1.
H. R. Giger
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Hans Rudolf H. R. Giger was a Swiss surrealist painter, whose style was adapted for many forms of media, including record albums, furniture and tattoos. The Zurich-based artist was best known for images of humans. Later he abandoned airbrush work for pastels, markers, and ink and he was part of the special effects team that won an Academy Award for design work on the film Alien. In Switzerland there are two bars that reflect his interior designs, and his work is on permanent display at the H. R. Giger Museum at Gruyères. Giger was born in 1940 in Chur, capital city of Graubünden and his father, a pharmacist, viewed art as a breadless profession and strongly encouraged him to enter pharmacy, Giger recalled. He moved to Zürich in 1962, where he studied architecture, Gigers first success was when H. H. Kunz, co-owner of Switzerlands first poster publishing company, printed and distributed Gigers first posters, beginning in 1969. Gigers style and thematic execution were influential and he was part of the special effects team that won an Academy Award for Best Achievement in Visual Effects for their design work on the film Alien. His design for the Alien was inspired by his painting Necronom IV and his books of paintings, particularly Necronomicon and Necronomicon II and the frequent appearance of his art in Omni magazine continued his rise to international prominence. Giger was admitted to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2013 and he is also well known for artwork on several music recording albums including Brain Salad Surgery of Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Deborah Harrys KooKoo. In 1998 Giger acquired the Château St. Germain in Gruyères, Switzerland, and it now houses the H. R. Giger Museum, Giger had a relationship with Swiss actress Li Tobler until she committed suicide in 1975. Lis image appears in many of his paintings and he married Mia Bonzanigo in 1979, they divorced a year and a half later. The artist lived and worked in Zürich with his wife, Carmen Maria Scheifele Giger. On 12 May 2014, Giger died in a hospital in Zürich after having suffered injuries in a fall, in addition to his awards, Giger was recognized by a variety of festivals and institutions. On the one year anniversary of his death, the Museum of Arts, dark Star, H. R. Gigers World, a biographical documentary by Belinda Sallin, debuted 27 September 2014 in Zurich, Switzerland. Giger started with small ink drawings before progressing to oil paintings, for most of his career, Giger had worked predominantly in airbrush, creating monochromatic canvasses depicting surreal, nightmarish dreamscapes. However, he largely abandoned large airbrush works in favor of works with pastels. Gigers most distinctive stylistic innovation was that of a representation of human bodies and machines in a cold, interconnected relationship and his main influences were painters Dado, Ernst Fuchs and Salvador Dalí. He met Salvador Dalí, to whom he was introduced by painter Robert Venosa, Giger was also influenced by the work of the sculptor Stanislas Szukalski, and by the painters Austin Osman Spare and Mati Klarwein
2.
Palatinate (region)
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The Palatinate, historically also Rhenish Palatinate, is a region in southwestern Germany. It occupies more than a quarter of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate, in the west, the Palatinate borders on Saarland, historically also comprising the states Saarpfalz District. In the northwest, the Hunsrück mountain range forms the border with the Rhineland region, in the south, the German-French border separates the Palatinate from Alsace. One-third of the region is covered by the Palatinate Forest, including the Palatinate Forest Nature Park popular with hikers and it is Germanys largest contiguous forested area with about 1,771 km2 and is part of the Franco-German Palatinate Forest-North Vosges Biosphere Reserve. The western and northern part of the Palatinate is densely forested and its highest mountain is the Donnersberg with a height of 687 m, situated in the North Palatine Uplands near Kirchheimbolanden. Most of the major Palatinate towns lie in the eastern part of the Upper Rhine Plain down to the River Rhine. Here the German Wine Route passes through the renowned Palatinate wine region, major rivers include the Upper Rhine tributaries Lauter, Queich and Speyerbach, as well as Schwarzbach and Glan in the west. Historically the Electoral Palatinate and several territories were part of the Palatinate. The Palatinate is divided into four non-administrative sub-regions, comprising the rural districts and independent towns and cities, North Palatinate. Like most of Europe, the Palatinate is part of the climate zone influenced by the Atlantic. Wet air from the westerly and southwesterly winds leads to precipitation in the Mittelgebirge ranges. Here the clemency of the weather permits the cultivating of almond and fig trees, stone pines, Mediterranean Cypress, palms, the lower hilly regions are known for their extended chestnut forests, sometimes referred to as German Tuscany in tourist advertising. Formerly a Celtic region, this area was conquered by the Roman Empire under Emperor Augustus in about 12 BCE, during the decay of the Empire, Alamanni tribes settled here, their territory was conquered by Francia under King Clovis I about 496. From 511 onwards the area belonged to the part of Frankish Austrasia. From the Middle Ages until 1792, the Palatinate was divided into 45 secular and ecclesiastical territories, the largest and most important of these was the Electorate of the Palatinate, a number of territories on both sides of the Rhine formerly held by the Counts palatine of Lotharingia. In 1214 the Bavarian House of Wittelsbach was enfeoffed with these estates and they lost control with the reunification with Bavaria under Elector Charles Theodore in 1777. The major ecclesiastical territory in the region was the Bishopric of Speyer, the Imperial city of Landau joined the Alsacien Décapole in 1521 to preserve its status. Nevertheless, it was seized by France after the Thirty Years War, other larger regional entities included the Duchy of Zweibrücken and the Prince-Bishopric of Speyer
3.
