The 2006 movie The Lives of Others claims that in 1977, the GDR stopped counting suicides when East Germany had the second-highest suicide rate in Europe, second only to Hungary.

My question is: How true is this claim? Is there any evidence that the GDR actually stopped counting suicides in 1977? Did they have a secret count but simply ban the publication of any statistics?

I've been trying to Google around for answers but nothing is forthcoming, and the only source I've found that might directly addresses the subject is a) behind a paywall and b) in German (which I do not read).

How come it took so long for humans to develop card, electronics etc?

Is it just the compounding of technologies build on previous technologies over thousands of years?

Everything has to start with a natural resource doesn't it?

So a while ago i read a post of reddit about an Arabic sailor who went to America long before Christopher Columbus or the other famous "discoverers of America" who was captured by Indians on the west coast and was only released after an Arabic speaking Indian told his tribe that they were not a threat. Do you have any more information or knowledge about this incident?

I'm a student studying religion and culture and I'm interested in the development of formations of credit/debt/and damnation in medieval theology. Unfortunately, while I have a decent background in medieval theology, I don't have a great one in medieval history. I'm convinced, though, that it's mostly fruitless to study the development of concepts without linking them to the practices they render intelligible. Where should I start?

What is the basis for calling it hellenistic? As far as I know there were no kingdoms named Hellenopolis or anything like that.

Could a Syrian seaman expect to see Alexandria, Constantinople, and Marseille? Could a sailor from Antwerp expect to see Seville and Birka in his lifetime?

I understand there were protests against the various taxes imposed by the British; however, once the taxes were repealed, what drove plantation owners, merchants, shopkeepers, artisans, and small-time farmers to join up and start a full-on revolution? Where did the "we hate central authority" ideology come from? and how did Sam Adams organize all of the different parts of colonial society around that ideology?

I've always wondered something; Wouldn't many people in earlier history (medieval times, colonial era, etc.) have been born with fetal alcohol syndrome or other complications, due to alcoholic beverages being one of the few safe things to drink?

In Adam Curtis power of nightmares documentary, it is suggested that today's radical Islam was more or less born in alignment to the rise of the neo conservartism

Do reddit historians agree with his narrative, and if not , whats your perspective on the matter ?

I've been curious about WWI for a while so I decided to research it, but I've been conflicted between George Norris's views and Wilson's views.

So according to Biblical texts, the Amalakites were possibly a real historic tribe that living in the area of modern day Israel. The question might be moot depending on historical verification of this group.

Malachite is a green stone, likely used originally for ornamental purposes, but later contributed heavily to the growth of the Copper Age. The name of the stone probably derives from ancient Greek.

So the copper age probably began around 5000 BCE, and biblical stories in Genesis where Amalak (The Amalakites namesake) is written of may have originated as early as 3000 BCE.

Could the name of one have contributed the name of the other? I'm picturing the nomadic Amalakites raiding villages with Copper weapons and taking any Malachite stone they could find. Obviously, that's purely imagination, but could there be some connection?

Obviously Hannibal's campaign was a hugely significant and should be well-remembered. And the imagery of taking a bunch of elephants across a mountain range captures imaginations. But the notoriety of this event still seems to be out of whack compared to other exceptional events of the classical era. Has it always been so prominent?

I'm not entirely sure how a collection of unruly tribesmen united to be such a force that it would manage to annihilate most empires and armies at the time. The Mongols managed to many things that were almost impossible at the time, but how? How did the Mongolians create an empire from Korea to the borders of Austria?

Obviously people didn't have D-Dayesque landing craft in the 18th and 19th centuries, so how would a force attacking from the sea come ashore? In lots of small boats? How many of these boats would a typical ship carry/tow/whatever? In a similar vein, how were large numbers of troops transported across large distances? Aboard ships of the line or on separate transport vessels or what? Did 'transport ships' follow a main fleet closely but skedaddle away when enemy sails appeared, or were they well-armed enough to take part in naval action?

How much did the appearance of steamships alter these methods of troop transportation and landing?

Is there anything else I should look into to try and give a realistic representation of a late-Age of Sail amphibious assault?

Thanks.

My husband can trace his American ancestry back to John Maxfield of Maine. Maxfield was one of the first Europeans to go to Maine and not run away. He can also trace back to a different (probably father) John Maxfield in England. Then it goes a bit further back. Which all makes sense and is traceable via tax, church, legal records. It gets weird when it starts being traced back to Normans, Welsh, Vikings (Norse), and a Roman in about 350 AD. How do the people who trace these things figure this stuff out? It is all official, so not one of those "buy a family tree" scams.

My poor family is impossible to trace. 1700s on my mother's side and 1850 on my dad's side.

In Europe there's a Eurocentric kind of history teaching and American history only starts at 1492 with Columbus. Who wants to summarize American history (north and/or south) from the first record of human activity until 1492? Or does American history in America also start in 1492? What looks American history teaching like in America? (by America I mean the whole continent, by the way)

Thank you!

It might be a quite specific question, but I have to do a paper on local (fun) fairs, parties, markets, balls ... in Antwerp (Belgium) in the 1890s. I wonder whether there are good books or essays on comparable events in other western cities at that time, so I can read in a little on urban events all over the western world. I prefer English, French, German or Dutch texts because if I want to quote an author in another language, I have translate it. But if you have a good read in another language, that would be great anyway!

Thanks for helping, I love you. :)

If a soldier were injured terminally on the battlefield and asked to be put out of his misery how was that handled?

Was it allowed or disallowed? If so how often did this happen often?

Just something I've always wondered, feel free to post an answer for any side of WWII not just US.

I'm guessing it's because the greatest Muslim empire, the Ottomans, never settled in the Americas? Or am I way wrong?

Thank you