1.
Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
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The Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was a territory in Northern Germany held by the House of Mecklenburg residing at Schwerin. It was a member state of the German Confederation and became a federated state of the North German Confederation. The smaller southeastern part was held by the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz branch of the ducal house. Likewise in the west, the Duchy of Holstein was incorporated into the Schleswig-Holstein Province, in the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars Duke Frederick Francis I of Mecklenburg-Schwerin had remained neutral, and in 1803 he regained Wismar, which was pawned to him from Sweden. After Napoleons victory at the Battle of Austerlitz and the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. Napoleon, in preparation for the French invasion of Russia in 1812, disregarded this alliance, instead, Denmark was promised the adjacent lands of Swedish Pomerania by the 1814 Peace of Kiel and the rule of the Mecklenburg dukes remained inviolate. In 1819 serfdom was abolished in his dominions. During the revolutions of 1848, the duchy witnessed a considerable agitation in favour of a liberal constitution, on 10 October 1849 Grand Duke Frederick Francis II granted a new Basic law elaborated by his First Minister Ludwig von Lützow. In the dispute over neighbouring Holstein which culminated in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War, Frederick Francis II supported the Kingdom of Prussia and his grand duchy began to pass more and more under Prussian influence. In 1867 he joined the North German Confederation and the Zollverein, in the Franco-Prussian War, Prussia again received valuable assistance from Grand Duke Frederick Francis II, who was an ardent advocate of German unity and held a high command in her armies. In the course of the German unification in 1871, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, there was now renewed agitation for a more democratic constitution, and the German Reichstag parliament gave some countenance to this movement. In 1897 Frederick Francis IV succeeded his father Frederick Francis III as the last grand duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, in 1907 the Grand Duke promised a constitution to his subjects. The duchy had always been under a system of government. The duchy shared a diet, which met for a short session each year, at other times they were represented by a committee consisting of the proprietors of knights estates, known as the Ritterschaft, and the Landschaft, or burgomasters of certain towns. Mecklenburg-Schwerin returned six members to the Reichstag, upon the suicide of his cousin Grand Duke Adolphus Frederick VI on 23 February 1918, Frederick Francis served as regent of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Shortly afterwards, on 14 November, he was forced to renounce the Mecklenburg throne in the course of the German Revolution, the grand duchy turned into the Free State of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, a federated state of the Weimar Republic. Thereby ended nearly eight centuries of rule by the originally Obotrite Mecklenburg dynasty. Until 1918 the grand duke was styled as Prince of the Wends and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed
Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
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Schwerin Castle,
Schwerin.
Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
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Flag
2.
Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
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The Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was a territory in Northern Germany, held by the younger line of the House of Mecklenburg residing in Neustrelitz. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–19 it was succeeded by the Free State of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the first was bounded by the Prussian provinces of Pomerania and Brandenburg, the second bordered on the Duchy of Lauenburg and the territory of the Free City of Lübeck. Major towns beside Neustrelitz included Neubrandenburg, Friedland, Woldegk, Stargard, Fürstenberg, the Grand Duchy also comprised the former commandries of the Knights Hospitaller in Mirow and Nemerow. Thereupon, the Grand Duchy joined the North German Confederation and the reconstituted Zollverein, also in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, the Kingdom of Prussia received valuable assistance from Mecklenburg-Strelitz. In 1871 both Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz became States of the German Empire, Mecklenburg-Strelitz returned one member to the Bundesrat chamber of states. However, the Grand Duke was still styled Prince of the Wends, the Grand Dukes exercised absolute power through their ministers, with an antiquated type of diet representing social classes. There was now a renewal of agitation for a democratic constitution. In 1904 Adolphus Frederick V, a son of Grand Duke Frederick William and his wife Princess Augusta of Cambridge, daughter of Prince Adolphus, in 1907, the grand duke promised a constitution to the duchys subjects, but this was met with opposition from the nobility. The Mecklenburg-Strelitz dynasty ended just prior to the loss of the monarchy in developments associated with World War I, in 1914, before the proclamation of war between Germany and Russia, Duke Charles Michael renounced his Mecklenburgish citizenship. On 23 February 1918, Grand Duke Adolf Frederick VI committed suicide, George subsequently assumed the title Duke of Mecklenburg which was acknowledged by Grand Duke Frederick Francis IV of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. He was later given the style of Highness by the House of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, georges grandson Borwin is the present head of the House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. The county of Mecklenburg in the U. S. state of North Carolina, the City of Charlotte, known as The Queen City was named for Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III of Great Britain. Queen Charlotte was Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, born on 19 May 1744 and she was the youngest daughter of Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Prince of Mirow and his wife Princess Elizabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
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Neustrelitz Castle, about 1900
Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
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Flag
3.
Low German
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Low German or Low Saxon is a West Germanic language spoken mainly in northern Germany and the eastern part of the Netherlands. It is descended from Old Saxon in its earliest form, as an Ingvaeonic language, Low German is quite distinct from the Irminonic languages like Standard German. It is closely related to Anglo-Frisian group of languages and more distantly to Dutch and this difference resulted from the High German consonant shift, with the Uerdingen and Benrath lines being two notable linguistic borders. Dialects of Low German are widely spoken in the area of the Netherlands and are written there with an orthography based on Standard Dutch orthography. Small portions of northern Hesse and northern Thuringia are traditionally Low Saxon-speaking too, historically, Low German was also spoken in formerly German parts of Poland as well as in East Prussia and the Baltic States of Estonia and Latvia. Under the name Low Saxon, there are speakers in the Dutch north-eastern provinces of Groningen, Drenthe, Stellingwerf, Overijssel, German speakers in this area fled the Red Army or were forcibly expelled after the border changes at the end of World War II. Today, there are still speakers outside Germany and the Netherlands to be found in the areas of present-day Poland. In some of these countries, the language is part of the Mennonite religion, there are Mennonite communities in Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Minnesota which use Low German in their religious services and communities. The type of Low German spoken in communities and in the Midwest region of the United States has diverged since emigration. The survival of the language is tenuous in many places and has died out in places where assimilation has occurred. Mennonite colonies in Paraguay, Belize, and Chihuahua, Mexico have made Low German a co-official language of the community, in Germany, native speakers of Low German call it Platt, Plattdüütsch or Nedderdüütsch. In the Netherlands, native speakers refer to their language as dialect, plat, nedersaksies, or the name of their village, officially, Low German is called Niederdeutsch by the German authorities and Nedersaksisch by the Dutch authorities. Plattdeutsch/Niederdeutsch and Platduits/Nedersaksisch are seen in texts from the German. In Danish it is called Plattysk, Nedertysk or, rarely, Mennonite Low German is called Plautdietsch. Etymologically Platt meant clear in the sense of a language the people could understand. In Dutch, the word Plat can also mean improper, or rude, the ISO 639-2 language code for Low German has been nds since May 2000. The question of whether Low German should be considered a separate language, linguistics offers no simple, generally accepted criterion to decide this question. Scholarly arguments have been put forward in favour of classifying Low German as a German dialect, as said, these arguments are not linguistic but rather socio-political and build mainly around the fact that Low German has no official standard form or use in sophisticated media
Low German
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City limits sign: this city is called
Emlichheim in
Standard German and Emmelkamp in Low German (and Dutch)
Low German
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Approximate area in which Low German/Low Saxon dialects are spoken in Europe.
Low German
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A public school in Witmarsum Colony (
Paraná,
Southern Brazil), teaches in the
Portuguese language and in Plautdietsch.
4.
Northern Germany
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Northern Germany is the region in the north of Germany. Its exact area is not precisely or consistently defined but varies depending on one is taking a linguistic, geographic. Northern Germany generally refers to the Sprachraum area north of the Uerdingen and Benrath line isoglosses, however, since World War II and the immigration of expellees from the former eastern territories of Germany, its prevalence has steadily reduced. Besides which, Frisian is spoken in East and North Frisia, from a linguistic and cultural perspective, Northern Germany is linked to the Netherlands, Scandinavia and England. Additionally, Jansen/Janssen, Hansen, and Petersen are the most common surnames in the far north of Germany, which are also some of the most common surnames in Denmark. The key terrain feature of Northern Germany is the North German Plain including the marshes along the coastline of the North and Baltic Seas, as well as the geest and heaths inland. Also prominent are the low hills of the Baltic Uplands, the moraines, end moraines, sandur, glacial valleys, bogs. Likewise the Altmark in Saxony-Anhalt, the Prignitz and Uckermark areas of northern Brandenburg, culturally and socially, Northern Germany is characterized by higher levels of income equality and gender equality, relative to southern and south-western Germany. The traditional Northern German daily diet is centered around boiled potatoes, rye bread, dairy products, cabbages, cucumbers, berries, jams, fish, and pork and beef. A breakfast specialty is the Crispbread or Knäcke, eaten with a variety of such as ham, cheese, fruits. Lentil stews and soups are popular as a working lunch. Regional specialties in Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lower Saxony include Blutwurst or Blood sausage, another Northern German regional specialty are Hackbraten, meatloaves, made from a mixture of ground pork and beef and served with mashed potatoes, brown sauce and lingonberry jam. Many traditional meat-based lunch dishes are served boiled or mashed potatoes. Eating brunch is popular during weekends in the larger towns. In regions nearer to the coast, fish is popular, with Pickled herring. Coffee drinking is strongly rooted in Northern Germany and the Northern provinces on average consume around 8 kilograms of coffee per capita annually and this is fairly more than the 6 kilograms of coffee per capita consumed in the south. Coffee is frequently drunk four times a day, with breakfast, after lunch, in the evening at around 4, and after dinner. Many working people also drink a coffee at the workstation with the start of the days work, besides, there is a strong tradition of taking coffee breaks and visits to the café with friends and acquaintances
Northern Germany
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Contents
Northern Germany
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Uerdingen line: ich ("I") and ik isogloss
Northern Germany
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Holy Roman Empire about 1000, Saxony in yellow
5.
