well known by her appearances on British television. She was Chef-Patron at Angela Hartnett at The Connaught in London. Currently, she is Chef-Patron for Murano in Mayfair, Café Murano in St James's & Covent Garden and Cucina Angelina in Courchevel (France).
The Goebbels children were the five daughters and one son born to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda Goebbels. The children, born between 1932 and 1940, were murdered by their parents in Berlin on 1 May 1945, the day both parents committed suicide.
Alys Fowler is a British horticulturist and journalist. She was a presenter on the long-running BBC television programme Gardeners' World.
Penitent Magdalene is a 16th-century oil on canvas painting by Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio. The painting portrays a repentant Mary Magdalene, bowed over in penitent sorrow as she leaves behind her dissolute life, its trappings abandoned beside her. At the time of its completion, ca. 1594–1595, the painting was unconventional for its contemporary realism and departure from traditional Magdalene iconography. It has invited both criticism and praise, with speculation even into the 21st century as to Caravaggio's intentions. The work hangs in the Doria Pamphilj Gallery in Rome.
Michael Liebreich is Chairman and CEO of Liebreich Associates, through which he provides advisory services and speaks on clean energy and transportation, smart infrastructure, technology, climate finance and sustainable development. In September 2020, he became an official adviser to the UK’s Board of Trade. He is also a senior contributor at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, a company he founded in 2004 that was acquired by Bloomberg L.P. in 2009. In July 2020, he launched his weekly podcast Cleaning Up. Guests are leaders in clean energy, mobility, climate finance or sustainable development, and have included Tony Blair and Ban Ki-moon.In March 2021, Michael became a Co-Founding and Managing Partner of EcoPragma Capital LLP. EcoPragma is a Growth Equity investor, investing in companies on the cusp of strong commercial growth and contributing to the net-zero transition In November 2022, Michael was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from the Energy Institute for being one of the foremost thought leaders in renewable energy and sustainability, not just in the UK, but globally
The Vorbunker was an underground concrete structure originally intended to be a temporary air-raid shelter for Adolf Hitler and his guards and servants. It was located behind the large reception hall that was added onto the old Reich Chancellery, in Berlin, Germany, in 1936. The bunker was officially called the "Reich Chancellery Air-Raid Shelter" until 1943, when the complex was expanded with the addition of the Führerbunker, located one level below. On 16 January 1945, Hitler moved into the Führerbunker. He was joined by his senior staff, including Martin Bormann. Later, Eva Braun and Joseph Goebbels moved into the Führerbunker while Magda Goebbels and their six children took residence in the upper Vorbunker. The Goebbels family lived in the Vorbunker until their deaths on 1 May 1945.
Brunhilde Pomsel was a personal secretary to Joseph Goebbels, the Reich Minister of Propaganda of Nazi Germany. She started work at the ministry's offices in the Ordenspalais opposite the Reich Chancellery in Berlin in 1942. In 2014, aged 103, she gave a series of interviews for a film documentary entitled A German Life. She told the interviewer, "It is absolutely not about clearing my conscience" and that "[N]o one believes me now, but I knew nothing". The film was released in 2016 when she was 105 years old.