1.
German language
–
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
German language
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Old Frisian (Alt-Friesisch)
German language
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The widespread popularity of the
Bible translated into German by
Martin Luther helped establish modern German
German language
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Examples of German language in
Namibian everyday life
German language
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German-language newspapers in the U.S. in 1922
2.
Museum Island
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Museum Island is the name of the northern half of an island in the Spree river in the central Mitte district of Berlin, Germany, the site of the old city of Cölln. The Neues Museum finished in 1859 according to plans by Friedrich August Stüler, destroyed in World War II, it was rebuilt under the direction of David Chipperfield for the Egyptian Museum of Berlin and re-opened in 2009. It exhibits the sculpture collections and late Antique and Byzantine art, the Pergamon Museum, the final museum of the complex, constructed in 1930. It contains multiple reconstructed immense and historically significant buildings such as the Pergamon Altar, in 1999, the museum complex was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. A first exhibition hall was erected in 1797 at the suggestion of the archaeologist Aloys Hirt, in 1822, Schinkel designed the plans for the Altes Museum to house the royal Antikensammlung, the arrangement of the collection was overseen by Wilhelm von Humboldt. The island, originally an area, was dedicated to art. Further extended under succeeding Prussian kings, the collections of art. They are today maintained by the Berlin State Museums branch of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, Museum Island further comprises the Lustgarten park and the Berlin Cathedral. Between the Bode and Pergamon Museums it is crossed by the Stadtbahn railway viaduct, the adjacent territory to the south is the site of the former Stadtschloss and the Palace of the Republic. These include the Priams Treasure, also called the gold of Troy, excavated by Heinrich Schliemann in 1873, then smuggled out of Turkey to Berlin and today kept at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. Then, six months later, Peter-Klaus Schuster took over and set in motion a far more ambitious program intended to turn Museum Island into a Louvre on the Spree. The federal government pledged $20 million a year through 2010 for projects to enhance Berlins prestige and Unesco declaring the island a World Heritage Site. The contents of the museums were decided on as follows, The Pergamon, with the Greek altar that gives it its name, the Neues Museum presented archaeological objects as well as Egyptian and Etruscan sculptures, including the renowned bust of Queen Nefertiti. The Altes Museum, the oldest on the island, displayed Greek and Roman art objects on its first floor, the Bode Museums paintings went from Late Byzantine to 1800. And, as now, the Alte Nationalgalerie will cover the 19th century, the James Simon Gallery, a $94 million visitors’ center designed by the British architect David Chipperfield, is being built beside the Neues Museum. It will in turn be linked to the Neues, Altes, Pergamon, once the Museum Island Master Plan is completed, the so-called Archaeological Promenade will connect four of the five museums in the Museum Island. The Promenade will begin at the Old Museum in the south, lead through the New Museum, before World War II, these museums were connected by bridge passages above ground, they were destroyed due to the effects of the war. There have never been plans to them, instead, the central courts of individual museums will be lowered
Museum Island
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The
Bode Museum at the northern end of the Museum Island.
Museum Island
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Museum Island with Pergamon and Bode Museum, 1951
Museum Island
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Altes Museum,
Lustgarten, and
Berlin Cathedral
Museum Island
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Neues Museum
3.
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
Berlin
Berlin
Berlin
Berlin
4.
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
Germany
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The
Nebra sky disk is dated to c. 1600 BC.
Germany
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Flag
Germany
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Martin Luther (1483–1546) initiated the
Protestant Reformation.
Germany
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Foundation of the
German Empire in
Versailles, 1871.
Bismarck is at the center in a white uniform.
5.
Berlin State Museums
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The Berlin State Museums are a group of institutions in Berlin, Germany, comprising seventeen museums in five clusters, several research institutes, libraries, and supporting facilities. They are overseen by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and funded by the German federal government in collaboration with Germanys federal states, the central complex on Museum Island was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1999. By 2007 the Berlin State Museums had grown into the largest complex of museums in Europe, director-general of the Berlin State Museums is Michael Eissenhauer. Museum Island Altes Museum, Roman and Greek Classical Antiquities Alte Nationalgalerie, 19th century sculptures and paintings
Berlin State Museums
Berlin State Museums
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Kulturforum
Berlin State Museums
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Dahlem Museums
Berlin State Museums
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Köpenick Palace
6.
Karl Friedrich Schinkel
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Karl Friedrich Schinkel was a Prussian architect, city planner, and painter who also designed furniture and stage sets. Schinkel was one of the most prominent architects of Germany and designed both neoclassical and neogothic buildings and his most famous buildings are found in and around Berlin. Schinkel was born in Neuruppin, Margraviate of Brandenburg, when he was six, his father died in the disastrous Neuruppin fire of 1787. He became a student of architect Friedrich Gilly and his father, David Gilly, after returning to Berlin from his first trip to Italy in 1805, he started to earn his living as a painter. When he saw Caspar David Friedrichs painting Wanderer above the Sea of Fog at the 1810 Berlin art exhibition he decided that he would never reach such mastery of painting, after Napoleons defeat, Schinkel oversaw the Prussian Building Commission. From 1808 to 1817 Schinkel renovated and reconstructed Schloss Rosenau, Coburg and he also rebuilt the ruins of Chorin Abbey. He believed that in order to avoid sterility and have a soul, a building must contain elements of the poetic and the past and his most famous extant buildings are found in and around Berlin. He also carried out improvements to the Crown Princes Palace and to Schloss Charlottenburg, Schinkel was also responsible for the interior decoration of a number of private Berlin residences. Later, Schinkel moved away from classicism altogether, embracing the Neo-Gothic in his Friedrichswerder Church, Schinkel died in Berlin, Province of Brandenburg. Schinkel, however, is noted as much for his theoretical work and these and other designs may be studied in his Sammlung architektonischer Entwürfe and his Werke der höheren Baukunst. He also designed the famed Iron Cross medal of Prussia, with essays by Kurt W. Forster and Wolfgang Pehnt, ISBN 0-86559-105-9. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-88221-866-4, die Geschichte vom Leben und Sterben des Baumeisters Karl Friedrich Schinkel. Christoph von Wolzogen, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Unter dem bestirnten Himmel, edition Fichter, Frankfurt 2016, ISBN 978-3-943856-33-0. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Schinkel, Karl Friedrich, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, The Last Great Architect. Prefatory essay from Collection of Architectural Designs including those designs which have been executed and objects whose execution was intended by Karl Friedrich Schinkel
Karl Friedrich Schinkel
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Schinkel in 1836
Karl Friedrich Schinkel
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A stamp with Karl Friedrich Schinkel
Karl Friedrich Schinkel
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Castle by the River (Schloß am Strom)
Karl Friedrich Schinkel
–
Gotische Kirche auf einem Felsen am Meer
7.
Neoclassicism
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The main Neoclassical movement coincided with the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment, and continued into the early 19th century, laterally competing with Romanticism. In architecture, the style continued throughout the 19th, 20th, European Neoclassicism in the visual arts began c.1760 in opposition to the then-dominant Baroque and Rococo styles. Each neo-classicism selects some models among the range of classics that are available to it. They ignored both Archaic Greek art and the works of Late Antiquity, the Rococo art of ancient Palmyra came as a revelation, through engravings in Woods The Ruins of Palmyra. While the movement is described as the opposed counterpart of Romanticism. The case of the main champion of late Neoclassicism, Ingres, demonstrates this especially well. The revival can be traced to the establishment of formal archaeology, the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann were important in shaping this movement in both architecture and the visual arts. With the advent of the Grand Tour, a fad of collecting antiquities began that laid the foundations of many great collections spreading a Neoclassical revival throughout Europe, Neoclassicism in each art implies a particular canon of a classical model. In English, the term Neoclassicism is used primarily of the arts, the similar movement in English literature. This, which had been dominant for decades, was beginning to decline by the time Neoclassicism in the visual arts became fashionable. Though terms differ, the situation in French literature was similar, in music, the period saw the rise of classical music, and Neoclassicism is used of 20th-century developments. Ingress coronation portrait of Napoleon even borrowed from Late Antique consular diptychs and their Carolingian revival, much Neoclassical painting is more classicizing in subject matter than in anything else. A fierce, but often very badly informed, dispute raged for decades over the merits of Greek and Roman art, with Winckelmann. The work of artists, who could not easily be described as insipid, combined aspects of Romanticism with a generally Neoclassical style. Unlike Carstens unrealized schemes, the etchings of Giovanni Battista Piranesi were numerous and profitable and his main subject matter was the buildings and ruins of Rome, and he was more stimulated by the ancient than the modern. Neoclassicism in painting gained a new sense of direction with the success of Jacques-Louis Davids Oath of the Horatii at the Paris Salon of 1785. Despite its evocation of republican virtues, this was a commission by the royal government, David managed to combine an idealist style with drama and forcefulness. David rapidly became the leader of French art, and after the French Revolution became a politician with control of government patronage in art
Neoclassicism
–
Antonio Canova 's
Psyche Revived by Love's Kiss
Neoclassicism
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Henry Fuseli, The artist moved to despair at the grandeur of antique fragments, 1778–79
Neoclassicism
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Johann Joachim Winckelmann, often called "the father of archaeology"
Neoclassicism
–
Print of a drawing by
John Flaxman of a scene in
Homer 's
Iliad, 1795
8.