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
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Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is a federal state in northern Germany. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is the sixth largest German state by area, and the least densely populated, three of Germanys fourteen national parks are in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, in addition to several hundred nature conservation areas. Major cities include Rostock, Schwerin, Neubrandenburg, Stralsund, Greifswald, Wismar, the University of Rostock and the University of Greifswald are among the oldest in Europe. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern was the site of the 33rd G8 summit in 2007, due to its lengthy name, the state is often abbreviated as MV or shortened to MeckPomm. In English, it is translated as Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania or literally Mecklenburg-Cispomerania. Inhabitants are called either Mecklenburger or Pomeranians, the form is never used. The full name in German is pronounced and this is because the digraph <ck> marks a preceding short vowel in High German. Mecklenburg however is within the historical Low German language area, another explanation is that the c comes from a mannerism in High German officialese of writing unnecessary letters, a so-called Letternhäufelung. Human settlement in the area of modern Mecklenburg and Vorpommern began after the Ice Age, about two thousand years ago, Germanic peoples were recorded in the area. Most of them left during the Migration Period, heading towards Spain, Italy, in the 6th century Polabian Slavs populated the area. While Mecklenburg was settled by the Obotrites, Vorpommern was settled by the Veleti, along the coast, Vikings and Slavs established trade posts like Reric, Ralswiek and Menzlin. In the 12th century, Mecklenburg and Vorpommern were conquered by Henry the Lion and incorporated into the Duchy of Saxony, all of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern was settled with Germans in the Ostsiedlung process, starting in the 12th century. In the late 12th century, Henry the Lion, Duke of the Saxons, conquered the Obotrites, subjugated its Nikloting dynasty, in the course of time, German monks, nobility, peasants and traders arrived to settle here. After the 12th century, the territory remained stable and relatively independent of its neighbours, Mecklenburg first became a duchy of the Holy Roman Empire in 1348. Though later partitioned and re-partitioned within the dynasty, Mecklenburg always shared a common history. The states of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz became Grand Duchies in 1815, Vorpommern, litererally Fore-Pomerania, is the smaller, western part of the former Prussian Province of Pomerania, the eastern part became part of Poland after the end of World War II. In the Middle Ages, the area was ruled by the Pomeranian dukes as part of the Duchy of Pomerania, Pomerania was under Swedish rule after the Peace of Westphalia from 1648 until 1815 as Swedish Pomerania. Pomerania became a province of Prussia in 1815 and remained so until 1945, wartime In May 1945, the armies of the Soviet Union and the Western allies met east of Schwerin
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
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Schwerin Palace, seat of the
Landtag, is one of more than 2000
palaces and castles in the state.
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
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One of more than 1000
megalith sites in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern − the
Lancken-Granitz dolmen
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
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Slavic ring fortress at
Cape Arkona (
Rügen Island)
6.
Rostock
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Rostock is the largest city in the north German state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Rostock is on the Warnow river, the district of Warnemünde 12 kilometres north of the city centre is directly on the Baltic Sea coast, Rostock is home to one of the oldest universities in the world, the University of Rostock, founded in 1419. The city territory of Rostock stretches for about 20 km along the Warnow to the Baltic Sea, the largest built-up area of Rostock is on the western side of the river. The eastern part of its territory is dominated by industrial estates, Rostock is considered as the only regiopolis in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In the 11th century Polabian Slavs founded a settlement at the Warnow river called Roztoc, the Danish king Valdemar I set the town aflame in 1161. Afterwards the place was settled by German traders, initially there were three separate cities, Altstadt around the Alter Markt with St. Petri, Mittelstadt around the Neuer Markt with St. Marien and Neustadt around the Hopfenmarkt with St. Jakobi. In 1218, Rostock was granted Lübeck law city rights by Heinrich Borwin, during the first partition of Mecklenburg following the death of Henry Borwin II of Mecklenburg in 1226, Rostock became the seat of the Lordship of Rostock, which survived for almost a century. In 1251, the city became a member of the Hanseatic League, in the 14th century it was a powerful seaport town with 12,000 inhabitants and the biggest city of Mecklenburg. Ships for cruising the Baltic Sea were constructed in Rostock, the formerly independent fishing village of Warnemünde at the Baltic Sea became a part of Rostock in 1323, to secure the citys access to the Baltic Sea. In 1419, one of the earliest universities in Europe, the University of Rostock, was founded and they took advantage of a riot known as Domfehde, a failed uprising of the impoverished population. Subsequent quarrels with the dukes and persistent plundering led ultimately to a loss of economic, in 1565 there were further clashes with Schwerin that which had far-reaching consequences. Among other things, was the introduction of a beer excise that favoured the dukes. John Albert I advanced on the city with 500 horsemen, after Rostock had refused to take the oath of allegiance. The citizens slighted the fortress the following spring, from 1575 to 1577 the city walls were rebuilt, as was the Lagebusch tower and the Stein Gate in the Dutch Renaissance style. The inscription sit intra te concordia et publica felicitas, which can still be read on the gate, in 1584 it finally came to the Second Rostock Inheritance Agreement, which resulted in a further loss of former tax privileges. At the same time, these inheritance contracts put paid to Rostocks ambition of achieving imperial immediacy as Lübeck had done in 1226, the strategic location of Rostock provoked the envy of its rivals. Danes and Swedes occupied the city twice, first during the Thirty Years War, later, the French, under Napoleon, occupied the town for about a decade until 1813. In nearby Lübeck-Ratekau, Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, who was born in Rostock and this was only after furious street fighting in the Battle of Lübeck, in which he led some of the cavalry charges himself
Rostock
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Hanseatic City of Rostock with
St. Mary's Church
Rostock
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Warnemünde, Baltic seaside resort that is part of Rostock. The
Lighthouse and Teepott are its landmarks.
Rostock
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University of Rostock, one of the world's oldest universities, founded in 1419.
Rostock
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Rostock 1780-90
7.
Schwerin
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Schwerin is the capital and second-largest city of the northern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The population is 91,583 and 98.000 as of July 2016, Schwerin was first mentioned in 1018 and was granted city rights in 1160, thus it is the oldest city of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. It is known for its romantic Schwerin Palace, crowning an island in the Lake Schwerin, the city also has a largely intact old town, thanks to only minor damage in World War II. Schwerin is located within the region of Hamburg and close to that of Berlin. The largest of these lakes, the Schweriner See, has an area of 60 km2, in the midst of these lakes there was a settlement of the Slavic Obotrite. The area was called Zuarin, and the name Schwerin is derived from that designation, in 1160, Henry the Lion defeated the Obotrites and captured Schwerin. The town was expanded into a powerful regional centre. A castle was built on site, and expanded to become a ducal palace. It is supposedly haunted by the small, impious ghost, called Petermännchen, in 1358, Schwerin became a part of the Duchy of Mecklenburg, making it the seat of the duchy from then on. About 1500, the construction of the Schwerin Palace began, as a residence for the dukes, after the division of Mecklenburg, Schwerin became the capital of the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Between 1765 and 1837, the town of Ludwigslust served as the capital, in the mid-1800s, many residents from Schwerin moved to the United States, many to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Today Milwaukee and Schwerin are sister cities, after 1918, and during the German Revolution, resulting in the fall of all the German monarchies, the Grand Duke abdicated. Schwerin became capital of the Free State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern thereafter, at the end of World War II, on 2 May 1945, Schwerin was taken by U. S. troops. Schwerin was then in the Soviet Occupation Zone which was to become the German Democratic Republic, initially, it was the capital of the State of Mecklenburg which at that time included the western part of Pomerania. After the states were dissolved in the GDR, in 1952, after reunification in 1990, the former state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern was recreated as one of the Bundesländer. Rostock was a contender for state capital but the decision went in favour of Schwerin. City buses and trams are run by NVS, Schwerin Hauptbahnhof is connected by rail to Berlin, Hamburg and Rostock. The landmark of the city is the Schwerin Palace, located on an island in the lake of the same name and it was, for centuries, the residence of the Dukes of Mecklenburg and today is the seat of the Landtag
Schwerin
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Schwerin Palace - Parliament of
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Schwerin
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Aerial view of
Schwerin Palace
Schwerin
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Schwerin Palace during the
BUGA 2009, Germany's federal garden show
Schwerin
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Aerial view of Schwerin
8.
Neubrandenburg
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Neubrandenburg is a city in the southeast of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is located on the shore of a lake called Tollensesee, Neubrandenburg is nicknamed for its four medieval city gates - Stadt der Vier Tore. It is part of the European Route of Brick Gothic, a route leads through seven countries along the Baltic Sea coast. Since 2011, Neubrandenburg is the capital of the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district and it is the third-largest city and one of the main urban centres of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The city is a power node of northeastern Germany, featuring one of the highest national ranks in employment density. The closest greater urban areas are the regiopolis of Rostock and the metropolises of Szczecin, Berlin, since 1991, Neubrandenburg hosts a University of Applied Sciences that also offers international exchanges, guest programs and studies. The first settlers at the place were Premonstratensian monks in Broda Abbey, the foundation of the city of Neubrandenburg took place in 1248, when the Margrave of Brandenburg decided to build a settlement in the northern part of his fief. In 1292 the city and the area became part of Mecklenburg. The city flourished as a trade centre until the Thirty Years War, during the dramatic advance of the Swedish army of Gustavus Adolphus into Germany, the city was garrisoned by Swedes, but it was retaken by Imperial Catholic League forces in 1631. During this operation it was reported that the Catholic forces killed many of the Swedish and Scottish soldiers while they were surrendering. The city, therefore, played a role in the escalation of brutality of one of historys most brutal wars. During the Second World War, a large camp, Stalag II-A, was located close to the city. In 1945, few days before the end of the Second World War, in that course, about 600 people committed suicide. Since then, most buildings of historical relevance have been rebuilt, Neubrandenburg was a bezirk centre between 1952 and 1990. See also, Media related to Cultural heritage monuments in Neubrandenburg at Wikimedia Commons Neubrandenburg has preserved its medieval city wall in its entirety. The wall,7 m high and with a perimeter of 2.3 km has four Brick Gothic city gates, of these, one of the most impressive is the Stargarder Tor, with its characteristic gable-like shape and the filigree tracery and rosettes on the outer defence side. Another place of interest is the Brick Gothic Marienkirche, completed 1298, the church was nearly destroyed in 1945, but it has been restored since 1975 to house a concert hall. The tallest highrise in the city is the 56m Haus der Kultur und Bildung and its slender appearance has earned it the nickname Kulturfinger
Neubrandenburg
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St. Mary's Church (used for concerts)
Neubrandenburg
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Treptower Tor
Neubrandenburg
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2 of the 56 typical timbered Wiek houses along the city wall
Neubrandenburg
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Stargarder Tor
9.
Wismar
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Wismar is a port and Hanseatic city in Northern Germany on the Baltic Sea, in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. It is located about 45 kilometres east of Lübeck and 30 kilometres north of Schwerin and its natural harbour, located in the Bay of Wismar, is well-protected by a promontory. The population was 42,219 in 2013 and it is the capital of the district of Nordwestmecklenburg. Wismar received its rights in 1229, and came into the possession of Mecklenburg in 1301. In 1259 it had entered a pact with Lübeck and Rostock and this developed into the Hanseatic League. During the 13th and 14th centuries it was a flourishing Hanseatic town, though a plague carried off 10,000 of the inhabitants in 1376, the town seems to have remained tolerably prosperous until the 16th century. Under the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 Wismar passed into the possession of Sweden, through Wismar and the other dominions in the Holy Roman Empire, the Swedish monarchs in their roles as princes, or Reichsfürsten, took part in the Imperial Diets. From 1653 it was the seat of the highest court for that part of Sweden, in 1803 Sweden pledged both town and lordship to Mecklenburg for 1,258,000 Riksdaler, reserving, however, the right of redemption after 100 years. In view of this contingent right of Sweden, Wismar was not represented at the diet of Mecklenburg until 1897, in 1903 Sweden finally renounced its claims on the town. Wismar still retains a few relics of its old privileges, including the right to fly its own flag, at the turn of the 19th century the most important manufacturing industries of Wismar were iron, machinery, paper, roofing-felt and asphalt. There was also considerable trade, especially by sea, in exports including grain, oil-seeds and butter, the harbour was deep enough to admit vessels of 5 meters draught, permitting sizeable steamers to unload at its quays. Wismar was the home to the Dornier aircraft plant, and to railway rolling-stock factories, in World War II Wismar was heavily damaged by Allied air raids. On 7 May 1945 General Montgomery and Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky met in Wismar, on July 1,1945, due to the occupation zone agreements of the Yalta Conference making Wismar a part of the Soviet Zone of Germany, the British troops departed and Soviet troops took over. During the period of the German Democratic Republic, from 1949 to 1990, Wismar was developed as a port and shipbuilding city, becoming East Germanys second-largest port, after Rostock. Although the DDR government pledged to restore churches that had been heavily bomb-damaged during the war, in 2011, Wismar became the capital of the Landkreis of Nordwestmecklenburg. The squares focal point is the Wasserkunst, an elaborate wrought-iron fountain imported from Holland in 1602, the northern side of the square is occupied by the Town Hall, built in neoclassical style in 1817–1819. Another notable building in the square is a Brick Gothic Bürgerhaus called the Alter Schwede, St. Georges Church, the third so-named edifice on the site, dates from 1404. It had escaped damage during most of World War II
Wismar
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Market Square with the
waterworks from 1602 (Wasserkunst), landmark of Wismar
Wismar
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UNESCO World Heritage Site
Wismar
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In
Nosferatu, the protagonist Hutter's departure from Wisborg was filmed in Heiligen-Geist-Kirche 's yard in Wismar. This photograph is from 1970.
