1.
Berlin
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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.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
3.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
4.
Emergency medical services in Germany
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Emergency Medical Service in Germany is a service of public pre-hospital emergency healthcare, including ambulance service, provided by individual German cities and counties. It is primarily financed by the German health insurance companies, the development of ambulance services in Germany started in the late 19th century. Typically volunteer aid organizations, some companies in larger cities. After World War II, prehospital care in Germany was in its infancy, in West Germany the Fire Departments provided 24/7 service as a professional service in some cities and urban centres or towns. With the increase in motorized traffic at the beginning of the 1950s, road accidents also increased. This encouraged the formation of other emergency services, for example the Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe e. V. A subsidiary of the German Order of St. John, still, the EMS role was primarily done on a voluntary basis by individuals with only minimal training in emergency health care, using simple transport vehicles with almost no medical equipment. However, more and more it became evident, that not only transport saves live of patients, the need to professionalize emergency health care was picked up by several university medical centers in the late 1950s and 60s. The idea to bring the doctor to the patient, rather than the patient to the doctor was born before World War II. The result was the evolution of a type of emergency physician called a Notarzt who dealt primarily with providing medical care in the out-of-hospital setting. The service delivery model that this approach describes is commonly referred to as the Franco-German model, the first emergency medical technicians were trained by some fire departments, organizations and even universities. 1977 the first nationwide educational standard for emergency medical providers was introduced. The system was improved in the 1980s and 1990s, leading not only to the then-new profession of Rettungsassistent. Today Germany has a net of emergency services available, providing emergency care at a high professional standard. In Germany the individual German states are responsible for the provision of emergency services. German law mandates the provision of fire and rescue services, including EMS, in independent cities, this is usually provided directly by the Fire Prevention Bureau, one of the departments in a municipality. Unlike fire protection, the task of providing EMS, while legally mandated, is not necessarily performed directly by the district, if it is, itll be operated as an kommunaler Rettungsdienst. In some cases, local municipalities will provide the service directly, usually through a full-time staffed fire department, EMS may, however, be contracted out by the district to a number of other potential service providers, including both community non-profit organizations and privately owned companies
5.
Wasserwacht
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The Wasserwacht is a German lifeguard service. It is one of the five voluntary societies of the German Red Cross, the Wasserwacht is a non-profit organization made up of on volunteers. The main task of the Wasserwacht is the prevention of drowning, the Wasserwachts activities encompass many areas, including, A task of the Wasserwacht is the training of nonswimmers and the continuation of swimming education among the population. Badges are awarded based on the level of education, and begin with the Seepferdchen up to the Gold German Swimming Badge and this group is responsible for the education and training of lifeguards, swiftwater rescuers and rescue swimmers. It cooperates with German civil protection and German fire services, especially concerning floods, therefore they require fast and powerful transportation in case of an emergency. The Wasserwacht oversees regattas and sailing meetings, rescue divers are needed for the salvaging of goods, vehicles, garbage, and corpses. The education of a rescue diver usually takes one to two years, each active rescue diver of the Wasserwacht is required to undergo a dive-medical investigation annually. A task of the Wasserwacht is helping to keep nature and waterways clean, in order to accomplish these tasks the Wasserwacht educates interested people with qualified technical abilities from the other departments of the German Red Cross. The Bavarian city Regensburg is considered to be the birthplace of the service of the German Red Cross. In 1883, during a flood, German Red Cross aids were used for the first time, in the following years, Sanität und Wasserwehrkolonnen developed along the coast and inland waters. After World War II, the Wasserwacht, as a government organization, was forbidden by the military administration. But the Bavarian Red Cross, Bavarian regional organization of the German Red Cross, other regional organizations followed the example of Bavaria and reinstated their lifeguard services. For the execution of services on water, the Wasserwacht maintains Schnelleinsatzgruppen. The groups are equipped with special lifeguard and emergency service machinery. DLRG German Red Cross German rescue swimming badge www. wasserwacht. de
6.
Geneva Conventions
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The Geneva Conventions comprise four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish the standards of international law for the humanitarian treatment in war. The treaties of 1949 were ratified, in whole or with reservations, the Swiss businessman Henry Dunant went to visit wounded soldiers after the Battle of Solferino in 1859. He was shocked by the lack of facilities, personnel, as a result, he published his book, A Memory of Solferino, in 1862, on the horrors of war. The latter led to the 1864 Geneva Convention, the first codified international treaty that covered the sick, for both of these accomplishments, Henry Dunant became corecipient of the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901. The ten articles of this first treaty were initially adopted on 22 August 1864 by twelve nations, on 20 October 1868 the first, unsuccessful, attempt to expand the 1864 treaty was undertaken. With the Additional Articles relating to the Condition of the Wounded in War an attempt was undertaken to clarify some rules of the 1864 convention, the Articles were signed but never ratified by all parties. Only the Netherlands and the United States ratified the Articles, the Netherlands later withdrew their ratification. The protection of the victims of warfare would later be realized by the third Hague Convention of 1899. In 1906 thirty-five states attended a conference convened by the Swiss government and it remained into force until 1970 when Costa Rica acceded to the 1949 Geneva Conventions. The 1929 conference yielded two conventions that were signed on July 27th 1929, one, the Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armies in the Field, was the third version to replace the original convention of 1864. The other was adopted after experiences in World War I had shown the deficiencies in the protection of prisoners of war under the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907. The Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War was not to replace these earlier conventions signed at The Hague, the Second Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea replaced the Hague Convention of 1907. It was the first Geneva Convention on the protection of the victims of warfare and mimicked the structure. The Third Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War replaced the 1929 Geneva Convention that dealt with prisoners of war. In addition to these three conventions, the conference added a new elaborate Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. It was the first Geneva Convention not to deal with combatants, the 1899 and 1907 Hague Conventions had already contained some provisions on the protection of civilians and occupied territory. Article 154 specifically provides that the Fourth Geneva Convention is supplementary to these provisions in the Hague Conventions, despite the length of these documents, they were found over time to be incomplete. In light of developments, two Protocols were adopted in 1977 that extended the terms of the 1949 Conventions with additional protections
7.
Pfuel
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Its members today bear the name Grafen Bruges-von Pfuel. Friedrich von Pfuel, Knight and electoral state-captain, as well as Privy Councillor to the Dukes of Mecklenburg, melchior von Pfuel, the Alchemist and Necromancer, Doctor of Law, electoral Captain at Zossen, Chancellor and Privy Councillor to the Prince-elector of Brandenburg. Heino von Pfuel, electoral Colonel appointed by John George, Prince-elector of Brandenburg, valtin von Pfuel, General-War commissar to the Prince-elector of Brandenburg, as well as High-Commissioner of the Barnim. Kurt Bertram von Pfuel, statesman and politician, valet de chambre to George William, Prince-elector of Brandenburg, General-War commissar and highest Privy Councillor to Frederick William I, Elector of Brandenburg – Duke of Prussia. Adam von Pfuel, Swedish General, later Privy Councillor and General-War commissar in Danish service, catharina Elisabeth von Pfuel, wife of Johan Banér, Swedish Field Marshal in the Thirty Years War. Ernst von Pfuel, Doctor of Law, Imperial Count Palatine of Berlin, georg Adam von Pfuel, royal Prussian General of the Cavalry, Governor of Spandau Citadel, Lord of Groß- und Klein-Buckow. Friedrich Heino von Pfuel, Rittmeister, service at the royal Court of Christina, Adam Dietrich von Pfuhl, electoral Colonel, Domherr to the Prince-elector of Brandenburg, member of the Fruitbearing Society. Gustav Adolf von Pfuhl, member of the Fruitbearing Society, Adam Friedrich von Pfuhl, electoral Colonel, owner of the Salt evaporation pond in Kötzschau. George Ehrenreich von Pfuhl, Landdrost of the Principality of Lippe, Lord of Helfta, heyno Dietloff von Pfuel, Dike-reeve of the Oderbruch. Christian Friedrich von Pfuel, royal Prussian Colonel, Lord of Gielsdorf, Wilkendorf, killed in action near Kaiserswerth during the War of the Spanish Succession. Ludwig Dietrich von Pfuhl, Field marshal and commander of Kehl Fortress during the War of the Polish Succession, grandson of Adam von Pfuel, hempo Ludwig von Pfuel, royal Prussian Privy Councillor and Major, President of the Kriegs- u. Domänenkammer Halberstadt, Lord of Jahnsfelde. Christian Ludwig von Pfuel, royal Prussian Major General of the Infantry, curt Christoph von Pfuel, Oberkämmerer to the Elector of Saxony, highest Privy Councillor and General-War commissar. Ernst Ludwig von Pfuhl, royal Prussian General of the Infantry, Governor of Spandau Citadel, Ludwig von Pfuel, royal Prussian Major General und Hofmarschall to Frederick William I of Prussia. Carl Ludwig Wilhelm August von Phull, General of the Infantry, carl Ludwig von Pfuel, royal Prussian Major General. Otto-Friedrich von Pfuel, royal Prussian Haupt-Ritterschaftsdirektor, franz Wilhelm von Pfuel, royal Prussian Major General and Commander of Danzig, later General in russian service. Friedrich August Heinrich Leberecht von Pfuhl, General-Feldzeugmeister of the Kingdom of Württemberg, Karl Ludwig von Phull, Prussian general who served as Chief of the General Staff of King Frederick William III of Prussia in the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt. In Russian service, Phull successfully advocated for a scorched earth policy during Napoleons invasion of Russia, character in Leo Tolstoys novel War and Peace. Friedrich von Phull, General of the Infantry, Commander-in-chief of the Kingdom of Württemberg during the French Revolutionary Wars, Ernst von Pfuhl, Minister of State of the Kingdom of Württemberg
8.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
9.
