1.
Self-portrait
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A self-portrait is a representation of an artist that is drawn, painted, photographed, or sculpted by that artist. With better and cheaper mirrors, and the advent of the panel portrait, Portrait of a Man in a Turban by Jan van Eyck of 1433 may well be the earliest known panel self-portrait. He painted a portrait of his wife, and he belonged to the social group that had begun to commission portraits. The genre is venerable, but not until the Renaissance, with increased wealth and interest in the individual as a subject, a self-portrait may be a portrait of the artist, or a portrait included in a larger work, including a group portrait. Many painters are said to have included depictions of specific individuals, including themselves, in these works, the artist usually appears as a face in the crowd or group, often towards the edges or corner of the work and behind the main participants. Rubenss The Four Philosophers is a good example and this culminated in the 17th century with the work of Jan de Bray. Many artistic media have used, apart from paintings, drawings. In the famous Arnolfini Portrait, Jan van Eyck is probably one of two figures glimpsed in a mirror – a surprisingly modern conceit. The Van Eyck painting may have inspired Diego Velázquez to depict himself in view as the painter creating Las Meninas, as the Van Eyck hung in the palace in Madrid where he worked. This was another modern flourish, given that he appears as the painter, in what may be one of the earliest childhood self-portraits now surviving, Albrecht Dürer depicts himself as in naturalistic style as a 13-year-old boy in 1484. In later years he appears variously as a merchant in the background of Biblical scenes, leonardo da Vinci may have drawn a picture of himself at the age of 60, in around 1512. The picture is often reproduced as Da Vincis appearance, although this is not certain. In the 17th century, Rembrandt painted a range of self-portraits, family and professional group paintings, including the artists depiction, became increasingly common from the 17th century on. From the later 20th century on, video plays a part in self-portraiture. Vigée-Lebrun painted a total of 37 self-portraits, many of which were copies of earlier ones, Women artists have historically embodied a number of roles within their self-portraiture. Most common is the artist at work, showing themselves in the act of painting, or at least holding a brush and palette. Often, the viewer if the clothes worn were those they normally painted in. Images of artists at work are encountered in Ancient Egyptian painting, one of the first self-portraits was made by the Pharaoh Akhenatens chief sculptor Bak in 1365 BC
2.
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
3.
Winterthur
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Winterthur is a city in the canton of Zürich in northern Switzerland. It has the sixth largest population, estimated at over 108,000 people. The official language of Winterthur is German, but the spoken language is the local variant of the Alemannic Swiss German dialect. In the local dialect and by its inhabitants, Winterthur is usually abbreviated as Winti, Winterthur is connected to Germany by direct trains and enjoys links to Zürich Airport. There are also leading to other places such as Turbenthal. The railway station Bahnhof Winterthur is one of the busiest railway stations in Switzerland, vitudurum was a vicus in what is now Oberwinterthur during the Roman era, fortified into a castrum at the end of the 3rd century, apparently in reaction to the incipient Alamannic invasion. An Alamannic settlement was present at the site in the 7th century, in a battle near Winterthur in 919, Burchard II of Swabia asserted his control over the Thurgau within the Duchy of Swabia against the claims of Rudolph II of Burgundy. The counts of Winterthur, a branch of the counts of Bregenz. With the extinction of the counts of Winterthur in 1053, the passed to the counts of Dillingen. Winterthur as a city was founded by Hartmann III of Dillingen in 1180, from 1180 to 1263, Winterthur was ruled by the cadet line of the House of Kyburg. From 1415 until 1442 Winterthur became reichsfrei or subject only to the Holy Roman Emperor, however, in the Old Zürich War they lost this freedom and came back under the control of the Austrian Habsburgs. Needing money, in 1467, the Habsburgs sold Winterthur to the city of Zürich, in the time under the leadership of Zürich, Winterthurs economic freedom was restricted. It lost many of their rights and the right to trade in some goods. This ended in 1798, when Napoleonic troops liberated the town, because Winterthur lies near Zürich and at the junction of seven cross-roads, the army that held the town held the access to most of Switzerland and points crossing the Rhine into southern Germany. This led to the French defeat a few days later, in the 19th century, Winterthur became an industrial town when companies, like Sulzer, Rieter and SLM, built large industrial plants. Winterthur suffered severely from its investments in and guarantee of loans to the National Railway of Switzerland, the Great Depression, in the 1930s, hit Winterthur extremely hard. 60% of the employees in town worked in the machine industry. Jobs became extremely hard to find, however, with the outbreak of World War II, industry grew again in the city
4.