Wismar
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Old Harbour of Wismar
10.
Mikilenburg
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Mecklenburg Castle was a medieval castle and a residential capital of the Nakonid and Nikloting dynasties of the Obotrites. It was located just south of the modern village Dorf Mecklenburg, seven kilometres south of the Bay of Wismar in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the only remnants of the ruined castle are parts of an earthen wall. Some scholars have associated Mecklenburg with the trading emporium Reric. The travelling merchant Ibrahim Ibn Jacub described Mecklenburg as “Nakon’s Castle” in 965, by 995 it was documented as Michelenburg or Mikelenburg, meaning large castle in Low German. In Latin, it was known as Magnopolis, the later duchy and region of Mecklenburg derives its name from the castle. The probable Slavic name, Veligrad also, was commemorated in a new Schloss Weligrad built between 1896 and 1898 for Duke John Albert of Mecklenburg. Excavations indicate that the first castle of Mecklenburg was built in the 7th or 8th century in a lowland at the tip of a lakeland peninsula and it was possibly the Obotrite residence of Reric, destroyed in 808. If associated with Reric, merchants were at the castle by the beginning of the 9th century, significant market traffic would have developed in the 10th century. A number of artifacts have been found in the vicinity of the ruins. The castle of Mecklenburg became a seat of Obotrite princes by the 10th century at the latest and it lay on a route from Hamburg to Wolin, assuring the castle importance as an economic and political center. The powerful Obotrite prince resided in the castle by 965, the castle flourished as the residence of the Christian prince Gottschalk and the seat of the Irish bishop John of Mecklenburg, the castle contained churches and three monasteries by 1066. During a widespread pagan rebellion later that year, Gottschalk was killed, the head of Bishop John was displayed at the pagan center of Rethra. Henry, a son of Gottschalk, avenged his father’s death by killing the pagan usurper Kruto in 1093. However, he chose as his residence Liubice, which was near the borders of the Wagrians, Polabians, and Obotrites, instead of Mecklenburg Castle, the castle also began to lose its prominence as the Kingdom of Germany began expanding eastward. As part of Duke Henry the Lion of Saxony’s expansionary goals, niklot was ultimately killed at Werle during the campaign, however, and the Obotrite territory was partitioned between Saxon ministeriales, Mecklenburg Castle passed to Count Heinrich von Schaten. The Bishopric of Mecklenburg was replaced by the Bishopric of Schwerin in the same year, Niklot’s son Pribislav led a Slavic rebellion in 1163 against Henry the Lion and the German lords occupying Obotrite castles. Although Pribislav sacked Mecklenburg in 1164, the rebellion was defeated at the Battle of Verchen later that year. In need of an ally against the Saxon nobility three years later, Henry allowed Pribislav to receive his father’s Niklot’s inheritance and became the Prince of Mecklenburg, Kessin, market traffic was documented at Mecklenburg in 1168, although most of the trade was passing to Schwerin
Mikilenburg
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Memorial for Mecklenburg Castle in Dorf Mecklenburg, Germany
11.
Old Saxon
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Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, is a Germanic language and the earliest recorded form of Low German. It belongs to the West Germanic branch and is most closely related to the Anglo-Frisian languages and it is documented from the 8th century until the 12th century, when it evolved into Middle Low German. It was spoken on the north-west coast of Germany and in the Netherlands by Saxon peoples and it is close enough to Old Anglo-Frisian that it partially participates in the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law, it is also closely related to Old Dutch. The grammar of Old Saxon was fully inflected with five grammatical cases, the dual forms occurred in the first and second persons only and referred to groups of two. For a long time, Old Saxon and Old Dutch were not distinguished, there are also various differences in their phonological evolutions, Old Saxon being considered as an Ingvaeonic language whereas Old Dutch is an Istvaeonic language. Old Saxon probably evolved primarily from Ingvaeonic dialects in the West Germanic branch of Proto-Germanic in the 5th century. However, it seems that some Middle Dutch took the Old Saxon a-stem ending from some Middle Low German dialects, however,1150 marks the inceptive period of profuse Low German writing wherein the language is patently different from Old Saxon. One of the most striking differences between Middle Low German and Old Saxon is in a feature of speech known as vowel reduction, while round vowels in word-final syllables were rather frequent in Old Saxon, in Middle Low German, such are leveled to a schwa. Thus, such Old Saxon words like gisprekan or dagô became gespreken and daghe, Old Saxon did not participate in the High German consonant shift, and thus preserves stop consonants p, t, k that have been shifted in Old High German to various fricatives and affricates. The Germanic diphthongs ai, au consistently develop into long vowels ē, ō, whereas in Old High German they appear either as ei, ou or ē, ō depending on the following consonant. Old Saxon, alone of the West Germanic languages except for Frisian, consistently preserves Germanic -j- after a consonant, Germanic umlaut, when it occurs with short a, is inconsistent, e. g. hebbean or habbian to have. This feature was carried over into the descendant-language of Old Saxon, Middle Low German, apart from the e, however, the umlaut is not marked in writing. The table below lists the consonants of Old Saxon, phonemes written in parentheses represent allophones and are not independent phonemes. Notes, The voiceless spirants /f/, /θ/, and /s/ gain voiced allophones when between vowels and this change is only faithfully reflected in writing for. The other two continued to be written as before. Beginning in the later Old Saxon period, stops became devoiced word-finally as well, notably, geminated /v/ gave /bb/, and geminated /ɣ/ probably gave /ɡɡ/. Germanic *h is retained as in these positions and thus merges with devoiced /ɣ/, notes, Long vowels were rare in unstressed syllables and mostly occurred due to suffixation or compounding. Notes, The closing diphthongs /ei/ and /ou/ sometimes occur in texts, probably under the influence of Franconian or High German dialects, the situation for the front opening diphthongs is somewhat unclear in some texts
Old Saxon
–
Heliand excerpt from the German Historical Museum
Old Saxon
–
Area in which Old Saxon was spoken in yellow.
12.
New Latin
–
New Latin was a revival in the use of Latin in original, scholarly, and scientific works between c.1375 and c. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy and international scientific vocabulary, in such use, New Latin is often viewed as still existing and subject to new word formation. As a language for full expression in prose or poetry, however, classicists use the term Neo-Latin to describe the Latin that developed in Renaissance Italy as a result of renewed interest in classical civilization in the 14th and 15th centuries. Neo-Latin also describes the use of the Latin language for any purpose, scientific or literary, during, the term New Latin came into widespread use towards the end of the 1890s among linguists and scientists. New Latin was, at least in its days, an international language used throughout Catholic and Protestant Europe. Russias acquisition of Kiev in the later 17th century introduced the study of Latin to Russia, though Latin and New Latin are considered extinct, large parts of their vocabulary have seeped into English and several Germanic languages. New Latin was inaugurated by the triumph of the humanist reform of Latin education, led by writers as Erasmus, More. Medieval Latin had been the working language of the Roman Catholic Church, taught throughout Europe to aspiring clerics. It was a language, full of neologisms and often composed without reference to the grammar or style of classical authors. Attempts at reforming Latin use occurred sporadically throughout the period, becoming most successful in the mid-to-late 19th century, the Protestant Reformation, though it removed Latin from the liturgies of the churches of Northern Europe, may have advanced the cause of the new secular Latin. Classic works such as Newtons Principia Mathematica were written in the language, throughout this period, Latin was a universal school subject, and indeed, the pre-eminent subject for elementary education in most of Europe and other places of the world that shared its culture. All universities required Latin proficiency to obtain admittance as a student, Latin was an official language of Poland—recognised and widely used between the 9th and 18th centuries, commonly used in foreign relations and popular as a second language among some of the nobility. As an auxiliary language to the local vernaculars, New Latin appeared in a variety of documents, ecclesiastical, legal, diplomatic, academic. As late as the 1720s, Latin was still used conversationally, for instance, the Hanoverian king George I of Great Britain, who had no command of spoken English, communicated in Latin with his Prime Minister Robert Walpole, who knew neither German nor French. By about 1700, the movement for the use of national languages had reached academia, and an example of the transition is Newtons writing career. A much earlier example is Galileo c,1600, some of whose scientific writings were in Latin, some in Italian, the latter to reach a wider audience. Likewise, in the early 18th century, French replaced Latin as a diplomatic language, at the same time, some were dismissing Latin as a useless accomplishment, unfit for a man of practical affairs. The last international treaty to be written in Latin was the Treaty of Vienna in 1738, a diminishing audience combined with diminishing production of Latin texts pushed Latin into a declining spiral from which it has not recovered
New Latin
–
Linnaeus,
10th edition of Systema Naturae is a famous New Latin text.
New Latin
–
This
pocket watch made for the medical community has Latin instructions for measuring a patient's
pulse rate on its dial: enumeras ad XX pulsus, "you count to 20 beats".
New Latin
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Handwriting in Latin from 1595
New Latin
–
Erasmus by
Holbein
13.