Treaty of Versailles
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The Treaty of Versailles was the most important of the peace treaties that brought World War I to an end. The Treaty ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers and it was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of World War I signed separate treaties, although the armistice, signed on 11 November 1918, ended the actual fighting, it took six months of Allied negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty. The treaty was registered by the Secretariat of the League of Nations on 21 October 1919 and this article, Article 231, later became known as the War Guilt clause. The treaty forced Germany to disarm, make substantial territorial concessions, in 1921 the total cost of these reparations was assessed at 132 billion marks. On the other hand, prominent figures on the Allied side such as French Marshal Ferdinand Foch criticized the treaty for treating Germany too leniently, although it is often referred to as the Versailles Conference, only the actual signing of the treaty took place at the historic palace. Most of the negotiations were in Paris, with the Big Four meetings taking place generally at the Quai dOrsay, the First World War was fought across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Countries beyond the war zones were also affected by the disruption of trade, finance. In 1917, two revolutions occurred within the Russian Empire, which led to the collapse of the Imperial Government, the American war aim was to detach the war from nationalistic disputes and ambitions after the Bolshevik disclosure of secret treaties between the Allies. The existence of these treaties tended to discredit Allied claims that Germany was the power with aggressive ambitions. On 8 January 1918, United States President Woodrow Wilson issued a statement that became known as the Fourteen Points and this speech outlined a policy of free trade, open agreements, democracy and self-determination. After the Central Powers launched Operation Faustschlag on the Eastern Front and this treaty ended the war between Russia and the Central powers and annexed 1,300,000 square miles of territory and 62 million people. During the autumn of 1918, the Central Powers began to collapse, desertion rates within the German army began to increase, and civilian strikes drastically reduced war production. On the Western Front, the Allied forces launched the Hundred Days Offensive, sailors of the Imperial German Navy at Kiel mutinied, which prompted uprisings in Germany, which became known as the German Revolution. The German government tried to obtain a settlement based on the Fourteen Points. Following negotiations, the Allied powers and Germany signed an armistice, the terms of the armistice called for an immediate evacuation of German troops from occupied Belgium, France, and Luxembourg within fifteen days. In addition, it established that Allied forces would occupy the Rhineland, in late 1918, Allied troops entered Germany and began the occupation. Both the German Empire and Great Britain were dependent on imports of food and raw materials, primarily from the Americas, the Blockade of Germany was a naval operation conducted by the Allied Powers to stop the supply of raw materials and foodstuffs reaching the Central Powers
10.
Weimar Republic
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Weimar Republic is an unofficial, historical designation for the German state between 1919 and 1933. The name derives from the city of Weimar, where its constitutional assembly first took place, the official name of the state was still Deutsches Reich, it had remained unchanged since 1871. In English the country was known simply as Germany. A national assembly was convened in Weimar, where a new constitution for the Deutsches Reich was written, in its fourteen years, the Weimar Republic faced numerous problems, including hyperinflation, political extremism, and contentious relationships with the victors of the First World War. The people of Germany blamed the Weimar Republic rather than their leaders for the countrys defeat. However, the Weimar Republic government successfully reformed the currency, unified tax policies, Weimar Germany eliminated most of the requirements of the Treaty of Versailles, it never completely met its disarmament requirements, and eventually paid only a small portion of the war reparations. Under the Locarno Treaties, Germany accepted the borders of the republic. From 1930 onwards President Hindenburg used emergency powers to back Chancellors Heinrich Brüning, Franz von Papen, the Great Depression, exacerbated by Brünings policy of deflation, led to a surge in unemployment. In 1933, Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor with the Nazi Party being part of a coalition government, the Nazis held two out of the remaining ten cabinet seats. Von Papen as Vice Chancellor was intended to be the éminence grise who would keep Hitler under control, within months the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act of 1933 had brought about a state of emergency, it wiped out constitutional governance and civil liberties. Hitlers seizure of power was permissive of government by decree without legislative participation and these events brought the republic to an end, as democracy collapsed, a single-party state founded the Nazi era. The Weimar Republic is so called because the assembly that adopted its constitution met at Weimar, Germany from 6 February 1919 to 11 August 1919, but this name only became mainstream after 1933. To the right of the spectrum the politically engaged rejected the new democratic model, the Catholic Centre party, Zentrum favoured the term Deutscher Volksstaat while on the moderate left the Chancellors SPD preferred Deutsche Republik. Only during the 1930s did the term become mainstream, both within and outside Germany, after the introduction of the republic, the flag and coat of arms of Germany were officially altered to reflect the political changes. The Weimar Republic retained the Reichsadler, but without the symbols of the former Monarchy and this left the black eagle with one head, facing to the right, with open wings but closed feathers, with a red beak, tongue and claws and white highlighting. If the Reichs Eagle is shown without a frame, the charge and colors as those of the eagle of the Reichs coat of arms are to be used. The patterns kept by the Federal Ministry of the Interior are decisive for the heraldic design, the artistic design may be varied for each special purpose. The achievements and signs of movement were mostly done away with after its downfall
11.
Wilhelm Frick
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After the end of World War II, he was tried and convicted of war crimes at the Nuremberg Trials and executed by hanging. Frick was born in the Palatinate municipality of Alsenz, then part of the Kingdom of Bavaria, Germany and he attended the gymnasium in Kaiserslautern, passing his Abitur exams in 1896. He went on studying philology at the University of Munich, but soon turned to study law in Heidelberg and Berlin, taking the Staatsexamen in 1900. Serving as a referendary since 1900, he joined the Bavarian civil service in 1903 and he was appointed a Bezirksamtassessor in Pirmasens in 1907 and became acting district executive in 1914. Rejected as unfit, Frick did not serve in World War I and he was promoted to the official rank of a Regierungsassessor and, at his own request, re-assumed his post at the Munich Police Department by 1917. On 25 April 1910, Frick had married Elisabetha Emilie Nagel in Pirmasens and they had two sons and a daughter. The marriage ended in a divorce in 1934. A few weeks later, on 12 March, Frick remarried in Münchberg to Margarete Schultze-Naumburg, Margarete gave birth to a son and a daughter. In Munich, Frick witnessed the end of the war and the German Revolution of 1918–1919 and he sympathized with Freikorps paramilitary units fighting against the Bavarian government of Premier Kurt Eisner. Chief of Police Ernst Pöhner introduced him to Adolf Hitler, whom he helped willingly with obtaining permissions to hold political rallies and demonstrations. Elevated to the rank of an Oberamtmann and head of the Kriminalpolizei security service from 1923, he, Frick tried to suppress the State Polices operation, wherefore he was arrested and imprisoned, and tried for aiding and abetting high treason by the Peoples Court in April 1924. After several months in custody, he was given a sentence of 15 months imprisonment and was dismissed from his police job. Later during the proceedings, the dismissal was declared unfair and revoked. Frick went on to work at the Munich social insurance office from 1926 onwards, in the aftermath of the Putsch, Wilhelm Frick was elected a member of the German Reichstag parliament in the federal election of May 1924. He had been nominated by the National Socialist Freedom Movement, an electoral list of the far-right German Völkisch Freedom Party, on 1 September 1925, Frick joined the re-established Nazi Party. Frick also appointed the eugenicist Hans F. K and he was removed from office by a Social Democratic motion of no confidence in the Thuringian Landtag parliament on 1 April 1931. When Reich president Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor on 30 January 1933, though Frick held a key position, especially in organizing the federal elections of March 1933, he initially had far less power than his counterparts in the rest of Europe. Notably, he had no authority over the police, in Germany law enforcement has traditionally been a state, indeed, the main reason that Hindenburg and Franz von Papen agreed to give the interior ministry to the Nazis was that it was almost powerless at the time
12.
