The oldest living panda in captivity is Bao Bao, a male giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) who arrived at Berlin Zoologischer Garten, Berlin, Germany from China in November 1980, aged two years old and has remained there ever since.

Minna Dora Blöcker, Luise Amalie Stefenerand Bertholdine Alwine Bernecker (neé Hoberg) were born to Ludwig and Henriette Hoberg (all Germany) in Melle, Germany on 31 January 1914 and are currently the oldest living triplets in the world, having celebrated their 91st birthday in 2005.

Marco Hellgrewe (Germany) reversed an articulated truck for 64 km (39.7 miles) non-stop in 5 hr 21 min on a circuit on the German forces training area in Bergen, Germany, on 22 September 2008.

The female record for the greatest distance rowed in 24 hours (upstream and downstream) is 229 km (142.29 miles) by Sybille Roller, Judith Schulz and Imke Ludwig (all Germany) at DRUM Rowing Club, Berlin, Germany on 2-3 August 2003.

The smallest cinema by seat capacity to operate as a regular commercial venture has 9 seats. The Palastkino on Bahnhofstraße, Radebeul, Germany, owned by Johannes Gerhardt (Germany), opened on 30 October 2006 with the film Smoke (Germany/ USA/ Japan, 1995). The record was acknowledged as part of Guinness World Records Day. The cinema is located in the building of train station Radebeul West.

The smallest jet engine measures just 600nm across and weighs 1 femtogram (10^-15 kg). It was produced by Leibniz Institute Solid State Physics Dresden and demonstrated in Dresden, Germany, in September 2010. The ‘engine’ is actually a conical nanotube with an inner layer of platinum. When placed in a solution of hydrogen peroxide the platinum catalyses the solution producing thrust that pushes the tiny engine along. While it’s not a method of propulsion that works in the real world, nonetheless it technically qualifies as a Continue reading →

With an overall floorspace of 53 m2, the Eh’hausl hotel in Amberg, Germany, holds the record for the smallest hotel. Sandwiched between two larger buildings, the hotel is too small to accomodate more than two guests at any given time.

The smallest permanent licensed bar in the world is the “Blomberger Saustall”, which has a total internal floor area of 5.19 m² (55 ft² 124.5 in²). It is owned by Reinhold Mennecke (Germany) and became fully licensed in 2000.

The resolving power of the human eye is 0.0003 of a radian or an arc of one minute (1/60th of a degree), which corresponds to 100 microns at 25 cm (10 in). A micron is a thousandth of a millimetre, hence 100 microns is 0.003937, or less than four thousandths of an inch or 2.5 cm. The human eye can, however, detect a bright light source shining through an aperture only 3 to 4 microns across. In October 1972 the University of Stuttgart, then West Continue reading →

Though not the first aircraft to employ the oblique wing or “scissor” design concept, the first was the German Blohm & Voss P 202 in 1942, the jet powered NASA AD-1 was the first aircraft to successfully demonstrate the concept in a test programme of 79 flights from 1979 to 1982. Dubbed the strangest plane to ever fly, the wing would be pivoted up to 60 degrees when flying at high speed to reduce drag, thus allowing increased speed and longer range owing to reduced Continue reading →