Bulgaria
Bulgaria the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the north and North Macedonia to the west and Turkey to the south, the Black Sea to the east; the capital and largest city is Sofia. With a territory of 110,994 square kilometres, Bulgaria is Europe's 16th-largest country. One of the earliest societies in the lands of modern-day Bulgaria was the Neolithic Karanovo culture, which dates back to 6,500 BC. In the 6th to 3rd century BC the region was a battleground for Thracians, Persians and ancient Macedonians; the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire lost some of these territories to an invading Bulgar horde in the late 7th century. The Bulgars founded the First Bulgarian Empire in AD 681, which dominated most of the Balkans and influenced Slavic cultures by developing the Cyrillic script; this state lasted until the early 11th century, when Byzantine emperor Basil II conquered and dismantled it. A successful Bulgarian revolt in 1185 established a Second Bulgarian Empire, which reached its apex under Ivan Asen II.
After numerous exhausting wars and feudal strife, the Second Bulgarian Empire disintegrated in 1396 and its territories fell under Ottoman rule for nearly five centuries. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 resulted in the formation of the current Third Bulgarian State. Many ethnic Bulgarian populations were left outside its borders, which led to several conflicts with its neighbours and an alliance with Germany in both world wars. In 1946 Bulgaria became part of the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc; the ruling Communist Party gave up its monopoly on power after the revolutions of 1989 and allowed multi-party elections. Bulgaria transitioned into a democracy and a market-based economy. Since adopting a democratic constitution in 1991, the sovereign state has been a unitary parliamentary republic with a high degree of political and economic centralisation; the population of seven million lives in Sofia and the capital cities of the 27 provinces, the country has suffered significant demographic decline since the late 1980s.
Bulgaria is a member of the European Union, NATO, the Council of Europe. Its market economy is part of the European Single Market and relies on services, followed by industry—especially machine building and mining—and agriculture. Widespread corruption is a major socioeconomic issue; the name Bulgaria is derived from a tribe of Turkic origin that founded the country. Their name is not understood and difficult to trace back earlier than the 4th century AD, but it is derived from the Proto-Turkic word bulģha and its derivative bulgak; the meaning may be further extended to "rebel", "incite" or "produce a state of disorder", i.e. the "disturbers". Ethnic groups in Inner Asia with phonologically similar names were described in similar terms: during the 4th century, the Buluoji, a component of the "Five Barbarian" groups in Ancient China, were portrayed as both a "mixed race" and "troublemakers". Neanderthal remains dating to around 150,000 years ago, or the Middle Paleolithic, are some of the earliest traces of human activity in the lands of modern Bulgaria.
The Karanovo culture arose circa 6,500 BC and was one of several Neolithic societies in the region that thrived on agriculture. The Copper Age Varna culture is credited with inventing gold metallurgy; the associated Varna Necropolis treasure contains the oldest golden jewellery in the world with an approximate age of over 6,000 years. The treasure has been valuable for understanding social hierarchy and stratification in the earliest European societies; the Thracians, one of the three primary ancestral groups of modern Bulgarians, appeared on the Balkan Peninsula some time before the 12th century BC. The Thracians excelled in metallurgy and gave the Greeks the Orphean and Dionysian cults, but remained tribal and stateless; the Persian Achaemenid Empire conquered most of present-day Bulgaria in the 6th century BC and retained control over the region until 479 BC. The invasion became a catalyst for Thracian unity, the bulk of their tribes united under king Teres to form the Odrysian kingdom in the 470s BC.
