Here’s some street art I found in Thessaloniki:

Oh and there was some amazing poster, that I could not resist. I’m in love:

Despite the fact that my own kids are already hard approaching leaving-mama’s-nest time I developed in the last years an “oh my god so cute” appreciation for small children I never had or knew before from myself. Perhaps it’s not despite the fact my kids are no toddlers any more and left primary school long time ago, but because of the fact they are grown up quite a bit.

I remember one Easter morning a few years back, when I turned around to get some more tea and bread. I turned back and suddenly there was this male stranger standing at my coffee table. A man! I’d not seen before! In my house! At 9am! On Easter Sunday!

Few month back, on Christmas day, he’s been this cute little kid. All gone. Dark voice “Can I have some more orange juice – please?”. Beard. “Mama?!?” – smiling eyes. Yep. It’s my son.

Pretty impressive to watch how cells are multiplying simply long enough to make what’s than us.

For my soon-to-be-father friend, I made these baby socks. I find baby socks are always a great memory, for when you forgot how tiny the little one with shoe size 48 (US: 13) once was when you found him in the nest.

Here’s how to make these crochet baby shoes:

Best use a very soft, not to thick yarn. I used pure merino. Many shops stock special “baby wool”. Make sure you can wash the yarn you chose. Pick a matching crochet hook.

You will need these stitches:

• magic loop aka magic circle (method 1, method 2)
• ss – slip stitch
• hdc – half double crochet
• fphdc – front post half double crochet
• bphdc – back post half double crochet
• Hdcdec - half double crochet decrease

The links will lead you to Youtube tutorials of each stitch. Coz these baby booties are easy to make, even for beginners, so check the stitches out if you don’t know them and try!

1. Work 6 hdc in magic circle. Join with ss. (You got 6 stitches in the circle.)
2. Ch. 1. Work 2 hdc in each hdc. Join with ss. (You got now 12 stitches in the circle.)
3. Ch 1. * work 2 hdc in your 1st hdc, 1 hdc in your next hdc. Repeat from the  * around. Join with ss. (You got now 18 stitches.)
4. Ch 1. * work 2 hdc in 1st hdc, 1 hdc in ea of next 2 hdc. Repeat from the * around. Join with ss. (There should be now 24 stitches in the circle.)
5. Ch 1. 1 hdc in each hdc around. Join with ss.
6. Ch 1. 1 hdc in each hdc around. Join with ss.
7. Ch 1. 1 hdc in each hdc around. Join with ss.
8. Ch 1. 1 hdc in each hdc around. Join with ss.
9. Ch 1. 1 hdc in each hdc around. Join with ss.
10. Ch 1. 1 hdc in each hdc around. Join with ss.

11. Lay your work flat. Ch 1. Turn, working in bottom 13 hdc, leaving top hdc unworked: 1 hdc in ea hdc. Ch 1. Turn. (You are starting now a little square bit on one side of the round shoe front you just worked from round 1. to 10. – your little square bit should have  13 stitches. this was your round 1 of the square bit.)
12. Repeat round 11. (Straight bit round 2)
13. Repeat round 11. (Straight bit round 3)
14. Repeat round 11.  (Straight bit round 4)
15. Repeat round 11.  (Straight bit round 5)
16. Repeat round 11.  (Straight bit round 6)
17. Repeat round 11.  (Straight bit round 7)

18. Fold bootie lengthwise, so that open corners of the square section just worked match up. ss down to connect and form heel. Fasten off.

19. Join the yarn at the corner between sides and toe section, with toe facing right, and heel facing left. Work 20 hdc evenly down the side, around the heel, and up the other side. Work 5 hdcdec across the top of the toe section. Join with ss.

20. Ch 1, * 1 fphdc in 1st hdc, 1 bphdc in next hdc. Repeat from the * around. Join with ss.
21. Repeat round 20. 6 times. Fasten off and weave in the ends.

For the tie: Ch 55. Weave in through base of fphdc in round 20.
I made a little chain for a button-hole as well. But it works more as decoration rather than to fasten the baby shoe later.

Happy Easter everyone! Hope your Easter nests will be filled with adorable things you love.

