1.
Kurt Wolff (aviator)
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Oberleutnant Kurt Wolff was one of Imperial Germanys highest scoring fighter aces during World War I. After claiming 33 victories, he was killed in action at the age of 22, Kurt Wolff was born in Greifswald, Pomerania. He was orphaned as a child and was raised by relatives in Memel, Wolff enlisted in the army in 1912 at the age of 17, joining a transport unit, Railway Regiment Nr.4. He received a commission on 17 April 1915, and he transferred to the air service in July, Wolffs first flight was almost his last. The aeroplane crashed, dislocating Wolffs shoulder and killing his pilot instructor, nevertheless, Wolff received his pilots badge in late 1915 and was assigned to 2-seater unit Kasta 26 of Kagohl 5, followed by service with Kagohl 7 and KG40. On 12 October 1916 he was posted to the then undistinguished Jasta 11, for months, Wolff, like most of his Jasta comrades, had no success in the air. That changed when command was given to Manfred von Richthofen, under the Red Barons leadership, Jasta 11 thrived and Wolff became an excellent scout pilot. Like his commanding officer, Wolff soon became a collector of souvenirs from the aircraft he shot down. His room at his airfield soon became decorated with serial numbers, parts and he first claimed on 6 March 1917, a Royal Aircraft Factory B. E. 2d of No.16 Squadron RFC. Four more followed during March, and he scored 22 victories during what the RFC termed Bloody April, with 4 victories on 13 April 1917, harvey-Kelly - commander of No.19 Squadron. Like the rest of the Jasta, Wolffs Albatros D. III was painted red, though he added individual markings by painting his elevators, Wolffs youthful looks and frail physical stature masked his deadly skills as a combat pilot. Karl Bodenschatz, in his Jagd in Flanders Himmel, said of him, Jasta 11, at first glance, you could only say delicate little flower. A slender, thin little figure, a young face. He looks as if you could tip him backwards with one harsh word, but below this friendly schoolboys face dangles the order Pour le Mérite. And so far, these modest looking eyes have taken 30 enemy airplanes from the sky over the sights of his guns, set them afire. This slender youth is already one of the best men of the old Richthofen Staffel 11, Wolff was awarded the coveted Pour Le Mérite on 4 May and on 6 May was assigned to command Jasta 29, replacing Lt. von Dornheim who had recently been killed. He shot down a French SPAD on 13 May and a No.60 Squadron Nieuport 17 on 27 June before he returned to command Jasta 11 in July 1917, replacing Leut. Karl Allmenroeder, who had fallen in combat. He downed a RE-8 of No.4 Squadron and a Sopwith Triplane of No.1 Naval Squadron in early July
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.
Journalist
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A journalist is a person who collects, writes, or distributes news or other current information. A journalists work is called journalism, a journalist can work with general issues or specialize in certain issues. However, most journalists tend to specialize, and by cooperating with other journalists, for example, a sports journalist covers news within the world of sports, but this journalist may be a part of a newspaper that covers many different topics. A reporter is a type of journalist who researches, writes, and reports on information in order to present in sources, conduct interviews, engage in research, and make reports. The information-gathering part of a job is sometimes called reporting. Reporters may split their time working in a newsroom and going out to witness events or interviewing people. Reporters may be assigned a beat or area of coverage. Depending on the context, the term journalist may include various types of editors, editorial writers, columnists, Journalism has developed a variety of ethics and standards. While objectivity and a lack of bias are of concern and importance, more liberal types of journalism, such as advocacy journalism and activism. This has become prevalent with the advent of social media and blogs, as well as other platforms that are used to manipulate or sway social and political opinions. These platforms often project extreme bias, as sources are not always held accountable or considered necessary in order to produce a written, nor did they often directly experience most social problems, or have direct access to expert insights. These limitations were made worse by a media that tended to over-simplify issues and to reinforce stereotypes, partisan viewpoints. As a consequence, Lippmann believed that the public needed journalists like himself who could serve as analysts, guiding “citizens to a deeper understanding of what was really important. ”Journalists sometimes expose themselves to danger. Organizations such as the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders publish reports on press freedom, as of November 2011, the Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 887 journalists have been killed worldwide since 1992 by murder, crossfire or combat, or on dangerous assignment. The ten deadliest countries for journalists since 1992 have been Iraq, Philippines, Russia, Colombia, Mexico, Algeria, Pakistan, India, Somalia, Brazil and Sri Lanka. The Committee to Protect Journalists also reports that as of December 1st 2010,145 journalists were jailed worldwide for journalistic activities. The ten countries with the largest number of currently-imprisoned journalists are Turkey, China, Iran, Eritrea, Burma, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Cuba, Ethiopia, apart from the physical harm, journalists are harmed psychologically. This applies especially to war reporters, but their offices at home often do not know how to deal appropriately with the reporters they expose to danger
4.
