The steeple ball (also tower ball from German : Turmkugel) is a closed, typically rounded, capsule on the finial of many buildings in the German-speaking countries. A steeple ball is highly visible and hard to reach for repairs, so attention is paid to the quality of design, construction, and materials. The combination of durability and inaccessibility makes the steeple ball attractive for use as a time capsule. When roofs are renovated or replaced, new items (most often newspapers or coins) are added to the existing ones. [1]
Shiny and visible from many places in the city, capsules are also used as target points during geodetic surveying. [2]
Installing the steeple ball is one of the final steps in building or renovating a church roof. This event is often celebrated with a so-called Kugelfest. [3]
Cologne Cathedral is a cathedral in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia belonging to the Catholic Church. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and of the administration of the Archdiocese of Cologne. It is a renowned monument of German Catholicism and Gothic architecture and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1996. It is Germany's most visited landmark, attracting an average of 6 million people a year. At 157 m (515 ft), the cathedral is the tallest twin-spired church in the world, the second tallest church in Europe after Ulm Minster, and the third tallest church of any kind in the world.
The lux is the unit of illuminance, or luminous flux per unit area, in the International System of Units (SI). It is equal to one lumen per square metre. In photometry, this is used as a measure of the irradiance, as perceived by the spectrally unequally responding human eye, of light that hits or passes through a surface. It is analogous to the radiometric unit watt per square metre, but with the power at each wavelength weighted according to the luminosity function, a model of human visual brightness perception, standardized by the CIE and ISO. In English, "lux" is used as both the singular and plural form. The word is derived from the Latin word for "light", lux.
The German school of fencing is a system of combat taught in the Holy Roman Empire during the Late Medieval, German Renaissance, and early modern periods. It is described in the contemporary Fechtbücher written at the time. The geographical center of this tradition was in what is now Southern Germany including Augsburg, Frankfurt, and Nuremberg. During the period in which it was taught, it was known as the Kunst des Fechtens, or the "Art of Fighting". The German school of fencing focuses primarily on the use of the two-handed longsword; it also describes the use of many other weapons, including polearms, medieval daggers, messers, and the staff, as well as describing mounted combat and unarmed grappling (ringen).
Heiligendamm is a German seaside resort founded in 1793.
Nußbaum is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Bad Sobernheim, whose seat is in the like-named town. Nußbaum is a winegrowing village.
The Free Workers' Union of Germany was an anarcho-syndicalist trade union in Germany. It stemmed from the Free Association of German Trade Unions (FDVG) which combined with the Ruhr region's Freie Arbeiter Union on September 15, 1919.
Sportforum Hohenschönhausen, officially named Sportforum Berlin, is a multi-purpose sports complex in the locality of Alt-Hohenschönhausen of the borough of Lichtenberg in Berlin. The Sportforum was also known as the Dynamo-Sportforum during the East German era.
Göttingen railway station, known in German as Bahnhof Göttingen, is an InterCityExpress stop on Germany's domestic long-distance rail network and the only passenger station of the city of Göttingen. Built in 1854 as the terminus of the Hanoverian Southern Railway, the station lies west of the medieval town centre. The station today has four platform islands each with two through tracks. In addition there is a through track for goods traffic between the station building and the platforms.
Lindenschied is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis (district) in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Kirchberg, whose seat is in the like-named town.
Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG, known until 2005 as Hamburger Hafen- und Lagerhaus-Aktiengesellschaft, and prior to that as Hamburger Freihafen-Lagerhaus Gesellschaft (HFLG) since 1885, is a German logistics and transportation company specialising in port throughput and container and transport logistics.
Dellmensingen Castle is an early Baroque castle in the Upper Swabian village of Dellmensingen, now part of the city of Erbach, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
Lissingen Castle is a well-preserved former moated castle dating to the 13th century. It is located on the River Kyll in Gerolstein in the administrative district of Vulkaneifel in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. From the outside it appears to be a single unit, but it is a double castle; an estate division in 1559 created the so-called lower castle and upper castle, which continue to have separate owners. Together with Bürresheim and Eltz, it has the distinction among castles in the Eifel of never having been destroyed.
The High Com noise reduction system was developed by Telefunken, Germany, in the 1970s as a high quality high compression analogue compander for audio recordings.
The Mooskappe is an old, traditional miners head covering. It was intended to protect miners when working underground from the impact of small rockfalls and from hitting their heads against the gallery roof (Firste). The term is German and this type of hat was worn especially in the Harz Mountains of Germany.
Sep Ruf was a German architect and designer strongly associated with the Bauhaus group. He was one of the representatives of modern architecture in Germany after World War II. His elegant buildings received high praise in Germany and Europe and his German pavilion of the Expo 58 in Brussels, built together with Egon Eiermann, achieved worldwide recognition. He attended the Interbau 1957 in Berlin-Hansaviertel and was one of the three architects who had the top secret order to create the governmental buildings in the new capital city of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bonn. His best known building was the residence for the Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, built for Ludwig Erhard, the so-called Chancellor's Bungalow.
Trotz Allem is a self-managed social centre and youth club in Witten, Germany. The first space was rented from 1999 until 2005. The second space opened in 2006 and reopened after renovations in 2010. The centre hosts various groups and the Gustav Landauer Library Witten.
The Old Castle was a former Elector-owned, substantial water castle in the German city of Koblenz, incepted in the 13th century. It is today reduced to the later Burghaus ; which houses the city archives. It sits on tall foundations and has a tall, black slate roof with further floors in the attic and two small cupolas. The lowland castle abutted the remaining building in the old town quarter. The castle house stands tall, next to the Moselle's right-bank towpath downstream of the strategic Baldwin Bridge built in 1342. The bridge, much-repaired, remains intact.
The Church of the Holy Cross is a Lutheran church in the centre of Hanover, the capital of Lower Saxony, Germany. A Gothic hall church, it is one of three churches in Hanover's old town – the other two being Market Church and Aegidien Church, although the latter is now a war memorial.
St. Martin is a Gothic church and the associated Catholic parish in Lorch am Rhein, Hesse, Germany. In 2002, it became part of the Rhine Gorge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The church features the oldest and largest monochrome wood-carved altar in Germany. Its organ from 1984 makes it also a concert venue, where international organists such as Olivier Latry have performed.
The Kölnische Stadtmuseum is the municipal history museum of Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is housed in the former Franz Sauer fashion house since March 2024, which has been completely remodelled for the museum. The site is centrally located between the Minorite Church, Museum Kolumba and Breite Straße.