1.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
2.
Berlin
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Berlin is the capital and the largest city of Germany as well as one of its constituent 16 states. With a population of approximately 3.5 million, Berlin is the second most populous city proper, due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one-third of the area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers. Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world, following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the capital of all-Germany. Berlin is a city of culture, politics, media. Its economy is based on high-tech firms and the sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations. Berlin serves as a hub for air and rail traffic and has a highly complex public transportation network. The metropolis is a popular tourist destination, significant industries also include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology, construction and electronics. Modern Berlin is home to world renowned universities, orchestras, museums and its urban setting has made it a sought-after location for international film productions. The city is known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts. Since 2000 Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene, the name Berlin has its roots in the language of West Slavic inhabitants of the area of todays Berlin, and may be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl-. All German place names ending on -ow, -itz and -in, since the Ber- at the beginning sounds like the German word Bär, a bear appears in the coat of arms of the city. It is therefore a canting arm, the first written records of towns in the area of present-day Berlin date from the late 12th century. Spandau is first mentioned in 1197 and Köpenick in 1209, although these areas did not join Berlin until 1920, the central part of Berlin can be traced back to two towns. Cölln on the Fischerinsel is first mentioned in a 1237 document,1237 is considered the founding date of the city. The two towns over time formed close economic and social ties, and profited from the right on the two important trade routes Via Imperii and from Bruges to Novgorod. In 1307, they formed an alliance with a common external policy, in 1415 Frederick I became the elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440. In 1443 Frederick II Irontooth started the construction of a new palace in the twin city Berlin-Cölln
3.
Olympiastadion (Berlin)
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The Olympiastadion Berlin is a sports stadium in Berlin, Germany. It was originally built for the 1936 Summer Olympics by Werner March, during the Olympics, the record attendance was thought to be over 100,000. Today the stadium is part of the Olympiapark Berlin, since renovations in 2004, the Olympiastadion has a permanent capacity of 74,475 seats and is the largest stadium in Germany for international football matches. Olympiastadion is a UEFA category four stadium and one of the worlds most prestigious venues for sporting, besides its use as an athletics stadium, the arena has built a footballing tradition. Since 1963, it has been the ground of the Hertha BSC football team. It hosted three matches in the 1974 FIFA World Cup and it was renovated for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, when it hosted six matches, including the final. The German Cup final match is held each year at the venue, the Olympiastadion Berlin served as a host for the 2011 FIFA Womens World Cup as well as the 2015 UEFA Champions League Final. During the 1912 Summer Olympics, the city of Berlin was designated by the International Olympic Committee to host the 1916 Summer Olympics. Germanys proposed stadium for this event was to be located in Charlottenburg, in the Grunewald Forest, a horse racing-course already existed there which belonged to the Berliner Rennverein, and even today the old ticket booths survive on Jesse-Owens-Allee. The government of Germany decided not to build in the nearby Grunewald forest, because of this desire, they hired the same architect who originally had built the Rennverein, Otto March. March decided to bury the stadium in the ground, however, the 1916 Olympic Games were cancelled due to World War I. From 1926 to 1929, Otto Marchs sons were assigned to build an annex for these institutions, in 1931, the International Olympic Committee made Berlin the host city of the 11th Summer Olympics. Originally, the German government decided merely to restore the earlier Olympiastadion of 1916, when the Nazis came to power in Germany, they decided to use the Olympic Games in 1936 for propaganda purposes. With these plans in mind, Adolf Hitler ordered the construction of a sports complex in Grunewald named the Reichssportfeld with a totally new Olympiastadion. Architect Werner March remained in charge of the project, assisted by his brother Walter, construction took place from 1934 to 1936. When the Reichssportfeld was finished, it was 1.32 square kilometres and it consisted of, the Olympiastadion, the Maifeld and the Waldbühne amphitheater, in addition to various places, buildings and facilities for different sports in the northern part. Werner March built the new Olympiastadion on the foundation of the original Deutsches Stadion, the capacity of the Olympiastadion reached 110,000 spectators. It also possessed a special stand for Adolf Hitler and his political associates, at its end, aligned with the symmetrically-designed layout of the buildings of the Olympischer Platz and toward the Maifeld, was the Marathon Gate with a big receptacle for the Olympic Flame
4.
2007 World Championships in Athletics
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The 11th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held at Nagai Stadium in Osaka, Japan from 24 August to 2 September 2007. 200 of the IAAFs 212 member federations entered a total of 1,978 athletes, sarah Brightman, the worlds best-selling soprano, performed her single Running at the opening ceremony. By the IAAFs October 1,2002 deadline, Budapest and Berlin had both withdrawn their bids, and Osaka was announced as the host city on November 15,2002 as the remaining candidate. Berlin later bid successfully for the 2009 World Championships, the IAAF stepped up its war on doping at the Osaka games, and for the first time, the number of drug tests exceeded 1,000. The IAAF lobbied the World Anti-Doping Agency to adopt stiffer penalties for first-time doping offences in WADAs code of practice, despite these fears, the IAAF announced that only one of the samples taken over the course of the Championships was suspicious and required more examination. The governing body refused to elaborate further until more was known, the IAAF later confirmed that Keïta had tested positive for testosterone in an out-of-competition test at a training camp, and labelled the World Championships drug-free. The Championships were held during a hot summer in Japan, in contrast to the cool, wet. Temperatures earlier in the month had reached 40 °C, killing several people, casualties of the heat were not as high as initially feared, but dozens of athletes failed to finish the walks and marathons and a few did require medical treatment. Some athletes in shorter events blamed poor performances on the difficult conditions, concerns had been raised in the week running up to the Championships about the low level of ticket sales - only 46% of seats had been filled by August 20. The Nagai Stadium was less than half full for the opening ceremony, a number of reasons were cited for the poor attendance, including high ticket prices, the hot weather and the disappointing performance of the Japanese team. IAAF vice-president Sebastian Coe also suggested that the length of the Championships may have to be shortened in future to sustain the publics interest, despite no world records being broken, the Championships saw a number of significant personal and team achievements. The United States dominated the overall standings ahead of Kenya and Russia, equalling its best ever medal haul with 26, the U. S. also set another Championship first by triumphing in all four relay races. Perhaps the most unlikely American medal came from 110 m hurdler David Payne, russias Tatyana Lebedeva just missed out on an unprecedented long jump/triple jump double, but still ended up with a gold and a silver medal. African countries were well represented in the middle and long-distance events. Chinese athlete Liu Xiang, the only sprinter of non-African origin to clock sub-13 second 110m hurdles, word Record Holders for the 20 km Walk, Jefferson Pérez, and 50 km Walk, Nathan Deakes, both won their respective events, confirming their dominance of the event. In Perezs case, this was his third World Championship Gold Medal in a row, host nation Japan gained its only medal on the final day with a bronze for Reiko Tosa in the womens marathon. org 11th IAAF World Championships in Athletics Osaka Official Site
5.
2011 World Championships in Athletics
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The 13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics was an international athletics competition that was held in Daegu, South Korea. It started on 27 August 2011 and finished on 4 September 2011, the United States topped the medal standings in the competition with 25. During the competition,41 national records,4 area records,3 championship records, on 4 April 2006, the IAAF announced that nine countries had submitted expressions of interest for hosting the 2011 World Championships. When the seeking deadline passed on 1 December 2006, four cities had confirmed their candidatures. Gothenburg backed out later that month, citing lack of support from the Swedish government. Brisbane was announced as the Australian candidate with the Queensland Sport, the stadium previously hosted the 1982 Commonwealth Games and 2001 Goodwill Games. Brisbane also had a bid for the 2009 World Championships in Athletics. Daegu was the city chosen for the Korean bid, following on from an application to host the 2009 edition. Daegu had previously hosted the 2003 Summer Universiade and three matches of the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the World Championships in Athletics had never been staged in mainland Asia, although it has taken place twice in Japan. The Russian bid had Moscows Luzhniki Stadium as the proposed venue, the city hosted the 1980 Summer Olympics and the 2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships. Among the intent candidates were Casablanca and Split, both of which were failed bidders for the 2009 World Championships in Athletics, the Spanish candidate was rumored to be either Madrid or Valencia, but Spain eventually settled for Barcelona as a candidate for the 2013 World Championships in Athletics. The United States intent candidate city matched those bidding for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, Chicago, the IAAF announced Daegu as the winning candidate at the IAAF Council Meeting in Mombasa on 27 March 2007. Its victory was based on the quality of the stadiums and the need for good crowds, iAAFs officials also praised Daegus ambition and challenging spirit as key to its winning bid. Both Moscow and Brisbane later confirmed their candidacy to host the 2013 World Championships in Athletics – a selection process won by the Russian capital, the events in the mens section ended with a world record in 4 x 100 metres relay set by Jamaica and several worlds leading results. Jamaica dominated the events, while Kenya and Ethiopia dominated the longer track events. In the field events, the United States and Germany were most successful, winning four, Yohan Blake and Usain Bolt, both from Jamaica, won two gold medals, being the most successful athletes in the mens events. In the 100 m final the largely favored Usain Bolt was disqualified for a false start, in the 200 m Bolt won with a time of 19.40 s, which was the fastest time ever not to be a world record at that point. Blake and Bolt, along with countrymen Nesta Carter and Michael Frater, ran in the 4 x 100 metres relay, in the 10,000 metres event, World Champion Kenenisa Bekele did not finish the race
6.
International Association of Athletics Federations
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The International Association of Athletics Federations is the international governing body for the sport of athletics. It was founded on 17 July 1912 as the International Amateur Athletic Federation by representatives from 17 national athletics federations at the organizations first congress in Stockholm, since October 1993, it has been headquartered in Monaco. Beginning in 1982, the IAAF passed several amendments to its rules to allow athletes to receive compensation for participating in international competitions. However, the organization retained the word amateur in its name until its 2001 congress, the IAAFs president is Sebastian Coe of the United Kingdom. He was elected at the 2015 congress before the 2015 World Championships in Athletics in Beijing, the process to found the IAAF was started at a meeting in Stockholm, Sweden on July 17,1912 soon after the completion of the 1912 Summer Olympics in that city. The congress that started on August 20,1913 in Berlin is when the foundation of the IAAF was formally completed, in 2015, a whistleblower leaked IAAFs blood test records from major competitions. After reviewing the results, Robin Parisotto, a scientist and leading anti-doping expert, said, so many athletes appear to have doped with impunity, and it is damning that the IAAF appears to have idly sat by and let this happen. Craig Reedie, president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said his organisation was very disturbed by these new allegations, which will, once again, shake the foundation of clean athletes worldwide, and that its independent commission will investigate the claims. On 1 November 2015, former IAAF president Lamine Diack was arrested in France and is under investigation on suspicion of corruption, Diack allegedly accepted $1.2 million from the Russian athletics federation to cover up the positive doping tests of at least six Russian athletes in 2011. The report continued that the IAAF allowed the conduct to occur and must accept its responsibility and that corruption was embedded in the organization. In January 2016, as a result of the scandal and WADAs report. The BBC reported that as a result the IAAF would lose $33 million worth of revenue, the 11-year sponsorship deal with Adidas was due to run until 2019. World-record holding sprinter, Michael Johnson, described the scandal as more serious than that faced by FIFA, in February,2016, Nestle announced that it was ending its IAAF sponsorship. In June 2016, following a meeting of the IAAFs ruling council, in Ferbuary 2017, All-Russia Athletic Federation disqualified by decision of the IAAF Council for 8 years for the creation of a doping system. Since the establishment of the IAAF, it has had six presidents, The IAAF has a total of 215 member federations divided into 6 area associations
7.