Old Swiss Confederacy
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The Old Swiss Confederacy was a precursor of the modern state of Switzerland. It was a confederation of independent small states which formed during the 14th century. From a nucleus in what is now Central Switzerland, the confederacy expanded to include the cities of Zurich and this formed a rare union of rural and urban communes, all of which enjoyed imperial immediacy in the Holy Roman Empire. Its success resulted in the addition of more confederates, increasing the number of cantons to thirteen by 1513, the confederacy pledged neutrality in 1515 and 1647, although many Swiss served privately as mercenaries in the Italian Wars and during the Early Modern period. After the Swabian War of 1499 the confederacy was a de facto independent state throughout the modern period. The Swiss Confederacy fell to invasion by the French Revolutionary Army in 1798, the adjective “old” was introduced after the Napoleonic era with Ancien Régime, retronyms distinguishing the pre-Napoleonic from the restored confederation. During its existence the confederacy was known as Eidgenossenschaft or Eydtgnoschafft, in reference to treaties among cantons, territories of the confederacy came to be known collectively as Schweiz or Schweizerland, with the English Switzerland beginning during the mid-16th century. From that time the Confederacy was seen as a single state, the foundation of the Confederacy is marked by the Rütlischwur or the 1315 Pact of Brunnen. Since 1889, the Federal Charter of 1291 among the communes of Uri, Schwyz. The initial pact was augmented by pacts with the cities of Lucerne, Zürich, in several battles with Habsburg armies, the Swiss were victorious, they conquered the rural areas of Glarus and Zug, which became members of the confederacy. From 1353 to 1481, the federation of eight cantons—known in German as the Acht Orte —consolidated its position, the members enlarged their territory at the expense of local counts—primarily by buying judicial rights, but sometimes by force. The Eidgenossenschaft, as a whole, expanded through military conquest, the Aargau was conquered in 1415, in both cases, the Swiss profited from weakness in the Habsburg dukes. In the south, Uri led a military territorial expansion that would by 1515 lead to the conquest of the Ticino, none of these territories became members of the confederacy, they had the status of condominiums. At this time, the eight cantons gradually increased their influence on neighbouring cities, individual cantons concluded pacts with Fribourg, Appenzell, Schaffhausen, the abbot and the city of St. Gallen, Biel, Rottweil, Mulhouse and others. These allies became closely associated with the confederacy, but were not accepted as full members, the Burgundy Wars prompted a further enlargement of the confederacy, Fribourg and Solothurn were accepted in 1481. In the Swabian War against Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, the Swiss were victorious, the associated cities of Basel and Schaffhausen joined the confederacy as a result of that conflict, and Appenzell followed suit in 1513 as the thirteenth member. The federation of thirteen cantons constituted the Old Swiss Confederacy until its demise in 1798, the expansion of the confederacy was stopped by the Swiss defeat in the 1515 Battle of Marignano. Only Berne and Fribourg were still able to conquer the Vaud in 1536, the Reformation in Switzerland led to doctrinal division amongst the cantons
5.
Dresden
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Dresden is the capital city and, after Leipzig, the second-largest city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the border with the Czech Republic, Dresden has a long history as the capital and royal residence for the Electors and Kings of Saxony, who for centuries furnished the city with cultural and artistic splendour. The city was known as the Jewel Box, because of its baroque, the controversial American and British bombing of Dresden in World War II towards the end of the war killed approximately 25,000, many of whom were civilians, and destroyed the entire city centre. After the war restoration work has helped to reconstruct parts of the inner city, including the Katholische Hofkirche, the Zwinger. Since German reunification in 1990 Dresden is again a cultural, educational and political centre of Germany, the Dresden University of Technology is one of the 10 largest universities in Germany and part of the German Universities Excellence Initiative. The economy of Dresden and its agglomeration is one of the most dynamic in Germany and it is dominated by high-tech branches, often called as “Silicon Saxony”. The city is one of the most visited in Germany with 4,3 million overnight stays per year. The royal buildings are among the most impressive buildings in Europe, main sights are also the nearby National Park of Saxon Switzerland, the Ore Mountains and the countryside around Elbe Valley and Moritzburg Castle. The most prominent building in the city of Dresden is the Frauenkirche, built in the 18th century, the church was destroyed during World War II. The remaining ruins were left for 50 years as a war memorial, the church was rebuilt from 1994 to 2005. Although Dresden is a relatively recent city of Germanic origin followed by settlement of Slavic people, Dresdens founding and early growth is associated with the eastward expansion of Germanic peoples, mining in the nearby Ore Mountains, and the establishment of the Margraviate of Meissen. Its name etymologically derives from Old Sorbian Drežďany, meaning people of the forest, Dresden later evolved into the capital of Saxony. Around the late 12th century, a Slavic settlement called Drežďany had developed on the southern bank, another settlement existed on the northern bank, but its Slavic name is unknown. It was known as Antiqua Dresdin by 1350, and later as Altendresden, dietrich, Margrave of Meissen, chose Dresden as his interim residence in 1206, as documented in a record calling the place Civitas Dresdene. After 1270, Dresden became the capital of the margraviate and it was given to Friedrich Clem after death of Henry the Illustrious in 1288. It was taken by the Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1316 and was restored to the Wettin dynasty after the death of Valdemar the Great in 1319, from 1485, it was the seat of the dukes of Saxony, and from 1547 the electors as well. The Elector and ruler of Saxony Frederick Augustus I became King Augustus II the Strong of Poland in personal union and he gathered many of the best musicians, architects and painters from all over Europe to the newly named Royal-Polish Residential City of Dresden. His reign marked the beginning of Dresdens emergence as a leading European city for technology, during the reign of Kings Augustus II the Strong and Augustus III of Poland the Zwinger Royal Palace, the Hofkirche and the Frauenkirche were built
6.
Kingdom of Saxony
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The Kingdom of Saxony, lasting between 1806 and 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. From 1871 it was part of the German Empire and it became a Free state in the era of Weimar Republic in 1918 after the end of World War I and the abdication of King Frederick Augustus III of Saxony. Its capital was the city of Dresden, and its successor state is the Free State of Saxony. Before 1806 Saxony was part of the Holy Roman Empire, an entity which had once aspired to be a single state. The rulers of Electorate of Saxony of the House of Wettin had held the title of elector for several centuries, the last elector of Saxony became King Frederick Augustus I. The Kingdom also joined the German Confederation, the new organization of the German states to replace the Holy Roman Empire. This effectiveness probably allowed Saxony to escape the fate of other north German states allied with Austria — notably the Kingdom of Hanover — which were annexed by Prussia after the war, the Austrians insisted as a point of honour that Saxony must be spared, and the Prussians acquiesced. Saxony nevertheless joined the Prussian-led North German Confederation the next year, with Prussias victory over France in the Franco-Prussian War of 1871, the members of the Confederation were organised by Otto von Bismarck into the German Empire, with Wilhelm I as its Emperor. Wilhelm Is grandson Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated in 1918 as a result of Germanys defeat in World War I, King Frederick Augustus III of Saxony followed him into abdication and the erstwhile Kingdom of Saxony became the Free State of Saxony within the newly formed Weimar Republic. The 1831 Constitution of Saxony established the state as a parliamentary monarchy, the king was named as head of the nation. He was required to follow the provisions of the constitution, and could not become the ruler of any other state without the consent of the Diet, or parliament. The crown was hereditary in the line of the royal family through agnatic primogeniture. Added provisions concerned the formation of a if the king was too young or otherwise unable to rule. Any acts or decrees signed or issued by the king had to be countersigned by at least one of his ministers, without the ministerial countersignature, no act of the king was to be considered valid. The king was given the right to declare any accused person innocent, or alternately to mitigate or suspend their punishment or pardon them and he was also given supreme power over religious matters in Saxony. The king was given power to promulgate laws, and to carry them into effect. He could not, however, change the constitution itself or the laws in this manner. He was permitted to veto laws passed by the Diet, or to them back with proposed amendments for reconsideration
7.