It was weakened and vassalized by Philip II of Macedon in 341 BC, attacked by Celts in the 3rd century, became a province of the Roman Empire in AD 45. By the end of the 1st century AD, Roman governance was established over the entire Balkan Peninsula and Christianity began spreading in the region around the 4th century; the Gothic Bible—the first Germanic language book—was created by Gothic bishop Ulfilas in what is today northern Bulgaria around 381. The region came under Byzantine control after the fall of Rome in 476; the Byzantines were engaged in prolonged warfare against Persia and could not defend their Balkan territories from barbarian incursions. This enabled the Slavs to enter the Balkan Peninsula as marauders through an area between the Danube River and the Balkan Mountains known as Moesia; the interior of the peninsula became a country of the South Slavs, who lived under a democracy. The Slavs assimilated the Hellenized and Gothicized Thracians in the rural areas. Not l
Mennonites
The Mennonites are members of certain Christian groups belonging to the church communities of Anabaptist denominations named after Menno Simons of Friesland. Through his writings, Simons formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders; the early teachings of the Mennonites were founded on the belief in both the mission and ministry of Jesus, which the original Anabaptist followers held to with great conviction despite persecution by the various Roman Catholic and Protestant states. An early set of Mennonite beliefs was codified in the Dordrecht Confession of Faith in 1632, but the various groups do not hold to a common confession or creed. Rather than fight, the majority of these followers survived by fleeing to neighboring states where ruling families were tolerant of their belief in believer's baptism. Over the years, Mennonites have become known as one of the historic peace churches because of their commitment to pacifism. In contemporary 21st-century society, Mennonites either are described only as a religious denomination with members of different ethnic origins or as both an ethnic group and a religious denomination.
There is controversy among Mennonites about this issue, with some insisting that they are a religious group while others argue that they form a distinct ethnic group. Historians and sociologists have started to treat Mennonites as an ethno-religious group, while others have begun to challenge that perception. There is a discussion about the term "ethnic Mennonite". Conservative Mennonite groups, who speak Pennsylvania German, Plautdietsch, or Bernese German fit well into the definition of an ethnic group, while more liberal groups and converts in developing countries do not. There are about 2.1 million Anabaptists worldwide as of 2015. Mennonite congregations worldwide embody the full scope of Mennonite practice from "plain people" to those who are indistinguishable in dress and appearance from the general population. Mennonites can be found in communities in at least 87 countries on six continents; the largest populations of Mennonites are to be found in Canada, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia and the United States.
There are Mennonite colonies in Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico and Paraguay Plautdietsch-speaking, who originated in the Netherlands, formed as a distinct ethnic group in Prussia and Ukraine, are called, somewhat inaccurately, Russian Mennonites. Today, fewer than 500 Mennonites remain in Ukraine. A small Mennonite presence, known as the Algemene Doopsgezinde Societeit, still continues in the Netherlands, where Simons was born; the early history of the Mennonites starts with the Anabaptists in the German and Dutch-speaking parts of central Europe. The German term is "Täufer" or "Wiedertäufer"; these forerunners of modern Mennonites were part of the Protestant Reformation, a broad reaction against the practices and theology of the Roman Catholic Church. Its most distinguishing feature is the rejection of infant baptism, an act that had both religious and political meaning since every infant born in western Europe was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church. Other significant theological views of the Mennonites developed in opposition to Roman Catholic views or to the views of other Protestant reformers such as Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli.
Some of the followers of Zwingli's Reformed church thought that requiring church membership beginning at birth was inconsistent with the New Testament example. They believed that the church should be removed from government, that individuals should join only when willing to publicly acknowledge belief in Jesus and the desire to live in accordance with his teachings. At a small meeting in Zurich on January 21, 1525, Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, along with twelve others, baptized each other; this meeting marks the beginning of the Anabaptist movement. In the spirit of the times, other groups came to be, preaching about reducing hierarchy, relations with the state and sexual license, running from utter abandon to extreme chastity; these movements are together referred to as the "Radical Reformation". Many government and religious leaders, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, considered voluntary church membership to be dangerous—the concern of some deepened by reports of the Münster Rebellion, led by a violent sect of Anabaptists.
They joined forces to fight the movement, using methods such as banishment, burning, drowning or beheading. Despite strong repressive efforts of the state churches, the movement spread around western Europe along the Rhine. Officials killed many of the earliest Anabaptist leaders in an attempt to purge Europe of the new sect. By 1530, most of the founding leaders had been killed for refusing to renounce their beliefs. Many believed that God did not condone killing or the use of force for any reason and were, unwilling to fight for their lives; the non-resistant branches survived by seeking refuge in neutral cities or nations, such as Strasbourg. Their safety was tenuous, as a shift in alliances or an invasion could mean resumed persecution. Other groups of Anabaptists, such as the Batenburgers, were destroyed by their willingness to fight; this played a large part in the evolution of Anabaptist theology. They believed that Jesus taught that any use of force to get back at anyone was wrong, taught to forgive.