House of Mecklenburg
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The House of Mecklenburg, also known as Nikloting, is a North German dynasty that ruled until 1918 in the Mecklenburg region, being among the longest-ruling families of Europe. The main branch of the house was elevated in 1347 to ducal rank, the Dukes of Mecklenburg pursued from the 14th century a claim to inheritance in Sweden. The Duke of Mecklenburg was a descendant and the heir of two women whom legends tied to Scandinavian royal houses, christina was the mother of John I of Mecklenburg, whose son was Henry I, Lord of Mecklenburg. Lord Henry II of Mecklenburgs maternal grandmother, a lady named Marianna, was the first wife of Duke Barnim I of Pomerania, Lord of Wolgast, as well as sister of King Eric XI of Sweden. Marianna had given birth to a surviving child, a daughter named Anastasia of Pomerania. The Sverker dynasty had long been extinct, having lost the throne ultimately to Eric XI, the male dynasty of Eric X was already extinct, and issue of his other daughters had been sidestepped by Birger Jarl, the husband of his daughter, Ingeborg Eriksdotter of Sweden. Birger took great care to secure the kingship for his own sons, the couples second son duke Albert III deposed his uncle from the Swedish throne, and ascended as king. Margaret I of Denmark chose Eric of Pomerania as her heir, Eric descended from the elder brother of Albert III. Monarchs of the Kalmar union were all descendants of the House of Mecklenburg. The Hereditary Kingdom of Norway, has been the only medieval Scandinavian realm whose kingship was hereditary, already when Olav IV of Norway was young and his mother Margaret was regent, the Dukes of Mecklenburg advanced their claims. The Dukes of Mecklenburgs claim to the Norwegian throne is based on their descent from Euphemia of Sweden, when Olav IV died in 1387, Norway was without a monarch, under the government of the regentess Margaret. She soon chose an heir, Eric of Pomerania, whose mother Maria of Mecklenburg had been Eufemias eldest granddaughter, the Dukes of Mecklenburg continued to regard themselves as the rightful heirs to the throne of Norway but they were unable to gain the kingdom from the Oldenburgs. The legality of that treaty concession has been, and still is under discussion, because not all of the then agnates of the House participated in the deed, in the 17th and 18th centuries, the duchy was divided several times between agnates of the ducal house. Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Güstrow and Mecklenburg-Strelitz were typical partition principalities, with the extinction of Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Strelitz is now the only surviving branch of the Grand Ducal house in the male line. The current head of house is Borwin, Duke of Mecklenburg. His grandfather was Count Georg of Carlow, the son of Duke George Alexander of Mecklenburg. Count Georg of Carlow was adopted in 1928 by his uncle Duke Charles Michael of Mecklenburg the head of the House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and he succeeded his uncle as head of the house on 6 December 1934 and was granted the style of Highness on 18 December 1950. Rhema-Verlag, Münster 2007, ISBN 978-3-930454-78-5 Erstling, Frank, Frank Saß, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Beiträge zur Geschichte einer Region
House of Mecklenburg
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House of Mecklenburg
14.
Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
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The Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was a duchy in northern Germany created in 1701, when Frederick William and Adolphus Frederick II divided the Duchy of Mecklenburg between Schwerin and Strelitz. Niklots son, Pribislav, submitted himself to Henry, and in 1167 came into his inheritance as the first Prince of Mecklenburg. After they both had received the title, the former lordship of Stargard was recreated as the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Stargard for John in 1352. Albert II retained the western part of Mecklenburg, and after he acquired the former County of Schwerin in 1358. In 1363 Alberts son, Duke Albert III, campaigned in Sweden, in 1436, William, the last Lord of Werle, died without a male heir. Because Williams son-in-law, Ulric II of Mecklenburg-Stargard, had no issue, all possessions fell back to Duke Henry IV of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who was then the sole ruler over all of Mecklenburg. In 1520 Henrys grandsons, Henry V and Albert VII, again divided the duchy, creating the subdivision of Mecklenburg-Güstrow, in a second partition of 1621, he granted Güstrow to his brother, John Albert II. Both were deposed in 1628 by Albrecht von Wallenstein, as they had supported Christian IV of Denmark in the Thirty Years War, nevertheless, the Swedish Empire forced their restoration three years later. When John Albert IIs son, Duke Gustav Adolph, died without heirs in 1695. In June 1692, when Christian Louis I died in exile and without sons, in 1701, with the endorsement of the Imperial state of the Lower Saxon Circle, the Treaty of Hamburg was signed and the final division of the country was made. Mecklenburg was divided between the two claimants, the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was given to Frederick William, and the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, roughly a recreation of the medieval Stargard lordship, to Adolphus Frederick II. At the same time, the principle of primogeniture was reasserted, continued conflicts and partitions weakened the rule of the dukes and affirmed the reputation of Mecklenburg as one of the most backward territories of the Empire. Mecklenburg-Schwerin began its existence during a series of struggles between the duke and the nobles. His brother, Christian Ludwig II, was appointed administrator of the duchy, under this prince, who became ruler de jure in 1747, the Convention of Rostock, by which a new constitution was framed for the duchy, was signed in April 1755. By this instrument, all power was in the hands of the duke, the nobles, and the classes generally. During the Seven Years War, Frederick II took up an attitude towards Frederick the Great. In other ways his rule was beneficial to the country, in the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars, Frederick Francis I remained neutral, and in 1803 he regained Wismar from Kingdom of Sweden. In 1806 the land was overrun by the First French Empire and he was the first member of the confederation to abandon Napoleon, to whose armies he had sent a contingent, and in 1813–1814 he fought against France
Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
–
Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
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Flag
15.
Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
–
At the time of its establishment, the duchy bordered on the territory of Swedish Pomerania in the north and of Brandenburg in the south. After more than five years of dispute over succession to the House of Mecklenburg, the Güstrow branch of the House of Mecklenburg had died out with the death of Duke Gustav Adolph in 1695. The emissaries of the Lower Saxon Circle finally negotiated a compromise on March 8,1701, the agreement created the final, definitive division of Mecklenburg and was sealed with the 1701 Treaty of Hamburg. At the same time the principle of primogeniture was reasserted, the 1701 provisions were maintained with minor changes until the end of the monarchy. Both parties continued to call themselves Dukes of Mecklenburg, Adolphus Frederick took his residence at Strelitz, the Strelitz duchy remained one of the most backward regions of the Empire. Her niece Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, daughter of Duke Charles II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg, married Frederick William III of Hohenzollern in 1793, Mecklenburg-Strelitz adopted the constitution of the sister duchy in September 1755. In 1806 was spared the infliction of a French occupation through the offices of the king of Bavaria. In 1808 its duke, Charles, joined the Confederation of the Rhine, the Congress of Vienna recognized both Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Mecklenburg-Schwerin as grand duchies and members of the German Confederation. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
–
Flag
16.
Adjective
–
In linguistics, an adjective is a describing word, the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified. Adjectives are one of the English parts of speech, although historically they were classed together with the nouns, certain words that were traditionally considered to be adjectives, including the, this, my, etc. are today usually classed separately, as determiners. Adjective comes from Latin adjectīvum additional, a calque of Ancient Greek, in the grammatical tradition of Latin and Greek, because adjectives were inflected for gender, number, and case like nouns, they were considered a subtype of noun. The words that are typically called nouns were then called substantive nouns. The terms noun substantive and noun adjective were formerly used in English, in English, attributive adjectives usually precede their nouns in simple phrases, but often follow their nouns when the adjective is modified or qualified by a phrase acting as an adverb. For example, I saw three kids, and I saw three kids happy enough to jump up and down with glee. Predicative adjectives are linked via a copula or other linking mechanism to the noun or pronoun they modify, for example, happy is an adjective in they are happy. Nominal adjectives act almost as nouns, One way this can happen is if a noun is elided and an attributive adjective is left behind. In the sentence, I read two books to them, he preferred the sad book, but she preferred the happy, happy is a nominal adjective, short for happy one or happy book. Another way this can happen is in phrases like out with the old, in with the new, where the old means, that which is old or all that is old, and similarly with the new. In such cases, the adjective functions either as a noun or as a plural count noun, as in The meek shall inherit the Earth. Adjectives feature as a part of speech in most languages, in some languages, the words that serve the semantic function of adjectives may be categorized together with some other class, such as nouns or verbs. Such an analysis is possible for the grammar of Standard Chinese, different languages do not always use adjectives in exactly the same situations. For example, where English uses to be hungry, Dutch and French use honger hebben, similarly, where Hebrew uses the adjective זקוק zaqūq, English uses the verb to need. In languages which have adjectives as a class, they are usually an open class. However, Bantu languages are known for having only a small closed class of adjectives. Many languages, including English, distinguish between adjectives, which qualify nouns and pronouns, and adverbs, which mainly modify verbs, adjectives, not all languages have exactly this distinction and many languages, including English, have words that can function as both. For example, in English fast is an adjective in a fast car, in Dutch and German, adjectives and adverbs are usually identical in form and many grammarians do not make the distinction, but patterns of inflection can suggest a difference, Eine kluge neue Idee
Adjective
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Adjectives
17.
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
German language
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Old Frisian (Alt-Friesisch)
German language
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The widespread popularity of the
Bible translated into German by
Martin Luther helped establish modern German
German language
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Examples of German language in
Namibian everyday life
German language
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German-language newspapers in the U.S. in 1922
18.
Baltic Sea
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The Baltic Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, enclosed by Scandinavia, Finland, the Baltic countries, and the North European Plain. It includes the Gulf of Bothnia, the Bay of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland, the Gulf of Riga, the sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 10°E to 30°E longitude. The Baltic Sea is connected by waterways to the White Sea via the White Sea Canal. Traffic history Historically, the Kingdom of Denmark collected Sound Dues from ships at the border between the ocean and the land-locked Baltic Sea and they were collected in the Øresund at Kronborg castle near Helsingør, in the Great Belt at Nyborg. In the Little Belt, the site of intake was moved to Fredericia, the narrowest part of Little Belt is the Middelfart Sund near Middelfart. Oceanography Geographers widely agree that the physical border of the Baltic is a line drawn through the southern Danish islands, Drogden-Sill. The Drogden Sill is situated north of Køge Bugt and connects Dragør in the south of Copenhagen to Malmö, it is used by the Øresund Bridge, including the Drogden Tunnel. By this definition, the Danish Straits are part of the entrance, but the Bay of Mecklenburg, another usual border is the line between Falsterbo, Sweden and Stevns Klint, Denmark, as this is the southern border of Øresund. Its also the border between the shallow southern Øresund and notably deeper water, hydrography and biology Drogden Sill sets a limit to Øresund and Darss Sill, and a limit to the Belt Sea. The shallow sills are obstacles to the flow of salt water from the Kattegat into the basins around Bornholm. The Kattegat and the southwestern Baltic Sea are well oxygenated and have a rich biology, the remainder of the Sea is brackish, poor in oxygen and in species. While Tacitus called it Mare Suebicum after the Germanic people called the Suebi, the origin of the latter name is speculative. Adam of Bremen himself compared the sea with a belt, stating that it is so named because it stretches through the land as a belt and he might also have been influenced by the name of a legendary island mentioned in the Natural History of Pliny the Elder. Pliny mentions an island named Baltia with reference to accounts of Pytheas and it is possible that Pliny refers to an island named Basilia in On the Ocean by Pytheas. Baltia also might be derived from belt and mean near belt of sea, meanwhile, others have suggested that the name of the island originates from the Proto-Indo-European root *bhel meaning white, fair. This root and its meaning were retained in both Lithuanian and Latvian. On this basis, a related hypothesis holds that the name originated from this Indo-European root via a Baltic language such as Lithuanian, yet another explanation is that the name originally meant enclosed sea, bay as opposed to open sea. Some Swedish historians believe the name derives from the god Balder of Nordic mythology, in the Middle Ages the sea was known by variety of names
Baltic Sea
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Cape Arkona on the island of
Rügen in Germany, was a sacred site of the
Slavs before Christianization.
Baltic Sea
–
Map of the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
–
The naval
Battle of the Sound took place on 8 November 1658 during the
Dano-Swedish War.
