1.
Ancient Egypt
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Ancient Egypt was a civilization of ancient Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. It is one of six civilizations to arise independently, Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh Narmer. In the aftermath of Alexander the Greats death, one of his generals, Ptolemy Soter and this Greek Ptolemaic Kingdom ruled Egypt until 30 BC, when, under Cleopatra, it fell to the Roman Empire and became a Roman province. The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came partly from its ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River valley for agriculture, the predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which supported a more dense population, and social development and culture. Its art and architecture were widely copied, and its antiquities carried off to far corners of the world and its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of travelers and writers for centuries. The Nile has been the lifeline of its region for much of human history, nomadic modern human hunter-gatherers began living in the Nile valley through the end of the Middle Pleistocene some 120,000 years ago. By the late Paleolithic period, the climate of Northern Africa became increasingly hot and dry. In Predynastic and Early Dynastic times, the Egyptian climate was less arid than it is today. Large regions of Egypt were covered in treed savanna and traversed by herds of grazing ungulates, foliage and fauna were far more prolific in all environs and the Nile region supported large populations of waterfowl. Hunting would have been common for Egyptians, and this is also the period when many animals were first domesticated. The largest of these cultures in upper Egypt was the Badari, which probably originated in the Western Desert, it was known for its high quality ceramics, stone tools. The Badari was followed by the Amratian and Gerzeh cultures, which brought a number of technological improvements, as early as the Naqada I Period, predynastic Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia, used to shape blades and other objects from flakes. In Naqada II times, early evidence exists of contact with the Near East, particularly Canaan, establishing a power center at Hierakonpolis, and later at Abydos, Naqada III leaders expanded their control of Egypt northwards along the Nile. They also traded with Nubia to the south, the oases of the desert to the west. Royal Nubian burials at Qustul produced artifacts bearing the oldest-known examples of Egyptian dynastic symbols, such as the crown of Egypt. They also developed a ceramic glaze known as faience, which was used well into the Roman Period to decorate cups, amulets, and figurines. During the last predynastic phase, the Naqada culture began using written symbols that eventually were developed into a system of hieroglyphs for writing the ancient Egyptian language. The Early Dynastic Period was approximately contemporary to the early Sumerian-Akkadian civilisation of Mesopotamia, the third-century BC Egyptian priest Manetho grouped the long line of pharaohs from Menes to his own time into 30 dynasties, a system still used today
2.
Nefertiti Bust
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The Nefertiti Bust is a painted stucco-coated limestone bust of Nefertiti, the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. The work is believed to have crafted in 1345 B. C. by the sculptor Thutmose, because it was found in his workshop in Amarna. It is one of the most copied works of ancient Egypt, owing to the work, Nefertiti has become one of the most famous women of the ancient world, and an icon of feminine beauty. A German archaeological team led by Ludwig Borchardt discovered the bust in 1912 in Thutmoses workshop and it is currently on display at the Neues Museum in Berlin, where it was originally displayed before World War II. The Nefertiti bust has become a symbol of Berlin as well as ancient Egypt. Nefertiti herself has become quite an icon, Nefertiti is widely known for her beauty and versatility. It has also been the subject of an argument between Egypt and Germany over Egyptian demands for its repatriation. It was dragged into controversy by the Body of Nefertiti art exhibition, however various testing and analysis of the bust have proved it to be authentic. Nefertiti was the 14th-century BC Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, Akhenaten initiated a new monotheistic form of worship called Atenism dedicated to the Sun disc Aten. Theories suggest she could have been an Egyptian royal by birth, a princess or the daughter of a high government official named Ay. She may have been the co-regent of Egypt with Akhenaten, who ruled from 1352 BC to 1336 BC, Nefertiti bore six daughters to Akhenaten, one of whom, Ankhesenpaaten, married Tutankhamun, Nefertitis stepson. Nefertiti was thought to have disappeared from history in the year of Akhenatens reign. She may also have become a pharaoh in her own right. However, it is now known that she was alive in the sixteenth year of her husbands reign from a limestone quarry inscription found at Dayr Abū Ḥinnis. Dayr Abū Ḥinnis is located on the side of the Nile. The bust of Nefertiti is believed to have been crafted about 1345 BC by the sculptor Thutmose, the bust does not have any inscriptions, but can be certainly identified as Nefertiti by the characteristic crown, which she wears in other surviving depictions, for example the house altar. The Nefertiti bust was found on 6 December 1912 at Amarna by the German Oriental Company and it was found in what had been the sculptor Thutmoses workshop, along with other unfinished busts of Nefertiti. Borchardts diary provides the main account of the find, he remarks
3.
