BERLIN CALENDAR: HOPPE-HOPPE-GARTEN
Today in Berlin: May 17, 1868
Should you be travelling in time today and wishing to meet Prussian monarch who in three years would become the first German Kaiser, it is Hoppengarten you should land at.
On 17 May, 1868 soon-to-be world-famous racecourse Dahlwitz-Hoppegarten opened in the presence of King Wilhelm I and his overwhelming Prime Minister, Otto von Bismarck (and overwhelming he was, as Wilhelm later admitted: “It’s not easy being a Kaiser under Bismarck…”)…