IAAF World Championships in Athletics
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The IAAF World Championships, commonly referred to as the World Championships in Athletics, is a biennial athletics event organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations. Originally held every four years, first in 1983, the current two-year cycle began in 1991, the idea of having an Athletics World Championships was around well before the competitions first event in 1983. In 1913, the IAAF decided that the Olympic Games would serve as the World Championships for athletics and this was considered suitable for over 50 years until in the late 1960s the desire of many IAAF members to have their own World Championships began to grow. In 1976 at the IAAF Council Meeting in Puerto Rico an Athletics World Championships separate from the Olympic Games was approved, two IAAF world championship events preceded the inaugural edition of the World Championships in Athletics in 1983. Four years later, the 1980 World Championships contained only two newly approved womens events, neither of which featured on the programme for the 1980 Summer Olympics, over the years the competition has grown in size. In 1983 an estimated 1,300 athletes from 154 countries participated, by the 2003 competition, in Paris, it had grown to 1,907 athletes from 203 countries with coverage being transmitted to 179 different countries. There has also been a change in composition over the years, with new events, all for women. By 2005, the differences were mens competition in the 50 km walk. The following list shows when new events were added for the first time,1987, womens 10,000 m and 10 km walk were added. 1993, womens triple jump was added,1995, womens 5000 m was added, replacing the 3000 m race. 1999, womens pole vault and hammer were added and the womens 20 km walk replaced the 10 km walk,2005, womens 3000 m steeplechase was added. Updated after 2015 Championships Note, Germany refers both to the former West Germany and the unified Federal Republic of Germany, the opening and closing ceremonies of the 8th IAAF World Championships held in Edmonton in 2001 were broadcast live to over 200 countries. The event included the mens marathon, and featured a thousand voice choir, men There are fifteen athletes who have won at least six medals. Women There are thirteen athletes who have won at least six medals, There are eighteen athletes that competed in at least eight editions
8.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
9.
Marathon
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The marathon is a long-distance running race with an official distance of 42.195 kilometres, usually run as a road race. The event was instituted in commemoration of the run of the Greek soldier Pheidippides, a messenger from the Battle of Marathon to Athens. The marathon was one of the original modern Olympic events in 1896, more than 800 marathons are held throughout the world each year, with the vast majority of competitors being recreational athletes as larger marathons can have tens of thousands of participants. The name Marathon comes from the legend of Philippides or Pheidippides and it is said that he ran the entire distance without stopping and burst into the assembly, exclaiming νενικήκαμεν, before collapsing and dying. Lucian of Samosata also gives the story, but names the runner Philippides, there is debate about the historical accuracy of this legend. In some Herodotus manuscripts, the name of the runner between Athens and Sparta is given as Philippides, in 1879, Robert Browning wrote the poem Pheidippides. Brownings poem, his story, became part of late 19th century popular culture and was accepted as a historic legend. This route, as it existed when the Olympics were revived in 1896, was approximately 40 kilometres long, and this route is considerably shorter, some 35 kilometres, but includes a very steep initial climb of more than 5 kilometres. When the modern Olympics began in 1896, the initiators and organizers were looking for a great popularizing event, the idea of a marathon race came from Michel Bréal, who wanted the event to feature in the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 in Athens. This idea was supported by Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics. The Greeks staged a race for the Olympic marathon on 10 March 1896 that was won by Charilaos Vasilakos in 3 hours and 18 minutes. The winner of the first Olympic marathon, on 10 April 1896, was Spyridon Louis, the marathon of the 2004 Summer Olympics was run on the traditional route from Marathon to Athens, ending at Panathinaiko Stadium, the venue for the 1896 Summer Olympics. The womens marathon was introduced at the 1984 Summer Olympics and was won by Joan Benoit of the United States with a time of 2 hours 24 minutes and 52 seconds. It has become a tradition for the mens Olympic marathon to be the last event of the athletics calendar, often, the mens marathon medals are awarded during the closing ceremony. The Olympic mens record is 2,06,32, set at the 2008 Summer Olympics by Samuel Kamau Wanjiru of Kenya, the Olympic womens record is 2,23,07, set at the 2012 Summer Olympics by Tiki Gelana of Ethiopia. The mens London 2012 Summer Olympic marathon winner was Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda, per capita, the Kalenjin ethnic group of Rift Valley Province in Kenya has produced a highly disproportionate share of marathon and track-and-field winners. Johnny Hayes victory at the 1908 Summer Olympics contributed to the growth of long-distance running and marathoning in the United States. Later that year, races around the season including the Empire City Marathon held on New Years Day 1909 in Yonkers, New York
10.
Racewalking
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Racewalking, or race walking, is a long-distance discipline within the sport of athletics. Although it is a race, it is different from running in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times. This is assessed by race judges, typically held on either roads or on running tracks, common distances vary from 3000 metres up to 100 kilometres. There are two racewalking distances contested at the Summer Olympics, the 20 kilometres race walk and 50 kilometres race walk, both are held as road events. The biennial IAAF World Championships in Athletics also features the three events. The IAAF World Indoor Championships featured 5000 m and 3000 m race walk variations, top level athletics championships and games typically feature 20 km racewalking events. Compared to other forms of racing, stride length is reduced. There are two rules that govern racewalking, the first dictates that the athletes back toe cannot leave the ground until the heel of the front foot has touched. Violation of this rule is known as loss of contact, the second rule requires that the supporting leg must straighten from the point of contact with the ground and remain straightened until the body passes directly over it. These rules are judged by the human eye. Athletes regularly lose contact for a few milliseconds per stride, which can be caught on film, athletes stay low to the ground by keeping their arms pumping low, close to their hips. If one sees a racewalkers shoulders rising, it may be a sign that the athlete is losing contact with the ground, what appears to be an exaggerated swivel to the hip is, in fact, a full rotation of the pelvis. Athletes aim to move the forward, and to minimize sideways motion in order to achieve maximum forward propulsion. Speed is achieved by stepping quickly with the aim of rapid turnover and this minimizes the risk of the feet leaving the ground. Strides are short and quick, with pushoff coming forward from the ball of the foot, world-class racewalkers can average under four and five minutes per kilometre in a 20-km racewalk. Races have been walked at distances as short as 3 kilometres —at the 1920 Summer Olympics—and as long as 100 km. The mens world record for the 50-mile race walk is held by Israeli Shaul Ladany, the modern Olympic events are the 20 km race walk and 50 km race walk. There are judges on the course to monitor form, three judges submitting red cards for violations results in disqualification
11.
Brandenburg Gate
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The Brandenburg Gate is an 18th-century neoclassical monument in Berlin, and one of the best-known landmarks of Germany. It is built on the site of a city gate that marked the start of the road from Berlin to the town of Brandenburg an der Havel. It is located in the part of the city centre of Berlin within Mitte, at the junction of Unter den Linden and Ebertstraße. One block to the stands the Reichstag building, which houses the German parliament. The gate is the entry to Unter den Linden, the renowned boulevard of linden trees. It was commissioned by King Frederick William II of Prussia as a sign of peace, having suffered considerable damage in World War II, the Brandenburg Gate was restored from 2000 to 2002 by the Stiftung Denkmalschutz Berlin. During the post-war Partition of Germany, the gate was isolated, the area around the gate was featured most prominently in the media coverage of the tearing down of the wall in 1989, and the subsequent German reunification in 1990. Georgen Tor, Stralower Tor, Cöpenicker Tor, Neues Tor, relative peace, a policy of religious tolerance, and status as capital of the Kingdom of Prussia facilitated the growth of the city. The Brandenburg Gate was not part of the old fortifications, but one of 18 gates within the Berlin Customs Wall, erected in the 1730s, including the old fortified city, the new gate was commissioned by Frederick William II of Prussia to represent peace. The gate consists of twelve Doric columns, six to each side, citizens originally were allowed to use only the outermost two on each side. Atop the gate is a Quadriga, a chariot drawn by four horses, the new gate was originally named the Peace Gate and the goddess is Eirene, the goddess of peace. The gates design is based upon the Propylaea, the gateway to the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, the gate was the first element of Athens on the River Spree by architect Langhans. The Brandenburg Gate has played different political roles in German history, after the 1806 Prussian defeat at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt, Napoleon was the first to use the Brandenburg Gate for a triumphal procession, and took its Quadriga to Paris. After Napoleons defeat in 1814 and the Prussian occupation of Paris by General Ernst von Pfuel, the Quadriga faces east, as it did when it was originally installed in 1793. Only the royal family was allowed to pass through the archway, as well as members of the Pfuel family. The Kaiser granted this honour to the family in gratitude to Ernst von Pfuel, in addition, the central archway was also used by the coaches of ambassadors on the single occasion of their presenting their letters of credence to council. When the Nazis ascended to power, they used the gate as a party symbol, the gate survived World War II and was one of the damaged structures still standing in the Pariser Platz ruins in 1945. The gate was damaged with holes in the columns from bullets
12.
Split, Croatia
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Split is the second-largest city of Croatia and the largest city of the region of Dalmatia. It lies on the shore of the Adriatic Sea, centered on the Roman Palace of the Emperor Diocletian. Spread over a peninsula and its surroundings, Splits greater area includes the neighboring seaside towns as well. An intraregional transport hub and popular tourist destination, the city is a link to numerous Adriatic islands, Split is one of the oldest cities in the area. Split became a Byzantine city, to gradually drift into the sphere of the Byzantine vassal, the Republic of Venice. For much of the High and Late Middle Ages, Split enjoyed autonomy as a free city, Venice eventually prevailed and during the early modern period Split remained a Venetian city, a heavily fortified outpost surrounded by Ottoman territory. Eventually, its hinterland was won from the Ottomans in the Morean War of 1699, and in 1797, as Venice fell to Napoleon, the Treaty of Campo Formio rendered the city to the Habsburg Monarchy. In 1805, the Peace of Pressburg added it to the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, during World War II, the city was annexed by Italy, then liberated by the Partisans after the Italian capitulation in 1943. It was then re-occupied by Germany, which granted it to its puppet Independent State of Croatia, the city was liberated again by the Partisans in 1944, and was included in the post-war Federal Yugoslavia, as part of its republic of Croatia. In 1991 Croatia seceded from Yugoslavia amid the Croatian War of Independence, the city draws its name from the spiny broom, a common shrub in the area, after which the Greek colony of Aspálathos or Spálathos was named. The Serbo-Croatian term became Split or Spljet, while the Italian-language version, Spalato, in the late 19th century, the Croatian name increasingly came to prominence, and officially replaced Spalato in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia after World War I. For a significant period, the origin of the name was thought to be related to the Latin word for palace. Various theories were developed, such as the notion that the name derives from S. Palatium, the erroneous palace etymologies were notably due to Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, and were later mentioned by Thomas the Archdeacon. The city, however, is several centuries older than the palace and it was a colony of the polis of Issa, the modern-day town of Vis on the island of the same name. Issa, itself a colony of the Sicilian city of Syracuse, had acquired sovereignty and started founding its own colonies in 367 BCE, the exact year the city was founded is not known, but its estimated to have been in the 3rd or 2nd century BCE. The Greek settlement lived off trade with the surrounding Illyrian tribes, in time, the Roman Republic became the dominant power in the region, conquering the Illyrians in the Illyrian Wars of 229 and 219 BCE. Upon establishing permanent rule, the Romans founded the Province of Dalmatia, the city of Salona, only a short distance from Spálathos, became the capital of the province and evolved into a significant city in the Roman state. The history of Spálathos becomes obscure for a while at this point, being overshadowed by that of nearby Salona, the Roman Emperor Diocletian reformed the government in the late Roman Empire and established the Tetrarchy
13.