Baltic Sea
–
The burning
Cap Arcona shortly after the attacks, 3 May 1945. Only 350 of the 4,500 prisoners who had been aboard the Cap Arcona survived.
19.
Landkreis Nordwestmecklenburg
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Nordwestmecklenburg is a Kreis in the north-western part of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is situated on the coast of the Baltic Sea and borders on Schleswig-Holstein to the west, neighboring districts are Rostock, Ludwigslust-Parchim and the district-free city Schwerin, and the district Lauenburg and the district-free city Lübeck in Schleswig-Holstein. The district seat is the town Wismar, the district is roughly situated in a triangle between the towns of Lübeck, Rostock and Schwerin. The district was created in 1994 by merging the previous districts Gadebusch, Grevesmühlen and Wismar, in the 2011 district reform, it was merged with the formerly district-free town Wismar. The name of the district was decided by referendum on 4 September 2011
Landkreis Nordwestmecklenburg
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Coat of arms
20.
Landkreis Rostock
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Rostock is a district in the north of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is bounded by the district Nordwestmecklenburg, the Baltic Sea, the district-free city Rostock, the district seat is the town Güstrow. The district was established by merging the districts of Bad Doberan. The name of the district was decided by referendum on 4 September 2011, the project name for the district was Mittleres Mecklenburg
Landkreis Rostock
–
Coat of arms
21.
Neustrelitz
–
Neustrelitz is a town in the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is situated on the shore of the Zierker See in the Mecklenburg Lake District, from 1738 until 1918 it was the capital of the duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. From 1994 until 2011 it was the capital of the district of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the name Strelitz is derived from the Polabian word Strelci, meaning shooter. The village of Strelitz was first mentioned in 1278 and it grew to a small town in the following centuries. In the 17th century Strelitz was a part of the duchy of Mecklenburg-Güstrow, afterwards the new duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was established. This small duchy contained the district and an exclave around Ratzeburg. In 1712 the castle and the town of Strelitz burnt down, after this disaster the duke and his family lived on their hunting lodge at the lake called Zierker See to the northwest of Strelitz. Around this place the new town of Neustrelitz was constructed and it became the official capital of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in 1736. Neustrelitz remained the seat until 1918 and was the capital of the Free State of Mecklenburg-Strelitz from 1918 to 1933. In 1934 it was merged with Mecklenburg-Schwerin to the Gau of Mecklenburg, the ancient town of Strelitz continued to exist after the fire of 1712, it was a small village, which was suburbanised by Neustrelitz in 1931. When the Red Army troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front entered the town on 30 April 1945,681 people committed suicide, the city centre is characterised by Baroque architecture. Its heart is the Marktplatz, with the Stadtkirche, built in 1768–1778 and the opposite Rathaus, built in 1841 by Friedrich W. Buttel, the Baroque Schloß was destroyed in 1945, but the palace gardens still exist. There is a lake, Glambeck See, where one can swim in summer in a protected area and have lunch at a restaurant overlooking the lake. The city has hosted the popular Immergut Festival since the year 2000, attended by almost 5000 visitors each year
Neustrelitz
–
Gymnasium Carolinum
Neustrelitz
–
Lake Großer Fürstenseer
Neustrelitz
–
War memorial
Franco-Prussian War in
Strelitz-Alt
22.
Parchim
–
Parchim is a town in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is the capital of the Ludwigslust-Parchim district and it was the birthplace of Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, to whom a monument was erected in 1876. Founded about 1210, it was the seat of the short-lived Lordship of Parchim-Richenberg, Parchim was absorbed into the Lordship of Werle in 1255. In 1277 Werle was partitioned and Parchim became the seat of Werle-Parchim until it was reunited with Werle-Güstrow in 1307, one branch of the family of the duke of Mecklenburg resided in Parchim during part of the 14th century
Parchim
–
Town hall
Parchim
Parchim
Parchim
–
Saint George 's church
23.
Landkreis Ludwigslust-Parchim
–
Ludwigslust-Parchim is a district in the west of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. The district seat is the town Parchim, the district was established by merging the former districts of Ludwigslust and Parchim as part of the local government reform of September 2011. The name of the district was decided by referendum on 4 September 2011, the project name for the district was Südwestmecklenburg
Landkreis Ludwigslust-Parchim
–
Ludwigslust-Parchim
24.
Ludwigslust
–
Ludwigslust is a central castle town of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany,40 km south of Schwerin. Since 2011 it is part of the Ludwigslust-Parchim district, Ludwigslust is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region. The former royal town is known for its rich heritage, especially the famed Ludwigslust Palace. In 1724 Prince Ludwig, the son of Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, later on, after his succession to the Dukedom, this became his favourite residence and he named it accordingly Ludwigslust. In 1765 Ludwigslust became the capital of the duchy in place of Schwerin, the town was enlarged by a residential palace. This situation continued until 1837, when Grand Duke Paul Friedrich returned the status to Schwerin. The Wöbbelin concentration camp—sometimes referred to as Ludwigslust concentration camp—was established by the SS near the city of Ludwigslust in 1945. At the end of World War II, as the Line of contact between Soviet and other Allied forces formed, Ludwigslust was captured by British troops initially, then handed over to American troops. After several months the US troops departed and allowed Soviet troops to enter per the Yalta agreement designating the occupation of Mecklenburg to be administered by the Soviets, schloss Ludwigslust, a Baroque residential palace built in 1772-1776, after plans by Johann Joachim Busch. It is called as the Little Versailles of Mecklenburg, the palace is located in the middle of the palace garden, a vast park, created in English style, with canals, fountains and artificial cascades. The Stadtkirche, built in 1765-1770 in Neoclassical style with Baroque sway and its classical design, with a portico resting on six doric columns, gives the church an appearance similar to a Greek temple. Ludwigslust railway station is served by ICE, EC, IC and RE services
Ludwigslust
–
Ludwigslust Palace
Ludwigslust
Ludwigslust
–
Citizens of Ludwigslust, Germany, inspect a nearby concentration camp under orders of the 82nd Airborne Division
25.
Bad Doberan
–
Bad Doberan is a town in the district of Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It was the capital of the district of Bad Doberan. In 2012, its population was 11,427, Bad Doberan is situated just 15 kilometres west of Rostocks city centre and is therefore part of one of the most developed regions in the north-eastern part of Germany. The town nestles between beautiful beech tree forests just 6 km from the Baltic Sea and is one of the earliest German settlements in Mecklenburg. Today the town is a popular bathing resort, thanks to Heiligendamm. Historically, Doberan used to be the residence for the Mecklenburg Dukes who resided in Schwerin. The name Doberan, originally Dobran, is a name that probably derives from a Slavic Old Polabian personal name. According to legend, the name Doberan originated when the monastery was being built and it is said that a passing deer startled several swans, who shrieked with terror dobre dobre. Whereupon the monks called the place Doberan, even today, a deer and swan adorn the arms of the town. In 1179, these monasteries were destroyed in a Slavic uprising. Seven years later, the Cistercians made an attempt to found a monastery on the site of todays abbey. The Gothic church was consecrated in 1368, the Doberan Abbey became very rich due to its economic activities is and had a large estate. Until the dissolution of the monasteries during the Reformation in 1552, in addition to the monastery, there was a craftsmans village, the Kammerhof, two pubs, a brickworks, a blacksmith and several cottagers. It changed little after the monastery transferred in 1552 to the sovereign, a ducal office was established in the monastery, and a mill and hunters lodge appeared. Doberan suffered badly in the Thirty Years War, from England it been realised that swimming in the sea was especially beneficial to health. The bathers stayed in Doberan and played on machines, dancing. The princes gratitude to the builder who shaped the appearance of Doberan so much, was thin, Severin died in poverty and oblivion in Bad Doberan, the heyday only lasted a few decades. Gradually Heiligendamm evolved, once just an appendage of Doberans, into an independent resort, the railway, known locally as Molli still runs today via Heiligendamm to Kühlungsborn, passing through the centre of the town
Bad Doberan
–
Doberan Minster, most important religious
Brick Gothic heritage of Europe
Bad Doberan
–
Bad Doberan around 1900
Bad Doberan
–
Stahlbad
Bad Doberan
–
The Molli steam train in Bad Doberan
26.
Hagenow
–
Hagenow is a German town in the southwest of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, in the district of Ludwigslust-Parchim,30 kilometers south of Schwerin. Its population is approximately 11,300 inhabitants, Hagenow is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region. Renovated old town, particularly along Lange Straße and Lindenplatz, stadtkirche, built in 1875-1879 in Neo-Gothic style. Stadtmuseum, located in an eighteenth-century half-timbered house, städtischer Wasserturm Hagenow,28 meters high, erected between 1905-1908 with Neo-Gothic windows. In 1938 the Luftwaffe commissioned the refurbishment of the tower, the Alte Synagoge or Hanna-Meinungen-Haus is a former synagogue in the old town of Hagenow. Hirsch Samuel Meinungen purchased the plot in 1820, with the intention of building a synagogue for the then 80 person strong Jewish community in Hagenow. In 1828 the architectural complex contained a hall, a cart shed, the synagogue with a Mikwe or Mikveh. On August 15 of the year, the solemn consecration of the temple took place. The last elected leader of the community, Samuel Meinungen proposed that the use of the house should be changed. Although Meinungen never intended to sell the building, he considered renting it out to the Catholic church, a proposal rejected by the high council. Due to the Nazi regime Meinungen and his family, including his infant daughter Hanna Meinungen, were deported to Auschwitz concentration camp, although untraceable, it is speculated that his entire family died around this time. On the 14.6.2015 Die Linke candidate Thomas Möller replaced SPD Gisela Schwarz as Mayor
Hagenow
–
Town hall of Hagenow
27.
Boizenburg/Elbe
–
Boizenburg is a municipality in the Ludwigslust-Parchim district, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. It is situated on the bank of the Elbe,53 km west of Ludwigslust,25 km northeast of Lüneburg and 50 km east of Hamburg. It is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, Boizenburgs historical old town stretches along the Elbe, has a harbour and offers heritage baroque timberframe and brick buildings. As per the dictates of the Yalta Conference, Boizenburg was placed just a few kilometers behind the perimeter of the Iron Curtain, the German name Boyceneburg was first documented in 1158. The written form changed to Boiceneburg and then Boizeneburg, the old Low German name for the town and river likely stems from the Slavic boj for war. Boizenburg suffered during the Thirty Years War and its old castle was burnt down by Swedish troops in 1628, in 1709 the church and 160 or more medieval dwellings were incinerated by a fire. The Town Hall was rebuilt in 1712 and the layout of the town was redesigned by Prussian architects sent from Schwerin and they focused on incorporating efficiency of movement with fire-resistance, better sanitation and public space. During the Napoleonic Wars French troops were quartered in Boizenburg in 1807, a battle was fought with the retreating French army near Boizenburg in 1813. From 1815 to 1918, Boizenburg was part of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, in 1826 a highway was built, connecting Hamburg, Berlin and subsequently Boizenburg. In 1846 the railway between Berlin and Hamburg was constructed, Boizenburg was included with its own train station along this important route. The shipbuilding yard Lemmsche founded in 1793 became highly industrialized in 1852 and produced many wooden, the shipbuilders Thomsen & Co supported the German war effort during World War II. In 1973 the SED reactivated the shipbuilding facilities for the production of smaller ships for the USSR. After being privatized in 1989, the yard was declared bankrupt in 1997, today smaller independent companies are active in the old ship yard. The Boizenburg Tile Factory established by Hans Duensing in 1903, became Europes largest tile manufacturer by 1937, after being re-established in 1991, it remains one of the towns main employers. Artistic impressions of the work produced in Boizenburg—particularly in the Art Nouveau style - can be found at the Erstes Deutsches Fliesen Museum. During the communist East German era, residents of Boizenburg were kept under close scrutiny by the Stasi, many deemed politically untrustworthy had their property confiscated during a state-sponsored terror campaign code-named Operation Vermin. One of the advantages of Boizenburgs isolation during the Cold War, is the natural landscape of the Elbe Valley region stretching to the North, South. Much of the architecture and infrastructure in the old city remained perfectly untouched during the DDR regime, in addition to significant restoration projects, new installations such as the modern redesign of the harbor and the addition of a topiary garden have greatly added to the Old Towns charm
Boizenburg/Elbe
–
Town hall (2008)
Boizenburg/Elbe
–
Old Moat on the Bollenberg
Boizenburg/Elbe
–
Ship model along the Old Moat
Boizenburg/Elbe
–
Boizenburg Harbour looking towards the
Elbe and shipbuilding docks
28.