If you’re than one of the lucky few who actually get’s to taste it, coz a class mate brings it in just before the Easter break and if it’s than oh so miraculously good – well than: you’re hooked.

My younger one was so excited, he rang me in Thessaloniki to find out if we’d make trifle today-right-this-second, he googled about 800 different recipes to match the one in his Green Line English book – which was at his father’s place – he even went with me on a 3-hour shopping trip by bike! – A rare occasion, normally I get a “nein danke” when it’s grocery-shopping-shifting-bags-home time. – He even promised me 3000 clicks when I’d write about making trifle.

So this weekend, trifle time it was!

We improvised based on the 800 recipes he googled.
We chose as main ingredients the things laughing at us begging “take me” during our grocery tour and the memories, he had of his last English lesson.
Here is how we did it.
It’s delicious:

• 1 pack vanilla custard powder for 500 ml (about one pint) milk
• the milk mentioned above for the custard powder
• we used 2 tablespoon more sugar than mentioned on our vanilla custard pack
• 1 pack black cherry jelly (we used jelly powder)
• water to prepare the jelly
• 200ml sweet cream, which we whipped until stiff (6.7oz or 0.42 pint)
• 1 large pack of shortbread or butter biscuits, we used the classic German Leibniz-Butter-Keks - the cookies you choose to use should be fairly dry
• strawberries (the season just started in Spain…)
• banana
• chocolate Leibniz biscuit or other decoration

1. Prepare the jelly. Let it cool down and set it in the fridge to stiffen. 
2. Prepare the vanilla custard, we added 1 tbsp sugar extra, oh, and: we let the custard burn a bit…not sure if that contributed to the amazing trifle taste…
3. Whip the cream until very stiff.
4. Cut the fruits.
5. Crumble the biscuits in to a large glass device. The bottom layer can be a bit thicker. It works as foundation.
6. Pour the vanilla custard on the crumbs. We did that when the custard was still hot. It soaked beautifully in to the first biscuit layer.
7. Sprinkle the strawberry bits on the vanilla custard. Add the banana pieces. Our fruits were cut fairly fine. My son and I were debating if there should be an equal amount of banana and strawberry or not. I prefer a little banana and a lot of strawberry. And since I’m writing this post…use less banana than strawberry!
8. Whipped cream goes on top of the fruits sunk in to the vanilla custard.
9. Repeat the layers: biscuit crumbs, fruits, whipped cream as often as you like and your bowl permits you.
10. Finish with whipped cream.
11. Scoop out nice bits from the cold jelly to decorate the top.
12. Add other decoration ad libitum.

We had the trifle in the fridge over night. That way, all the flavours could come together really nicely and the biscuits got beautifully soaked, smooth and yummy, just like a rich cake. Thanks for the idea and making this with me! – Oh, and: I’ll better get the 3000 clicks you promised me!

The roses in the foreground I got for 8th of March, the International Women’s Day. I only learned about this day after the German reunification – our crèche kindergarteners from the former GDR celebrated it. Flowers for 8th of March is what happens when you find yourself an Eastern European male family member. One of the benefits of these types of husbands: flowers on International Women’s Day.

In fact: not only men give flowers to women. A great lady, whose blog I love to read and who’s images I love to look at is Irena from Irena&dots. She gave flowers to the ladies on 8th of March! Irena is located very central in Europe. She’s blogging from a country, that used to be “East” when we still had an iron curtain dividing our continent. “East” = manners = flowers for International Women’s Day for all the ladies!