Croatia
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Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a sovereign state between Central Europe, Southeast Europe, and the Mediterranean. Its capital city is Zagreb, which one of the countrys primary subdivisions. Croatia covers 56,594 square kilometres and has diverse, mostly continental, Croatias Adriatic Sea coast contains more than a thousand islands. The countrys population is 4.28 million, most of whom are Croats, the Croats arrived in the area of present-day Croatia during the early part of the 7th century AD. They organised the state into two duchies by the 9th century, tomislav became the first king by 925, elevating Croatia to the status of a kingdom. The Kingdom of Croatia retained its sovereignty for nearly two centuries, reaching its peak during the rule of Kings Petar Krešimir IV and Dmitar Zvonimir, Croatia entered a personal union with Hungary in 1102. In 1527, faced with Ottoman conquest, the Croatian Parliament elected Ferdinand I of the House of Habsburg to the Croatian throne. In 1918, after World War I, Croatia was included in the unrecognized State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs which seceded from Austria-Hungary, a fascist Croatian puppet state backed by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany existed during World War II. After the war, Croatia became a member and a federal constituent of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. On 25 June 1991 Croatia declared independence, which came wholly into effect on 8 October of the same year, the Croatian War of Independence was fought successfully during the four years following the declaration. A unitary state, Croatia is a republic governed under a parliamentary system, the International Monetary Fund classified Croatia as an emerging and developing economy, and the World Bank identified it as a high-income economy. Croatia is a member of the European Union, United Nations, the Council of Europe, NATO, the World Trade Organization, the service sector dominates Croatias economy, followed by the industrial sector and agriculture. Tourism is a significant source of revenue during the summer, with Croatia ranked the 18th most popular tourist destination in the world, the state controls a part of the economy, with substantial government expenditure. The European Union is Croatias most important trading partner, since 2000, the Croatian government constantly invests in infrastructure, especially transport routes and facilities along the Pan-European corridors. Internal sources produce a significant portion of energy in Croatia, the rest is imported, the origin of the name is uncertain, but is thought to be a Gothic or Indo-Aryan term assigned to a Slavic tribe. The oldest preserved record of the Croatian ethnonym *xъrvatъ is of variable stem, the first attestation of the Latin term is attributed to a charter of Duke Trpimir from the year 852. The original is lost, and just a 1568 copy is preserved—leading to doubts over the authenticity of the claim, the oldest preserved stone inscription is the 9th-century Branimir Inscription, where Duke Branimir is styled as Dux Cruatorvm. The inscription is not believed to be dated accurately, but is likely to be from during the period of 879–892, the area known as Croatia today was inhabited throughout the prehistoric period
14.
Valencia
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Its urban area extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of around 1. 5–1.6 million people. Valencia is Spains third largest metropolitan area, with a population ranging from 1.7 to 2.5 million, the Port of Valencia is the 5th busiest container port in Europe and the busiest container port on the Mediterranean Sea. The city is ranked at Gamma in the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, Valencia was founded as a Roman colony by the consul Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus in 138 BC, and called Valentia Edetanorum. In 1238 the Christian king James I of Aragon reconquered the city and divided the land among the nobles who helped him conquer it and he also created a new law for the city, the Furs of Valencia, which were extended to the rest of the Kingdom of Valencia. In the 18th century Philip V of Spain abolished the privileges as punishment to the kingdom of Valencia for aligning with the Habsburg side in the War of the Spanish Succession, Valencia was the capital of Spain when Joseph Bonaparte moved the Court there in the summer of 1812. It also served as capital between 1936 and 1937, during the Second Spanish Republic, the city is situated on the banks of the Turia, on the east coast of the Iberian Peninsula, fronting the Gulf of Valencia on the Mediterranean Sea. Valencia is integrated into an area on the Costa del Azahar. Valencias main festival is the Falles, the traditional Spanish dish, paella, originated in Valencia. The original Latin name of the city was Valentia, meaning strength, or valour, the Roman historian Livy explains that the founding of Valentia in the 2nd century BC was due to the settling of the Roman soldiers who fought against an Iberian rebel, Viriatus. It is not clear if the term Balansiyya was reserved for the entire Taifa of Valencia or also designated the city, by gradual sound changes, Valentia /waˈlentia/ has become Valencia or in Castilian and València in Valencian. In Valencian, the grave accent <è> /ɛ/ contrasts with the acute accent <é> /e/—but the word València is an exception to this rule and it is spelled according to Catalan etymology, though its pronunciation is closer to Vulgar Latin. Valencia stands on the banks of the Turia River, located on the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula, at its founding by the Romans, it stood on a river island in the Turia,6.4 km from the sea. The Albufera, a lagoon and estuary about 11 km south of the city, is one of the largest lakes in Spain. The City Council bought the lake from the Crown of Spain for 1,072,980 pesetas in 1911, in 1986, because of its cultural, historical, and ecological value, the Generalitat Valenciana declared it a natural park. Valencia has a Mediterranean climate with short, very mild winters and long, hot and its average annual temperature is 18.4 °C.23.0 °C during the day and 13.8 °C at night. In the coldest month – January, the temperature typically during the day ranges from 14 to 21 °C. In the warmest month – August, the temperature during the day typically ranges from 28–34 °C. Generally, similar temperatures to those experienced in the part of Europe in summer last about 8 months
15.
Brisbane
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Brisbane is the capital of and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland, and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbanes metropolitan area has a population of 2.35 million, the Brisbane central business district stands on the original European settlement and is situated inside a bend of the Brisbane River, about 15 kilometres from its mouth at Moreton Bay. The demonym of Brisbane is Brisbanite, one of the oldest cities in Australia, Brisbane was founded upon the ancient homelands of the indigenous Turrbal and Jagera peoples. A penal settlement was founded in 1824 at Redcliffe,28 kilometres north of the business district. The city was marred by the Australian frontier wars between 1843 and 1855, and development was set back by the Great Fire of Brisbane. Brisbane was chosen as the capital when Queensland was proclaimed a colony from New South Wales in 1859. During World War II, Brisbane played a role in the Allied campaign. Today, Brisbane is well known for its distinct Queenslander architecture which forms much of the built heritage. It also receives attention for its damaging flood events, most notably in 1974 and 2011. Several large cultural, international and sporting events have held at Brisbane, including the 1982 Commonwealth Games, World Expo 88, the final Goodwill Games in 2001. Prior to white settlement, the Brisbane area was inhabited by the Turrbal and they knew the area that is now the central business district as Mian-jin, meaning place shaped as a spike. The Moreton Bay area was explored by Matthew Flinders. On 17 July 1799, Flinders landed at what is now known as Woody Point, in 1823 Governor of New South Wales Sir Thomas Brisbane instructed that a new northern penal settlement be developed, and an exploration party led by John Oxley further explored Moreton Bay. Oxley discovered, named, and explored the Brisbane River as far as Goodna,20 kilometres upstream from the Brisbane central business district, Oxley recommended Red Cliff Point for the new colony, reporting that ships could land at any tide and easily get close to the shore. The party settled in Redcliffe on 13 September 1824, under the command of Lieutenant Henry Miller with 14 soldiers and 29 convicts. However, this settlement was abandoned after a year and the colony was moved to a site on the Brisbane River now known as North Quay,28 km south, chief Justice Forbes gave the new settlement the name of Edenglassie before it was named Brisbane. Non-convict European settlement of the Brisbane region commenced in 1838, German missionaries settled at Zions Hill, Nundah as early as 1837, five years before Brisbane was officially declared a free settlement. The band consisted of ministers Christopher Eipper and Carl Wilhelm Schmidt and lay missionaries Haussmann, Johann Gottried Wagner, Niquet, Hartenstein, Zillman, Franz, Rode, Doege and they were allocated 260 hectares and set about establishing the mission, which became known as the German Station
16.
Brussels
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Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the region of Flanders or Wallonia. The region has a population of 1.2 million and an area with a population of over 1.8 million. Brussels is the de facto capital of the European Union as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions, the secretariat of the Benelux and the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are also located in Brussels. Today, it is considered an Alpha global city, historically a Dutch-speaking city, Brussels has seen a language shift to French from the late 19th century onwards. Today, the majority language is French, and the Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. All road signs, street names, and many advertisements and services are shown in both languages, Brussels is increasingly becoming multilingual with increasing numbers of migrants, expatriates and minority groups speaking their own languages. The most common theory of the origin of Brussels name is that it derives from the Old Dutch Broekzele or Broeksel, meaning marsh, Saint Vindicianus, the bishop of Cambrai made the first recorded reference to the place Brosella in 695 when it was still a hamlet. The origin of the settlement that was to become Brussels lies in Saint Gaugericus construction of a chapel on an island in the river Senne around 580. The official founding of Brussels is usually situated around 979, when Duke Charles of Lower Lotharingia transferred the relics of Saint Gudula from Moorsel to the Saint Gaugericus chapel, Charles would construct the first permanent fortification in the city, doing so on that same island. Lambert I of Leuven, Count of Leuven gained the County of Brussels around 1000 by marrying Charles daughter, as it grew to a population of around 30,000, the surrounding marshes were drained to allow for further expansion. The Counts of Leuven became Dukes of Brabant at about this time, in the 13th century, the city got its first walls. After the construction of the city walls in the early 13th century, to let the city expand, a second set of walls was erected between 1356 and 1383. Today, traces of it can still be seen, mostly because the small ring, Brabant had lost its independence, but Brussels became the Princely Capital of the prosperous Low Countries, and flourished. In 1516 Charles V, who had been heir of the Low Countries since 1506, was declared King of Spain in St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral in Brussels. Upon the death of his grandfather, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor in 1519 and it was in the Palace complex at Coudenberg that Charles V abdicated in 1555. This impressive palace, famous all over Europe, had expanded since it had first become the seat of the Dukes of Brabant. In 1695, during the Nine Years War, King Louis XIV of France sent troops to bombard Brussels with artillery, together with the resulting fire, it was the most destructive event in the entire history of Brussels
17.
Delhi
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Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory of Delhi or NCT, is a city and a union territory of India. It is bordered by Haryana on three sides and by Uttar Pradesh to the east, the NCT covers an area of 1,484 square kilometres. According to 2011 census, Delhis city population was about 11 million, Delhis urban area is now considered to extend beyond the NCT boundary to include an estimated population of over 26 million people making it the worlds second largest urban area. As of 2016 recent estimates of the economy of its urban area have ranked Delhi either the top or second most productive metro area of India. Delhi is the second wealthiest city after Mumbai in India, with a wealth of $450 billion. Delhi has been inhabited since the 6th century BC. Through most of its history, Delhi has served as a capital of various kingdoms and it has been captured, ransacked and rebuilt several times, particularly during the medieval period, and modern Delhi is a cluster of a number of cities spread across the metropolitan region. New Delhi is jointly administered by the government of India and the local government of Delhi. Delhi is also the centre of the National Capital Region, which is a unique interstate regional planning area created by the National Capital Region Planning Board Act of 1985, Delhi ranks among the cities with the worst air pollution in the world. There are a number of myths and legends associated with the origin of the name Delhi, one of them is derived from Dhillu or Dilu, a king who built a city at this location in 50 BC and named it after himself. The coins in circulation in the region under the Tomaras were called dehliwal, according to the Bhavishya Purana, King Prithiviraja of Indraprastha built a new fort in the modern-day Purana Qila area for the convenience of all four castes in his kingdom. He ordered the construction of a gateway to the fort and later named the fort dehali, another theory suggests that the citys original name was Dhillika. The people of Delhi are referred to as Delhiites or Dilliwalas, the city is referenced in various idioms of the Northern Indo-Aryan languages. Dilli dilwalon ka shehr or Dilli Dilwalon ki meaning Delhi belongs to the large-hearted/daring, aas-paas barse, Dilli pani tarse, literally meaning it pours all around, while Delhi lies parched. An allusion to the sometimes semi-arid climate of Delhi, it refers to situations of deprivation when one is surrounded by plenty. The area around Delhi was probably inhabited before the second millennium BC, the city is believed to be the site of Indraprastha, the legendary capital of the Pandavas in the Indian epic Mahabharata. According to Mahabharata, this land was initially a huge mass of forests called Khandavaprastha which was burnt down to build the city of Indraprastha, the earliest architectural relics date back to the Maurya period, in 1966, an inscription of the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka was discovered near Srinivaspuri. Remains of eight cities have been discovered in Delhi
18.
