1.
Strasbourg
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Strasbourg is the capital and largest city of the Grand Est region of France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany in the region of Alsace. In 2014, the city proper had 276,170 inhabitants, Strasbourgs metropolitan area had a population of 773,347 in 2013, making it the ninth largest metro area in France and home to 13% of the Grand Est regions inhabitants. The transnational Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau had a population of 915,000 inhabitants in 2014, Strasbourg is the seat of several European institutions, such as the Council of Europe and the Eurocorps, as well as the European Parliament and the European Ombudsman of the European Union. The city is also the seat of the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine, Strasbourgs historic city centre, the Grande Île, was classified a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1988, the first time such an honour was placed on an entire city centre. The largest Islamic place of worship in France, the Strasbourg Grand Mosque, was inaugurated by French Interior Minister Manuel Valls on 27 September 2012. Economically, Strasbourg is an important centre of manufacturing and engineering, as well as a hub of road, rail, the port of Strasbourg is the second largest on the Rhine after Duisburg, Germany. Before the 5th century, the city was known as Argantorati, a Celtic Gaulish name Latinized first as Argentorate, after the 5h century, the city became known by a completely different name Gallicized as Strasbourg. That name is of Germanic origin and means Town of roads, Strasbourg is situated on the eastern border of France with Germany. This border is formed by the River Rhine, which forms the eastern border of the modern city. The historic core of Strasbourg however lies on the Grande Île in the River Ill, which flows parallel to, and roughly 4 kilometres from. The natural courses of the two eventually join some distance downstream of Strasbourg, although several artificial waterways now connect them within the city. This section of the Rhine valley is an axis of north-south travel, with river traffic on the Rhine itself. The city is some 400 kilometres east of Paris, in spite of its position far inland, Strasbourgs climate is classified as Oceanic, with warm, relatively sunny summers and cold, overcast winters. Precipitation is elevated from mid-spring to the end of summer, but remains largely constant throughout the year, on average, snow falls 30 days per year. The highest temperature recorded was 38.5 °C in August 2003. The lowest temperature recorded was −23.4 °C in December 1938. Nonetheless, the disappearance of heavy industry on both banks of the Rhine, as well as effective measures of traffic regulation in and around the city have reduced air pollution
2.
Nikolaos Gyzis
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Nikolaos Gyzis was considered one of Greeces most important 19th-century painters. He was most famous for his work Eros and the Painter and it was auctioned in May 2006 at Bonhams in London, being last exhibited in Greece in 1928. He was the representative of the so-called Munich School, the major 19th-century Greek art movement. Gyzis was born in the village of Sklavochori, on the island of Tinos which has a long artistic history, as his family settled in Athens in 1850, he soon embarked on a study at the Athens School of Fine Arts. His studies there, formed the foundation of his artistic education, in 1865, having won a scholarship, he went to continue his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, where he settled for the rest of his life. He was very soon incorporated into the German pictorial climate, and this is expressed in the painting News of Victory of 1871, which deals with the Franco-Prussian War, and the painting Apotheosis i Thriamvos tis Vavarias. From 1886 onward he was professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich and his students included Ernst Oppler, Fritz Osswald, Anna May-Rychter and Stefan Popescu. Towards the end of his life, in the 1890s, he took a turn toward more religious themes and his works are today exhibited at museums and private collections in Greece, Germany and elsewhere. Gysis painting The Secret School was depicted on the reverse of the Greek 200 drachmas banknote of 1996-2001
3.