In the early days of the Anabapt
The Era (newspaper)
The Era was a British weekly paper, published from 1838 to 1939. A general newspaper, it became noted for its sports coverage, for its theatrical content; the Era was established in 1838 by a body of shareholders consisting of licensed victuallers and other people connected with their trade. The journal was intended to be a weekly organ of the public-house interest, just as the Morning Advertiser was its daily organ. In the first two or three years of its existence, its political stance was broadly Liberal, its first editor, Leitch Ritchie, proved too liberal for his board of directors, in addition to editorial clashes, the paper was a commercial failure. Ritchie was succeeded by Frederick Ledger, he edited the paper for more than thirty years changing its politics from Liberalism to moderate Conservatism. Politics, ceased to be a major concern of The Era, its great features after it came into the hands of Ledger were sport and the theatre. A contemporary observer remarked, "To the latter subject it has always devoted a large part of its space.
In relation indeed to the amount and accuracy of its theatrical intelligence, it far surpasses every other weekly journal."In an 1856 advertisement, The Era claimed to be the "largest Newspaper in the World, containing Sixty-four Columns of closely-printed matter in small type. It is the only Weekly Newspaper combining all the advantages of a first-rate Sporting Journal, with those of a Family Newspaper. Literature and the Metropolitan and Provincial Drama has more space allotted to them in the Era than in any other Journal; the Operatic and Musical Intelligence and Continental, is always most copious and interesting." The Era became regarded as "Invaluable for reviews and general theatrical information and gossip. Of value are the assorted advertisements by and for actors and companies"The theatrical historian W. J. MacQueen-Pope described The Era as "The Actor's Bible", with the theatrical coverage assuming prominence over all else: By degrees and because of increasing advertisements, The Era began to take more and more interest in theatrical affairs and gave weekly reports of theatrical happenings in London and the great provincial cities....
S Music Hall grew. However, to be seen walking along the street with The Era under the arm, its title displayed for the passer-by to read, proved to all that the person carrying it was a "Pro"; the Era was the longest running theatrical trade paper and continued to publish until the beginning of World War II, although its popularity and importance had long since declined
Ben-Hur (play)
Ben-Hur was an 1899 theatrical adaption of the novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace. The play was produced by Marc Klaw and A. L. Erlanger. Inspired by the success of Wallace's popular novel, the stage production was notable for its elaborate use of spectacle, it had six acts with incidental music written by American composer Edgar Stillman Kelley. The stage production opened at the Broadway Theater in New York City on November 29, 1899, became a hit Broadway show. Traveling versions of the production, including a national tour that ran for twenty-one years, played in the United States, Great Britain, Australia. By the end of its run in April 1920, the play had been seen by more than twenty million people and earned over $10 million at the box office. There have been other stage adaptations of Wallace's novel as well as several motion picture versions. After Wallace's novel was published in 1880, there was widespread demand for it to be adapted for the stage, but Wallace resisted for nearly twenty years, arguing that no one could portray Christ on stage or recreate a realistic chariot race.
In 1899, following three months of negotiations, Wallace entered into agreement with theatrical producers Marc Klaw and A. L. Erlanger to adapt his novel into a stage production. Wallace would receive two thirds of the royalties from the production, while Harper and Brothers, the book's publisher, would receive one third. Playwright William Young wrote the stage adaptation; the stage version followed the novel's plot and retained portions of its dialog. Edgar Stillman Kelley composed the play's music, but it was its elaborate staging and special effects that created a life-sized visual presentation of Wallace's novel; the character of Ben-Hur was cast with Walker Whiteside, but he was replaced by Edward J. Morgan at the last minute. William Farnum replaced Morgan after the show's first season. William S. Hart played Messala. Hart would go on to leading roles in silent films such as The Aryan, became a silent screen cowboy hero. Farnum appeared in several films, including The Spoilers; the character of Christ was "represented as a 25,000-candlepower beam of light" and not portrayed by an actor.
The resulting production of Ben-Hur opened at the Broadway Theater in New York City on November 29, 1899. It ran for 194 performances in its first season, before closing on May 10, 1900. Critics of the three-hour-and-twenty-nine-minute performance gave it mixed reviews. Ben-Hur became a hit show; the play reopened in New York City on September 3, 1900, ran for eighteen non-consecutive years on Broadway. The play's twenty-one-year national tour included large venues in cities such as Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore. International versions of the show played in London, in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia; when the play closed in April 1920, it had been seen by more than twenty million people and earned over $10 million at the box office. Fans included William Jennings Bryan, who claimed it was "the greatest play on stage when measured by its religious tone and more effect", its popularity is credited with introducing stage shows to a new audience, "many of them devout churchgoers who'd been suspicious of the stage".
