The first department store by Aristide Boucicaut

In 1838 Aristide Boucicaut started working in the shop 'Bon Marché', took it over in 1848 and managed to open up the first big department store worldwide. He was such a genius that nowadays shopping philosophies are based on his inventions! Even Emile Zola had to acknowledge this in his novel Au Bonheur des Dames. Watch a great documentary on ARTE.tv or on ARTE channel this afternoon. It will be repeated twice at the end of November.

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BUY a Decree by King George III. (1770)

I found this on ebay looking for a book about King George III.

An original decree by HM George III.

about military deserters issued in 1770

can be bought

HERE 

until tomorrow 29. Okt. 201110:38:22 MESZ.

(check the other items the seller is offering,

for example a decree by King George III about sugar taxes in 1766)

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Castle Ostrau in Saxony Anhalt

The French architect Louis Rémy de la Fosse, who came as a refugee to Germany in 1706, built this castle for Otto Ludwig von Veltheim in 1713. The south wing was completed in 1862. Its last owner, Hans Hasso von Veltheim (1 2 3 4), globetrotter and writer, was banished in 1945. Since 2000 the Ostrau cultural association is reviving the castle to former bloom.

The castle became a cultural center during the 20th century. The Veltheims continued to enlarge their library in every generation and extended it to more than 20.000 volumes. Throughout its history, the castle was used for educational and cultural purposes, inhabiting artists, scientists, writers, students and now the Ostrau cultural association whos members are dedicated to preserve the library and the whole building.

Books and Links:
- biography about H. H. von Veltheim: 1 2
- sights around Köthen: 1
- Ostrau.de
- Ostrauer Kulturverein

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Premiere of Open Air Play at Zwinger Dresden

On November 6th the French-German TV channel arte.tv shows the recording of the Zwinger Open Air play 'The King's Mistress' at 2pm.

It tells the story of August the Strong and Countess Cosel.

Director Wedel said:

No baroque costume drama!
According to him the play won't be a Baroque costume drama. With the play "The mistress of the king," he wants to build a bridge between the past and the present. What August the Strong had moved, also does today and is neither outdated as was his great love for Countess Cosel.

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Account Book 1763

A - Estate Expenses
B - Business Charges
C - Horses
D - Doctors & Surgeons
E - Annual Rents and Wages
F - Gardening

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Servant Directory

Leyland Manor	Cartwright House, London
Mr. Wolstenholme, land steward, 100pounds
Mr. Brittles, butler, 55pounds	Mr. Topper, butler, 57pounds 10shilling
Mrs. Lewis, housekeeper, 10pounds	Mrs. Molden, housekeeper, 11pounds 10s
Mr. Elliott, valet, 6pd 10s + 50pd tips/year
Jenna, lady's maid, 5pd
Mrs. Redbourn, cook, 7pd	Mrs. Burdett, everyday cook, 8pd
	Monsieur Beaudine, French cook, 60pd
Mr. Pankhurst Jr., head gardener, 28pd 10s	Mr. de Vries, head gardener, 30pd
Mr. Loughname, game keeper, 15pd	Mr. Buitenhuis, assistant gardener, 4pd
Mr. Whitaker, stable master, 19pd	Mr. Needon, head coachman, 19pd
Denton, Frank & Isaac, ground keepers, 4pd/ea
Fred, stable assistant, 8pd	Jack, assistant coachman, 10pd
Ed, Charles & John, grooms, 10pd/ea	Simon, postilion, 8pd
Johnny, Will & Bobby, stableboys, 4-8pd	Richard & Stewart, post-chaise drivers, 6pd 10s
	Pips, groom, 13pd
Tom, head footman/1st footman, 15pd + tips	Carter, 1st footman, 17pd + tips
Neville, 2nd footman/apprentice, 12pd	Thomas, 2nd footman/apprentice, 15pd
	2 other footmen, on special occasions + 2 hired fm
	Teddy, hallboy, 2pd
Betsy & Cassy, housemaids, 5pd	Fanny & Lizzy, housemaids, 5pd 10s
Mary & Lynne, chambermaids, 5pd	Susan & Cathy, chambermaids, 6pd
Sue, maid-of-all-work, 3pd 10s
Nancy, laundry maid, 4pd	Eliza, laundry maid, 5pd
Louisa & Patsy, kitchen maids, 3pd	Betty & Maria, kitchen maids, 4pd
Francis & Rose, scullery maids, 2pd 10s	Hannah & Anne, scullery maids, 3pd 10s
Melinda, dairy maid, 3pd
Mr. Ruperts, gatekeeper, ?pd
Mr. Pankhurst Sr., former valet, retired

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Cash Book 1763

A - Housekeeping
B - Servants
C - Furniture
D - Clothing
E - Pocket Money

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18th century

Center Information

The Leyland Manor Research Center is currently investigating more information on the history of the house and will shortly announce new results about this project.