Casablanca
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Casablanca is the largest city in Morocco, located in the central-western part of the country bordering the Atlantic Ocean. It is the largest city in the Maghreb, as well as one of the largest and most important cities in Africa, Casablanca is Moroccos chief port and one of the largest financial centers on the continent. The 2012 census recorded a population of about 4 million in the prefecture of Casablanca, Casablanca is considered the economic and business center of Morocco, although the national political capital is Rabat. The leading Moroccan companies and international corporations doing Moroccan business have their headquarters, recent industrial statistics show Casablanca retains its historical position as the main industrial zone of the country. The Port of Casablanca is one of the largest artificial ports in the world, Casablanca also hosts the primary naval base for the Royal Moroccan Navy. The original name of the city was Anfa, in Berber language, after the Portuguese took control of Anfa in the 15th century AD, they rebuilt it, changing the name to Casa Branca. It derives from the Portuguese word combination meaning White House, the present name, which is the Spanish version, came when the Portuguese kingdom was integrated in personal union to the Spanish kingdom. During the French protectorate in Morocco, the name remained Casablanca, in the 18th century, an earthquake destroyed most of the town. It was rebuilt by the Sultan who changed the name into the local Arabic which is Ad-dar Al Baidaa, the city is still nicknamed Casa by many locals and outsiders to the city. In many other cities with a different dialect, it is called Ad-dar Al-Bida, a famous boulevard inside Casablanca City is called Anfa Boulevard. Anfa is generally considered the old original city of Casablanca. The area which is today Casablanca was founded and settled by Berbers by at least the seventh century BC and it was used as a port by the Phoenicians and later the Romans. In his book Description of Africa, Leo Africanus refers to ancient Casablanca as Anfa and he believed Anfa was the most prosperous city on the Atlantic Coast because of its fertile land. Barghawata rose as an independent state around this time, and continued until it was conquered by the Almoravids in 1068. Following the defeat of the Barghawata in the 12th century, Arab tribes of Hilal and Sulaym descent settled in the region, mixing with the local Berbers, during the 14th century, under the Merinids, Anfa rose in importance as a port. The last of the Merinids were ousted by a revolt in 1465. The Portuguese used the ruins of Anfa to build a fortress in 1515. The town that grew up around it was called Casa Branca, as Portugal broke ties with Spain in 1640, Casablanca came under fully Portuguese control once again
19.
Morocco
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Morocco, officially known as the Kingdom of Morocco, is a sovereign country located in the Maghreb region of North Africa. Geographically, Morocco is characterized by a mountainous interior, large tracts of desert. Morocco has a population of over 33.8 million and an area of 446,550 km2 and its capital is Rabat, and the largest city is Casablanca. Other major cities include Marrakesh, Tangier, Tetouan, Salé, Fes, Agadir, Meknes, Oujda, Kenitra, a historically prominent regional power, Morocco has a history of independence not shared by its neighbours. Marinid and Saadi dynasties continued the struggle against foreign domination, the Alaouite dynasty, the current ruling dynasty, seized power in 1666. In 1912 Morocco was divided into French and Spanish protectorates, with a zone in Tangier. Moroccan culture is a blend of Arab, indigenous Berber, Sub-Saharan African, Morocco claims the non-self-governing territory of Western Sahara as its Southern Provinces. Morocco annexed the territory in 1975, leading to a war with indigenous forces until a cease-fire in 1991. Peace processes have thus far failed to break the political deadlock, Morocco is a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament. The King of Morocco holds vast executive and legislative powers, especially over the military, foreign policy, the king can issue decrees called dahirs which have the force of law. He can also dissolve the parliament after consulting the Prime Minister, Moroccos predominant religion is Islam, and the official languages are Arabic and Tamazight. The Moroccan dialect, referred to as Darija, and French are also widely spoken, Morocco is a member of the Arab League, the Union for the Mediterranean, and the African Union. It has the fifth largest economy of Africa, the full Arabic name al-Mamlakah al-Maghribiyyah translates to Kingdom of the West, although the West in Arabic is الغرب Al-Gharb. The basis of Moroccos English name is Marrakesh, its capital under the Almoravid dynasty, the origin of the name Marrakesh is disputed, but is most likely from the Berber words amur akush or Land of God. The modern Berber name for Marrakesh is Mṛṛakc, in Turkish, Morocco is known as Fas, a name derived from its ancient capital of Fes. The English name Morocco is an anglicisation of the Spanish Marruecos, the area of present-day Morocco has been inhabited since Paleolithic times, sometime between 190,000 and 90,000 BC. During the Upper Paleolithic, the Maghreb was more fertile than it is today, twenty-two thousand years ago, the Aterian was succeeded by the Iberomaurusian culture, which shared similarities with Iberian cultures. Skeletal similarities have been suggested between the Iberomaurusian Mechta-Afalou burials and European Cro-Magnon remains, the Iberomaurusian was succeeded by the Beaker culture in Morocco
20.
Daegu
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Daegu is the principal city of the surrounding North Gyeongsang Province. The two areas combined are referred to as Daegu-Gyeongbuk, with a total population of over 5 million. Daegu is located in south-eastern Korea about 80 kilometres from the seacoast, near the Geumho River and its mainstream, the Daegu basin, where the city lies, is the central plain of the Yeongnam region. In ancient times, there was a proto-country named Jinhan, to which the current Daegu area belonged, Later Daegu was part of the Silla Kingdom which unified the Korean Peninsula. During the Joseon Dynasty period, the city was the capital of Gyeongsang-do which was one of the eight provinces of the country. Daegu was a motor of Korea during the 1960s–1980s period and was especially known for its electronics industry. The humid subtropical climate of Daegu is ideal for producing high quality apples, thus the nickname, Daegu is also known as Textile City. Textiles used to be the industry of the city. With the establishment of the Daegu-Gyeongbuk Free Economic Zone, Daegu is currently focusing on fostering fashion, Daegu was the host city of the 22nd World Energy Congress of 2013, the 2011 World Championships in Athletics and the 2003 Summer Universiade. It also hosted four matches in the 2002 FIFA World Cup, Daegu hosts World Masters Indoor Championships on March 19–25,2017. More than 4600 athletes worldwide including 101 athletes from the USA will compete, archaeological investigations in the Greater Daegu area have revealed a large number of settlements and burials of the prehistoric Mumun Pottery Period. In fact, some of the earliest evidence of Mumun settlement in Gyeongsangdo have been excavated from Siji-dong and Seobyeon-dong, Dongcheon-dong is one of the substantial Mumun agricultural villages that have been excavated. The Dongcheon-dong site dates back to the Middle Mumun and contains the remains of many prehistoric pit-houses, megalithic burials have also been found in large numbers in Daegu. It was absorbed into the kingdom of Silla no later than the fifth century, the vestiges of the wall can be seen, and relics have been excavated in the current Dalseong Park. Silla succeeded in unifying the Korean peninsula by defeating the other kingdoms of Baekje and Koguryo in the late 7th century, shortly thereafter, in 689, Sillas King Sinmun considered moving the capital from Gyeongju to Daegu but was unable to do so. The city was given its current name in 757, in the late 1990s archaeologists excavated a large scale fortified Silla site in Dongcheon-dong, Buk-gu. The site at Locality 2 consists of the remains of 39 raised-floor buildings enclosed by a formidable ditch-and-palisade system, the excavators hypothesize that the fortified site was a permanent military encampment or barracks. Archaeologists also uncovered a large Silla village dating to the 6th to 7th centuries AD at Siji-dong, during the Later Three Kingdoms period, 892–936, Daegu was initially aligned with Hubaekje
21.
South Korea
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South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea, is a sovereign state in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. The earliest Korean pottery dates to 8000 BC, with three kingdoms flourishing in the 1st century BC and its rich and vibrant culture left 19 UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritages of Humanity, the third largest in the world, along with 12 World Heritage Sites. Annexed into Imperial Japan in 1910, Korea was divided after its surrender in 1945, peace has since mostly continued with the two agreeing to work peacefully for reunification and the South solidifying peace as a regional power with the worlds 10th largest defence budget. South Koreas tiger economy soared at an average of 10% for over 30 years in a period of rapid transformation called the Miracle on the Han River. A long legacy of openness and focus on innovation made it successful, today, it is the worlds fifth largest exporter with the G20s largest budget surplus and highest credit rating of any country in East Asia. It has free trade agreements with 75% of the economy and is the only G20 nation trading freely with China, the US. Since 1988, its constitution guarantees a liberal democracy with high government transparency, high personal freedoms led to the rise of a globally influential pop culture such as K-pop and K-drama, a phenomenon called the Korean Wave, known for its distinctive fashionable and trendy style. Home of the UN Green Climate Fund and GGGI, South Korea is a leader in low carbon growth, committed to helping developing countries as a major DAC. It is the third least ignorant country in the Index of Ignorance, ranking eighth highest for peaceful tolerance. It is the worlds largest spender on R&D per GDP, leading the OECD in graduates in science, the name Korea derives from the name Goryeo. The name Goryeo itself was first used by the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo in the 5th century as a form of its name. The 10th-century kingdom of Goryeo succeeded Goguryeo, and thus inherited its name, the modern spelling of Korea first appeared in the late 17th century in the travel writings of the Dutch East India Companys Hendrick Hamel. After Goryeo was replaced by Joseon in 1392, Joseon became the name for the entire territory. The new official name has its origin in the ancient country of Gojoseon, in 1897, the Joseon dynasty changed the official name of the country from Joseon to Daehan Jeguk. The name Daehan, which means great Han literally, derives from Samhan, however, the name Joseon was still widely used by Koreans to refer to their country, though it was no longer the official name. Under Japanese rule, the two names Han and Joseon coexisted, there were several groups who fought for independence, the most notable being the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea. Following the surrender of Japan, in 1945, the Republic of Korea was adopted as the name for the new country. Since the government only controlled the part of the Korean Peninsula
22.
1974 FIFA World Cup
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The 1974 FIFA World Cup, the tenth staging of the World Cup, was held in West Germany from 13 June to 7 July. The tournament marked the first time that the current trophy, the FIFA World Cup Trophy, the previous trophy, the Jules Rimet Trophy, had been won for the third time by Brazil in 1970 and awarded permanently to the Brazilians. The host nation won the title beating the Netherlands in the final, the victory was the second for West Germany, who had also won in 1954. Australia, East Germany, Haiti and Zaire made their first appearances at the stage. West Germany was chosen as the host nation by FIFA in London, hosting rights for the 1978 and 1982 tournaments were awarded at the same time. West Germany agreed a deal with Spain by which Spain would support West Germany for the 1974 tournament, ninety-eight countries took part in the qualifying tournament, and some of footballs most successful nations did not qualify. The USSR was disqualified after the playoff against Chile,16 teams qualified, divided into four groups of four. Each played a round-robin with two points for a win and one for a draw, and goal difference used to separate teams level on points, the top two teams from each group advanced to the next stage. However, in a change from the used in the previous five competitions, the second round consisted of another group stage. The winners of each played each other in the final. The tournament was held mostly in bad weather, and the stadia had few protected places, few western European nations had qualified, of which most were eliminated early. Fans from the Eastern neighbor states were hindered by political circumstances, carlos Caszely of Chile became the first player to be sent off with a red card in a World Cup match, during their match against West Germany. Red cards were introduced in World Cup play in 1970. Two teams made a powerful impact on the first round. The Dutch marked their first World Cup finals since 1938 by topping their group, with wins over Uruguay and Bulgaria. Sweden joined the Dutch in the group round after beating Uruguay 3–0. Poland, meanwhile, took points from a group containing two of the favourites for the tournament. They beat Argentina 3–2, trounced Haiti 7–0, then beat Italy 2–1 – a result that knocked the Italians out of the Cup, while Haiti didnt do particularly well in their first World Cup finals they did have one moment of glory
23.