On March the 8th Irena nominated me for the Super Sweet Blogging Award. These awards work like a chain-letter. They engage you in to a lovely afternoon of reading, exploring new blogs, getting new ideas and a bunch of inspiration and meeting new people and their worlds online. – So: Thank you Irena for nominating me and making me part of this! Here’s my list of what I read and recommend a.k.a. my “nominees for the Super Sweet Blogging Award”:

1. Irena&dots – I know the people who nominated you are not supposed to be here, but for me it’s a list of reading recommendations rather than a list of people I nominate. Visit Irena for wonderful images that come together with vegetarian and non vegetarian versions of one recipe. Small little texts just enough to read over a coffee give great extra inspiration. – No, she does not pay me to write this.
2. Nr.11 – I met Nr.11 via Irena&dots. Great, inspiring visuals, English kitchen baking, seasonal cooking, food for a small budget, but still delicious and amazing.
3. Rockfarmer – Food and environment posts. I tried making her excellent fruit scrap vinegar. it was a big success. All recipes are usually gluten-free and dairy product free.
4. Breakfasts @Components – Each second Sunday the creative platform Components takes us out to visit photographers, bloggers, artists and have breakfast with them. I love the “Breakfast with…” series and can only recommend! Absolutely my favorite breakfast spot since {365} Breakfasts moved from daily posting to archive only. Recipes only when the interviewed people add them!
5. Lottie+Doof – When I got there first, I read all through the blog for two days. Very creative, well written food blog with great images.
6. Hungry Foodies Pharmacy – Pharmacist by day and chef at night. Grown up in a restaurant and finished uni with a doctorate degree. Gluten free&vegan and roast pork&BBQ. I’m not a frequent reader, but love to stop by.
7. Frugal Feeding – Call me efficient, call me frugal, call me stingy – here I find many things I find inspiring in an economical use of resources…and everything on this page is delicious looking and tempting to read about…coz we wanna be resourceful but we don’t wanna give up daily pleasures, do we?
8. Things {We} Make – I tried many things from this blog, all my experiments were real winners. Love their brioche!
9. Liz&Jewels – Two friends from Münster/Germany and New York City/USA who used to live in one city together and now are cooking together across the ocean. 1 recipe / 1 story and 2 results / 2 amazing images. Definitely a read!
10. Valentinas Kochbuch – Cooking book reviews. Amazing. In German… but reviewing English language books here and there! They do not only review books, but are also cooking recipes from these books, interviewing cooks, writers and photographers… this page is definitely worth heading over for to Goole Translate!
11. Birds like Cake - This German language blog can be accessed via the”In English Please” Button on the page. Stunning images, mouth-watering recipes, great little stories. Gotta follow this!
12. Zimt Zucker  und Liebe - German language blog. To read it use the “In English please!” Button right on the page. – The best pear Tarte Tatin I ever saw! A must follow.
13. Missboulette – Korean and non Korean food, Kimchi goodness or should I say goddess?! Written by a German/Korean in…German.   …what a selfish list-maker I am!

Super Sweet Questions:

1. Cookies or Cake?     
Definitely cookies  a n d  cakes. 

2. Chocolate or Vanilla?
Chocolate eves, vanilla days.

3. What is your favorite sweet treat?
The first raspberries, strawberries and cherries in the garden each year.

4. When do you crave sweet things the most?
When having a tea with lots of milk in the evening getting ready for bed.

5. If you had a sweet nickname, what would it be?
Suggestions please in  the comments below…  

 {Last not least the rules of the Super Sweet Blogging Award: *1 Visit and thank the blogger who nominated you. *2 Acknowledge that blogger on your blog and link back. *3 Answer the “Super Sweet” questions. *4 Nominate a “Baker’s Dozen” ~ 13 ~ blogs, link to their pages in your post, and notify them on their sites. *5 Copy and paste the award on your blog somewhere.}

My answer was: Yes! Greece is a great place for your holidays. You will love it! The people are incredibly friendly, very open and extremely hospitable deep from the heart. The country seems to stand united despite of what we see from time to time in the news. I feel very safe, the garbage cleaning and street sweeping works heaps better than in southern Italy, people seem to stick together, try to get through this, help each other and do the best to get out of the ditch they are in.

Yes, there are many unemployed people in Greece. Over a quarter of the adult population has no work, not counting students, self-employed that are out of business and people in employment programs. But I have not seen one single person sleeping on the street during my visit. A sight I saw many times in New York and San Francisco.

I came in a rainy time of the year. The air is crisp and clear, but dark clouds are hanging above the city. – Yes it is hard for the weakest, pensioners and old people. Some of them I could meet when there was a festival event with a free lunch for us guests at the pier. Three or four ladies and one decent, well dressed elderly men came and enjoyed with us a free meal. But they seemed not devastated. They engaged with us guests, we chatted with hand and feet, their spirits seemed high.