House of Hohenzollern
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The House of Hohenzollern is a dynasty of former princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenburg, Prussia, the German Empire, and Romania. The family arose in the area around the town of Hechingen in Swabia during the 11th century, the first ancestor of the Hohenzollerns was mentioned in 1061. They may have derived from the Burchardinger dynasty, the Hohenzollern family split into two branches, the Catholic Swabian branch and the Protestant Franconian branch, which later became the Brandenburg-Prussian branch. The Swabian branch ruled the principalities of Hohenzollern-Hechingen and Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen until 1849, members of the Franconian branch became Margrave of Brandenburg in 1415 and Duke of Prussia in 1525. The Margraviate of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia were ruled in personal union after 1618 and were called Brandenburg-Prussia, germanys defeat in World War I in 1918 led to the German Revolution. The Hohenzollerns were overthrown and the Weimar Republic was established, thus bringing an end to the German monarchy, Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia is the current head of the royal Prussian line, while Karl Friedrich, Prince of Hohenzollern is the head of the princely Swabian line. Zollern, from 1218 Hohenzollern, was a county of the Holy Roman Empire and its ruling dynasty was first mentioned in 1061. The Hohenzollerns named their estates after Hohenzollern Castle in the Swabian Alps, the Hohenzollern Castle still belongs to the family today. According to the medieval chronicler Berthold of Reichenau, Burkhard I, Count of Zollern was born before 1025, the Zollerns received the comital title from Emperor Henry V in 1111. As loyal vassals of the Swabian Hohenstaufen dynasty, they were able to enlarge their territory. In 1218 the burgraviate passed to Fredericks younger son Conrad I, he became the ancestor of the Franconian Hohenzollern branch. 1150-1155 and 1160, Gotfried of Zimmern, 4th oldest son of Frederick I before 1171 – c,1200, Frederick III/I Count Frederick III of Zollern was a loyal retainer of the Holy Roman Emperors Frederick Barbarossa and Henry VI. In about 1185 he married Sophia of Raabs, the daughter of Conrad II, after the death of Conrad II who left no male heirs, Frederick III was granted Nuremberg in 1192 as Burgrave Frederick I of Nuremberg-Zollern. Since then the name has been Hohenzollern. The younger brother, Conrad III, received the burgraviate of Nuremberg from his older brother Frederick IV in 1218, members of the Franconian line eventually became the Brandenburg-Prussian branch. The Franconian line later converted to Protestantism, the cadet Franconian branch of the House of Hohenzollern was founded by Conrad I, Burgrave of Nuremberg. Beginning in the 16th century, this branch of the family became Protestant and decided on expansion through marriage, the family supported the Hohenstaufen and Habsburg rulers of the Holy Roman Empire during the 12th to 15th centuries, being rewarded with several territorial grants. He ruled the Margraviate of Brandenburg-Ansbach after 1398, from 1420, he became Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach
4.