Portrait painting
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See Portrait for more about the general topic of portraits. Portrait painting is a genre in painting, where the intent is to depict a human subject, the term portrait painting can also describe the actual painted portrait. Portraitists may create their work by commission, for public and private persons, portraits are often important state and family records, as well as remembrances. Historically, portrait paintings have primarily memorialized the rich and powerful, over time, however, it became more common for middle-class patrons to commission portraits of their families and colleagues. Today, portrait paintings are commissioned by governments, corporations, groups, clubs. In addition to painting, portraits can also be made in other such as etching, lithography, photography, video. A well-executed portrait is expected to show the essence of the subject or a flattering representation. As Aristotle stated, The aim of Art is to present not the appearance of things. In most cases, this results in a serious, closed lip stare, or as Charles Dickens put it, there are only two styles of portrait painting, the serious and the smirk. Even given these limitations, a range of subtle emotions is possible from quiet menace to gentle contentment. However, with the mouth relatively neutral, much of the facial expression needs to be created through the eyes, as author and artist Gordon C. Aymar states, the eyes are the place one looks for the most complete, reliable, and the eyebrows can register, almost single-handedly, wonder, pity, fright, pain, cynicism, concentration, wistfulness, displeasure, and expectation, in infinite variations and combinations. Portrait painting can depict the full length, half length, head and shoulders, or ‘head’, as well as in profile, three-quarter view, or full face, with varying directions of light. Occasionally, artists have created portraits with multiple views, as with Anthony van Dycks Triple Portrait of Charles I, there are even a few portraits where the front of the subject is not visible at all. Another example of the view in portraiture, in this case photography, can be found here. Among the other variables, the subject can be clothed or nude, indoors or out, standing, seated, reclining. Portrait paintings can be of individuals, couples, parents and children, families and they can be created in various media including oils, watercolor, pen and ink, pencil, charcoal, pastel, and mixed media. Artists may employ a wide-ranging palette of colors, as with Pierre-Auguste Renoirs Mme, charpentier and her children,1878 or restrict themselves to mostly white or black, as with Gilbert Stuarts Portrait of George Washington
8.
Frederick the Great
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Frederick II was King of Prussia from 1740 until 1786, the longest reign of any Hohenzollern king. Frederick was the last titled King in Prussia and declared himself King of Prussia after achieving full sovereignty for all historical Prussian lands, Prussia had greatly increased its territories and became a leading military power in Europe under his rule. He became known as Frederick the Great and was affectionately nicknamed Der Alte Fritz by the Prussian, in his youth, Frederick was more interested in music and philosophy than the art of war. Upon ascending to the Prussian throne, he attacked Austria and claimed Silesia during the Silesian Wars, winning acclaim for himself. Near the end of his life, Frederick physically connected most of his realm by conquering Polish territories in the First Partition of Poland and he was an influential military theorist whose analysis emerged from his extensive personal battlefield experience and covered issues of strategy, tactics, mobility and logistics. Considering himself the first servant of the state, Frederick was a proponent of enlightened absolutism and he modernized the Prussian bureaucracy and civil service and pursued religious policies throughout his realm that ranged from tolerance to segregation. He reformed the system and made it possible for men not of noble stock to become judges. Frederick also encouraged immigrants of various nationalities and faiths to come to Prussia, some critics, however, point out his oppressive measures against conquered Polish subjects during the First Partition. Frederick supported arts and philosophers he favored, as well as allowing complete freedom of the press, Frederick is buried at his favorite residence, Sanssouci in Potsdam. Because he died childless, Frederick was succeeded by his nephew, Frederick William II, son of his brother, historian Leopold von Ranke was unstinting in his praise of Fredericks Heroic life, inspired by great ideas, filled with feats of arms. Immortalized by the raising of the Prussian state to the rank of a power, Johann Gustav Droysen was even more extolling. However, by the 21st century, a re-evaluation of his legacy as a great warrior, Frederick, the son of Frederick William I and his wife, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, was born in Berlin on 24 January 1712. The birth of Frederick was welcomed by his grandfather, Frederick I, with more than usual pleasure, with the death of his father in 1713, Frederick William became King of Prussia, thus making young Frederick the crown prince. The new king wished for his sons and daughters to be educated not as royalty and he had been educated by a Frenchwoman, Madame de Montbail, who later became Madame de Rocoulle, and he wished that she educate his children. However, he possessed a violent temper and ruled Brandenburg-Prussia with absolute authority. As Frederick grew, his preference for music, literature and French culture clashed with his fathers militarism, in contrast, Fredericks mother Sophia was polite, charismatic and learned. Her father, George Louis of Brunswick-Lüneburg, succeeded to the British throne as King George I in 1714, Frederick was brought up by Huguenot governesses and tutors and learned French and German simultaneously. Although Frederick William I was raised a Calvinist, he feared he was not of the elect, to avoid the possibility of Frederick being motivated by the same concerns, the king ordered that his heir not be taught about predestination
9.
