1.
Berlin
–
Berlin is the capital and the largest city of Germany as well as one of its constituent 16 states. With a population of approximately 3.5 million, Berlin is the second most populous city proper, due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one-third of the area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers. Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world, following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the capital of all-Germany. Berlin is a city of culture, politics, media. Its economy is based on high-tech firms and the sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations. Berlin serves as a hub for air and rail traffic and has a highly complex public transportation network. The metropolis is a popular tourist destination, significant industries also include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology, construction and electronics. Modern Berlin is home to world renowned universities, orchestras, museums and its urban setting has made it a sought-after location for international film productions. The city is known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts. Since 2000 Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene, the name Berlin has its roots in the language of West Slavic inhabitants of the area of todays Berlin, and may be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl-. All German place names ending on -ow, -itz and -in, since the Ber- at the beginning sounds like the German word Bär, a bear appears in the coat of arms of the city. It is therefore a canting arm, the first written records of towns in the area of present-day Berlin date from the late 12th century. Spandau is first mentioned in 1197 and Köpenick in 1209, although these areas did not join Berlin until 1920, the central part of Berlin can be traced back to two towns. Cölln on the Fischerinsel is first mentioned in a 1237 document,1237 is considered the founding date of the city. The two towns over time formed close economic and social ties, and profited from the right on the two important trade routes Via Imperii and from Bruges to Novgorod. In 1307, they formed an alliance with a common external policy, in 1415 Frederick I became the elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440. In 1443 Frederick II Irontooth started the construction of a new palace in the twin city Berlin-Cölln
2.
Hamburg
–
Hamburg, officially Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg, is the second largest city in Germany and the eighth largest city in the European Union. It is the second smallest German state by area and its population is over 1.7 million people, and the wider Hamburg Metropolitan Region covers more than 5.1 million inhabitants. The city is situated on the river Elbe, the official long name reflects Hamburgs history as a member of the medieval Hanseatic League, a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire, a city-state, and one of the 16 states of Germany. Before the 1871 Unification of Germany, it was a sovereign state. Prior to the changes in 1919, the civic republic was ruled by a class of hereditary grand burghers or Hanseaten. Though repeatedly destroyed by the Great Fire of Hamburg, the floods and military conflicts including WW2 bombing raids, the city managed to recover and emerge wealthier after each catastrophe. On the river Elbe, Hamburg is a port and a global service, media, logistics and industrial hub, with headquarters and facilities of Airbus, Blohm + Voss, Aurubis, Beiersdorf. The radio and television broadcaster NDR, Europes largest printing and publishing firm Gruner + Jahr, Hamburg has been an important financial centre for centuries, and is the seat of Germanys oldest stock exchange and the worlds second oldest bank, Berenberg Bank. The city is a fast expanding tourist destination for domestic and international visitors. It ranked 16th in the world for livability in 2015, the ensemble Speicherstadt and Kontorhausviertel was declared a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO in 2015. Hamburg is a major European science, research and education hub with several universities and institutes and its creative industries and major cultural venues include the renowned Elbphilharmonie and Laeisz concert halls, various art venues, music producers and artists. It is regarded as a haven for artists, gave birth to movements like Hamburger Schule. Hamburg is also known for theatres and a variety of musical shows. St. Paulis Reeperbahn is among the best known European entertainment districts, Hamburg is on the southern point of the Jutland Peninsula, between Continental Europe to the south and Scandinavia to the north, with the North Sea to the west and the Baltic Sea to the north-east. It is on the River Elbe at its confluence with the Alster, the city centre is around the Binnenalster and Außenalster, both formed by damming the River Alster to create lakes. The island of Neuwerk and two neighbouring islands Scharhörn and Nigehörn, in the Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park, are also part of Hamburg. The neighbourhoods of Neuenfelde, Cranz, Francop and Finkenwerder are part of the Altes Land region, neugraben-Fischbek has Hamburgs highest elevation, the Hasselbrack at 116.2 metres AMSL. Hamburg has a climate, influenced by its proximity to the coast
3.
Heinrich George
–
Georg August Friedrich Hermann Schulz, better known as Heinrich George, was a German stage and film actor. George is noted for having spooked the young Bertolt Brecht in his first directing job, a production of Arnolt Bronnens Parricide and he played in Fritz Langs Metropolis and Dreyfus. In 1931, he starred in Berlin Alexanderplatz, George was an active member of the Communist party during the Weimar Republic. He worked with theatre director Erwin Piscator and playwright Bertolt Brecht, George starred in the lead role of the film Berlin-Alexanderplatz. On 12 October 1932, he changed his name to his stage name George. After the Nazi takeover, George was classified as an actor at first because of his earlier political affiliations and was thus barred from working in cinematic productions. However, he was able to reach an accommodation with the Nazi regime. In 1937, George was designated as a Staatsschauspieler and in 1938 was appointed director of the Schiller Theater in Berlin. George actively collaborated with the Nazis and agreed to star in Nazi propaganda films such as Hitler Youth Quex, Jud Süß, George had a stocky build and a Berlin accent which made him readily recognizable to German audiences. Georges prestige as an actor of the day made him an extraordinarily valuable catch for the Nazis. Cooke and Silberman describe him as the actor most closely tied with fascist fantasies of the autocratic, the cause of his death was starvation, even though official reports stated that he died after an appendix operation. Heinrich George married the German actress Berta Drews and they had two sons, Jan George and actor Götz George. Berta Drews, Wohin des Wegs, Erinnerungen, ISBN 3-7844-2098-2 Peter Laregh, Heinrich George. Langen Müller, München 1992, ISBN 3-7844-2363-9 Werner Maser, Heinrich George, quintessenz Verlag,1998, ISBN 3-86124-351-2 Kurt Fricke, Spiel am Abgrund. Heinrich George – eine politische Biographie, mitteldeutscher Verlag,2000, ISBN 978-3-89812-021-0 Kurt Fricke, Heinrich George, in, Bernd Heidenreich/Sönke Neitzel, Medien im Nationalsozialismus. Schöningh Paderborn,2010, S. 83–107, ISBN 978-3-506-76710-3 Michael Klonovsky, Jan von Flocken, ullstein-Verlag,1991, ISBN 978-3-550-07488-2 Horst Mesalla, Heinrich George. Rekonstruktion der schauspielerischen Leistung unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der zeitgenössischen Publizistik, Heinrich George at the Internet Movie Database Virtual History - Bibliography and Tobacco cards
4.
Duisburg
–
Duisburg is a German city in the western part of the Ruhr Area in North Rhine-Westphalia. It is an independent metropolitan borough within Regierungsbezirk Düsseldorf, with the worlds biggest inland harbor and its proximity to Düsseldorf Airport, Duisburg has become an important venue for commerce and steel production. In the early Middle Ages it was a court of the Franks. Like many other cities, todays Duisburg is a result of numerous incorporations of surrounding towns and it is the fifteenth-largest city in Germany and the fifth-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia with 486,855 residents at the end of 2013. The city is renowned for its steel industry, the last remaining coal mine closed down in the summer of 2009, but Duisburg had never been a coal-mining center to the same extent as other places in the Ruhr region. All blast furnaces in the Ruhr are now located in Duisburg, in 2000 49% of all hot metal and 34. 4% of all pig iron in Germany was produced here. It also has a brewery, the König Brauerei, located in Duisburg-Beeck. The University of Duisburg-Essen, with 39,000 students, ranks among the 10 largest German universities, Duisburg is located in the Lowland Rhine area at the confluence of the Rhine and Ruhr and near the outskirts of the Bergisches Land. The city spreads along both sides of these rivers, the following cities border Duisburg, Oberhausen, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Ratingen, Düsseldorf, Meerbusch, Krefeld, Moers, Rheinberg, and Dinslaken. Duisburg therefore could mean fortified place in the floodplain, another interpretation assumes that the name is derived from the Old German duis which means hill. Duisburg could mean something like castle on the hill, thus, a place on a hill overlooking the Rhine, that could refer to the area of the present Town Hall. Duisburggau was also the name of the medieval Gau on the Lower Rhine, a legend recorded by Johannes Aventinus holds that Duisburg, was built by the namesake Tuisto, mythical progenitor of Germans, ca.2395 BC. There is nothing to any historical basis for such an early founding of Duisburg. Latest archaeological studies show that the present-day market-place was already in use in the first century and it has been the major central trading place of the city since the 5th century. The city itself was located at the Hellweg, an important medieval trade route, the Romans already guarded the ford. 420, The Franks usurp the Roman settlement and recolonize the old part of the town,883, The Normans conquer Duisburg and stay for the winter. Due to the towns favorable geographic position a palatinate was built, Duisburg became a member of the Hanseatic League. Around 1000 the river Rhine moved westward from the city and this put an end to the citys development as a trading town and it soon grew into a quiet rural city
5.
