Dearest Listener! 

Please enjoy this very special bonus episode! We welcome Dirk Hoffmann-Becking, from The History of the Germans Podcast. If there’s something this man doesn’t know about the Wittelsbachs, I sure as hell don’t want to hear about it!

Dirk takes Jonny and I from the earliest context surrounding the founding of Berlin and introduces us to some real characters like Henry the Fowler, all round nice guy, Uta von Ballenstedt, popped collar, cold hard stare, medieval FOX; As well as the painfully incontinent and hateful Saint Bernard of Clairvaux…AND he’s here and he’s less cuddly than you might think, it’s Albrecht the mutha hugging BEAR!

You can find more of Dirk’s fantastic content here: 

https://historyofthegermans.com/

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You can get in touch and book Jonny or Pip for a tour of Berlin via www.whitlams-berlin-tours.com.

Don't forget to subscribe for more Berlin history every two weeks!

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Donations keep us running. If you like the show and want to support it, you can use the following links:

Donate €50 •• Donate €20 •• Donate €10 •• Donate €5

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You can find Jonny online on YouTube, Instagram, BlueSky, and TikTok!

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Mixed and Produced by Alex Griffiths
https://www.instagram.com/alexgriffiths_music/
https://alexgriffiths.bandcamp.com/

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‼️👉 Click here to sign up! 👈‼️

Link not working? Look up “Pay What You Want Tour - International Women's Day Special with Pip Roper” on eventbrite.com

Pay What You Want Tour - International Women's Day Special with Pip Roper

It’s international Women’s Day! Come along for a special tour led by Pip Roper of History Flakes, Gender Historian and highly experienced Berlin Tour Guide. Learn about some of our more famous figures, Marlene Dietrich, Rosa Luxemburg, that most beloved Queen Luise, and discover some lesser know stories like that of the first ordained female Rabbi Regina Jonas, Angela Davis' relationship to the GDR, and more!

We’ll discuss some of our most celebrated female figures, lament over some of the worst and weave together the stories of progress and challenges through the lens of this great city’s women, all while exploring Berlin together on a special one-off tour.

Jonny will come and join, too - we're both really excited to meet our Flakes family.

See you there!

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Josephine Baker...Josi Bakes as we've taken to calling her, respectfully. Fizzing with energy, talent, and pure GUMPTION. The only African American woman to be inducted in the Pantheon of France. Her story takes us from the poverty and violence of segregated St. Louis, to the scandalously modern revues of interwar Europe. Beloved in Berlin, but finding herself most at home in Paris, she would tirelessly work for the French resistance during the Second World War, only to return to rejection and racial prejudice in the united states, until being one of only 2 women to speak at the 1963 March on Washington. All that whilst being what seems to be a genuine delight. Strap in as Pip bursts with info on Josephine Baker.

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You can get in touch and book Jonny or Pip for a tour of Berlin via www.whitlams-berlin-tours.com.

Don't forget to subscribe for more Berlin history every two weeks!

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Donations keep us running. If you like the show and want to support it, you can use the following links:

Donate €50 •• Donate €20 •• Donate €10 •• Donate €5

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You can find Jonny online on YouTube, Instagram, BlueSky, and TikTok!

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Mixed and Produced by Alex Griffiths
https://www.instagram.com/alexgriffiths_music/
https://alexgriffiths.bandcamp.com/

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Sources

Deautsche Welle Docu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nHUh_yjLaA&t=2337s

Agent Josephine: American Beauty, French Hero, British Spy, Damien Lewis

Femininity the Primitive, and Modern Urban Space: Josephine Baker in Berlin 
Nancy Nenno 

Josephine Baker Was the Star France Wanted—and the Spy It Needed, Lauren Michele Jackson

Josephine Baker's Rainbow Tribe by Merlind Theile in Spiegel International

Redacted History Podcast: Josephine Baker: From Jim Crow, to Broadway to World War II

You're Dead to Me Podcast: Josephine Baker

Join us for a discussion with Berlin tour guiding legend Matti Geyer, as we tackle the sad, mad and certainly very bad Stella Goldschlag. Born and raised to a secular Jewish Berlin family, she would take advantage of her ability to pass as 'aryan' to aid the Gestapo as a chief ‘Greifer’ or ‘catcher’ of Jewish people during the Nazi period. We talk about her role alongside that of husband Rolf Isaaksohn, and discuss why it might be that his actions as well as 30 other Greifer in Berlin are largely forgotten, whilst Stella’s story has become infamous.

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Love the smooth radio voice and historical insight of Matti Geyer? Find his tours online at www.toursofberlin.com

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You can get in touch and book Jonny or Pip for a tour of Berlin via www.whitlams-berlin-tours.com.