Kingdom of Prussia
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It was the driving force behind the unification of Germany in 1871 and was the leading state of the German Empire until its dissolution in 1918. Although it took its name from the region called Prussia, it was based in the Margraviate of Brandenburg, the kings of Prussia were from the House of Hohenzollern. Prussia was a power from the time it became a kingdom, through its predecessor, Brandenburg-Prussia. Prussia continued its rise to power under the guidance of Frederick II, more known as Frederick the Great. After the might of Prussia was revealed it was considered as a power among the German states. Throughout the next hundred years Prussia went on to win many battles and it was because of its power that Prussia continuously tried to unify all the German states under its rule. Attempts at creation of a federation remained unsuccessful and the German Confederation collapsed in 1866 when war ensued between its two most powerful states, Prussia and Austria. The North German Confederation which lasted from 1867–1871, created a union between the Prussian-aligned states while Austria and most of Southern Germany remained independent. The North German Confederation was seen as more of an alliance of military strength in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War, the German Empire lasted from 1871–1918 with the successful unification of all the German states under Prussian hegemony. This was due to the defeat of Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, in 1871, Germany unified into a single country, minus Austria and Switzerland, with Prussia the dominant power. Prussia is considered the predecessor of the unified German Reich. The Kingdom left a significant cultural legacy, today notably promoted by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, in 1415 a Hohenzollern Burgrave came from the south to the March of Brandenburg and took control of the area as elector. In 1417 the Hohenzollern was made an elector of the Holy Roman Empire, after the Polish wars, the newly established Baltic towns of the German states including Prussia, suffered many economic setbacks. Many of the Prussian towns could not even afford to attend political meetings outside of Prussia, the towns were poverty stricken, with even the largest town, Danzig, having to borrow money from elsewhere to pay for trade. Poverty in these towns was partly caused by Prussias neighbors, who had established and developed such a monopoly on trading that these new towns simply could not compete and these issues led to feuds, wars, trade competition and invasions. However, the fall of these gave rise to the nobility, separated the east and the west. It was clear in 1440 how different Brandenburg was from the other German territories, not only did it face partition from within but also the threat of its neighbors. It prevented the issue of partition by enacting the Dispositio Achillea which instilled the principle of primogeniture to both the Brandenburg and Franconian territories, the second issue was solved through expansion
Kingdom of Prussia
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Prussian territorial acquisitions in the 18th century
Kingdom of Prussia
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Flag
Kingdom of Prussia
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Prussia (orange) and its territories lost after the
War of the Fourth Coalition (other colours).
Kingdom of Prussia
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Prussian King's Crown (
Hohenzollern Castle Collection)
9.
UNESCO
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The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations based in Paris. It is the heir of the League of Nations International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, UNESCO has 195 member states and nine associate members. Most of its offices are cluster offices covering three or more countries, national and regional offices also exist. UNESCO pursues its objectives through five major programs, education, natural sciences, social/human sciences, culture and it is also a member of the United Nations Development Group. UNESCO and its mandate for international cooperation can be traced back to a League of Nations resolution on 21 September 1921, on 18 December 1925, the International Bureau of Education began work as a non-governmental organization in the service of international educational development. However, the work of predecessor organizations was largely interrupted by the onset of World War II. On 30 October 1943, the necessity for an organization was expressed in the Moscow Declaration, agreed upon by China, the United Kingdom, the United States. This was followed by the Dumbarton Oaks Conference proposals of 9 October 1944, a prominent figure in the initiative for UNESCO was Rab Butler, the Minister of Education for the United Kingdom. At the ECO/CONF, the Constitution of UNESCO was introduced and signed by 37 countries, the Preparatory Commission operated between 16 November 1945, and 4 November 1946—the date when UNESCOs Constitution came into force with the deposit of the twentieth ratification by a member state. The first General Conference took place between 19 November to 10 December 1946, and elected Dr. Julian Huxley to Director-General and this change in governance distinguished UNESCO from its predecessor, the CICI, in how member states would work together in the organizations fields of competence. In 1956, the Republic of South Africa withdrew from UNESCO claiming that some of the organizations publications amounted to interference in the racial problems. South Africa rejoined the organization in 1994 under the leadership of Nelson Mandela, UNESCOs early work in the field of education included the pilot project on fundamental education in the Marbial Valley, Haiti, started in 1947. This project was followed by missions to other countries, including, for example. In 1948, UNESCO recommended that Member States should make free primary education compulsory, in 1990, the World Conference on Education for All, in Jomtien, Thailand, launched a global movement to provide basic education for all children, youths and adults. Ten years later, the 2000 World Education Forum held in Dakar, Senegal, UNESCOs early activities in culture included, for example, the Nubia Campaign, launched in 1960. The purpose of the campaign was to move the Great Temple of Abu Simbel to keep it from being swamped by the Nile after construction of the Aswan Dam, during the 20-year campaign,22 monuments and architectural complexes were relocated. This was the first and largest in a series of campaigns including Mohenjo-daro, Fes, Kathmandu, Borobudur, the organizations work on heritage led to the adoption, in 1972, of the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. The World Heritage Committee was established in 1976 and the first sites inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1978, since then important legal instruments on cultural heritage and diversity have been adopted by UNESCO member states in 2003 and 2005
UNESCO
–
UNESCO offices in
Brasília
UNESCO
–
UNESCO
UNESCO
–
UNESCO Institute for Water Education in
Delft
UNESCO
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The Garden of Peace, UNESCO headquarters, Paris. Donated by the Government of Japan, this garden was designed by American-Japanese sculptor artist Isamu Noguchi in 1958 and installed by Japanese gardener Toemon Sano.
10.
World Heritage Site
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A World Heritage Site is a landmark which has been officially recognized by the United Nations, specifically by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Sites are selected on the basis of having cultural, historical, scientific or some form of significance. UNESCO regards these sites as being important to the interests of humanity. The programme catalogues, names, and conserves sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common culture, under certain conditions, listed sites can obtain funds from the World Heritage Fund. The program was founded with the Convention Concerning the Protection of the Worlds Cultural and Natural Heritage, since then,192 state parties have ratified the convention, making it one of the most adhered to international instruments. As of July 2016,1052 sites are listed,814 cultural,203 natural, in 1959, the governments of Egypt and Sudan requested UNESCO to assist their countries to protect and rescue the endangered monuments and sites. In 1960, the Director-General of UNESCO launched an appeal to the Member States for an International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, the campaign, which ended in 1980, was considered a success. The project cost $80 million, about $40 million of which was collected from 50 countries, the projects success led to other safeguarding campaigns, saving Venice and its lagoon in Italy, the ruins of Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan, and the Borobodur Temple Compounds in Indonesia. UNESCO then initiated, with the International Council on Monuments and Sites, the United States initiated the idea of cultural conservation with nature conservation. The International Union for Conservation of Nature developed similar proposals in 1968, the Convention came into force on 17 December 1975. As of June 2016, it has been ratified by 192 states, including 188 UN member states plus the Cook Islands, the Holy See, Niue, a country must first list its significant cultural and natural sites, the result is called the Tentative List. A country may not nominate sites that have not been first included on the Tentative List, next, it can place sites selected from that list into a Nomination File. The Nomination File is evaluated by the International Council on Monuments and Sites and these bodies then make their recommendations to the World Heritage Committee. There are ten selection criteria – a site must meet at least one of them to be included on the list, up to 2004, there were six criteria for cultural heritage and four criteria for natural heritage. In 2005, this was modified so there is now only one set of ten criteria. Nominated sites must be of outstanding value and meet at least one of the ten criteria. Thus, the Geneva Convention treaty promulgates, Article 53, PROTECTION OF CULTURAL OBJECTS AND OF PLACES OF WORSHIP. There are 1,052 World Heritage Sites located in 165 States Party, of these,814 are cultural,203 are natural and 35 are mixed properties
World Heritage Site
–
Site #252:
Taj Mahal, an example of cultural heritage site
World Heritage Site
–
Logo of the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
World Heritage Committee
World Heritage Site
–
Site #156:
Serengeti National Park, an example of natural heritage site
World Heritage Site
–
Site #274:
Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu, an example of mixed heritage site
11.