2006 FIFA World Cup
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The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, teams representing 198 national football associations from all six populated continents participated in the qualification process which began in September 2003. Thirty-one teams qualified from this process, along with the host nation, Germany and it was the second time that Germany staged the competition, and the tenth time that it was held in Europe. Italy won the tournament, claiming their fourth World Cup title and they defeated France 5–3 in a penalty shootout in the final, after extra time had finished in a 1–1 draw. Germany defeated Portugal 3–1 to finish in third place, Angola, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Serbia and Montenegro, Trinidad and Tobago, and Togo made their first appearances in the finals. The 2006 World Cup stands as one of the most watched events in history, garnering an estimated 26.29 billion non-unique viewers. The final attracted an audience of 715.1 million people. The 2006 World Cup ranks fourth in non-unique viewers, behind the World Cup in 1994,2002, as the winner, Italy represented the World in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup. The vote to choose the hosts of the 2006 tournament was held in July 2000 in Zürich and it involved four bidding nations after Brazil had withdrawn three days earlier, Germany, South Africa, England and Morocco. Three rounds of voting were required, each round eliminating the nation with the least votes, the first two rounds were held on 6 July 2000, and the final round was held on 7 July 2000, which Germany won over South Africa. Accusations of bribery and corruption have marred the success of Germanys bid from the very beginning, on the very day of the vote, a hoax bribery affair was made public, leading to calls for a re-vote. Oceania delegate Charlie Dempsey, who had initially backed England, had then been instructed to support South Africa following Englands elimination and he abstained, citing intolerable pressure on the eve of the vote. Just a week before the vote, the German government under Chancellor Gerhard Schröder lifted their arms embargo on Saudi Arabia, daimlerChrysler invested several hundred million Euro in Hyundai, while one of the sons of the companys founders was a member of FIFAs executive committee. Both Volkswagen and Bayer announced investments in Thailand and South Korea, whose respective delegates Worawi Makudi, the sum of 6.7 million Euro was later demanded back by Dreyfus. In order to retrieve the money, the Organizing Committee paid an aquivalent sum to the FIFA, allegedly as a German share for the cost of a closing ceremony, the DFB announced they would consider seeking legal action against Der Spiegel. During a press conference on 22 October 2015, Nierbach repeated his stance, according to Niersbach, the payment had been agreed upon during a meeting between Franz Beckenbauer and FIFA president Blatter, with the money being provided by Dreyfus. On the same day, FIFA contradicted Niersbachs statement, saying, By our current state of knowledge, the following day, former DFB president Theo Zwanziger publicly accused Niersbach of lying, saying, It is evident that there was a slush fund for the German World Cup application. According to Zwanziger, the 6.7 million Euros went to Mohamed Bin Hammam, on 22 March 2016 it was announced that the FIFA Ethics Committee was opening proceedings into the bid
24.
1936 Summer Olympics
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The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event that was held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany. Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona, Spain, on 26 April 1931 and it marked the second and final time the International Olympic Committee gathered to vote in a city that was bidding to host those Games. To outdo the Los Angeles games of 1932, Adolf Hitler had built a new 100, 000-seat track and field stadium, six gymnasiums, the games were the first to be televised, and radio broadcasts reached 41 countries. Filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl was commissioned by the German Olympic Committee to film the Games for $7 million and her film, titled Olympia, pioneered many of the techniques now common in the filming of sports. When threatened with a boycott of the Games by other nations, total ticket revenues were 7.5 million Reichsmark, generating a profit of over one million marks. The official budget did not include outlays by the city of Berlin or outlays of the German national government and these were the final Olympics under the presidency of Henri de Baillet-Latour and the final Olympic Games for 12 years because of World War II. The next Olympic Games would be held in 1948, the bidding for these Olympic Games was the first to be contested by IOC members casting votes for their own favorite host cities. The vote occurred in 1931, during the Weimar Republic, before Adolf Hitler, many other cities around the world also wanted to host the Summer Olympics for that year, but except for Barcelona they did not receive any IOC votes. The other cities competing to hold the games were Alexandria, Buenos Aires, Cologne, Dublin, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Lausanne, Nuremberg, Rio de Janeiro, Budapest, and Rome. The selection procedure marked the second and final time that the International Olympic Committee would gather to vote in a city which was bidding to host those Games, the only other time this occurred was at the inaugural IOC Session in Paris, France, on 24 April 1894. Then, Athens and Paris were chosen to host the 1896 and 1900 Games, after the Nazis took control and began instituting anti-Semitic policies, the IOC held private discussions among its delegates about changing the decision to hold the Games in Berlin. However, Hitlers regime gave assurances that Jewish athletes would be allowed to compete on a German Olympic team, in September 1934, the US Olympic committee publicly accepted the invitation to go to the Berlin games, halting any further IOC attempts to quietly revise the decision. The next scheduled games in 1940 were awarded to Tokyo, the Japanese military even demanded that venues should be built from wood because metal was needed for its wars in Manchuria. The Olympic torch relay – itself pioneered as part of the 1936 Summer Games – was to fly the Olympic flame from Olympia to Tokyo in a specially-designed long-range aircraft. In 1938 the Japanese rejected hosting the games because they saw the Olympics and he promoted the idea that the use of sports would harden the German spirit and instill unity among German youth. At the same time he believed that sports was a way to weed out the weak, Jewish. Among Diems ideas for the Berlin Games was the introduction of the Olympic torch relay between Greece and the host nation, the 1936 Summer Olympics torch relay was the first of its kind, following on from the reintroduction of the Olympic Flame at the 1928 Games. It pioneered the modern convention of moving the flame via a system from Greece to the Olympic venue
25.
1972 Summer Olympics
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The 1972 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from August 26 to September 11,1972. The sporting nature of the event was overshadowed by the Munich massacre in which eleven Israeli athletes and coaches. Five Black September Palestinian terrorists died, the 1972 Summer Olympics were the second Summer Olympics to be held in Germany, after the 1936 Games in Berlin, which had taken place under the Nazi regime. The logo of the Games was a blue solar logo by Otl Aicher, the Olympic mascot, the dachshund Waldi, was the first officially named Olympic mascot. The Olympic Fanfare was composed by Herbert Rehbein, a companion of Bert Kaempfert, the Olympic Park is based on Frei Ottos plans and after the Games became a Munich landmark. The competition sites, designed by architect Günther Behnisch, included the Olympic swimming hall, the Olympics Hall and the Olympic Stadium, and an Olympic village very close to the park. The design of the stadium was considered revolutionary, with sweeping canopies of acrylic glass stabilized by metal ropes, Munich won its Olympic bid on April 26,1966, at the 64th IOC Session at Rome, Italy, over bids presented by Detroit, Madrid, and Montréal. Montreal would eventually host the following Olympic games in 1976, the Games were largely overshadowed by what has come to be known as the Munich massacre. Two of the hostages who resisted were killed in the first moments of the break-in, the German authorities planned to ambush them there, but underestimated the numbers of their opposition and were thus undermanned. During a botched attempt, all of the Israeli hostages were killed. Four of them were shot, then incinerated when one of the terrorists detonated a grenade inside the helicopter in which the hostages were sitting, the five remaining hostages were then machine-gunned to death. All but three of the terrorists were killed as well, although arrested and imprisoned pending trial, they were released by the West German government on October 29,1972, in exchange for a hijacked Lufthansa jet. Two of those three were supposedly hunted down and assassinated later by the Mossad, jamal Al-Gashey, who is believed to be the sole survivor, is still living today in hiding in an unspecified African country with his wife and two children. A memorial ceremony was held in the Olympic stadium. The attack prompted heightened security at subsequent Olympics beginning with the 1976 Winter Olympics, security at Olympics was heightened further beginning with the 2002 Winter Olympics, as they were the first to take place since September 11,2001. The massacre led the German federal government to re-examine its anti-terrorism policies and this led to the creation of the elite counter-terrorist unit GSG9, similar to the British SAS. It also led Israel to launch a campaign known as Operation Wrath of God, in which those suspected of involvement were systematically tracked down, the events of the Munich massacre were chronicled in the Oscar-winning documentary, One Day in September. An account of the aftermath is also dramatized in three films, the 1976 made-for-TV movie 21 Hours at Munich, the 1986 made-for-TV movie Sword of Gideon and Steven Spielbergs 2005 film Munich
26.
Lamine Diack
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Lamine Diack is a Senegalese businessman, sports administrator, and former athlete. He was president of the International Association of Athletics Federations from 1999 to 2015 and he is the subject of numerous investigations into corruption during his tenure as president. He was also a member of the International Olympic Committee, Diack was a champion long jumper in the late 1950s, winning the event at the 1958 French Athletics Championships and holding the French/West African record from 1957 to 1960. Diack became president of the International Association of Athletics Federations on 8 November 1999 and he was also a member of the International Olympic Committee. The ethics committee of the IOC conducted a long investigation into claims that Diack had received bribes from the bankrupt sports marketing company International Sport. Diack had received three payments of $30,000 and 30,000 French francs in 1993, Diack had personally received the cash payments from ISL at a time when the company was in negotiations with the IAAF to sign a marketing contract. The IOC described Diack as having placed himself in a conflict of interest situation, Diack claimed that he received the money from supporters after his house burned down. Diack was warned for his behaviour, with the fact that he was not a member of IOC at the time of the wrongdoing considered a mitigating factor, the IOC provisionally suspended Diack on November 10,2015 and he resigned on the following day. The report goes on to say, Lamine Diack was responsible for organizing and enabling the conspiracy and he sanctioned and appears to have had personal knowledge of the fraud and the extortion of athletes carried out by the actions of the informal illegitimate governance structure he put in place
27.
Budget
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A budget is a quantitative expression of a financial plan for a defined period of time. It may include planned sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities, costs and expenses, assets, liabilities and it expresses strategic plans of business units, organizations, activities or events in measurable terms. A budget is the sum of money allocated for a particular purpose, a budget is a quantified financial plan for a forthcoming accounting period. A budget is an important concept in microeconomics, which uses a line to illustrate the trade-offs between two or more goods. In other terms, a budget is an organizational plan stated in monetary terms and it also helps to co-ordinate the activities of the organization by compelling managers to examine relationships between their own operation and those of other departments. Other essentials of budget include, To control resources To communicate plans to various responsibility center managers, to motivate managers to strive to achieve budget goals. Tools enable the actual operation of the business to be measured against the forecast. Lastly, tools establish the cost constraint for a project, program, on the other hand, if the figures diverge wildly from the budget, this sends an out of control signal, and the share price could suffer. Campaign planners incur two types of cost in any campaign, the first is the cost of human resource necessary to plan, the second type of expense that campaign planners incur is the hard cost of the campaign itself. A budget is a tool for an event director to predict with a reasonable accuracy whether the event will result in a profit. A budget can also be used as a pricing tool, there are two basic approaches or philosophies, when it comes to budgeting. One approach is telling you on mathematical models, and the other on people, the first school of thought believes that financial models, if properly constructed, can be used to predict the future. The focus is on variables, inputs and outputs, drivers, investments of time and money are devoted to perfecting these models, which are typically held in some type of financial spreadsheet application. The other school of thought holds that it’s not about models, no matter how sophisticated models can get, the best information comes from the people in the business. The focus is therefore in engaging the managers in the more fully in the budget process. The companies that adhere to this approach have their managers develop their own budgets, while many companies would say that they do both, in reality the investment of time and money falls squarely in one approach or the other. The budget of a government is a summary or plan of the revenues and expenditures of that government. There are three types of government budget, the operating or current budget, the capital or investment budget, the budget is prepared by the Treasury team led by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and is presented to Parliament by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on Budget Day
28.