Masterpiece
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Historically, a masterpiece was a work of a very high standard produced in order to obtain membership of a guild or academy in various areas of the visual arts and crafts. The word masterpiece probably derives from the Dutch meesterstuk or German meisterstück via loan translation, masterprize was another early variant in English. In English, the term became used in a variety of contexts for an exceptionally good piece of creative work. Originally, the term referred to a piece of work produced by an apprentice or journeyman aspiring to become a master craftsman in the old European guild system. His fitness to qualify for membership was judged partly by the masterpiece, and if he was successful. Great care was taken to produce a fine piece in whatever the craft was, whether confectionery, painting, goldsmithing, knifemaking. In the 17th century, the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, for instance, the workhouse had been set up as part of a tightening of standards after the company became concerned that the level of skill of goldsmithing was being diluted. The same goldsmithing organization still requires the production of a masterpiece, if they failed to be admitted, then they could continue to work for other goldsmiths but not as a master themselves. In some guilds, apprentices were not allowed to marry until they had obtained full membership, the practice of producing a masterpiece has continued in some modern academies of art, where the general term for such works is now reception piece. The Royal Academy in London uses the term work and it has acquired a fine collection of diploma works received as a condition of membership. Painting the Century,101 Portrait Masterpieces 1900–2000 Virtual Collection of Masterpieces Masterpieces at the Louvre
10.
Academy of Arts, Berlin
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The Academy of Arts is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to art, as well as to advise. The current Academy was founded on 1 October 1993 as the re-unification of formerly separate East and West German academies, the Academy is an incorporated body of the public right under the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany. New members are nominated by secret ballot of the general assembly, founded by the Hohenzollern elector Frederick III, it was the third-oldest such academy in Europe. The institution was housed on No.8 Unter den Linden, until from 1902 the site was cleared, the Academy also served as a training school since its founding, and created a number of affiliated schools. The first was the Bauakademie for architectural training, founded in 1799, the academic arm was fully separated in 1931 and developed into the present-day Berlin University of the Arts. In postwar divided Germany, two parallel organizations took its place, the western successor organization was called the Akademie der Künste, founded in 1954 under President Hans Scharoun, which resided in the rebuilt Hansaviertel quarter of West Berlin. Its presidents included Arnold Zweig, Ludwig Renn, Johannes R. Becher, Otto Nagel, Willi Bredel, Konrad Wolf, Manfred Wekwerth and Heiner Müller. These two were merged on 1 October 1993 into the academy, which took its seat in a new building at the former location on Pariser Platz
11.
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
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The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna is a public art school of higher education in Vienna, Austria. In 1701 he was ennobled by Emperor Joseph I as Freiherr of the Empire, with his death in 1714, the academy temporarily closed. On 20 January 1725, Emperor Charles VI appointed the Frenchman Jacob van Schuppen as Prefect and Director of the Academy, hofakademie der Maler, Bildhauer und Baukunst. Upon Charles death in 1740, the academy at first declined, however during the rule of his daughter Empress Maria Theresa, a new statute reformed the academy in 1751. The prestige of the academy grew during the deanships of Michelangelo Unterberger and Paul Troger, in 1772, there were further reforms to the organisational structure. Chancellor Wenzel Anton Kaunitz integrated all existing art schools into the k. k. vereinigten Akademie der bildenden Künste, the word vereinigten was later dropped. In 1822 the art cabinet grew significantly with the bequest of honorary member Anton Franz de Paula Graf Lamberg-Sprinzenstein and his collection still forms the backbone of the art on display. In 1872 Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria approved a statute making the academy the supreme government authority for the arts, a new building was constructed according to plans designed by the faculty Theophil Hansen in the course of the layout of the Ringstraße boulevard. On 3 April 1877, the building on Schillerplatz in the Innere Stadt district was inaugurated. In 1907 and 1908, young Adolf Hitler, who had come from Linz, was denied admission to the drawing class. He stayed in Vienna, subsisting on his allowance. Soon he had withdrawn into poverty and started selling amateur paintings, mostly watercolours, during the Austrian Anschluss to Nazi Germany from 1938–1945, the academy was forced to heavily reduce its number of Jewish staff. After World War II, the academy was reconstituted in 1955 and it has had university status since 1998, but retained its original name. It is currently the only Austrian university that doesnt have the university in its name. The Academy currently has about 900 students, almost a quarter of which are foreign students and its faculty includes stars such as Peter Sloterdijk. 110,000 volumes and its etching cabinet has about 150,000 drawings, the collection is one of the biggest in Austria, and is used for academic purposes, although portions are also open to the general public. Official website website of the Media Server Study in Austria, A Guide
12.
Academy of Fine Arts, Munich
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The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich is one of the oldest and most significant art academies in Germany. It is located in the Maxvorstadt district of Munich, in Bavaria, the Academy of Fine Arts was founded 1808 by Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria in Munich as the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. The Munich School refers to a group of painters who worked in Munich or were trained at the Academy between 1850 and 1918, the paintings are characterized by a naturalistic style and dark chiaroscuro. Typical painting subjects included landscape, portraits, genre, still-life, from 1900 to 1918 the academys director was Ferdinand Freiherr von Miller. In 1946, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts was merged with the School of arts and crafts, in 1953 its name was changed to the current Academy of Fine Arts. The large 19th-century Renaissance Revival style building complex, designed by Gottfried Neureuther, was completed in 1886 and it has housed the Academy since then. A new Deconstructivist style expansion, designed by the architectural firm Coop Himmelbau as an extension from the building, was completed in 2005
13.