Kingdom of Prussia
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It was the driving force behind the unification of Germany in 1871 and was the leading state of the German Empire until its dissolution in 1918. Although it took its name from the region called Prussia, it was based in the Margraviate of Brandenburg, the kings of Prussia were from the House of Hohenzollern. Prussia was a power from the time it became a kingdom, through its predecessor, Brandenburg-Prussia. Prussia continued its rise to power under the guidance of Frederick II, more known as Frederick the Great. After the might of Prussia was revealed it was considered as a power among the German states. Throughout the next hundred years Prussia went on to win many battles and it was because of its power that Prussia continuously tried to unify all the German states under its rule. Attempts at creation of a federation remained unsuccessful and the German Confederation collapsed in 1866 when war ensued between its two most powerful states, Prussia and Austria. The North German Confederation which lasted from 1867–1871, created a union between the Prussian-aligned states while Austria and most of Southern Germany remained independent. The North German Confederation was seen as more of an alliance of military strength in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War, the German Empire lasted from 1871–1918 with the successful unification of all the German states under Prussian hegemony. This was due to the defeat of Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, in 1871, Germany unified into a single country, minus Austria and Switzerland, with Prussia the dominant power. Prussia is considered the predecessor of the unified German Reich. The Kingdom left a significant cultural legacy, today notably promoted by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, in 1415 a Hohenzollern Burgrave came from the south to the March of Brandenburg and took control of the area as elector. In 1417 the Hohenzollern was made an elector of the Holy Roman Empire, after the Polish wars, the newly established Baltic towns of the German states including Prussia, suffered many economic setbacks. Many of the Prussian towns could not even afford to attend political meetings outside of Prussia, the towns were poverty stricken, with even the largest town, Danzig, having to borrow money from elsewhere to pay for trade. Poverty in these towns was partly caused by Prussias neighbors, who had established and developed such a monopoly on trading that these new towns simply could not compete and these issues led to feuds, wars, trade competition and invasions. However, the fall of these gave rise to the nobility, separated the east and the west. It was clear in 1440 how different Brandenburg was from the other German territories, not only did it face partition from within but also the threat of its neighbors. It prevented the issue of partition by enacting the Dispositio Achillea which instilled the principle of primogeniture to both the Brandenburg and Franconian territories, the second issue was solved through expansion
5.
Alexander von Humboldt
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Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt was a Prussian geographer, naturalist, explorer, and influential proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher. Humboldts quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography, Humboldts advocacy of long-term systematic geophysical measurement laid the foundation for modern geomagnetic and meteorological monitoring. Between 1799 and 1804, Humboldt travelled extensively in Latin America and his description of the journey was written up and published in an enormous set of volumes over 21 years. Humboldt was one of the first people to propose that the lands bordering the Atlantic Ocean were once joined and this important work also motivated a holistic perception of the universe as one interacting entity. Alexander von Humboldt was born in Berlin in Prussia on 14 September 1769 and he was baptized as a baby in the Lutheran faith, with the Duke of Brunswick serving as godfather. At age 42, Alexander Georg was rewarded for his services in the Seven Years War with the post of Royal Chamberlain and he profited from the contract to lease state lotteries and tobacco sales. He first married the daughter of Prussian General Adjutant Schweder, in 1766, Alexander Georg married Maria Elisabeth Colomb, a well-educated woman and widow of Baron Hollwede, with whom she had a son. Alexander Georg and Maria Elisabeth had three children, a daughter, who died young, and then two sons, Wilhelm and Alexander and her first-born son, Wilhelms and Alexanders half-brother, was something of a neer do well, not often mentioned in the family history. Alexander Georg died in 1779, leaving the brothers Humboldt in the care of their emotionally distant mother, Humboldts mother expected them to become civil servants of the Prussian state. The money Baron Holwede left to Alexanders mother became, after her death, instrumental in funding Alexanders explorations, due to his youthful penchant for collecting and labeling plants, shells and insects, Alexander received the playful title of the little apothecary. On April 25,1789, he matriculated at Göttingen, then known for the lectures of C. G. Heyne and his brother Wilhelm was already a student at Göttingen, but they did not interact much since their intellectual interests were quite different. His vast and varied interests were by this time fully developed, at Göttingen he met Georg Forster, a naturalist who had been with Captain James Cook on his second voyage. Humboldt traveled with Forster in Europe, the two traveled to England, Humboldts first sea voyage, The Netherlands, and France. In England, he met Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, the scientific friendship between Banks and Humboldt lasted until Bankss death in 1820, and the two shared botanical specimens for study. Banks also mobilized his scientific contacts in later years to aid Humboldts work, Humboldts scientific excursion up the Rhine resulted in his 1790 treatise Mineralogische Beobachtungen über einige Basalte am Rhein. Humboldts passion for travel was of long standing, Humboldts talents were devoted to the purpose of preparing himself as a scientific explorer. During this period, his brother Wilhelm married, but Alexander did not attend the nuptials, Humboldt graduated from the Freiberg School of Mines in 1792 and was appointed to a Prussian government position in the Department of Mines as an inspector in Bayreuth and the Fichtel mountains
6.
