1.
Konstanz
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Konstanz is a university city with approximately 80,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the south of Germany, bordering Switzerland. The city houses the University of Konstanz and was for more than 1200 years residence of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Konstanz, Konstanz is situated on Lake Constance. The Rhine river, which starts in the Swiss Alps, passes through Lake Constance and leaves it, considerably larger, car ferries provide access across Lake Constance to Meersburg, and the Katamaran provides a shuttle service for pedestrians to Friedrichshafen. At the old towns southern border lies the Swiss town of Kreuzlingen, Konstanz is subdivided into 15 wards or districts. The island of Mainau belonged to the ward of Litzelstetten, a municipality until its incorporation into Konstanz on December 1,1971. The first traces of civilization in Konstanz date back to the late Stone Age, during the reign of Augustus, the Celts living south of the Danube were conquered by the Romans. Around 40 AD, the first Romans settled on the site and this small town on the left bank of the Rhine was probably first called Drusomagus and belonged to the Roman province of Raetia. The remains of the late Roman fortress Constantia were discovered in 2003, around 585 the first bishop took up residence in Konstanz and this marked the beginning of the citys importance as a spiritual centre. By the late Middle Ages, about one quarter of Konstanzs 6,000 inhabitants were exempt from taxation on account of clerical rights, trade thrived during the Middle Ages. Konstanz owned the bridge in the region, which crossed the Rhine. Its linen production had made a name for the city. In 1192, Konstanz gained the status of Imperial City so it was subject only to the Holy Roman Emperor. In 1414 to 1418, the Council of Constance took place, during which, on 6 July 1415, John Hus and it was here that the Papal Schism was ended and Pope Martin V was elected during the only conclave ever held north of the Alps. Ulrich von Richentals illustrated chronicle of the Council of Constance testifies to all the happenings during the Council as well as showing the everyday life of medieval Konstanz. The Konzilgebäude where the conclave was held can still be standing by the harbour. Close by stands the Imperia, a statue that was erected in 1993 to satirically commemorate the Council, in 1460, the Swiss Confederacy conquered Thurgau, Konstanzs natural hinterland. In the Swabian War of 1499, Konstanz lost its last privileges over Thurgau to the Confederation, the Protestant Reformation took hold in Konstanz in the 1520s, headed by Ambrosius Blarer. Soon the city declared itself officially Protestant, pictures were removed from the churches, and the bishop moved to Meersburg
2.
Meersburg
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Meersburg is a town of Baden-Württemberg in the southwest of Germany at Lake Constance. It is known for its medieval city, the lower town and upper town are reserved for pedestrians only, and connected by two stairways and a steep street. The name of the town means Castle on the Sea, referring to a castle which, the commune obtained the status of free city in 1299, though nominally still under the Bishop of Constance. In 1803 it was annexed to the Land of Baden, after World War II, Meersburg was in the French military occupation area in Germany. The town is home to two castles, the Old Castle and the New Castle, the Old Castle, built by Merovingian King Dagobert I in the seventh century, accepts visitors. German poet Annette von Droste-Hülshoff lived there for eight years, the New Castle was built in the eighteenth century. Originally the residence of the bishop of Constance, it was used for various purposes after the Secularization of 1803, there is an entity of Half-timber houses. Also two medieval town-gates can be seen, which are the remainders of the fortification, Meersburg is the northern terminus of a car ferry to Constance. At the opposite side Meersburg is connected to the region by the B31, to exit to Meersburg and to go to the car ferry, one takes B33 to Meersburg and Constance. Meersburg is also reachable by boats from Lake Constance to Überlingen, to Lindau, Bregenz. One of Germanys most celebrated poets, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, lived her final years at Meersburg Castle and she also owned the small vine-covered villa known as Fürstenhäusle. The famous eighteenth-century doctor Franz Anton Mesmer died in 1815 in Meersburg and is buried near the old wall of the graveyard about 0.5 kilometres northeast of the upper town-gate Obertor, the Meersburg vineyards at the northern banks of Lake Constance are famous within Germany. The rosée Weissherbst wine is a specialty of the region
3.
Low Alemannic German
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Low Alemannic is a branch of Alemannic German, which is part of Upper German. Its varieties are only partly intelligible to non-Alemannic speakers, the feature that distinguishes Low Alemannic from Swabian is the retention of the Middle High German monophthongs, for instance Huus house vs. Swabian Hous or Ziit time vs. Swabian Zejt. Sometimes diminutives require umlaut, other times not, weak Declension Strong Declension Comparative Standard ending -er Superlative Standard ending -schd Irregular Personal Pronouns 1. Infinitive Infinitive ends in -e Some monosyllabic verbs do not have this ending 2, conjugation 3.1 Present Tense 3.1.1 Regular Verb Alemannic encyclopedia -German-
4.
Prince-bishop
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A prince-bishop is a bishop who is also the civil ruler of some secular principality and sovereignty. If the episcopal see is an archbishopric, the term is prince-archbishop. A prince-bishop is usually considered an elected monarch, later relations between a prince-bishop and the burghers were invariably not cordial. As cities demanded charters from emperors, kings, or their prince-bishops and declared independent of the secular territorial magnates. The stem duchies of the German kingdom inside the Empire had strong and powerful dukes, unlike dukes they could not pass hereditary titles and lands to any descendants. This met with increasing opposition by the Popes, culminating in the fierce Investiture Controversy of 1076, nevertheless, the Emperors continued to grant major territories to the most important bishops. The immediate territory attached to the episcopal see then became a prince-diocese or bishopric, the German term Hochstift was often used to denote the form of secular authority held by bishops ruling a prince-bishopric with Erzstift being used for prince-archbishoprics. Emperor Charles IV by the Golden Bull of 1356 confirmed the status of the Prince-Archbishoprics of Mainz, Cologne. At the eve of the Protestant Reformation, the Imperial states comprised 53 ecclesiastical principalities, with the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the title finally became defunct. The bishops of Vienna and Wiener Neustadt didnt control any territory, upon the incorporation of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword in 1237, the territory of the Orders State largely corresponded with the Diocese of Riga. Bishop Albert of Riga in 1207 had received the lands of Livonia as an Imperial fief from the hands of German king Philip of Swabia, he however had to come to terms with the Brothers of the Sword. At the behest of Pope Innocent III the Terra Mariana confederation was established, by the 1234 Bull of Rieti, Pope Gregory IX stated that all lands acquired by the Teutonic Knights were no subject of any conveyancing by the Emperor. Within this larger conflict, the dualism of the autonomous Riga prince-bishop. The bishops pursued the conferment of the title by the Holy Roman Emperor to stress their sovereignty. In the original Prussian lands of the Teutonic Order, Willam of Modena established the suffragan bishoprics of Culm, Pomesania, Samland and Warmia. The bishops of Cetinje, Montenegro, who took the place of the earlier secular Voivodes in 1516 had a position of Slavonic. The title survived the union of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 until 1836, apart from territories formerly within the Holy Roman Empire, no French diocese had a principality of political significance linked to its see. However, a number of French bishops did hold a title, with a tiny territory usually about their seat, it was often a princely title
5.
Middle Ages
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
6.
Early modern period
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The early modern period of modern history follows the late Middle Ages of the post-classical era. Historians in recent decades have argued that from a worldwide standpoint, the period witnessed the exploration and colonization of the Americas and the rise of sustained contacts between previously isolated parts of the globe. The historical powers became involved in trade, as the exchange of goods, plants, animals, and food crops extended to the Old World. The Columbian Exchange greatly affected the human environment, New economies and institutions emerged, becoming more sophisticated and globally articulated over the course of the early modern period. This process began in the medieval North Italian city-states, particularly Genoa, Venice, the early modern period also included the rise of the dominance of the economic theory of mercantilism. The European colonization of the Americas, Asia, and Africa occurred during the 15th to 19th centuries, the early modern trends in various regions of the world represented a shift away from medieval modes of organization, politically and economically. Historians typically date the end of the modern period when the French Revolution of the 1790s began the modern period. Early modern themes Other In 16th century China, the Ming Dynastys economy was stimulated by trade with the Portuguese, Spanish. China became involved in a new trade of goods, plants, animals. Trade with Early Modern Europe and Japan brought in massive amounts of silver, during the last decades of the Ming the flow of silver into China was greatly diminished, thereby undermining state revenues and the entire Chinese economy. This damage to the economy was compounded by the effects on agriculture of the incipient Little Ice Age, natural calamities, crop failure, the ensuing breakdown of authority and peoples livelihoods allowed rebel leaders such as Li Zicheng to challenge Ming authority. The Ming Dynasty fell around 1644 to the Qing Dynasty, which was the last ruling dynasty of China, during its reign, the Qing Dynasty became highly integrated with Chinese culture. The Azuchi-Momoyama period saw the unification that preceded the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate. The Edo period from 1600 to 1868 characterized early modern Japan, the Tokugawa shogunate was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period gets its name from the city, Edo. The Tokugawa shogunate ruled from Edo Castle from 1603 until 1868, in 1392, General Yi Seong-gye established the Joseon Dynasty with a largely bloodless coup. Joseon experienced advances in science and culture, King Sejong the Great promulgated hangul, the Korean alphabet. The period saw various other cultural and technological advances as well as the dominance of neo-Confucianism over the entirety of Korea, during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, invasions by the neighboring Japanese and Qing Chinese nearly overran the Korean peninsula
7.