Prussia
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Prussia was a historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg, and centred on the region of Prussia. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organised, Prussia, with its capital in Königsberg and from 1701 in Berlin, shaped the history of Germany. In 1871, German states united to create the German Empire under Prussian leadership, in November 1918, the monarchies were abolished and the nobility lost its political power during the German Revolution of 1918–19. The Kingdom of Prussia was thus abolished in favour of a republic—the Free State of Prussia, from 1933, Prussia lost its independence as a result of the Prussian coup, when the Nazi regime was successfully establishing its Gleichschaltung laws in pursuit of a unitary state. Prussia existed de jure until its liquidation by the Allied Control Council Enactment No.46 of 25 February 1947. The name Prussia derives from the Old Prussians, in the 13th century, the Teutonic Knights—an organized Catholic medieval military order of German crusaders—conquered the lands inhabited by them. In 1308, the Teutonic Knights conquered the region of Pomerelia with Gdańsk and their monastic state was mostly Germanised through immigration from central and western Germany and in the south, it was Polonised by settlers from Masovia. The Second Peace of Thorn split Prussia into the western Royal Prussia, a province of Poland, and the part, from 1525 called the Duchy of Prussia. The union of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia in 1618 led to the proclamation of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701, Prussia entered the ranks of the great powers shortly after becoming a kingdom, and exercised most influence in the 18th and 19th centuries. During the 18th century it had a say in many international affairs under the reign of Frederick the Great. During the 19th century, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck united the German principalities into a Lesser Germany which excluded the Austrian Empire. At the Congress of Vienna, which redrew the map of Europe following Napoleons defeat, Prussia acquired a section of north western Germany. The country then grew rapidly in influence economically and politically, and became the core of the North German Confederation in 1867, and then of the German Empire in 1871. The Kingdom of Prussia was now so large and so dominant in the new Germany that Junkers and other Prussian élites identified more and more as Germans and less as Prussians. In the Weimar Republic, the state of Prussia lost nearly all of its legal and political importance following the 1932 coup led by Franz von Papen. East Prussia lost all of its German population after 1945, as Poland, the main coat of arms of Prussia, as well as the flag of Prussia, depicted a black eagle on a white background. The black and white colours were already used by the Teutonic Knights. The Teutonic Order wore a white coat embroidered with a cross with gold insert
14.
Saxony
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Its capital is Dresden, and its largest city is Leipzig. Saxony is the tenth largest of Germanys sixteen states, with an area of 18,413 square kilometres, located in the middle of a large, formerly all German-speaking part of Europe, the history of the state of Saxony spans more than a millennium. It has been a medieval duchy, an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire, a kingdom, the area of the modern state of Saxony should not be confused with Old Saxony, the area inhabited by Saxons. Old Saxony corresponds approximately to the modern German states of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony is divided into 10 districts,1. After a reform in 2008, these regions - with some alterations of their respective areas - were called Direktionsbezirke, in 2012, the authorities of these regions were merged into one central authority, the Landesdirektion Sachsen. The Erzgebirgskreis district includes the Ore Mountains, and the Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district includes Saxon Switzerland, the largest cities in Saxony according to the 31 December 2015 estimate. To this can be added that Leipzig forms a metropolitan region with Halle. The latter city is located just across the border to Saxony-Anhalt, Leipzig shares for instance an S-train system and an airport with Halle. Saxony has, after Saxony Anhalt, the most vibrant economy of the states of the former East Germany and its economy grew by 1. 9% in 2010. Nonetheless, unemployment remains above the German average, the eastern part of Germany, excluding Berlin, qualifies as an Objective 1 development-region within the European Union, and is eligible to receive investment subsidies of up to 30% until 2013. FutureSAX, a business competition and entrepreneurial support organisation, has been in operation since 2002. Microchip makers near Dresden have given the region the nickname Silicon Saxony, the publishing and porcelain industries of the region are well known, although their contributions to the regional economy are no longer significant. Today the automobile industry, machinery production and services contribute to the development of the region. Saxony is also one of the most renowned tourist destinations in Germany - especially the cities of Leipzig and Dresden, new tourist destinations are developing, notably in the lake district of Lausitz. Saxony reported an unemployment of 8. 8% in 2014. By comparison the average in the former GDR was 9. 8% and 6. 7% for Germany overall, the unemployment rate reached 8. 2% in May 2015. The Leipzig area, which recently was among the regions with the highest unemployment rate, could benefit greatly from investments by Porsche. With the VW Phaeton factory in Dresden, and many part suppliers, zwickau is another major Volkswagen location
15.
Portrait
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A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person, for this reason, in photography a portrait is generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position. A portrait often shows a person looking directly at the painter or photographer, nonetheless, many subjects, such as Akhenaten and some other Egyptian pharaohs, can be recognised by their distinctive features. The 28 surviving rather small statues of Gudea, ruler of Lagash in Sumeria between c.2144 -2124 BC, show a consistent appearance with some individuality. Some of the earliest surviving painted portraits of people who were not rulers are the Greco-Roman funeral portraits that survived in the dry climate of Egypts Fayum district. These are almost the only paintings from the world that have survived, apart from frescos, though many sculptures. Although the appearance of the figures differs considerably, they are considerably idealized, the art of the portrait flourished in Ancient Greek and especially Roman sculpture, where sitters demanded individualized and realistic portraits, even unflattering ones. During the 4th century, the portrait began to retreat in favor of a symbol of what that person looked like. In the Europe of the Early Middle Ages representations of individuals are mostly generalized, true portraits of the outward appearance of individuals re-emerged in the late Middle Ages, in tomb monuments, donor portraits, miniatures in illuminated manuscripts and then panel paintings. Moche culture of Peru was one of the few ancient civilizations which produced portraits and these works accurately represent anatomical features in great detail. The individuals portrayed would have been recognizable without the need for other symbols or a reference to their names. The individuals portrayed were members of the elite, priests, warriors. They were represented during several stages of their lives, the faces of gods were also depicted. To date, no portraits of women have been found, there is particular emphasis on the representation of the details of headdresses, hairstyles, body adornment and face painting. One of the portraits in the Western world is Leonardo da Vincis painting titled Mona Lisa. What has been claimed as the worlds oldest known portrait was found in 2006 in the Vilhonneur grotto near Angoulême and is thought to be 27,000 years old. Profile view, full view, and three-quarter view, are three common designations for portraits, each referring to a particular orientation of the head of the individual depicted. Such terms would tend to have greater applicability to two-dimensional artwork such as photography, in the case of three-dimensional artwork, the viewer can usually alter their orientation to the artwork by moving around it
16.