German Empire
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The German Empire was the historical German nation state that existed from the unification of Germany in 1871 to the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1918, when Germany became a federal republic. The German Empire consisted of 26 constituent territories, with most being ruled by royal families and this included four kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies, seven principalities, three free Hanseatic cities, and one imperial territory. Although Prussia became one of kingdoms in the new realm, it contained most of its population and territory. Its influence also helped define modern German culture, after 1850, the states of Germany had rapidly become industrialized, with particular strengths in coal, iron, chemicals, and railways. In 1871, it had a population of 41 million people, and by 1913, a heavily rural collection of states in 1815, now united Germany became predominantly urban. During its 47 years of existence, the German Empire operated as an industrial, technological, Germany became a great power, boasting a rapidly growing rail network, the worlds strongest army, and a fast-growing industrial base. In less than a decade, its navy became second only to Britains Royal Navy, after the removal of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck by Wilhelm II, the Empire embarked on a bellicose new course that ultimately led to World War I. When the great crisis of 1914 arrived, the German Empire had two allies, Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy, however, left the once the First World War started in August 1914. In the First World War, German plans to capture Paris quickly in autumn 1914 failed, the Allied naval blockade caused severe shortages of food. Germany was repeatedly forced to send troops to bolster Austria and Turkey on other fronts, however, Germany had great success on the Eastern Front, it occupied large Eastern territories following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. German declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917 was designed to strangle the British, it failed, but the declaration—along with the Zimmermann Telegram—did bring the United States into the war. Meanwhile, German civilians and soldiers had become war-weary and radicalised by the Russian Revolution and this failed, and by October the armies were in retreat, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire had collapsed, Bulgaria had surrendered and the German people had lost faith in their political system. The Empire collapsed in the November 1918 Revolution as the Emperor and all the ruling monarchs abdicated, and a republic took over. The German Confederation had been created by an act of the Congress of Vienna on 8 June 1815 as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, German nationalism rapidly shifted from its liberal and democratic character in 1848, called Pan-Germanism, to Prussian prime minister Otto von Bismarcks pragmatic Realpolitik. He envisioned a conservative, Prussian-dominated Germany, the war resulted in the Confederation being partially replaced by a North German Confederation in 1867, comprising the 22 states north of the Main. The new constitution and the title Emperor came into effect on 1 January 1871, during the Siege of Paris on 18 January 1871, William accepted to be proclaimed Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. The second German Constitution was adopted by the Reichstag on 14 April 1871 and proclaimed by the Emperor on 16 April, the political system remained the same. The empire had a parliament called the Reichstag, which was elected by universal male suffrage, however, the original constituencies drawn in 1871 were never redrawn to reflect the growth of urban areas
4.