Sturmabteilung
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The Sturmabteilung, literally Storm Detachment, functioned as the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. It played a significant role in Adolf Hitlers rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s, the SA have been known in contemporary times as Brownshirts from the color of their uniform shirts, similar to Benito Mussolinis blackshirts. The SA developed pseudo-military titles for its members, the SA ranks were adopted by several other Nazi Party groups, chief amongst them the Schutzstaffel, which originated as a branch of the SA before being separated. The SA became disempowered after Adolf Hitler ordered the purge of 1934. This event became known as the Night of the Long Knives, the SA was effectively superseded by the SS, although it was not formally dissolved until after the Third Reichs final capitulation to the Allied powers in 1945. The term Sturmabteilung predates the founding of the Nazi Party in 1919, originally it was applied to the specialized assault troops of Imperial Germany in World War I who used Hutier infiltration tactics. Instead of large mass assaults, the Sturmabteilung were organised into small squads of a few soldiers each, on 2 October 1916, Generalquartiermeister Erich Ludendorff ordered all German armies in the west to form a battalion of stormtroops. They were first used during the 8th Armys siege of Riga, wider use followed on the Western Front in the Spring Offensive in March 1918, where Allied lines were successfully pushed back tens of kilometers. The DAP was formed in Munich in January 1919 and Adolf Hitler joined it in September of that year. His talents for speaking, publicity and propaganda were quickly recognized, and by early 1920 he had gained authority in the party, the precursor to the SA had acted informally and on an ad hoc basis for some time before this. Some 70 people attended, and a second meeting was advertised for 13 November in the Eberlbrau beer hall. Some 130 people attended, there were hecklers, but Hitlers military friends promptly ejected them by force, the next year, on 24 February, he announced the partys Twenty-Five Point program at a mass meeting of some 2000 people at the Hofbräuhaus. Protesters tried to shout Hitler down, but his former companions, armed with rubber truncheons. The basis for the SA had been formed, a permanent group of party members who would serve as the ruffian Saalschutzabteilung for the DAP gathered around Emil Maurice after the February 1920 incident at the Hofbräuhaus. There was little organization or structure to this group, the group was also called the Ordnertruppen around this time. More than a later, on 3 August 1921, Hitler redefined the group as the Gymnastic and Sports Division of the party. It was by now recognized as an appropriate, even necessary. By September 1921 the name Sturmabteilung was being used informally for the group, Hitler was the official head of the Nazi Party by this time
13.
Gleichschaltung
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The Nazis used the word Gleichschaltung for the process of successively establishing a system of totalitarian control and coordination over all aspects of society. It has been translated as Nazification of state and society, synchronization, bringing into line, and co-ordination. The period from 1933 to 1937 was characterized by the elimination of non-Nazi organizations that could potentially influence people, such as trade unions. Those critical of Hitlers agenda were suppressed, intimidated or murdered, the regime also assailed the influence of the churches, for example by instituting the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs under Hanns Kerrl. Organizations that the administration could not eliminate, such as the education system, the Gleichschaltung also included the formation of various organisations with compulsory membership for segments of the population, in particular the youth. Boys first served as apprentices in the Pimpfen, beginning at the age of six, boys remained there until age eighteen, at which time they entered into the Arbeitsdienst and the armed forces. Girls became part of the Jungmädel at age ten and at age fourteen were enrolled in the Bund Deutscher Mädel, at eighteen, BDM members went generally to the eastern territory for their Pflichtdienst, or Landjahr, a year of labor on a farm. In 1936 membership in the Hitler Youth numbered just under six million, for workers, an all-embracing recreational organization called Kraft durch Freude under the German Labor Front was set up. In Nazi Germany, even hobbies were regimented, and all clubs were brought under the control of KdF. The Kraft durch Freude organization provided vacation trips, with some 25 million members, KdF was the largest of the many organizations established by the Nazis. Workers were also brought in line with the party, through such as the Reichsberufswettkampf. It has no reason to fear the truth and it is a mistake to believe that the people cannot take the truth. It is only a matter of presenting the truth to people in a way that they will be able to understand. In a more specific sense, Gleichschaltung refers to the measures taken by the government during the 20 months following 30 January 1933. It was in this sense that the term was used by the Nazis themselves, in this atmosphere the Reichstag general election of 5 March 1933 took place. The Nazis had hoped to win a majority and push aside their coalition partners. However, the Nazis won only 43 percent of the vote, the Nazi-DNVP coalition did enjoy a slim majority, just enough to conduct the ordinary business of government. A state election was held in Prussia at the same time, which produced a similar result. When the newly elected Reichstag first convened on 23 March 1933—not including the Communist delegates because their party had been banned on 6 March—it passed the Enabling Act and this law gave the government—in practice, Hitler—the right to make laws without the involvement of the Reichstag
14.
International Committee of the Red Cross
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The International Committee of the Red Cross is a humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland and a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005 have given the ICRC a mandate to protect victims of international and internal armed conflicts, such victims include war wounded, prisoners, refugees, civilians, and other non-combatants. The ICRC is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement along with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and 190 National Societies. It is the oldest and most honoured organization within the Movement and one of the most widely recognized organizations in the world, having won three Nobel Peace Prizes in 1917,1944, and 1963. When he arrived in the town of Solferino on the evening of 24 June, he witnessed the Battle of Solferino. In a single day, about 40,000 soldiers on both sides died or were wounded on the field. Henry Dunant was shocked by the aftermath of the battle, the suffering of the wounded soldiers. He completely abandoned the original intent of his trip and for days he devoted himself to helping with the treatment. He succeeded in organizing an overwhelming level of assistance by motivating the local population to aid without discrimination. Back in his home in Geneva, he decided to write a book entitled A Memory of Solferino which he published with his own money in 1862 and he sent copies of the book to leading political and military figures throughout Europe. In addition, he called for the development of international treaties to guarantee the neutrality and protection of wounded on the battlefield as well as medics. On 9 February 1863 in Geneva, Henry Dunant founded the Committee of the Five as a commission of the Geneva Society for Public Welfare. Their aim was to examine the feasibility of Dunants ideas and to organize a conference about their possible implementation. Eight days later, the five men decided to rename the committee to the International Committee for Relief to the Wounded, in October 1863, the international conference organized by the committee was held in Geneva to develop possible measures to improve medical services on the battle field. The states and kingdoms represented by delegates were Baden, Bavaria, France, Britain, Hanover, Hesse, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Prussia, Russia, Saxony, Sweden. Only one year later, the Swiss government invited the governments of all European countries, as well as the United States, Brazil, sixteen countries sent a total of twenty-six delegates to Geneva. On 22 August 1864, the conference adopted the first Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field. Representatives of 12 states and kingdoms signed the convention, Baden, Belgium, Denmark, France, Hesse, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Prussia, Switzerland, Spain, and Württemberg
15.
Max Huber (statesman)
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Hans Max Huber was a Swiss lawyer and diplomat who represented Switzerland at a series of international conferences and institutions. He studied law at the Universities of Lausanne, Zurich and Berlin, Huber taught international, constitutional and canon law at the University of Zurich from 1902 to 1914, and retained this title until 1921 but could not teach due to World War I. During the War, he advised the Swiss Defence and Foreign Affairs ministries and he also acted as the arbitrator in the influential Island of Palmas Case between the United States and the Netherlands in 1928 at the Permanent Court of Arbitration. After retiring from the Red Cross, Huber published several articles on international law prior to his death, der Schutz der militärischen und völkerrechtlichen Interessen im schweizerischen Strafgesetzbuch. Verlag Stämpfli & Cie AG, Bern 1913 Die soziologischen Grundlagen des Völkerrechts, Verlag Dr. Walther Rothschild, Berlin 1928 Grundlagen nationaler Erneuerung. Vom Wesen und Sinn des schweizerischen Staates, schulthess, Zürich 1934 The good samaritan. Reflections on the gospel and work in the Red Cross, victor Gollancz, London 1945 Das Internationale Rote Kreuz. Max Niehans Verlag, Zürich 1951 André Durand, History of the International Committee of the Red Cross, volume II, From Sarajevo to Hiroshima. Henry Dunant Institute, Genf 1984, ISBN 2-88044-009-2 Caroline Moorehead, Dunants dream, War, Switzerland, HarperCollins, London 1998, ISBN 0-00-255141-1, HarperCollins, London 1999, ISBN 0-00-638883-3 Daniel Thürer, Max Huber, A Portrait in Outline. In, The European Journal of International Law, European Society of International Law, S. Max Huber in the Dodis database of the Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland Max Huber
16.