Horst Schimanski
–
Horst Schimanski is a fictional policeman who appears in the German Tatort crime series. Portrayed by Götz George, he made his debut in the 1981 episode Duisburg-Ruhrort, in 1997 his own Schimanski crime series was started. Schimanski now was a retired policeman living in Belgium with his long-time girlfriend Marie Claire, in the early episodes he often did some semi-legal work for the German police. Production slowed down over the years, there is one new episode per year at most, the latest episode was aired on Nov 10th 2013. All the Schimanski episodes were produced by the German television station WDR, Schimanski was consistently written as the prototypical proletarian. In the majority of episodes he wore a grey or beige M-65 field jacket with cropped epaulettes that became famous in Germany as the Schimanski Jacket. In the original Tatort episodes he was accompanied by Christian Thanner. In the first episode of the follow-up series Schimanski Thanner was killed by policemen gone vigilante and this was necessary as Eberhard Feik who played Thanner had died in the hiatus of the series
6.
Tatort
–
Therefore, the series is a collection of different police stories where different police teams each solve crimes in their respective city. Uniqueness in architecture, customs and dialects of the cities is therefore a part of the series and often the city. The concept of local stations only producing a couple of shows per year has also enabled the shows to be longer, the first episode was broadcast on 29 November 1970. Episodes are broadcast on ARDs main channel Das Erste on Sunday evening at the viewing time of 8.15 pm around three times a month. Reruns are often shown by various regional ARD stations and on foreign broadcasters, next to the member stations of the ARD, the National Austrian broadcasting corporation Österreichischer Rundfunk joined the production pool in 1971 and airs the program on its ORF2 channel. Switzerlands Schweizer Fernsehen joined the pool from 1990 to 2001 and again in 2011, the episodes are then fed into a common pool and shown through all participating stations as part of their common programming. This means that if one Tatort features one team of inspectors in one specific city, with the advent of television, this was expanded further in that there was only one national channel jointly operated by all Anstalten with a regional block as well as a common programming. But unlike for instance in the USA with its Network affiliate system no single corporation would produce all common programming, instead the different member stations would each contribute a number of programs to the common block to be shown by all other stations. Jointly producing one crime series with episodes contributed by member station was thus a logical step. Apart from the unique joint-pooling system, the series is also characterised by the length of an episode which allows for more in-dept. Although almost all episodes feature the investigation of an homicide, it is never just a case of whodunit. Often the time allows for the crime to be shown in all its aspects with equal attention focused on the perpetrators. On several occasions the police work is just a side note in the story as the main plot is the way one of the persons involved deals with the crime. With the national broadcasting corporations of Austria and Switzerland joining in, notably the WDR has three teams of investigators playing respectively in Cologne, Münster and Dortmund. Episodes are either produced by the own production facilities or are filmed. A similar concept of filming and then pooling episodes was used from 1988 to 1992 in the series Eurocops jointly produced by several national European TV stations. Gunther Witte, dramaturge and TV boss at WDR, developed the series against initial resistance, the first Tatort radio drama was broadcast in January 2008. In 2012, more than 100,000 people participated in the first and only online game linked to the SWR Tatort production, in January 2014, Tatort received the 50th Grimme Award from the Deutscher Volkshochschul-Verband
7.
Character actor
–
A character actor or character actress is a supporting actor who plays unusual, interesting, or eccentric characters. The term, often contrasted with that of leading actor, is somewhat abstract, in a literal sense, all actors can be considered character actors since they all play characters, but in the usual sense it is an actor who plays a distinctive and important supporting role. In either case, character actor roles are more substantial than bit parts or non-speaking extras, the term is used primarily to describe television and film actors, and is less used to describe theater actors. An early use of the term was in the 1883 edition of The Stage, Actors with a long career history of playing character roles may be difficult for audiences to recognize as being the same actor, if they play such roles convincingly and memorably. Unlike leading actors, they are seen as less glamorous. Generally, the names of actors are not featured prominently in movie and television advertising on the marquee. Some character actors have distinctive voices or accents, or they develop memorable mannerisms, a character actor with a long career may not have a well-known name, yet may be instantly recognizable. During the course of a career, an actor can sometimes shift between leading roles and secondary roles. Some leading actors, as they get older, find that access to leading roles is limited by their increasing age, in the past, actors of color, who were often barred from roles for which they were otherwise suited, found work performing ethnic stereotypes. Sometimes character actors have developed based on specific talents needed in genre films, such as dancing, horsemanship, acrobatics, swimming ability. Some character actors develop a following with a particular audience. Ed Lauter usually portrayed a menacing figure because of his long, angular face which was recognized in public. Character actors can play a variety of types, such as the femme fatale, gunslinger, sidekick, town drunk, villain, whore with a heart of gold, Character actors subsume themselves into the characters they portray, such that their off-screen acting persona is practically unrecognizable. According to one view, great actors are rarely out of work. They are also highly regarded by fellow actors. Stock character Commedia dellarte Quinlan, David, quinlans Illustrated Directory of Film Character Actors. Character Kings, Hollywoods Familiar Faces Discuss the Art & Business of Acting
8.
Sachsenhausen concentration camp
–
Sachsenhausen or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in May 1945. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the camp ground with the remaining buildings is now open to the public as a museum. The camp was established in 1936, executions took place at Sachsenhausen, especially of Soviet prisoners of war. During the earlier stages of the existence the executions were done in a trench. A large task force of prisoners was used from the camp to work in nearby brickworks to meet Albert Speers vision of rebuilding Berlin, Sachsenhausen was originally not intended as an extermination camp—instead, the systematic murder was conducted in camps to the east. In 1942 large numbers of Jewish inmates were relocated to Auschwitz, however the construction of a gas chamber and ovens by camp-commandant Anton Kaindl in March 1943 facilitated the means to kill larger numbers of prisoners. The Main gate or Guard Tower A, with its 8mm Maxim machine gun, on the front entrance gates to Sachsenhausen is the infamous slogan Arbeit Macht Frei. About 200,000 people passed through Sachsenhausen between 1936 and 1945, anchoring the base of the triangular shaped thousand-acre site was the large Appellplatz, where tens of thousands of prisoners would line up for morning and evening roll call. Creating a semi circular configuration, were the barracks of custody zone I which fanned out from the base of the Appellplatz, Sachsenhausen was intended to set a standard for other concentration camps, both in its design and the treatment of prisoners. The camp perimeter is, approximately, a triangle with a semi circular roll call area centered on the main entrance gate in the boundary running northeast to southwest. Barrack huts lay beyond the roll call area, radiating from the gate, the layout was intended to allow the machine gun post in the entrance gate to dominate the camp but in practice it was necessary to add additional watchtowers to the perimeter. The standard barrack layout was to have a central washing area and a room with toilet bowls. There was an infirmary inside the angle of the perimeter. There was also a kitchen and a camp laundry. The camps capacity became inadequate and the camp was extended in 1938 by a new rectangular area northeast of the entrance gate, there was an additional area outside the main camp perimeter to the north, this was built in 1941 for special prisoners that the regime wished to isolate. The camp was secure and there were few successful escapes, the perimeter consisted of a 3-metre-high stone wall on the outside. Within that there was a space that was patrolled by guards and dogs, it was bordered on the inside by an electric fence. Any prisoner venturing onto the strip would be shot by the guards without warning
9.
Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz
–
Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz is an international boarding school in Zuoz, near St. Moritz in Switzerland. It is located in the part of the alpine village in the area of Surmulins. The school was founded in 1904 by five Engadinern as Institute Engiadina and had 22 students housed, cared for by two teachers and one director, today there are around 300, including 220 in the boarding school. The boarders are coming from over 30 countries, such as Italy, Russia, Germany, founded in 1904 Lyceum Alpinum is one of the oldest private boarding schools in Switzerland. It is located 1750m above sea level on the Swiss Alps of Zuoz, near the village of St. Moritz. It was at the called the Institut Engiadina, and had 22 students in its first year. Back then it was run by a director and two teachers, however, it very soon developed into a fully-fledged secondary school for boys, later on girls were also admitted and the school attained its international reputation. It is attended by around 200 boarders and 100 day pupils from the region, the pupils are between 12 and 18 years old. It is known for its diversity and extensive sports programme. Most frequently from Switzerland, Germany, Russia and Austria, students at the school can study for internationally recognised higher education entrance qualifications. On offer are the Swiss Matura, the German Abitur and, exclusively in English, tolerance, fair play and respect for community values are at the heart of a Lyceum education. The Lyceum campus overlooking the village of Zuoz covers 130,000 m2 and encompasses 12 buildings, sports fields, ice rinks, tennis courts, golf driving range etc. The schools consists of 5 boarding houses, Grosshaus Chesa Arpiglia Mädcheninternat Kleinhaus Spencer House The school has had its own amateur theatre since 2006, the German-speaking Shakespeare Company performs, amongst other things, plays written by this British dramatist. The English Theatre Company develop their plays from scratch themselves. In December 2011 the Zuoz Globe was opened - the only permanent theatre in the Engadine, the Zuoz Club is the alumni organisation related to the Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz. The Zuoz Club consists of students of the Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz. Presently, the organisation has 2,200 members in 42 countries and is divided in 18 regional groups worldwide
10.
William Saroyan
–
William Saroyan was an American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, an Armenian American, Saroyan wrote extensively about the Armenian immigrant life in California. Many of his stories and plays are set in his native Fresno, some of his best-known works are The Time of Your Life, My Name Is Aram and My Hearts in the Highlands. Fry suggests that he takes his place naturally alongside Hemingway, Steinbeck, William Saroyan was born on August 31,1908 in Fresno, California, to Armenak and Taguhi Saroyan, Armenian immigrants from Bitlis, Ottoman Empire. His father came to New York in 1905 and started preaching in Armenian Apostolic churches, at the age of three, after his fathers death, Saroyan, along with his brother and sister, was placed in an orphanage in Oakland, California. He later went on to describe his experience in the orphanage in his writings, five years later, the family reunited in Fresno, where his mother, Takoohi, had already secured work at a cannery. He continued his education on his own, supporting himself with jobs, Saroyan decided to become a writer after his mother showed him some of his fathers writings. A few of his short articles were published in Overland Monthly. His first stories appeared in the 1930s, among these was The Broken Wheel, written under the name Sirak Goryan and published in the Armenian journal Hairenik in 1933. Many of Saroyans stories were based on his experiences among the Armenian-American fruit growers of the San Joaquin Valley or dealt with the rootlessness of the immigrant. The short story collection My Name is Aram, a bestseller, was about a young boy. It has been translated into many languages, as a writer, Saroyan made his breakthrough in Story magazine with The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze, the title taken from the nineteenth century song of the same title. The protagonist is a young, starving writer who tries to survive in a Depression-ridden society, through the air on the flying trapeze, his mind hummed. A trapeze to God, or to nothing, a trapeze to some sort of eternity. This character resembles the penniless writer in Knut Hamsuns 1890 novel Hunger, Saroyan served in the US Army during World War II. He was stationed in Astoria, Queens, spending much of his time at the Lombardy Hotel in Manhattan, in 1942, he was posted to London as part of a film unit. He narrowly avoided a court martial when his novel, The Adventures of Wesley Jackson, was seen as advocating pacifism, Saroyan worked rapidly, hardly editing his text, and drinking and gambling away much of his earnings. From 1958 on, he resided in a Paris apartment
11.
Cologne
–
Cologne is the largest city in the German federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the fourth-largest city in Germany. It is located within the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, one of the major European metropolitan areas, and with more than ten million inhabitants, Cologne is located on both sides of the Rhine River, less than eighty kilometres from Belgium. The citys famous Cologne Cathedral is the seat of the Catholic Archbishop of Cologne, the University of Cologne is one of Europes oldest and largest universities. Cologne was founded and established in Ubii territory in the first century AD as the Roman Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, Cologne, the French version of the citys name, has become standard in English as well. The city functioned as the capital of the Roman province of Germania Inferior, during the Middle Ages it flourished on one of the most important major trade routes between east and west in Europe. Cologne was one of the members of the Hanseatic League and one of the largest cities north of the Alps in medieval. Up until World War II the city had several occupations by the French. Cologne was one of the most heavily bombed cities in Germany during World War II, the bombing reduced the population by 95%, mainly due to evacuation, and destroyed almost the entire city. With the intention of restoring as many buildings as possible. Cologne is a cultural centre for the Rhineland, it hosts more than thirty museums. Exhibitions range from local ancient Roman archeological sites to contemporary graphics, the Cologne Trade Fair hosts a number of trade shows such as Art Cologne, imm Cologne, Gamescom, and the Photokina. The first urban settlement on the grounds of modern-day Cologne was Oppidum Ubiorum, founded in 38 BC by the Ubii, in 50 AD, the Romans founded Colonia on the Rhine and the city became the provincial capital of Germania Inferior in 85 AD. The city was named Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium in 50 AD, considerable Roman remains can be found in present-day Cologne, especially near the wharf area, where a notable discovery of a 1900-year-old Roman boat was made in late 2007. From 260 to 271 Cologne was the capital of the Gallic Empire under Postumus, Marius, in 310 under Constantine a bridge was built over the Rhine at Cologne. Roman imperial governors resided in the city and it one of the most important trade. Cologne is shown on the 4th century Peutinger Map, maternus, who was elected as bishop in 313, was the first known bishop of Cologne. The city was the capital of a Roman province until occupied by the Ripuarian Franks in 462, parts of the original Roman sewers are preserved underneath the city, with the new sewerage system having opened in 1890. Early medieval Cologne was part of Austrasia within the Frankish Empire, Cologne had been the seat of a bishop since the Roman period, under Charlemagne, in 795, bishop Hildebold was promoted to archbishop
12.
Martin Luther
–
Martin Luther, O. S. A. was a German professor of theology, composer, priest, monk and a seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation. Luther came to reject several teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church and he strongly disputed the Catholic view on indulgences as he understood it to be, that freedom from Gods punishment for sin could be purchased with money. Luther proposed a discussion of the practice and efficacy of indulgences in his Ninety-five Theses of 1517. His translation of the Bible into the vernacular made it accessible to the laity. It fostered the development of a version of the German language, added several principles to the art of translation, and influenced the writing of an English translation. His hymns influenced the development of singing in Protestant churches and his marriage to Katharina von Bora, a former nun, set a model for the practice of clerical marriage, allowing Protestant clergy to marry. In two of his works, Luther expressed antagonistic views towards Jews, writing that Jewish homes and synagogues should be destroyed, their money confiscated. Condemned by virtually every Lutheran denomination, these statements and their influence on antisemitism have contributed to his controversial status, Martin Luther was born to Hans Luder and his wife Margarethe on 10 November 1483 in Eisleben, Saxony, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. He was baptized as a Catholic the next morning on the feast day of St. Martin of Tours and his family moved to Mansfeld in 1484, where his father was a leaseholder of copper mines and smelters and served as one of four citizen representatives on the local council. He had several brothers and sisters, and is known to have close to one of them. Hans Luther was ambitious for himself and his family, and he was determined to see Martin, his eldest son, become a lawyer. He sent Martin to Latin schools in Mansfeld, then Magdeburg in 1497, where he attended a school operated by a lay group called the Brethren of the Common Life, the three schools focused on the so-called trivium, grammar, rhetoric, and logic. Luther later compared his education there to purgatory and hell, in 1501, at the age of 19, he entered the University of Erfurt, which he later described as a beerhouse and whorehouse. He was made to wake at four every morning for what has been described as a day of rote learning and he received his masters degree in 1505. In accordance with his fathers wishes, Luther enrolled in law school at the university that year but dropped out almost immediately. Luther sought assurances about life and was drawn to theology and philosophy, expressing particular interest in Aristotle, William of Ockham, philosophy proved to be unsatisfying, offering assurance about the use of reason but none about loving God, which to Luther was more important. Reason could not lead men to God, he felt, for Luther, reason could be used to question men and institutions, but not God. Human beings could learn about God only through divine revelation, he believed and he later attributed his decision to an event, on 2 July 1505, he was returning to university on horseback after a trip home
13.