Bonn
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The Federal City of Bonn is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of 311,287. About 24 km south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region, Germanys largest metropolitan area, the title of Federal City reflects its particular political status within Germany. Founded in the 1st century BC as a Roman settlement, Bonn is one of Germanys oldest cities, from 1597 to 1794, Bonn was the capital of the Electorate of Cologne, and residence of the Archbishops and Prince-electors of Cologne. Composer Ludwig van Beethoven was born here in 1770, from 1949 to 1990, Bonn was the capital of West Germany, and it is here where Germanys present constitution, the Grundgesetz, was declared in 1949. From 1990 to 1999, Bonn served as the seat of government, two DAX-listed corporations, Deutsche Post DHL and Deutsche Telekom, have headquarters in Bonn. The city is the location of the University of Bonn, spanning an area of more 141.2 km2 on both sides of the River Rhine, almost three quarters of the city lie on the rivers left bank. To the south and to the west, Bonn is bordering the Eifel region which encompasses the Rhineland Nature Park, to the north, Bonn borders the Cologne Lowland. Natural borders are constituted by the River Sieg to the north-east, the largest extension of the city in north-south dimensions is 15 km and 12.5 km in west-east dimensions. The city borders have a length of 61 km. The geographical centre of Bonn is the Bundeskanzlerplatz in Bonn-Gronau, the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia is divided into five governmental districts, and Bonn is part of the governmental district of Cologne. Within this governmental district, the city of Bonn is an district in its own right. The urban district of Bonn is then divided into four administrative municipal districts. These are Bonn, Bonn-Bad Godesberg, Bonn-Beuel and Bonn-Hardtberg, in 1969, the independent towns of Bad Godesberg and Beuel as well as several villages were incorporated into Bonn, resulting in a city more than twice as large as before. In the south of the Cologne lowland in the Rhine valley, the history of the city dates back to Roman times. In about 12 BC, the Roman army appears to have stationed a small unit in what is presently the historical centre of the city, even earlier, the army had resettled members of a Germanic tribal group allied with Rome, the Ubii, in Bonn. The Latin name for that settlement, Bonna, may stem from the population of this and many other settlements in the area. The Eburoni were members of a tribal coalition effectively wiped out during the final phase of Caesars War in Gaul. After several decades, the gave up the small camp linked to the Ubii-settlement
5.