Paul von Hindenburg
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Hindenburg retired from the army for the first time in 1911, but was recalled shortly after the outbreak of World War I in 1914. He first came to attention at the age of 66 as the victor of the decisive Battle of Tannenberg in August 1914. As Germanys Chief of the General Staff from August 1916, Hindenburgs reputation rose greatly in German public esteem. He and his deputy Erich Ludendorff then led Germany in a de facto military dictatorship throughout the remainder of the war, in line with Lebensraum ideology, he advocated sweeping annexations of territories in Poland, Ukraine, and Russia in order to resettle Germans there. Hindenburg retired again in 1919, but returned to life in 1925 to be elected the second President of Germany. In 1932, Hindenburg was persuaded to run for re-election as German president, although 84 years old and in poor health, Hindenburg was re-elected in a runoff. He was opposed to Hitler and was a player in the increasing political instability in the Weimar Republic that ended with Hitlers rise to power. He dissolved the Reichstag twice in 1932 and finally, under pressure, in February, he signed off on the Reichstag Fire Decree, which suspended various civil liberties, and in March he signed the Enabling Act of 1933, which gave Hitlers regime arbitrary powers. Hindenburg died the year, after which Hitler declared the office of President vacant. Hindenburg was embarrassed by his mothers non-aristocratic background and hardly mentioned her at all in his memoirs and his paternal lineage was considered highly distinguished, in fact, he was descended from one of the most respected ancient noble families in Prussia. His paternal grandfather was Otto Ludwig von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg, Hindenburg was also a descendant of Martin Luther and his wife Katharina von Bora through their daughter Margareta Luther. Hindenburgs younger brothers and sister were Otto, Ida and Bernhard, Hindenburg was proud that one of his ancestors, Colonel Otto Frederich von Hindenburg had lost a leg at the Battle of Torgau in 1760 and had been awarded an estate at Neudeck by Frederich the Great. Hindenburg received a typical Junker upbringing, being taught the virtues of duty, discipline, obedience to authority and loyalty to Prussia, Hindenburgs governess was known to shout Quiet in the ranks. Before entering the Prussian Cadet Corps in 1859, the 12-year old Hindenburg soberly wrote up his last will and testament in case he should die, Hindenburgs favorite reading materials were war and adventure stories with The Pathfinder by James Fenimore Cooper being his favorite. As a cadet, Hindenburg was admired for his commitment to duty, obsession with details, however, he was considered of mediocre intelligence and utterly lacking in a sense of humor, a dedicated if somewhat dull cadet. After his education at schools in Berlin and Wahlstatt, Hindenburg was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1866. He fought in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, during the Seven Weeks War of 1866, Hindenburg wrote his parents, I rejoice in this bright-colored future. For the soldier war is the state of things…If I fall, it is the most honorable
17.
Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
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A male-line grandson of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, he was also until 1919 a Prince of the United Kingdom and held the British title of Duke of Albany. The Duke was a figure in the United Kingdom due to his status as the Sovereign Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was deprived of his British peerages, his title of Prince and Royal Highness, in 1918, he was forced to abdicate his ducal throne. He later joined the Nazi Party, and served in a number of positions in Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s and he was the maternal grandfather of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and the younger brother of Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone. Prince Charles Edward was born at Claremont House near Esher, Surrey and his father was Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, the fourth son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. His mother was Princess Helena, Duchess of Albany, the daughter of George Victor of Waldeck and Pyrmont. As his father died before his birth, Prince Charles Edward succeeded to his titles at birth and was styled His Royal Highness The Duke of Albany. After falling ill, the young Duke was baptised privately at Claremont on 4 August 1884, Charles Edward was educated as a Prince of the United Kingdom for his first 15 years. Such was the interest Wilhelm showed in his young cousins upbringing that Charles Edward was dubbed the Emperors seventh son and his mother drummed into him endlessly the importance of becoming a good man, so you bring no shame on Papas name. In 1899 the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, urged by Kaiser Wilhelm II, decided on how to deal with the succession of Duke Alfred and his only son, Prince Alfred, had died in February 1899. The Duke of Connaught, the Queens third son, served in the British military and his son, Prince Arthur of Connaught attended Eton with Charles Edward. Wilhelm II demanded a German education for the boy, but this was unacceptable to the Duke of Connaught, thus young Arthur also renounced his claims to the Duchy. Next in line was sixteen-year-old Charles Edward, who now inherited the throne of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. With his mother and sister Charles Edward moved to Germany, following an education plan by Wilhelm II, he attended the Preußische Hauptkadettenanstalt at Lichterfelde, studied in Bonn and became a member of Corps Borussia Bonn. He also joined the 1st Garderegiment zu Fuß at Potsdam and spent some time at the German court in Berlin and his uncle, Edward VII, made him a Knight of the Garter on 15 July 1902, just prior to his 18th birthday. From 1900 to 1905 Charles Edward reigned through the regency of Ernst, Hereditary Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, the regent acted under the strict guidance of Emperor Wilhelm II. Upon coming of age on 19 July 1905, he assumed full constitutional powers and he proved loyal to the Emperor and was deemed a constitutionally-minded prince. He liberally supported the court theatres in both towns, taking an interest in Zeppelin and airplane technology, Charles Edward supported the newly created aircraft industry at Gotha
18.
Ernst-Robert Grawitz
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Ernst-Robert Grawitz was a German physician in Nazi Germany during World War II. He was born in Charlottenburg and died in Potsdam-Babelsberg, Grawitz was born in Charlottenburg, in the western part of Berlin, Germany. As Reichsarzt SS und Polizei, Grawitz was also head of the German Red Cross and his wife, Ilse, was the daughter of SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS Siegfried Taubert. He funded Nazi attempts to eradicate the world of the homosexual. This involved experimentation on inmates in Nazi concentration camps and he was in charge of enthusiastic experiments on concentration camp inmates. Researchers both in and outside the SS wanted to exploit the supply of inmates held in the SS camps, in order to do so, the interested parties had to apply to Grawitz, who forwarded requests to Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler who then gave final approval. Towards the end of World War II in Europe, Grawitz was a physician in Adolf Hitlers Führerbunker. When he heard that other officials were leaving Berlin in order to escape from advancing Soviet Red Army, Grawitz petitioned Hitler to allow him to leave Berlin, as the Soviet Army advanced on Berlin, Grawitz killed himself and his family with grenades at their house in Babelsberg. The event was depicted in the 2004 film Der Untergang, in which Grawitz was portrayed by Christian Hoening, Iron Cross 2nd Class 1st Class Spanish Cross Silver Iron Cross 2nd Class War Merit Cross 1st Class with swords
19.
Babelsberg
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Babelsberg is the largest district of Potsdam, the capital city of the German state of Brandenburg. A settlement on the small Nuthe creek was first mentioned in the 1375 Landbuch by Emperor Charles IV of Luxembourg, then called Neuendorf after its former West Slavic name Nova Ves, it was shelled several times and was severely damaged during the Thirty Years War. During the Industrial Revolution it developed into a centre of manufacturing and, at the premises of Orenstein & Koppel. For decades German Neuendorf and Bohemian Nowawes bordered on each other, Nowawes received town privileges in 1924. From about 1900 the mansion colony of Neubabelsberg arose east of Babelsberg Park on the shore of the Griebnitzsee lake. In 1938 Nowawes and Neubabelsberg merged and were incorporated into Potsdam one year later, during the 1945 Potsdam Conference the representatives of the victorious Allies Joseph Stalin, President Harry S. Truman and Prime Minister Winston Churchill resided in mansions of Neubabelsberg. At the Truman-Villa the President issued the Potsdam Declaration and gave orders for the bombings of Hiroshima. Today the building serves as the seat of the liberal Friedrich Naumann Foundation, the palace was largely extended according to plans by Friedrich Ludwig Persius and finished in 1849. Babelsberg remained a residence of Wilhelm after his accession to the Prussian and German throne and it was here, where after a private conversation on 23 September 1862 he appointed Otto von Bismarck Minister President of Prussia and refrained from abdicating. The neighbourhood shares a border with the Wannsee district of Berlin. Studio Babelsberg is widely known as a European media centre and the oldest large-scale film studio in the world and it is also one of the two seats of the public Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg broadcaster and home of the German Broadcasting Archive. Since 1990 Babelsberg Palace with the park laid out by Peter Joseph Lenné and Hermann von Pückler-Muskau is part of the UNESCO Palaces and Parks of Potsdam. One campus of the University of Potsdam as well as the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam are situated within the park, adjacent Neubabelsberg is the home of the Hasso Plattner Institute for software systems engineering. The local SV Babelsberg 03 football club is based at the Karl-Liebknecht-Stadion, FFC Turbine Potsdam womens football team. The German Industrial-Metal band Rammstein used Babelsberg castle to film their music video Du Riechst So Gut 98, jung, Karin Carmen, Die Böhmische Weberkolonie Nowawes 1751–1767 in Potsdam-Babelsberg. In, Die Mark Brandenburg, Heft 74, Marika Großer Verlag, culturcon / Märkische Oderzeitung,2011, ISBN 978-3-941092-77-8. Babelsberg Palace - official site Babelsberg on www. potsdam. de Babelsberg Palace Local tradesmen website
20.