Friedrich Wilhelm III
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Frederick William III was king of Prussia from 1797 to 1840. He ruled Prussia during the times of the Napoleonic Wars. Steering a careful course between France and her enemies, after a military defeat in 1806, he eventually and reluctantly joined the coalition against Napoleon in the Befreiungskriege. Following Napoleons defeat he was King of Prussia during the Congress of Vienna which assembled to settle the questions arising from the new. He was determined to unify the Protestant churches, to homogenize their liturgy, their organization, the long-term goal was to have fully centralized royal control of all the Protestant churches in the Prussian Union of churches. Frederick William was born in Potsdam in 1770 as the son of Frederick William II of Prussia and he was considered to be a shy and reserved boy, which became noticeable in his particularly reticent conversations distinguished by the lack of personal pronouns. This manner of speech came to be considered entirely appropriate for military officers. As a child, Frederick Williams father had him handed over to tutors and he spent part of the time living at Paretz, the estate of the old soldier Count Hans von Blumenthal who was the governor of his brother Prince Heinrich. They thus grew up partly with the Counts son, who accompanied them on their Grand Tour in the 1780s, Frederick William was happy at Paretz, and for this reason in 1795 he bought it from his boyhood friend and turned it into an important royal country retreat. He was a boy, but he grew up pious. His tutors included the dramatist Johann Engel, as a soldier he received the usual training of a Prussian prince, obtained his lieutenancy in 1784, became a colonel in 1790, and took part in the campaigns against France of 1792–1794. On 24 December 1793, Frederick William married Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, in the Kronprinzenpalais in Berlin, Frederick William lived a civil life with a problem-free marriage, which did not change even when he became King of Prussia in 1797. His wife Louise was particularly loved by the Prussian people, which boosted the popularity of the whole House of Hohenzollern, Frederick William succeeded to the throne on 16 November 1797. He also became, in union, the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel. He had the Hohenzollern determination to retain personal power but not the Hohenzollern genius for using it, too distrustful to delegate responsibility to his ministers, he lacked the will to strike out and follow a consistent course for himself. Disgusted with the moral debauchery of his fathers court, Frederick Williams first endeavor was to restore morality to his dynasty. He was quoted as saying the following, which demonstrated his sense of duty and peculiar manner of speech, Every civil servant has an obligation, to the sovereign. It can occur that the two are not compatible, then, the duty to the country is higher, at first Frederick William and his advisors attempted to pursue a policy of neutrality in the Napoleonic Wars
Friedrich Wilhelm III
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Equestrian portrait of Frederick William III; By
Franz Krüger, 1831
Friedrich Wilhelm III
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Friedrich Wilhelm and his mother, 1775
Friedrich Wilhelm III
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Docile and slow to recognize the growing French threat, Frederick's decision for
war in 1806 ended in national humiliation.
Friedrich Wilhelm III
–
Frederick William III
12.
Alexander von Humboldt
–
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt was a Prussian geographer, naturalist, explorer, and influential proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher. Humboldts quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography, Humboldts advocacy of long-term systematic geophysical measurement laid the foundation for modern geomagnetic and meteorological monitoring. Between 1799 and 1804, Humboldt travelled extensively in Latin America and his description of the journey was written up and published in an enormous set of volumes over 21 years. Humboldt was one of the first people to propose that the lands bordering the Atlantic Ocean were once joined and this important work also motivated a holistic perception of the universe as one interacting entity. Alexander von Humboldt was born in Berlin in Prussia on 14 September 1769 and he was baptized as a baby in the Lutheran faith, with the Duke of Brunswick serving as godfather. At age 42, Alexander Georg was rewarded for his services in the Seven Years War with the post of Royal Chamberlain and he profited from the contract to lease state lotteries and tobacco sales. He first married the daughter of Prussian General Adjutant Schweder, in 1766, Alexander Georg married Maria Elisabeth Colomb, a well-educated woman and widow of Baron Hollwede, with whom she had a son. Alexander Georg and Maria Elisabeth had three children, a daughter, who died young, and then two sons, Wilhelm and Alexander and her first-born son, Wilhelms and Alexanders half-brother, was something of a neer do well, not often mentioned in the family history. Alexander Georg died in 1779, leaving the brothers Humboldt in the care of their emotionally distant mother, Humboldts mother expected them to become civil servants of the Prussian state. The money Baron Holwede left to Alexanders mother became, after her death, instrumental in funding Alexanders explorations, due to his youthful penchant for collecting and labeling plants, shells and insects, Alexander received the playful title of the little apothecary. On April 25,1789, he matriculated at Göttingen, then known for the lectures of C. G. Heyne and his brother Wilhelm was already a student at Göttingen, but they did not interact much since their intellectual interests were quite different. His vast and varied interests were by this time fully developed, at Göttingen he met Georg Forster, a naturalist who had been with Captain James Cook on his second voyage. Humboldt traveled with Forster in Europe, the two traveled to England, Humboldts first sea voyage, The Netherlands, and France. In England, he met Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, the scientific friendship between Banks and Humboldt lasted until Bankss death in 1820, and the two shared botanical specimens for study. Banks also mobilized his scientific contacts in later years to aid Humboldts work, Humboldts scientific excursion up the Rhine resulted in his 1790 treatise Mineralogische Beobachtungen über einige Basalte am Rhein. Humboldts passion for travel was of long standing, Humboldts talents were devoted to the purpose of preparing himself as a scientific explorer. During this period, his brother Wilhelm married, but Alexander did not attend the nuptials, Humboldt graduated from the Freiberg School of Mines in 1792 and was appointed to a Prussian government position in the Department of Mines as an inspector in Bayreuth and the Fichtel mountains
Alexander von Humboldt
–
Alexander von Humboldt (by
Joseph Stieler, 1843)
Alexander von Humboldt
–
The Tegel Palace (or Humboldt Palace), where Alexander von Humboldt and
Wilhelm von Humboldt lived for several years.
Alexander von Humboldt
–
Portrait of Alexander von Humboldt by Friedrich Georg Weitsch, 1806
Alexander von Humboldt
–
Geography of Plants, 1805.
13.
Friedrich Wilhelm IV
–
Frederick William IV, the eldest son and successor of Frederick William III of Prussia, reigned as King of Prussia from 1840 to 1861. In politics, he was a conservative, and in 1849 rejected the title of Emperor of the Germans offered by the Frankfurt Parliament as not the Parliaments to give, in 1857, he suffered a stroke and was left incapacitated until his death. Born to Frederick William III by his wife Queen Louise, he was the favourite son. Frederick William was educated by tutors, many of whom were experienced civil servants. He also gained experience by serving in the Prussian Army during the War of Liberation against Napoleon in 1814. In 1823 he married Elisabeth Ludovika of Bavaria, since she was a Roman Catholic, the preparations for this marriage included difficult negotiations which ended with her conversion to Lutheranism. There were two wedding ceremonies—one in Munich, and another in Berlin, the couple had a very harmonious marriage, but childless. Frederick William opposed the idea of a unified German state, believing that Austria was divinely ordained to rule over Germany, Frederick William became King of Prussia on the death of his father in 1840. Through a personal union, he became the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel. In 1842, he gave his fathers menagerie at Pfaueninsel to the new Berlin Zoo, despite being a devout Lutheran, his Romantic leanings led him to settle the Cologne church conflict by releasing the imprisoned Clemens August von Droste-Vischering, the Archbishop of Cologne. He also patronized further construction of Cologne Cathedral, Cologne having become part of Prussia in 1815, in 1844, he attended the celebrations marking the completion of the cathedral, becoming the first king of Prussia to enter a Roman Catholic building. He committed himself to German unification, formed a government, convened a national assembly. Once his position was more secure again, however, he quickly had the army reoccupy Berlin and in December dissolved the assembly, therefore, Frederick William would only accept the imperial crown after being elected by the German princes, as per the former empires ancient customs. In the kings eyes, only a reconstituted College of Electors could possess such authority, with the failed attempt by the Frankfurt Parliament to include the Habsburgs into a newly unified German Empire, the Parliament turned to Prussia. Seeing Austrian ambivalence towards Prussia taking a powerful role in German affairs. All German states, excluding those of the Habsburgs, would be unified under Hohenzollern authority, the German Confederation remained the common government of German Europe. The lower house was elected by all taxpayers, but in a system based on the amount of taxes paid. This constitution remained in effect until the dissolution of the Prussian kingdom in 1918, Frederick William IV is buried with his wife in the crypt underneath the Church of Peace in the park of Sanssouci, at Potsdam
Friedrich Wilhelm IV
–
Frederick William IV of Prussia
Friedrich Wilhelm IV
–
Signature
Friedrich Wilhelm IV
–
Silver Coin of Frederick William IV, struck 1860
Friedrich Wilhelm IV
–
The
crypt containing the
Sarcophagi of Frederick William IV and his wife Elisabeth Ludovika of Bavaria in the
Church of Peace,
Sanssouci Park in Potsdam
14.
