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Joachim C. Häberlen

@jchaeberlen.bsky.social
2.2K followers 1.6K following 710 posts

Historian of beautiful actions. PhD from UChicago. Past at U Warwick, now teaching and writing in Berlin. Personal Homepage: joachimhaeberlen.com My book on Protesting in Post-War Europe: www.penguin.co.uk/books/321011/beau…

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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
and in the experience of these struggles, prejudices on both sides were overcome (and at times confirmed).
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Quite a hilarious conversation with Google's Gemini, insisting that it's ChatGPT. Whatever that might tell us about AI's consiousness. www.faz.net/aktuell/feui...
faz.net
Dialog mit Googles Chatbot: Ich bin nicht Gemini, ich bin ChatGPT!
Das Ich ist nur eine Maske aus Worten: Wie Googles Chatbot in eine tiefe Identitätskrise fiel und dabei die Vorstellung vom KI-Bewusstsein als Märchen entlarvte.
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Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 13/08/2026
#OtD 13 Aug 1955 Lamar Smith, African-American civil rights activist and WWI veteran, was murdered by racists outside the Lincoln courthouse in Mississippi. Despite many witnesses, including the sheriff, no one was charged with any crime stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8456...
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Jim Goldgeier @jimgoldgeier.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
“One spouse among the 200 or so family members said that her husband had texted her that day saying ‘he hopes he doesn’t wake up tomorrow.’” And what does Hegseth do? Calls them liars.
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Andrea Geier / Bademeisterin der Debattenkultur @andreageier.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Einmal, ein einziges Mal so viel Dringlichkeit in der Regierung sehen angesichts der Hitzetoten & der klimakrisebedingten Schäden in der Natur & der Wirtschaft wie beim Thema Migration. Was wäre das für eine Ansprache.
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Eichhoernchenliebe @eichhoernchenliebe.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
CN Gadjé-Rassismus Antiziganismus Solchen ekelhaften Rassismus gegen Sinti*zze und Rom*nja kriegen wohl die meisten von uns gar nicht mit und unterschätzen ihn! Ich war völlig perplex damals und habe mich umso mehr über das Urteil mit gefreut!
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Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 10/07/2026
#OtD 10 Jul 2013 Ali İsmail Korkmaz, a 19-year-old university student, died following a brutal beating by police in Turkey during the Occupy Gezi anti-government protests stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8209...
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
If democracy is something that needs to be experienced with our senses, as was recently argued, then this version of Beethoven's Ode to Joy, sung in Beirut in 2019, provides such an experience, even if it feels very much like a message in a bottle these days. www.youtube.com/watch?v=32WL...
youtube.com
Beethoven’s Ode to Joy sang in Arabic by Lebanese protesters
YouTube video by Marwan Chelala
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
Read about the NSDAP party convention of 1934 today, made famous by Leni Riefenstahl's film Triumph of the Will. What the film doesn't show: several SA men died because they fell, utterly wasted, into latrines and suffocated in their feces. A deserved death, I suppose... www.bpb.de/shop/buecher...
bpb.de
Nationalsozialismus | bpb.de
Gerhard Paul und Michael Wildt schildern den Nationalsozialismus als Gesellschafts- und Mediengeschichte. Deren Bild- und Tonwelten erschließen der reich bebilderte Band und eine innovative App.
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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
The cruelty is the point
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The Kyiv Independent @kyivindependent.com · 12/04/2026
⚡️BREAKING: Magyar says Orban congratulated him on election win. "Prime Minister Viktor Orban has just called to congratulate us on our victory," Tisza leader Peter Magyar wrote on X. With over 50% of votes processed, the opposition has taken a significant lead over the ruling party.
kyivindependent.com
Orban congratulates opposition leader Magyar on victory in historic Hungarian election
"This has become, and will be, a celebration of democracy," Tisza party leader Peter Magyar said.
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
they'll have access to our credit cards, and then they can do the reading for us as well. meanwhile, we can just ... exist, rien faire comme une bête.