Council of Constance
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The Council of Constance is the 15th century ecumenical council recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, held from 1414 to 1418. The council ended the Western Schism, by deposing or accepting the resignation of the remaining papal claimants, the Council also condemned Jan Hus as a heretic and facilitated his execution by the civil authority. It also ruled on issues of sovereignty, the rights of pagans. The Council is important for its relationship to ecclesial Conciliarism and Papal supremacy, the councils main purpose was to end the Papal schism which had resulted from the confusion following the Avignon Papacy. After thirty years of schism, the Council of Pisa had sought to resolve the situation by deposing the two claimant popes and elected a new pope, Alexander V. The council claimed that in such a situation, a council of bishops had greater authority than just one bishop, therefore, many voices, including Sigismund, King of the Romans and of Hungary, pressed for another council to resolve the issue. That council was called by John XXIII and was held from 16 November 1414 to 22 April 1418 in Constance, according to Joseph McCabe, the council was attended by roughly 29 cardinals,100 learned doctors of law and divinity,134 abbots, and 183 bishops and archbishops. Sigismund arrived on Christmas Eve 1414 and exercised a profound and continuous influence on the course of the council in his capacity of imperial protector of the Church, an innovation at the Council was that instead of voting as individuals, the bishops voted in national blocs. The vote by nations was in great measure the work of the English, German, the four nations consisted of England, France, Italy, and Germany, with Poles, Hungarians, Danes, and Scandinavians counted with the Germans. While the Italian representatives made up half of those in attendance, they were equal in influence to the English, many members of the new assembly strongly favored the voluntary abdication of all three popes, as did King Sigismund. Although the Italian bishops who had accompanied John XXIII in large numbers supported his legitimacy, partly in response to a fierce anonymous attack on his character from an Italian source, on 2 March 1415 he promised to resign. However, on 20 March he secretly fled the city and took refuge at Schaffhausen in territory of his friend Frederick, haec Sancta Synodus marks the high-water mark of the Conciliar movement of reform. The Church declared the first sessions of the Council of Constance an invalid and illicit assembly of bishops, the acts of the Council were not made public until 1442, at the behest of the Council of Basel, they were printed in 1500. The creation of a book on how to die was ordered by the council, in part because of the constant presence of the King, other rulers demanded that they have a say in who would be pope. This would pave the way for the end of the Western Schism, on 4 July 1415 the Bull of Gregory XII which appointed Malatesta and Cardinal Dominici of Ragusa as his proxies at the council was formally read before the assembled Bishops. The cardinal then read a decree of Gregory XII which convoked the council, thereupon, the Bishops voted to accept the summons. Prince Malatesta immediately informed the Council that he was empowered by a commission from Pope Gregory XII to resign the Papal Throne on the Pontiffs behalf and he asked the Council whether they would prefer to receive the abdication at that point or at a later date. The Bishops voted to receive the Papal abdication immediately, former Pope Gregory XII was then created titular Cardinal Bishop of Porto and Santa Ruffina by the Council, with rank immediately below the Pope
8.
German mediatization
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For convenience, historians use the term mediatization for the entire restructuring process that took place at the time, whether the mediatized states survived in some form or lost all individuality. The secularization of ecclesiastical states took place concurrently with the mediatization of free imperial cities, the mass mediatization and secularization of German states that took place at the time was not initiated by Germans. It came under military and diplomatic pressure from revolutionary France. It constituted the most extensive redistribution of property and territories in German history prior to 1945, although most of its neighbors coalesced into relatively centralized states before the 19th century, Germany did not follow that path. At the time of Emperor Frederick IIs death, it had already decided that the regnum teutonicum was an aristocracy with a monarchical head. Among those states and territories, the principalities were unique to Germany. The German bishop became a prince of the Empire and direct vassal of the Emperor for his hochstift, the bishops, now elected by independent-minded cathedral chapters rather than chosen by the emperor or the pope, were confirmed as territorial lords equal to the secular princes. Having to face with the territorial expansionism of the powerful secular princes. In the course of the Reformation, several of the bishoprics in the north and northeast were secularized, on the other hand, Hildesheim and Paderborn – under Protestant administration for decades and given up for lost – were restored as prince-bishoprics. While no actual secularization took place during the century and a half that followed the Peace of Westphalia, there was a history of rumors. Frederick II added the archbishopric of Salzburg to the list and Charles VII went as far as adding the bishoprics of Eichstätt, although the sudden death of Charles VII put an end to this scheming, the idea of secularization did not fade away. In the late 18th century, the existence of the Holy Roman Empire. It took an external factor — the French Revolution — to shake the Empire to its foundation, by then, the French leaders had already resolved more or less openly to annex those lands to the Republic as soon as circumstances permitted. On the other hand, the secular rulers entitled to compensation should be compensated with secularized ecclesiastical land, a secret Franco-Prussian convention signed in August 1796 spelled out that such a compensation would be the Prince-Bishopric of Münster and Vest Recklinghausen. A secret article, not implemented at the time, added the Archbishopric of Salzburg, the treaty also provided for the holding of a congress at Rastatt where delegates of the Imperial Diet would negotiate a general peace with France. In March 1799, Austria, allied with Russia, resumed the war against France. This time, Francis II signed the treaty not only on Austria’s behalf but also on behalf of the Empire, which conceded the loss of the Austrian Netherlands. They warned that a complete secularization would be such a blow to the Empire that it would lead to its demise, generally, the proponents of secularization were less vocal and passionate, in good part because they realized that the course of events was in their favor
9.
Baden
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Baden is a historical German territory. Together with Württemberg and the former Prussian province of Hohenzollern, two other territories, it currently forms the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg. Finally, the state of Baden-Württemberg was formed a few years later, history of Baden List of states in the Holy Roman Empire Baden-Württemberg Province of Hohenzollern Württemberg Baden in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland
10.
Duchy of Swabia
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The Duchy of Swabia was one of the five stem duchies of the medieval German kingdom, and its dukes were thus among the most powerful magnates of Germany. Swabia takes its name from the tribe of the Suebi, dwelling in the angle formed by the Rhine and the Danube, they were joined by other tribes, and were called Alamanni, until about the 11th century, when the form Swabia began to prevail. The duchy was proclaimed by Burchard II in 917, Burchard had allied himself with king Conrad I and defeated his rivals for the rule of Alemannia in a battle at Wahlwies in 915. The most notable family to hold Swabia were the Hohenstaufen, who held it, with a brief interruption, for much of this period, the Hohenstaufen were also Holy Roman Emperors. The duchy persisted until 1268, ending with the execution of Conradin, Rudolph I of Germany in 1273 attempted to revive the title of duke of Swabia, bestowing it on his youngest son, the later Rudolf II, who passed it to his son John Parricida. John died without an heir, in 1312 or 1313, marking the end of the revived title, the Margraviate of Baden detached itself from the duchy in the 12th century. In 496 the Alamanni were defeated by King Clovis I, brought under Francia, in the 7th century the people were converted to Christianity, bishoprics were founded at Augsburg and Konstanz, and in the 8th century abbeys at Reichenau Island and Saint Gall. At this time the duchy, which was divided into gaus or counties and it was bounded by the Rhine, Lake Constance, the Lech River and the Duchy of Franconia. During the later and weaker years of the Carolingian Empire the counts became almost independent, the chief family in Alamannia was that of the counts of Raetia Curiensis, who were sometimes called margraves and sometimes, as in the case of Conrad II and Rudolf, dukes. Finally, Burchard I, was called duke of the Alaminnia and he was killed in 911, for which two counts palatine, Bertold and Erchanger, were accused of treason and put to death by order of the German king Conrad I. In 917, Burchard II, son of Burchard I and count in Raetia Curiensis, took the title of duke, and was recognized as such by King Henry I, the Fowler in 919. In the Battle at Winterthur in 919, Burchard defended the Thurgau against the claims of Rudolf II of Burgundy, Rudolf had attempted to expand his territory by capitalising on the feud between the Ahalolfing and Burcharding dynasties. He occupied the palace at Zürich and marched into the Thurgau from there and he was defeated by Burchard near Winterthur and was forced to abandon Zürich, retreating beyond the Reuss. Burchards position was virtually independent, and when he died in 926 he was succeeded by Hermann, a Franconian noble, liudolf revolted, and was deposed, and other dukes followed in quick succession. Burchard III, son of Burchard II, ruled from 954 to 973, when he was succeeded by Liudolfs son, Otto, afterwards duke of Bavaria, to 982, and Conrad I, a relative of Duke Hermann I, until 997. Hermann II, possibly a son of Conrad, succeeded, and, during these years the Swabians were loyal to the kings of the Saxon house, probably owing to the influence of the bishops. Hermann III had no children, and the passed to Ernest II, son of his eldest sister Gisela and Ernest I. In 1045 Henry, who had become German king as Henry III, granted Alamannia to Otto, grandson of the emperor Otto II and count palatine of the Rhine, and, in 1048, to Otto III, count of Schweinfurt
11.
Electorate of Baden
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The Electorate of Baden was a State of the Holy Roman Empire from 1803 to 1806. In 1803, Napoleon bestowed the office of Prince-elector to Charles Frederick and this only lasted until 1806, when Francis II dissolved the Empire. When the Holy Roman Empire dissolved, Baden achieved sovereignty, the French Revolution began in 1789, and at its onset the Margraviate of Baden was united under Charles Frederick, but it did not form a compact territory. Its total area was only about 1,350 square miles, Charles Frederick endeavored to acquire the intervening stretches of land, so as to give territorial unity to his country. His opportunity to do so came during the French Revolutionary Wars, when war broke out between the French First Republic and the Habsburg Monarchy in 1792, the Margraviate of Baden fought for the House of Habsburg. However, their country was devastated as a result, and in 1796 the Margrave was compelled to pay an indemnity, fortune, however, soon turned his way. In 1805 he changed sides and fought for Napoleon, as a result, later in 1805, when the Peace of Pressburg occurred, he obtained Breisgau and other territories at the expense of the Austrian Empire. In 1806, the Electorate of Baden signed the Rheinbundakte, joining the Confederation of the Rhine, upon the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, Charles Frederick declared sovereignty and thus created the Grand Duchy of Baden, receiving other territorial additions as well. In 1806, Charles Frederick joined the Confederation of the Rhine, declared himself a prince, became a grand duke. The Baden contingent continued to assist France, and by the Peace of Vienna in 1809 and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed
12.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
13.