Rhine Province
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It was created from the provinces of the Lower Rhine and Jülich-Cleves-Berg. Its capital was Koblenz and in 1939 it had 8 million inhabitants, the Province of Hohenzollern was militarily associated with the Oberpräsident of the Rhine Province. The small exclave district of Wetzlar, wedged between the grand duchy states Hesse-Nassau and Hesse-Darmstadt was also part of the Rhine Province, the principality of Birkenfeld, on the other hand, was an enclave of the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, a separate state of the German Empire. In 1911, the extent of the province was 10,423 km2, its length, from north to south, was nearly 200 km. The population of the Rhine Province in 1905 was 6,435,778, the left bank was predominately Catholic, while on the right bank about half the population was Protestant. The great bulk of the population was ethnically German, although some villages, on the western and southern frontiers resided smaller French-speaking communities, while the industrial region of the Ruhr housed recent Polish migrants from the eastern provinces of the Empire. The Rhine Province was the most densely populated part of Prussia, the province contains a greater number of large towns than any other province in Prussia. Upwards of half the population were supported by industrial and commercial pursuits, there was the University of Bonn, and elementary education was especially successful. For purposes of administration the province was divided into the five districts of Koblenz, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Aachen, Koblenz was the official capital, though Cologne was the largest and most important city. Being a frontier province, the Rhineland was strongly garrisoned, the province sent 35 members to the German Reichstag and 62 to the Prussian House of Representatives. Of the total area of the Rhine Province about 45% was occupied by land, 16% by meadows and pastures. Little except oats and potatoes could be raised on the plateaus in the south of the province, but the river-valleys. The great bulk of the soil was in the hands of small proprietors, the usual cereal crops were, however, all grown with success, and tobacco, hops, flax, hemp and beetroot were cultivated for commercial purposes. Large quantities of fruit were also produced, the vine-culture occupied a space of about 30,000 acres, about half of which was in the valley of the Mosel, a third in that of the Rhine itself, and the rest mainly on the Nahe and the Ahr. In the hilly districts more than half the surface was occupied by forests. Considerable herds of cattle were reared on the pastures of the lower Rhine. The wooded hills were well stocked with deer, and a stray wolf occasionally found its way from the forests of the Ardennes into those of the Hunsrück, the salmon fishery of the Rhine was very productive, and trout abound in the mountain streams. The great mineral wealth of the Rhine Province furnished its most substantial claim to the title of the richest jewel in the crown of Prussia, besides parts of the carboniferous measures of the Saar and the Ruhr, it also contains important deposits of coal near Aachen
6.
History of the Jews in Germany
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Jewish settlers founded the Ashkenazi Jewish community in the Early and High Middle Ages. The community survived under Charlemagne, but suffered during the Crusades, accusations of well poisoning during the Black Death led to mass slaughter of German Jews, and they fled in large numbers to Poland. The Jewish communities of the cities of Mainz, Speyer, and this was a golden age as area bishops protected the Jews resulting in increased trade and prosperity. The First Crusade began an era of persecution of Jews in Germany, Entire communities, like those of Trier, Worms, Mainz, and Cologne, were murdered. The war upon the Hussite heretics became the signal for renewed persecution of Jews, the end of the 15th century was a period of religious hatred that ascribed to Jews all possible evils. The atrocities during the Khmelnytsky Uprising committed by Khmelnytskyis Cossacks drove the Polish Jews back into western Germany, with Napoleons fall in 1815, growing nationalism resulted in increasing repression. From August to October 1819, pogroms that came to be known as the Hep-Hep riots took place throughout Germany, during this time, many German states stripped Jews of their civil rights. As a result, many German Jews began to emigrate, from the time of Moses Mendelssohn until the 20th century, the community gradually achieved emancipation, and then prospered. In January 1933, some 522,000 Jews lived in Germany, however, following the growth of Nazism and its antisemitic ideology and policies, the Jewish community was severely persecuted. Over half emigrated during the first six years of the Nazi dictatorship, in 1933, persecution of the Jews became an active Nazi policy. In 1935 and 1936, the pace of persecution of the Jews increased, in 1936, Jews were banned from all professional jobs, effectively preventing them from exerting any influence in education, politics, higher education, and industry. The SS ordered the Night of Broken Glass to be carried out the night of November 9–10,1938, the storefronts of Jewish shops and offices were smashed and vandalized, and many synagogues were destroyed by fire. Increasing antisemitism prompted a wave of a Jewish mass emigration from Germany throughout the 1930s, only roughly 214,000 Jews were left in Germany proper on the eve of World War II. Beginning in late 1941, the community was subjected to systematic deportations to ghettos. In May 1943, Germany was declared judenrein, by the end of the war, an estimated 160,000 to 180,000 German Jews had been killed under the Nazi regime, by the Germans and their collaborators. A total of about 6 million European Jews were murdered under the direction of the Nazis, after the war, the Jewish community in Germany started to slowly grow again. Currently in Germany, denial of the Holocaust or that six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust is a criminal act, violations can be punished with up to five years of prison. In 2007, the Interior Minister of Germany, Wolfgang Schäuble, pointed out the policy of Germany, We will not tolerate any form of extremism, xenophobia
7.