Friedrich Schiller
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Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, physician, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life, Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with the already famous and they frequently discussed issues concerning aesthetics, and Schiller encouraged Goethe to finish works he left as sketches. This relationship and these led to a period now referred to as Weimar Classicism. They also worked together on Xenien, a collection of satirical poems in which both Schiller and Goethe challenge opponents to their philosophical vision. Friedrich Schiller was born on 10 November 1759, in Marbach, Württemberg as the son of military doctor Johann Kaspar Schiller. Schiller grew up in a religious family and spent much of his youth studying the Bible. His father was away in the Seven Years War when Friedrich was born and he was named after king Frederick the Great, but he was called Fritz by nearly everyone. Kaspar Schiller was rarely home during the war, but he did manage to visit the family once in a while and his wife and children also visited him occasionally wherever he happened to be stationed. When the war ended in 1763, Schillers father became an officer and was stationed in Schwäbisch Gmünd. Due to the high cost of living—especially the rent—the family moved to nearby Lorch, although the family was happy in Lorch, Schillers father found his work unsatisfying. He sometimes took his son with him, in Lorch, Schiller received his primary education. The quality of the lessons was fairly bad, and Friedrich regularly cut class with his older sister, because his parents wanted Schiller to become a pastor, they had the pastor of the village instruct the boy in Latin and Greek. Pastor Moser was a teacher, and later Schiller named the cleric in his first play Die Räuber after him. As a boy, Schiller was excited by the idea of becoming a cleric and often put on black robes, in 1766, the family left Lorch for the Duke of Württembergs principal residence, Ludwigsburg. Schillers father had not been paid for three years, and the family had been living on their savings but could no longer afford to do so, so Kaspar Schiller took an assignment to the garrison in Ludwigsburg. There the Schiller boy came to the attention of Karl Eugen and he entered the Karlsschule Stuttgart, in 1773, where he eventually studied medicine. During most of his life, he suffered from illnesses that he tried to cure himself. While at the Karlsschule, Schiller read Rousseau and Goethe and discussed Classical ideals with his classmates, the plays critique of social corruption and its affirmation of proto-revolutionary republican ideals astounded its original audience
17.
Christoph Willibald Gluck
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Christoph Willibald Gluck was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. With a series of new works in the 1760s, among them Orfeo ed Euridice and Alceste. The strong influence of French opera in these works encouraged Gluck to move to Paris, fusing the traditions of Italian opera and the French national genre into a new synthesis, Gluck wrote eight operas for the Parisian stages. One of the last of these, Iphigénie en Tauride, was a success and is generally acknowledged to be his finest work. Gluck was born on 2 July 1714 in Erasbach near Neumarkt and his father Alexander was a forester in Erasbach, and after 1717 head forester in Reichstadt, Kreibitz and Eisenberg, all in northern Bohemia. According to some biographers, it was here, in the middle of Lusatian Mountains, in 1727 the family moved to Eisenberg, where his father was admitted to the service of Prince Philip Hyazinth von Lobkowitz. The Alsatian painter Johann Christian von Mannlich says it was as a Bohemian schoolboy that Gluck received his first musical training. Mannlich relates in his memoirs, written in French and published in 1810 and he quotes Gluck as saying, My father was forestmaster at M. in Bohemia and he planned that eventually I should succeed him. In my homeland everyone is musical, music is taught in the schools, as I was passionate about the art, I made rapid progress. I played several instruments and the schoolmaster, singling me out from the other pupils, I no longer thought and dreamt of anything but music, the art of forestry was neglected. Most now claim that the object of Glucks travels was not Vienna but Prague, at the time the University of Prague boasted a flourishing musical scene that included performances of both Italian opera and oratorio. Gluck eventually left Prague without taking a degree, and vanishes from the record until 1737. According to the music historian Daniel Heartz, there has been considerable controversy concerning Glucks native language, Glucks first biographer, Anton Schmid, accepted that Gluck spoke Czech, but thought Salieri incorrect, proposing instead that Gluck learned Czech in Prague. Heartz writes, More devious manoeuvres have been attempted by Glucks German biographers of this century, while the French ones have, without exception, hans Joachim Moser wanted a lyric work in Czech as proof. In fact, the music theorist Larent Garcin, writing in 1770 before Gluck arrived in Paris, in 1737 Gluck arrived in Milan, where he studied under G. B. Sammartini, who, according to Carpani, taught Gluck practical knowledge of all the instruments, apparently this relationship lasted for several years. Set to a libretto by Metastasio, the opera opened the Milanese Carnival of 1742, according to one anecdote, the public would not accept Glucks style until he inserted an aria in the lighter Milanese manner for contrast. Nearly all of his operas in this period were, like Artaserse, set to Metastasios texts, in 1745 Gluck accepted an invitation to become house composer at Londons Kings Theatre, probably travelling to England via Frankfurt and in the company of Georg Christian, Fürst von Lobkowitz
18.