Imperial Estate
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An Imperial State or Imperial Estate was a part of the Holy Roman Empire with representation and the right to vote in the Imperial Diet. Rulers of these Estates were able to exercise significant rights and privileges and were immediate and they were thus able to rule their territories with a considerable degree of autonomy. The system of imperial states replaces the regular division of Germany into stem duchies in the early medieval period. From 1489, the imperial Estates represented in the Diet were divided into three chambers, the college of prince-electors, the college of imperial princes and the college of imperial cities. Counts and nobles were not directly represented in the Diet in spite of their immediate status, Imperial knights had immediate status but were unrepresented in the Diet. Imperial Estates could be either ecclesiastic or secular, the secular Estates, most notably, the four Prince-Electors of the County Palatine of the Rhine, Saxony, Brandenburg and Bohemia, later also Bavaria and Hanover. Imperial Princes including Grand Dukes, Dukes, Counts Palatine, Margraves and Landgraves, Reichsgrafen the Free, until 1582 the votes of the Free and Imperial Cities were only advisory. None of the rulers below the Holy Roman Emperor ranked as kings, the status of Estate was normally attached to a particular territory within the Empire, but there were some reichsständische Personalisten, or persons with imperial statehood. Originally, the Emperor alone could grant that status, but in 1653, the creation of a new Estate required the assent of the College of Electors and of the College of Princes. The ruler was required to agree to accept imperial taxation and military obligations, furthermore, the Estate was required to obtain admittance into one of the Imperial Circles. Theoretically, personalist Estates were forbidden after 1653, but exceptions were often made, once a territory attained the status of an Estate, it could lose that status under very few circumstances. A territory ceded to a foreign power ceased to be an Estate, from 1648 onwards, inheritance of the Estate was limited to one family, a territory inherited by a different family ceased to be an Estate unless the Emperor explicitly allowed otherwise. Finally, a territory could cease to be an imperial Estate by being subjected to the Imperial ban, in the German mediatization between 1803 and 1806, the vast majority of the Estates of the Holy Roman Empire were mediatised. They lost their imperial immediacy and became part of other Estates, the number of Estates was reduced from about three hundred to about thirty. Mediatisation went along with secularisation, the abolition of most of the ecclesiastical Estates and this dissolution of the constitution of the structure of the empire was soon followed by the dissolution of the empire itself, in 1806. Rulers of Imperial States enjoyed precedence over other subjects in the Empire, Electors were originally styled Durchlaucht, princes Hochgeboren and counts Hoch- und Wohlgeboren. In the eighteenth century, the electors were upgraded to Durchläuchtigste, princes to Durchlaucht, Imperial States enjoyed several rights and privileges. Rulers had autonomy inasmuch as their families were concerned, in particular and they were permitted to make treaties and enter into alliances with other Imperial States as well as with foreign nations
14.
Holy Roman Empire
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The Holy Roman Empire was a multi-ethnic complex of territories in central Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806. On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as Emperor, reviving the title in Western Europe, more than three centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The title was revived in 962 when Otto I was crowned emperor, fashioning himself as the successor of Charlemagne, some historians refer to the coronation of Charlemagne as the origin of the empire, while others prefer the coronation of Otto I as its beginning. Scholars generally concur, however, in relating an evolution of the institutions and principles constituting the empire, the office of Holy Roman Emperor was traditionally elective, although frequently controlled by dynasties. Emperor Francis II dissolved the empire on 6 August 1806, after the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine by Napoleon, before 1157, the realm was merely referred to as the Roman Empire. In a decree following the 1512 Diet of Cologne, the name was changed to Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, by the end of the 18th century, the term Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation had fallen out of official use. As Roman power in Gaul declined during the 5th century, local Germanic tribes assumed control, by the middle of the 8th century, however, the Merovingians had been reduced to figureheads, and the Carolingians, led by Charles Martel, had become the de facto rulers. In 751, Martel’s son Pepin became King of the Franks, the Carolingians would maintain a close alliance with the Papacy. In 768 Pepin’s son Charlemagne became King of the Franks and began an expansion of the realm. He eventually incorporated the territories of present-day France, Germany, northern Italy, on Christmas Day of 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor, restoring the title in the west for the first time in over three centuries. After the death of Charles the Fat in 888, however, the Carolingian Empire broke apart, according to Regino of Prüm, the parts of the realm spewed forth kinglets, and each part elected a kinglet from its own bowels. After the death of Charles the Fat, those crowned emperor by the pope controlled only territories in Italy, the last such emperor was Berengar I of Italy, who died in 924. Around 900, autonomous stem duchies reemerged in East Francia, on his deathbed, Conrad yielded the crown to his main rival, Henry the Fowler of Saxony, who was elected king at the Diet of Fritzlar in 919. Henry reached a truce with the raiding Magyars, and in 933 he won a first victory against them in the Battle of Riade, Henry died in 936, but his descendants, the Liudolfing dynasty, would continue to rule the Eastern kingdom for roughly a century. Upon Henry the Fowlers death, Otto, his son and designated successor, was elected King in Aachen in 936 and he overcame a series of revolts from an elder brother and from several dukes. After that, the managed to control the appointment of dukes. In 951, Otto came to the aid of Adelaide, the queen of Italy, defeating her enemies, marrying her. In 955, Otto won a victory over the Magyars in the Battle of Lechfeld
15.
Electorate of Mainz
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In the Roman Catholic hierarchy, the Archbishop-Elector of Mainz was the Primate of Germany, a purely honorary dignity that was unsuccessfully claimed from time to time by other Archbishops. There were only two other ecclesiastical Prince-electors in the Empire, the Electorate of Cologne and the Electorate of Trier. The Archbishop-Elector of Mainz was also archchancellor of Germany and, as such, ranked first among all ecclesiastical and secular princes of the Empire and his political role, particularly as an intermediary between the Estates of the Empire and the Emperor, was considerable. The episcopal see was established in ancient Roman times in the city of Mainz, the first bishops before the 4th century have legendary names, beginning with Crescens. The first verifiable Bishop of Mainz was Martinus in 343, the ecclesiastical and secular importance of Mainz dates from the accession of St. Boniface to the see in 747. Boniface was previously an archbishop, but the honor did not immediately devolve upon the see itself until his successor Lullus, another early bishop of Mainz was Aureus of Mainz. However, the office came to prominence upon its elevation to an archdiocese in 780-782. During the early age, the archdiocese of Mainz was the largest ecclesiastical province of Germany. In 1802, Mainz lost its archiepiscopal character, Dalberg retained the Aschaffenburg area as the Principality of Aschaffenburg. In 1810 Dalberg merged Aschaffenburg, Frankfurt, Wetzlar, Hanau, the modern Roman Catholic Diocese of Mainz was founded in 1802 when Mainz lost its archdiocese status and became a mere diocese within the territory of France. In 1814 its jurisdiction was extended over the territory of Hesse-Darmstadt, since then it has had two cardinals and via various concordats was allowed to retain the medieval tradition of the cathedral chapter electing a successor to the bishop. Elector of Mainz Mainz Cathedral Primas Germaniae Roman Catholic Diocese of Mainz Official website of the modern Diocese Map of the Archbishopric of Mainz in 1789
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Imperial immediacy
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As confirmed by the Peace of Westphalia, the possession of imperial immediacy came with a particular form of territorial authority known as territorial superiority. In todays terms, it would be understood as a form of sovereignty. They formed the Imperial Estates, together with roughly 100 immediate counts,40 Imperial prelates and 50 Imperial Cities who only enjoyed a collective vote. Additional advantages might include the rights to collect taxes and tolls, to hold a market, to mint coins, to bear arms, the last of these might include the so-called Blutgericht through which capital punishment could be administered. These rights varied according to the patents granted by the emperor. Immediate rights might be lost if the Emperor and/or the Imperial Diet could not defend them against external aggression, as occurred in the French Revolutionary wars and the Napoleonic Wars. The Treaty of Lunéville in 1801 required the emperor to renounce all claims to the portions of the Holy Roman Empire west of the Rhine. The practical application of the rights of immediacy was complex, this makes the history of the Holy Roman Empire particularly difficult to understand, even such contemporaries as Goethe and Fichte called the Empire a monstrosity. Prussian historian Heinrich von Treitschke described it in the 19th century as having become a mess of rotted imperial forms. Pointing out that people like Goethe meant monster as a compliment in modern understanding, free Imperial City German mediatization Imperial Abbey Imperial Estate Imperial Village List of states of the Holy Roman Empire Braun, B. Reichsunmittelbarkeit in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, 2005-05-03
17.