Danton's Death
–
Dantons Death was the first play written by Georg Büchner, set during the French Revolution. Georg Büchner wrote his works in the period between Romanticism and Realism in the so-called Vormärz era in German history and literature. The goal of the politically liberal poets of this period was that literature of an existence would again become an effective organ for renewing political and social life. They were opposed to the Romantics and against the restoration of the old order from prior to the Napoleonic Wars. They fought against convention, feudalism and absolutism, campaigned for freedom of speech, the emancipation of the individual, including women and Jews, and for a democratic constitution. They created a trend-poetry and time-poetry – in other words, poetry that dealt with problems of the time, other writers of this trend and period were Heinrich Heine, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Franz Grillparzer. Whilst working on it Buchner always feared arrest and it only reached print in 1835 after being heavily cut and having the politics softened by sexual innuendo. Research for the play started in late 1834 and he completed a first version of the script in five weeks from mid January to mid February 1835. The same year saw a version published by Karl Gutzkow in the Literatur-Blatt of Eduard Dullers Phönix and this makes it the only one of Büchners plays to be published in his lifetime, albeit in a heavily censored version. For a long time no theatre would dare put on the play and this occurred on 5 January, in the Belle-Alliance-Theater in Berlin, in a production put on by the Vereins Neue Freie Volksbühne. Its use of historical sources and extensive quotations from original political speeches meant that the play was seen in the 20th century as the precursor to documentary theatre. The play follows the story of Georges Danton, a leader of the French Revolution, Georges Danton created the office of the Revolutionary Tribunal as a strong arm for the Revolutionary Government. With this, to be accused of anything real or imagined was to be condemned to death without trial, proofs, within months he knew this power was a terrible mistake and fought to have it ended. Robespierre stopped him and used the Tribunal to have Danton and all killed, consolidate his power and slaughter uncounted thousands of French men, women. Ultimately he followed Danton to the guillotine, witnesses describe Danton as dying bravely comforting other innocents executed with him. Dantons friends press him to fight or flee Robespierres supporters, but Danton does not see any need to do so, Danton confides the guilt he feels for the September Massacres in his wife Julie. Danton is imprisoned and led before the National Assembly, which is divided – it feels it has no choice, however, Robespierre and Saint-Just reverse its opinion. The prisoners discuss the existence of God and life, and an attempt to prove that God does not exist fails, Dantons supporters are transferred to the Conciergerie
14.
Salzburg Festival
–
The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, one highlight is the annual performance of the play Jedermann by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Since 1967, an annual Salzburg Easter Festival has also been held, Music festivals had been held in Salzburg at irregular intervals since 1877 held by the International Mozarteum Foundation, but were discontinued in 1910. Although a festival was planned for 1914, it was cancelled at the outbreak of World War I, the Salzburg Festival was officially inaugurated on 22 August 1920 with Reinhardts performance of Hofmannsthals Jedermann on the steps of Salzburg Cathedral, starring Alexander Moissi. The practice has become a tradition, and the play is now performed at Cathedral Square, since 1921 it has been accompanied by several performances of chamber music. The first operatic production came in 1922, with Mozarts Don Giovanni conducted by Richard Strauss, the singers were mainly drawn from the Wiener Staatsoper, including Richard Tauber in the part of Don Ottavio. At that time the festival had developed a large-scale program including live broadcasts by the Austrian RAVAG radio network. During the years from 1934 to 1937 famed conductors such as Arturo Toscanini, in 1936, the festival featured a performance by the Trapp Family Singers, whose story was later dramatized as the musical and film The Sound of Music. In 1937, Boyd Neel and his orchestra premiered Benjamin Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge at the Festival, the Festivals popularity suffered a major blow as a consequence of the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938. Toscanini resigned in protest, artists of Jewish descent like Reinhardt and Georg Solti had to emigrate, nevertheless, the festival remained in operation until in 1944 it was cancelled by the order of Reich Minister Joseph Goebbels in reaction to the 20 July plot. At the end of World War II, the Salzburg Festival reopened in summer 1945 immediately after the Allied victory in Europe. The post-war festival slowly regained its prominence as an opera festival, especially for works by Mozart. In 1960 the Great Festival Hall opera house opened its doors, upon Karajans death in 1989, the festival was drastically modernized and expanded by director Gerard Mortier, who was succeeded by Peter Ruzicka in 2001. In 2006, the festival was led by intendant Jürgen Flimm and that year, Salzburg celebrated the 250th anniversary of Mozarts birth by staging all 22 of his operatic works, to great acclaim. All 22 were filmed and released on DVD in November 2006, the 2006 festival also saw the opening of the Haus für Mozart. Alexander Pereira succeeded Flimm, who departed in 2011 to become director of the Berlin State Opera, Pereiras objective for the festival was to present only new productions. The 2015 festival marked the first one for which Bechtolf was responsible for the artistic programming, budget cuts led to a retreat from Pereiras new productions only objective. The remaining four opera productions—Norma, Il trovatore, Iphigénie en Tauride, the Salzburg Whitsun Festival was established at the behest of Herbert von Karajan in 1973 as a brief concert series with the name Pfingstkonzerte
15.
Nikolai Gogol
–
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Russian dramatist of Ukrainian origin. His early works, such as Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, were influenced by his Ukrainian upbringing and his later writing satirised political corruption in the Russian Empire. Gogol was born in the Ukrainian Cossack village of Sorochyntsi, in Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire and his mother descended from Leonty Kosyarovsky, an officer of the Lubny Regiment in 1710. As was typical of the left-bank Ukrainian gentry of the nineteenth century. As a child, Gogol helped stage Ukrainian-language plays in his uncles home theater, in 1820, Gogol went to a school of higher art in Nezhin and remained there until 1828. It was there that he began writing and he was not popular among his schoolmates, who called him their mysterious dwarf, but with two or three of them he formed lasting friendships. Very early he developed a dark and secretive disposition, marked by a painful self-consciousness and boundless ambition, equally early he developed a talent for mimicry, which later made him a matchless reader of his own works and induced him to toy with the idea of becoming an actor. In 1828, on leaving school, Gogol came to Saint Petersburg, full of vague and he had hoped for literary fame, and brought with him a Romantic poem of German idyllic life – Hans Küchelgarten. He had it published, at his own expense, under the name of V. Alov, the magazines he sent it to almost universally derided it. He bought all the copies and destroyed them, swearing never to write poetry again, Gogol was in touch with the literary aristocracy, had a story published in Anton Delvigs Northern Flowers, was taken up by Vasily Zhukovsky and Pyotr Pletnyov, and was introduced to Pushkin. In 1831 Gogol brought out the first volume of his Ukrainian stories and he followed it in 1832 with a second volume, and in 1835 by two volumes of stories entitled Mirgorod, as well as by two volumes of miscellaneous prose entitled Arabesques. However, Gogols satire was much more sophisticated and unconventional, at this time, Gogol developed a passion for Ukrainian history and tried to obtain an appointment to the history department at Kiev University. Despite the support of Pushkin and Sergey Uvarov, the Russian minister of education and his fictional story Taras Bulba, based on the history of Ukrainian cossacks, was the result of this phase in his interests. During this time he developed a close and lifelong friendship with another Ukrainian. In 1834 Gogol was made Professor of Medieval History at the University of St. Petersburg and he turned in a performance ludicrous enough to warrant satiric treatment in one of his own stories. At the final examination, he sat in silence with a black handkerchief wrapped around his head, simulating a toothache. This academic venture proved a failure and he resigned his chair in 1835, during this time, the Russian critics Stepan Shevyrev and Vissarion Belinsky, contradicting earlier critics, reclassified Gogol from a Ukrainian to a Russian writer. It was only after the presentation at the Saint Petersburg State Theatre, on 19 April 1836, the comedy, a violent satire of Russian provincial bureaucracy, was staged thanks only to the intervention of the emperor, Nicholas I
16.