Frederick William III of Prussia
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Frederick William III was king of Prussia from 1797 to 1840. He ruled Prussia during the times of the Napoleonic Wars. Steering a careful course between France and her enemies, after a military defeat in 1806, he eventually and reluctantly joined the coalition against Napoleon in the Befreiungskriege. Following Napoleons defeat he was King of Prussia during the Congress of Vienna which assembled to settle the questions arising from the new. He was determined to unify the Protestant churches, to homogenize their liturgy, their organization, the long-term goal was to have fully centralized royal control of all the Protestant churches in the Prussian Union of churches. Frederick William was born in Potsdam in 1770 as the son of Frederick William II of Prussia and he was considered to be a shy and reserved boy, which became noticeable in his particularly reticent conversations distinguished by the lack of personal pronouns. This manner of speech came to be considered entirely appropriate for military officers. As a child, Frederick Williams father had him handed over to tutors and he spent part of the time living at Paretz, the estate of the old soldier Count Hans von Blumenthal who was the governor of his brother Prince Heinrich. They thus grew up partly with the Counts son, who accompanied them on their Grand Tour in the 1780s, Frederick William was happy at Paretz, and for this reason in 1795 he bought it from his boyhood friend and turned it into an important royal country retreat. He was a boy, but he grew up pious. His tutors included the dramatist Johann Engel, as a soldier he received the usual training of a Prussian prince, obtained his lieutenancy in 1784, became a colonel in 1790, and took part in the campaigns against France of 1792–1794. On 24 December 1793, Frederick William married Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, in the Kronprinzenpalais in Berlin, Frederick William lived a civil life with a problem-free marriage, which did not change even when he became King of Prussia in 1797. His wife Louise was particularly loved by the Prussian people, which boosted the popularity of the whole House of Hohenzollern, Frederick William succeeded to the throne on 16 November 1797. He also became, in union, the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel. He had the Hohenzollern determination to retain personal power but not the Hohenzollern genius for using it, too distrustful to delegate responsibility to his ministers, he lacked the will to strike out and follow a consistent course for himself. Disgusted with the moral debauchery of his fathers court, Frederick Williams first endeavor was to restore morality to his dynasty. He was quoted as saying the following, which demonstrated his sense of duty and peculiar manner of speech, Every civil servant has an obligation, to the sovereign. It can occur that the two are not compatible, then, the duty to the country is higher, at first Frederick William and his advisors attempted to pursue a policy of neutrality in the Napoleonic Wars
7.