Teterow
–
Teterow is a town of Germany, in the district of Rostock, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. It is the center of this federal state. It had a population of 8,852 in 2011, the Teterower See is a lake in the north-east of the town. The Stadtkirche St. Peter und Paul, was built in 1215 in Late Romanesque, there are two remaining gates of the ancient city wall, the 14th-century Malchiner Tor, and the Rostocker Tor. The Marktplatz, with the Town Hall, was built in 1910 in Neo-Baroque style, thusch - - Theater in der Uhrenschule. A Studio theatre and cinema, existing since 2002, member of the Landesverbandes Filmkommunikation Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the umbrella organisation of art house cinema and film clubs
Teterow
–
Neo-Baroque town hall of Teterow (1910)
Teterow
–
Rostocker Tor (
Brick Gothic city gate leading to
Rostock)
29.
Dolmen
–
A dolmen is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more vertical megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone, although there are also more complex variants. Most date from the early Neolithic, Dolmens were typically covered with earth or smaller stones to form a tumulus. In many instances, that covering has weathered away, leaving only the skeleton of the burial mound intact. It remains unclear when, why, and by whom the earliest dolmens were made, the oldest known dolmens are in Western Europe, where they were set in place around 7,000 years ago. Archaeologists still do not know who erected these dolmens, which makes it difficult to know why they did it and they are generally all regarded as tombs or burial chambers, despite the absence of clear evidence for this. Human remains, sometimes accompanied by artefacts, have found in or close to the dolmens which could be scientifically dated using radiocarbon dating. However, it has been impossible to prove that these date from the time when the stones were originally set in place. The word dolmen has a confused history, the word entered archaeology when Théophile Corret de la Tour dAuvergne used it to describe megalithic tombs in his Origines gauloises using the spelling dolmin. The name was derived from a Breton language term meaning stone table but doubt has been cast on this. Nonetheless it has now replaced cromlech as the usual English term in archaeology, granja is used in Portugal, Galicia, and Spain. The rarer forms anta and ganda also appear, in the Basque Country, they are attributed to the jentilak, a race of giants. The etymology of the German, Hünenbett, Hünengrab and Dutch, of other Celtic languages, Welsh, cromlech was borrowed into English and quoit is commonly used in English in Cornwall. Great dolmen Passage grave Polygonal dolmen Rectangular, enlarged or extended dolmen Simple dolmen Korean dolmens exhibit a distinct from the Atlantic European dolmen. The largest concentration of dolmens in the world is found on the Korean Peninsula, with an estimated 35,000 dolmens, Korea alone accounts for nearly 40% of the world’s total. Three specific UNESCO World Heritage sites at Gochang, Hwasun and Ganghwa by themselves account for over 1,000 dolmens, the Korean word for dolmen is goindol supported stone. Serious studies of the Korean megalithic monuments were not undertaken until relatively recently, after 1945, new research is being conducted by Korean scholars. In 1981 a curator of National Museum of Korea, Gongil Ji, the boundary between them falls at the Bukhan River although examples of both types are found on either side. Korean dolmens can also be divided into three types, the table type, the go-table type and the unsupported capstone type
Dolmen
–
A dolmen on
Ganghwado, South Korea
Dolmen
–
A dolmen erected by Neolithic people in
Marayur, India
Dolmen
–
Dolmen of
Oleiros, Galicia
Dolmen
–
Poulnabrone dolmen in
the Burren,
County Clare, Ireland
30.
Germanic peoples
–
The Germanic peoples are an ethno-linguistic Indo-European group of Northern European origin. They are identified by their use of Germanic languages, which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age, the term Germanic originated in classical times when groups of tribes living in Lower, Upper, and Greater Germania were referred to using this label by Roman scribes. Tribes referred to as Germanic by Roman authors generally lived to the north, in about 222 BCE, the first use of the Latin term Germani appears in the Fasti Capitolini inscription de Galleis Insvbribvs et Germ. This may simply be referring to Gaul or related people, the term Germani shows up again, allegedly written by Poseidonios, but is merely a quotation inserted by the author Athenaios who wrote much later. Somewhat later, the first surviving detailed discussions of Germani and Germania are those of Julius Caesar, from Caesars perspective, Germania was a geographical area of land on the east bank of the Rhine opposite Gaul, which Caesar left outside direct Roman control. This usage of the word is the origin of the concept of Germanic languages. In other classical authors the concept sometimes included regions of Sarmatia, also, at least in the south there were Celtic peoples still living east of the Rhine and north of the Alps. Caesar, Tacitus and others noted differences of culture which could be found on the east of the Rhine, but the theme of all these cultural references was that this was a wild and dangerous region, less civilised than Gaul, a place that required additional military vigilance. Caesar used the term Germani for a specific tribal grouping in northeastern Belgic Gaul, west of the Rhine. He made clear that he was using the name in the local sense and these are the so-called Germani Cisrhenani, whom Caesar believed to be closely related to the peoples east of the Rhine, and descended from immigrants into Gaul. Caesar described this group of both as Belgic Gauls and as Germani. Gauls are associated with Celtic languages, and the term Germani is associated with Germanic languages, but Caesar did not discuss languages in detail. It has been claimed, for example by Maurits Gysseling, that the names of this region show evidence of an early presence of Germanic languages. The etymology of the word Germani is uncertain, the likeliest theory so far proposed is that it comes from a Gaulish compound of *ger near + *mani men, comparable to Welsh ger near, Old Irish gair neighbor, Irish gar- near, garach neighborly. Another Celtic possibility is that the name meant noisy, cf. Breton/Cornish garm shout, however, here the vowel does not match, nor does the vowel length ). Others have proposed a Germanic etymology *gēr-manni, spear men, cf. Middle Dutch ghere, Old High German Ger, Old Norse geirr. However, the form gēr seems far too advanced phonetically for the 1st century, has a vowel where a short one is expected. The term Germani, therefore, probably applied to a group of tribes in northeastern Gaul who may or may not have spoken a Germanic language
Germanic peoples
–
Germanic
Thing (governing assembly), drawn after the depiction in a relief of the
Column of Marcus Aurelius, 193 CE.
Germanic peoples
–
The gilded side of the
Trundholm sun chariot
Germanic peoples
–
The Dejbjerg wagon, National Museum of Denmark
Germanic peoples
–
2nd century to 5th century simplified migrations
31.
Cattle
–
Cattle—colloquially cows—are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, cattle are raised as livestock for meat, as dairy animals for milk and other dairy products, and as draft animals. Other products include leather and dung for manure or fuel, in some regions, such as parts of India, cattle have significant religious meaning. From as few as 80 progenitors domesticated in southeast Turkey about 10,500 years ago, according to an estimate from 2011, in 2009, cattle became one of the first livestock animals to have a fully mapped genome. Some consider cattle the oldest form of wealth, and cattle raiding consequently one of the earliest forms of theft. Cattle were originally identified as three species, Bos taurus, the European or taurine cattle, Bos indicus, the zebu, and the extinct Bos primigenius. The aurochs is ancestral to both zebu and taurine cattle and these have been reclassified as one species, Bos taurus, with three subspecies, Bos taurus primigenius, Bos taurus indicus, and Bos taurus taurus. Complicating the matter is the ability of cattle to interbreed with other related species. Hybrid individuals and even breeds exist, not only between taurine cattle and zebu, but also one or both of these and some other members of the genus Bos – yaks, banteng. Hybrids such as the breed can even occur between taurine cattle and either species of bison, leading some authors to consider them part of the genus Bos. However, cattle cannot successfully be hybridized with more distantly related bovines such as water buffalo or African buffalo, the aurochs originally ranged throughout Europe, North Africa, and much of Asia. In historical times, its range became restricted to Europe, breeders have attempted to recreate cattle of similar appearance to aurochs by crossing traditional types of domesticated cattle, creating the Heck cattle breed. Cattle did not originate as the term for bovine animals and it was borrowed from Anglo-Norman catel, itself from medieval Latin capitale principal sum of money, capital, itself derived in turn from Latin caput head. Cattle originally meant movable personal property, especially livestock of any kind, the word is a variant of chattel and closely related to capital in the economic sense. The term replaced earlier Old English feoh cattle, property, which today as fee. The word cow came via Anglo-Saxon cū, from Common Indo-European gʷōus = a bovine animal, compare Persian gâv, Sanskrit go-, Welsh buwch. The plural cȳ became ki or kie in Middle English, and a plural ending was often added, giving kine, kien. This is the origin of the now archaic English plural, kine, the Scots language singular is coo or cou, and the plural is kye
Cattle
–
Cattle
Cattle
–
Żubroń, a cross between
wisent and cattle
Cattle
–
An
Ongole bull
Cattle
–
A
Hereford bull
32.
Middle Low German
–
Middle Low German or Middle Saxon is a language that is the descendant of Old Saxon and the ancestor of modern Low German. It served as the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League. It was spoken from about 1100 to 1600, Middle Low German is a term used with varying degrees of inclusivity. It is distinguished from Middle High German, spoken to the south, Middle Low German provided a large number of loanwords to languages spoken around the Baltic Sea as a result of the activities of Hanseatic traders. It is considered the largest single source of loanwords in Estonian, Latvian, Middle Low German was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League, spoken all around the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. Traces of the importance of Middle Low German can be seen by the many found in the Scandinavian, Finnic
Middle Low German
–
Northern Europe in 1400, showing the extent of the
Hanseatic League
33.
