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I mean, is there much to learn from ancient aliens and finding Bigfoot?
In the late 90s/early 2000s it was the WWII channel. Non-stop Third Reich munitions, strategies, successes, and failures. They may want to bring that back.
Even then a lot of it was perpetuating the myth of German technical superiority.
I mean they did have better machining and chemistry infrastructure, but that's more of a result of poor material conditions forcing inovations. Their presses and processes were really good. We did beat them easily with slightly worse technology because we could mass produce it. The US had more crudely tooled industry but we had a lot more industrial capacity.
One of the major looted items after the war from both the US and the Soviets was the shrviving German metallurgists and chemists. Both also looted tooling and machinery.
Operation paperclip was a lot more than rocket scientists
but that's more of a result of poor material conditions forcing inovations
Well, also Germany was one of the world leaders in science and technology in the early 1900s all the way up to WWII. Just look at the list of winners of the Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry and how many of them are German. You could even see this in the recent Oppenheimer movie, where they showed him travelling to the University of Göttingen because that was where you needed to be to study cutting edge theoretical physics. And this was the 1920s when Germany was already suffering having to repay massive war debts after WWI.
What happened? When Hitler rose to power the Nazis drove off all the Jewish scientists, and scared off a lot of the gentiles. It's almost exactly the same situation as in the US today. Even the chaotic Weimar Republic wasn't enough to cause Germany's lead on science to collapse. But, when Hitler came to power, the scientists left, and a lot of them came to the US. This was the start of the US dominating science for decades, something which may collapse now due to Trump.
Germany was one of the world leaders in science and technology in the early 1900s all the way up to WWII
One of the greatest ironies of WWI is that going into the war, British and French propellants and explosive charges for artillery made extensive use of synthetic chemicals purchased from Germany, while German artillery propellants relied on guano from South America. The British Navy immediately choked off German supplies of foreign guano (and obviously France and Britain could no longer purchase German chemicals) leading to the so-called "shell crisis" that afflicted all sides with severe artillery shortages after the first few months of the war exhausted their stockpiles.
"Fortunately," all the combatants quickly found substitutes and ramped up production, allowing them to slaughter each other in enormous numbers for years more. Another fun fact: during WWI, approximately 260 artillery shells were fired for each soldier killed (and only about 2/3 of all dead soldiers were killed by artillery).
Were the other 1/3 from flu/illness or are gas attacks not included in artillery deaths maybe?
Mostly machine gun and rifle bullets. Deaths from gas were quite rare, relatively speaking, although it caused a lot of non-fatal casualties. By "soldiers' deaths" I meant combat deaths, not illnesses, which in almost all wars in history killed more people than actual combat.
Not sure how "fun" that fact is, but yeah, the number of artillery shells fired in WWI is just amazing.
But the reason Germany was so full of those scientists is because Germany lacked access to good coal seams and to petroleum reserves and also its massive dye industry from the 1800s. In a similar fashion, Germany learned to use metals like magnesium because they were abundant while pure iron was not
Fun fact: in both world wars, Germany was absolutely dependent upon Swedish iron ore to produce high-quality steel. In WWI, it was only the High Seas Fleet of battleships and battlecruisers that prevented the Royal Navy from sailing into the Baltic and choking off this supply and ending the war (an under-appreciated reason for Germany building all those capital ships in the first place while being generally unwilling to risk losing them all in a major fleet engagement). In WWII, it was Hitler's quick occupation of Norway and the Luftwaffe that preserved the supply of Swedish ore.
Germany was also critically dependent upon Swedish ball-bearings, but at least Sweden sold those to both sides.
That may have been part of it, but another part is that there was relative peace and stability for about a century, many government reforms that modernized the country, and the industrial revolution making Germany into a world power. Also, AFAIK, iron was relatively abundant in the Ruhr valley, along with coal, which is why it became the industrial centre for the country.
Dude, their printing presses were amazing. You can still find the Heidelberg Super Speed from 90ish years ago in working condition.
I bought a Mercedes once and learned that was such a lie lol that thing broke down all the time. Expensive crap
Hey now they also had that one show where they recreated ancient battles using the total war engine. That was pretty cool.
The Travel Channel has had better historical shows than The History Channel lately, maybe History should buy some of the old ones.
Eg Mysteries at the Museum - kinda funny editing but genuinely I learned SO MUCH History from this show and it really stuck with me. The story about Galloping Gertie and the dog stuck in the car for one.
(Link is sad but not gory) https://youtu.be/j-zczJXSxnw
Or Expedition Unknown, which that guy actually interviewed and nearly went on the Titanic sub. That episode was scrapped for safety concerns (lol) and not really historical, but he’s had plenty at old ruins etc.
Nice! As a fan of real documentaries, I thank you for the heads up!
Oh man, do you want to discuss your favorite documentaries at all? I looove them. What types do you like the most?
Sure, but I suck with random recall. I’ve seen SO many of them. Fantastic Fungi comes to mind. I found the concept of a forest communication network through mycelium to be incredibly fascinating.
Some of the more interesting ones I’ve seen lately have probably been on the Minuteman YouTube channel. Have you seen any of them? https://youtube.com/@miniminuteman773
How about you?
First reich?
Thank you. I can’t believe low long that went unnoticed. Lol
That's because it's all Goddamned Ancient Aliens and Pawn Stars.
And Ice Road Truckers
seriously idk what that has to do with history lol
Historically boring
technically, everything that's filmed happened in the past, so it's technically history.
that, conservatives exclusively watch conspiracy related content on tv, besides political ons.
the show used to have a series about potential extinct/cryptid animals, but it switched to all the junk.
real history, how was this built?
conspiracy history: how was this built when they were not white?
I miss when the history channel was 90% Hitler content.
Hitler's rise to power. Hitler's war on the eastern front. Hitler's Nazi super megastructures. Hitler's downfall. Hitler's atomic weapon. Hitler's dog.
At least it was educational.
I recall it being more about WW2 than Hitler. I enjoyed it, but you can find better military history on YouTube these days.
Maybe that's why everything went to shit, because they stopped (or once showed?) the endless hitler content.
I unironically think it probably played a role. When I was growing up (and History Channel showed WWII history), it was generally just understood and accepted that Nazis were evil scum and Hitler was one of the worst people in the 20th century. It wasn't even up for debate.
It's probably more about the sabotaging of our public education system, but I think this is actually part of that.
I liked the Daily Show sketch of the History Channel updating their WWII programming to highlight who the bad guys were.
I learn more history watching Drunk History.
He is doomed to reruns.
History does seem to be repeating.
Not so sure this belongs on the Onion. Sounds too accurate.
Good thing it's on the hard times then 😉
weak men make hard times.
not talking about history, looking for some twinks
It'd be more believable if it was talking about ancient aliens.
From the thumbnail, I thought this was going to be about Al Bundy.
this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2025
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