Berliner Lustgarten
–
The Lustgarten is a park on Museum Island in central Berlin, near the site of the former Berliner Stadtschloss of which it was originally a part. At various times in its history, the park has used as a parade ground, a place for mass rallies. After the devastation of Germany during the Thirty Years War, Berlin was redeveloped by Friedrich Wilhelm and his Dutch wife, in 1713, Friedrich Wilhelm I became King of Prussia and set about converting Prussia into a militarised state. In 1790, Friedrich Wilhelm II allowed the Lustgarten to be turned back into a park, in the early 19th century, the enlarged and increasingly wealthy Kingdom of Prussia undertook major redevelopments of central Berlin. A 13-metre high fountain in the centre, operated by an engine, was one of the marvels of the age. In 1871, the fountain was replaced by an equestrian statue of Friedrich Wilhelm III by Albert Wolff. The statue was unveiled on 16 June 1871, between 1894 and 1905, the old Protestant church on the northern side of the park was replaced by a much larger building, the Berlin Cathedral, designed by Julius Carl Raschdorff. During the years of the Weimar Republic, the Lustgarten was frequently used for political demonstrations, the Socialists and Communists held frequent rallies there. In August 1921,500,000 people demonstrated against right-wing extremist violence, after the murder of Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau, on 25 June 1922,250,000 protested in the Lustgarten. On 7 February 1933,200,000 people demonstrated against the new Nazi Party regime of Adolf Hitler, under the Nazis, the Lustgarten was converted into a site for mass rallies. In 1934, it was paved over and the statue removed. Hitler addressed mass rallies of up to a million people there, on 18 May 1942 a resistance group lead by Herbert Baum consisting mainly of Jewish men and women, tried to destroy a propaganda exhibition The Soviet Paradise in the Lustgarten. This resulted in the discovery of the group, the death of Baum in Gestapo detention, in a retaliation action, the Reich Main Security Office arrested 500 Jewish men at the end of May, and immediately murdered half of them. A memorial stone made by Jürgen Raue installed in 1981 commemorates the resistance group, in 1944 the statue of Friedrich Wilhelm III by Albert Wolff was melted down to reuse the metal in war production. By the end of World War II in 1945, the Lustgarten was a bomb-pitted wasteland, the German Democratic Republic left Hitlers paving in place, but planted lime trees around the parade ground to reduce its militaristic appearance. The whole area was renamed Marx-Engels-Platz, the City Palace was demolished and later replaced by the modernist Palace of the Republic on part of the site. A movement to restore the Lustgarten to its role as a park began once Germany was reunified in 1990. In 1997, the Berlin Senate commissioned the landscape architect Hans Loidl to redesign the area in the spirit of Lennés design, the Lustgarten now features fountains and is once again a park in the heart of a reunited Berlin
Berliner Lustgarten
–
The Lustgarten, looking north-east towards the
Berlin Cathedral.
Berliner Lustgarten
–
Simplified map of the Lustgarten, showing the
Altes Museum (Old Museum) and Berliner Dom.
Berliner Lustgarten
–
The Lustgarten in 1900, looking north-west toward the Old Museum.
15.
Zeughaus
–
The Zeughaus in Berlin, Germany is the oldest structure at Unter den Linden. It was built by the Brandenburg Elector Frederick III between 1695 and 1730 in the style, to be used as an artillery arsenal for the display of cannons from Brandenburg. The first building master was Johann Arnold Nering, after his death in 1695, he was followed by Martin Grünberg, then Andreas Schlüter and finally Jean de Bodt. Andreas Schlüter designed the keystones above the windows in the form of heads of giants. Georg Friedrich Hitzig constructed the monumental flight of steps to the floor of the north wing. The building was converted into a museum in 1875. In March 1943, Rudolf von Gersdorff tried, but failed to assassinate by suicide bombing Adolf Hitler, from 1949-65 the Zeughaus was restored after heavy war losses, the interior being completely redesigned. Today, the Zeughaus is the site of the Deutsches Historisches Museum
Zeughaus
–
Zeughaus, the main building of the
German Historical Museum
Zeughaus
–
Facade of the Zeughaus, the Museum's main building
16.
Berliner Dom
–
Berlin Cathedral is the short name for the Evangelical Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church in Berlin, Germany. It is located on Museum Island in the Mitte borough, the current building was finished in 1905 and is a main work of Historicist architecture of the Kaiserzeit. The Berlin Cathedral has never been a cathedral in the sense of that term since it has never been the seat of a bishop. The bishop of the Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg is based at St. Marys Church, Berlin Cathedral has a long history starting as a Roman Catholic place of worship in the 15th century. The history of todays Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church and its community dates back to 1451, in 1454 Frederick Irontooth, after having returned – via Rome – from his pilgrimage to Jerusalem, elevated the chapel to become a parish church, richly endowing it with relics and altars. Pope Nicholas V ordered Stephan Bodecker, then Prince-Bishop of Brandenburg, a collegiate church is a church endowed with revenues and earning estates, in order to provide a number of canons, called in canon law a College, with prebends. In this respect a collegiate church is similar to a cathedral, so the college of St. Erasmus chapel, called Domstift in German, bestowed the pertaining church its colloquial naming, Domkirche. Frederick Irontooth provided the College with estates, sufficient to supply eight canon prebendaries, on 20 January 1469, Dietrich IV, then Prince-Bishop of Brandenburg, invested eight clergymen, chosen by Frederick Irontooth, as collegiate canons with the prebends. Pauls Church, built ca. in 1345, on 28 May 1536 most of the Black Friars moved to a Dominican monastery in Brandenburg upon Havel. Joachim II Hector assigned the thus void, three-nave church building to the Collegiate Church of Our Lady, the Holy Cross, peter, Paul, Erasmus and Nicholas and enlarged the College to 12 prebendaries, bestowing two of them to canons taken on from the Dominican convent. From 1545 on the family of Hohenzollern used the church building also as their burial place. In 1538, a new western façade with two towers was attached to the church, which – due to its prior status as a church of a mendicant order – had no tower before. In the next year Joachim II Hector converted from Catholicism to Lutheranism, the collegiate church thus became Lutheran too, like most of the electoral subjects and all the churches in the Electorate. However, Joachim II Hectors ideas of Reformation were different from the modern ones, after his conversion he enriched the collegiate church with luxuriant furnishings, such as paraments, monstrances, relics, chasubles, carpets and antependia. In 1613, John Sigismund publicly confessed his Calvinist faith, so he and his family, except of his steadfastly Lutheran wife Anna, converted, while most of his subjects remained Lutherans. Being now a Calvinist church the patronage of the Holy Trinity was increasingly skipped, in 1667 the dilapidated double-tower façade was torn down and in 1717 Martin Böhme erected a new baroque façade with two towers. With effect of 1 January 1710 Cölln was united with Berlin under the latter name, in 1747 the Supreme Parish Church was completely demolished to clear space for the baroque extension of the Berlin Palace. On 6 September 1750 the new baroque Calvinist Supreme Parish Church was inaugurated, the electoral tombs were transferred to the new building
Berliner Dom
–
Berlin Cathedral seen from
Lustgarten
Berliner Dom
–
The Supreme Parish Church with its double-tower façade of 1538 with northerly adjacent parts of Berlin's Palace. Miniature shown in the present church building.
Berliner Dom
–
Collegiate Church in 1736 with its new towers
Berliner Dom
–
Miniature of the Supreme Parish Church in Berlin, as in 1750 J. Boumann the Elder built it.