Adaptations of other novels with biblical settings followed Ben-Hur to the stage. These included Quo Vadis in 1901 and Judith of Bethulia in 1904; the key spectacle of the 1899 show recreated the novel's chariot race with live horses and real chariots running on treadmills against a rotating backdrop. When Wallace saw the elaborate stage sets, he exclaimed. Did I set all of this in motion?"When the play was produced for the London stage, it used four chariots, as opposed to two in the U. S. In 1902, The Era's drama critic detailed how it was achieved with "four great cradles, 20 ft in length and 14 ft wide" that are moved "back and front on railways"; the horses galloped full-pelt towards the audience, secured with steel cable traces as they ran on treadmills. The horses drove the movement of a vast cyclorama backdrop that revolved in the opposite direction to create an illusion of rapid speed. Electric rubber rollers spun the chariot wheels. A critic for The Illustrated London News described it as "a marvel of stage-illusion", "memorable beyond all else".
The Sketch's critic called it "thrilling and realistic... enough to make the fortune of any play" and noted that "the stage, which has to bear 30 tons' weight of chariots and horses, besides huge crowds, has had to be expressly strengthened and shored up". There have been other stage adaptations since the initial production in 1899, including a London production staged in 2009 at the O2 arena featuring a live chariot race; the book was adapted for motion pictures in 1907, 1925, 1959, 2003, 2016, as an American television miniseries in 2010. The 1959 film adaptation, starring Charlton Heston and featuring the famous chariot race, won a record eleven Academy Awards and was the top-grossing film of 1960. Notes Bibliography Boomhower, Ray E.. The Sword and the Pen. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press. ISBN 0-87195-185-1. Ellis, Samantha. "Ben-Hur, London, 1902". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 May 2010. Espiner, Mark. "Ben Hur Live Leaves Little to the Imagination". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
Lifson, Amy. "Ben-Hur: The Book That Shook the World". Humanities. Washington, D. C.: National Endowment for the Humanities. 30. Retrieved 1 September 2010. Morsberger, Robert E. and Katharine M
Cylinder
A cylinder has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. It is the idealized version of a solid physical tin can having lids on bottom; this traditional view is still used in elementary treatments of geometry, but the advanced mathematical viewpoint has shifted to the infinite curvilinear surface and this is how a cylinder is now defined in various modern branches of geometry and topology. The shift in the basic meaning has created some ambiguity with terminology, it is hoped that context makes the meaning clear. In this article both points of view are presented and distinguished by referring to solid cylinders and cylindrical surfaces, but keep in mind that in the literature the unadorned term cylinder could refer to either of these or to an more specialized object, the right circular cylinder; the definitions and results in this section are taken from the 1913 text and Solid Geometry by George Wentworth and David Eugene Smith. A cylindrical surface is a surface consisting of all the points on all the lines which are parallel to a given line and which pass through a fixed plane curve in a plane not parallel to the given line.
Any line in this family of parallel lines is called an element of the cylindrical surface. From a kinematics point of view, given a plane curve, called the directrix, a cylindrical surface is that surface traced out by a line, called the generatrix, not in the plane of the directrix, moving parallel to itself and always passing through the directrix. Any particular position of the generatrix is an element of the cylindrical surface. A solid bounded by a cylindrical surface and two parallel planes is called a cylinder; the line segments determined by an element of the cylindrical surface between the two parallel planes is called an element of the cylinder. All the elements of a cylinder have equal lengths; the region bounded by the cylindrical surface in either of the parallel planes is called a base of the cylinder. The two bases of a cylinder are congruent figures. If the elements of the cylinder are perpendicular to the planes containing the bases, the cylinder is a right cylinder, otherwise it is called an oblique cylinder.