I adore the strength to carry on and not let yourself down mentally. I’m not sure if I could do that myself.

It’s my very first time in Thessaloniki, in Macedonia, in Greece and I’m loving it.

At the airport on my way here I met a group of thirty teenage girls on their way back from skiing in the Austrian Zillertal.
I was slightly annoyed about the extra waiting time at the check in – 30 teens with overweight luggage right in front of me – man!
I also was slightly annoyed by skiing Greek people thinking myself “Why are they not at home helping others with their spare free time and spare money, showing solidarity with those suffering in their country?”
Last not least I had still a shocking article in mind, that  I had read about a month ago: an article in German SZ Magazin about the Greek health system. The line under the title read “Who needs a doctor can only wait“. It had shocking pictures, that moved me a lot. The journalist, a German man of Greek parents, visited emergency rooms in public hospitals and documented how they got to limit their opening times to four days a week, how patients have to travel extremely far to get help, how doctors and nurses have not received pay in months.

I was angry. Standing at the check-in, about to visit Greece for the first time in my life. I was angry, with the suffering I had seen on those pictures in my mind. I was angry about the economy and the skiing-tourists right in front of me. I wrote an angry article about solidarity.

Than I thought: You’re going to Greece for the first time in your life. You have no idea about this girls, no idea about the Greek health system and no idea in fact about Greece at all. At all! Perhaps the skiing teachers organizing the trip are long-term unemployed people who took their chances, showed initiative, as everyone is demanding so often. Perhaps they just opened a business and thank God it’s going well! Perhaps these girls won a competition with their school and got a free holiday! Perhaps they are the Greek olympic winter-sport squad! Perhaps they are not Greek at all! How do I know?
I only learned so far Kalimera – which means Good Morning and Phareesto meaning Thank You - how can I dare standing at the check-in counter and judge?

I arrived at night.

Funny what our mind does with small bits of information and how we function, based on snippets our senses are grasping, forming them to assumptions, theories and last not least to our reality.

- I felt ashamed. I scrapped that angry article. I love it here. Come and see yourself.

My mum is born in 1946. Pretty much exactly one year after the war finished and two years before the Deutsche Mark brought hope and prosperity to the perpetrators, the victims, the refugees from former German territories and their children.

My mum had a loving family, her father was a calm and quiet man who never raised his voice and let us grandkids braid his hair during his coffee breaks.

One single time in my life, my mum has been beaten up by her father. It was the day she saw for the first time in her life oranges. They lured at her in her village’s shop.

She could not resist, and took one, leaving the shop without leaving any Pfennigs or Deutsche Marks there.

I too remember the one time that I stole something as a child. It was not oranges, but a Bazooka Joe chewing gum for 30 Pfennig. It had a tattoo in the wrapper. I often tried to return the 30 Pfennig to Wamsgans, the local place that I shoplifted. They never took my money.

I’m not sure how often my mum thinks about the orange. I do remember the one-and-only thefts of my own kids. And I will definitely never forget my mum’s story and the oranges.

All images are taken in Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece. It’s my first time here. I’m attending the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival with a movie I shot. Yesterday it was rainy and today it’s sunny. I’m pretty sure there’ll be more to come from my trip.

Well, actually, still today I see emerging filmmakers trying to aim for Internet and Web series’, yes, I even shot myself some. I see TV stations try and reach out to the users…but…what shall I say:
No filmmakers out there in the Vlogo-Sphere.

In fact it’s my kids being the ones that keep me up to date. Grown up as “natives”, knowing how to browse the Net long before they could read or write, they consume next to cinema and VoD/DVD mainly content especially produced for the Internet. Being native German speakers, the boys even started watching American Youtubers long before they had English at school.

Y-Titty, 1.3 mio subscribers and 318 mio views as by today, are perhaps the most successful German Youtubers. They are known outside Germany/Switzerland and Austria mainly for their Goyte parody (there’s English subtitles, just you turn on the captions!).