Olympic Village
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An Olympic Village is an accommodation center built for the Olympic Games, usually within an Olympic Park or elsewhere in a host city. Olympic Villages are built to all participating athletes, as well as officials. After the Munich Massacre at the 1972 Olympics, the Villages have been made extremely secure, only athletes, trainers and officials are allowed to room at the Village, though family members and former Olympic athletes are allowed inside with proper checks. Press and media are also barred, the idea of the Olympic Village comes from Pierre de Coubertin. Up until the 1924 Summer Olympic Games, National Olympic Committees rented locations around the host city to house participants, for the 1924 Summer Olympics, the organizers built cabins near the Stade Olympique de Colombes to allow the athletes to easily access the Games venues. It has been reported that the Village is known for its hedonism once the athletes are done competing - with large quantities of alcohol. For the 2014 games in Sochi,100,000 free condoms were provided by the IOC for the 6,000 athletes in attendance, despite seemingly large numbers, several instances have occurred where smaller orders have resulted in shortages. Sydney famously only provided 70,000 condoms but ran out, Athens 1906, The Zappeion, which was used during Athens 1896 as the main Fencing Hall, was used in 1906 as a Olympic Village. Paris 1924, In Paris in 1924, a number of cabins were built near the stadium to house visiting athletes, Los Angeles 1932, The first Olympic Village is constructed in the Baldwin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. For male athletes only, the Village consisted of several hundred buildings, including post and telegraph offices, an amphitheater, a hospital, a department. Female athletes were housed at the Chapman Park Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard, the village was dismantled after the games. Used as barracks for over 50 years, only ruins remain, jesse Owenss house has been restored. Helsinki 1952, The first Olympic Village, Olympiakylä, was constructed in the Käpylä district of Helsinki for the planned 1940 Summer Olympics, another Olympic Village, Kisakylä, was built nearby for the 1952 Olympics. Kisakylä couldnt accommodate all athletes so other villages were also designated for instance in Otaniemi, both Olympiakylä and Kisakylä areas are listed by Docomomo as significant examples of modern architecture in Finland. Melbourne 1956, The area in Heidelberg West, Victoria, where the athletes stayed is still called Olympic Village, after the games, athlete residences were used for public housing. The area now consists of a center, a primary school, shopping strip, a community health centre which also houses a registered training organization. Rome 1960, consist of 33 buildings with two, three, four and even five floors, squaw Valley 1960, Four identical three-story apartment buildings, two of which still stand, modified into condominiums. Mexico City 1968,904 apartments distributed in 29 multi-story buildings in the Miguel Hidalgo Olympic Village Complex, Munich 1972, Multiple buildings of 25,22,20,19,16,15, and 12 stories, used now as Olympic Village student housing
29.
Klaus Wowereit
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Klaus Wowereit is a German politician, member of the SPD, and was the Governing Mayor of Berlin from 21 October 2001 to 11 December 2014. In 2001 state elections his party won a plurality of the votes,29. 7% and he served as President of the Bundesrat in 2001/02. His SPD-led coalition was re-elected in the 2006 elections, after the 2011 elections the SPDs coalition partner changed from the Left to the Christian Democratic Union. He was also mentioned as a possible SPD candidate for the Chancellorship of Germany in the next German federal election. Wowereit was born in West Berlin, until 1973, Wowereit attended the Ulrich-von-Hutten-Oberschule in Berlin-Lichtenrade. Afterwards, he studied law at the Free University Berlin, after three years as a civil servant in the Senate office of the Interior, Wowereit stood for election as municipal councillor in the Tempelhof district. At the age of 30, he was, therefore, the youngest councilor in the city of Berlin, after eleven years as a District Councillor he stood for the Berlin House of Deputies which serves as the Citys Landtag in 1995. In December 1999, he was elected chairman of the SPD parliamentary group in the Abgeordnetenhaus, since June 2001 he served as Governing Mayor of Berlin. Previously, the SPD had left the coalition with the CDU. After this election and following negotiations, Wowereit finally started a coalition with the PDS. In the elections held on 17 September 2006, Wowereits SPD finished as the strongest party with a plurality of 30. 8%, a coalition with Die Linke was continued. However the 16th Abgeordnetenhaus re-elected Wowereit as Governing Mayor on 23 November 2006, CDU, Free Democrats and the Green Party voted against him. In the elections held on 18 September 2011 he and his party were again the strongest party, on 26 August 2014 he announced that he would resign his position as of 11 December 2014. On 21 October 2003 Wowereit became one of four representing the Land of Berlin in the supervisory board of the project to build the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport. In 2006, he was elected chairman of the board, however, on 7 January 2013, Wowereit relinquished his chairmanship after the continuing delay of the airports opening date. The prime minister of the Land of Brandenburg, Matthias Platzeck was appointed as his successor, Wowereit survived a vote of no confidence brought against him in the Berlin House of Representatives on 12 January. When Platzeck gave up his offices for health reasons in July 2013, Wowereit was eventually appointed chairman again. Critics have accused Wowereit of being responsible for the various delays and he has been accused of being blind to looming problems, and reacting angrily to unfavorable reports
30.
2016 European Athletics Championships
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The 2016 European Athletics Championships was held in Amsterdam, Netherlands, between 6 and 10 July 2016. It was the first time the Netherlands hosted the event, due to 2016 being an Olympic year, there was no racewalking and the marathon competition was replaced by half marathon. The Russian team did not participate due to the suspension of the All-Russia Athletic Federation by the International Association of Athletics Federations, germany and Great Britain topped the medal table with 16, with Poland and Turkey tied with 12 medals. Poland wins and topped the column with 6 gold medals. Host nation Athletes from a total of 50 member federations of the European Athletics Association competed at these Championships, EAA accepted the participation of Russian-born athlete Yuliya Stepanova as an independent neutral athlete. EAA Official website Official results EAA calendar
31.
Euro sign
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The euro sign is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the Eurozone in the European Union. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996, the international three-letter code for the euro is EUR. In Unicode it is encoded at U+20AC € euro sign, in English, the sign precedes the value. In some styleguides, but not others, the sign is unspaced. The euro currency sign was designed to be similar in structure to the old sign for the European Currency Unit, there were originally thirty-two proposals, these were reduced to ten candidates. These ten were put to a public survey, after the survey had narrowed the original ten proposals down to two, it was up to the European Commission to choose the final design. The other designs that were considered are not available for the public to view, the European Commission considers the process of designing to have been internal and keeps these records secret. The eventual winner was a created by a team of four experts whose identities have not been revealed. It is assumed that the Belgian graphic designer Alain Billiet was the winner, the European Commission specified a euro logo with exact proportions and colours, for use in public-relations material related to the euro introduction. While the Commission intended the logo to be a prescribed glyph shape, generating the euro sign using a computer depends on the operating system and national conventions. Some mobile phone companies issued a software update for their special SMS character set. Later mobile phones have both currency signs, the euro is represented in the Unicode character set with the character name EURO SIGN and the code position U+20AC as well as in updated versions of the traditional Latin character set encodings. In HTML, the &euro, entity can also be used, while displaying the euro sign is no problem as long as only one system is used, mixed setups often produced errors. One example is a content management system where articles are stored in a database using a different character set than the editors computer, another is legacy software which could only handle older encodings such as ISO 8859-1 that contained no euro sign at all. In such situations, character set conversions had to be made, care has been taken to avoid replacing an existing obsolete currency sign with the euro sign. That could create different currency signs for sender and receiver in e-mails or web sites, placement of the sign also varies. Partly since there are no standards on placement, countries have generated varying conventions or sustained those of their former currencies. For example, in Ireland and the Netherlands, where previous currency signs were placed before the figure, the euro sign is universally placed in the same position
32.
Anthropomorphic
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Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, and intentions to non-human entities and is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the attribution of human form and characteristics to abstract concepts such as nations, emotions and natural forces like seasons. Both have ancient roots as storytelling and artistic devices, and most cultures have traditional fables with anthropomorphized animals as characters, people have also routinely attributed human emotions and behavioural traits to wild as well as domestic animals. Anthropomorphism derives from its verb form anthropomorphize, itself derived from the Greek ánthrōpos and it is first attested in 1753, originally in reference to the heresy of applying a human form to the Christian God. One of the oldest known is a sculpture, the Löwenmensch figurine, Germany. It is not possible to say what these prehistoric artworks represent, in either case there is an element of anthropomorphism. This anthropomorphic art has been linked by archaeologist Steven Mithen with the emergence of more systematic hunting practices in the Upper Palaeolithic. In religion and mythology, anthropomorphism refers to the perception of a divine being or beings in human form, ancient mythologies frequently represented the divine as deities with human forms and qualities. They resemble human beings not only in appearance and personality, they exhibited many human behaviors that were used to explain phenomena, creation. The deities fell in love, married, had children, fought battles, wielded weapons and they feasted on special foods, and sometimes required sacrifices of food, beverage, and sacred objects to be made by human beings. Some anthropomorphic deities represented specific concepts, such as love, war, fertility, beauty. Anthropomorphic deities exhibited human qualities such as beauty, wisdom, and power, and sometimes human weaknesses such as greed, hatred, jealousy, Greek deities such as Zeus and Apollo often were depicted in human form exhibiting both commendable and despicable human traits. Anthropomorphism in this case is referred to as anthropotheism, from the perspective of adherents to religions in which humans were created in the form of the divine, the phenomenon may be considered theomorphism, or the giving of divine qualities to humans. Anthropomorphism has cropped up as a Christian heresy, particularly prominently with the Audians in third century Syria, but also in fourth century Egypt and tenth century Italy. This often was based on an interpretation of Genesis 1,27, So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him. Some religions, scholars, and philosophers objected to anthropomorphic deities. Ethiopians say that their gods are snub–nosed and blackThracians that they are pale and he said that the greatest god resembles man neither in form nor in mind. Both Judaism and Islam reject an anthropomorphic deity, believing that God is beyond human comprehension, judaisms rejection of an anthropomorphic deity grew during the Hasmonean period, when Jewish belief incorporated some Greek philosophy. Judaisms rejection grew further after the Islamic Golden Age in the tenth century, hindus do not reject the concept of a deity in the abstract unmanifested, but note practical problems
33.
Bear
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Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. Bears are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans, although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Northern Hemisphere and partially in the Southern Hemisphere. Bears are found on the continents of North America, South America, Europe, common characteristics of modern bears include large bodies with stocky legs, long snouts, small rounded ears, shaggy hair, plantigrade paws with five nonretractile claws, and short tails. While the polar bear is mostly carnivorous, and the giant panda feeds almost entirely on bamboo, with the exception of courting individuals and mothers with their young, bears are typically solitary animals. They may be diurnal or nocturnal and have an excellent sense of smell, despite their heavy build and awkward gait, they are adept runners, climbers, and swimmers. Bears use shelters, such as caves and logs, as their dens, most species occupy their dens during the winter for a period of hibernation. Bears have been hunted since prehistoric times for their meat and fur, they have used for bear-baiting and other forms of entertainment. With their powerful physical presence, they play a prominent role in the arts, mythology, in modern times, bears have come under pressure through encroachment on their habitats and illegal trade in bear parts, including the Asian bile bear market. The IUCN lists six species as vulnerable or endangered, and even least concern species. The poaching and international trade of these most threatened populations are prohibited, Bear taxon names such as Ursidae and Ursus come from Latin Ursus/Ursa, he-bear/she-bear. The female first name Ursula, originally derived from a Christian saints name, in Switzerland, the male first name Urs is especially popular, while the name of the canton and city of Bern is derived from Bär, German for bear. The Germanic name Bernard means bear-brave, bear-hardy, or bold bear, the Old English name Beowulf is a kenning, bee-wolf, for bear, in turn meaning a brave warrior. The family Ursidae is one of nine families in the suborder Caniformia, or doglike carnivorans, Bears closest living relatives are the pinnipeds, canids, and musteloids. Modern bears comprise eight species in three subfamilies, Ailuropodinae, Tremarctinae, and Ursinae, the earliest members of Ursidae belong to the extinct subfamily Amphicynodontinae, including Parictis and the slightly younger Allocyon, both from North America. These animals looked very different from bears, being small and raccoon-like in overall appearance. Parictis does not appear in Eurasia and Africa until the Miocene, european genera morphologically are very similar to Allocyon, and to the much younger American Kolponomos, are known from the Oligocene, including Amphicticeps and Amphicynodon. The raccoon-sized, dog-like Cephalogale is the member of the subfamily Hemicyoninae. The subfamily includes the younger genera Phoberocyon, and Plithocyon, a Cephalogale-like species gave rise to the genus Ursavus during the early Oligocene, this genus proliferated into many species in Asia and is ancestral to all living bears
34.