If the bases are disks the cylinder is called a circular cylinder. In some elementary treatments, a cylinder always means a circular cylinder; the height of a cylinder is the perpendicular distance between its bases. The cylinder obtained by rotating a line segment about a fixed line that it is parallel to is a cylinder of revolution. A cylinder of revolution is a right circular cylinder; the height of a cylinder of revolution is the length of the generating line segment. The line that the segment is revolved about is called the axis of the cylinder and it passes through the centers of the two bases; the bare term cylinder refers to a solid cylinder with circular ends perpendicular to the axis, that is, a right circular cylinder, as shown in the figure. The cylindrical surface without the ends is called an open cylinder; the formulae for the surface area and the volume of a right circular cylinder have been known from early antiquity. A right circular cylinder can be thought of as the solid of revolution generated by rotating a rectangle about one of its sides.
These cylinders are used in an integration technique for obtaining volumes of solids of revolution. A cylindric section is the intersection of a cylinder's surface with a plane, they are, in general and are special types of plane sections. The cylindric section by a plane that contains two elements of a cylinder is a parallelogram; such a cylindric section of a right cylinder is a rectangle. A cylindric section in which the intersecting plane intersects and is perpendicular to all the elements of the cylinder is called a right section. If a right section of a cylinder is a circle the cylinder is a circular cylinder. In more generality, if a right section of a cylinder is a conic section the solid cylinder is said to be parabolic, elliptic or hyperbolic respectively. For a right circular cylinder, there are several ways. First, consider planes that intersect a base in at most one point. A plane is tangent to the cylinder; the right sections are circles and all other planes intersect the cylindrical surface in an ellipse.
If a plane intersects a base of the cylinder in two points the line segment joining these points is part of the cylindric section. If such a plane contains two elements, it has a rectangle as a cylindric section, otherwise the sides of the cylindric section are portions of an ellipse. If a plane contains more than two points of a base, it contains the entire base and the cylindric section is a circle. In the case of a right circular cylinder with a cylindric section, an ellipse, the eccentricity e of the cylindric section and semi-major axis a of the cylindric section depend on the radius of the cylinder r and the angle α between the secant plane and cylinder axis, in the following way: e = cos α, a = r sin α. If the base of a circular cylinder has a radius r and the cylinder has height h its volume is given by V = πr2h; this formula holds. This formula may be established by using Cavalieri's principle. In more generality, by the same principle, the volume of an
Gettysburg National Military Park
The Gettysburg National Military Park protects and interprets the landscape of the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. Located in Gettysburg, the park is managed by the National Park Service; the GNMP properties include most of the Gettysburg Battlefield, many of the battle's support areas during the battle, several other non-battle areas associated with the battle's "aftermath and commemoration", including the Gettysburg National Cemetery. Many of the park's 43,000 American Civil War artifacts are displayed in the Gettysburg Museum and Visitor Center; the park has more wooded land than in 1863, the National Park Service has an ongoing program to restore portions of the battlefield to their historical non-wooded conditions, as well as to replant historic orchards and woodlots that are now missing. In addition, the NPS is restoring native plants to meadows and edges of roads, to encourage habitat as well as provide for historic landscape. There are considerably more roads and facilities for the benefit of tourists visiting the battlefield park.
In 1915, the "National Park Commission" tested the battlefield guides and, due to the limited knowledge, established a school for licensing tour guides to charge fees. The 1864 Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association and veteran's associations acquired land for memorials and preservation. Federal acquisition of land that would become the 1895 national park began on June 7, 1893, with 9 monument tracts of 625 sq ft each and a larger 10th lot of 1.2 acres from the Association, as well as 0.275 acres from Samuel M Bushman. In addition to land purchases, federal eminent domain takings include the Gettysburg Electric Railway right-of-ways in 1917. Donated land included 160 acres from the 1959 Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association and 264 acres from the W. Alton Jones Foundation; the Gettysburg Foundation is a 501 non-profit philanthropic, educational organization that operates in partnership with the National Park Service to preserve Gettysburg National Military Park and the Eisenhower National Historic Site, to educate the public about their significance.
In February 2009, The David Wills House where Lincoln completed his Gettysburg Address was added to the national park by Public Law 106-290 and is operated by Gettysburg Foundation. In 2010, an effort to expand the amount of the federally-owned GNMP land failed in Congress; the Park has been a symbolic venue for memorials and remembrance. On November 19, 1963 a parade and ceremony was held in Gettysburg commemorating the centennial of President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, given less than five months after the Battle of Gettysburg; the actor, Raymond H. Massey, playing the role of President Lincoln arrived by 1860's period steam train at the Gettysburg station, he rode, in the parade as did Lincoln, on horseback to the National cemetery where actor Massey gave the President's famous address. The parade followed the same route that President Lincoln and Gov. Andrew G. Curtin took 100 years before. Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower—who lived nearby—was there accompanied by Gov. William W. Scranton.