Aftermath of World War II
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Western Europe and Japan were rebuilt through the American Marshall Plan whereas Eastern Europe fell in the Soviet sphere of influence and rejected the plan. Europe was divided into a US-led Western Bloc and a Soviet-led Eastern Bloc, internationally, alliances with the two blocs gradually shifted, with some nations trying to stay out of the Cold War through the Non-Aligned Movement. As a consequence of the war, the Allies created the United Nations, members of the United Nations agreed to outlaw wars of aggression in an attempt to avoid a third world war. The devastated great powers of Western Europe formed the European Coal and Steel Community and this effort primarily began as an attempt to avoid another war between Germany and France by economic cooperation and integration, and a common market for important natural resources. Also related to this was Israel gaining independence from its previous status as part of Mandatory Palestine in the immediately following the war. Independence for the nations of Sub-Saharan Africa came more slowly, the aftermath of World War II also saw the rise of the Peoples Republic of China, as the Chinese Communists emerged victorious from the Chinese Civil War in 1949. At the end of the war, millions of people were homeless, the European economy had collapsed, the Soviet Union, too, had been heavily affected. In response, in 1947, U. S. Secretary of State George Marshall devised the European Recovery Program, under the plan, during 1948–1952 the United States government allocated US$13 billion for the reconstruction of Western Europe. By the end of the war, the economy of the United Kingdom was exhausted, more than a quarter of its national wealth had been spent. Until the introduction in 1941 of Lend-Lease aid from the US, lend-lease came just before its reserves were exhausted. Britain put 55% of its labor force into war production. In spring 1945, the Labour Party withdrew from the coalition government. Following a landslide victory, Labour held more than 60% of the seats in the House of Commons, britains war debt was described by some in the American administration as a millstone round the neck of the British economy. Although there were suggestions for a conference to tackle the issue. The abrupt withdrawal of American Lend Lease support to Britain on 2 September 1945 dealt a blow to the plans of the new government. It was only with the completion of the Anglo-American loan by the United States to Great Britain on 15 July 1946 that some measure of stability was restored. Although the loan was agreed on terms, its conditions included what proved to be damaging fiscal conditions for Sterling. From 1946-1948, the UK introduced bread rationing which it never did during the war, the Soviet Union suffered enormous losses in the war against Germany
21.
Allied-occupied Germany
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The four powers divided Germany into four occupation zones for administrative purposes, into what is collectively known now as Allied-occupied Germany. This division was ratified at the Potsdam Conference, in Autumn 1944 the United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union had agreed on the zones by the London Protocol. The Final German Peace Treaty would result in the westward of Polands borders back to approximately as they were before 1722. In the closing weeks of fighting in Europe, United States forces had pushed beyond the boundaries for the future zones of occupation. The so-called line of contact between Soviet and American forces at the end of hostilities, mostly lying eastward of the July 1945-established inner German border was temporary. After two months in which they had areas that had been assigned to the Soviet zone. All territories annexed by Germany before the war from Austria and Czechoslovakia were returned to these countries, the Memel Territory, annexed by Germany from Lithuania before the war, was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1945 and transferred to the Lithuanian SSR. All territories annexed by Germany during the war from Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Poland, the American zone consisted of Bavaria and Hesse in Southern Germany, and the northern portions of the present-day German state of Baden-Württemberg. The ports of Bremen and Bremerhaven were also placed under American control because of the American request to have certain toeholds in Northern Germany, the headquarters of the American military government was the former IG Farben Building in Frankfurt am Main. Beginning in May 1945, many of the American combat troops and airmen in, Army, the Army Air Forces, and the U. S. Navy upon their return home. The Canadian Army was tied down in surrounding the Netherlands until the Germans there surrendered on 5 May 1945 – just two days before the surrender of the Wehrmacht in Western Europe to U. S. Then in July 1945, the British Army withdrew from small slices of Germany that had previously agreed to be occupied by the Soviet Army. Within the British Zone of Occupation, the CCG/BE re-established the German state of Hamburg, also in 1947, the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen became an exclave of the American Zone of Occupation located within the British Zone. In 1946, the Norwegian Brigade Group in Germany had 4,000 soldiers in Hanover, despite its being one of the Allied Powers, the French Republic was at first not granted an occupation zone in Germany. This created a French zone of occupation in the westernmost part of Germany and it consisted of two barely contiguous areas of Germany along the French border that met at just a single point along the Rhine River. It included the Saargebiet, which was disentangled from it on 16 February 1946, by 18 December 1946 customs controls were established between the Saar area and allied occupied Germany. The French zone ceded further adjacent municipalities to the Saar, included in the French zone was the town of Büsingen am Hochrhein, a German exclave separated from the rest of the country by a narrow strip of neutral Swiss territory. The Swiss government agreed to limited numbers of French troops to pass through its territory in order to maintain law
22.
Denazification
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Denazification was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of any remnants of the National Socialist ideology. The program of denazification was launched after the end of the Second World War and was solidified by the Potsdam Agreement. The term denazification was first coined as a term in 1943 in the Pentagon. Soon afterward, it took on the general meaning. The American government soon came to view the program as ineffective and counterproductive, additionally, the program was hugely unpopular in Germany and was opposed by the new West German government. Denazification in Germany was attempted through a series of directives issued by the Allied Control Council, seated in Berlin, Denazification directives identified specific people and groups and outlined judicial procedures and guidelines for handling them. Though all the forces had agreed on the initiative, the methods used for denazification. Denazification also refers to the removal of the symbols of the Nazi regime. For example, in 1957 the West German government re-issued World War II Iron Cross medals, among other decorations, about 8.5 million Germans, or 10% of the population, had been members of the Nazi Party. It was through the Party and these organizations that the Nazi state was run, in addition, Nazism found significant support among industrialists, who produced weapons or used slave labour, and large landowners, especially the Junkers in Prussia. Denazification after the surrender of Germany was thus an enormous undertaking, the first difficulty was the enormous number of Germans who might have to be first investigated, then penalized if found to have supported the Nazi state to an unacceptable degree. It soon became evident, further, that pursuing denazification too scrupulously would make it impossible to create a functioning, enforcing the strictest sanctions against lesser offenders would prevent too many talented people from participating in the reconstruction process. As time went on, another consideration that moderated the denazification effort in the West was the concern to keep enough good will of the German population to prevent the growth of communism. The U. S. sent 785 scientists and engineers from Germany to the United States, however, the legal foundations of the trials were questioned, and the German people were not convinced that the trials were anything more than victors justice. Many refugees from Nazism were Germans and Austrians, and some had fought for Britain in the Second World War, some were transferred into the Intelligence Corps and sent back to Germany and Austria in British uniform. However, German-speakers were small in number in the British zone, the Americans were able to bring a larger number of German-speakers to the task of working in the Allied Military Government, although many were poorly trained. They were assigned to all aspects of administration, the interrogation of POWs, collecting evidence for the War Crimes Investigation Unit. The Joint Chiefs of Staff Directive 1067 directed US Army General Dwight D. Eisenhowers policy of denazification, the United States military pursued denazification in a zealous, albeit bureaucratic, fashion, especially during the first months of the occupation
23.
Reconstruction of Germany
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The reconstruction of Germany after World War II was a long process. Germany had suffered losses during the war, both in lives and industrial power. 6.9 to 7.5 million Germans had been killed, the countrys cities were severely damaged from heavy bombing in the closing chapters of the War and agricultural production was only 35 percent of what it was before the war. At the Potsdam Conference, the victorious Allies ceded roughly 25 percent of Germanys pre-Anschluss territory to Poland, the German population in this area was moved away, together with the Germans of the Sudetenland and the German populations scattered throughout the rest of Eastern Europe. Between 0.5 and 2 million are said to have died in the process, as a result, the population density grew in the new Germany that remained after the dismemberment. As agreed at Potsdam, an attempt was made to convert Germany into a pastoral and agricultural nation, many factories were dismantled as reparations or were simply destroyed. Millions of German prisoners of war were for years used as forced labor. As soon as 1945, the Allied forces worked heavily on removing Nazi influence from Germany in a process dubbed as denazification. With the repudiation of the U. S. occupation directive JCS1067 in July 1947, in 1948, the Deutsche Mark replaced the occupation currency as the currency of the Western occupation zones, leading to their eventual economic recovery. In 1947, the Marshall Plan, initially known as the European Recovery Program was initiated, in the years 1947–1952, some $13 billion of economic and technical assistance—-equivalent to around $130 billion in 2006—were allocated to Western Europe. Despite protests from many beneficiaries, the Marshall Plan, although in the less generous form of loans, was in 1949 extended to include the newly formed West Germany. In the years 1949–1952, West Germany received loans which totaled $1.45 billion, by 1950, the UK and France were finally induced to follow the U. S. lead, and stop the dismantling of German heavy industry. The countrys economic recovery under the newly formed government was, once it was permitted, swift. During the mid-1950s, the unemployment rate in Germany was so low that it led to the influx of Turkish immigrants into the labor force. Germanys economy continued to improve until the 1973 oil crisis, in 1946, the US Secretary of State made the speech Restatement of Policy on Germany, repudiating the Morgenthau Plan policies. In 1947, the JCS1067 was rescinded, in 1948, the Deutsche Mark replaced the almost worthless Reichsmark in the Allied western occupation zones initiating the start of economic recovery in western Germany. In 1949, West Germany is formed from the Western occupation zones, in 1949, the Marshall Plan is extended to include West Germany. In 1950, the dismantling of West German heavy industry ends, in 1955, the military occupation of West Germany ends
24.