Leipzig
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Leipzig is the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany. With a population of 570,087 inhabitants it is Germanys tenth most populous city, Leipzig is located about 160 kilometres southwest of Berlin at the confluence of the White Elster, Pleisse, and Parthe rivers at the southern end of the North German Plain. Leipzig has been a city since at least the time of the Holy Roman Empire. The city sits at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, Leipzig was once one of the major European centers of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing. Leipzig became an urban center within the German Democratic Republic after the Second World War. Leipzig later played a significant role in instigating the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, through events which took place in, Leipzig today is an economic center and the most livable city in Germany, according to the GfK marketing research institution. Since the opening of the Leipzig City Tunnel in 2013, Leipzig forms the centerpiece of the S-Bahn Mitteldeutschland public transit system, Leipzig is currently listed as Gamma World City and Germanys Boomtown. Outside of Leipzig the Neuseenland district forms a lake area of approximately 300 square kilometres. Leipzig is derived from the Slavic word Lipsk, which means settlement where the linden trees stand, an older spelling of the name in English is Leipsic. The Latin name Lipsia was also used, the name is cognate with Lipetsk in Russia and Liepāja in Latvia. In 1937 the Nazi government officially renamed the city Reichsmessestadt Leipzig, the common usage of this nickname for Leipzig up until the present is reflected, for example, in the name of a popular blog for local arts and culture, Heldenstadt. de. Leipzig was first documented in 1015 in the chronicles of Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg as urbs Libzi and endowed with city, Leipzig Trade Fair, started in the Middle Ages, became an event of international importance and is the oldest remaining trade fair in the world. During the Thirty Years War, two battles took place in Breitenfeld, about 8 kilometres outside Leipzig city walls, the first Battle of Breitenfeld took place in 1631 and the second in 1642. Both battles resulted in victories for the Swedish-led side, on 24 December 1701, an oil-fueled street lighting system was introduced. The city employed light guards who had to follow a schedule to ensure the punctual lighting of the 700 lanterns. The Leipzig region was the arena of the 1813 Battle of Leipzig between Napoleonic France and a coalition of Prussia, Russia, Austria and Sweden. It was the largest battle in Europe prior to the First World War, in 1913 the Monument to the Battle of the Nations celebrating the centenary of this event was completed. The railway station has two entrance halls, the eastern one for the Royal Saxon State Railways and the western one for the Prussian state railways
8.
Franz Kafka
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Franz Kafka was a Prague German-language novelist and short story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His best known works include Die Verwandlung, Der Process, the term Kafkaesque has entered the English language to describe situations like those in his writing. Kafka was born into a middle-class, German-speaking Jewish family in Prague and he trained as a lawyer, and after completing his legal education he was employed with an insurance company, forcing him to relegate writing to his spare time. Over the course of his life, Kafka wrote hundreds of letters to family and close friends, including his father, with whom he had a strained and he became engaged to several women but never married. He died in 1924 at the age of 40 from tuberculosis and his work went on to influence a vast range of writers, critics, artists, and philosophers during the 20th century. Kafka was born near the Old Town Square in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and his family were middle-class Ashkenazi Jews. His father, Hermann Kafka, was the child of Jakob Kafka, a shochet or ritual slaughterer in Osek. Hermann brought the Kafka family to Prague, after working as a travelling sales representative, he eventually became a fancy goods and clothing retailer who employed up to 15 people and used the image of a jackdaw as his business logo. Kafkas mother, Julie, was the daughter of Jakob Löwy, a retail merchant in Poděbrady. Hermann and Julie had six children, of whom Franz was the eldest, franzs two brothers, Georg and Heinrich, died in infancy before Franz was seven, his three sisters were Gabriele, Valerie and Ottilie. They all died during the Holocaust of World War II, Valli was deported to the Łódź Ghetto in Poland in 1942, but that is the last documentation of her. On business days, both parents were absent from the home, with Julie Kafka working as many as 12 hours each day helping to manage the family business, consequently, Kafkas childhood was somewhat lonely, and the children were reared largely by a series of governesses and servants. The dominating figure of Kafkas father had a significant influence on Kafkas writing, the Kafka family had a servant girl living with them in a cramped apartment. In November 1913 the family moved into an apartment, although Ellie. In early August 1914, just after World War I began, both Ellie and Valli also had children. Franz at age 31 moved into Vallis former apartment, quiet by contrast, from 1889 to 1893, Kafka attended the Deutsche Knabenschule German boys elementary school at the Masný trh/Fleischmarkt, now known as Masná Street. His Jewish education ended with his Bar Mitzvah celebration at the age of 13, Kafka never enjoyed attending the synagogue and went with his father only on four high holidays a year. German was the language of instruction, but Kafka also spoke and he studied the latter at the gymnasium for eight years, achieving good grades
9.