The attendance at the 1963 commemoration was lower than the 20,000 to 30,000 persons who attended the original address by President Lincoln in 1863. Thousands of photographers attended the 1963 event while U. S. Air Force aircraft passed overhead. Attending the event were the 28th Division of the Pennsylvania National Guard headed by Maj. Gen. Henry F. Fluck, the U. S. Marine Band, the 3rd Infantry Regiment of the U. S. Army; the parade ended at the rear entrance into the Gettysburg National Cemetery. Official website "Writings of Abraham Lincoln", broadcast from Gettysburg National Military Park from C-SPAN's American Writers Historic American Engineering Record No. PA-485, "Gettysburg National Military Park Tour Roads"
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany is the common English name for Germany between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party controlled the country through a dictatorship. Under Hitler's rule, Germany was transformed into a totalitarian state that controlled nearly all aspects of life via the Gleichschaltung legal process; the official name of the state was Deutsches Reich until 1943 and Großdeutsches Reich from 1943 to 1945. Nazi Germany is known as the Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", the first two being the Holy Roman Empire and the German Empire; the Nazi regime ended. Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic, Paul von Hindenburg, on 30 January 1933; the NSDAP began to eliminate all political opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934 and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the offices and powers of the Chancellery and Presidency. A national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer of Germany.
All power was centralised in Hitler's person and his word became the highest law. The government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitler's favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending and a mixed economy. Extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen; the return to economic stability boosted the regime's popularity. Racism antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime; the Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the master race, the purest branch of the Aryan race. Discrimination and persecution against Jews and Romani people began in earnest after the seizure of power; the first concentration camps were established in March 1933. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned, liberals and communists were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. Christian churches and citizens that opposed Hitler's rule were oppressed, many leaders imprisoned.
Education focused on racial biology, population policy, fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed. Recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased Germany on the international stage. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, Hitler's hypnotic oratory to influence public opinion; the government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others. The Nazi regime dominated neighbours through military threats in the years leading up to war. Nazi Germany made aggressive territorial demands, threatening war if these were not met, it seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. Germany signed a non-aggression pact with the USSR, invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, launching World War II in Europe. By early 1941, Germany controlled much of Europe. Reichskommissariats took control of conquered areas and a German administration was established in the remainder of Poland.
Germany exploited labour of both its occupied territories and its allies. In the Holocaust, millions of Jews and other peoples deemed undesirable by the state were imprisoned, murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps, or shot. While the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 was successful, the Soviet resurgence and entry of the US into the war meant the Wehrmacht lost the initiative on the Eastern Front in 1943 and by late 1944 had been pushed back to the pre-1939 border. Large-scale aerial bombing of Germany escalated in 1944 and the Axis powers were driven back in Eastern and Southern Europe. After the Allied invasion of France, Germany was conquered by the Soviet Union from the east and the other Allies from the west, capitulated in May 1945. Hitler's refusal to admit defeat led to massive destruction of German infrastructure and additional war-related deaths in the closing months of the war; the victorious Allies initiated a policy of denazification and put many of the surviving Nazi leadership on trial for war crimes at the Nuremberg trials.
The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Großdeutsches Reich from 1943 to 1945, while common English terms are "Nazi Germany" and "Third Reich". The latter, adopted by Nazi propaganda as Drittes Reich, was first used in Das Dritte Reich, a 1923 book by Arthur Moeller van den Bruck; the book counted the Holy Roman Empire as the German Empire as the second. Germany was known as the Weimar Republic during the years 1919 to 1933, it was a republic with a semi-presidential system. The Weimar Republic faced numerous problems, including hyperinflation, political extremism, contentious relationships with the Allied victors of World War I, a series of failed attempts at coalition government by divided political parties. Severe setbacks to the German economy began after World War I ended because of reparations payments required under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles; the government printed money to make the payments and to repay the country's war debt, but the resulting hyperinflation led to inflated prices for consumer goods, economic chaos, food riots.
When the government defaulted on their reparations payments in January 1923, French troops occupied German industrial areas along the Ruhr and widespread civil unrest followed. The National Socialist German Workers' Party (National