Lake Constance
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Lake Constance is a lake on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps, and consists of three bodies of water, the Obersee, the Untersee, and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein. The lake is situated in Germany, Switzerland and Austria near the Alps and its shorelines lie in the German states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, the Austrian state of Vorarlberg, and the Swiss cantons of Thurgau, St Gallen and Schaffhausen. Freshwater Lake Constance is central Europes third largest, after Lake Balaton and it is 63 km long, and at its widest point, nearly 14 km. It covers approximately 571 km2, and is 395 m above sea level, the greatest depth is 252 metres in the middle of the eastern part. Its volume is approximately 10×10^9 m3, the regulated Rhine flows into the lake in the southeast, through the Obersee, the city of Konstanz and the Untersee, and flows out near Stein am Rhein. The lake itself is an important drinking water source for southwestern Germany, the culminating point of the lakes drainage basin is the Tödi at 3,614 metres above sea level. Car ferries link Romanshorn to Friedrichshafen, and Konstanz to Meersburg, Lake Constance was formed by the Rhine Glacier during the ice age and is a zungenbecken lake. The Rhine, the Bregenzer Ache, and the Dornbirner Ache carry sediments from the Alps to the lake, thus decreasing the depth. Lake Constance was first mentioned by the Roman geographer Pomponius Mela about 43 AD and he noted that the Rhine flows through two lakes, and gave them the Latin names Lacus Venetus and Lacus Acronius. Pliny the Elder used the name Lacus Brigantinus, after the Roman city of Brigantium, the lake is also colloquially known as the Swabian Sea. The lake was frozen in the years 1077,1326,1378,1435,1465,1477,1491,1517,1571,1573,1600,1684,1695,1709,1795,1830,1880, and 1963. Approximately 1,000 tonnes of fish were caught by 150 professional fishermen in 2001 which was below the ten year average of 1,200 tonnes per year. The Lake Constance trout was almost extinct in the 1980s due to pollution, Lake Constance is the home of the critically endangered species of trout Salvelinus profundus, and formerly also the now extinct Lake Constance whitefish. After the Council of Constance, the Latin-speaking Catholic world gave the lake its current international name and it was derived from the city of Konstanz, that, in turn, was named after a Roman emperor. The German name, Bodensee, derives from the town of Bodman, Lake Constance is the only area in Europe where no borders exist, because there is no legally binding agreement as to where the borders lie between Switzerland, Germany and Austria. Legal questions pertaining to transport and fishing are regulated in separate treaties. One concerns a houseboat which was moored in two states, another concerns the rights to fish in the Bay of Bregenz, in relation to the latter, an Austrian family was of the opinion that it alone had the right to fish in broad portions of the bay. However, this was accepted neither by the Austrian courts nor by the organs, a 100-year flood around June 1999 raised the level about 2 metres above normal, flooding harbors and many shoreline buildings and hotels
18.
High Rhine
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The High Rhine is the name used in Germany for the part of the Rhine River that flows westbound from Lake Constance to Basel. The High Rhine begins at the out flow of the Rhine from the Untersee in Stein am Rhein, in contrast to the Alpine Rhine and Upper Rhine, the High Rhine flows mostly to the west. The section is marked by Rhine-kilometers 0 to 165, measurements beginning at the outflow of the Obersee at the Old Rhine Bridge in Constance and it is the first of four sections of the Rhine between Lake Constance and the North Sea. In Switzerland, similar names refer to different parts, in the western part, the Rhine marks the border between Germany and Switzerland, while in the eastern part, Switzerland owns also areas north of the Rhine, surrounding the German exclave of Büsingen. The term High Rhine was introduced by scientists in the 19th century, above all geologists tried to differentiate the High Rhine linguistically from the Upper Rhine. Until the 19th century, it was known as the Badisch-Swiss Rhine. The Rhine Falls, which are the largest plain waterfalls of Europe, are in the municipalities of Neuhausen am Rheinfall and Laufen-Uhwiesen and they are 150 metres wide and 23 metres high. In the winter months, the water flow is 250 cubic metres per second, while in the summer. In Neuhausen am Rheinfall, the falls into a previously buried stream channel. The next rapids are the Kadelburg Rapids at Koblenz, near Laufenburg, the post-glacial Rhine failed to find the old silted-up channel and hit a spur of Black Forest crystal. The river cut itself a gorge, containing the Laufenburg Rapids, the Laufenburg and Schwörstadt Rapids have been artificially eliminated by blowing up the rocks and raising the water level with dams. The character of the river has changed over long distances by the construction of hydropower station. The Laufenburg and Schwörstadt Rapids were removed by blowing up rocks, originally to improve navigation, between Diessenhofen and Stein am Rhein, the High Rhine has yet to be dammed. The first power plant of the Rhine river is currently at Schaffhausen, the next power plant is located at Rekingen and Küssaberg. After Rekingen, the High Rhine flows freely through the Koblenz Rapids to the confluence with the Aar, the next hydropower plant, is at Leibstadt and Dogern. There are seven more power plant between here and Basel, altogether, the High Rhine has elven dams and twelve hydropower plants (there are two plants at the Augst/Wyhlen Dam. Some parts of the High Rhine valley are fairly wide, others are more gorge-like, well known towns on the High Rhine are Stein am Rhein, Schaffhausen, Neuhausen am Rheinfall, Waldshut, Laufenburg, Bad Säckingen Rheinfelden and Basel. The most important organizations for cross-border cooperation on the High Rhine are High Rhine Commission, larger tributaries of the High Rhine are Biber, Thur, Töss, Glatt, Wutach, Aar, Alb, Murg, Sissle, Wehra, Ergolz and Birs
19.
Untersee (Lake Constance)
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The Untersee is the smaller of the two lakes that together form Lake Constance and forms part of the boundary between Switzerland and Germany. Lake Untersee measures 63 km² and is situated about 30 cm lower than the Obersee, the Romans called it Lacus Acronius. In the Middle Ages, the Upper Lake was called Bodamicus Lacus, at some point in time, this term began to include the Lower Lake, and a new term Upper Lake, was introduced for the larger lake. The main tributaries are the Seerhein and Radolfzeller Aach, the landscape surrounding the Untersee is very diverse. The Untersee contains two islands, Reichenau and Werd, bordering Lake Untersee are the Swiss cantons of Thurgau and Schaffhausen and the German state of Baden-Württemberg. In contrast to the Obersee, the border between Germany and Switzerland across Lake Untersee is well defined, municipalities on the Swiss side are Gottlieben, Ermatingen, Salenstein, Berlingen, Steckborn, Mammern, Eschenz and Stein am Rhein. Municipalities on the German side are Öhningen, Gaienhofen, Moos am Bodensee, Radolfzell, Reichenau, Allensbach, three parts in the north of Lake Untersee have names of their own, Lake Zell, Lake Gnadensee and Markelfingen Corner. Lake Zell is the part between the Mettnau peninsula in the north, of the Höri peninsula in the south and Reichenau Island in the east, to the west lies the estuary of the Radolfzeller Aach. According to legend, the grace of the lake comes from the time when the court house was located on the island of Reichenau. If a defendant was sentenced to death, the execution of the sentence could not be carried out on the island, therefore, the condemned man was brought by boat to the mainland in the direction of Allensbach, where the sentence could be grace. Now, if the abbot wanted to pardon the condemned, he would ring a bell before the offender arrived on the other shore and this signaled to the executioner on the mainland, that prisoner had been pardoned. The story above is unlikely to be true, a more probable theory is that the lake is named after Maria, Our Lady of Grace, as the church of the abbey on the island was dedicated to St. Mary and St. Mark. The place name Frauenfeld in neighbouring Thurgau can be similarly explained, the Markelfingen Corner is the western end of Lake Gnadensee, between Markelfingen in the north, Radolfzell in the west and Mettnau in the south. Its eastern boundary is at the level of Mount Mettnauspitze, with is maximum water depth of 16 m, the Markelfingen Corner is the shallowest part of the lake. It has a tributary, the Mühlbach, which drains the Mindelsee, a section of the lake is known as Rheinsee. This section is bounded to the north by the island of Reichenau, to the west by the shore of the Höri peninsula. This follows more or less the border between Germany and Switzerland, some authors call this section the Untersee in the strict sense. He succeeds about the Untersee force in the boundary between Germany and Switzerland and this section of the lake is also referred to when the Untersee in the strict sense of the question
20.
Reichenau Island
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Reichenau Island is an island in Lake Constance in southern Germany. It lies almost due west of the city of Konstanz, between the Gnadensee and the Untersee, two parts of Lake Constance. With a total surface of 4.3 square kilometres and a circumference of 11 kilometres. The highest point, the Hochwart, stands some 43 metres above the surface and 438.7 metres above mean sea level. A low road bridge allows the passage of boats but not of sailing-boats. The island was declared a World Heritage Site in 2000 because of its monastery, the abbeys Münster is dedicated to the Virgin and Saint Mark. Two further churches were built on the island consecrated to Saint George and to Saints Peter, the famous artworks of Reichenau include the Ottonian murals of miracles of Christ, unique survivals from the 10th century. The abbeys bailiff was housed in a stone building to which two more storeys of timber framing were added in the 14th century, one of the oldest timber-frame buildings in south Germany. Among the Abbeys far-flung landholdings was Reichenau, a village on the upper Rhine in the municipality of Tamins in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland, today the island is also famous for its vegetable farms. The Wollmatinger Ried next to the island is a nature preserve. The Alemannic name of the island was Sindleozesauua, but it was known as simply Ow, Auua – Latinized as Augia, later also Augia felix or Augia dives, hence Richenow. Pirmins conflict with Santfrid resulted in his leaving Reichenau in 727, under his successor Haito the monastery began to flourish. It gained influence in the Carolingian dynasty, under Abbot Waldo of Reichenau, Abbot Reginbert of Reichenau built up the important book collection. Abbot Walahfrid Strabo, who was educated at Reichenau, was renowned as a poet, the Abbey stood along a main north–south highway between Germany and Italy, where the lake passage eased the arduous route. An example of the production is the Pericopes of Henry II, made for the Emperor. Reichenau has preserved its precious relics, which include the pitcher from the wedding at Cana, the Abbey reached its apex under Abbot Berno of Reichenau. During his time, important scholars, such as Hermannus Contractus, when the abbey lands were secularized and the monks disbanded under Napoleon, part of Reichenaus famed library was preserved in the state library at Karlsruhe. The Geographus Bavarus and several important documents may be found in the Bavarian State Library in Munich
21.