Marquetry
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Marquetry is the art and craft of applying pieces of veneer to a structure to form decorative patterns, designs or pictures. The technique may be applied to case furniture or even seat furniture, to small objects with smooth. Marquetry differs from the ancient craft of inlay, or intarsia. The word derives from a Middle French word meaning inlaid work, the veneers used are primarily woods, but may include bone, ivory, turtle-shell, mother-of-pearl, pewter, brass or fine metals. Marquetry using colored straw was a specialty of some European spa resorts from the end of the 18th century, the French cabinet maker Andre-Charles Boulle specialized in furniture using metal and either wood or tortoiseshell together, the latter acting as the background. The simplest kind of marquetry uses only two sheets of veneer, which are glued together and cut with a fine saw. Marquetry as a craft most commonly uses knife-cut veneers. However, the technique usually requires a lot of time. For that reason, many marquetarians have switched to fret or scroll saw techniques, other requirements are a pattern of some kind, some brown gummed tape, PVA glue and a base-board with balancing veneers on the alternate face to compensate stresses. Finishing the piece will require fine abrasive paper always backed by a sanding block, either ordinary varnish, special varnishes, modern polyurethane -oil or water based- good waxes and even the technique of french polish are different methods used to seal and finish the piece. Sand shading is a used to make a picture appear to be more three-dimensional. A piece of veneer to be incorporated into a picture is partially submerged into hot sand for a few seconds, another process is engraving fine lines into a picture and filling them with a mixture of India ink and shellac. The technique of veneered marquetry had its inspiration in 16th century Florence, Marquetry elaborated upon Florentine techniques of inlaying solid marble slabs with designs formed of fitted marbles, jaspers and semi-precious stones. This work, called opere di commessi, has parallels in Central Italian Cosmati-work of inlaid marble floors, altars. The technique is known in English as pietra dura, for the used, onyx, jasper, cornelian, lapis lazuli. In Florence, the Chapel of the Medici at San Lorenzo is completely covered in a colored marble facing using this demanding jig-sawn technique, techniques of wood marquetry were developed in Antwerp and other Flemish centers of luxury cabinet-making during the early 16th century. Boulle marquetry dropped out of favor in the 1720s, but was revived in the 1780s, in the decades between, carefully matched quarter-sawn veneers sawn from the same piece of timber were arranged symmetrically on case pieces and contrasted with gilt-bronze mounts. Floral marquetry came into favor in Parisian furniture in the 1750s, employed by cabinet-makers like Bernard van Risenbergh, Jean-Pierre Latz, the most famous royal French furniture veneered with marquetry are the pieces delivered by Jean Henri Riesener in the 1770s and 1780s
4.
Lothar von Seebach
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Baron Lothar von Seebach was an Alsatian painter, designer, watercolorist and engraver. He was raised in Mannheim, where his father was a garrison officer, like many other painters before him, he set up his studio in the 14th Century Tour de lHôpital. Over the next years, he made several study trips to England, Berlin and Paris. A fiercely independent man who led a life, he turned down offers of professorships in Karlsruhe. He became a French citizen after World War I, but left Alsace in 1921 as the result of professional conflicts. He lived briefly at Lake Constance and Frankfurt, then went back to Fessenbach to live with his brother, ultimately, he returned to Strasbourg where he became renowned for his portrayals of the Old City and its inhabitants. A street in Robertsau, a suburb to the north of Strasbourg, has named for him
5.
Art Nouveau
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Art Nouveau is an international style of art, architecture and applied art, especially the decorative arts, that was most popular between 1890 and 1910. A reaction to the art of the 19th century, it was inspired by natural forms and structures, particularly the curved lines of plants. English uses the French name Art Nouveau, according to the philosophy of the style, art should be a way of life. For many well-off Europeans, it was possible to live in an art nouveau-inspired house with art nouveau furniture, silverware, fabrics, ceramics including tableware, jewellery, cigarette cases, artists desired to combine the fine arts and applied arts, even for utilitarian objects. By 1910, Art Nouveau was already out of style and it was replaced as the dominant European architectural and decorative style first by Art Deco and then by Modernism. Art Nouveau took its name from the Maison de lArt Nouveau, in France, Art Nouveau was also sometimes called by the British term Modern Style due to its roots in the Arts and Crafts Movement, Style moderne, or Style 1900. It was also sometimes called Style Jules Verne, Le Style Métro, Art Belle Époque, in Belgium, where the architectural movement began, it was sometimes termed Style nouille or Style coup de fouet. In Britain, it was known as the Modern Style, or, because of the arts and crafts movement led by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in Glasgow, as the Glasgow style. In Italy, because of the popularity in Italy of designs from Londons Liberty & Co department store, in the United States, due to its association with Louis Comfort Tiffany, it was often called the Tiffany style. In Germany and Scandinavia, a style emerged at about the same time, it was called Jugendstil. In Catalonia the related style was known as Modernisme, in Spain as Modernismo, Arte joven, in Russia, it was called Modern, and Jugendstil, and Nieuwe Kunst in the Netherlands. Some names refer specifically to the forms that were popular with the Art Nouveau artists, Stile Floreal in France, Paling Stijl in the Netherlands. The new art movement had its roots in Britain, in the designs of William Morris. Early prototypes of the include the Red House of Morris. In France, the style combined several different tendencies, in architecture, it was influenced by the architectural theorist and historian Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, a declared enemy of the historical Beaux-Arts architectural style. For each function its material, for each material its form and this book influenced a generation of architects, including Louis Sullivan, Victor Horta, Hector Guimard, and Antoni Gaudí. The French painters Maurice Denis, Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard played an important part in integrating fine arts painting with decoration, I believe that before everything a painting must decorate, Denis wrote in 1891. The choice of subjects or scenes is nothing and it is by the value of tones, the colored surface and the harmony of lines that I can reach the spirit and wake up the emotions
6.