The Government Inspector
–
The Government Inspector, also known as The Inspector General, is a satirical play by the Russian and Ukrainian dramatist and novelist Nikolai Gogol. Originally published in 1836, the play was revised for an 1842 edition, based upon an anecdote allegedly recounted to Gogol by Pushkin, the play is a comedy of errors, satirizing human greed, stupidity, and the extensive political corruption of Imperial Russia. According to D. S. Mirsky, the play is not only supreme in character, the great originality of its plan consisted in the absence of all love interest and of sympathetic characters. The latter feature was deeply resented by Gogols enemies, and as a satire the play gained immensely from it. There is not a word or intonation from beginning to end. He is full of movement and meaningless fermentation incarnate, on a foundation of placidly ambitious inferiority. The publication of the led to a great outcry in the reactionary press. It took the intervention of Tsar Nicholas I to have the play staged. Early in his career Gogol was best known for his short stories, after establishing a reputation, Gogol began working on several plays. His first attempt to write a play about imperial bureaucracy in 1832 was abandoned out of fear of censorship. In 1835, he sought inspiration for a new play from Pushkin. Do me a favour, send me some subject, comical or not and my hand is itching to write a comedy. Give me a subject and Ill knock off a comedy in five acts — I promise and my mind and stomach are both famished. Pushkin had a background and was once mistaken for a government inspector in 1833. His notes alluded to an anecdote similar to what would become the basic story elements for The Government Inspector. Krispin arrives in the Province. to a fair – he is taken for, the governor is an honest fool – the governors wife flirts with him – Krispin woos the daughter. The corrupt officials of a small Russian town, headed by the Mayor, the flurry of activity to cover up their considerable misdeeds is interrupted by the report that a suspicious person has arrived two weeks previously from Saint Petersburg and is staying at the inn. That person, however, is not an inspector, it is Khlestakov, for quite some time, however, Khlestakov does not even realize that he has been mistaken for someone else
17.
Anton Chekhov
–
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian playwright and short story writer, who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short fiction in history. His career as a playwright produced four classics and his best short stories are held in esteem by writers. Along with Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, Chekhov is often referred to as one of the three figures in the birth of early modernism in the theatre. Chekhov practiced as a medical doctor throughout most of his career, Medicine is my lawful wife, he once said. These four works present a challenge to the ensemble as well as to audiences, because in place of conventional action Chekhov offers a theatre of mood. Chekhov had at first written stories only for financial gain, but as his artistic ambition grew and he made no apologies for the difficulties this posed to readers, insisting that the role of an artist was to ask questions, not to answer them. Anton Chekhov was born on the feast day of St. Anthony the Great 29 January 1860, the third of six surviving children, in Taganrog, a port on the Sea of Azov in southern Russia. His father, Pavel Yegorovich Chekhov, the son of a serf and his Ukrainian wife, were from the village Vilkhovatka near Kobeliaky. A director of the choir, devout Orthodox Christian, and physically abusive father. Chekhovs mother, Yevgeniya, was an excellent storyteller who entertained the children with tales of her travels with her cloth-merchant father all over Russia and our talents we got from our father, Chekhov remembered, but our soul from our mother. Despotism and lying so mutilated our childhood that its sickening and frightening to think about it, remember the horror and disgust we felt in those times when Father threw a tantrum at dinner over too much salt in the soup and called Mother a fool. Chekhov attended the Greek School in Taganrog and the Taganrog Gymnasium and he sang at the Greek Orthodox monastery in Taganrog and in his fathers choirs. In 1876, Chekhovs father was declared bankrupt after overextending his finances building a new house, to avoid debtors prison he fled to Moscow, where his two eldest sons, Alexander and Nikolay, were attending university. The family lived in poverty in Moscow, Chekhovs mother physically and emotionally broken by the experience, Chekhov was left behind to sell the familys possessions and finish his education. Chekhov remained in Taganrog for three years, boarding with a man called Selivanov who, like Lopakhin in The Cherry Orchard, had bailed out the family for the price of their house. Chekhov had to pay for his own education, which he managed by private tutoring, catching and selling goldfinches and he sent every ruble he could spare to his family in Moscow, along with humorous letters to cheer them up. Chekhov also enjoyed a series of affairs, one with the wife of a teacher. In 1879, Chekhov completed his schooling and joined his family in Moscow, Chekhov now assumed responsibility for the whole family
18.
Romy Schneider
–
Romy Schneider was a film actress born in Vienna who held German and French citizenship. She started her career in the German Heimatfilm genre in the early 1950s when she was 15, from 1955 to 1957, she played the central character of Empress Elisabeth of Austria in the Austrian Sissi trilogy. Schneider moved to France where she made successful and critically acclaimed films with some of the most notable directors of that era. After her parents divorce in 1945, Magda took charge of Romy and her brother Wolfi, eventually supervising the young girls career and her career was also overseen by her stepfather, Hans Herbert Blatzheim, a noted restaurateur who Schneider indicated had an unhealthy interest in her. Romy Schneiders first film, made when she was 15, was Wenn der weiße Flieder wieder blüht in 1953, in 1954, Schneider for the first time portrayed a royal, playing a young Queen Victoria in the Austrian film Mädchenjahre einer Königin. Less stereotypical films during this period include The Girl and the Legend, working with a young Horst Buchholz. Schneider soon starred in Christine, a remake of Max Ophülss 1933 film Liebelei and it was during the filming of Christine that Schneider fell in love with French actor Alain Delon, who co-starred in the movie. She left Germany to join him in Paris and they announced their engagement in 1959, under Viscontis direction, she gave performances in the Théâtre Moderne as Annabella in John Fords stage play Tis Pity Shes a Whore and in the film Boccaccio 70. In 1962 Schneider played Anna in Sacha Pitoëffs production of Chekhovs play The Seagull, a brief stint in Hollywood included a starring role in Good Neighbor Sam a comedy with Jack Lemmon, while Whats New Pussycat. Although American financed, was shot in and around Paris, Schneider co-starred with Peter OToole, Peter Sellers and Woody Allen, the film was made from his first screenplay. Schneider and Delon decided to split up in 1963 although they remained lifelong friends. They continued to work together in films as La Piscine, which revitalized her career. Schneider continued to work in France during the 1970s, most notably with director Claude Sautet on five films and their first collaboration, The Things of Life with Michel Piccoli, was a great success and made Schneider an icon in France. The three colleagues teamed up again for the noir thriller Max et les ferrailleurs, and she appeared with Yves Montand in Sautets César et Rosalie, Schneider portrayed Elisabeth of Austria again in Ludwig, Viscontis film about the life of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. This time she played the Empress as a more complex, mature. Sissi sticks to me just like oatmeal, Schneider once said, other successes from this period included Le Train, where she played a German-Jewish refugee in World War 2, Claude Chabrols thriller Innocents with Dirty Hands with Rod Steiger, and Le vieux fusil. The gritty That Most Important Thing, Love garnered her first César Award, on 30 October 1974, Schneider created one of the most memorable moments on German television. She also acted in Le Trio infernal with Michel Piccoli, and in Garde à vue with Michel Serrault, an unpleasant incident occurred during this period with leading German film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder who wanted her to play the lead in his film The Marriage of Maria Braun
19.
William Shakespeare
–
William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the worlds pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called Englands national poet, and the Bard of Avon and his extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright, Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children, Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a career in London as an actor, writer. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, at age 49, Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories, which are regarded as some of the best work ever produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, in his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and it was prefaced with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which Shakespeare is hailed, presciently, as not of an age, but for all time. In the 20th and 21st centuries, his works have been adapted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship. His plays remain highly popular and are studied, performed. William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden and he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised there on 26 April 1564. His actual date of birth unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April. This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century scholars mistake, has proved appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 and he was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son. At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, the consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. The next day, two of Hathaways neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage, twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596, after the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. The exception is the appearance of his name in the bill of a law case before the Queens Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 October 1589
20.