Obotrites
–
The Obotrites or Obodrites, also spelled Abodrites, were a confederation of medieval West Slavic tribes within the territory of modern Mecklenburg and Holstein in northern Germany. For decades, they were allies of Charlemagne in his wars against the Germanic Saxons, the Obotrites under Prince Thrasco defeated the Saxons in the Battle of Bornhöved. The still heathen Saxons were dispersed by the emperor, and the part of their land in Holstein north of Elbe was awarded to the Obotrites in 804. This however was soon reverted through an invasion of the Danes, the Obotrite regnal style was abolished in 1167, when Pribislav was restored to power by Duke Henry the Lion, as Prince of Mecklenburg, thereby founding the German House of Mecklenburg. The Bavarian Geographer, a medieval document compiled in Regensburg in 830. The list includes the Nortabtrezi - with 53 civitates, adam of Bremen referred to them as the Reregi because of their lucrative trade emporium Reric. In common with other Slavic groups, they were described by Germanic sources as Wends. The main tribes of the Obotritic confederation were, the Obotrites proper, the Wagrians, the Warnower, other tribes associated with the confederation include, the Linonen near Lenzen, the Travnjane near the Trave, the Drevani in the Hanoverian Wendland and the northern Altmark. When opportunities arose, for instance upon the death of an emperor, they would seek to seize power, at times they levied tribute from the Danes and Saxons. Under the leadership of Niklot, they resisted a Christian assault during the Wendish Crusade, German missionaries such as Vicelinus converted the Obotrites to Christianity. In 1170 they acknowledged the suzerainty of the Holy Roman Empire, however, up to the late 15th century most villagers in the Obotritic area were still speaking Slavic dialects, although subsequently their language was displaced by German. The Polabian language survived until the beginning of the 19th century in what is now the German state of Lower Saxony. The ruling clan of the Obotrites kept its power throughout the Germanisation, the rulers of Obotrite lands were later the Dukes and Grand Dukes of Mecklenburg. List of Medieval Slavic tribes Praedenecenti Herrmann, Joachim
Obotrites
–
Niklot (1090 – 1160) chief of the Obotrite confederacy
Obotrites
–
Map of the Billunger Mark (c. 1000) showing different tribes of the Obotritic confederation
34.
Wends
–
Wends is a historical name for the West Slavs living near Germanic settlement areas. It does not refer to a people, but to various peoples, tribes or groups depending on where. In the Middle Ages the term Wends often referred to Western Slavs living within the Holy Roman Empire, mieszko I, the first historical ruler of Poland, also appeared as Dagome, King of the Wends. The name has survived in Finnic languages denoting Russia. According to one theory, Germanic peoples first applied this name to the ancient Veneti, and then after the period they transferred it to their new neighbours. The Germans in the south used the term Winde instead of Wende and applied it, just as the Germans in the north, to Slavs they had contact with, following the 8th century, the Frankish kings and their successors organised nearly all Wendish land into marches. This process later turned into the series of crusades, by the 12th century, all Wendish lands had become part of the Holy Roman Empire. In the course of the Ostsiedlung, which reached its peak in the 12th to 14th centuries, due to the process of assimilation following German settlement, many Slavs west of the Oder adopted the German culture and language. Only some rural communities which did not have an admixture with Germans. With the gradual decline of the use of these local Slavic tongues, some sources claim that in the 13th century there were actual historic people called Wends or Vends living as far as northern Latvia around the city of Wenden. Henry of Livonia in his 13th-century Latin chronicle described a tribe called the Vindi, today, only one group of Wends still exists, the Lusatian Sorbs in present-day eastern Germany. The term Wends derived from the Roman-era people called in Latin Veneti, Venedi or Venethi and this people was mentioned by Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy as inhabiting the Baltic coast. There they assimilated the remaining Germanic population that had not left the area in the Migration period. Their German neighbours adapted the term they had been using for peoples east of the River Elbe before to the Slavs, calling them Wends as they called the Venedi before and probably the Vandals also. In his late sixth century work History of Armenia, Movses Khorenatsi mentions their raids into the lands named Vanand after them and their tribal names were derived from local place names, sometimes adopting the Germanic tradition. Settlements were secured by round burghs made of wood and clay, some tribes unified into larger, duchy-like units. For example, the Obotrites evolved from the unification of the Holstein, the Lutici were an alliance of tribes living between Obotrites and Pomeranians. They did not unify under a duke, but remained independent and their leaders met in the temple of Rethra
Wends
–
Wends wedding 1931 in
Spreewald
Wends
–
Personifications of Sclavinia (Wends),
Germania,
Gallia, and
Roma, bringing offerings to
Otto III; from a gospel book dated 990
Wends
–
Germaniae veteris typus (Old Germany.),
Aestui,
Venedi,
Gythones and
Ingaevones on the right upper corner of the map. Edited by Willem and
Joan Blaeu), 1645
Wends
–
Texas Wendish Heritage Museum in
Lee County, Texas
35.
Duke
–
A duke or duchess can either be a monarch ruling over a duchy or a member of the nobility, historically of highest rank below the monarch. During the Middle Ages the title signified first among the Germanic monarchies, Dukes were the rulers of the provinces and the superiors of the counts in the cities and later, in the feudal monarchies, the highest-ranking peers of the king. During the 19th century many of the smaller German and Italian states were ruled by Dukes or Grand Dukes, but at present, with the exception of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, there are no dukes ruling as monarchs. Duke remains the highest hereditary title in Portugal, Spain, in Sweden, members of the Royal Family are given a personal dukedom at birth. The Pope, as a sovereign, has also, though rarely. In some realms the relative status of duke and prince, as borne by the nobility rather than by members of reigning dynasties, varied—e. g. in Italy. A woman who holds in her own right the title to such duchy or dukedom, Queen Elizabeth II, however, is known by tradition as Duke of Normandy in the Channel Islands and Duke of Lancaster in Lancashire. A duchy is the territory or geopolitical entity ruled by a duke, a dukedom is the title or status of a duke, a rank in the present or past nobility, and is not necessarily attached to a duchy. A few examples exist today, The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is a independent state and its head. In Scotland the male heir apparent to the British crown is always the Duke of Rothesay as well, the Channel Islands are two of the three remaining Crown Dependencies, the last vestiges of the lands of the Duchy of Normandy. The Islanders in their loyal toast will say La Reine, notre Duc, however, the Channel Islands, part of the lost Duchy, remained a self-governing possession of the English Crown. While the islands today retain autonomy in government, they owe allegiance to The Queen in her role as Duke of Normandy. During the Middle Ages, after Roman power in Western Europe collapsed, in 1332, Robert of Taranto succeeded his father, Philip. John took the style of Duke of Durazzo, in 1368, Durazzo fell to Karl Thopia, who was recognized by Venice as Prince of Albania. The Visigoths retained the Roman divisions of their kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula and they were the most powerful landowners and, along with the bishops, elected the king, usually from their own midst. They were the commanders and in this capacity often acted independently from the king. The army was structured decimally with the highest unit, the thiufa, the cities were commanded by counts, who were in turn answerable to the dukes, who called up the thiufae when necessary. When the Lombards entered Italy, the Latin chroniclers called their war leaders duces in the old fashion and these leaders eventually became the provincial rulers, each with a recognized seat of government
Duke
–
Royal, noble and
chivalric ranks
36.
Grand Duke
–
He was defeated by the royal armies but nevertheless obtained a remarkable autonomy as a Magnus Dux, leading ultimately to Portuguese independence from the Spanish Kingdom of Castille-León. Another example was the line of self-proclaimed grand dukes of Burgundy in the 15th century and they tried -ultimately without success- to create from these territories under their control a new unified country between the Kingdom of France in the west and the Holy Roman Empire in the east. His son and successor Charles the Bold continued to use the style and title. The title magnus dux or grand duke has been used by the rulers of Lithuania, the first monarchs ever officially titled grand duke were the Medici sovereigns of Tuscany, starting from the late 16th century. This official title was granted by Pope Pius V in 1569, thus the 19th century saw a new group of monarchs titled Grand Duke in central Europe, especially in present-day Germany. A list of these is available in the grand duchy. In the same century, the ceremonial version of the title grand duke in Russia expanded massively because of the large number of progeny of the ruling House of Romanov during those decades. After the Russian conquests, the continued to be used by the Russian Emperors in their role as rulers of both Lithuania and the autonomous Finland. The Holy Roman Empire under the House of Habsburg instituted a similar non-sovereign Großfürstentum Siebenbürgen in 1765, Grand princes were medieval monarchs who usually ruled over several tribes and/or were feudal overlords of other princes. At the time, the title was translated as king. However, Grand Princes did not have the same precedence as later Western European kings. Grand Princes reigned in Central and Eastern Europe, notably among Slavs, the title Grand Prince translates to Velikiy Knjaz in Russian. The Slavic word knjaz and the Lithuanian kunigas are cognates of the word King in its meaning of Ruler. Thus, the meaning of Veliki Knjaz and Didysis Kunigas was more like Great Ruler than Grand Duke. Grand Prince Ivan IV of Muscovy was the last monarch to reign without claiming any higher title, the rulers of the Turkish vassal state of Transylvania used the title of Grand Prince, this title was later assumed by the Habsburgs after their conquest of Hungary. The Polish Kings of the Swedish House of Vasa also used the title for their non-Polish territories. The Latin title dux, which was phonetically rendered doux in Greek, was a title for imperial generals in the Late Roman Empires. Under the latter, exclusively Byzantine theme system, the commander of a theme was often styled a doux instead of the earlier strategos from the 10th century on
Grand Duke
–
Portrait of Grand Duchess
Maria Fiodorovna by Heinrich von Angeli (1874) Saint Petersburg,
Hermitage Museum
Grand Duke
–
Royal, noble and
chivalric ranks
37.
Nyklot
–
Niklot or Nyklot was a pagan chief or prince of the Slavic Obotrites and an ancestor of the House of Mecklenburg. He became chief of the Obotrite confederacy, including the Kissini and he remained in this position until his death in 1160. At the same time he was Lord of Schwerin, Quetzin, for nearly 30 years he resisted Saxon princes, especially Henry the Lion during the Wendish Crusade. He fought the conversion of the pagan Polabian Slavs to Christianity, after the death of Obodrite Prince Henry, a Christian, Niklot renounced Christianity in favor of traditional pagan beliefs. Niklot began his open resistance when the German King Lothar III granted the Obotrite realm to his Danish vassal Canute Lavard, together with Pribislaw, the son of Henry of Alt-Lübeck, Niklot fought Lothar and Canute. After the murder of Canute in 1131, Niklot and Pribislav partitioned the Obotrite territory, in order to weaken Pribislav in the following years, Niklot allied with Saxon lords, especially Count Adolf II of Holstein, allowing Slavic pirates to attack the Danes. The princes Saxon allies turned against him during the 1147 Wendish Crusade, although Niklot resisted the siege of his fortress at Dobin, he was forced to pay tribute to the Christian crusaders. He subsequently arranged peaceful terms with Adolf of Holstein, Duke Henry the Lion of Saxony, by 1158, King Valdemar the Great of Denmark began to pay Henry the Lion for assistance, leading Niklot to retaliate. The Danish king and the Saxon duke then allied in 1160, while the Danes harried the coast and distracted the Rani, the Saxons killed Niklot at his stronghold of Burg Werle, the Obotrite territory was largely partitioned by the Christians. Niklots death ended Slavic control in Mecklenburg up to the Peene River and his son Pribislav recovered his inheritance as Prince of Mecklenburg in 1167 as a Saxon vassal
Nyklot
–
Statue of
Obotrite Prince Niklot at the
Schwerin Castle (sculptor, Christian Genschow)
38.
