About me

Hi! Thanks for visiting my pages. I’m Robin Oomkes. I’m Dutch but have lived in Berlin from 2014 to 2017. On my sabbatical leave there I hugely enjoyed myself studying the history of the city as well as German history in general, and writing here as well as on slowtravelberlin.com.  I also blog about Westfalia and Volkswagen camper vans over at westyman.com (in Dutch). I’ve published chapters in Stories from the City as well as in Crossroads, the book that accompanies the exhibition in major European museums on the so-called Dark Ages of medieval history (which, of course, are not that dark, after all!). Back in The Netherlands, I finished my art history studies with a Research Master’s degree at Leiden University, as well as running Amsterdam walking tours.

About the name of the blog

The name of the blog, Dead Emperors’ Society, came up one night over a beer with my good friend Marcel Menz, some 15 years ago. We were travelling through Germany in my VW camper van, chasing cultural and historical sights that Marcel had learned about in his Art History MA programme. There many great sights in Germany (a lot of which are UNESCO World Heritage) from the Middle Ages to the Wilhelmine period, which are not very well known to the public – cathedrals, palaces, monasteries, museum collections. That’s when we decided to call our 2-person travel club the Dead Emperors’ Society.

Follow me on twitter @roomkes!