Don't forget to subscribe for more Berlin history every two weeks!

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Donations keep us running. If you like the show and want to support it, you can use the following links:

Donate €50 •• Donate €20 •• Donate €10 •• Donate €5

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You can find Jonny online on YouTube, Instagram, BlueSky, and TikTok!

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Mixed and Produced by Alex Griffiths
https://www.instagram.com/alexgriffiths_music/
https://alexgriffiths.bandcamp.com/

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Sources

Stella, by Peter Wyden

The Myth of the She Devil, Helena Kennedy

How to build a new country

Step 1: No, not like that!

Step 2: Stalin, do you like your birthday present?

Step 3: We must make Stalin a nice birthday present, this time while singing a catchy song.

Step 4: Oh, Stalin, are you dead?

This episode Pip & Jonny explore how the grand buildings on Karl-Marx-Allee, formerly Stalinallee, came to be. The story of these momentous buildings is filled with hard work, hope, optimism, and trying to impress daddy. 

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Tours
Want to book Pip & Jonny for tours? You can get in touch via the Whitlam's Berlin Tours website.

You can find Jonny online on YouTube, Instagram, BlueSky, and TikTok!

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Donations keep us running. If you like the show and want to support it, you can use the following links:

Donate €50 •• Donate €20 •• Donate €10 •• Donate €5

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Sources 

Die Stalinbauten Story by Christian Gruenler

Die Stalinallee - Prachtboulevard für Arbeiter, radioWissen

What happened when civil rights activist, one-time FBI’s most wanted, scourge of J Edgar Hoover, Angela Davis met the GDR? A lot actually. Want to find out? Join us as we dive into Angela’s early years and into her eventful 20s, growing up surrounded by threats of death and violence in the southern US to studying in Paris, Frankfurt and Berlin. And discover why she holds cult status for an entire generation of children and youngsters who grew up under the leadership of the GDR. Oh… and there’s a Mitford sister in there, just for laughs! (Pip mispronounces Marcuse, but she’s only just met him and she knows now, ok?!)

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Tours
Want to book Pip & Jonny for tours? You can get in touch via the Whitlam's Berlin Tours website.

You can follow Jonny online on Instagram, Threads, BlueSky, TikTok, and more!

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Donations keep us running. If you like the show and want to support it, you can use the following links:

Donate €50 •• Donate €20 •• Donate €10 •• Donate €5

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Sources 

The LRB Podcast States of Shock Pankaj Mishra and Adam Shatz

Maria Schubert
Solidarity! Angela Davis and the GDR https://www.goethe.de/ins/us/en/kul/art/one/22172301.html

Black History for White People- podcast April 6 2022

Autobiography: https://decolonisesociology.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/angela-davis-autobiography.pdf

GDR Solidarity Goethe article https://www.goethe.de/ins/us/en/kul/art/one/22172301.html#drittens

Sov Union and Angela- “You Are Not Alone”: Angela Davis and the Soviet Dreams of Freedom Maxim Matusevich

"Schwarze Schwester Angela" – Die DDR und Angela Davis. Kalter Krieg, Rassismus und Black Power, 1965–1975, Lorenz, Sophie- Review by David Spreen.

Time Magazine article April 3, 1972 12:00 AM EST: https://time.com/archive/6639469/east-germany-st-angela/ 

'Comrade Angela Davis': An icon in East Germany, Rayna Breuer -DW

„Free Angela Davis!“ – Black Power und die

Jugend der DDR - Maria Schubert

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/05/angela-davis-on-the-power-of-protest-we-cant-do-anything-without-optimism 

Color–blind and Color–coded Racism: Angela Davis, the New Left in Hungary, and “Acting Images” by Kata Krasznahorkai

Who’s Afraid of Angela Davis?: An American Icon and the Political Uses of Youth Literature in the GDR, Ada Bieber

Sarah E James, The Friendship between East Germany and Angela Davis, Frieze, 

And what a special it is! We're joined by the Berlin Companion herself, Beata Gontarczyk-Krampe, author of the wonderful  Berlin Companion blog. Beata's deep dives into Berlin history most people have never heard of are consitently fascinating and delightful. If you like this show, you'll love her blog!

Beata blessed us with surprising stories of Berlin Christmases past over wine and Christmas treats - What is a Christmas Pyramide? What didn't Prince Albert bring to Britain, and if you're not actually feeling that festive we did manage to slip in some WAR!

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Love listening to Beata? Get the Berlin Companion app on Apple or Android and join Beata for audio walks around Berlin!

Follow Berlin Companion on BlueSky, Substack, and Instagram.

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Tours
Want to book Pip & Jonny for tours? You can get in touch via the Whitlam's Berlin Tours website.