Heinrich von Kleist
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Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist was a German poet, dramatist, novelist, short story writer and journalist. The Kleist Prize, a prize for German literature, is named after him. Kleist was born into the von Kleist family in Frankfurt an der Oder in the Margraviate of Brandenburg. After a scanty education, he entered the Prussian Army in 1792, served in the Rhine campaign of 1796 and he studied law and philosophy at the Viadrina University and in 1800 received a subordinate post in the Ministry of Finance at Berlin. In the following year, Kleists roving, restless spirit got the better of him, and procuring a lengthened leave of absence he visited Paris and then settled in Switzerland. There he found friends in Heinrich Zschokke and Ludwig Wieland, son of the poet Christoph Martin Wieland, and to them he read his first drama. On a journey to Dresden in 1807, Kleist was arrested by the French as a spy, on regaining his liberty, he proceeded to Dresden, where, in conjunction with Adam Heinrich Müller, he published the journal Phöbus in 1808. In 1809 Kleist went to Prague, and ultimately settled in Berlin, according to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, Kleists whole life was filled by a restless striving after ideal and illusory happiness, and this is largely reflected in his work. He was by far the most important North German dramatist of the Romantic movement, in the spring of 1799, the 21-year-old Kleist wrote a letter to his half-sister Ulrike in which he found it incomprehensible how a human being can live without a plan for his life. In effect, Kleist sought and discovered an overwhelming sense of security by looking to the future with a plan for his life. It brought him happiness and assured him of confidence, especially knowing that life without a plan only saw despair, the irony of his later suicide has been the fodder of his critics. His first tragedy was The Schroffenstein Family, the material for the second, Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons, is taken from a Greek source and presents a picture of wild passion. More successful than either of these was his play, Käthchen of Heilbronn, a poetic drama full of medieval bustle and mystery. In comedy, Kleist made a name with The Broken Jug, while Amphitryon, of Kleists other dramas, Die Hermannsschlacht is a dramatic work of anti-Napoleonic propaganda, written as Austria and France went to war. It has been described by Carl Schmitt as the greatest partisan work of all time, in it he gives vent to his hatred of his countrys oppressors. This, together with the drama The Prince of Homburg, which is among his best works, was first published by Ludwig Tieck in Kleists Hinterlassene Schriften, robert Guiskard, a drama conceived on a grand plan, was left a fragment. The Earthquake in Chile and St. Cecilia, or the Power of Music are also examples of Kleists story telling as is The Marquise of O. His short narratives influenced those of Kafka and the novellas of the Austrian writer and he also wrote patriotic lyrics in the context of the Napoleonic Wars
19.
Friederike Sophie Seyler
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Seyler, formerly Friederike Sophie Hensel, was a German actress, playwright and librettist. Alongside Friederike Caroline Neuber, she was widely considered Germanys greatest actress of the 18th century and her libretto for the Singspiel Oberon was a major inspiration for Emanuel Schikaneders libretto for the opera The Magic Flute. She was briefly married to the actor Johann Gottlieb Hensel and then married the theatre director Abel Seyler. As an actress, she was known for portraying passionate and tragic characters and she was a member of Konrad Ernst Ackermanns troupe and performed at the Vienna Burgtheater, before joining the Hamburgische Entreprise and the travelling Seyler Theatre Company. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing lauded her as one of Europes finest actresses in his influential work Hamburg Dramaturgy and she wrote several plays, including Die Entführung oder die zärtliche Mutter, which was much acted in the 1770s. She also wrote a libretto for a Singspiel based on the poem Oberon, titled Hüon und Amande and her libretto was since re-adapted by Karl Ludwig Giesecke to provide a libretto for Paul Wranitzky, but without crediting her. After the theatrical success of Gieseckes plagiarized version, Seylers original was renamed Oberon, while she was regarded as Germanys most prominent living actress, she also had a reputation for being unusually conceited and difficult to work with. Richard E. Schade describes her as a beautiful, if rather solidly built, according to Phyllis Hartnoll, even Lessing, who detested her, had to admit she was a fine actress. In private life she was malicious and intriguing, her character contributing to the downfall of the Hamburg enterprise and she was born in Dresden as the only child of the doctor Johann Wilhelm Sparmann, and was the granddaughter of court architect Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann, who built Zwinger. Yet, she came from a home and fled from an arranged marriage. She joined the theatre in 1754, in 1754, she married actor Johann Gottlieb Hensel, but they divorced already in 1759. In 1772, she married her love and admirer, the Swiss-born theatre director Abel Seyler, after a long-standing romance. He had been the main backer of the Hamburgische Entreprise and was the founder of the Seyler theatrical company and her step son was the banker Ludwig Erdwin Seyler, the head of Berenberg Bank who married into the Berenberg/Gossler banking dynasty. Her step daughter Sophie Seyler was married to the prominent Sturm und Drang poet Johann Anton Leisewitz, Die Familie auf dem Lande,1770 Die Entführung, oder Die zärtliche Mutter, Drama 1772. Hüon und Amande,1789 Wilhelm Kosch, Seyler, Friederike Sophie, in Dictionary of German Biography, walther Killy and Rudolf Vierhaus, Vol.9, Walter de Gruyter,2005, ISBN3110966298, p.308 Paul Schlenther, Abel Seyler. Band 34, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1892, S. 778–782, literature by and about Friederike Sophie Seyler in the German National Library catalogue Friederike Sophie Hensel, Die Entführung oder die zärtliche Mutter, Drama 1772
20.
Johann Gottfried Herder
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Johann Gottfried Herder was a German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic. He is associated with the periods of Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, born in Mohrungen in the Kingdom of Prussia, Herder grew up in a poor household, educating himself from his fathers Bible and songbook. In 1762, a youth of seventeen, he enrolled at the local University of Königsberg. At the same time, Herder became an intellectual protégé of Johann Georg Hamann, although himself an unsociable person, Herder influenced his contemporaries greatly. One friend wrote to him in 1785, hailing his works as inspired by God, a varied field of theorists were later to find inspiration in Herders tantalisingly incomplete ideas. In 1764, now a clergyman, Herder went to Riga to teach and it was during this period that he produced his first major works, which were literary criticism. In 1769 Herder traveled by ship to the French port of Nantes and this resulted in both an account of his travels as well as a shift of his own self-conception as an author. By 1770 Herder went to Strasbourg, where he met the young Goethe and this event proved to be a key juncture in the history of German literature, as Goethe was inspired by Herders literary criticism to develop his own style. This can be seen as the beginning of the Sturm und Drang movement, in 1771 Herder took a position as head pastor and court preacher at Bückeburg under Count Wilhelm von Schaumburg-Lippe. By the mid-1770s, Goethe was an author, and used his influence at the court of Weimar to secure Herder a position as General Superintendent. Herder moved there in 1776, where his outlook shifted again towards classicism, towards the end of his career, Herder endorsed the French Revolution, which earned him the enmity of many of his colleagues. At the same time, he and Goethe experienced a personal split, another reason for his isolation in later years was due to his unpopular attacks on Kantian philosophy. In 1802 Herder was ennobled by the Elector-Prince of Bavaria, which added the von to his last name. He died in Weimar in 1803 at age 59, in 1772 Herder published Treatise on the Origin of Language and went further in this promotion of language than his earlier injunction to spew out the ugly slime of the Seine. Herder now had established the foundations of comparative philology within the new currents of political outlook, Herder wrote that A poet is the creator of the nation around him, he gives them a world to see and has their souls in his hand to lead them to that world. After becoming General Superintendent in 1776, Herders philosophy shifted again towards classicism, Herder was at his best during this period, and produced works such as his unfinished Outline of a Philosophical History of Humanity which largely originated the school of historical thought. The historian should be the contemporary of the past. Herder gave Germans new pride in their origins, modifying that dominance of regard allotted to Greek art extolled among others by Johann Joachim Winckelmann, Herder equated the German with the Gothic and favoured Dürer and everything Gothic
21.