Richard III (play)
–
Richard III is a historical play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1592. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of King Richard III of England, the play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified as such. Occasionally, however, as in the edition, it is termed a tragedy. Richard III concludes Shakespeares first tetralogy and it is the second longest play in the canon after Hamlet, and is the longest of the First Folio, whose version of Hamlet is shorter than its Quarto counterpart. The play is rarely performed unabridged, often, certain characters are removed entirely. In such instances extra lines are often invented or added from elsewhere in the sequence to establish the nature of characters relationships. Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York, Richard is an ugly hunchback who is rudely stampd, deformed, unfinishd, and cannot strut before a wanton ambling nymph. He responds to the anguish of his condition with an outcasts credo, Richard now schemes to woo the Lady Anne – Anne Neville, widow of the Lancastrian Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales. He confides to the audience, Ill marry Warwicks youngest daughter, what, though I killd her husband and her father. The scene then changes to reveal Lady Anne accompanying the corpse of the late king Henry VI, along with Trestle and Berkeley, on its way to be interred at St Pauls cathedral. She asks them to set down the honourable load – if honour may be shrouded in a hearse, Richard suddenly appears and demands that the unmannerd dog carrying the hearse set it down, at which point a brief verbal wrangling takes place. Despite initially hating him, Anne is won over by his pleas of love and repentance, when she leaves, Richard exults in having won her over despite all he has done to her, and tells the audience that he will discard her once she has served her purpose. The atmosphere at court is poisonous, The established nobles are at odds with the upwardly mobile relatives of Queen Elizabeth, Queen Margaret, Henry VIs widow, returns in defiance of her banishment and warns the squabbling nobles about Richard. Queen Margaret curses Richard and the rest who were present, the nobles, all Yorkists, reflexively unite against this last Lancastrian, and the warning falls on deaf ears. Richard orders two murderers to kill Clarence in the tower, Clarence, meanwhile, relates a dream to his keeper. The dream includes vivid language describing Clarence falling from a ship as a result of Gloucester. Under the water Clarence sees the skeletons of thousands of men that fishes gnawed upon and he also sees wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl, inestimable stones, unvalued jewels. All of these are scatterd in the bottom of the sea, Clarence adds that some of the jewels were in the skulls of the dead
21.
Deutscher Filmpreis
–
The Deutscher Filmpreis is an annual German awards ceremony honouring cinematic achievements in the German film business. It is the most important German movie award and the most highly endowed German cultural award with cash prizes totalling about three million euros, from 1951 to 2004 it was awarded by a commission, but since 2005 the award has been organized by the German Film Academy. The Federal Commissioner for Cultural and Media Affairs has been responsible for the administration of the prize since 1999, the awards ceremony is traditionally held in Berlin. Borrowing from the American model, the awards have been made by an academy, the academy replaces a much-criticised jury which was constituted according to the principle of political proportionality, and on which politicians and clergymen also sat. Now the jury consists of the members of the German Film Academy, the name refers to Marlene Dietrichs role in Der blaue Engel, Rainer Werner Fassbinders film Lola and Tom Tykwers very successful movie Lola rennt. Mechthild Schmidt, Partner of HouseWorks digital media, New York about her 1999 design, I wanted the statue to express confidence without being stern, strength without being static. It was important to me to give the Deutschen Filmpreis its own identity, the movement is carried through to the asymmetrical conical base. Stylistically, I was looking for a modern design as well as a historical reference to the first golden era of German film. Borrowing from the American model, the awards have been made by an academy, the academy replaces a much-criticised jury which was constituted according to the principle of political proportionality, and on which politicians and clergymen also sat. Now the jury consists of the members of the German Film Academy, in 2005 the Deutsche Filmpreis was awarded in the following categories
22.
Bambi Award
–
First held in 1948, they are the oldest media awards in Germany. The award is named after Felix Saltens book Bambi, A Life in the Woods and they were originally made of porcelain, until 1958 when the organizers switched to using gold, with the casting done by the art casting workshop of Ernst Strassacker in Süßen. Frequent awardees include Heinz Rühmann, Peter Alexander and O. W. Fischer, Sophia Loren, rock Hudson, Franz Beckenbauer, Pierre Brice and Céline Dion. The first prize winners were the actors Jean Marais and Marika Rökk and his movie Ehe im Schatten was chosen for the best German movie. The award trophy was at first a fawn made of white porcelain, since 1958 the golden-bronze deer has been produced in the art foundry Ernst Strassacker in the Swabian village of Süßen. The Bambi awards were presented in Karlsruhe between 1948 and 1964, afterwards in other cities, such as Berlin and Offenburg, in 2002 Michael Jackson won the Pop Artist of the Millennium Award and Anastacia won the Best Newcomer Award. In 2003 and 2004, the ceremony took place in the Theater am Hafen in Hamburg. 2006 the Bambi was awarded in the Museum of the Mercedes-Benz-Weltin in Stuttgart, moderated by entertainer Harald Schmidt, in 2007, the ceremony was held in the Congress Center in Düsseldorf, and in 2008 in Offenburg. Both events were presented by Harald Schmidt, shakira performed her single Did It Again before accepting her award. The awards in 2009 and 2010 were performed in the Metropolis-Hall in Potsdam-Babelsberg. In 2014, the Crown Princess Mary of Denmark received a Bambi in the charity category for her work for womens rights. Bambi awards are judged by Hubert Burda and the editors-in-chief at Hubert Burda Media
23.
Wehrmacht
–
The Wehrmacht was the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1946. It consisted of the Heer, the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe, after the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, one of Adolf Hitler’s most overt and audacious moves was to establish the Wehrmacht, a modern armed forces fully capable of offensive use. In December 1941, Hitler designated himself as commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht, the Wehrmacht formed the heart of Germany’s politico-military power. In the early part of World War II, Hitlers generals employed the Wehrmacht through innovative combined arms tactics to devastating effect in what was called a Blitzkrieg, the Wehrmachts new military structure, unique combat techniques, newly developed weapons, and unprecedented speed and brutality crushed their opponents. Closely cooperating with the SS, the German armed forces committed war crimes and atrocities. By the time the war ended in Europe in May 1945, only a few of the Wehrmacht’s upper leadership were tried for war crimes, despite evidence suggesting that more were involved in illegal actions. The German term Wehrmacht generically describes any nations armed forces, for example, the Frankfurt Constitution of 1848 designated all German military forces as the German Wehrmacht, consisting of the Seemacht and the Landmacht. In 1919, the term Wehrmacht also appears in Article 47 of the Weimar Constitution, establishing that, from 1919, Germanys national defense force was known as the Reichswehr, a name that was dropped in favor of Wehrmacht on 21 May 1935. In January 1919, after World War I ended with the signing of the armistice of 11 November 1918, in March 1919, the national assembly passed a law founding a 420, 000-strong preliminary army, the Vorläufige Reichswehr. The terms of the Treaty of Versailles were announced in May, the army was limited to one hundred thousand men with an additional fifteen thousand in the navy. The fleet was to consist of at most six battleships, six cruisers, submarines, tanks and heavy artillery were forbidden and the air-force was dissolved. A new post-war military, the Reichswehr, was established on 23 March 1921, General conscription was abolished under another mandate of the Versailles treaty. The Reichswehr was limited to 115,000 men, and thus the armed forces, under the leadership of Hans von Seeckt, though Seeckt retired in 1926, the army that went to war in 1939 was largely his creation. Germany was forbidden to have an air-force by the Versailles treaty, nonetheless and these officers saw the role of an air-force as winning air-superiority, tactical and strategic bombing and providing ground support. That the Luftwaffe did not develop a strategic bombing force in the 1930s was not due to a lack of interest, but because of economic limitations. The leadership of the Navy led by Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, officers who believed in submarine warfare led by Admiral Karl Dönitz were in a minority before 1939. By 1922, Germany had begun covertly circumventing the conditions of the Versailles Treaty, a secret collaboration with the Soviet Union began after the treaty of Rapallo. Major-General Otto Hasse traveled to Moscow in 1923 to further negotiate the terms, Germany helped the Soviet Union with industrialization and Soviet officers were to be trained in Germany
24.