Monbijou Palace
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Heavily damaged in World War II, the ruins were finally razed by the communist authorities of East Berlin in 1959. The palace has not been rebuilt, in the Middle Ages the site was outside the city walls on the road to Spandau and contained a manor farmstead of the prince-elector of Brandenburg. The entire area was devastated in the Thirty Years’ War, with great dedication she established there an exemplary rural estate including crops and dairy farming following the Dutch model. The first potatoes in the Margraviate of Brandenburg were grown there as an ornamental plant, after Henriette’s death in 1667 the property went to the elector’s second wife, Sophia Dorothea of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. She added a garden with a summer house, the nucleus of the future palace. Frederick I, who became Elector of Brandenburg on the death of his father in 1688 and King in Prussia in 1701, friedrich I presented it to Countess Wartenberg, his mistress. From 1712 the little palace served as the residence of Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, who in 1706 married Frederick William I of Prussia. Both she and her father-in-law are attributed with naming the palace Monbijou, in 1717 tsar Peter the Great of Russia and his court lodged at Monbijou for two days while traveling abroad. According to contemporary reports, the Russian guests left the property in “a complete mess” after their departure, dorothea’s son, Frederick the Great, had the palace modernized and considerably enlarged as soon as he had acceded to the throne. In 1742 the “Berlinische Nachrichten” reported that the keys had been turned over to the queen mother, Dorothea spent the summer months at Monbijou, giving formal dinners, masquerade balls and concerts there, pleasures she had long done without under the Spartan reign of Frederick William I. The palace had its own jetty, since the court members often preferred to arrive in comfort via the waterways instead of being jarred over rough roads, the palace was long uninhabited after the death of Queen Sophie Dorothea in 1757. She died at Monbijou in 1805, after that, the palace had outlived its usefulness as a residence for members of the court. The Anglican congregation of Berlin began using a gatehouse of Monbijou Palace as the English Chapel from 1855, the chapel soon became too small for the services of the congregation, regularly attended by Princess Royal Victoria, Crown Princess of Prussia and the German Empire. In 1883 Crown Prince Frederick William and Victoria provided a site in the park of Monbijou Palace close to Monbijoustraße, around 1820 the so-called “Germanic-Slavic Antiquities” were removed from the royal curiosities cabinet and housed in Monbijou Palace as the Museum for National Antiquities. It was considered to be on the one hand an educational institution of cultural history, the museum survived the abolition of the monarchy in Germany in 1918. World War II brought this state of affairs to an end, large parts of the collections had been evacuated, and after the war were looted and brought to the Soviet Union and other places. Monbijou castle was to be pulled down and rebuilt in the park of Charlottenburg Palace between the nearby Spree sluice and the Berlin Ringbahn. The war made these plans irrelevant, as a precaution, all the palace windows had been bricked up already in 1940, but the entire building was gutted during an air raid in November 1943 and almost entirely destroyed
8.
Trieste
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Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a strip of Italian territory lying between the Adriatic Sea and Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city. It is also located near Croatia some further 30 kilometres south, Trieste is located at the head of the Gulf of Trieste and throughout history it has been influenced by its location at the crossroads of Latin, Slavic, and Germanic cultures. In 2009, it had a population of about 205,000 and it is the capital of the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Trieste was one of the oldest parts of the Habsburg Monarchy. In the 19th century, it was the most important port of one of the Great Powers of Europe, as a prosperous seaport in the Mediterranean region, Trieste became the fourth largest city of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the fin de siècle period at the end of the 19th century it emerged as an important hub for literature, Trieste underwent an economic revival during the 1930s, and Trieste was an important spot in the struggle between the Eastern and Western blocs after the Second World War. Today, the city is in one of the richest regions of Italy, Roman authors also transliterated the name as Tergestum. Modern names of the city include, Italian, Trieste, Slovene, Trst, German, Triest, Hungarian, Trieszt, Croatian, Trst, Serbian, Трст/Trst, Trieste lies in the northernmost part of the high Adriatic in northeastern Italy, near the border with Slovenia. The city lies on the Gulf of Trieste, built mostly on a hillside that becomes a mountain, Triestes urban territory lies at the foot of an imposing escarpment that comes down abruptly from the Karst Plateau towards the sea. The karst landforms close to the city reach an elevation of 458 metres above sea level and it lies on the borders of the Italian geographical region, the Balkan Peninsula, and the Mitteleuropa. The territory of Trieste is composed of different climate zones depending on the distance from the sea. The average temperatures are 5.4 °C in January and 23.3 °C in July, the climatic setting of the city is humid subtropical climate. On average, humidity levels are low, while only two months receive slightly less than 60 mm of precipitation. Trieste along with the Istrian peninsula has evenly distributed rainfall above 1,000 mm in total, snow occurs on average 0 –2 days per year. Temperatures are very mild - lows below zero are somewhat rare, winter maxima are lower than in typical Mediterranean zone with quite high minima. Summer is very warm with maxima about 28 °C and lows above 20 °C, the absolute maximum of the last fifty years is 37.2 °C in 2003, whereas the absolute minimum is −14.6 °C in 1956. Since the second millennium BC, the location was an inhabited site, originally an Illyrian settlement, the Veneti entered the region in the 10th-9th c. BC and seem to have given the town its name, Tergeste, still later, the town was later captured by the Carni, a tribe of the Eastern Alps, before becoming part of the Roman republic in 177 BC during the Istrian War
9.