Linzgau
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Linzgau is a historic region in Southern Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located north of Lake Constance and south of the Danube valley, the region is bounded by the shore of Lake Constance on the south, the Hegau region on the west, the Rhine-Danube watershed on the north, and the Schussen valley on the east. It reaches west as far as Überlingen and north as far as Pfullendorf, the highest peak is Mt. Höchsten with a height of 837.8 m. While the lower parts on the lakeshore are part of the Bodenseekreis district, beside Pfullendorf and Überlingen, the region comprises the town of Markdorf, Meersburg, the municipality of Salem and several smaller communities. The name derives from a Celtic name Lentia for what is now known as the Linzer Aach river, similar neolithic structures have also been found in a peat bog near Ruhestetten in the municipality of Wald. From the late Hallstatt culture on, the population can be regarded as Celts, burial mounds have been discovered at Hödingen, Salem, and Stetten. From the first century BC to the third century AD, the area was part of the Roman Empire, Roman settlements existed at Bambergen, Meersburg, and Mettenbuch in the municipality of Ostrach. After the Roman withdrawal beyond the Rhine, Germanic tribes settled in the area, the original Celtic name of the stream gave its name to an Alamannic tribe, the Lentienses mentioned in the fourth century AD by the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus. As part of Alemannia, Linzgau was acquired by the Frankish Empire in the 6th century, in 1135, the counts of Heiligenberg received the county of Linzgau. From them, it passed to the Count of Werdenberg in 1277, the area was then mostly called the County of Heiligenberg. In the early 19th century, under the rule of Napoleon, today, the area encompasses the districts of Bodensee and Sigmaringen. Today, the official use for the term Linzgau is the Catholic deanery. However, it is regaining popularity, as shown by the naming of the new shopping center in Pfullendorf the Linzgau-Center or the slogan of Markdorf, the regional tourist association also calls itself Bodensee-Linzgau Tourismus e. V. The southern part of the Linzgau lies on the banks of Lake Constance and has a milder climate, the landscape is rolling, but fairly flat, with occasional drumlins caused by deposits from the retreating Rhine Glacier in the last ice age. The northern part has a more rugged climate and rises to as high as 833 m and it is characterized by glacial moraines, with occasional swamps and small lakes, especially in the northeast. Agriculture is largely dedicated to grain, most of the Linzgau is still rural, with the most heavily populated areas along the shores of Lake Constance. The largest cities are Überlingen, Pfullendorf, and Markdorf, the national highways 31 and 33, which run from east to west along Lake Constance are the only major highways through the region. A car ferry runs from Meersburg across the arm of Lake Constance called the Überlinger See to connect with Constance, based on the article in the German Wikipedia
22.
Petershausen Abbey
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Petershausen Abbey was a Benedictine imperial abbey at Petershausen, now a district of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Gebhard dedicated the church to Pope Gregory the Great and settled the abbey with monks descending from Einsiedeln. Under Bishop Gebhard III of Zähringen and Abbot Theodoric, the Hirsau Reforms were introduced, in 1097 a filial monastery was established at Mehrerau near Bregenz. As Petershausen sided with the papacy in the Investiture Controversy, Gebhard III in 1103 was deposed at the instigation of Emperor Henry IV, the abbey was closed until 1106, the monks fled to the newly established Kastl Abbey in Bavaria. In 1159 the monastery burnt down, and was rebuilt and extended between 1162 and 1180, during the Council of Constance, the German king Sigismund of Luxembourg stayed at the Petershausen and the abbot was even given the pontifical vestments from Antipope John XXIII. However, the monastery declined during the 14th and 15th centuries, the attempts of Prince-Bishop Hugo von Hohenlandenberg to annex Petershausen were blocked by Maximilian I. However Petershausen was to lose its independence to the city of Constance, in 1556, the monks returned back to their restored monastery, which slowly recovers thanks to the help of the nearby nobility. During the Thirty Years War, the abbey was compelled to build fortification around the monastery, a panorama of the fortified abbey can be seen in Matthäus Merians engraving showing Constance and Petershausen during the siege of 1633. A slow recovery of the abbey began after the end of this destructive war, Petershausen was finally secularised to Baden in 1802, the library was bought by the University Library Heidelberg. Margrave Charles Frederick of Baden had parts of the abbey rebuilt as a residence for his sons. The St Gregory Church was demolished in 1832, the remaining premises were later used as a psychiatric hospital and as barracks. They now accommodate a number of administrative and educational functions and the Archaeological Museum of Baden-Württemberg
23.
Thurgau
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The Canton of Thurgau is a northeast canton of Switzerland. It is named for the Thur River, and the name Thurgovia was historically used for a larger area, the area of what is now Thurgau was acquired as subject territories by the cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy from the mid 15th century. Thurgau was first declared a canton in its own right at the formation of the Helvetic Republic in 1798, the population, as of December 2015, is 267,429. In 2007, there were a total of 47,390 who were resident foreigners, in prehistoric times the lands of the canton were inhabited by people of the Pfyn culture along Lake Constance. During Roman times the canton was part of the province Raetia until in 450 the lands were settled by the Alamanni, in the 6th century Thurgovia became a Gau of the Frankish Empire as part of Alemannia, passing to the Duchy of Swabia in the early 10th century. The most important cities of Thurgovia in the medieval period were Constance as the seat of the bishop. The dukes of Zähringen and the counts of Kyburg took over much of the land in the High Middle Ages, the town of Zürich was part of the Thurgau until it became reichsunmittelbar in 1218. When the Kyburg dynasty became extinct in 1264 the Habsburgs took over that land, during the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland, both the Catholic and emerging Reformed parties sought to swing the subject territories, such as the Thurgau, to their side. Between 1526 and 1531, most of the Thurgaus population adopted the new Reformed faith spreading from Zurich, religious tensions over the Thurgau were an important background to the First War of Villmergen, during which Zurich briefly occupied the Thurgau. In 1798 the land became a canton for the first time as part of the Helvetic Republic, in 1803, as part of the Act of Mediation, the canton of Thurgau became a member of the Swiss confederation. The current cantonal constitution of Thurgau dates from 1987, to the north the canton is bound by the Lake Constance across which lies Germany and Austria. The river Rhine creates the border in the northwest, to the south lies the canton of St. Gallen, to the west lie the cantons of Zürich and Schaffhausen. The area of the canton is 991 km2 and commonly divided into three hill masses, one of these stretches along Lake Constance in the north. Another is further inland between the river Thur and the river Murg, the third one forms the southern border of the canton and merges with the Hörnli mountain in the pre-Alps. The population of the canton is 267,429, the canton is mostly German speaking. The population is split between Protestants and Roman Catholics, since January 2011, Thurgau is divided into five districts which are named after their capitals. Before this date, there were eight districts, the ten largest municipalities by population are, ^a FDP before 2009, FDP. The Liberals after 2009 ^b * indicates that the party was not on the ballot in this canton. The canton of Thurgau is known for its agricultural produce
24.
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
25.
Upper Rhine
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The Upper Rhine is the section of the Rhine in the Upper Rhine Plain between Basle in Switzerland and Bingen in Germany. The river is marked by Rhine-kilometres 170 to 529, the Upper Rhine is one of four sections of the river between Lake Constance and the North Sea. The countries and states along the Upper Rhine are Switzerland, France, the largest cities along the river are Basle, Mulhouse, Strasbourg, Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and Mainz. The Upper Rhine was straightened between 1817 and 1876 by Johann Gottfried Tulla and made navigable between 1928 and 1977, the Treaty of Versailles allows France to use the Upper Rhine for hydroelectricity in the Grand Canal dAlsace. On the left bank are the French region of Alsace and the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, on the bank are the German states of Baden-Württemberg. The first few kilometres are in the Swiss city of Basle, around 35 million years ago, a rift valley of about 300 kilometres long and 50 kilometres wide came into being between the present cities of Basle and Frankfurt. This was due to stresses in the Earths crust and mantle. The moat has been filled up again by sedimentation. On the edges we find mountain ridges, the rift flanks. On the eastern side, they are the Black Forest and Odenwald mountains, in the west the Vosges, during the tertiary, the High Rhine continued west from Basle and flowed via the Doubs and the Saône, into the Rhône. The rift diverted the Rhine into the newly formed Upper Rhine Valley, the two largest tributaries come from the right, the Neckar in Mannheim, the Main across from Mainz. In 1685, Louis XIV started a project to move the Upper Rhine, change its course, by 1840, the river had been moved up to 1.5 kilometres to the east, taking territory away from Baden. Around 1790, large parts of the Rhine Valley were deforested, creating arable land, fields, the length of the Upper Rhine was reduced by 81 kilometres. Some cut-off river arms and ox-bows remain, they are called the Old Rhine or Gießen. The Rhine between Basle and Iffezheim is almost entirely canalised, on a stretch of 180 kilometres, there are 10 dams, provided with hydropower stations and locks. Only when there is a supply of water, then the old river bed will receive more water than the canal. The straightening and channeling reduced the water table by up to 16 metres and thus had an effect on flora. Gravel is also missing from the river, due to the dams and this has caused erosion below the dam at Iffezheim
26.