* * *

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That Home-Town Feeling

... is one of my favourite short stories by Edna Ferber and is part of her short story collection 'Buttered Side

Down'. When sitting on a bench in our courtyard rocking my baby boy's buggy, I usually read on my Kindle. Currently its all Edna Ferber. Though she's an American writer and though her stories are set in early 20th century America, I adore her characters and her style anyway. Her stories could very well be adopted into 21st century. Her descriptions are so intriguing and funny and everytime I'm surprised where her plots lead to.

Just check for yourself!

- Edna Ferber on Wikipedia
- on Internet Archive
- on Gutenberg

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Knitting Needles and the Telephone

On 26th of October, 150 years ago, in 1861, Philipp Reis from Gelnhausen (Hesse, Germany) managed the first telephone connection and the first sentence ever spoken was: 'The horse doesn't eat cucumber salad.'

What has this to do with knitting needles you ask? Easy, says I ;-D
Reis used his Telephone (the word also invented by Reis) to transmit his phrase "The horse does not eat cucumber salad". This phrase in German is hard to understand acoustically so Reis used it to prove if speech can be recognized on another side successfully.

Reis's speaker worked by magnetostriction. In his first receiver he wound a coil of wire around an iron knitting needle and rested the needle against the "F" hole of a violin. As current passed through the needle, the iron shrank and a click was formed. The image shown below is a more advanced version where the iron bar is clamped to a cigar-box-shaped resonator. This receiver is very insensitive. It produces weak sound but has good fidelity. It requires very high current and is a current-sensitive device rather than a voltage-sensitive device.
Reis was marginally successful. This instrument could transmit continuous musical tones but produced indistinct speech.

Actually, I prefer to knit with my needles... But interesting nonetheless. I always thought, Bell was the first...

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16th Women Culture Days in Halle Saale, Germany

Totally ignored by all responsible at the Halle government and offices are the 16th Women Culture Days this October (21st Oct - 6th Nov). The only announcement is given by the Weiberwirtschaft Halle in a pdf file. Well, how should Google ever find anything like that? And who's responsible for their horrible website layout anyway!?
Another advertisement for this event I saw in the tram today on a tiny poster no one would recognise. The artwork is nice, done by Death Dishes and there'll be so much going on. Just check the flyer at Weiberwirtschaft Halle.

Unter dem Motto: „soziokultureller“ Ehrendienst oder Luxus Ehrenamt? finden vom 21.10. bis 06.11.2011 die Frauenkulturtage an verschiedenen Orten in Halle statt. In der zweiwöchigen Programmreihe sind Ausstellungen mit Porträts ehrenamtlicher Frauen, eine Abend zu Mascha Kaléko, der Ladies Lunch on tour, eine szenische Lesung, Theater, Film-, und musikalische Veranstaltungen sowie ein Tagesseminar zum Thema Ehrenamt geplant.

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First Reenactment Fair in Germany

This weekend the first Reenactment Fair is held in Germany, precisely in Minden, Westphalia.

Check out this amazing Tour!

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Travelling back to 1761

"Minden 1761" was the title of a city event of the town of Minden, Westphalia, in August. Visitors were sent back for three days in the year 1761. There, the visitor met nobles and peasants, traders and beggars, entertainers and soldiers from a bygone era.

Unfortunately I live too far away and unfortunately I missed this in general...

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Masters of the German Language

It is the 3rd of October and its Unification Day in Germany. The French-German TV-Channel Arte offers a special schedule today and this afternoon, after we hopefully have survived the Nibelungs, Mazarine Pingeot, will travel through Germany on a literary journey discovering Germanys literature and its authors.

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