Berlino
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Up until now, Berlino appears to be mute. However, this condition does not seem to prevent him from giving interviews to the media, in an interview, published after the World Championships in Berlin, Usain Bolt said, Berlino and I have become friends. While celebrating winning the gold in 400 meter hurdles, Melaine Walker took a piggy-back off Berlino, the diverse videos of this have been watched over 400,000 times and have been called a YouTube classic. He was also involved in controversy during the mens 10. This annoyed some traditionalists and it was rumoured that the IAAF told him to reel in the enthusiasm after this act, after being delivered in the beginning of August 2009, the Berlino teddies at first sold slow. Due to the popularity of the mascot during the games, Berlino soon became a bestseller. Berlino later made a guest appearance at the UKA Aviva British Grand Prix, in Gateshead, on 31 August 2009, alongside the British mascot, tournament officials refused to publicly disclose who played the part of Berlino. However, the Guardian Observer reported that it was 33-year-old Berlin actor Oliver Seiffert, racing Usain Bolt around the track after his new 200 metres world record. - Fotostrecken - Mediacenter - Tagesspiegel Striking the lightning-bolt victory pose with Usain,19 Clubs auf einem Ticket - Zeitung Heute - Tagesspiegel Presenting his undershirt with words, Ich bin ein Bolt after Usain Bolt presented his own t-shirt with Ich bin ein Berlino written on it. Bolt ist ein Berlino - und Berlino ist ein Bolt, champion und Maskottchen haben sich angefreundet. - Tagesspiegel Der Weltrekordler Bolt zollte dem Maskottchen fast schon kennedyesk Respekt, - Fotostrecken - Mediacenter - Tagesspiegel Picking up Polish athlete Anna Rogowska and swinging her around after she clinched gold in the womens pole vault. Leaping on top of javelin champion Steffi Nerius of Germany, being picked up by mens discus champion Robert Harting, who threw Berlino over his shoulders after winning gold. und wirbelte es durch die Luft. - Fotostrecken - Mediacenter - Tagesspiegel Racewalking under the Brandenburg Gate with the 50 km medalists, running down the home straight alongside competing athletes in the mens 10,000 metres. Ripping his vest off Harting style, celebrating with the German hammer thrower Betty Heidler after winning the silver medal, giving 400m hurdles champion Melaine Walker of Jamaica a piggy back ride, and while doing so crashing into a stack of hurdles. Handkissing German heptathlete Jennifer Oeser after she had won the silver medal, being picked up by Polish hammer throw world champion Anita Włodarczyk
35.
Free public transport
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Free public transport, often called fare free public transit or zero-fare public transport, refers to public transport funded in full by means other than collecting fares from passengers. It may be funded by national, regional or local government through taxation or by commercial sponsorship by businesses. The concept of free-ness is one that may take other forms, the city of Hasselt in Belgium is a notable example, fares were abolished in 1997 and ridership was as much as 13 times higher by 2006. Local zero-fare shuttles or inner-city loops are far more common than city-wide systems and they often use buses or trams. These may be set up by a city government to ease bottlenecks or fill gaps in the transport network. Some zero-fare services may be built to avoid the need for large transport construction, port cities where shipping would require very high bridges might provide zero-fare ferries instead. These are free at the point of use, just as the use of a bridge might have been, community bicycle programs, providing free bicycles for short-term public use could be thought of as zero-fare transport. A common example of transport is student transport, where students travelling to or from school do not need to pay. A notable example is the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, which much of the funding to operate the Stevens Point Transit system. All students at the university can use any of the four city-wide campus routes, the university also funds two late night bus routes to serve the downtown free of charge with a goal of cutting down drunk driving. In some regions transport is free because the revenues are lower that expenses from fare collection is already paid by government or company or service. Many large amusement parks will have trams servicing large parking lots or distant areas, six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California, provides tram service throughout its parking lot. Transport operators can benefit from boarding and shorter dwell times. In 2008 bus drivers of Société des Transports Automobiles in Essonne held strikes demanding zero-fare transport for this reason and they claim that 90% of the aggression is related to refusal to pay the fare. Some zero-fare transport services are funded by businesses in the hope that doing so will increase sales or other revenue from increased foot traffic or ease of travel. Employers often operate free shuttles as a benefit to their employees, zero-fare transport can make the system more accessible and fair for low-income residents. If use of cars is discouraged, zero-fare public transport could mitigate the problems of global warming. Several large U. S. municipalities have attempted zero-fare systems, the catch of the car-based system is that the car trip is not in fact free, but it is generally perceived as such
36.
United Nations Environment Programme
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UN Environment also has six regional offices and various country offices. Its activities cover a range of issues regarding the atmosphere, marine and terrestrial ecosystems, environmental governance. UN Environment has also active in funding and implementing environment related development projects. The World Meteorological Organization and UN Environment established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1988, the International Cyanide Management Code, a program of best practice for the chemical’s use at gold mining operations, was developed under UN Environment’s aegis. At the time, $40 million were pledged by the United States, UN Environments current Executive Director Erik Solheim succeeded the previous director Achim Steiner in 2016. The position was held for 17 years by Dr. Mostafa Kamal Tolba, under his leadership, UN Environments most widely acclaimed success—the historic 1987 agreement to protect the ozone layer—the Montreal Protocol was negotiated. During December 1972, the UN General Assembly unanimously elected Maurice Strong to head UN Environment, the most famous example is the solar loan program sponsored by UN Environment helped 100,000 people finance solar power systems in India. Success in Indias solar program has led to projects in other parts of the developing world like Tunisia, Morocco, Indonesia. UN Environment sponsors the Marshlands project in the Middle East, in 2001, UN Environment alerted the international community to the destruction of the Marshlands when it released satellite images showing that 90 percent of the Marshlands had already been lost. The UN Environment support for Environmental Management of the Iraqi Marshland commenced in August 2004, in order to ensure full participation of global communities, UN Environmentworks in an inclusive fashion that brings on board different societal cohorts. UN Environmenthas a programme for people known as Tunza. Within this program are other projects like the AEO for Youth, Glaciers shrinking Glaciers are shrinking at record rates and many could disappear within decades, the U. N. Environment Programme said on March 16,2008, the scientists measuring the health of almost 30 glaciers around the world found that ice loss reached record levels in 2006. On average, the glaciers shrank by 4.9 feet in 2006, the most severe loss was recorded at Norways Breidalblikkbrea glacier, which shrank 10.2 feet in 2006. Glaciers lost an average of about a foot of ice a year between 1980 and 1999, but since the turn of the millennium the average loss has increased to about 20 inches. UN Environment publishes many reports, atlases and newsletters, one of many points in the GEO-5 warns that we are living far beyond our means. It notes that the population is now so large that the amount of resources needed to sustain it exceeds what is available. In June 2010, a report from UN Environment declared that a shift towards a vegan diet was needed to save the world from hunger, fuel shortages
37.
Foot of the Mountain
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Foot of the Mountain is the ninth studio album by the Norwegian pop rock band A-ha. It was released on 19 June 2009 and reached No.1 on the German Albums Chart, in its first week in the UK, the album debuted at No. 5, the groups highest chart placing in that country since Stay on These Roads in 1988, the overall sound of the record marks a return to the synthpop style the band became famous for in the mid-1980s. Foot of the Mountain was A-has last full-length album before their split in 2010, however, they did release a further compilation album 25 with their new single Butterfly, Butterfly before reuniting in 2015. Right now, Im eager to get going on the new album, Im telling everybody that the new album is coming out next year and that its going to be great. But the other two are of course just starting to get into their solo projects again and want to prioritize those for the time being, getting around to recording the follow-up to Analogue took four years due to the individual projects of the band members. Despite touring quite extensively between 2005–08, the focus of the group was not directed towards recording, the album ended up being recorded in a relatively short period of time with Steve Osborne, Mark Saunders and Roland Spremberg producing. The recording session took place in studios around the world. In the US sessions were held at Water Music, Beat 360, in Norway recordings were made at Yoga Studio, Alabaster Cottage, Malabar Studio and Rainbow Studio. In the UK the band recorded at Real World Studios, whilst in Germany they used Gaga Studios, the track Riding the Crest, named by Paul Waaktaar-Savoy as an electro-blues, is heavily inspired by Arcade Fire and their album Neon Bible. Being the principal songwriter on the album, Waaktaar-Savoy also got inspired by his changing surroundings, “Shadowside“ feels quite Norwegian in the melody, the chords and the mood. The Bandstand reminds me of my first trip to New York City in the early 80s, songs are like a photo-album – they can really send you back. Real Meaning is inspired by Waaktaar-Savoy calling home only to be greeted by his answering machine, there is such poetry in the old Apollo manuals, switch to Omni Bravo and the bright ejector blanket. The latter should probably be ejecta blanket, the albums artwork is designed by Martin Kvamme, who has worked with A-ha on previous occasions, both as a band and on solo projects. Stian Andersen, Guy Berryman, Istockphoto and Helge Kvamme supplied photographs for the inner sleeve, Martin Kvamme said the following about the inspiration behind the cover art, In this case the title helped quite a lot. I know that this is a somehow poetic quote and that they are not necessarily talking about a mountain, thats also why we made it quite abstract. Its a picture of the mountain Kyrkja in Jotunheimen, Norway, inside we have more images of Norwegian nature. But in general I guess the inspiration comes from the overall idea, the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang gave the album 4 out of 6 stars, calling the band, Coldplays half-potent uncles
38.
Norway
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The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land, until 1814, the kingdom included the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It also included Isle of Man until 1266, Shetland and Orkney until 1468, Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres and a population of 5,258,317. The country shares a long border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. King Harald V of the Dano-German House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway, erna Solberg became Prime Minister in 2013, replacing Jens Stoltenberg. A constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the Parliament, the Cabinet and the Supreme Court, as determined by the 1814 Constitution, the kingdom is established as a merger of several petty kingdoms. By the traditional count from the year 872, the kingdom has existed continuously for 1,144 years, Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels, counties and municipalities. The Sámi people have an amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament. Norway maintains close ties with the European Union and the United States, the country maintains a combination of market economy and a Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system. Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the countrys gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the worlds largest producer of oil, the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World Bank and IMF lists. On the CIAs GDP per capita list which includes territories and some regions, from 2001 to 2006, and then again from 2009 to 2017, Norway had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world. It also has the highest inequality-adjusted ranking, Norway ranks first on the World Happiness Report, the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity and the Democracy Index. Norway has two names, Noreg in Nynorsk and Norge in Bokmål. The name Norway comes from the Old English word Norðrveg mentioned in 880, meaning way or way leading to the north. In contrasting with suðrvegar southern way for Germany, and austrvegr eastern way for the Baltic, the Anglo-Saxon of Britain also referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. This was the area of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway, and because of him
39.