Potsdam
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Potsdam is the capital and largest city of the German federal state of Brandenburg. It directly borders the German capital Berlin and is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region and it is situated on the River Havel,24 kilometres southwest of Berlins city centre. Potsdam was a residence of the Prussian kings and the German Kaiser, around the city there are a series of interconnected lakes and cultural landmarks, in particular the parks and palaces of Sanssouci, the largest World Heritage Site in Germany. The Potsdam Conference in 1945 was held at the palace Cecilienhof, the Filmstudio Babelsberg is the oldest large-scale film studio in the world. Potsdam developed into a centre of science in Germany in the 19th century, today, there are three public colleges, the University of Potsdam, and more than 30 research institutes in the city. The area was formed from a series of large moraines left after the last glacial period, today, the city is three-quarters green space, with just a quarter as urban area. There are about 20 lakes and rivers in and around Potsdam, such as the Havel, the Griebnitzsee, Templiner See, Tiefer See, Jungfernsee, Teltowkanal, Heiliger See, the highest point is the 114-metre high Kleiner Ravensberg. Potsdam is divided into seven city districts and nine new Ortsteile. The appearances of the city districts are quite different, the districts in the north and in the centre consist mainly of historical buildings, the south of the city is dominated by larger areas of newer buildings. Potsdam has an Oceanic climate, with cool, snowy winters, the average winter high temperature is 3.5 °C, with a low of −1.7 °C. Snow is common in the winter, summers are mild, with a high of 23.6 °C and a low of 12.7 °C. The name Potsdam originally seems to have been Poztupimi, a common theory is that it derives from an old West Slavonic term meaning beneath the oaks, i. e. the corrupted pod dubmi/dubimi. The area around Potsdam shows occupancy since the Bronze Age and was part of Magna Germania as described by Tacitus. After the great migrations of the Germanic peoples, Slavs moved in and it was first mentioned in a document in 993 AD as Poztupimi, when Emperor Otto III gifted the territory to the Quedlinburg Abbey, then led by his aunt Matilda. By 1317, it was mentioned as a small town and it gained its town charter in 1345. In 1573, it was still a market town of 2,000 inhabitants. Potsdam lost nearly half of its due to the Thirty Years War. After the Edict of Potsdam in 1685, Potsdam became a centre of European immigration and its religious freedom attracted people from France, Russia, the Netherlands and Bohemia
5.
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
6.
Geiger counter
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It detects ionizing radiation such as alpha particles, beta particles and gamma rays using the ionization effect produced in a Geiger–Müller tube, which gives its name to the instrument. In wide and prominent use as a radiation survey instrument. Since then it has very popular due to its robust sensing element. However, there are limitations in measuring high radiation rates and the energy of incident radiation, a Geiger counter consists of a Geiger-Müller tube, the sensing element which detects the radiation, and the processing electronics, which displays the result. The Geiger-Müller tube is filled with a gas such as helium, neon, or argon at low pressure. The tube briefly conducts electrical charge when a particle or photon of incident radiation makes the gas conductive by ionization, the ionization is considerably amplified within the tube by the Townsend discharge effect to produce an easily measured detection pulse, which is fed to the processing and display electronics. This large pulse from the tube makes the G-M counter relatively cheap to manufacture, the electronics also generates the high voltage, typically 400–600 volts, that has to be applied to the Geiger-Müller tube to enable its operation. There are two types of radiation readout, counts or radiation dose, the counts display is the simplest and is the number of ionizing events displayed either as a count rate, commonly counts per second, or as a total over a set time period. The counts readout is normally used when alpha or beta particles are being detected, more complex to achieve is a display of radiation dose rate, displayed in a unit such as the sievert which is normally used for measuring gamma or X-ray dose rates. A G-M tube can detect the presence of radiation, but not its energy influences the radiations ionising effect. Consequently, instruments measuring dose rate require the use of an energy compensated G-M tube, the electronics will apply known factors to make this conversion, which is specific to each instrument and is determined by design and calibration. The readout can be analog or digital, and increasingly, modern instruments are offering serial communications with a host computer or network, there is usually an option to produce audible clicks representing the number of ionization events detected. This is the distinctive sound associated with hand held or portable Geiger counters. The purpose of this is to allow the user to concentrate on manipulation of the instrument whilst retaining auditory feedback on the radiation rate, there are two main limitations of the Geiger counter. Because the output pulse from a Geiger-Müller tube is always the same regardless of the energy of the incident radiation. A further limitation is the inability to measure radiation rates due to the dead time of the tube. This is a period after each ionization of the gas during which any further incident radiation will not result in a count. Typically the dead time will reduce indicated count rates above about 104 to 105 counts per second depending on the characteristic of the tube being used, whilst some counters have circuitry which can compensate for this, for accurate measurements ion chamber instruments are preferred for high radiation rates
7.