West Germany
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West Germany is the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation on 23 May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990. During this Cold War era, NATO-aligned West Germany and Warsaw Pact-aligned East Germany were divided by the Inner German border, after 1961 West Berlin was physically separated from East Berlin as well as from East Germany by the Berlin Wall. This situation ended when East Germany was dissolved and its five states joined the ten states of the Federal Republic of Germany along with the reunified city-state of Berlin. With the reunification of West and East Germany, the Federal Republic of Germany, enlarged now to sixteen states and this period is referred to as the Bonn Republic by historians, alluding to the interwar Weimar Republic and the post-reunification Berlin Republic. The Federal Republic of Germany was established from eleven states formed in the three Allied Zones of occupation held by the United States, the United Kingdom and France, US and British forces remained in the country throughout the Cold War. Its population grew from roughly 51 million in 1950 to more than 63 million in 1990, the city of Bonn was its de facto capital city. The fourth Allied occupation zone was held by the Soviet Union, as a result, West Germany had a territory about half the size of the interbellum democratic Weimar Republic. At the onset of the Cold War, Europe was divided among the Western and Eastern blocs, Germany was de facto divided into two countries and two special territories, the Saarland and divided Berlin. The Federal Republic of Germany claimed a mandate for all of Germany. It took the line that the GDR was an illegally constituted puppet state, though the GDR did hold regular elections, these were not free and fair. For all practical purposes the GDR was a Soviet puppet state, from the West German perspective the GDR was therefore illegitimate. Three southwestern states of West Germany merged to form Baden-Württemberg in 1952, in addition to the resulting ten states, West Berlin was considered an unofficial de facto 11th state. It recognised the GDR as a de facto government within a single German nation that in turn was represented de jure by the West German state alone. From 1973 onward, East Germany recognised the existence of two German countries de jure, and the West as both de facto and de jure foreign country, the Federal Republic and the GDR agreed that neither of them could speak in the name of the other. The first chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who remained in office until 1963, had worked for an alignment with NATO rather than neutrality. He not only secured a membership in NATO but was also a proponent of agreements that developed into the present-day European Union, when the G6 was established in 1975, there was no question whether the Federal Republic of Germany would be a member as well. With the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989, symbolised by the opening of the Berlin Wall, East Germany voted to dissolve itself and accede to the Federal Republic in 1990. Its five post-war states were reconstituted along with the reunited Berlin and they formally joined the Federal Republic on 3 October 1990, raising the number of states from 10 to 16, ending the division of Germany
25.
East Germany
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East Germany, formally the German Democratic Republic, was an Eastern Bloc state during the Cold War period. The Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin, but did not include it, as a result, the German Democratic Republic was established in the Soviet Zone, while the Federal Republic was established in the three western zones. East Germany, which lies culturally in Central Germany, was a state of the Soviet Union. Soviet occupation authorities began transferring administrative responsibility to German communist leaders in 1948, Soviet forces, however, remained in the country throughout the Cold War. Until 1989, the GDR was governed by the Socialist Unity Party, though other parties participated in its alliance organisation. The economy was centrally planned, and increasingly state-owned, prices of basic goods and services were set by central government planners, rather than rising and falling through supply and demand. Although the GDR had to pay war reparations to the USSR. Nonetheless it did not match the growth of West Germany. Emigration to the West was a significant problem—as many of the emigrants were well-educated young people, the government fortified its western borders and, in 1961, built the Berlin Wall. Many people attempting to flee were killed by guards or booby traps. In 1989, numerous social and political forces in the GDR and abroad led to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the following year open elections were held, and international negotiations led to the signing of the Final Settlement treaty on the status and borders of Germany. The GDR was dissolved and Germany was unified on 3 October 1990, internally, the GDR also bordered the Soviet sector of Allied-occupied Berlin known as East Berlin which was also administered as the states de facto capital. It also bordered the three sectors occupied by the United States, United Kingdom and France known collectively as West Berlin. The three sectors occupied by the Western nations were sealed off from the rest of the GDR by the Berlin Wall from its construction in 1961 until it was brought down in 1989, the official name was Deutsche Demokratische Republik, usually abbreviated to DDR. West Germans, the media and statesmen purposely avoided the official name and its abbreviation, instead using terms like Ostzone, Sowjetische Besatzungszone. The centre of power in East Berlin was referred to as Pankow. Over time, however, the abbreviation DDR was also used colloquially by West Germans. However, this use was not always consistent, for example, before World War II, Ostdeutschland was used to describe all the territories east of the Elbe, as reflected in the works of sociologist Max Weber and political theorist Carl Schmitt
26.
Albert Schweitzer
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Albert Schweitzer, OM was a French-German theologian, organist, philosopher, and physician. Schweitzer, a Lutheran, challenged both the view of Jesus as depicted by historical-critical methodology current at this time, as well as the traditional Christian view. His contributions to the interpretation of Pauline Christianity concern the role of Pauls mysticism of “being in Christ” as primary, as a music scholar and organist, he studied the music of German composer Johann Sebastian Bach and influenced the Organ Reform Movement. Schweitzer was born in Kaysersberg, the son of Ludwig Schweitzer and he spent his childhood in the Alsatian village of Gunsbach, where his father, the local Lutheran-Evangelical pastor of the EPCAAL, taught him how to play music. The tiny village is home to the Association Internationale Albert Schweitzer, the medieval parish church of Gunsbach was shared by the Protestant and Catholic congregations, which held their prayers in different areas at different times on Sundays. This compromise arose after the Protestant Reformation and the Thirty Years War, Schweitzer, the pastors son, grew up in this exceptional environment of religious tolerance, and developed the belief that true Christianity should always work towards a unity of Faith and Purpose. Schweitzers first language was the Alsatian dialect of German, at the Mulhouse Gymnasium he received his Abitur in 1893. In 1893 he played for the French organist Charles-Marie Widor, for whom Johann Sebastian Bachs organ-music contained a mystic sense of the eternal, Widor, deeply impressed, agreed to teach Schweitzer without fee, and a great and influential friendship thus began. From 1893 Schweitzer studied Protestant theology at the Kaiser Wilhelm University in Strasbourg. S, Schweitzer served his one-year compulsory military service in 1894. Schweitzer saw many operas of Richard Wagner in Strasbourg and in 1896 he managed to afford a visit to the Bayreuth to see Wagners Der Ring des Nibelungen and Parsifal which deeply impressed him. In 1898 he went back to Paris to write a PhD dissertation on The Religious Philosophy of Kant at the Sorbonne, here he often met with the elderly Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. He also studied piano at that time with Marie Jaëll and he completed his theology degree in 1899 and published his PhD thesis at the University of Tübingen in 1899. Schweitzer rapidly gained prominence as a scholar and organist, dedicated also to the rescue, restoration. With theological insight, he interpreted the use of pictorial and symbolical representation in J. S. Bachs religious music and they were works of devotional contemplation in which the musical design corresponded to literary ideas, conceived visually. Widor had not grown up with knowledge of the old Lutheran hymns. The exposition of ideas, encouraged by Widor and Munch, became Schweitzers last task. There was great demand for a German edition, but, instead of translating it, the result was two volumes, which were published in 1908 and translated into English by Ernest Newman in 1911. Schweitzers interpretative approach greatly influenced the understanding of Bachs music
27.
Botho Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein
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Botho Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein was a German politician. He was a member of the Christian Democratic Union and represented the party in the Bundestag from 1965 to 1980 and he first gained a direct mandate as representative of Siegen-Wittgenstein and subsequently was elected from the land list. He served as president of the German Red Cross between 1982 and 1994, welt Online, Botho Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein obituary 28 January 2008
28.
Rudolf Seiters
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Rudolf Seiters is a German politician of the CDU party. From 1989-1991, he was Federal Minister for Special Affairs and the Head of the Office of the German Chancellery, from 1991-1993, he was the Minister of the Interior. From 1998-2002, he was the Vice President of the German Bundestag, since 2003, he has been the President of the German Red Cross. From 1968-69, he was an assistant in the office of the Osnabrück Department of the Economy. Since November 2003, he has been the President of the German Red Cross and he is married with three daughters and lives in Papenburg. In 2000, he was given a doctorate from the Bundeswehr University Munich. Since 1958, he has been a member of the CDU, from 1963 till 1965, he was the Borough-president of the Osnabrück-Emsland chapter of the CDU youth organization Junge Union. Then, from 1965–1968, he was the president of the chapter in Hannover. From 1967-1971, he was furthermore a member of the Federal Executive Board of the Junge Union, from 1972-1998, he was deputy secretary of the CDU in Lower Saxony and from 1992-1998 also a member of the CDU National Executive Committee. From 1969-2002, Seiters was a member of the German Parliament, there, he served from 1971–1976 and from 1982-1984 as an Executive Officer of the CDU/CSU parliamentary fraction and from 1984-1989 he was the party fractions Head Executive Officer. After the 1994 elections, he became the deputy Chair of the fraction, in 1989, thousands of East Germans took refuge the Prague embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany. Rudolf Seiters successfully negotiated with the East German government the passage of the refugees to the Federal Republic of Germany. Seiters was named on 21 April 1989 as the Federal Minister for Special Affairs, then, on 26 November 1991, he was appointed the Minister of the Interior. Seiters took responsibility for the raid and stepped down on 4 July 1993, Seiters was a member of the Cabinet Kohl III and the Cabinet Kohl IV. In 2008 Dr. Seiters received the Dr. Rainer Hildebrandt Human Rights Award endowed by Alexandra Hildebrandt, the award is given annually in recognition of extraordinary, non-violent commitment to human rights. Photo and short biography in German
29.