A-ha
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A-ha is a Norwegian band formed in Oslo in 1982. The band was founded by Morten Harket, Magne Furuholmen and Pål Waaktaar-Savoy, the group rose to fame during the mid-1980s after being discovered by musician and producer John Ratcliff, and continued global success in the 1990s and 2000s. A-ha achieved their biggest success with their album, Hunting High and Low. In the UK, Hunting High and Low continued its success into the following year. In 1994, after their studio album, Memorial Beach, failed to achieve the commercial success of their previous albums. Their ninth album, Foot of the Mountain, was first released on 19 June 2009 and returned the band to the UK top 5 for the first time since 1988, being certified Silver there, the album peaked at number 2 in Norway. On 15 October 2009, the announced they would split after a worldwide tour in 2010. Thousands of fans from at least 40 different countries on six continents congregated to see A-ha for the last leg of the tour, on 4 December 2014, A-ha officially announced its participation at Rock In Rio 2015 which celebrated 30 years for both the band and the event. In 2015, it was announced that A-ha would re-unite for two years and their tenth studio album, Cast in Steel, was released on 4 September 2015. A tour, named for the album, in support of the album happened in autumn 2015, through 2009, the band has sold more than 100 million records worldwide. Another record for the band is for singer Morten Harket, who was listed in the Guinness World Records book in 2001 for the longest live note held and they were trying to think of what to call themselves, focusing on Norwegian words people could say in English. They jettisoned that idea when Morten spotted a song called A-ha in Waaktaars songbook and it was a terrible song but a great name, says Morten. They chose the studio of musician, producer, and soon-to-be-manager John Ratcliff because it had a Space Invaders machine, John Ratcliff introduced them to his manager, Terry Slater, and after a few meetings, A-ha enlisted Ratcliff as a manager as well. Slater and Ratcliff formed TJ Management, Ratcliff dealt with technical and musical aspects, and Slater acted as the groups international business manager and as liaison to Warner Brothers head office in Los Angeles. An early version of Take On Me was the first song that Morten Harket had heard Magne Furuholmen, at that time, the song was called The Juicy Fruit Song, and the two men were still known as Bridges. It was named Lesson One when it was first recorded by A-ha, after some re-writing, multiple re-recordings, and three releases, Take On Me became a hit on both sides of the Atlantic in 1985. The first version of the song, released in 1984, was promoted by a video of the performing the song in front of a blue background. The song was then re-recorded with production by Alan Tarney, and it was then re-released with a new, groundbreaking video which peaked at number 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and at number 2 on the UK Singles Chart
40.
ARD (broadcaster)
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ARD is a joint organisation of Germanys regional public-service broadcasters. It was founded in 1950 in West Germany to represent the interests of the new, decentralised. The ARD is the worlds largest public broadcaster, with a budget of €6.9 billion and 22,655 employees, the budget comes primarily from the licence fees every household, every company and even every public institution like city governments are required to pay. For an ordinary household the fee is currently €17.50 per month, households living on welfare do not have to pay the fee. The fees are not collected directly by the ARD, but by the Beitragsservice, an organization of the ARD member broadcasters, the second public TV broadcaster ZDF. ARD maintains and operates a television network, called Das Erste to differentiate it from ZDF, a. k. a. das Zweite. ARDs programmes are aired over its own terrestrial broadcast network, as well as via cable, satellite, ARD also produces two free-to-air digital channels and participates in the production of cable/satellite channels Phoenix, KI. KA, 3sat and arte. ARDs programming is produced by its members, which operate 54 regional and local radio stations and seven regional TV networks. Deutsche Welle, Germanys international broadcaster, is also a member of ARD, ARD is not owned by anybody, particularly not by Germany. ARD-members like BR are not owned by their Land, either, with the Rundfunkfreiheit, they have an independent position. The winning Allies of World War II determined that German radio after World War II would not broadcast the same propaganda as the pre-war Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft. A federal structure, the renunciation of state influence and the avoidance of economic dependence were to be the key of the radio, the new entity was financed by an obligatory fee which every German household with at least one radio receiver paid. Each station received the money collected in its state, larger ARD members subsidised smaller ones up to a certain extent. In 1947, American military governor Lucius D. Clay declared diversity of opinion as the main aim of post-war media policy. Individuals aligned with the post-war Allied forces in their sectors of Germany had a local influence on local regional broadcasters. NDR cites the influence of Hugh Greene on the years of their organisation. ARD members are free of government influence and rely for only a small part of their income on advertising. They are financed mainly from licence fees from radio and TV owners, the mandated aim of the ARD corporations is not only to inform and to entertain, but also to encourage the integration of various parts of society and allow minorities a say in programming
41.
ZDF
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Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen, usually shortened to ZDF, is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all states of Germany. ZDF is financed by licence fees and advertising revenues. The broadcaster is well known for its famous programmes heute, a newscast established in 1963, and Wetten, dass. an entertainment show premiered in 1981, thomas Bellut, ZDFs director general, was elected by the ZDF Television Council in 2011. ZDF was founded in 1961 by interstate agreement, after the West German federal governments plan to set up a TV channel controlled by the government caused uproar. West Germanys constitution stipulated that regulation of culture and media was a compentency of the federal states, the station began broadcasting from Eschborn near Frankfurt am Main on 1 April 1963, with a speech by the first director general, Dr. Karl Holzamer. The channel broadcast its first programme in colour in 1967, in 1974, ZDF moved its base of operations to Mainz-Lerchenberg, after briefly being located in Wiesbaden. From 5 October 1996 ZDF broadcasts 24 hours a day, in 1960, the German postal service began constructing a transmitter chain for a second television network. This new network was to be broadcast on the UHF spectrum which required new reception equipment, for older receivers, a converter was sold for about 80 DM. As with the earlier ARD television network, the location of the transmitters was carefully planned to ensure the country would be able to receive the programming. m. ARD2 began broadcasting on 1 May 1961 in the area of Hessischer Rundfunk. Under the government of Konrad Adenauer, the Interior Ministry was to establish a federal TV network, Deutschland-Fernsehen, in March 1961, the states decided to establish, independently of existing institutions, a central nonprofit public television network. On 6 June 1961, the state premiers signed at a conference in Stuttgart the interstate agreement on the establishment of the public institution Second German Television. On 1 December 1961, though not all states had ratified the agreement, the last state, Bavaria, filed the instrument of ratification on 9 July 1962. ZDF is financed by a fee of €17.98 per month. ZDF shares the income with ARD and Deutschlandradio, the fees are not collected directly by ZDF, but by the Beitragsservice, a common organization of the ARD member broadcasters, ZDF, and Deutschlandradio. ZDF also has income from sponsorships and programming and advertising sales, as ZDF is a channel, not a network, the channel is broadcast throughout Germany, with no regional variations or affiliates, using a number of signal repeaters. ZDF transmitters broadcast a digital signal, analog signals were gradually phased out, a process which lasted from 2002 to 2008
42.
Euro
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Outside of Europe, a number of overseas territories of EU members also use the euro as their currency. Additionally,210 million people worldwide as of 2013 use currencies pegged to the euro, the euro is the second largest reserve currency as well as the second most traded currency in the world after the United States dollar. The name euro was adopted on 16 December 1995 in Madrid. The euro was introduced to world markets as an accounting currency on 1 January 1999. While the euro dropped subsequently to US$0.8252 within two years, it has traded above the U. S. dollar since the end of 2002, peaking at US$1.6038 on 18 July 2008. In July 2012, the euro fell below US$1.21 for the first time in two years, following concerns raised over Greek debt and Spains troubled banking sector, as of 26 March 2017, the euro–dollar exchange rate stands at ~ US$1.07. The euro is managed and administered by the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank, as an independent central bank, the ECB has sole authority to set monetary policy. The Eurosystem participates in the printing, minting and distribution of notes and coins in all states. The 1992 Maastricht Treaty obliges most EU member states to adopt the euro upon meeting certain monetary and budgetary convergence criteria, all nations that have joined the EU since 1993 have pledged to adopt the euro in due course. Since 5 January 2002, the central banks and the ECB have issued euro banknotes on a joint basis. Euro banknotes do not show which central bank issued them, Eurosystem NCBs are required to accept euro banknotes put into circulation by other Eurosystem members and these banknotes are not repatriated. The ECB issues 8% of the value of banknotes issued by the Eurosystem. In practice, the ECBs banknotes are put into circulation by the NCBs and these liabilities carry interest at the main refinancing rate of the ECB. The euro is divided into 100 cents, in Community legislative acts the plural forms of euro and cent are spelled without the s, notwithstanding normal English usage. Otherwise, normal English plurals are used, with many local variations such as centime in France. All circulating coins have a side showing the denomination or value. Due to the plurality in the European Union, the Latin alphabet version of euro is used. For the denominations except the 1-, 2- and 5-cent coins, beginning in 2007 or 2008 the old map is being replaced by a map of Europe also showing countries outside the Union like Norway
43.
Unter den Linden
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Unter den Linden is a boulevard in the central Mitte district of Berlin, the capital of Germany. Running from the City Palace to Brandenburg Gate, it is named after the trees that line the grassed pedestrian mall on the median. The avenue links numerous Berlin sights and landmarks, Unter den Linden runs east–west from the site of the Stadtschloss royal palace at the Lustgarten park, where the demolished Palace of the Republic once stood, to Pariser Platz and Brandenburg Gate. Eastward the boulevard crosses the Spree river at Berlin Cathedral and continues as Karl-Liebknecht-Straße, the western continuation behind Brandenburg Gate is Straße des 17. Major north–south streets crossing Unter den Linden are Friedrichstraße and Wilhelmstrasse and it was replaced by a boulevard of linden trees planted in 1647, extending from the city palace to the gates of the city, by order of the Great Elector Frederick William. By the 19th century, as Berlin grew and expanded to the west, Unter den Linden became the best-known, in 1851 the famous equestrian statue of King Frederick II of Prussia was erected on the centre strip, designed by Christian Daniel Rauch. Johann Strauss III wrote the waltz „Unter den Linden“ in 1900, the present-day linden were replanted in the 1950s. Since 1937, the numbering of the properties on the street has started at the Schlossbrücke, the reconstructed Alte Kommandantur is at No. 1, standing opposite the Zeughaus arsenal, the oldest building on Unter den Linden, buildings along the street include the Crown Princes Palace, at No. 3, opposite the Neue Wache war memorial, No,4, Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s masterpiece built in 1817. Further along, on Bebelplatz, the Berlin State Opera, No,7, colloquially called Lindenoper, St. Hedwigs Cathedral and the Altes Palais, No. 9, the residence of Emperor Wilhelm I, next on the north side are the main building of the Humboldt University. 6, and House I of the Berlin State Library, No.8, at the western end are the Russian Embassy (former Soviet Embassy, Nos. 63-65, the Hungarian Embassy, No. 76, standing at the junction with Wilhelmstrasse, and finally the Hotel Adlon,77, at the corner of Pariser Platz, which has been completely rebuilt on the site of the pre-war hotel. Well-known statues of Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt in front of the university as well as of the Prussian generals Scharnhorst and Bülow, also adorn the street. A street sign carrying the name Unter den Linden dating from before the 1930s was taken away by British forces and can now be seen at the Imperial War Museum, London. Unter den Linden - Interactive 360° Panorama Webcam, Live-View of the street Unter den Linden with Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany
44.
Pariser Platz
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Pariser Platz is a square in the centre of Berlin, Germany, situated by the Brandenburg Gate at the end of the Unter den Linden. The square is named after the French capital Paris in honour of the anti-Napoleon Allies occupation of Paris in 1814, Pariser Platz is the square immediately behind the Brandenburg Gate when approaching the centre of Berlin from the Tiergarten in the west. The neo-classical Brandenburg Gate was completed in the early 1790s by Carl Gotthard Langhans, until 1814 the square was known simply as Quarré or Viereck. In March 1814, when Prussian troops along with the other Allies captured Paris after the overthrow of Napoleon, during the last years of World War II, all of the buildings around the square were turned to rubble by air raids and heavy artillery bombardment. The only structure standing in the ruins of Pariser Platz was the Brandenburg Gate. After the war and especially with the construction of the Berlin Wall, when the city was reunited in 1990, there was broad consensus that the Pariser Platz should be made into a fine urban space again. The embassies would move back, the hotel and arts academy would be reinstated, under the rules of reconstruction, eaves heights had to be 22 meters, and buildings had to have a proper termination against the sky. Stone cladding was to be used as far as possible, interpretations of these constraints, however, have varied to a great extent. The following is a partial list of buildings and structures on Pariser Platz, working anti clockwise from the Brandenburg Gate, Brandenburg Gate Haus Sommer, used by Commerzbank U. S. The S-Bahn station was opened in 1936 with the name Unter den Linden and was closed in 1961 with the construction of the Berlin Wall and it reopened on September 1,1990. The square itself is closed to traffic, but is served by local bus lines nearby. In Pariser Platz - design and construction of town square in Berlin, Germany, by Anne Vyne, in The Architectural Review, Pariser Platz - Interactive 360° Panorama
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