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
the insanity of the world (or at least significant parts of it) in a nutshell.
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
I'm waiting for AI bots to actually buy these books, with real money... the hardcover versions.
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Academic News: Finally, my article on adventure playgrounds as sites of democratic learning in the Federal Republic of Germany is freely available. What slides, swings, and constructing wooden huts in concrete desserts have to do with democracy. academic.oup.com/gh/article/4...
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German History Society @germanhistsoc.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Congratulations to Joachim C. Häberlen for his article 'Democracy at Play: Adventure Playgrounds in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1967–1984' which has been awarded the German History 2025 Article Prize! You can read the winning article here: doi.org/10.1093/gerh...
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Bita Moghaddam @bita137.bsky.social · 07/02/2026
www.theatlantic.com/internationa... a beautiful must read if you care about humanity and love movies (Gift article) Thank you Arash Azizi for writing this and @theatlantic.com for publishing it
theatlantic.com
What Iran’s Dead Loved and Fought For
A young woman’s online diaries about cinema and literature have become her epitaph.
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
If this (what's happening on Moltbook) is the future of the internet (you never whether something is written by AI or by a human being), then I guess it's also the future of humanity. Funny times. www.faz.net/pro/digitalw...
faz.net
Moltbook: Wie das soziale Netzwerk für KI-Agenten funktioniert
Ein soziales Netzwerk nur für Bots – programmiert, ohne dass eine Zeile menschlichen Codes geschrieben wurde, gebaut auf einer quelloffenen Plattform aus Wien. Moltbook fasziniert das Silicon Valley u...
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Bäume verbuddeln und gar im Meer versenken, gegen die Klimawandel. Interessante und ernst gemeinte Idee; und dennoch, irgendwie zeigt sie die Absurdität der Weltlage. Bäume stehen zu lassen schein nicht en vogue zu sein. www.faz.net/aktuell/wiss...
faz.net
Bäume fürs Klima: Der Meeresgrund als Kohlenstoffsenke
Um Kohlendioxid aus der Atmosphäre zu fischen, werden Bäume gefällt und im Erdboden verbuddelt. Das kostet viel Platz. Nun präsentieren Forscher ein eleganteres Konzept.
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
nachvollziehbarer Rat.
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
naja, Streiks sollen weh tun... da ist er vielleicht nicht klug gewählt, weil Schulferien sind. Das Problem im öffentlichen Dienst ist, dass Streiks nicht "den Bossen" weh tun, sondern der Allgemeinheit und dann eben besonders vulnerablen Personen.
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
hm, aber welches "Kampfmittel" bliebe denn der Gewerkschaft, jenseits des Streiks? Ich kann die Perspektive nachvollziehen, bin selbst auf Öffentliche angewiesen (und habe zum Glück gerade Ferien oder kann die S-Bahn nehmen). But still.
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Ana Marie Cox @anamariecox.com · 25/01/2026
The majority of organizing happening in Minnesota isn’t just peaceful, it’s INVISIBLE. Moms showing up who won’t be interviewed on TV, people whose ICE patrols don’t turn into viral video. The grocery runs, the donations, the people filming bc they happen to be there. Please remember this.
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Seva @seva.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
the russian judicial system in two headlines
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Hunter Walker @hunterw.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
"At least five Native American men have been detained by ICE around Minneapolis following significant immigration raids." ictnews.org/news/i-felt-...