Karl Richard Lepsius
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Karl or Carl Richard Lepsius was a pioneering Prussian Egyptologist and linguist and pioneer of modern archaeology. He was born in Naumburg an der Saale, Saxony, the son of Friedericke Glaser and Peter Carl Lepsius. Karl Richards grandfather was Johann August Lepsius, the mayor of Naumburg upon Saale and he studied Greek and Roman archaeology at the University of Leipzig, the George Augustus University of Göttingen, and the Frederick William University of Berlin. After the death of Champollion, Lepsius made a study of the French scholars Grammaire égyptienne. In that year, Lepsius travelled to Tuscany to meet with Ippolito Rosellini, in a series of letters to Rosellini, Lepsius expanded on Champollions explanation of the use of alphabetic signs in hieroglyphic writing, emphasizing that vowels were not written. In 1842, Lepsius was commissioned by King Frederich Wilhelm IV of Prussia to lead an expedition to Egypt, the Prussian expedition was modelled after the earlier Napoleonic mission, with surveyors, draftsmen, and other specialists. The mission reached Giza in November 1842 and spent six months making some of the first scientific studies of the pyramids of Giza, Abusir, Saqqara and they discovered 67 pyramids recorded in the pioneering Lepsius list of pyramids and more than 130 tombs of noblemen in the area. While at the Great Pyramid of Giza, Lepsius inscribed a graffito written in Egyptian hieroglyphs that honours Friedrich Wilhelm IV above the original entrance. In 1843 he visited Naqa and copied some of the inscriptions and representations of the temple standing there, afterwards they stopped at Coptos, the Sinai, and sites in the Egyptian Delta, such as Tanis, before returning to Europe in 1846. In 1866 Lepsius returned to Egypt, where he discovered the Decree of Canopus at Tanis, a closely related to the Rosetta Stone. Lepsius was president of the German Archaeological Institute in Rome from 1867–1880, and from 1873 until his death in 1884, the head of the Royal Library at Berlin. He was the editor of the Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde, a scientific journal for the new field of Egyptology. While at the helm, Lepsius commissioned typographer Ferdinand Theinhardt to cut the first hieroglyphic typeface, the so-called Theinhardt font. Much of his work is fundamental to the field, indeed, Lepsius even coined the phrase Totenbuch. He was also a leader in the field of African linguistics, on 5 July 1846, he married Elisabeth Klein, daughter of the composer Bernhard Klein and great-granddaughter of Friedrich Nicolai. They had six children, including the geologist and Rector of the Darmstadt University of Technology G.1842, das Todtenbuch der Ägypter nach dem hieroglyphischen Papyrus in Turin mit einem Vorworte zum ersten Male Herausgegeben. Translated into English 1853 Discoveries in Egypt, Ethiopia and the Peninsular of Sinai, das allgemeine linguistische Alphabet, Grundsätze der Übertragung fremder Schriftsysteme und bisher noch ungeschriebener Sprachen in europäische Buchstaben. Berlin, Verlag von Wilhelm Hertz 1856, ägyptische königsdynastie nebst einigen bemerkungen zu der XXVI
10.