Physics
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Physics is the natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion and behavior through space and time, along with related concepts such as energy and force. One of the most fundamental disciplines, the main goal of physics is to understand how the universe behaves. Physics is one of the oldest academic disciplines, perhaps the oldest through its inclusion of astronomy, Physics intersects with many interdisciplinary areas of research, such as biophysics and quantum chemistry, and the boundaries of physics are not rigidly defined. New ideas in physics often explain the mechanisms of other sciences while opening new avenues of research in areas such as mathematics. Physics also makes significant contributions through advances in new technologies that arise from theoretical breakthroughs, the United Nations named 2005 the World Year of Physics. Astronomy is the oldest of the natural sciences, the stars and planets were often a target of worship, believed to represent their gods. While the explanations for these phenomena were often unscientific and lacking in evidence, according to Asger Aaboe, the origins of Western astronomy can be found in Mesopotamia, and all Western efforts in the exact sciences are descended from late Babylonian astronomy. The most notable innovations were in the field of optics and vision, which came from the works of many scientists like Ibn Sahl, Al-Kindi, Ibn al-Haytham, Al-Farisi and Avicenna. The most notable work was The Book of Optics, written by Ibn Al-Haitham, in which he was not only the first to disprove the ancient Greek idea about vision, but also came up with a new theory. In the book, he was also the first to study the phenomenon of the pinhole camera, many later European scholars and fellow polymaths, from Robert Grosseteste and Leonardo da Vinci to René Descartes, Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton, were in his debt. Indeed, the influence of Ibn al-Haythams Optics ranks alongside that of Newtons work of the same title, the translation of The Book of Optics had a huge impact on Europe. From it, later European scholars were able to build the devices as what Ibn al-Haytham did. From this, such important things as eyeglasses, magnifying glasses, telescopes, Physics became a separate science when early modern Europeans used experimental and quantitative methods to discover what are now considered to be the laws of physics. Newton also developed calculus, the study of change, which provided new mathematical methods for solving physical problems. The discovery of new laws in thermodynamics, chemistry, and electromagnetics resulted from greater research efforts during the Industrial Revolution as energy needs increased, however, inaccuracies in classical mechanics for very small objects and very high velocities led to the development of modern physics in the 20th century. Modern physics began in the early 20th century with the work of Max Planck in quantum theory, both of these theories came about due to inaccuracies in classical mechanics in certain situations. Quantum mechanics would come to be pioneered by Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, from this early work, and work in related fields, the Standard Model of particle physics was derived. Areas of mathematics in general are important to this field, such as the study of probabilities, in many ways, physics stems from ancient Greek philosophy
8.
University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
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Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg is a public research university in the cities of Erlangen and Nuremberg in Bavaria, Germany. In Germany, traditional liberal arts universities do not usually have a school or department. However, FAU does have an engineering faculty. FAU is the second largest state university in the state Bavaria and it has 5 faculties,23 departments/schools,30 clinical departments,19 autonomous departments,656 professors,3,404 members of academic staff and roughly 13,000 employees. In winter semester 2014/15 around 39,085 students enrolled in the university in 239 fields of study, with about 2/3 studying at the Erlangen campus and these statistics put FAU in the list of top 10 largest universities in Germany. In 2013,5251 students graduated from the university and 663 doctorates and 50 post-doctoral theses were registered, moreover, FAU received 171 million Euro external funding in the same year, making it one of the strongest third-party funded universities in Germany. In 2006 and 2007, as part of the national excellence initiative, FAU is also a member of DFG and the Top Industrial Managers for Europe network. The university was founded in 1742, in Bayreuth by Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, Christian Frederick Charles Alexander, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach provided significant support to the early university. From the beginning, the university was a Protestant institution, during the Nazi era, the university was one of the first that had a majority of Nazi supporters in the student council. In 1961, the college in Nuremberg was merged with the university in Erlangen. An engineering school was inaugurated in 1966, in 1972, the school of education in Nuremberg became part of the university. Below is a timeline of FAU from its inception to its present form, 1700–1704. 1743, Friedrich, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, issues an edict whereby the university founded in Bayreuth is transferred to Erlangen. It has the four faculties of Protestant Theology, Jurisprudence, Medicine,1769, The University at Erlangen is given the new name of Friedrich-Alexander-Universität in honour of Alexander, Margrave of Ansbach and Bayreuth. 1818, The library of the University of Altdorf, dissolved in 1809, is moved to Erlangen,1824, The first hospital is built. 1825, The University moves into the Schloss,1927, Science is taken out of the Faculty of Arts thus creating the new Faculty of Science. 1961, The FAU acquires a further faculty through merger with the Nuremberg College of Economics, the Universitys name is now Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg. 1966, Faculty of Engineering is established,1972, The Teacher Training College in Nuremberg is incorporated into the Faculty of Education