17.
Baroque
–
The style began around 1600 in Rome and Italy, and spread to most of Europe. The aristocracy viewed the dramatic style of Baroque art and architecture as a means of impressing visitors by projecting triumph, power, Baroque palaces are built around an entrance of courts, grand staircases, and reception rooms of sequentially increasing opulence. However, baroque has a resonance and application that extend beyond a reduction to either a style or period. It is also yields the Italian barocco and modern Spanish barroco, German Barock, Dutch Barok, others derive it from the mnemonic term Baroco, a supposedly laboured form of syllogism in logical Scholastica. The Latin root can be found in bis-roca, in informal usage, the word baroque can simply mean that something is elaborate, with many details, without reference to the Baroque styles of the 17th and 18th centuries. The word Baroque, like most periodic or stylistic designations, was invented by later critics rather than practitioners of the arts in the 17th, the term Baroque was initially used in a derogatory sense, to underline the excesses of its emphasis. In particular, the term was used to describe its eccentric redundancy and noisy abundance of details, although it was long thought that the word as a critical term was first applied to architecture, in fact it appears earlier in reference to music. Another hypothesis says that the word comes from precursors of the style, Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola and he did not make the distinctions between Mannerism and Baroque that modern writers do, and he ignored the later phase, the academic Baroque that lasted into the 18th century. Long despised, Baroque art and architecture became fashionable between the two World Wars, and has remained in critical favour. In painting the gradual rise in popular esteem of Caravaggio has been the best barometer of modern taste, William Watson describes a late phase of Shang-dynasty Chinese ritual bronzes of the 11th century BC as baroque. The term Baroque may still be used, usually pejoratively, describing works of art, craft, the appeal of Baroque style turned consciously from the witty, intellectual qualities of 16th-century Mannerist art to a visceral appeal aimed at the senses. It employed an iconography that was direct, simple, obvious, germinal ideas of the Baroque can also be found in the work of Michelangelo. Even more generalised parallels perceived by some experts in philosophy, prose style, see the Neapolitan palace of Caserta, a Baroque palace whose construction began in 1752. In paintings Baroque gestures are broader than Mannerist gestures, less ambiguous, less arcane and mysterious, more like the stage gestures of opera, Baroque poses depend on contrapposto, the tension within the figures that move the planes of shoulders and hips in counterdirections. Baroque is a style of unity imposed upon rich, heavy detail, Baroque style featured exaggerated lighting, intense emotions, release from restraint, and even a kind of artistic sensationalism. There were highly diverse strands of Italian baroque painting, from Caravaggio to Cortona, the most prominent Spanish painter of the Baroque was Diego Velázquez. The later Baroque style gradually gave way to a more decorative Rococo, while the Baroque nature of Rembrandts art is clear, the label is less often used for Vermeer and many other Dutch artists. Flemish Baroque painting shared a part in this trend, while continuing to produce the traditional categories
Baroque
–
The Triumph of the Immaculate by
Paolo de Matteis
Baroque
–
The Church of
Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, designed by
Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Baroque
–
Brooch of an African,
Walters Art Museum
Baroque
–
Aeneas Flees Burning Troy,
Federico Barocci, 1598
18.
Ancient Greece
–
Ancient Greece was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th-9th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and this was followed by the period of Classical Greece, an era that began with the Greco-Persian Wars, lasting from the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Due to the conquests by Alexander the Great of Macedonia, Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the end of the Mediterranean Sea. Classical Greek culture, especially philosophy, had a influence on ancient Rome. For this reason Classical Greece is generally considered to be the culture which provided the foundation of modern Western culture and is considered the cradle of Western civilization. Classical Antiquity in the Mediterranean region is considered to have begun in the 8th century BC. Classical Antiquity in Greece is preceded by the Greek Dark Ages and this period is succeeded, around the 8th century BC, by the Orientalizing Period during which a strong influence of Syro-Hittite, Jewish, Assyrian, Phoenician and Egyptian cultures becomes apparent. The end of the Dark Ages is also dated to 776 BC. The Archaic period gives way to the Classical period around 500 BC, Ancient Periods Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details The history of Greece during Classical Antiquity may be subdivided into five major periods. The earliest of these is the Archaic period, in which artists made larger free-standing sculptures in stiff, the Archaic period is often taken to end with the overthrow of the last tyrant of Athens and the start of Athenian Democracy in 508 BC. It was followed by the Classical period, characterized by a style which was considered by observers to be exemplary, i. e. classical, as shown in the Parthenon. This period saw the Greco-Persian Wars and the Rise of Macedon, following the Classical period was the Hellenistic period, during which Greek culture and power expanded into the Near and Middle East. This period begins with the death of Alexander and ends with the Roman conquest, Herodotus is widely known as the father of history, his Histories are eponymous of the entire field. Herodotus was succeeded by authors such as Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Plato, most of these authors were either Athenian or pro-Athenian, which is why far more is known about the history and politics of Athens than those of many other cities. Their scope is limited by a focus on political, military and diplomatic history, ignoring economic. In the 8th century BC, Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization, literacy had been lost and Mycenaean script forgotten, but the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet, modifying it to create the Greek alphabet. The Lelantine War is the earliest documented war of the ancient Greek period and it was fought between the important poleis of Chalcis and Eretria over the fertile Lelantine plain of Euboea. Both cities seem to have suffered a decline as result of the long war, a mercantile class arose in the first half of the 7th century BC, shown by the introduction of coinage in about 680 BC
Ancient Greece
–
The
Parthenon, a temple dedicated to
Athena, located on the
Acropolis in
Athens, is one of the most representative symbols of the culture and sophistication of the ancient Greeks.
Ancient Greece
–
Dipylon Vase of the late Geometric period, or the beginning of the Archaic period,
c. 750 BC.
Ancient Greece
–
Political geography of ancient Greece in the Archaic and Classical periods
19.
Kupferstichkabinett Berlin
–
The Kupferstichkabinett, or Museum of Prints and Drawings, is a prints museum in Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Berlin State Museums, and is located in the Kulturforum on Potsdamer Platz and it is the largest museum of graphic art in Germany, with more than 500,000 prints and around 110,000 individual works on paper. The Kupferstichkabinett was officially founded in 1831, with a collection of drawings, in 1994 it opened in a new building in the Kulturforum, reuniting the parts of the collection that had been split between East and West Berlin together with the National Gallerys collection. The emphasis is on European drawings and printed graphics from the Middle Ages to the present, as well as illuminated manuscripts, sketchbooks, topographical drawings and printing plates. The older artists include Dürer, Grünewald, Botticelli and Menzel, as well as Altdorfer, Bosch, Bruegel, Chodowiecki, Friedrich, Mantegna, Rembrandt, Schinkel, and Tiepolo. More recent artists include Kirchner, Munch and Picasso, Pop Artists conceptual artists, minimalists, and contemporary artists working in Berlin. Some of the works on paper are stored in other Berlin collections that have a relevant theme, such as the Ethnological and Asian Art Museums, the Art Library, the Kupferstichkabinett carries out research and preservation activities and has its own Conservation Advisory Council. Particular candidates for preservation include the bound handwritten works from the Middle Ages and Renaissance, large 19th-century cartoon sketches, other subjects of research include silverpoint drawings and drawings by Grünewald. There is also an updated index of watermarks to assist in the dating of works on paper. Divine Comedy illustrated by Botticelli Alexander Dückers, Das Berliner Kupferstichkabinett
Kupferstichkabinett Berlin
–
The Kupferstichkabinett in the
Kulturforum.
Kupferstichkabinett Berlin
–
Drawing by
Matthias Grünewald in the Kupferstichkabinett.
20.