Eduard Gaertner
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Johann Philipp Eduard Gaertner was a German painter who specialized in depictions of urban architecture. In 1806, he moved with his mother to Kassel, where he received his first drawing lessons and they returned to Berlin in 1813 and he took up a six-year apprenticeship at the Royal Porcelain Factory. Although many artists had begun their careers at the Factory, he felt that the instruction provided was superficial, in 1821, he accepted a position as a decorative painter in the studios of Carl Wilhelm Gropius, the Royal Court Theater painter, where he remained until 1825. During this time, he became attracted to architectural painting. He was able to finance a trip to Paris by selling a portrait of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia to the Royal family. While there, he acquired skill in the manipulation of light and atmosphere. Upon his return to Berlin, he became a free-lance painter, in 1829, he married and ultimately had twelve children. In 1833, he was admitted to the Academy and designated a Perspective Painter, the following year, he began his most famous work, a six panel panorama of Berlin. It was painted from the roof of the Friedrichswerder Church, which is flat and this work was purchased by the King and a second version was bought by the Kings daughter, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna. Its purchase became the occasion for a trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg, in 1840, King Friedrich Wilhelm III died. He eventually made contact with a group that was interested in the protection and restoration of monuments, as a result, Gaertner travelled to villages and towns throughout Prussia, making watercolor sketches, including scenic views meant to be sold on his return to Berlin. By this means, he was able to attract some middle-class customers and he began to turn away from architecture, producing romantic scenes full of steep cliffs, Gypsies, ruins and oak trees, but never restored that patronage. His paintings from this period are considered to be inferior. As the century progressed, he suffered from competition with the newly emerging art of photography. In 1870, he and his family decided to leave the atmosphere of Berlin and settle in Flecken Zechlin. It was there that he died in 1877 and his widow requested an annual allowance of 150 Marks from the Artist Support Fund of the Academy, but her application was denied. His works were forgotten until the Deutschen Jahrhundert-Ausstellung of 1906. Major exhibitions were staged in 1968,1977 and 2001 and it is believed that he made use of a camera obscura to sketch the layouts of his paintings
11.
Amarna
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The name for the city employed by the ancient Egyptians is written as Akhetaten in English transliteration. Akhetaten means Horizon of the Aten, the city of Deir Mawas lies directly west across from the site of Amarna. Amarna, on the east side, includes several villages, chief of which are el-Till in the north. The area was occupied during later Roman and early Christian times. The name Amarna comes from the Beni Amran tribe that lived in the region, the ancient Egyptian name was Akhetaten. It may be that the Royal Wadis resemblance to the hieroglyph for horizon showed that this was the place to found the city, the city was built as the new capital of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, dedicated to his new religion of worship to the Aten. Construction started in or around Year 5 of his reign and was completed by Year 9. To speed up construction of the city most of the buildings were constructed out of mud-brick, the most important buildings were faced with local stone. Once it was abandoned it remained uninhabited until Roman settlement began along the edge of the Nile, however, due to the unique circumstances of its creation and abandonment, it is questionable how representative of ancient Egyptian cities it actually is. The entire city was encircled with a total of 14 boundary stelae detailing Akhenatens conditions for the establishment of new capital city of Egypt. The earliest dated stele from Akhenatens new city is known to be Boundary stele K which is dated to Year 5, IV Peret and it preserves an account of Akhenatens foundation of this city. Located on the east bank of the Nile, the ruins of the city are laid out north to south along a Royal Road. The Royal residences are generally to the north, in what is known as the North City, with an administration and religious area. If one approached the city of Amarna from the north by river the first buildings past the boundary stele would be the North Riverside Palace. This building ran all the way up to the waterfront and was likely the residence of the Royal Family. Located within the North City area is the Northern Palace, the residence of the Royal Family. Between this and the city, the Northern Suburb was initially a prosperous area with large houses. Most of the important ceremonial and administrative buildings were located in the central city, located behind the Royal Residence was the Bureau of Correspondence of Pharaoh, where the Amarna Letters were found
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