You can follow Jonny online on Instagram, Threads, BlueSky, TikTok, and more!

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Donations keep us running. If you like the show and want to support it, you can use the following links:

Donate €50 •• Donate €20 •• Donate €10 •• Donate €5

What makes a king “Great”? In this episode, we follow up on our exploration of Frederick’s intense and domineering father, the Soldier King, to uncover what shaped Frederick into a true Renaissance man. With secret lessons in music and literature, famously philosphers, the flute, and an incredible instinct for survival, Frederick became one of history’s most intriguing monarchs.

Sure, he invaded another kingdom early in his reign - young and impulsive, we all are (or were) - but even he admitted it was totes silly and he won't do it again, promise - don't hold it against him!

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Tours
Want to book Pip & Jonny for tours? You can get in touch via the Whitlam's Berlin Tours website.

You can follow Jonny online on Instagram, Threads, BlueSky, TikTok, and more!

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Donations keep us running. If you like the show and want to support it, you can use the following links:

Donate €50 •• Donate €20 •• Donate €10 •• Donate €5

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Sources

Frederick the Great By Nancy Mitford (1970)

The Rise of Prussia a History of Europe Key Battles podcast

BBC In our Time: Frederick the Great Podcast

THIS guy...This. Guy.

Meet Friedrich Wilhelm II. The Soldier King. Father of Friedrich the Great, second ever King of Prussia. He's a fighter not a lover, unless you're over 6 foot, in which case watch out, he might love you so hard you'll be taken away to join his battalion of giant human toy soldiers.

In what was a surprisingly fulfilling fall down a Prussian rabbit hole, we discuss the Passion of the Soldier King, to the great disappointment of his mother and the brutalisation of his children and subjects. 

You never thought you could have this much fun talking about Prussians!

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Tours
Want to book Pip & Jonny for tours you can get in touch via the Whitlam's Berlin Tours website.

You can follow Jonny online on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and more!

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Donations keep us running. If you like the show and want to support it, you can use the following links:

Donate €50 •• Donate €20 •• Donate €10 •• Donate €5

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Sources
Memoirs of the Queens of Prussia: Emma Willsher Atkinson (1858)

Frederick the Great By Nancy Mitford (1938)

madmonarchs.nl

The Rise of Prussia a History of Europe Key Battles podcast

BBC In our Time: Frederick the Great Podcast

Wanna have a coffee? Well, I hope you're not an East German in the '70s & '80s, 'cos it's gonna be tough (and taste like wood).

On this episode of History Flakes Pip & Jonny dive deep into the lukewarm cup of coffee that is East Germany's struggle to procure the brown stuff for its people. To do that we've enlisted the help of TikTok's own Call Me Steve. If you follow Jonny on various socials you may have bumped into Steve's excellent, deep, engaging, and humorous East German/Cold War content. He takes us on a ride through East Germany's economic woes as we sit and sip our own coffee (Jonny had tea...) in East Berlin's Café Sibylle.

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Jonny's idea (sorry) to record this in a café was perhaps a little ambitious. Bear with us through some robotoic AI-sounding audio.

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Want more Steve? You got it:

• YouTube
• TikTok
• Instagram

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LIVE LIVE LIVE!!!! Come see us LIVE on the 29th March 2025 at the Comedy Cafe Berlin at 8pm, tickets available here: https://www.comedycafeberlin.com/event/history-flakes-live-2/

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Tours
Want to book Pip & Jonny for tours you can get in touch via the Whitlam's Berlin Tours website.

You can follow Jonny online on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and more!

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Donations keep us running. If you like the show and want to support it, you can use the following links:

Donate €50 •• Donate €20 •• Donate €10 •• Donate €5

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Sources

Books
Brewing Socialism: Coffee, East Germans, and Twentieth-Century Globalization by Andrew Kloiber

⁠Communism Unwrapped: Consumption in Cold War Eastern Europe edited by Paulina Bren and Mary Neuburger

⁠Illustrierte Konsumgeschichte der DDR by Annette Kaminsky

⁠The Plans That Failed: An Economic History of the GDR by André Steiner

Stasi Files
https://www.ddr-im-blick.de/jahrgaenge/jahrgang-1977/report/reaktionen-auf-die-versorgungsprobleme-mit-kaffee-1/

https://www.ddr-im-blick.de/jahrgaenge/jahrgang-1977/report/tendenzen-der-unzufriedenheit-in-der-bevoelkerung-1/

https://www.ddr-im-blick.de/jahrgaenge/jahrgang-1977/report/tendenzen-der-unzufriedenheit-in-der-bevoelkerung-2/

https://www.ddr-im-blick.de/jahrgaenge/jahrgang-1977/report/reaktionen-auf-die-versorgungsprobleme-mit-kaffee-2/