World War II

Hardly anything remains of the Brommy Bridge over the Spree today. In 1945, the bridge was blown up by the German army to prevent the Red Army's advance.

To defend the nation against foreign attacks, a series of forts were built around Antwerp, Liège and Namur from the end of the nineteenth century. For example, the Defense Line of Antwerp consisted of sixteen larger strongholds in a wide circle around the city, including Fort Breendonk.

An eagle atop a 15-meter-high pillar was inaugurated in 1930 and originally commemorated German marines killed aboard a submarine during World War I.

The Laboe Naval Memorial's foundation stone was laid in 1927 at the mouth of the Kieler Fjord in the Baltic Sea. The 72-metre-high tower was finished in 1936.

Railway line 47, the section of the Vennbahn between Sankt Vith and Troisvierges, was commissioned in late 1889 and crossed the Our River via a brick viaduct near the German village of Hemmeres.

In 1876, German industrialist Max Duttenhöfer founded the explosives factory "Düneberger Pulverfabrik" near the German city of Hamburg, where gunpowder and other explosives were produced during both world wars.

From 1936 onwards, hundreds of scientists, engineers and technicians settled in the German fishing village of Peenemünde on the Baltic Sea to develop and test the V2 rocket.