Desertion
–
In military terminology, desertion is the abandonment of a duty or post without permission and is done with the intention of not returning. In contrast, unauthorized absence or absence without leave refers to a temporary absence, the United States Marine Corps, United States Navy, and United States Coast Guard generally refer to this as unauthorized absence or UA. Personnel are dropped from their unit rolls after thirty days and then listed as deserters, however, people who are away for more than thirty days but return voluntarily or indicate a credible intent to return may still be considered AWOL. Those who are away for fewer than thirty days but can credibly be shown to have no intent to return may nevertheless be tried for desertion, in rare occasions, they may be tried for treason if enough evidence is found. Missing movement is another term used to describe members of the armed forces fail to arrive at the appointed time to deploy with their assigned unit, ship. In the United States Armed Forces, this is a violation of the Article 87 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the offense is similar to absence without leave but may draw more severe punishment. Failure to repair consists of missing a formation or failing to appear at an assigned place and it is a lesser offense within article 86 of the UCMJ. In 2011, Vienna decided to honour Austrian Wehrmacht deserters, in 2014, on October, 24th a Memorial for the Victims of Nazi Military Justice was inaugurated on Viennas Ballhausplatz by Austrias President Heinz Fischer. The monument was created by German artist Olaf Nicolai and is located opposite the Presidents office, the inscription on top of the three step sculpture features a poem by Scottish poet Ian Hamilton Finlay with just two words, all alone. During WWI approximately 600 French soldiers were executed for desertion, during WWI, only 18 Germans who deserted in the First World War were executed. In contrast of the Germans who deserted the Wehrmacht,15,000 men were executed, in June 1988 the Initiative for the Creation of a Memorial to Deserters came to life in Ulm. A central idea was, Desertion is not reprehensible, war is, during WWI a total of 28 New Zealand soldiers were sentenced to death for desertion, of these, five were executed. These soldiers were pardoned in 2000 through the Pardon for Soldiers of the Great War Act. Those who deserted before reaching the front were imprisoned in what were claimed to be harsh conditions, the execution of soldiers for desertion is controversial, particularly considering the age of some of the soldiers and the potential of shell-shock. 270, dated August 16,1941, was issued by Joseph Stalin, the order required superiors to shoot deserters on the spot. Their family members were subjected to arrest,227, dated July 28,1942, directed that each Army must create blocking detachments which would shoot cowards and fleeing panicked troops at the rear. During World War II, the Soviets executed 158,000 soldiers for desertion, analyses of desertion rates argue that motivations were far less ideological than individual accounts claim. Desertion rates increased prior to announcements of upcoming operations, and were highest during the summer and winter, seasonal desertions were probably a response to the harsh weather conditions of the winter and immense field work required in the summer
25.
Karl May
–
Karl Friedrich May was a German writer best known for his adventure novels set in the American Old West. His main protagonists are Winnetou and Old Shatterhand, may set similar books in the Orient and Middle East in which the main protagonists were Kara Ben Nemsi and Hadschi Halef Omar, Latin America and Germany. May also wrote poetry, a play, and composed music, many of his works were adapted for film, stage, audio dramas and comics. Later in his career, May turned to philosophical and spiritual genres and he is one of the best-selling German writers of all time with about 200 million copies worldwide. May was the child of a poor family of weavers in Ernstthal. He had thirteen siblings of whom nine died in infancy, during his school years, he received tuition in music and composition. At twelve, May was making money at a skittle alley, in 1856, May commenced teacher training in Waldenburg but in 1859 was expelled for stealing six candles. After an appeal, he was allowed to continue in Plauen, shortly after graduation, when his room mate accused him of stealing a watch, May was jailed in Chemnitz for six weeks and his license to teach was permanently revoked. After this, May worked with success as a private tutor, an author of tales, a composer. For four years, from 1865 to 1869, May was jailed in the workhouse at Osterstein Castle, with good behaviour, May became an administrator of the prison library which gave him the chance to read widely. He made a list of the works he planned to write On his release, May continued his life of crime, impersonating various characters and spinning fantastic tales as a method of fraud. He was arrested, but when he was transported to a scene during a judicial investigation, he escaped and fled to Bohemia. For another four years, from 1870 to 1874, May was jailed in Waldheim, there he met a Catholic Catechist, Johannes Kochta, who assisted May. After his release in May 1874, May returned to his parents home in Ernstthal, in November 1874, Die Rose von Ernstthal was published. May then became an editor in the house of Heinrich Gotthold Münchmeyer in Dresden. May managed entertainment papers such as Schacht und Hütte and continued to publish his own such as Geographische Predigten. May resigned in 1876 and was employed by Bruno Radelli of Dresden, in 1878, May became a freelance writer. In 1880, he married Emma Pollmer, in 1882, May returned to the employ of Münchmeyer and began the first of five large colportage novels
26.
Lex Barker
–
Alexander Crichlow Lex Barker Jr. was an American actor best known for playing Tarzan of the Apes and leading characters from Karl Mays novels. Alexander Crichlow Barker, Jr. was born on May 8,1919 in Rye and he was the second child of Alexander Crichlow Barker, Sr. a wealthy Canadian-born building contractor, and his American wife, the former Marion Thornton Beals. His father later worked as a stockbroker, Barker had an elder sister, Frederica Amelia Freddie Barlow. She was married three times, to Frederic Clifton Soldwedel, Richard Neuhaufer, and Robert Henry Schlesinger, raised in New York City and Port Chester, New York, Lex Barker attended the Fessenden School and graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy. He played football as well as the oboe and he attended Princeton University, but dropped out to join a theatrical stock company, much to the chagrin of his family. Barker made it to Broadway once, in a role in a short run of Shakespeares The Merry Wives of Windsor in 1938. He also had a role in Orson Welless disastrous Five Kings. In February 1941, ten months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Barker left his acting career. He rose to the rank of major during the war and he was wounded in action fighting in Sicily. Back in the USA, he recuperated at an Arkansas military hospital, then upon his discharge from service, within a short time, he landed a small role in his first film, Doll Face. A string of small roles followed, the best of which was as Emmett Dalton in the Western Return of the Bad Men, Barker soon found the role that would bring him fame. In Tarzans Magic Fountain, Barker became the tenth official Tarzan of the movies and his blond, handsome, and intelligent appearance, as well as his athletic, now 64 frame, helped make him popular in the role Johnny Weissmuller had made his own for sixteen years. Barker made only five Tarzan films, but he remains one of the actors best known for the role, in Italy, he also had a short but compelling role as Anita Ekbergs fiancé in Federico Fellinis La Dolce Vita. In Germany, he had his greatest success, in 1966, Barker was awarded the Bambi Award as Best Foreign Actor in Germany, where he was a major, very popular, star. He even recorded two songs in German, Ich bin morgen auf dem Weg zu dir and Mädchen in Samt und Seide, Barker was married five times, Constance Rhodes Thurlow. She was a daughter of Leon Rhodes Thurlow, a president of the Decorated Metal Manufacturing Company. They had one daughter, Lynn Thurlow Barker and a son, in 1952 Constance Barker married her second husband, John Lawrence Adams, a descendant of John Quincy Adams. Actress Arlene Dahl Actress Lana Turner, Turner ordered him out of the house at gunpoint the morning after she learned of this
27.