Ok. Enough surfing. Back to my point. I mean: 1.3 mio subscribers! Any nationwide German newspaper can only dream of this! 318 mio views! For just about 200 videos! And Y-Titty is only group one of many. And there’s not only parodies. There’s Let’s Plays (commented computer games recorded whilst the makers are playing), there’s great and smart comedy, done by self-doubting clever artists (or is it unemployed middle-aged people!?) with a very amazing black humor like Dr. Allwissend, there are shameless promotions of course and companies wanting to jump on the band-wagon trying more or less successfully to play the viral game…

…and:

…there’s the unpredicted hypes, nobody would have ever thought of. The attention every marketing director and film school student is dreaming about. You all heard definitely about Gangnam Style. Well, that was yesterday and is oh so 2012!

What the world is on to now is the Harlem Shake.

There’s entire Youtube “Best Of” playlists, there are companies and unis doing it, there’s animated versions, Minecraft Harlem Shake and of course the first pretty funny anti-Harlem Shake videos by Harlem Shake haters.

The first type of Harlem Shake videos was uploaded on February the 2nd, 2013, by some teenagers. The little clips all over the Net are all done the same way and only about 30 seconds long. Today, February 22nd, not even three weeks later, it’s a hype with several major companies “Harlem Shaking” and the song Harlem Shake by US  DJ Baauer, that was no commercial success since its release in Summer 2012 and that the videos are based on, was sky-rocketed up to be the current Billboard Hot 100 as well as Dance/Electronic Songs number 1 hit in the US.

I’m such a big fan of the commons, and this is another example for them to work. The song has been released as a free download. and only when people took it and reused it - unauthorised - it became a commercial success.

The biggest success so far is with the Scandinavians. The best image improvement any army can make, the Norwegian Army gets it all for free from a 19-year-old soldier, Kenneth Håkonsen, who filmed and put online a Harlem Shake with his Norwegian Army squad. – Could not more armies be that way? Best during war times…it would force the world’s leaders to find other solutions than sending simply an army over…

Oh and in case you thought, only non-serious funny stuff can make it viral on the Internet, watch this here. Science! – Two quadrocopters capable of balancing, throwing and catching a pole by IDSC, ETH Zürich, Switzerland. Over 600.000 clicks in less than three days.

I’m not a food writer, not a cook and as a cinematographer not even vaguely able to tax-deduct cook books. So each time, I really urgently need a cook book, I creep around the shelf with the book for hours. Ah, what am I saying: I sneak around the shop with the book for weeks! Check it on the net for months! – Until I finally snap it in an instant like a tiger its prey.

Last week I did hunt down Yvette van Boven’s Homemade. Finally!

She’s one of the most inspirational writers in the vast field of cooking books, I love the way she picks you up where ever you are, adore how she inspires beginners and cooking buffs, amateurs and pros. I lover her little drawings, the images are a pure delight to look at and you feel the air of Amsterdam, Paris and London oozing out of each and every page, almost like you’re walking there on a mild sunny day in spring.

The first thing I tried, was the Orange Polenta Tarte.

Which I turned in to Orange Polenta Cupcakes. – I could not resist. Or would you call it Orange Polenta Muffins?! Anyway:
An Orange Polenta Delight!

Juicy and fresh and creamy and sweet. Full of flavor and looking so lovely, you want to have them every day!

Orange Polenta Delights

(inspired by the Orange-Polenta-Tarte from Homemade by Yvette van Boven – makes 12 cupcakes)

for the dough
2 organic oranges
juice of one lemon
100g / 3.5 oz / 0.5 cups polenta
1 tea-spoon baking soda
1 table-spoon vanilla sugar or vanilla extract
100g /  3.5 oz / 1 cup ground almond or almond meal
6 eggs
250g / 8.8 oz /  1 cup (caster) sugar
I added crushed cardamom seeds and cinnamon in the dough

for the topping
3 oranges
2 leaves of leaf gelatine
200ml / 7 oz / 1 cup apricot or other yellow sweet jam

Let the two organic oranges simmer with peel complete and in one bit in a generous amount of water for one hour. Let them sit to cool down completely afterwards.