Gerda Hasselfeldt
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Gerda Hasselfeldt is a Bavarian politician. She currently serves as deputy chairperson of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, from 1991, Hasselfeldt served as Federal Minister for Health. She announced her resignation on April 27,1992, saying the arrest of her close aide Reinhard Hoppe for allegedly spying for Poland had damaged her health and she was succeeded by Horst Seehofer. Hasselfeldt was financial policy spokeswoman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group for seven years, in 2002 she became the first deputy chairwoman of the parliamentary group. During the 2005 election campaign, she took charge of agriculture, consumer protection, after the federal elections in 2005 and 2009, Hasselfeldt was elected Vice President of the German Bundestag. She held this office until she was elected to the head of the Bundestag group of CSU parliamentarians in 2011 and she has since led the group with her co-chair from the CDU, Volker Kauder. Hasselfeldt also serves on the Committee on the Election of Judges, in April 2016, Hasselfeldt announced that she would not stand in the 2017 federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term. In a 2012 letter to Amazon, just 12 miles from the Bavarian capital Munich, Dachau lies within Hasselfeldts constituency. In 2014, Hasselfeldt publicly rejected complaints against her party over its slogan those who commit fraud will be out - a claim that migrant workers could exploit social welfare. In 2011, she demanded that Italy must do more to financial markets of its creditworthiness after a rating downgrade by Standard & Poors. Criticizing Herman Van Rompuys 2012 road map for a fiscal policy, Hasselfeldt rejected proposals for a eurozone fiscal capacity. In 2016, Hasselfeldt warned that Britain should not expect to have preferential treatment in case of a Brexit, saying to me, it is clear, citizens have to know that with this decision there will be no special treatment for Britain
30.
International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
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The movements parts are, The International Committee of the Red Cross is a private humanitarian institution founded in 1863 in Geneva, Switzerland, by Henry Dunant and Gustave Moynier. Its 25-member committee has a unique authority under international law to protect the life. The ICRC was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on three occasions, on an international level, the Federation leads and organizes, in close cooperation with the National Societies, relief assistance missions responding to large-scale emergencies. The International Federation Secretariat is based in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1963, the Federation was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with the ICRC. National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies exist in every country in the world. Currently 190 National Societies are recognized by the ICRC and admitted as members of the Federation. Each entity works in its home country according to the principles of humanitarian law. In many countries, they are linked to the respective national health care system by providing emergency medical services. When he arrived in the town of Solferino on the evening of June 24, he toured the field of the Battle of Solferino. In a single day, about 40,000 soldiers on both sides died or were wounded on the field. Jean-Henri Dunant was shocked by the aftermath of the battle, the suffering of the wounded soldiers. He completely abandoned the original intent of his trip and for days he devoted himself to helping with the treatment. He succeeded in organizing an overwhelming level of assistance by motivating the local villagers to aid without discrimination. Back in his home in Geneva, he decided to write a book entitled A Memory of Solferino which he published using his own money in 1862. He sent copies of the book to leading political and military figures throughout Europe, in addition, he called for the development of international treaties to guarantee the protection of neutral medics and field hospitals for soldiers wounded on the battlefield. In 1863, Gustave Moynier, a Geneva lawyer and president of the Geneva Society for Public Welfare, received a copy of Dunants book, eight days later, the five men decided to rename the committee to the International Committee for Relief to the Wounded. In October 1863, the conference organized by the committee was held in Geneva to develop possible measures to improve medical services on the battlefield. Only one year later, the Swiss government invited the governments of all European countries, as well as the United States, Brazil, sixteen countries sent a total of twenty-six delegates to Geneva
31.
Afghanistan
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Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located within South Asia and Central Asia. It has a population of approximately 32 million, making it the 42nd most populous country in the world. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan in the north and its territory covers 652,000 km2, making it the 41st largest country in the world. The land also served as the source from which the Kushans, Hephthalites, Samanids, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Khiljis, Mughals, Hotaks, Durranis, the political history of the modern state of Afghanistan began with the Hotak and Durrani dynasties in the 18th century. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan became a state in the Great Game between British India and the Russian Empire. Following the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, King Amanullah unsuccessfully attempted to modernize the country and it remained peaceful during Zahir Shahs forty years of monarchy. A series of coups in the 1970s was followed by a series of wars that devastated much of Afghanistan. The name Afghānistān is believed to be as old as the ethnonym Afghan, the root name Afghan was used historically in reference to a member of the ethnic Pashtuns, and the suffix -stan means place of in Persian. Therefore, Afghanistan translates to land of the Afghans or, more specifically in a historical sense, however, the modern Constitution of Afghanistan states that he word Afghan shall apply to every citizen of Afghanistan. An important site of historical activities, many believe that Afghanistan compares to Egypt in terms of the historical value of its archaeological sites. The country sits at a unique nexus point where numerous civilizations have interacted and it has been home to various peoples through the ages, among them the ancient Iranian peoples who established the dominant role of Indo-Iranian languages in the region. At multiple points, the land has been incorporated within large regional empires, among them the Achaemenid Empire, the Macedonian Empire, the Indian Maurya Empire, and the Islamic Empire. Archaeological exploration done in the 20th century suggests that the area of Afghanistan has been closely connected by culture and trade with its neighbors to the east, west. Artifacts typical of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, urban civilization is believed to have begun as early as 3000 BCE, and the early city of Mundigak may have been a colony of the nearby Indus Valley Civilization. More recent findings established that the Indus Valley Civilisation stretched up towards modern-day Afghanistan, making the ancient civilisation today part of Pakistan, Afghanistan, in more detail, it extended from what today is northwest Pakistan to northwest India and northeast Afghanistan. An Indus Valley site has found on the Oxus River at Shortugai in northern Afghanistan. There are several smaller IVC colonies to be found in Afghanistan as well, after 2000 BCE, successive waves of semi-nomadic people from Central Asia began moving south into Afghanistan, among them were many Indo-European-speaking Indo-Iranians. These tribes later migrated further into South Asia, Western Asia, the region at the time was referred to as Ariana
32.
Albania
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Albania, officially the Republic of Albania, is a country in Southeastern Europe. It has a population of 3.03 million as of 2016, Tirana is the nations capital and largest city, followed by Durrës and Vlorë. The country has a coastline on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, the Adriatic Sea to the west. Albania is less than 72 km from Italy, across the Strait of Otranto which connects the Adriatic Sea to the Ionian Sea. In antiquity, the area of Albania was home to several Illyrian, Thracian. After the Illyrian Wars, it part of the Roman provinces of Dalmatia, Macedonia and Moesia Superior. In 1190, the first Albanian state, the Principality of Arbanon was established by archon Progon in the region of Krujë, the territory of Albania was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century, of which it remained part of for the next five centuries. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in Europe, following the Balkan Wars, the Kingdom of Albania was invaded by Italy in 1939, which formed Greater Albania, before becoming a Nazi German protectorate in 1943. The following year, a socialist Peoples Republic was established under the leadership of Enver Hoxha, Albania experienced widespread social and political transformations in the communist era, as well as isolation from much of the international community. In 1991, the Socialist Republic was dissolved and the Republic of Albania was established, Albania is a democratic and developing country with an upper-middle income economy. The service sector dominates the economy, followed by the industrial. After the fall of communism in Albania, Free-market reforms have opened the country to foreign investment, especially in the development of energy, Albania has a high HDI and provides universal health care system and free primary and secondary education to its citizens. Albania is a member of the United Nations, NATO, WTO, World Bank, the Council of Europe, the OSCE and it is also an official candidate for membership in the European Union. Albania is one of the members of the Energy Community, Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation. It is home to the largest lake in Southern Europe and one of the oldest lakes in Europe, Albania is the Medieval Latin name of the country. The name may have a continuation in the name of a settlement called Albanon and Arbanon. During the Middle Ages, the Albanians called their country Arbëri or Arbëni, Albanians today call their country Shqipëri. As early as the 17th century the placename Shqipëria and the ethnic demonym Shqiptarë gradually replaced Arbëria, the two terms are popularly interpreted as Land of the Eagles and Children of the Eagles
33.