Old Shatterhand
–
Old Shatterhand is a fictional character in Western novels by German writer Karl May. He is the German friend and blood brother of Winnetou, the chief of the Mescalero tribe of the Apache. He is the character in the Eurowestern by the same name from 1964. Most of the stories are written from a first person perspective, may also wrote stories about the same character traveling the Orient, where he is known as Kara Ben Nemsi. May attached the prefix Old to the names of several of his characters, considering it to be typically American and a sign of the characters great experience. In the stories, Old Shatterhand is given the name by his friend Sam Hawkens, Old Shatterhand owns two famous rifles, the Bärentöter and the Henrystutzen, both made by a fictional gunsmith called Henry in St. Louis. The Henrystutzen was able to fire 25 shots without reloading, probably a reference to the Henry rifle. Old Shatterhand rode a horse called Hatatitla, which he got from Winnetou, the tales may have been an influence on the creation of the Lone Ranger media franchise. In the story Im Reiche des silbernen Löwen IV Kara Ben Nemsi says he was Old Shatterhand, the character of Old Shatterhand was played in the German Karl May movies of the 1960s by American actor Lex Barker. Dr. Harald Reinl Old Shatterhand, dir, dr. Harald Reinl Winnetou –3. Dr. Harald Reinl Winnetou und das Halbblut Apanatschi, dir, Harald Philipp Winnetou und Shatterhand im Tal der Toten, dir. Dr. Harald Reinl In contrast to the stories in the movies Unter Geiern, Old Surehand is another character created by Karl May. Karl May dedicated three volumes to him, who is like Old Shatterhand a renowned Western hero and best friends with the Native Americans, unlike Old Shatterhand, Old Surehand is a half-blood Native himself, though raised in a white family. Amazon. com Nemsi Books In the 1990s British writer B. J. Holmes produced two sequels featuring the character, A Legend Called Shatterhand, and Shatterhand and the People
28.
Auschwitz concentration camp
–
Auschwitz concentration camp was a network of German Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II. It consisted of Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II–Birkenau, Auschwitz III–Monowitz, Auschwitz I was first constructed to hold Polish political prisoners, who began to arrive in May 1940. The first extermination of prisoners took place in September 1941, from early 1942 until late 1944, transport trains delivered Jews to the camps gas chambers from all over German-occupied Europe, where they were killed with the pesticide Zyklon B. An estimated 1.3 million people were sent to the camp, around 90 percent of those killed were Jewish, approximately 1 in 6 Jews killed in the Holocaust died at the camp. Many of those not killed in the gas chambers died of starvation, forced labor, infectious diseases, individual executions, and medical experiments. In the course of the war, the camp was staffed by 7,000 members of the German Schutzstaffel, some, including camp commandant Rudolf Höss, were executed. The Allied Powers refused to believe reports of the atrocities at the camp. As Soviet troops approached Auschwitz in January 1945, most of its population was sent west on a death march, the prisoners remaining at the camp were liberated on 27 January 1945, a day now commemorated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In the following decades, survivors, such as Primo Levi, Viktor Frankl, and Elie Wiesel, wrote memoirs of their experiences in Auschwitz, and the camp became a dominant symbol of the Holocaust. In 1947, Poland founded the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum on the site of Auschwitz I and II, immediately after the Nazi seizure of power in Germany, acts of violence perpetrated against Jews became ubiquitous. The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, passed on 7 April 1933 excluded most Jews from the legal profession, similar legislation soon deprived Jewish members of other professions of the right to practise. Harassment and economic pressure were used by the regime to encourage Jews to leave the country voluntarily and their businesses were denied access to markets, forbidden to advertise in newspapers, and deprived of government contracts. German Jews were subjected to violent attacks and boycotts, in September 1935 the Nuremberg Laws were enacted. The Reich Citizenship Law stated that only those of Germanic or related blood were defined as citizens, thus Jews and other minority groups were stripped of their German citizenship. The laws were expanded on 26 November 1935 to include Romani people and this supplementary decree defined Gypsies as enemies of the race-based state, the same category as Jews. By the start of World War II in 1939, around 250,000 of Germanys 437,000 Jews had emigrated to the United States, Palestine, the United Kingdom, Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. German dictator Adolf Hitler ordered that the Polish leadership and intelligentsia be destroyed, approximately 65,000 civilians, who were viewed as being inferior to the Aryan master race, were killed by the end of 1939. In addition to leaders of Polish society, the Nazis killed Jews, prostitutes, Romani, sS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, then head of the Gestapo, ordered on 21 September that Polish Jews should be rounded up and concentrated into cities with good rail links
29.
German reunification
–
The end of the unification process is officially referred to as German unity, celebrated on 3 October. Following German reunification, Berlin was once designated as the capital of united Germany. The East German regime started to falter in May 1989, when the removal of Hungarys border fence with Austria opened a hole in the Iron Curtain and it caused an exodus of thousands of East Germans fleeing to West Germany and Austria via Hungary. The united Germany is the continuation of the Federal Republic. For political and diplomatic reasons, West German politicians carefully avoided the term reunification during the run-up to what Germans frequently refer to as die Wende, after 1990, the term die Wende became more common. The term generally refers to the events led up to the actual reunification, in its usual context. When referring to the events surrounding unification, however, it carries the connotation of the time. However, anti-communist activists from Eastern Germany rejected the term Wende as it was introduced by SEDs Secretary General Egon Krenz, the capital city of Berlin was divided into four occupied sectors of control, under the Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Germans lived under such imposed divisions throughout the ensuing Cold War, into the 1980s, the Soviet Union experienced a period of economic and political stagnation, and they correspondingly decreased intervention in Eastern Bloc politics. In 1987, US President Ronald Reagan gave a speech at Brandenburg Gate challenging Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down this wall that had separated Berlin. The wall had stood as an icon for the political and economic division between East and West, a division that Churchill had referred to as the Iron Curtain. In early 1989, under a new era of Soviet policies of glasnost, perestroika and taken to more progressive levels by Gorbachev. Further inspired by images of brave defiance, a wave of revolutions swept throughout the Eastern Bloc that year. In May 1989, Hungary removed their border fence and thousands of East Germans escaped to the West, however, events rapidly came to a head in early 1990. First, in March, the Party of Democratic Socialism—the former Socialist Unity Party of Germany—was heavily defeated in East Germanys first free elections. A grand coalition was formed under Lothar de Maizière, leader of the East German wing of Kohls Christian Democratic Union, on a platform of speedy reunification, second, East Germanys economy and infrastructure underwent a swift and near-total collapse. While East Germany had long been reckoned as having the most robust economy in the Soviet bloc, the East German mark had been practically worthless outside East Germany for some time before the events of 1989–90 further magnified the problem. Discussions immediately began for a merger of the German economies
30.
Serial killer
–
Different authorities apply different criteria when designating serial killers, while most set a threshold of three murders, others extend it to four or lessen it to two. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, for example, defines serial killing as a series of two or more murders, committed as separate events, usually, but not always, by one offender acting alone. The murders may be attempted or completed in a fashion. Serial killing is not the same as mass murdering, nor is it spree killing, however, there is ample evidence the term was used in Europe and the U. S. earlier. The German term and concept were coined by the influential Ernst Gennat, psychopathic behavior that is consistent with traits common to some serial killers include sensation seeking, a lack of remorse or guilt, impulsivity, the need for control, and predatory behavior. They were often abused—emotionally, physically and/or sexually—by a family member, a disproportionate number exhibit one, two, or all three of the Macdonald triad of predictors of future violent behavior, Many are fascinated with fire setting. They are involved in activity, especially in children who have not reached sexual maturity. More than 60 percent, or simply a large proportion, wet their beds beyond the age of 12 and they were frequently bullied or socially isolated as children or adolescents. For example, Henry Lee Lucas was ridiculed as a child, kenneth Bianchi was teased as a child because he urinated in his pants, suffered twitching, and as a teenager was ignored by his peers. Some were involved in petty crimes, such as fraud, theft, vandalism, often, they have trouble staying employed and tend to work in menial jobs. The FBI, however, states, Serial murderers often seem normal, have families and/or a steady job, other sources state they often come from unstable families. Studies have suggested that serial killers generally have an average or low-average IQ, although they are often described, a sample of 202 IQs of serial killers had a median IQ of 89. There are exceptions to these criteria, however, for example, Harold Shipman was a successful professional. He was considered a pillar of the community, he even won a professional award for a childrens asthma clinic and was interviewed by Granada Televisions World in Action. Dennis Nilsen was an ex-soldier turned civil servant and trade unionist who had no criminal record when arrested. Neither was known to have exhibited many of the tell-tale signs, vlado Taneski, a crime reporter, was a career journalist who was caught after a series of articles he wrote gave clues that he had murdered people. Russell Williams was a successful and respected career Royal Canadian Air Force Colonel who was convicted of murdering two women, along with fetish burglaries and rapes, Many serial killers have faced similar problems in their childhood development. Family, or lack thereof, is the most prominent part of a childs development because it is what the child can identify with on a regular basis
.jpg)