Wilhelm II, German Emperor
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Wilhelm II or William II was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, ruling the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918. He was the eldest grandchild of the British Queen Victoria and related to many monarchs and his leading generals, Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, dictated policy during the First World War with little regard for the civilian government. An ineffective war-time leader, he lost the support of the army, abdicated in November 1918, and fled to exile in the Netherlands. Wilhelm was born on 27 January 1859 at the Crown Princes Palace, Berlin to Prince Frederick William of Prussia and his wife, Victoria, Princess Royal, the eldest daughter of Britains Queen Victoria. At the time of his birth, his great-uncle Frederick William IV was king of Prussia, a traumatic breech birth left him with a withered left arm due to Erbs palsy, which he tried with some success to conceal. His left arm was about 6 inches shorter than his right arm, historians have suggested that this disability affected his emotional development. In 1863, Wilhelm was taken to England to be present at the wedding of his Uncle Bertie, William attended the ceremony in a Highland costume, complete with a small toy dirk. During the ceremony the four-year-old became restless and his eighteen-year-old uncle Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, charged with keeping an eye on him, told him to be quiet, but Wilhelm drew his dirk and threatened Alfred. When Alfred attempted to subdue him by force, Wilhelm bit him on the leg and his grandmother, Queen Victoria, missed seeing the fracas, to her Wilhelm remained a clever, dear, good little child, the great favourite of my beloved Vicky. His mother, Vicky, was obsessed with his damaged arm and she blamed herself for the childs handicap and insisted that he become a good rider. The thought that he, as heir to the throne, should not be able to ride was intolerable to her, riding lessons began when Wilhelm was eight and were a matter of endurance for Wilhelm. Over and over, the prince was set on his horse. He fell off time after time but despite his tears was set on its back again, after weeks of this he finally got it right and was able to maintain his balance. Wilhelm, from six years of age, was tutored and heavily influenced by the 39-year-old teacher Georg Hinzpeter, Hinzpeter, he later wrote, was really a good fellow. Whether he was the tutor for me, I dare not decide. The torments inflicted on me, in this riding, must be attributed to my mother. As a teenager he was educated at Kassel at the Friedrichsgymnasium, in January 1877, Wilhelm finished high school and on his eighteenth birthday received as a present from his grandmother, Queen Victoria, the Order of the Garter. After Kassel he spent four terms at the University of Bonn, studying law and he became a member of the exclusive Corps Borussia Bonn
7.
Order of the Red Eagle
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The Order of the Red Eagle was an order of chivalry of the Kingdom of Prussia. It was awarded to military personnel and civilians, to recognize valor in combat, excellence in military leadership, long and faithful service to the kingdom. As with most German orders, the Order of the Red Eagle could only be awarded to commissioned officers or civilians of equivalent status. However, there was a medal of the order, which could be awarded to non-commissioned officers and enlisted men, lower ranking civil servants and other civilians. The predecessor to Order of the Red Eagle was founded on November 17,1705 and this soon fell into disuse but was revived in 1712 in Brandenburg-Bayreuth and again in 1734 in Brandenburg-Ansbach, where it first received the name Order of the Brandenburg Red Eagle. The statutes were changed in 1777 and the Order named therein as the Order of the Red Eagle, the Order was conferred in one class, limited to fifty knights. The Kingdom of Prussia absorbed both Brandenburg-Bayreuth and Brandenburg-Ansbach in January,1792, and on June 12,1792, King Frederick William II again revived the order as a Prussian royal order. After the Order of the Black Eagle, the Red Eagle was the second highest order of the kingdom in order of precedence, in 1810, King Frederick William III revised the statutes of the Order, expanding it into three classes. In 1830, a breast star was authorized for the Second Class, the statutes were further revised in 1861, and a Grand Cross was established as the highest class of the Order. By 1918, an affiliated soldiers medal had been available to commoners. The monarchy collapsed on November 9,1918, a new German constitution was signed into law, August 11,1919, effectually putting a legal end to the monarchy. Among these were, All classes but the Medal of the Red Eagle Order could be awarded with swords for distinction in wartime, the swords passed through the arms of the cross behind the center medallion. All classes above the 4th Class could be awarded with Swords on Ring, indicating that the recipient of that class without swords had earlier received a class of the order with swords. A pair of crossed swords were worn above the cross on the ring or above the medallion on the upper arm of the breast star. All classes could be awarded with or without crown as an added distinction, the Grand Cross, 1st and 2nd Class could be awarded with oak leaves, indicating prior receipt of the next lower class of the order, and/or with diamonds, as a special distinction. Royal family members were awarded the Grand Cross with crown, the Maltese cross badge was suspended from a miniature of the Prussian crown, which covered the usual suspension ring. The Grand Cross was awarded at least once with crossed marshals batons, the crossed batons were worn above the Maltese cross badge of the Grand Cross, on its suspension ring. The 3rd Class could be awarded with bow, indicating prior receipt of the 4th Class, prussians who were Knights of the Order of St. John of Malta
8.
