Of all the professional hockey players a young Anders Bjork watched skate at the Bradley Center half his life ago, two names stand out. Mark Van Guilder would become Bjork’s brother-in-law.

At the end of the 19th century, the population of Berlin reached almost two million, far exceeding its capacity. It is estimated that by 1912, 100,000 of the city’s dwellings were inhabited by 600,000 ...