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Strasbourg
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The Catholic Archdiocese of Strasbourg is a non-metropolitan archdiocese, of Latin Rite of the Catholic Church in France, first mentioned in 343. It is one of nine archbishoprics in France which have no suffragans and it is currently headed by Archbishop Luc Ravel, in office since February 2017. The Diocese of Strasbourg was first mentioned in 343, belonging to the province of the Archbishopric of Mainz since Carolingian times. It is supposed that this was the first seat of the diocese, the diocese may thus have been founded around 300. The bishop also was the ruler of a principality in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages. For this state, see Prince-Bishopric of Strasbourg, since the 15th century, the diocesan seat has been the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Strasbourg. On 29 November 1801 it gained territory from the Diocese of Basel, Diocese of Metz, on 25 February 1803 it lost territory to the Diocese of Konstanz, on 26 April 1808 it gained territory from the same and in 1815 lost territory to that Diocese of Konstanz. In 1871 the bulk of the diocese became part of German Empire, after World War I, Alsace along with the diocese was returned to France, but the concordatary status has been preserved since as part of the Local law in Alsace-Moselle. The diocese was elevated to Archdiocese of Strasbourg on 1 June 1988 by Pope John Paul II but not as Metropolitan of a province and remains exempt. The bishop of this see is appointed by the French president according to the Concordat of 1801, the concordat further provides for the clergy being paid by the government and Catholic pupils in public schools can receive religious instruction according to archdiocesan guide lines. It enjoyed papal visits from Pope John Paul II in October 1988, the archiepsicopal cathedral seat is the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, as mother church, a World Heritage Site. As per 2014, it pastorally served 1,380,000 Catholics on 8,280 km² in 767 parishes and 5 missions with 722 priests,80 deacons,1,332 lay religious and 17 seminarians. As of 31 December 2003, the area of the archdiocese comprised a total of 1,713,416 inhabitants of which 75. 9% are Catholics, also,619 diocese priests,50 deacons,288 ordained priests and 1,728 nuns belonged to the archdiocese
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Roman Catholic Diocese of Speyer
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The Diocese of Speyer is a diocese of the Catholic Church in Germany. The diocese is located in the South of the Rhineland-Palatinate and comprises also the Saarpfalz district in the east of the Saarland, the bishops see is in the Palatinate city of Speyer. The current bishop is Karl-Heinz Wiesemann, see also Bishop of Speyer for a list of previous bishops. As of 31 December 2006,44. 5% of the population of the diocese was Catholic, in a slightly different hierarchic structure it is one of the oldest Dioceses in Germany. A bishop of Speyer was first mentioned in a document in 346, through grants by the Holy Roman Emperor, the prince-bishops of Speyer established themselves as worldly as well as spiritual rulers. The diocese is directed by bishop Karl-Heinz Wiesemann, the diocese is structured in the following deaneries, with borders that are almost the same as the local county borders
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Prince-Bishopric of Worms
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The Bishopric of Worms, or Prince-Bishopric of Worms, was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire. Located on both banks of the Rhine around Worms just north of the union of that river with the Neckar, Worms had been the seat of a bishop from Roman times. The prince-bishops however retained jurisdiction over the Cathedral of Worms inside the city, in 1795 Worms itself, as well as the entire territory of the prince-bishopric on the left bank of the Rhine, was occupied and annexed by France. In this case, it was annexed by Hesse-Darmstadt
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Diocese
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The word diocese is derived from the Greek term διοίκησις meaning administration. When now used in a sense, it refers to a territorial unit of administration. This structure of governance is known as episcopal polity. The word diocesan means relating or pertaining to a diocese and it can also be used as a noun meaning the bishop who has the principal supervision of a diocese. An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese, an archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or have had importance due to size or historical significance. The archbishop may have authority over any other suffragan bishops. In the Latter Day Saint movement, the bishopric is used to describe the bishop himself. Especially in the Middle Ages, some bishops held political as well as religious authority within their dioceses, in the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associated in a larger unit, the diocese. With the adoption of Christianity as the Empires official religion in the 4th century, a formal church hierarchy was set up, parallel to the civil administration, whose areas of responsibility often coincided. With the collapse of the Western Empire in the 5th century, a similar, though less pronounced, development occurred in the East, where the Roman administrative apparatus was largely retained by the Byzantine Empire. In modern times, many dioceses, though later subdivided, have preserved the boundaries of a long-vanished Roman administrative division, modern usage of diocese tends to refer to the sphere of a bishops jurisdiction. As of January 2015, in the Catholic Church there are 2,851 regular dioceses,1 papal see,641 archdioceses and 2,209 dioceses in the world, in the Eastern rites in communion with the Pope, the equivalent unit is called an eparchy. Eastern Orthodoxy calls dioceses metropoleis in the Greek tradition or eparchies in the Slavic tradition, after the Reformation, the Church of England retained the existing diocesan structure which remains throughout the Anglican Communion. The one change is that the areas administered under the Archbishop of Canterbury and Archbishop of York are properly referred to as provinces and this usage is relatively common in the Anglican Communion. Certain Lutheran denominations such as the Church of Sweden do have individual dioceses similar to Roman Catholics and these dioceses and archdioceses are under the government of a bishop. Other Lutheran bodies and synods that have dioceses and bishops include the Church of Denmark, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, the Evangelical Church in Germany, rather, it is divided into a middle judicatory. The Lutheran Church-International, based in Springfield, Illinois, presently uses a traditional diocesan structure and its current president is Archbishop Robert W. Hotes. The Church of God in Christ has dioceses throughout the United States, in the COGIC, each state is divided up into at least three dioceses that are all led by a bishop, but some states as many as seven dioceses
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Switzerland
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Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western-Central Europe, and is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2. The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The country has a history of armed neutrality going back to the Reformation, it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815, nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to international organisations. On the European level, it is a member of the European Free Trade Association. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties, spanning the intersection of Germanic and Romance Europe, Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions, German, French, Italian and Romansh. Due to its diversity, Switzerland is known by a variety of native names, Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera. On coins and stamps, Latin is used instead of the four living languages, Switzerland is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product according to the IMF. Zürich and Geneva have each been ranked among the top cities in the world in terms of quality of life, with the former ranked second globally, according to Mercer. The English name Switzerland is a compound containing Switzer, a term for the Swiss. The English adjective Swiss is a loan from French Suisse, also in use since the 16th century. The name Switzer is from the Alemannic Schwiizer, in origin an inhabitant of Schwyz and its associated territory, the Swiss began to adopt the name for themselves after the Swabian War of 1499, used alongside the term for Confederates, Eidgenossen, used since the 14th century. The data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica. The toponym Schwyz itself was first attested in 972, as Old High German Suittes, ultimately related to swedan ‘to burn’
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Gotthard Pass
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The Gotthard Pass or St Gotthard Pass is a mountain pass in the Alps, connecting northern and southern Switzerland. The pass lies between Airolo in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, and Andermatt in the German-speaking canton of Uri, and connects further Bellinzona to Lucerne, Basel, as early as 1236, Gotthard Pass was dedicated to the Roman Catholic Saint Gotthard of Hildesheim. The Gotthard Pass connects the cantons of Uri and Ticino, the pass itself is located within the latter canton, about 2 km south of the border with Uri, between the massifs of Pizzo Lucendro and Pizzo Centrale. The pass lies on the most important route between the canton of Ticino and central Switzerland as well as most of the northern part of the country. It is the most direct link between Zürich and Lugano and also some regions of Germany and Italy. The nearest towns are Hospental near Andermatt and Airolo, respectively in the valleys of Urseren, the region of Andermatt lies at the foot of the Furka and Oberalp passes connecting the Rhone and Rhine valleys thus making the Gotthard area a strategic place for transports and military. The hospice is located south of the pass at 2,091 metres, near the Lago della Piazza, Lago di Lucendro and Lago Sella are larger reservoir lakes accessible from the pass. From the north side the pass can be reached by crossing the Schöllenen, according to the oral histories of the nearby villages, seasonal deaths resulting from drowning reached a peak in April–May of most years and thus a safer crossing was required. The original bridge built under these conditions was one of so many devils bridges that the legends about them form a category in the Aarne-Thompson classification system for folktales. The legend of this particular bridge states that the Reuss was so difficult to ford that a Swiss herdsman wished the devil would make a bridge, the Devil appeared, but required that the soul of the first to cross would be given to him. The mountaineer agreed, but drove a goat across ahead of him, angered by this trickery, the devil fetched a rock with the intention of smashing the bridge, but an old woman drew a cross on the rock so the devil could not lift it anymore. The rock is still there and, in 1977,300,000 Swiss francs were spent to move the 220 ton rock by 127 m in order to make room for the new Gotthard road tunnel. It carried only foot traffic and pack animals until 1775, when the first carriage made the journey on an improved road, several tunnels provide access through the pass. The 15 kilometres Gotthard Rail Tunnel was the first and opened in 1882 for railway traffic at a cost of around 200 workers lives and it bypassed the pass road, connecting Göschenen with Airolo. A17 kilometres motorway tunnel, the Gotthard Road Tunnel opened in 1980 and it was closed for two months in 2001 following a fatal fire. The Gotthard Base Tunnel was opened on 1 June 2016 and it is the longest rail tunnel in the world at 57.091 kilometres. A number of artists have been inspired by the dramatic scenery of the St. Gotthard Pass, the Schöllenen Gorge. Gotthard Pass is prominent in the manga series Wolfsmund by Mitsuhisa Kuji
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Vorarlberg