Schloss Monbijou
–
Heavily damaged in World War II, the ruins were finally razed by the communist authorities of East Berlin in 1959. The palace has not been rebuilt, in the Middle Ages the site was outside the city walls on the road to Spandau and contained a manor farmstead of the prince-elector of Brandenburg. The entire area was devastated in the Thirty Years’ War, with great dedication she established there an exemplary rural estate including crops and dairy farming following the Dutch model. The first potatoes in the Margraviate of Brandenburg were grown there as an ornamental plant, after Henriette’s death in 1667 the property went to the elector’s second wife, Sophia Dorothea of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. She added a garden with a summer house, the nucleus of the future palace. Frederick I, who became Elector of Brandenburg on the death of his father in 1688 and King in Prussia in 1701, friedrich I presented it to Countess Wartenberg, his mistress. From 1712 the little palace served as the residence of Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, who in 1706 married Frederick William I of Prussia. Both she and her father-in-law are attributed with naming the palace Monbijou, in 1717 tsar Peter the Great of Russia and his court lodged at Monbijou for two days while traveling abroad. According to contemporary reports, the Russian guests left the property in “a complete mess” after their departure, dorothea’s son, Frederick the Great, had the palace modernized and considerably enlarged as soon as he had acceded to the throne. In 1742 the “Berlinische Nachrichten” reported that the keys had been turned over to the queen mother, Dorothea spent the summer months at Monbijou, giving formal dinners, masquerade balls and concerts there, pleasures she had long done without under the Spartan reign of Frederick William I. The palace had its own jetty, since the court members often preferred to arrive in comfort via the waterways instead of being jarred over rough roads, the palace was long uninhabited after the death of Queen Sophie Dorothea in 1757. She died at Monbijou in 1805, after that, the palace had outlived its usefulness as a residence for members of the court. The Anglican congregation of Berlin began using a gatehouse of Monbijou Palace as the English Chapel from 1855, the chapel soon became too small for the services of the congregation, regularly attended by Princess Royal Victoria, Crown Princess of Prussia and the German Empire. In 1883 Crown Prince Frederick William and Victoria provided a site in the park of Monbijou Palace close to Monbijoustraße, around 1820 the so-called “Germanic-Slavic Antiquities” were removed from the royal curiosities cabinet and housed in Monbijou Palace as the Museum for National Antiquities. It was considered to be on the one hand an educational institution of cultural history, the museum survived the abolition of the monarchy in Germany in 1918. World War II brought this state of affairs to an end, large parts of the collections had been evacuated, and after the war were looted and brought to the Soviet Union and other places. Monbijou castle was to be pulled down and rebuilt in the park of Charlottenburg Palace between the nearby Spree sluice and the Berlin Ringbahn. The war made these plans irrelevant, as a precaution, all the palace windows had been bricked up already in 1940, but the entire building was gutted during an air raid in November 1943 and almost entirely destroyed
Schloss Monbijou
–
Monbijou Palace, riverside, oil on canvas, about 1739 (with
Sophienkirche tower in the background)
Schloss Monbijou
–
Copper engraving of Monbijou palace by Johann Christoph Böcklin, 1703
Schloss Monbijou
–
Floor plan of the Hohenzollern Museum, 1904
Schloss Monbijou
–
Museum interior view, 1936
21.
Neues Museum
–
The Neues Museum is a museum in Berlin, Germany, located to the north of the Altes Museum on Museum Island. It was built between 1843 and 1855 according to plans by Friedrich August Stüler, a student of Karl Friedrich Schinkel, the museum was closed at the beginning of World War II in 1939, and was heavily damaged during the bombing of Berlin. The rebuilding was overseen by the English architect David Chipperfield, the museum officially reopened in October 2009 and received a 2010 RIBA European Award and the 2011 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture. Exhibits include the Egyptian and Prehistory and Early History collections, as it did before the war, the artifacts it houses include the iconic bust of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti. Both as a part of the Museum Island complex and as an individual building, with its new industrialized building procedures and its use of iron construction, the museum plays an important role in the history of technology. The Neues Museum was the museum to be built on Museum Island and was intended as an extension to house collections which could not be accommodated in the Altes Museum. Among these were collections of plaster casts, ancient Egyptian artifacts, the prehistoric and early historic collections, the collection. It is thus the source of the collections in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin. Moreover, the Neues Museum is an important monument in the history of construction, with its various iron constructions, it is the first monumental building of Prussia to consistently apply new techniques made possible by industrialization. As a further innovation, an engine was used for the first time in construction in Berlin. Among other things, it was used to ram pilings into the building ground, the soft, spongy soil around the River Spree means that buildings in the central area of Berlin require deep foundations. The king, with his cabinet, had ordered that the construction project be assigned to Stüler on 8 March 1841. The poor quality of the ground at the site became apparent quickly. Therefore, a structure was necessary under the whole building, consisting of 2344 wooden foundation piles between 6.9 and 18.2 meters long. To ram the piles in, a 5-horsepower steam engine was used and it drove the pumps that drained the building site, the elevators, and the mortar mixing machines. The newsletter of the Berlin Architecture Association reported on the building site, on 6 April 1843 when the ceremony of laying the cornerstone took place, the foundations, including the cellars, were already built. Construction of the walls was completed at the end of 1843, so that by 1844, in 1845, iron constructions, the construction of flat vaulted ceilings and brick-lining of the connecting gallery to the Altes Museum were completed. An auxiliary railway transported building materials from the street just west across the River Spree, Am Kupfergraben, on the individual floors of the museum, rails were also used to transport construction materials
Neues Museum
–
Neues Museum in 2009
Neues Museum
–
The Egyptian courtyard, from Friedrich August Stüler, Das Neue Museum in Berlin, Riedel 1862
Neues Museum
–
East façade of the Neues Museum with connection to the Altes Museum and the
Colonnade, from Friedrich August Stüler, Das Neue Museum in Berlin, Riedel 1862.
Neues Museum
–
The Neues Museum in 1850 (view from Friedrichsbrücke)
22.
Alte Nationalgalerie
–
It is the original building of the National Gallery, whose holdings are now housed in several additional buildings. It is situated on Museum Island, a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site, the first impetus to founding a national gallery came in 1815. The idea gained momentum during the 1830s, but without an actual building, in 1841 the first real plans were created. This donation formed the basis of the current collection, the collection was first known as Wagenersche und Nationalgalerie and was housed in the buildings of the Akademie der Künste. The current building, shaped like a Roman temple with an apse, was designed by Friedrich August Stüler and after his death. Friedrich August Stüler began working on a design for the building in 1863, two years and two failed plans later, his third proposal was finally accepted. Stüler died before planning was completed and Carl Busse handled the details in 1865. In 1866, by order of the king and his cabinet, ground was broken in 1867 under the supervision of Heinrich Strack. In 1872 the structure was completed and interior work began, the opening took place on March 22,1876 in the presence of the Kaiser. Because of the modern construction using brick and iron, it was widely believed to be fireproof. The exterior and outer staircase were constructed of Triassic sandstone from Nebra, at the opening the collection was still relatively small. Next to Wageners collection, originally, was a display of cartoons by Peter von Cornelius that had been bequeathed to the Prussian government, the initial objective of the gallery was to collect contemporary, primarily Prussian art, as Berlin did not then have any repository of modern art. In 1874 Max Jordan became the first director of the National Gallery, in 1896 he was succeeded by Hugo von Tschudi, who acquired Impressionist works, risking conflict with the Kaiser because this ended the collections focus on German art. The German National Gallery thus became the most important museum for modern French Art at the turn of the century, in 1909, Ludwig Justi assumed the post of director, and added Expressionist works to the collection. Following the German Revolution of 1918–1919 that ended Imperial rule, he moved the art to the Kronprinzenpalais at the end of Unter den Linden. In 1933, the new Nazi authorities dismissed Justi, who was followed by Eberhard Hanfstaengl and he remained until 1937, when he too was dismissed. His successor, Paul Ortwin Rave, remained until 1950, although because of World War II the building was closed during much of that time and it was heavily damaged in Allied air raids. It was partly reopened in 1949, but reconstruction continued until 1969, between 1998 and 2001, the museum was renovated thoroughly by German architect HG Merz
Alte Nationalgalerie
–
Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery)
Alte Nationalgalerie
–
Picture of the Alte Nationalgalerie from
Heinrich August Pierer 's Universal-Lexikon, 1891.
Alte Nationalgalerie
–
Eisenwalzwerk (The Iron Rolling Mill (Modern Cyclopes)) by
Adolph von Menzel.
Alte Nationalgalerie
–
Mitte
23.
Johann Heinrich Strack
–
Johann Heinrich Strack was a German architect of the Schinkelschule. His notable works include the Berlin Victory Column, Heinrich was the son of the portrait and landscape painter Anton Wilhelm Strack and a sister of the painter Johann Heinrich Tischbein the elder. Johann studied at the Berlin Bauakademie on and off from 1824 to 1838, in 1841 he was appointed a professor at the Prussian Academy of Arts, where he had been a teacher since 1839. From 1842 he served in the Hofbauamt and in 1850 he joined the Baudeputation, in 1854 he was appointed a professor at the Berlin Bauakademie and in 1862 he carried out excavations in Athens with Ernst Curtius and Karl Bötticher. In 1876 Wilhelm I made Strack Kaisers architect, which marked his transition to retirement. 1845–1849, Babelsberg Palace, completion after the death of Ludwig Persius 1854, Refurbishment of the Old Palace, Unter den Linden, Berlin 1853–1856, St. In, duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1893, S.484 f
Johann Heinrich Strack
–
J. Heinrich Strack
Johann Heinrich Strack
–
Bust of Strack by
Calandrelli on his grave in the
Dorotheenstädtischen Friedhof in Berlin.
