The battlecruiser, or battle-cruiser, was a type of capital ship of the first half of the 20th century. They were similar in displacement and cost to battleships, but differed in form and balance of attributes. Battlecruisers had thinner armour and a lighter main gun battery than contemporary battleships, installed on a longer hull with much higher engine power in order to attain greater speeds; the first battlecruisers were designed in the United Kingdom in the first decade of the century, as a development of the armoured cruiser, at the same time as the dreadnought succeeded the pre-dreadnought battleship. The goal of the design was to outrun any ship with similar armament, chase down any ship with lesser armament. However, as more and more battlecruisers were built, they were used alongside the better-protected battleships. Battlecruisers served in the navies of the UK, the Ottoman Empire and Japan during World War I, most notably at the Battle of the Falkland Islands and in the several raids and skirmishes in the North Sea which culminated in a pitched fleet battle, the Battle of Jutland.

British battlecruisers in particular suffered heavy losses at Jutland, where poor fire safety and ammunition handling practices left them vulnerable to catastrophic magazine explosions following hits to their main turrets from large-calibre shells. This dismal showing led to a persistent general belief that battlecruisers were too thinly armoured to function successfully. By the end of the war, capital ship design had developed, with battleships becoming faster and battlecruisers becoming more armoured, blurring the distinction between a battlecruiser and a fast battleship; the Washington Naval Treaty, which limited capital ship construction from 1922 onwards, treated battleships and battlecruisers identically, the new generation of battlecruisers planned was scrapped under the terms of the treaty. Improvements in armor design and propulsion created the 1930s "fast battleship" with the speed of a battlecruiser and armor of a battleship, making the battlecruiser in the traditional sense an obsolete concept.

Thus from the 1930s on, only the Royal Navy continued to use "battlecruiser" as a classification for the World War I–era capital ships that remained in the fleet. Battlecruisers were put into action again during World War II, only one survived to the end. There was renewed interest in large "cruiser-killer" type warships, but few were begun, as construction of battleships and battlecruisers was curtailed in favor of more-needed convoy escorts, aircraft carriers, cargo ships. In the post–Cold War era, the Soviet Kirov class of large guided missile cruisers have been termed "battlecruisers"; the battlecruiser was developed by the Royal Navy in the first years of the 20th century as an evolution of the armoured cruiser. The first armoured cruisers had been built in the 1870s, as an attempt to give armour protection to ships fulfilling the typical cruiser roles of patrol, trade protection and power projection. However, the results were satisfactory, as the weight of armour required for any meaningful protection meant that the ship became as slow as a battleship.

As a result, navies preferred to build protected cruisers with an armoured deck protecting their engines, or no armour at all. In the 1890s, technology began to change this balance. New Krupp steel armour meant that it was now possible to give a cruiser side armour which would protect it against the quick-firing guns of enemy battleships and cruisers alike. In 1896–97 France and Russia, who were regarded as allies in the event of war, started to build large, fast armoured cruisers taking advantage of this. In the event of a war between Britain and France or Russia, or both, these cruisers threatened to cause serious difficulties for the British Empire's worldwide trade. Britain, which had concluded in 1892 that it needed twice as many cruisers as any potential enemy to adequately protect its empire's sea lanes, responded to the perceived threat by laying down its own large armoured cruisers. Between 1899 and 1905, it laid down seven classes of this type, a total of 35 ships; this building program, in turn, prompted the Russians to increase their own construction.

The Imperial German Navy began to build large armoured cruisers for use on their overseas stations, laying down eight between 1897 and 1906. The cost of this cruiser arms race was significant. In the period 1889–1896, the Royal Navy spent £7.3 million on new large cruisers. From 1897 to 1904, it spent £26.9 million. Many armoured cruisers of the new kind were just as large and expensive as the equivalent battleship; the increasing size and power of the armoured cruiser led to suggestions in British naval circles that cruisers should displace battleships entirely. The battleship's main advantage was its 12-inch heavy guns, heavier armour designed to protect from shells of similar size. However, for a few years after 1900 it seemed; the torpedo now had a range of 2,000 yards, it seemed unlikely that a battleship would engage within torpedo range. However, at ranges of more than 2,000 yards it became unlikely that the heavy guns of a battleship would score any hits, as the heavy guns relied on primitive aiming techniques.

The secondary batteries of 6-inch quick-firing guns, firing more plentiful shells, were more to hit the en

Ernst Breitenstein was an ethnic German journalist and politician in Romania. He had Saxon-Jewish origins. Breitenstein joined the Communist Party of Romania in 1939. Between 1944-1949 he edited the Sibiu pro-communist publication România viitoare under the pen name Cornel Petraru. In 1949 he became the founding editor-in-chief of Neuer Weg, a German-language daily published from Bucharest. In 1954 he was replaced by Anton Breitenhofer as editor-in-chief. In October 1957 Breitenstein became the first journalist from Romania to visit the Federal Republic of Germany. In February 1970 Breitenstein was named Assistant Editor-in-Chief of Neuer Weg. In 1971 he was included in the Romanian Radio-TV Council. In the same year he was named as a member of the board of directors of the Executive Bureau, a member of the board of directors of the Ștefan Gheorghiu Academy. In 1975 he became a member of the Great National Assembly, he sat in the assembly until 1980, was again elected for the 1985-1989 term. He became editor of the publication Era Socialista in 1975.

In November 1976 Breitenstein returned as editor-in-chief of Neuer Weg, serving in that function until 1989. At the 13th Party Congress, held in 1979, he was elected as an alternate member of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party, he remained an alternate member until 1989. He was the vice chairman of the Council of Working People of German Nationality. Notably he replaced Breitenhofer both in the functions as Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper and as vice chairman of the Council of Working People

Mazvikadei Dam is a dam in Zimbabwe which provides water for farm irrigation. It is the third largest dam in Zimbabwe. Construction of the dam started in 1985, the main contractor being CMC di Ravenna with local subcontractors K. W. Blasting doing tunneling and hard excavation; the wall, an earthfill embankment, is 63.5 metres in height making it the second highest dam wall within Zimbabwe. The construction was completed in 1988 and the reservoir filled for the first time in 1990. Built on the Mukwadzi River north of Banket it has a storage capacity of 360 million cubic metres with a surface area of 2 300 hectares when full; the long term yield for irrigation purposes is estimated to be 100 million cubic metres per annum or 10 cubic metres per second for an irrigation season of 4 months. The primary irrigated crop when the farms were functioning was winter wheat, however small quantities were used to supplement rainfall on summer crops such as maize and tobacco, it is a popular weekend resort, with facilities for visitors