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Vorarlberg is the westernmost federal state of Austria. It has the second-smallest area after Vienna, and although it has the second-smallest population and it borders three countries, Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has a Germanic Alpine culture, quite different from the rest of Austria, the only Austrian state that shares a border with Vorarlberg is Tyrol to the east. The capital of Vorarlberg is Bregenz, although Dornbirn and Feldkirch have larger populations, the main rivers in Vorarlberg are the Ill, the Rhine, the Bregenzer Ache and the Dornbirner Ach. One of the shortest rivers is the Galina, however, even before the dam for the power plant was built, Lüner Lake was the largest mountain lake in the Alps. Most of this energy is exported to Germany at peak times. At night, energy from plants in Germany is used to pump water back into some of the lakes. As there are several mountain ranges in Vorarlberg, such as the Silvretta, the Rätikon, the Verwall. Lech is a ski resort on the banks of the river Lech. In recent years Lech has grown to one of the worlds premier ski destinations. With some other neighbouring villages Lech created the largest connected ski area in Austria, together these villages form the Arlberg region, the birthplace of the modern Alpine skiing technique and the seat of the Ski Club Arlberg. Lech is a holiday destination for Royal families and celebrities, for example Jason Biggs, Tom Cruise, Diana - Princess of Wales, and the former Queen Beatrix. Damüls is also recognized as the municipality with the most annual snowfall worldwide, the highest mountain is Piz Buin, whose rocky peak of 3,312 m is surrounded by glaciers. Vorarlberg is supposed to enjoy the greatest scenic diversity within limited confines in the entire Eastern Alps, the distance from Lake Constance and the plains of the Alpine Rhine valley across the medium altitude and high Alpine zones to the glaciers of the Silvretta range is a mere 90 km. Vorarlberg is divided into four districts, from north to south, Bregenz, Dornbirn, Feldkirch. These districts appear on the license plates in form of abbreviations, B, DO, FK. For several years, the Vorarlberg economy has been performing well above the Austrian average, while the overall Austrian GDP in 2004 rose by a mere 2. 0% in real terms, Vorarlberg recorded an increase of 2. 9%. This came as a surprise, particularly as the trading partners in Germany
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Austria
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Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a federal republic and a landlocked country of over 8.7 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, the territory of Austria covers 83,879 km2. The terrain is mountainous, lying within the Alps, only 32% of the country is below 500 m. The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, other local official languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene. The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty, from the time of the Reformation, many northern German princes, resenting the authority of the Emperor, used Protestantism as a flag of rebellion. Following Napoleons defeat, Prussia emerged as Austrias chief competitor for rule of a greater Germany, Austrias defeat by Prussia at the Battle of Königgrätz, during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, cleared the way for Prussia to assert control over the rest of Germany. In 1867, the empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary, Austria was thus the first to go to war in the July Crisis, which would ultimately escalate into World War I. The First Austrian Republic was established in 1919, in 1938 Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss. This lasted until the end of World War II in 1945, after which Germany was occupied by the Allies, in 1955, the Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state, ending the occupation. In the same year, the Austrian Parliament created the Declaration of Neutrality which declared that the Second Austrian Republic would become permanently neutral, today, Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy comprising nine federal states. The capital and largest city, with a population exceeding 1.7 million, is Vienna, other major urban areas of Austria include Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck. Austria is one of the richest countries in the world, with a nominal per capita GDP of $43,724, the country has developed a high standard of living and in 2014 was ranked 21st in the world for its Human Development Index. Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, joined the European Union in 1995, Austria also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted the euro currency in 1999. The German name for Austria, Österreich, meant eastern realm in Old High German, and is cognate with the word Ostarrîchi and this word is probably a translation of Medieval Latin Marchia orientalis into a local dialect. Austria was a prefecture of Bavaria created in 976, the word Austria is a Latinisation of the German name and was first recorded in the 12th century. Accordingly, Norig would essentially mean the same as Ostarrîchi and Österreich, the Celtic name was eventually Latinised to Noricum after the Romans conquered the area that encloses most of modern-day Austria, around 15 BC. Noricum later became a Roman province in the mid-first century AD, heers hypothesis is not accepted by linguists. Settled in ancient times, the Central European land that is now Austria was occupied in pre-Roman times by various Celtic tribes, the Celtic kingdom of Noricum was later claimed by the Roman Empire and made a province
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Konstanz Minster
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The Konstanz Minster or Konstanz Cathedral is a historical building in Konstanz, southern Germany, the proto-cathedral of the former Roman Catholic diocese of Konstanz. The first mention of a church in Konstanz dedicated to the Virgin Mary was in 615, documentary confirmation of the Episcopal church Ecclesia sanctae Mariae urbis Constantiae is dated to the mid 8th century. There is clear evidence indicating that it was located on the Cathedral Hill, in 780, the church was mentioned in a confirmation of a contract by Charlemagne. St. Maurice’s Rotunda was built in 940 on orders of Bishop Konrad who was canonized in 1123 and its reconstruction took place under Bishop Rumold, with the eastern transept and three naves separated by 16 monoliths. The next 300 years saw the construction of one towers, then another, the south tower was completed in 1378. From 1414 to 1418 the Council of Constance took place, the most important assembly of the Church during the Middle Ages, and the only one on German soil. Martin V, who had been elected Pope by the Conclave, in 1415 Jan Hus, because of his teachings, was condemned as a heretic by the Council who, at this time, was without a Pope. He was then delivered to the secular power who condemned him to death, tied him to a stake, between 1418 and 1525, the Cathedral was adapted to Gothic style by master craftsmen. In the period from 1526 to 1551, the Bishop left Konstanz because of the Reformation, the radical iconoclasm instigated by the reformer Huldrych Zwingli in nearby Zurich, caused the destruction of artwork in the Cathedral. The subsequent centuries saw the addition of more paintings, wrought iron gates and sculptures, as well as the replacement, of note is the replacement of the painted Romanesque wooden ceiling by brick vaulting in 1637. In 1821, Konstanzs bishopric, the largest in Germany, was dissolved and, in 1827 and it had served the people around Lake Constance for 1200 years, and survived almost 100 bishops. General restoration work took place on the Cathedral from 1844 to 1860, in 1955 Pope Pius XII raised the Cathedral to a papal Basilica Minor. A restoration program of the Cathedral’s interior as well as exterior was started in 1962 and was expected to be completed by 2010, in 1966, twelve new bells were cast and hung in the center tower and the ridge turret, a present from the state of Baden-Württemberg. Pelagius of Constance Some spherical panoramas of the Cathedral of Constance
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Alemanni
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The Alemanni were a confederation of Germanic tribes on the upper Rhine river. In 496, the Alemanni were conquered by Frankish leader Clovis, mentioned as still pagan allies of the Christian Franks, the Alemanni were gradually Christianized during the 7th century. The Pactus Alamannorum is a record of their customary law during this period, until the 8th century, Frankish suzerainty over Alemannia was mostly nominal. But after an uprising by Theudebald, Duke of Alamannia, Carloman executed the Alamannic nobility, during the later and weaker years of the Carolingian Empire the Alemannic counts became almost independent, and a struggle for supremacy took place between them and the Bishopric of Constance. According to Asinius Quadratus their name means all men and it indicates that they were a conglomeration drawn from various Germanic tribes. Other sources say the name derives from alahmannen which means men of sanctuary and not all men. The Romans and the Greeks called them as such mentioned and this etymology has remained the standard derivation of the term. Walafrid Strabo, a monk of the Abbey of St, the name of Germany and the German language in several languages is derived from the name of this early Germanic tribal alliance. For details, see Names of Germany, the Alemanni were first mentioned by Cassius Dio describing the campaign of Caracalla in 213. At that time they dwelt in the basin of the Main. Cassius Dio portrays the Alemanni as victims of this treacherous emperor and they had asked for his help, says Dio, but instead he colonized their country, changed their place names and executed their warriors under a pretext of coming to their aid. When he became ill, the Alemanni claimed to have put a hex on him, Caracalla, it was claimed, tried to counter this influence by invoking his ancestral spirits. In retribution Caracalla then led the Legio II Traiana Fortis against the Alemanni, the legion was as a result honored with the name Germanica. Not on good terms with Caracalla, Geta had been invited to a reconciliation, at which time he was ambushed by centurions in Caracallas army. True or not, Caracalla, pursued by devils of his own, Caracalla left for the frontier, where for the rest of his short reign he was known for his unpredictable and arbitrary operations launched by surprise after a pretext of peace negotiations. If he had any reasons of state for such actions they remained unknown to his contemporaries, whether or not the Alemanni had been previously neutral, they were certainly further influenced by Caracalla to become thereafter notoriously implacable enemies of Rome. This mutually antagonistic relationship is perhaps the reason why the Roman writers persisted in calling the Alemanni barbari, most of the Alemanni were probably at the time in fact resident in or close to the borders of Germania Superior. At that time the frontier was being fortified for the first time
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Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor
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Frederick I, also known as Frederick Barbarossa, was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death. He was elected King of Germany at Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 and he became King of Italy in 1155 and was crowned Roman Emperor by Pope Adrian IV on 18 June 1155. Two years later, the term sacrum first appeared in a document in connection with his Empire and he was later formally crowned King of Burgundy, at Arles on 30 June 1178. He was named Barbarossa by the northern Italian cities which he attempted to rule, Barbarossa means red beard in Italian, in German, he was known as Kaiser Rotbart, before his imperial election, Frederick was by inheritance Duke of Swabia. He was the son of Duke Frederick II of the Hohenstaufen dynasty and Judith, daughter of Henry IX, Duke of Bavaria, Frederick therefore descended from the two leading families in Germany, making him an acceptable choice for the Empires prince-electors. Historians consider him among the Holy Roman Empires greatest medieval emperors, in 1147 he became Duke of the southern German region of Swabia, and shortly afterwards made his first trip to the East, accompanied by his uncle, the German king Conrad III, on the Second Crusade. The expedition proved to be a disaster, but Frederick distinguished himself, when Conrad died in February 1152, only Frederick and the prince-bishop of Bamberg were at his deathbed. Frederick energetically pursued the crown and at Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 the kingdoms princely electors designated him as the next German king and he was crowned King of the Romans at Aachen several days later, on 9 March 1152. Fredericks father was from the Hohenstaufen family, and his mother was from the Welf family, the Hohenstaufens were often called Ghibellines, which derives from the Italianized name for Waiblingen castle, the family seat in Swabia, the Welfs, in a similar Italianization, were called Guelfs. The reigns of Henry IV and Henry V left the status of the German empire in disarray, for a quarter of a century following the death of Henry V in 1125, the German monarchy was largely a nominal title with no real power. The king was chosen by the princes, was given no resources outside those of his own duchy, the royal title was furthermore passed from one family to another to preclude the development of any dynastic interest in the German crown. When Frederick I of Hohenstaufen was chosen as king in 1152, royal power had been in abeyance for over twenty-five years. The only real claim to lay in the rich cities of northern Italy. The Salian line had died out with the death of Henry V in 1125, one of the Hohenstaufens gained the throne as Conrad III of Germany. When Frederick Barbarossa succeeded his uncle in 1152, there seemed to be excellent prospects for ending the feud, the Welf duke of Saxony, Henry the Lion, would not be appeased, however, remaining an implacable enemy of the Hohenstaufen monarchy. Barbarossa had the duchies of Swabia and Franconia, the force of his own personality, the Germany that Frederick tried to unite was a patchwork of more than 1600 individual states, each with its own prince. A few of these, such as Bavaria and Saxony, were large, many were too small to pinpoint on a map. The titles afforded to the German king were Caesar, Augustus, by the time Frederick would assume these, they were little more than propaganda slogans with little other meaning