Lampertheim
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Lampertheim is a town in the Bergstraße district in Hesse, Germany. In 1984, the hosted the 24th Hessentag state festival. Lampertheim lies in the southwest corner of Hesse in the Rhine rift at the Biedensand Conservation Area and borders on Baden-Württemberg and it is on the right bank of the Rhine across from Worms, roughly 15 kilometres north of Mannheim. The town is broadly, but visibly surrounded by the Odenwald, Lampertheim is one of Hesse’s southernmost towns and borders on Bürstadt, Lorsch, Viernheim and Mannheim. Lampertheim has the centres of Hofheim, Hüttenfeld, Neuschloß and Rosengarten. The earliest forms of the town’s name handed down from 832 were Langobardonheim or Langbardheim, in 1716, the town was granted market rights, and on 4 August 1951 town rights. It is found in an old house and there are guided tours, at the Musikschule Lampertheim is a children’s choir led by Sabine Nicolai. One can also learn to play instruments at the music school, such as violin, piano, flute, trumpet. There is also singing instruction there, either singly or in groups of 3 or 4 pupils, worth mentioning is the Schloss Rennhof built by Baron Rothschild in 1853 and the old schoolhouse built in 1906 and 1907, both in Hüttenfeld. It is the only recognized Lithuanian school in Western Europe, the many transmission masts of the shortwave broadcaster Radio Free Europe Lampertheim, one of the biggest shortwave transmission facilities in Germany, are up to 125 m tall. They are guyed masts, set in pairs in a row. Some of these masts are linked to each other by crossbeams furnished with catwalks. DLRG Reitsport Weiland TV Lampertheim Wassersportverein Lampertheim 1929 e. V, olympia Lampertheim The Lampertheimer Spargellauf is a public walking event that is traditionally held a week before the Lampertheim Asparagus Festival. It is staged by the Lampertheim Gymnastic Club, every finisher gets a Spargellauf T-shirt, which comes in a different colour every year. Lampertheim is on Bundesstraße 47, the Nibelungenstraße, which leads from Worms to Michelstadt in the Odenwald, lampterheim is also on Bundesstraße 44, which runs from Mannheim towards Biblis and further. Furthermore, American soldiers also train at a range in the Lampertheim woods. In Lampertheim itself are four schools, the Lessing Gymnasium Lampertheim. There are also the Alfred-Delp-Schule, a joint Hauptschule-Realschule, and the Biedensandschule, there is also the district vocational school
9.
Academy of Fine Arts, Munich
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The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich is one of the oldest and most significant art academies in Germany. It is located in the Maxvorstadt district of Munich, in Bavaria, the Academy of Fine Arts was founded 1808 by Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria in Munich as the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. The Munich School refers to a group of painters who worked in Munich or were trained at the Academy between 1850 and 1918, the paintings are characterized by a naturalistic style and dark chiaroscuro. Typical painting subjects included landscape, portraits, genre, still-life, from 1900 to 1918 the academys director was Ferdinand Freiherr von Miller. In 1946, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts was merged with the School of arts and crafts, in 1953 its name was changed to the current Academy of Fine Arts. The large 19th-century Renaissance Revival style building complex, designed by Gottfried Neureuther, was completed in 1886 and it has housed the Academy since then. A new Deconstructivist style expansion, designed by the architectural firm Coop Himmelbau as an extension from the building, was completed in 2005