ictnews.org
‘I felt like I was kidnapped’: Ojibwe man recounts ICE detainment - ICT
At least five Native American men have been detained by ICE around Minneapolis following significant immigration raids
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
When Cairo tramway workers ent on strike in August 1919, he led some 60 Italian workers to express solidarity with the strike and helped found a Bourse de Travail, where newly formed unions resided. International Solidarity in practice. (3/3)
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
After the war he returned to Egypt, where he worked as a printer and became president of the printers' union. Taking internationalism seriously, he convinced his fellow Italian workers to accept Egyptian workers in the Union, which had so far been the exclusively European. (2/3)
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
Amidst the countless stories of powerful men, and the stories of pain and suffering in history, the story an Italian named Giuseppe Pizzuto deserves being remembered as well: Born in Egypt, he fought in the Italian army during WWI, where he was apparently influenced by socialist ideas. (1/3)
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
(Source: ʿIsmat Saif al-Dawla, Mashayikh Jabal al-Badari: Al-Juzʾ al-Thani min Mudhakirat Qarya (Cairo: Dar al-Hilal, 1996), 16. Quoted in Alia Mossallam, Strikes, Riots and Laughter: Al-Himamiyya Village’s Experience of Egypt’s 1918 Peasant Insurrection.) 3/3
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
Each person starts to hit the one next to him for no better reason than that the fight ‘has started.’ It’s always an opportunity to get away from paying for the drinks. …This is what neighboring European countries did to their continent." 2/3
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
Concise summary of WWI: "Our story begins in that summer of 1914 when a crazy war erupted in Europe. A war like the kind of fights that flare up between coffee-shop dwellers during almawalid. It starts with a chair hitting the lights, leaving everyone in the dark, and then the fight begins. 1/3
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Qasim Rashid, Esq. @qasimrashid.com · 01/01/2026
“Can’t believe NYC elected a Muslim as mayor.” In truth—a Black American Christian woman swearing in a Ugandan American Muslim of South Asian ethnicity as his Syrian American wife holds the Qurans he swears in on, all while standing on the steps of a subway station—is the most NYC thing imaginable.
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 01/01/2026
es wird an Schulen erschreckenderweise in Geschichte als essentieller Teil der Quellenanalyse gelehrt. Warum auch immer.
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NOELREPORTS @noelreports.com · 01/01/2026
Protests are spreading across Iran for a fourth day, with demonstrators calling for the end of the Islamic regime and demanding the return of exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. A member of the Basij force was killed in Kouhdasht, Lorestan, and confrontations are flaring in Fars, Hamedan, and Tehran.
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
about struggling for and trying to build a better world, here and now, perhaps failing, and against all odds trying again. It's this spirit of radical experimentation that I try to capture. www.penguin.co.uk/books/321011...
penguin.co.uk
Beauty is in the Street
In post-war Europe, protest was everywhere. On both sides of the Iron Curtain, from Paris to Prague, Milan to Wroclaw, ordinary people took to the streets, fighting for a better world. Their efforts c...
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
I'm always happy to see my work mentioned, as in this Foreign Policy article (a summary of previous articles on the past and present of movements). However, Beauty Is in the Street is distinctly not about failed movements, but about experimentingi foreignpolicy.com/2025/12/25/g...
foreignpolicy.com
A Year of Global Protest
How Gen Z-led movements shaped 2025—and what comes next.
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Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 31/12/2025
#OtD 31 Dec 1912 about 160 African workers at the Wankie coal mine in colonial Rhodesia came out on strike. Workers were protesting the poor conditions after dozens had contracted scurvy, resulting in nine deaths over the previous three months stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1143...
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
Working in archives is a bit like getting Christmas presents: ypu open a box of documents, and they might be what you wished for, or something totally useless, or amazing and more interesting than you could have imagined. It's the true joy of being a historian!
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Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
Compare the statement about the antisemitic terror attack in Australia by the Israeli Prime Minister with the one by Zohran Mamdani, and ask yourself who more truly cares about condemning antisemitism, as opposed to using it to promote unrelated politics.
"I wrote: "Your call for a Palestinian state pours fuel on the antisemitic fire. It rewards Hamas terrorists. It emboldens those who menace Australian Jews and encourages the Jew hatred now stalking your streets."""The attack at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney today was a vile act of antisemitic terror. I mourn those who were murdered and will be keeping their families, the Jewish community, and the Chabad movement in my prayers. May the memories of all those killed be a blessing.