Franz Werfel
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Franz Viktor Werfel was an Austrian-Bohemian novelist, playwright, and poet whose career spanned World War I, the Interwar period, and World War II. Born in Prague, Werfel was the first of three children of a manufacturer of gloves and leather goods, Rudolf Werfel. His mother, Albine Kussi, was the daughter of a mill owner and his two sisters were Hanna and Marianne Amalie. As a child, Werfel was raised by his Czech Catholic governess, Barbara Šimůnková, in 1912, Werfel moved to Leipzig, where he became an editor for Kurt Wolff’s new publishing firm, where Werfel championed and edited Georg Trakl’s first book of poetry. With the outbreak of World War I, Werfel served in the Austro-Hungarian Army on the Russian front as a telephone operator. His duties both exposed him to the vicissitudes of war as well as provided him with enough of a haven to continue writing Expressionist poems, ambitious plays. His strange mix of humanism, confessionalism, autobiography, as well as mythology and religiosity developed further during this time. His poems and plays ranged from scenes of ancient Egypt to occult allusions and incorporate a parable from the Baháí Faith in the poem “Jesus and the Carrion Path. ”His bias for Christian subjects, as well as his antipathy for Zionism, eventually alienated many of his Jewish friends and readers, including early champions such as Karl Kraus. Others, however, stood by him, including, Martin Buber and their love affair culminated in the premature birth of a son, Martin, in August 1918. Martin, who was given the surname of Gropius, died in May of the following year, despite attempts to save his marriage to Alma, with whom he had a young daughter, Manon, Gropius reluctantly agreed to a divorce in 1920. Ironically, Alma refused to marry Werfel for the nine years. They married on 6 July 1929, in April 1924, Verdi - Roman der Oper was published by Zsolnay Verlag, establishing Werfels reputation as a novelist. In 1926, Werfel was awarded the Grillparzer Prize by the Austrian Academy of Sciences, by the end of the decade, Werfel had become one of the most important and established writers in German and Austrian literature and had already merited one full-length critical biography. Werfel lectured on this subject across Germany, the Nazi newspaper Das Schwarze Corps denounced him as a propagandist of alleged Turkish horrors perpetrated against the Armenians. The same newspaper, suggesting a link between the Armenian and the later Jewish genocide, condemned Americas Armenian Jews for promoting in the U. S. A. the sale of Werfels book, Werfel was forced to leave the Prussian Academy of Arts in 1933. His books were burned by the Nazis, Werfel left Austria after the Anschluss in 1938 and went to France, where they lived in a fishing village near Marseille. Visitors to their home at this time included Bertolt Brecht and Thomas Mann, after the German invasion and occupation of France during World War II, and the deportation of French Jews to the Nazi concentration camps, Werfel had to flee again. With the assistance of Varian Fry and the Emergency Rescue Committee in Marseille, he and his wife escaped the Nazi regime