In a food processor or with a hand blender, grind the oranges together with the lemon juice until you got a smooth puree. Add the polenta, the baking soda and the vanilla extract or vanilla sugar as well as the spices. – I used freshly crushed cardamom seeds and a pinch of cinnamon. Rum might also go well with this dough as a seasoning. I made it for a kids birthday…so no rum for us. But try and let me know what you used and how it turned out.

Preheat the oven on 180° Celsius / 350° Farenheit.

Last not least, add the almond meal. Blend well together. I had to add a bit of liquid at this stage. I used the cooking liquid from the oranges. This way, my dough started to be a bit smoother and softer and less stiff. I added perhaps 3 table spoons of liquid.

Beat the eggs with the sugar until you got a nice foam. Carefully spoon the orange-polenta mass in to the sugar-egg-foam and fold it in, until you got a consistent, nice, even dough.

Line a muffin baking dish for 12 muffins with paper or multi-use silicone cupcake or muffin liners. Add the dough in all 12 liners. Bake in the preheated oven for 25-35 minutes, depending if you prefer it a bit more smooth or rather crisp. I had them 27 minutes in the oven.

Prepare the oranges for the topping: Cut bottom and top from all three oranges. Put the orange on its little cut off bottom side and slice the side peel of all around the orange, so that all the white skin under the peel is gone. Discard the peel (here‘s a great idea what to do with all those citrus fruit peels), collect the juice. Slice the oranges to get nice, thin discs.

After the little cakes have baked and cooled off a bit, take them out of the baking dish and decorate them with the orange discs.

Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water. Heat up the jam. If the jam has large fruit junks, pass it through a sieve. Press all water from the gelatine. Add the gelatine leaves to the hot jam and stir. Within not more than 30 seconds the gelatine will dissolve and you make the glazing by spooning the warm jam-gelatine mass over the muffins and orange discs.

Let sit before serving for the orange-jam frosting to coagulate and harden a bit.

Today I’ve been invited for breakfast by Components. It’s an international project about creative minds and social media.
On Sundays, Components are having a guest and I was flattered and proud when I’ve been asked to join!

We had the best conversation: We talked in-depth about my very own museum as well as the best breakfast-spots in Munich. We chatted about what inspires us and all the plans we got for the new year. I got a chance to book my – yes! – own curator and I had the best Sunday morning treat in a long time. Head over to read the interview and guest post on Components or see what other breakfast guests from all around the globe had to say in the past!

{The Breakfast with… / Frühstück mit… series is bilingual English/German.}

But being a sometimes impatient person, days and days of what feels like never-ending misery – it does – suck  - so – much.

Some great things happened during these weeks however. Things you’d never expect and I found utterly surprising:

One

Forced by headaches to stop watching or listening to anything, writhing in boredom (yes and the already mentioned self-pity), I started after 30 years of abstinence to crochet again! No, I’m not a 60+ granny who did do a lot of needle work when being 30…I’d been forced at primary school to do some crafting. And I hated it. Coz it was flimsy and fine work and my fine motor skills screamed for hammering and sawing rather than for needles and hooks. Coz it was slow and endless and my results always crooked and full of holes rather than rich, fleshy, shiny and straight like good German needlework should be. Coz we use the most stupid terms for the different stitches in German that made completely no sense to me (and still make no sense to me). Coz it was utterly useless making silly dolls when the boys were allowed to make cool shelfs. And: Yes! Coz only the girls had to do it and the boys could indulge in cool woodwork stuff. Last not least we got marks on it. Being else a good student with not much effort to e made, in handcrafts I was a complete failure. Did I mention that a more democratic self-determined education would have changed that back than?! Anyway: I did it! Thanks to the English language and the very easy to access terms of  ”single/double/treble” stitch (no little batons, no tight stitch like in German…), thanks to Youtube tutorials and Wikipedia: I can do it! I can read patterns, do textures like basket weave pattern and raspberry stitch, invent stuff, make things. And it’s very easy indeed. Two weeks of learning – et voilà!