While we are still waiting for all the facts to emerge, what we already know is devastating. At least 11 dead, including Rabbi Eli Schlanger, who held deep ties to Crown Heights. At least 29 injured. Another Jewish community plunged into mourning and loss, a holiday of light so painfully reduced to a day of darkness. This attack is merely the latest, most horrifying iteration in a growing pattern of violence targeted at Jewish people across the world. Too many no longer feel safe to be themselves, to express their faith publicly, to worship in their synagogues without armed security stationed outside. What happened at Bondi is what many Jewish people fear will happen in their communities too.

On Bondi Beach today, as men with long guns targeted innocents, another man ran towards the gunfire and disarmed a shooter. Tonight, as Jewish New Yorkers light menorahs and usher in a first night of Hanukkah clouded by grief, let us look to his example and confront hatred with the urgency and action it demands. When I am Mayor, I will work every day to keep Jewish New Yorkers safe—on our streets, our subways, at shul, in every moment of every day. Let this be a purpose shared by every New Yorker, and let us banish this horrific violence to the past."
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
Very thankful to see my piece on the Charm of History, and how the study of the past might offer a glimpse of joy and hope these days, mentioned here. I'd be happy to know what folks think! www.historians.org/perspectives...
historians.org
On the Charm of History – AHA
Finding joy in the past might allow us to imagine a future of joy as well.
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MiGAZIN @migazin.de · 11/12/2025
+ Ein mutiger Somalier verfolgte im Januar in #Aschaffenburg einen Messerangreifer. Für sein Engagement erhielt er von Ministerpräsidenten Söder die Medaille für Zivilcourage. Nun soll er ausreisen – er habe keinen Job. Der Somalier beschuldigt die Behörden.
migazin.de
Kein Job - Held von #Aschaffenburg soll Deutschland verlassen
Ein mutiger Somalier verfolgte im Januar in #Aschaffenburg einen Messerangreifer. Für sein Engagement erhielt er von Ministerpräsidenten Söder die Medaille für Zivilcourage. Nun soll er ausreisen – er habe keinen Job. Der Somalier beschuldigt die Behörden.
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
On the Charm of History, now also available online: www.historians.org/perspectives... The joy we can find in the past might enable us to imagine a joyful future once again, rather than seeing nothing but catastrophe. And the joy of teaching smart students.
historians.org
On the Charm of History – AHA
Finding joy in the past might allow us to imagine a future of joy as well.
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Spencer Ackerman @attackerman.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
They're using the confinement box, one of the most horrific methods of CIA torture in the post-9/11 black sites, against migrants now. This is the direct result of the lack of consequences for the architects of the torture program. Either there will be criminal penalties for this or it will expand.
forever-wars.com
Torture Techniques from CIA Black Sites Were Used at Alligator Alcatraz
Amnesty International, interviewing migrant detainees, identifies use of the confinement box. There can be no denying it is a torture prison
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
The article is freely available in the November 2025 issue of "Perspectives on History." I'd be happy to hear what people think about the piece. (And thanks to my students who had this I tought wonderful insight about why studying the past is worthwhile.)
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
or even beauty. In times when only catastrophe seems to be looming on the horizon, however, history might provide exactly that: a sense that things might be different, that life might be enjoyable. That is where, as a student of mine put it, the charm of history lies. ... 2/3
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
Publication News: On the Charm of History. www.historians.org/perspectives... What studying the past has to offer, it seems these days, is a stern warning about the perils of authoritariansim or even fascism that are on the rise again. Rarely does history seem to offer a sense of hope ... 1/3
historians.org
November 2025
Read the November issue of Perspectives on History.
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
(I don't have the budget to pay someone for such kinds of promotions anyways, just curious how legit such an offer is, or if it's just a scam, which I suspect.)
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
I was contacted, for the second time, by someone, presumably in the US, who claims to have read my book and offers promoting it in multiple ways (without saying to explicitly or even indicating costs), by someone named Laura's Pavlov. Out of curiousity: is anyone I know familiar with the name?
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Joachim C. Häberlen @jchaeberlen.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
AI will do the researching, writing, discussing, revising, peer reviewing and, most importantly, reading of our works. No more humans needed.
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Greg Morosoff @gregmorosoff.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
#MenWithCats
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