Algeria
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Algeria, officially the Peoples Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a sovereign state in North Africa on the Mediterranean coast. Its capital and most populous city is Algiers, located in the far north. With an area of 2,381,741 square kilometres, Algeria is the tenth-largest country in the world, the country is a semi-presidential republic consisting of 48 provinces and 1,541 communes. Abdelaziz Bouteflika has been President since 1999, Berbers are the indigenous inhabitants of Algeria. Algeria is a regional and middle power, the North African country supplies large amounts of natural gas to Europe, and energy exports are the backbone of the economy. According to OPEC Algeria has the 16th largest oil reserves in the world, Sonatrach, the national oil company, is the largest company in Africa. Algeria has one of the largest militaries in Africa and the largest defence budget on the continent, most of Algerias weapons are imported from Russia, with whom they are a close ally. Algeria is a member of the African Union, the Arab League, OPEC, the countrys name derives from the city of Algiers. The citys name in turn derives from the Arabic al-Jazāir, a form of the older Jazāir Banī Mazghanna. In the region of Ain Hanech, early remnants of hominid occupation in North Africa were found, neanderthal tool makers produced hand axes in the Levalloisian and Mousterian styles similar to those in the Levant. Algeria was the site of the highest state of development of Middle Paleolithic Flake tool techniques, tools of this era, starting about 30,000 BC, are called Aterian. The earliest blade industries in North Africa are called Iberomaurusian and this industry appears to have spread throughout the coastal regions of the Maghreb between 15,000 and 10,000 BC. Neolithic civilization developed in the Saharan and Mediterranean Maghreb perhaps as early as 11,000 BC or as late as between 6000 and 2000 BC and this life, richly depicted in the Tassili nAjjer paintings, predominated in Algeria until the classical period. The amalgam of peoples of North Africa coalesced eventually into a native population that came to be called Berbers. These settlements served as market towns as well as anchorages, as Carthaginian power grew, its impact on the indigenous population increased dramatically. Berber civilization was already at a stage in which agriculture, manufacturing, trade, by the early 4th century BC, Berbers formed the single largest element of the Carthaginian army. In the Revolt of the Mercenaries, Berber soldiers rebelled from 241 to 238 BC after being unpaid following the defeat of Carthage in the First Punic War. They succeeded in obtaining control of much of Carthages North African territory, the Carthaginian state declined because of successive defeats by the Romans in the Punic Wars
34.
Andorra
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Created under a charter in 988, the present principality was formed in 1278. It is known as a principality as it is a monarchy headed by two Co-Princes – the Roman Catholic Bishop of Urgell in Spain, and the President of France. Andorra is the sixth-smallest nation in Europe, having an area of 468 km2 and its capital Andorra la Vella is the highest capital city in Europe, at an elevation of 1,023 metres above sea level. The official language is Catalan, although Spanish, Portuguese, Andorras tourism services an estimated 10.2 million visitors annually. It is not a member of the European Union, but the euro is the official currency and it has been a member of the United Nations since 1993. In 2013, the people of Andorra had the highest life expectancy in the world at 81 years, the origin of the word Andorra is unknown, although several hypotheses have been formulated. The word Andosini or Andosins may derive from the Basque handia whose meaning is big or giant, the Andorran toponymy shows evidence of Basque language in the area. Another theory suggests that the word Andorra may derive from the old word Anorra that contains the Basque word ur, another theory suggests that Andorra may derive from Arabic al-durra, meaning The forest. Other theories suggest that the term derives from the Navarro-Aragonese andurrial, la Balma de la Margineda found by archaeologists at Sant Julia de Loria were the first temporal settled in 10000 BC as a passing place between the two sides of the Pyrenees. The seasonal camp was located for hunting and fishing by the groups of hunter-gatherers from Ariege. During the Neolithic Age the group of humans moved to the Valley of Madriu as a permanent camp in 6640 BC, the population of the valley grew cereals, raised domestic livestock and developed a commercial trade with people from the Segre and Occitania. Other archaeological deposits include the Tombs of Segudet and Feixa del Moro both dated in 4900-4300 BC as an example of the Urn culture in Andorra, the model of small settlements begin to evolved as an complex urbanism during the Bronze Age. We can found metallurgical items of iron, ancient coins and relicaries in the ancient sanctuaries scattered around the country, the inhabitants of the valleys were traditionally associated with the Iberians and historically located in Andorra as the Iberian tribe Andosins or Andosini during the VII and II centuries BC. Influenced by Aquitanias, Basque and Iberian languages the locals developed some current toponyms, early writings and documents relating this group of people goes back to the second century BC by the Greek writer Polybius in his Histories during the Punic Wars. Some of the most significant remains of this era are the Castle of the Roc dEnclar, lAnxiu in Les Escaldes and it is known the presence of Roman influence from the II century BC to the V century AD. The places found with more Roman presence are in Camp Vermell in Sant Julia de Loria, people continued trading, mainly with wine and cereals, with the Roman cities of Urgellet and all across Segre through the Via Romana Strata Ceretana. After the fall of the Roman Empire Andorra was under the influence of the Visigoths, not directly from the Kingdom of Toledo by distance, the Visigoths remained during 200 years in the valleys, a period in which Christianization takes place within the country. The fall of the Visigoths came from the Muslim Empire and its conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, Andorra remained away from these invasions by the Franks
35.
Angola
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Angola /æŋˈɡoʊlə/, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country in Southern Africa. It is the seventh-largest country in Africa and is bordered by Namibia to the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Zambia to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to west. The exclave province of Cabinda has borders with the Republic of the Congo, the capital and largest city of Angola is Luanda. In the 19th century, European settlers slowly and hesitantly began to themselves in the interior. As a Portuguese colony, Angola did not encompass its present borders until the early 20th century, following resistance by groups such as the Cuamato, the Kwanyama and the Mbunda. Independence was achieved in 1975 under a communist one-party state backed by the Soviet Union, however, the country soon descended into an even lengthier civil war that lasted until 2002. It has since become a relatively stable presidential republic. Angola has vast mineral and petroleum reserves, and its economy is among the fastest growing in the world, Angolas economic growth is highly uneven, with the majority of the nations wealth concentrated in a disproportionately small sector of the population. Angola is a state of the United Nations, OPEC, African Union, the Community of Portuguese Language Countries, the Latin Union. A highly multiethnic country, Angolas 25.8 million people span various tribal groups, customs, Angolan culture reflects centuries of Portuguese rule, namely in the predominance of the Portuguese language and the Catholic Church, combined with diverse indigenous influences. The name Angola comes from the Portuguese colonial name Reino de Angola, the toponym was derived by the Portuguese from the title ngola held by the kings of Ndongo. Ndongo was a kingdom in the highlands, between the Kwanza and Lukala Rivers, nominally tributary to the king of Kongo but which was seeking greater independence during the 16th century, modern Angola was populated predominantly by nomadic Khoi and San prior to the first Bantu migrations. The Khoi and San peoples were neither pastoralists nor cultivators, following a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and they were displaced by Bantu peoples arriving from the north, some of whom likely originated in northwestern Nigeria. Bantu speakers introduced the cultivation of bananas and taro, as well as large herds, to Angolas central highlands. During this time, the Bantu established a number of entities in most of what today comprises Angola. To its south lay the Kingdom of Ndongo, from which the area of the later Portuguese colony was known as Dongo. The region now known as Angola was reached by the Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão in 1484, the year before, the Portuguese had established relations with the Kongo, which stretched at the time from modern Gabon in the north to the Kwanza River in the south. The Portuguese established their primary trading post at Soyo, which is now the northernmost city in Angola apart from the Cabinda exclave
36.
Antigua and Barbuda
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Antigua and Barbuda is a twin-island country in the Americas, lying between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It consists of two inhabited islands, Antigua and Barbuda, and a number of smaller islands. The permanent population numbers about 81,800 and the capital and largest port and city is St. Johns, on Antigua. Separated by a few miles, Antigua and Barbuda are in the middle of the Leeward Islands, part of the Lesser Antilles. The countrys name was given by Christopher Columbus in 1493 after discovering the island, the country is nicknamed Land of 365 Beaches due to the many beaches surrounding the islands. Its governance, language, and culture have all been influenced by the British Empire. Antigua is Spanish for ancient and Barbuda is Spanish for bearded, the island of Antigua, originally called Waladli by Arawaks, is today called Wadadli by locals. Christopher Columbus, while sailing by in 1493 may have named it Santa Maria la Antigua, Antigua was first settled by archaic age hunter-gatherer Amerindians called the Siboney or Ciboney. Carbon dating has established the earliest settlements started around 3100 BC and they were succeeded by the ceramic age pre-Columbian Arawak-speaking Saladoid people who migrated from the lower Orinoco River. The Arawaks introduced agriculture, raising, among crops, the famous Antigua black pineapple, corn, sweet potatoes, chiles, guava, tobacco. The indigenous West Indians made excellent seagoing vessels which used to sail around on the Atlantic. As a result, Caribs and Arawaks were able to much of South America. Their descendants still live there, notably in Brazil, Venezuela, most Arawaks left Antigua around 1100 AD, those who remained were later raided by the Caribs. The Catholic Encyclopedia makes it clear that the European invaders had difficulty differentiating between the groups of the native peoples they encountered. As a result, the number and types of groups in existence at that time may have been much more varied. European and African diseases, malnutrition, and slavery eventually killed most of the Caribbeans native population, smallpox was probably the greatest killer. Some historians believe that the stress of slavery may also have played a part in the massive number of deaths amongst enslaved natives. Others believe the reportedly abundant but starchy, low-protein diet may have contributed to their severe malnutrition as they were used to a diet fortified with protein from the sea, the Spaniards did not colonise Antigua because it lacked fresh water but not aggressive Caribs