24.
Bodemuseum
–
The Bode Museum is one of the group of museums on the Museum Island in Berlin, Germany. It was designed by architect Ernst von Ihne and completed in 1904, originally called the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum after Emperor Frederick III, the museum was renamed in honour of its first curator, Wilhelm von Bode, in 1956. Closed for repairs since 1997, the museum was reopened on October 18,2006 after a €156 million refurbishment. True to the ethos of its director, Wilhelm von Bode, who believed in mixing art collections, it is now the home for a collection of sculptures, Byzantine art. The sculpture collection shows art of the Christian Orient, sculptures from Byzantium and Ravenna, sculptures of the Middle Ages, the Italian Gothic, and the early Renaissance. Late German Gothic works are represented by Tilman Riemenschneider, the south German Renaissance. In the future selected works of the Gemäldegalerie will be integrated into the sculpture collection and this is reminiscent of William von Bodes concept of style rooms, in which sculptures, paintings, and crafts are viewed together, as was usual in upper middle-class private collections. The Münzkabinett is one of the worlds largest numismatic collections and its range spans from the beginning of minting in the 7th century BC in Asia Minor up to the present day. With approximately 500,000 items the collection is an archive for historical research. Writing in The Financial Times on the occasion on the reopening in 2006, Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum. Wilhelm von Bode, the manager of the Prussian Art Collections for the Berlin Museum, had spotted the bust in a London gallery. Shortly afterwards, The Times ran an article claiming that the bust was the work of Lucas, lucass son, Albert, then came forward and swore under oath that the story was correct and that he had helped his father to make it. Albert was able to explain how the layers of wax had been built up from old candle ends, he described how his father would stuff various debris, including newspapers. When the Berlin museum staff removed the base they found the debris, just as Albert had described it, despite this evidence, Bode continued to claim that his original attribution was correct. Various claims and counter-claims have been put forward about the bust, scientific examination has been inconclusive and unhelpful in dating the bust, although it is accepted as having at least some connection with Lucas. The bust remains on display in what is now the Bode Museum labelled England, on 27 March 2017, a solid gold coin called the Big Maple Leaf, issued by the Royal Canadian Mint in 2007 as a commemorative piece, was stolen from the museum. The coin, at 53cm in diameter and 3cm in thickness, is made of 24-carat gold and is worth around €3.7 million. A ladder was found on the train tracks nearby, leading German police to speculate that the thief entered the building by breaking open a window in the back of the next to the railway tracks
Bodemuseum
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The Bode Museum
Bodemuseum
–
The Bode Museum in 1904
Bodemuseum
–
At night
Bodemuseum
–
The entrance hall
25.
Ernst von Ihne
–
Ernst Eberhard von Ihne was a German architect. He served as architect to the German Emperor Frederick III and to his son. Among his best known works are the Prussian Royal Library building, the Neuer Marstall, and the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum. Hans Reuther, Ihne, Ernst von, Neue Deutsche Biographie,10, Berlin, Duncker & Humblot, pp. 128–129 Oliver Sander, humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin 2000. Media related to Ernst von Ihne at Wikimedia Commons Entry for Ernst von Ihne on the Union List of Artist Names Brief entry on Ihne from the Oxford Dictionary of Architecture & Landscaping
Ernst von Ihne
–
Ernst von Ihne, 1900
Ernst von Ihne
–
Neue Jagdschloss Hummelshain,
Hummelshain (1880–85)
Ernst von Ihne
–
Kawalera Palace,
Świerklaniec (1903-1906)
Ernst von Ihne
–
Bode Museum,
Berlin (1904)
26.
Pergamonmuseum
–
The Pergamon Museum is situated on the Museum Island in Berlin. The building was designed by Alfred Messel and Ludwig Hoffmann and was constructed over a period of twenty years, the museum is subdivided into the antiquity collection, the Middle East museum, and the museum of Islamic art. It is visited by approximately 1,135,000 people every year, making it the most visited art museum in Germany, Alfred Messel began a design for the large three-wing building in 1906. After his death in 1909 his friend Ludwig Hoffman took charge of the project and construction began in 1910, continuing during the First World War, the completed building was opened In 1930. The Pergamon Museum was severely damaged during the air attacks on Berlin at the end of the Second World War, many of the display objects had been stored in safe places, and some of the large exhibits were walled in for protection. In 1945, the Red Army collected all of the museum items, either as war booty or, ostensibly, to rescue them from looting. Not until 1958 were most of the returned to East Germany. Significant parts of the remain in Russia. Some are currently stored in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow and the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, the return of these items has been arranged in a treaty between Germany and Russia but, as of June 2003, is blocked by Russian restitution laws. It first became accessible to the public in 1830, when the Altes Museum was opened, the collection expanded greatly with the excavations in Olympia, Samos, Pergamon, Miletus, Priene, Magnesia, Cyprus and Didyma. This collection is divided between the Pergamon Museum and the Altes Museum, as Germany was divided following the Second World War, so was the collection. The Pergamon Museum was reopened in 1959 in East Berlin, while what remained in West Berlin was displayed in Schloss Charlottenburg, when the Bode Museum was opened in 1904, a section for Islamic art was created and later included in the Pergamon Museum. It was a gift from the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II to Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, parts of the eastern portion of the facade and the ruins of the structure of which it formed a part remain in Jordan. Another unique exhibition is the Aleppo room and this area of the museum features a reception room from a brokers home in Aleppo, Syria, that was commissioned during the Ottoman Period. The Islamic Art Museum also regularly hosts exhibitions of modern art from the Islamic world, such as the 2008 Turkish Delight. In 2008 part of the Keir Collection of Edmund de Unger, formerly housed in his home in Ham, the Middle East Museum exhibition displays objects found by German archeologists and others from the areas of Assyrian, Sumerian and Babylonian culture. Additionally there are buildings, reliefs and lesser cultural objects. The main display is the Ishtar Gate and the Processional Way of Babylon together with the throne room facade of Nebuchadnezzar II, the Vorderasiatisches Museum also displays the Meissner fragment from the Epic of Gilgamesh
Pergamonmuseum
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Pergamon Museum
Pergamonmuseum
–
Pergamon Altar
Pergamonmuseum
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Ishtar Gate
Pergamonmuseum
–
Aleppo Room
27.
Alfred Messel
–
Alfred Messel was one of the most well-known German architects at the turning point to the 20th century, creating a new style for buildings which bridged the transition from historicism to modernism. As an urban architect striving for excellence he was in many respects ahead of his time and his most well known works, the Wertheim department stores and the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, reflect a new concept of self-confident metropolitan architecture. His architectural drawings and construction plans are preserved at the Architecture Museum of the Technical University of Berlin, Alfred Messel was the third son of the banker Simon Messel. The family owned a bank which was managed by Alfred’s brother Ludwig, first in Darmstadt and then, from the end of the 1870s. In his youth Alfred Messel began a friendship with Ludwig Hoffmann. In 1872 Messel graduated from the Ludwig-Georgs-Gymnasium in Darmstadt, after which he served in the military as a volunteer in the First Grand Ducal Hessian Royal Guard Infantry Regiment. In 1873 he attended the Kassel art academy together with his friend Ludwig Hoffmann, followed by studies at the Berlin Building Academy under Heinrich Strack. Over the next two years he traveled extensively through France, Spain, Italy and Great Britain and was a lecturer at the newly founded Technical University in Berlin-Charlottenburg, in 1886 he took a leave of absence from the civil service to work as a private architect. On February 1,1893 he married Elsa Altmann and in November of that year their first child, in February 1894 he was appointed professor at the Berlin School of Fine Arts and in the same year founded an architectural firm together with Martin Altgelt. In 1896 his son Ludwig Leonhard was born, in 1899 Messel converted from Judaism to Protestantism. On May 17 of that year he received the Order of the Red Eagle, 4th Class, also that year his youngest daughter Irene was born. In 1900 he terminated his collaboration with Martin Altgelt, starting in 1902 he suffered from heart disease, which caused him to spend long periods at a health resort in the following years. He was busy with the extension of the Wertheim store on Leipziger Platz 1903/06. In 1906 Messel became a member of the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin and in 1906 was awarded a doctorate from Darmstadt Technical University. Messel died on March 24,1909 and was buried in the Alter St. -Matthäus-Kirchhof in Berlin-Schöneberg, since he was of Jewish descent, city streets named after him were renamed during the Nazi era. Messel’s most famous work is the Wertheim Department store on Leipziger Platz, after passing through a vestibule two-storeys high, one entered a rectangular light well 22 meter high and 450 square meters in size. On the opposite wall a stairway led to the upper sales floors. The store did not survive World War II, in March 1943 it was damaged by three exploding bombs, and its final destruction was caused by a fire started by a phosphorus bomb
Alfred Messel
–
Alfred Messel c. 1900
Alfred Messel
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Messel's Wertheim department store on Leipziger Platz in the 1920s.
