War trains

Summary

Many railways across Europe were built to satisfy military ambition. In the hinterland of Berlin there is a railway line which was constructed quite explicitly as a military plaything. In the Nazi period, the very existence of this railway influenced the preferred location for German experiments in missile and nuclear technologies.

hidden europe 64 / Snippet / By hidden europe

That part of southern Brandenburg described in the preceding feature includes a remarkable railway. The area is bisected by a former dedicated military railway, part of a 70-km line which was constructed between 1875 and 1897. The Königliche Militär-Eisenbahn or KME (Royal Military Railway) was a plaything of the Prussian military, but also an important proving ground for vehicle prototypes. A rail world-speed record was set on the KME in 1903.

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Editorial hidden europe 64
Editorial

By hidden europe

Staying close to base brings its own rewards. This is the first time since the inception of the magazine (16 years ago) that we have ever carried a full feature on that rural area, just south of Berlin, which we count as our home region. All three of our guest contributors in this issue similarly write on communities and landscapes with which they have had a long engagement.

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A London oasis: the Walthamstow Wetlands
Feature

By Rudolf Abraham

To have the opportunity to observe a landscape through the seasons, whether an urban swath of green and blue or something more obviously exotic, is a rare and wonderful thing. Over the past year and more Rudolf Abraham has watched the Walthamstow Wetlands transform, and here he reports for us from his home patch of London.

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A town in the Sicilian hills: Piana degli Albanesi
Feature

By Suzanne and Andrew Edwards

To the south of Palermo in Sicily lies the town of Piana degli Albanesi. The first thing to strike the casual visitor who passes the comune’s boundary line is the customary sign announcing the name of the settlement. Underneath the Italian are the words Hora e Arbëreshëvet with the diaereses hinting at altogether different origins. Susanne and Andrew Edwards investigate Sicily’s Albanian connections.

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On the wrong side of the line: report from a Ukrainian village
Feature

By Darmon Richter

Sofia Bezverhaya says she is always glad to cater to those who want to see a more traditional picture of the region. “I am grateful that people are coming,” she says, “and especially when they bring bread, oil, and supplies! We have a mobile shop, but it only comes once a month.” Darmon Richter reports from the Ukrainian village of Kupovate.

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Reading landscape: the glacial legacy in eastern Germany
Feature

By Nicky Gardner

Where once there was a great ice sheet, there is now a landscape of delicate beauty. The editors of hidden europe write about an area which has great personal meaning for them – the meadowlands and forests of southern Brandenburg where they have spent so much time during the pandemic.

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Pedal power: the caffeine fix
Communities

By Nicky Gardner

There are thousands of cafés across Europe that have made their mark in the communal psychogeography of the cycling community — places which supply a timely caffeine and calorie boost for the cyclists who have escaped the city for a day or longer. We investigate how coffee became the cyclist’s elixir.

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In search of Tesla: the road to Smiljan
Special spaces

By Nicky Gardner

Nikola Tesla’s father was an Orthodox priest. Nikola was baptised in his father’s church on the day after his birth. And it is at that church, dedicated to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, where crowds now gather to understand more of the life and work of one of Europe’s most distinguished engineers and inventors.

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Of symbols and secrets: Freemasonry narratives
Museums

By Nicky Gardner

The symbols and rituals of Freemasonry, such as the Eye of Providence, the square and compasses, plus alleged secret handshakes and initiation rites all invite curiosity. The last decade has seen a great increase in the number of exhibitions and museums devoted to Masonic craft and traditions. The latest, due to open in the coming months, is in the Latvian capital Riga

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From the Balkans to Nürnberg
People

By Nicky Gardner

What was Rebecca West doing 75 years ago this summer? West’s accomplishments as a travel writer are complemented by a fine range of other work. In the summer of 1946, West was sitting alongside Martha Gellhorn and Erika Mann at the International Military Tribunal in the German city of Nürnberg.

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Connecting extremities: Shetland to Cornwall
Flightscan

By Nicky Gardner

Is the United Kingdom too compact ever to justify taking a domestic flight? With many travellers these days eager to make positive environmental choices, short flights of just an hour or two may soon become a thing of the past. But readers may be surprised to discover that Britain’s longest domestic flight extends to over five hours.

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Flashback 1971: travels of yesteryear
Railscan

By Nicky Gardner

There was a time when you could travel from Turin or Trieste to Moscow or from Istanbul to Beirut or Baghdad without changing trains. We look back half a century and explore the rail journeys which were on offer in the summer of 1971. It was a time when many premium trains between major European cities carried only first-class seating, with fares which were well beyond anything that many travellers could afford.

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Landscapes of immunity
Snippet

By hidden europe

There are some small populated islands off the coast of Sicily which have never recorded a single COVID infection. And, by comparison with many European countries, Iceland has consistently shown low incidence rates.

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End of Shannon stopover
Snippet

By hidden europe

It was never really efficient that wide-bodied jets would take to the sky in Dublin, and then make a brief stop at Shannon Airport near Ireland’s west coast, where Aer Lingus aircraft would share space on the tarmac with planes in Aeroflot or Cubana livery. Now it looks as though the Shannon stopover is being consigned to aviation history.

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The lure of the Orient
Snippet

By hidden europe

Fifty years ago adventurous travellers were heading off from Europe to ride the Taurus Express or to explore a desert bus route which linked three capital cities.

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End of the Ice Age
Snippet

By hidden europe

The last pulses of the wave of Quaternary glaciations in Europe left some distinct glacial spillways across the North European Plain. These short-lived channels were important for meltwater from a decaying ice sheet. Three of the spillways can be traced in the modern landscape of rural Brandenburg.

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War trains
Snippet

By hidden europe

Many railways across Europe were built to satisfy military ambition. In the hinterland of Berlin there is a railway line which was constructed quite explicitly as a military plaything. In the Nazi period, the very existence of this railway influenced the preferred location for German experiments in missile and nuclear technologies.

Read on
Preview hidden europe 65
Preview

By hidden europe

A preview of hidden europe 65 which will be published on 15 November 2021.

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hidden europe 64

War trains

Summary

Editorial

Feature

Feature

Feature

Feature

Communities

Special spaces

Museums

People

Flightscan

Railscan

Snippet

Snippet

Snippet

Snippet

Snippet

Preview

19th edition of Europe by Rail: The Definitive Guide

The last poet: Farewell, Pushkin

Rites of Passage: Hoek van Holland and the Nieuwe Waterweg