Two

Yes, the second thing I found very surprising is: I’m healthy again! Funny how we tend to forget over and over again that things keep changing when we’re down, no? “Bad days are numbered” as my friend Tom says. If we’d only always knew how far we’ll have to count to reach to the end.

Now the sun is shining on a snow-covered Munich. On Sunday I’m invited for breakfast. My friends from Components host a Sunday guest post that comes with a coffee and I’m part of it. Yeah. Go check it out here. I can’t wait to go outside and be in the world.

Progress reminds me Tino Sehgal and his installation in the MoMa, where me and my beyond 80 and below 40 friend walked up the rotunda being engaged in an intense discourse about progress. The people guiding and debating with us were folks from age 6 to 90. Seghal had placed them carefully, so you did not know what was waiting for you. In the end, up at the top, we, as well as our senses and minds, were immersed in progress of all sorts, shapes, forms and philosophies. We looked back with wide open eyes at all the wanderers, walkers and chatters making their way up towards us. The talks formed a loud whisper and we lost track of who is part of the  installation and who is a visiting guest, just like us.

This is the amazing thing Europeana can do for all  of us:

Just like I did at the top of the MoMa, we can stand in a living, lively swirl of culture. History can rise, we can dive in to virtually anything that ever has been created in Europe. We can not only see, hear and access it, we can also tie knots between things and find links we did not even know existed. Most exciting about digitized cultural heritage is not the sheer facts however, most exciting are the stories behind each and everything it holds.

An endless picture book telling eventually the stories of the people behind the culture. People like you, like me, like all of us. A memory that can be explored like a gigantic attic, full of adventures and things to discover and learn. This is what makes Europeana strong, unique and a place to be.

It’s a logical step to reach out and collect things which did not make their way in to Europe’s museums and archives yet. People in the shadow of history, men and women on the street, long before street photography has been invented. Europeana 1914-1918 asked individuals and families to come and share their stories, show their memories and memorabilia from 1914-1918. A “World War One Family History Roadshow” to collect the voice and memory from the people on the street is travelling all across Europe.

Being German, I am tormented for good reasons with WWII history from kindergarten on. We know all about it, we’re all deeply sorry, we’re all at least vaguely interested. You’re German? – WWII history it is, you can not get out of it, you want a German passport? You got to learn about it in a course. So I’m sort fo a WWII expert by birth. – And I got still a profoundly different impression, when I travelled to find the owners of some old toy-set of china porcelain, which my family acquired in 1936 from a Jewish family leaving Mannheim. I spoke to a lot of women. Women mainly far beyond their 80th birthday. Many stories made me cry, some gave me hope, some made me belief in humanity. It was my very first own direct and personal encounter with the Holocaust, the pogrom night in Germany in 1938 and the people who used to live just down the road, 70 years back.

I admire Europeana’s will, effort and urge to digitize for Europeana 1914-1918 European family memory of World War One and shed light in to the shadows of history. Here, you can read some of the stories they collected so far.

My grandparents, the ones I knew, born in 1902 and 1916, both died of cancer when I was a teenager. The other two died when I was a toddler. I remember an image of my grandmother holding my father as a young baby. She must have been around 30-something. She looked very young and very much from today. This image felt very close to me and my life. I wish I could have a conversation with her over a cup of tea and listen to her stories.

As a cinematographer, I work often with people who are in need for original materials, archival footage or old images. Europeana is a search engine which makes it easy to access the cultural heritage of Europe. Europeana lists and links Europe’s archives, museums and collections. Europeana is available in all European languages, even Maltese and Catalan. A very powerful and efficient search form allows you to do a very specific research, for example search only materials under a creative commons licence. This is an incredible useful tool for documentary film makers as well as for researches for screen writing. You can find there

• Images – paintings, drawings, maps, photos and pictures of museum objects
• Texts – books, newspapers, letters, diaries and archival papers
• Sounds – music and spoken word from cylinders, tapes, discs and radio broadcasts
• Videos – films, newsreels and TV broadcasts
• 3D models of architecture and historic sites

They are also running a lovely Blog, with stories from within all these collections. Hope you enjoy.