Alfred Messel
–
The lofty central hall of the store
Alfred Messel
–
Entrance to the Pergamon Museum, Berlin
28.
Ludwig Hoffmann (architect)
–
Ludwig Ernst Emil Hoffmann was a German architect and was one of the most famous architects of Berlin. Ludwig Hoffmann was born in Darmstadt and educated at the Kunstakademie Kassel, in 1879, after passing the first state examination, Hoffmann began working for the government of Berlin as a construction foreman under Franz Heinrich Schwechten. His architectural career began in 1880 when he and Peter Dybwad, in 1895, the year it was completed, he returned to Berlin and that June married Marie Weisbach, a bankers daughter. In 1896, Hoffmann became Stadtbaurat—director of urban planning and construction—for Berlin and he served for 28 years until 1924 and is now regarded as the most important holder of the position. Under his leadership 111 facilities were built, including over 300 buildings and he designed the new administration building for the city of Berlin, now known as the Altes Stadthaus. He designed the Märkisches Museum, the museum of Berlin and the Mark Brandenburg, with Alfred Messel, he designed the built version of the Pergamon Museum on Museum Island. In addition he designed bridges, fountains, public baths, schools of every kind, orphanages, hospital complexes, cemeteries, private villas, in his memoirs, he describes the long history of work on the Märchenbrunnen for the Volkspark Friedrichshain, the first public park in Berlin. An archive of many of his designs is kept at the Architecture Museum of the Berlin Institute of Technology, in 1906 Ludwig Hoffmann was awarded the title of Privy Councillor and an honorary doctorate from the Technische Universität Darmstadt. In the same year he was elected to membership of the Prussian Academy of Arts, in 1917 he received a second honorary doctorate, from the Vienna University of Technology. Upon his retirement in 1924 he was awarded citizenship of Berlin. A primary school in Friedrichshain, a hospital in Pankow, a bridge in Moabit, hoffmanns work was long out of favor for its historicism, but is now recognized as an important part of the effort to accommodate Berlins rapid growth prior to World War I. As early as 1956, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe admitted he had been wronged, dehio, Georg, Bollé, Michael, Badstübner-Gröger, Sibylle, eds. Schäche, Wolfgang, ed. Lebenserinnerungen eines Architekten, bauwerke und Kunstdenkmäler von Berlin Beiheft. Reichhardt, Hans J. Schäche, Wolfgang, eds, Ludwig Hoffmann in Berlin, die Wiederentdeckung eines Architekten, eine Ausstellung des Landesarchivs Berlin,11. Das Reichsgerichtsgebäude in Leipzig—vom Entwurf zum ausgeführten Bau, in Schmidt-Recla, Adrian, Schumann, Eva, Theisen, Frank. Sachsen im Spiegel des Rechts, ius commune propriumque, viergutz, Volker, Das hätten wir in der Brüderstraße uns auch nicht träumen lassen. Anmerkungen zur Freundschaft von Ludwig Hoffmann und Alfred Messel, Berlin in Geschichte und Gegenwart, jahrbuch des Landesarchivs Berlin, p.83 Zajonz, Michael. Meister aller Klassen, Alleskönner, Eine Ausstellung ehrt Berlins bedeutendsten Stadtbaurat Ludwig Hoffmann zum 150
Ludwig Hoffmann (architect)
–
Altes Stadthaus in Berlin
Ludwig Hoffmann (architect)
–
Ludwig Hoffmann
Ludwig Hoffmann (architect)
–
Portraits of Hoffmann and Ernst Friedel by Evelyn Hartnick at the
Märkisches Museum
Ludwig Hoffmann (architect)
–
Sign on the Ludwig Hoffmann Bridge in
Moabit
29.
Neo-Renaissance
–
The divergent forms of Renaissance architecture in different parts of Europe, particularly in France and Italy, has added to the difficulty of defining and recognizing Neo-Renaissance architecture. The movement grew from scientific observations of nature, in human anatomy. Neo-Renaissance architecture is formed by not only the original Italian architecture, in England the Renaissance tended to manifest itself in large square tall houses such as Longleat House. Often these buildings had symmetrical towers which hint at the evolution from medieval fortified architecture and this is particularly evident at Hatfield House built between 1607 and 1611, where medieval towers jostle with a large Italian cupola. If this were not confusing enough, the new Neo-Renaissance then frequently borrowed architectural elements from the succeeding Mannerist period, mannerism and Baroque being two very opposing styles of architecture. Mannerism was exemplified by the Palazzo del Te and Baroque by the Wurzburg Residenz, as a consequence a self-consciously Neo-Renaissance manner first began to appear circa 1840. By 1890 this movement was already in decline, the Hagues Peace Palace completed in 1913, in a heavy French Neo-Renaissance manner was one of the last notable buildings in this style. Charles Barry introduced the Neo-Renaissance to England with his design of the Travellers Club, the style is characterized by original Renaissance motifs, taken from such Quattrocento architects as Alberti. These motifs included rusticated masonry and quoins, windows framed by architraves and doors crowned by pediments, if a building were of several floors the uppermost floor usually had small square windows representing the minor mezzanine floor of the original Renaissance designs. However, the Neo-renaissance style later came to incorporate Romanesque and Baroque features not found in the original Renaissance architecture which was more severe in its design. Like all architectural styles the Neo-Renaissance did not appear overnight fully formed but evolved slowly, one of the very first signs of its emergence was the Würzburg Womens Prison, which was erected in 1809 designed by Peter Speeth. This building foreshadows similar effects in the work of the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson whose work in the Neo-Renaissance style was popular in the USA during the 1880s, richardsons style at the end or the revival era was a severe mix of both Romanesque and Renaissance features. This was exemplified by his Marshall Field Warehouse in Chicago, however, while the beginning of Neo-Renaissance period can be defined by its simplicity and severity, what came between was far more ornate in its design. This period can be defined by some of the opera houses of the Europe, such as Gottfried Sempers Burgtheater in Vienna. This ornate form of the Neo-Renaissance, originating from France, is known as the Second Empire style. By 1875 it had become the style in Europe for all public and bureaucratic buildings. In England, where Sir George Gilbert Scott designed the London Foreign Office in this style between 1860 and 1875, it also incorporated certain Palladian features. In Austria, it was pioneered by such names as Rudolf Eitelberger
Neo-Renaissance
–
Schwerin Palace in
Mecklenburg, Germany - Renaissance revival architecture for representation purposes. Completed in 1857.
Neo-Renaissance
–
Waddesdon Manor, seat of the
Rothschild family, 1874
Neo-Renaissance
–
Mentmore Towers English
Jacobethan Neo-Renaissance completed in 1854, derives motifs from
Wollaton Hall completed in 1588
Neo-Renaissance
–
Russia: The façade of the
Vladimir Palace in
Saint Petersburg (1867-1872) redolent of
Alberti 's designs.
30.
Second World War
–
World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
Second World War
–
Clockwise from top left: Chinese forces in the
Battle of Wanjialing, Australian
25-pounder guns during the
First Battle of El Alamein, German
Stuka dive bombers on the
Eastern Front in December 1943, a U.S. naval force in the
Lingayen Gulf,
Wilhelm Keitel signing the
German Instrument of Surrender, Soviet troops in the
Battle of Stalingrad
Second World War
–
The
League of Nations assembly, held in
Geneva,
Switzerland, 1930
Second World War
–
Adolf Hitler at a German
National Socialist political rally in
Weimar, October 1930
Second World War
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Italian soldiers recruited in 1935, on their way to fight the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
