A milestone, a once-in-a-millennium achievement, a peerless original: In 2009, when the first volume of the Grosses japanisch-deutsches Wörterbuch was published, the reviewers were thrilled, delivering accolade after accolade. The responses motivate Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit, Professor of Japanology at Freie Universität Berlin, to push ahead with a project that had almost failed in the meantime. By 2018, the project aims to compile about 135,000 terms in three volumes.

The building at Dudenstrasse 16, right near Platz der Luftbrücke, still bears a sign in pale yellow lettering marking it as the home of the Association of German Book Printers (Verband der deutschen Buchdrucker). There is also a plaque commemorating the life of architect Max Taut. But there are no outward signs recalling the dramatic events of May 2, 1933, when the Nazis crushed the association, along with all the other free trade unions. Many unionists were jailed. Sites of remembrance like this are located all over Berlin – but hardly anyone has recalled them, at least up until now. A multimedia online portal launched by students at Freie Universität Berlin now makes these sites visible. The portal is also suitable for use with tablet computers.

For ten years now, the Mars Express mission orbiter has been maintaining radio contact with the Earth, following an elliptical orbit around the Red Planet. In the process, the space probe approaches the planet’s surface at a distance of as little as 300 kilometers. This yields fascinating photographs, such as those of Pickering Crater, which measures 110 kilometers in diameter and was filled with lava in at least two volcanic eruptions.