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House of Habsburg
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The House of Habsburg, also called House of Hapsburg, or House of Austria, was one of the most influential royal houses of Europe. The throne of the Holy Roman Empire was continuously occupied by the Habsburgs between 1438 and 1740, from the sixteenth century, following the reign of Charles V, the dynasty was split between its Austrian and Spanish branches. Although they ruled distinct territories, they maintained close relations. The House takes its name from Habsburg Castle, a built in the 1020s in present-day Switzerland, in the canton of Aargau, by Count Radbot of Klettgau. His grandson Otto II was the first to take the name as his own. The House of Habsburg gathered dynastic momentum through the 11th, 12th, by 1276, Count Radbots seventh generation descendant Rudolph of Habsburg had moved the familys power base from Habsburg Castle to the Duchy of Austria. Rudolph had become King of Germany in 1273, and the dynasty of the House of Habsburg was truly entrenched in 1276 when Rudolph became ruler of Austria, which the Habsburgs ruled until 1918. A series of dynastic marriages enabled the family to expand its domains to include Burgundy, Spain and its colonial empire, Bohemia, Hungary. In the 16th century, the separated into the senior Habsburg Spain and the junior Habsburg Monarchy branches. The House of Habsburg became extinct in the 18th century, the senior Spanish branch ended upon the death of Charles II of Spain in 1700 and was replaced by the House of Bourbon. It was succeeded by the Vaudemont branch of the House of Lorraine, the new successor house styled itself formally as the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, although it was often referred to as simply the House of Habsburg. His grandson Radbot, Count of Habsburg founded the Habsburg Castle, the origins of the castles name, located in what is now the Swiss canton of Aargau, are uncertain. There is disagreement on whether the name is derived from the High German Habichtsburg, or from the Middle High German word hab/hap meaning ford, the first documented use of the name by the dynasty itself has been traced to the year 1108. The Habsburg Castle was the seat in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. The Habsburgs expanded their influence through arranged marriages and by gaining political privileges, in the 13th century, the house aimed its marriage policy at families in Upper Alsace and Swabia. They were also able to high positions in the church hierarchy for their members. Territorially, they often profited from the extinction of other families such as the House of Kyburg. By the second half of the 13th century, count Rudolph IV had become one of the most influential territorial lords in the area between the Vosges Mountains and Lake Constance
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Further Austria
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Further Austria mainly comprised the Sundgau territory with the town of Belfort in southern Alsace and the adjacent Breisgau region east of the Rhine, including Freiburg im Breisgau after 1368. During the Habsburg Monarchy they were humorously called tail feathers of the Imperial Eagle, some estates in Vorarlberg possessed by the Habsburgs were also considered part of Further Austria, though they were temporarily directly administered from Tyrol. These territories were never considered part of Further Austria - except for the Fricktal region around Rheinfelden and Laufenburg, from 1406 until 1490 Further Austria together with the Habsburg County of Tyrol was included in the definition of Upper Austria. From 1469 to 1474 Archduke Sigismund gave large parts in pawn to the Burgundian duke Charles the Bold, at the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, the Sundgau became part of France. After the Ottoman wars many inhabitants of Further Austria were encouraged to emigrate and settle in the newly acquired Transylvania region, in the 18th century, the Habsburgs acquired a few minor new Swabian territories, such as Tettnang in 1780. His heir as his son-in-law was Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Este, the uncle of Emperor Francis II, minor estates passed to Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and the Grand Duchy of Hesse. Fricktal had already become a French protectorate in 1799 and part of the Helvetic Republic in 1802, politically, the Further Austrian territories were held by the Habsburg Dukes of Austria from 1278 onwards. Becker, Irmgard Christa, ed. Vorderösterreich, Nur die Schwanzfeder des Kaiseradlers, die Habsburger zwischen Rhein und Donau. Auflage, Erziehungsdepartement des Kantons Aargau, Aarau 1996, ISBN 3-9520690-1-9, maier, Hans and Volker Press, eds. Rommel, Klaus, ed. Das große goldene Medaillon von 1716, zekorn, Andreas, Bernhard Rüth, Hans-Joachim Schuster and Edwin Ernst Weber, eds. Vorderösterreich an oberem Neckar und oberer Donau, map of South-Western Germany in 1789
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Pope Pius VII
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Pope Pius VII, born Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti, reigned as Pope from 14 March 1800 to his death in 1823. Chiaramonti was also a monk of the Order of Saint Benedict in addition to being a well known theologian, Chiaramonti was made Bishop of Tivoli in 1782, and resigned that position upon his appointment as Bishop of Imola in 1785. That same year, he was made a cardinal, in 1789, the French Revolution took place, and as a result a series of anti-clerical governments came into power in the country. In 1796, during the French Revolutionary Wars, French troops under Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Rome and he was taken as prisoner to France, where he died in 1799. The following year, after a sede vecante period lasting six months, Chiaramonti was elected to the papacy. Pius at first attempted to take an approach in dealing with Napoleon. In 1809, however, during the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleon once again invaded the Papal States, Pius VII was taken prisoner and transported to France. He remained there until 1814 when, after the French were defeated, he was permitted to return to Rome, Pius lived the remainder of his life in relative peace. His papacy saw a significant growth of the Catholic Church in the United States, Pius VII died in 1823 at age 81. In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI began the process towards canonizing him as a saint, Barnaba Chiaramonti was born in Cesena in 1742, the youngest son of Count Scipione Chiaramonti (30 April 1698 -13 September 1750. His mother, Giovanna Coronata, was the daughter of the Marquess Ghini, through her, though his family was of noble status, they were not wealthy but rather, were of middle-class stock. His maternal grandparents were Barnaba Eufrasio Ghini and Isabella de conti Aguselli and his paternal grandparents were Giacinto Chiaramonti and Ottavia Maria Altini, his paternal great-grandparents were Scipione Chiaramonti and Ottavia Maria Aldini. His paternal great-great grandparents were Chiaramonte Chiaramonti and Polissena Marescalchi and his siblings were Giacinto Ignazio, Tommaso and Ottavia. Two years after this on 20 August 1758, he became a professed member and he taught at Benedictine colleges in Parma and Rome, and was ordained a priest on 21 September 1765. A series of promotions resulted after his relative, Giovanni Angelo Braschi was elected Pope Pius VI, a few years before this election occurred, in 1773, Chiaramonti became the personal confessor to Braschi. In 1776, Pius VI appointed the 34-year-old Dom Gregory, who had been teaching at the Monastery of SantAnselmo in Rome, as honorary abbot in commendam of his monastery. Although this was an ancient practice, it drew complaints from the monks of the community, in December 1782, the pope appointed Dom Gregory as the Bishop of Tivoli, near Rome. Pius VI soon named him, in February 1785, the Cardinal-Priest of San Callisto, and as the Bishop of Imola, when the French Revolutionary Army invaded Italy in 1797, Cardinal Chiaramonti counseled temperance and submission to the newly created Cisalpine Republic
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Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Freiburg
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The Archdiocese of Freiburg im Breisgau is a Roman Catholic diocese in Baden-Württemberg comprising the former states of Baden and Hohenzollern. Its seat is Freiburg Minster in Freiburg im Breisgau, the 14th Archbishop of Freiburg, Robert Zollitsch, followed his predecessor Oskar Saier, who served from 1978 to 2002. On May 30,2014 Stephan Burger was appointed as the new Archbishop of Freiburg and he was ordained as bishop on June 29,2014. In 1821 the Archdiocese of Freiburg was founded out of the Diocese of Constance as well as parts of the Mainz, Straßburg, Worms, bernhard Boll became the first bishop in 1827. Well known successors were Conrad Gröber and Hermann Schäufele Today, church closures are not seen in the archdiocese of Freiburg, the same goes for the consolidation of parishes. The Archdiocese of Freiburg exercises the concept of “unions of pastoral guidance”, on November 1,2005 the archbishop Dr. Robert Zollitsch enacted “Pastoral Guidelines” for the first time in the history of the Archdiocese. These guidelines are given the title “Shaping the awakening”, virgin Mary Conrad of Constance Gebhard of Constance The Archdiocese is organized into seven regions, and these regions are in turn organized into numerous deaneries. The Archdiocese maintains a priest seminary in Freiburg, the Collegium Borromaeum, the CB lies in proximity to the Freiburger Cathedral and the ordinariate of the archbishop. Archbishop Robert Zollitsch was, among other things, a repetitor at the CB for several years, pastoral training takes place in a seminary in St. Peter, where Robert Zollitsch likewise functioned as a lecturer. Karlsruhe, Archbishop Ordinariate of Freiburg i, official site Freiburg - Catholic Encyclopedia article
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Conrad of Constance
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Saint Conrad of Constance was a German bishop and saint. Conrad was a member of the powerful Welf family, son of Count Heinrich of Altdorf, after an education at the cathedral school in Constance, he became provost of Constance Cathedral and in 934 was made Bishop of Constance. It is counted as one of his achievements that he avoided becoming enmeshed in the politics of the day and he was nevertheless close to Emperor Otto I, whom he accompanied to Italy in 962. Conrad made three pilgrimages to Jerusalem as well as a number to Rome and he founded a number of churches on the episcopal estates and the hospital at Kreuzlingen, named after a portion of the True Cross which Conrad brought back from Jerusalem and presented to it. His remembrance as a model for courage was entirely due to the efforts of Bishop Ulrich I of Dillingen. The Vita of Conrad was written in about 1120 by Udalschalk and its late date doubtless accounts for its lack of content, notwithstanding which, Conrad was canonised at the First Lateran Council in 1123. Saint Conrad is sometimes represented as a holding a chalice with a spider in it or over it. This refers to a story that once when he was celebrating mass a spider fell into the chalice. Spiders were believed at that time to be poisonous, but Conrad nevertheless drank the Blood of Christ. See Cultural depictions of spiders Adriaan Breukelaar, St. Patricks Church, Conrad of Constance http, //www. santiebeati. it/dettaglio/79200
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Teutonic bailiwicks