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
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Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was a German writer, philosopher, dramatist, publicist and art critic, and one of the most outstanding representatives of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the development of German literature and he is widely considered by theatre historians to be the first dramaturg in his role at Abel Seylers Hamburg National Theatre. Lessing was born in Kamenz, a town in Saxony, to Johann Gottfried Lessing. His father was a Lutheran minister and wrote on theology, Young Lessing studied at the Latin School in Kamenz from 1737 to 1741. With a father who wanted his son to follow in his footsteps, after completing his education at St. Afras, he enrolled at the University of Leipzig where he pursued a degree in theology, medicine, philosophy, and philology. It was here that his relationship with Karoline Neuber, a famous German actress and he translated several French plays for her, and his interest in theatre grew. During this time, he wrote his first play, The Young Scholar, Neuber eventually produced the play in 1748. From 1748 to 1760, Lessing lived in Leipzig and Berlin and he began to work as a reviewer and editor for the Vossische Zeitung and other periodicals. Lessing formed a connection with his cousin, Christlob Mylius. In 1750, Lessing and Mylius teamed together to begin a periodical publication named Beitrage zur Historie und Aufnahme des Theatres, the publication ran only four issues, but it caught the publics eye and revealed Lessing to be a serious critic and theorist of drama. In 1752 he took his masters degree in Wittenberg, from 1760 to 1765, he worked in Breslau as secretary to General Tauentzien during the Seven Years War between Britain and France, which had effects in Europe. It was during this time that he wrote his famous Laokoon, in 1765 Lessing returned to Berlin, leaving in 1767 to work for three years at the Hamburg National Theatre. Actor-manager, Konrad Ackermann, began construction on Germanys first permanent theatre in Hamburg, Johann Friedrich Löwen established Germanys first national theatre, the Hamburg National Theatre. The owners hired Lessing as the critic of plays and acting. The theatres main backer was Abel Seyler, a former currency speculator who since became known as the patron of German theatre. There he met Eva König, his future wife and his work in Hamburg formed the basis of his pioneering work on drama, titled Hamburgische Dramaturgie. Unfortunately, because of losses due to pirated editions of the Hamburgische Dramaturgie. In 1770 Lessing became librarian at the library, now the Herzog August Library
22.
Moses Mendelssohn
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Moses Mendelssohn was a German Jewish philosopher to whose ideas the Haskalah, the Jewish enlightenment of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, is indebted. He also established himself as an important figure in the Berlin textile industry, Moses Mendelssohns descendants include the composers Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn and the founders of the Mendelssohn & Co. banking house. Moses Mendelssohn was born in Dessau and his fathers name was Mendel, and it was Moses who adopted the surname Mendelssohn. Without any fear that his own father would take offense, my father assumed the name Mendelssohn, the change, though a small one, was decisive. Mendel was an impoverished scribe — a writer of Torah scrolls —, mosess early education was cared for by his father and by the local rabbi, David Fränkel, who besides teaching him the Bible and Talmud, introduced to him the philosophy of Maimonides. Fränkel received a call to Berlin in 1743, a few months later Moses followed him. A refugee Pole, Zamoscz, taught him mathematics, and a young Jewish physician taught him Latin and he learned to spell and to philosophize at the same time. With his scanty earnings he bought a Latin copy of John Lockes An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and he then made the acquaintance of Aaron Solomon Gumperz, who taught him basic French and English. In 1750, a wealthy silk-merchant, Isaac Bernhard, appointed him to teach his children, Mendelssohn soon won the confidence of Bernhard, who made the young student successively his bookkeeper and his partner. It was possibly Gumperz who introduced Mendelssohn to Gotthold Ephraim Lessing in 1754, the story goes that the first time Mendelssohn met Lessing, they played chess, therefore, in Lessings play Nathan the Wise Nathan and the character Saladin first meet during a game of chess. Lessing had recently produced the drama Die Juden, whose moral was that a Jew can possess nobility of character and this notion was, in the contemporary Berlin of Frederick the Great, generally ridiculed as untrue. Lessing found in Mendelssohn the realization of his dream, within a few months, the two became closely intellectually allied. Lessing also brought Mendelssohn to public attention for the first time, Mendelssohn had written an essay attacking Germans neglect of their native philosophers, without consulting the author, Lessing published Mendelssohns Philosophical Conversations anonymously in 1755. In the same year appeared in Danzig an anonymous satire, Pope a Metaphysician. Mendelssohn became the spirit of Friedrich Nicolais important literary undertakings, the Bibliothek and the Literaturbriefe. In 1762 he married Fromet Guggenheim, who survived him by twenty-six years, in October 1763 the king granted Mendelssohn, but not his wife or children, the privilege of Protected Jew —which assured his right to undisturbed residence in Berlin. As a result of his correspondence with Abbt, Mendelssohn resolved to write on the immortality of the soul, materialistic views were at the time rampant and fashionable, and faith in immortality was at a low ebb. At this favourable juncture appeared Phädon oder über die Unsterblichkeit der Seele, modelled on Platos dialogue of the same name, Mendelssohns work possessed some of the charm of its Greek exemplar and impressed the German world with its beauty and lucidity of style
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