Henry the Lion
–
Henry the Lion was a member of the Welf dynasty and Duke of Saxony, as Henry III, from 1142, and Duke of Bavaria, as Henry XII, from 1156, the duchies of which he held until 1180. At the height of his reign, Henry ruled over a vast territory stretching from the coast of the North and Baltic Seas to the Alps, Henry achieved this great power in part by his political and military acumen and in part through the legacies of his four grandparents. Born in Ravensburg, in 1129 or 1131, he was the son of Henry the Proud, Duke of Bavaria and Saxony, who was the son of Duke Henry the Black, Henrys father died in 1139, aged 32, when Henry was still a child. King Conrad III had dispossessed Henry the Proud of his duchies in 1138 and 1139, handing Saxony to Albert the Bear and this was because Henry the Proud had been his rival for the crown in 1138. Henry III, however, did not relinquish his claims to his inheritance, a participant in the 1147 Wendish Crusade, Henry also reacquired Bavaria by a decision of the new Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in 1156. However, the East Mark was not returned, which became Austria, Henry is the founder of Munich and Lübeck, he also founded and developed numerous other cities in Northern Germany and Bavaria, a. o. Augsburg, Hildesheim, Stade, Kassel, Güstrow, Lüneburg, Salzwedel, Schwerin, in Brunswick, his capital, he had a bronze lion, his heraldic animal, erected in the yard of his castle Dankwarderode in 1166 — the first bronze statue north of the Alps. Later, he had Brunswick Cathedral built close to the statue, in 1147, Henry married Clementia of Zähringen, thereby gaining her hereditary territories in Swabia. In 1165, Henry married Matilda, the daughter of King Henry II of England and Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine, during Fredericks first invasion of northern Italy, Henry took part, among the others, in the victorious sieges of Crema and Milan. In 1172, Henry had taken a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, meeting with the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller, spending Easter of that year in Constantinople. By December 1172, he was back in Bavaria and in 1174 and he did not consider these Italian adventures worth the effort, unless Barbarossa presented Henry with the Saxon imperial city Goslar, a request Barbarossa refused. Barbarossas expedition into Lombardy ultimately ended in failure and he bitterly resented Henry for failing to support him. Declaring that Imperial law overruled traditional German law, the court had Henry stripped of his lands, Frederick then invaded Saxony with an Imperial army to bring his cousin to his knees. Henrys allies deserted him, and he finally had to submit in November 1181 at a Reichstag in Erfurt and he was exiled from Germany in 1182 for three years, stayed with his father-in-law, in Normandy before being allowed back into Germany in 1185. He was exiled again in 1188 and his wife Matilda died in 1189. When Frederick Barbarossa went on the Crusade of 1189, Henry returned to Saxony, mobilized an army of his faithful, only the churches were left standing. Henry the Lion remains a figure to this day. During World War I a nail man depicting Henry the Lion, nazi propaganda later declared Henry an antecessor of the Nazis Lebensraum policy and turned Brunswick Cathedral and Henrys tomb into a National Place of Consecration
Henry the Lion
–
Statue in
Brunswick Cathedral, ca. 1225-1250, said to represent Henry the Lion
Henry the Lion
–
Contemporary depicition of Henry the Lion from the Historia Welforum
Henry the Lion
–
Wedding of Henry the Lion and Matilda of England (1188)
Henry the Lion
–
Henry's duchies Saxony and Bavaria
39.
Lower Saxony
–
Lower Saxony is a German state situated in northwestern Germany and is second in area, with 47,624 square kilometres, and fourth in population among the sixteen Länder of Germany. In rural areas Northern Low Saxon, a dialect of Low German, and Saterland Frisian, a variety of Frisian, are still spoken, but the number of speakers is declining. Lower Saxony borders on the North Sea, the states of Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia, and the Netherlands. Furthermore, the state of Bremen forms two enclaves within Lower Saxony, one being the city of Bremen, the other, its city of Bremerhaven. In fact, Lower Saxony borders more neighbours than any other single Bundesland, the states principal cities include the state capital Hanover, Braunschweig, Lüneburg, Osnabrück, Oldenburg, Hildesheim, Wolfenbüttel, Wolfsburg and Göttingen. The northwestern area of Lower Saxony, which lies on the coast of the North Sea, is called East Frisia, in the extreme west of Lower Saxony is the Emsland, a traditionally poor and sparsely populated area, once dominated by inaccessible swamps. The northern half of Lower Saxony, also known as the North German Plains, is almost invariably flat except for the hills around the Bremen geestland. Towards the south and southwest lie the northern parts of the German Central Uplands, the Weser Uplands, between these two lie the Lower Saxon Hills, a range of low ridges. Thus, Lower Saxony is the only Bundesland that encompasses both maritime and mountainous areas, Lower Saxonys major cities and economic centres are mainly situated in its central and southern parts, namely Hanover, Braunschweig, Osnabrück, Wolfsburg, Salzgitter, Hildesheim and Göttingen. Oldenburg, near the coastline, is another economic centre. To the north, the Elbe river separates Lower Saxony from Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the banks just south of the Elbe are known as Altes Land. Due to its local climate and fertile soil, it is the states largest area of fruit farming. Most of the territory was part of the historic Kingdom of Hanover. It was created by the merger of the State of Hanover with several states in 1946. Lower Saxony has a boundary in the north in the North Sea. The state and city of Bremen is an enclave surrounded by Lower Saxony. The Bremen/Oldenburg Metropolitan Region is a body for the enclave area. To the southeast the state border runs through the Harz, low mountains that are part of the German Central Uplands, in northeast Lower Saxony is Lüneburg Heath
Lower Saxony
–
Hannover
Lower Saxony
–
Flag
Lower Saxony
–
Braunschweig
Lower Saxony
–
Lüneburg
40.
Christianization
–
Christianization is the conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire groups at once. Various strategies and techniques were employed in Christianization campaigns from Late Antiquity, often the conversion of the ruler was followed by the compulsory baptism of his subjects. In essence, it was intended that the traditions and practices still existed, Early works of this type have tended to be downplayed and even dismissed as a form of Protestant apologetics aimed at purification of Christianity. The Council of Jerusalem, according to Acts 15, agreed that lack of circumcision could not be a basis for excluding Gentile believers from membership in the Jesus community. Rather, they instructed new believers to avoid pollution of idols, fornication, things strangled, the Apostolic Decree thus helped to establish nascent Christianity as a unique alternative among the forms of Judaism for prospective Proselytes. The Armenian and Ethiopian churches are the instances of imposition of Christianity by sovereign rulers predating the council of Nicaea. The initial conversion of the Roman Empire occurred mostly in areas of Europe. Later conversions happened among the Grecian-Roman-Celtic populations over centuries, often initially among its urban population, the term pagan is from Latin and means villager, rustic, civilian. It is derived from this historical transition, the root of that word is present in todays word paisan or paisano. The Christianization of the Roman Empire is typically divided into two phases, before and after the year 312, which marked the momentous quasi-conversion of Constantine. By this date, Christianity had already converted a significant but unknown proportion of at least the urban population of the empire, Constantine ended the intermittent persecution of Christianity with the Edict of Milan, which granted tolerance to all religions, but specifically mentioned Christianity. Under Constantines successors, Christianization of Roman society proceeded by fits and starts, Constantines sons, for example, banned pagan state religious sacrifices in 341, but did not close the temples. Although all state temples in all cities were ordered shut in 356, under Julian, the temples were reopened and state religious sacrifices performed once more. When Gratian declined the position and title of Pontifex Maximus, his act brought an end to the state religion due to the positions authority. Again, however, this process ended state official practices but not private religious devotion, however, many temples remained open until Theodosius Is edict of Thessalonica in 381 banned haruspices and other pagan religious practices. From 389 to 393 he issued a series of decrees which led to the banning of religious rites and by confiscating their property. Further laws were passed against remaining pagan practices over the course of the following years, the effectiveness of these laws empire-wide is debatable. Christianization of central Balkans is documented at the end of the 4th century, where Nicetas the Bishop of Remesiana brought the gospel to those mountain wolves, reportedly his mission was successful, and the worship of Dionysus and other Thracian gods was eventually replaced by Christianity
Christianization
–
St. Francis Xavier converting the
Paravas seeking protection of Portuguese explorers from Arab fleets offshore: a 19th-century representation of the "docile heathen".
Christianization
–
James the Just, whose judgment was adopted in the Apostolic Decree of Acts 15:19-29, c. 50 AD: "...we should write to them [Gentiles] to abstain only from things polluted by
idols and from
fornication and from whatever has been strangled and from
blood..." (
NRSV)
Christianization
–
Constantine's conversion, by
Rubens.
Christianization
–
Statue depicting the baptism of Clovis by
Saint Remigius.
41.
Northern Crusades
–
The crusades took place mostly in the 12th and 13th centuries and resulted in the conversion and baptism of indigenous peoples. Most notable campaigns were Livonian and Prussian crusades, some of these wars were called crusades during the Middle Ages, but others, including most of the Swedish ones, were first dubbed crusades by 19th-century romantic nationalist historians. And 1293, Livonians, Latgallians, Selonians, and Estonians, Semigallians and Curonians, the campaigns started with the 1147 Wendish Crusade against the Polabian Slavs of what is now northern and eastern Germany. The crusade occurred parallel to the Second Crusade to the Holy Land, the Swedish crusades were campaigns by Sweden against Finns, Tavastians, and Karelians during period from 1150 to 1293. The Danes are known to have made two crusades to Finland in 1191 and in 1202, the latter one was led by the Bishop of Lund Anders Sunesen with his brother. The difference in creeds was one of the reasons they had not yet been effectively converted. During a period of more than 150 years leading up to the arrival of German crusaders in the region, Estonia was attacked thirteen times by Russian principalities, Estonians for their part made raids upon Denmark and Sweden. There were peaceful attempts by some Catholics to convert the Estonians, starting with missions dispatched by Adalbert, however, these peaceful efforts seem to have had only limited success. Although the crusaders won their first battle, Bishop Berthold was mortally wounded, in 1199, Albert of Buxhoeveden was appointed by the Archbishop Hartwig II of Bremen to Christianise the Baltic countries. By the time Albert died 30 years later, the conquest and formal Christianisation of present-day Estonia, although he landed in the mouth of the Daugava in 1200 with only 23 ships and 500 soldiers, the bishops efforts ensured that a constant flow of recruits followed. The first crusaders usually arrived to fight during the spring and returned to their homes in the autumn, to ensure a permanent military presence, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword were founded in 1202. The founding by Bishop Albert of the market at Riga in 1201 attracted citizens from the Empire, at Alberts request, Pope Innocent III dedicated the Baltic countries to the Virgin Mary to popularize recruitment to his army and the name Marys Land has survived up to modern times. This is noticeable in one of the given to Livonia at the time. In 1206, the crusaders subdued the Livonian stronghold in Turaida on the bank of Gauja River. In order to control over the left bank of Gauja. By 1211, the Livonian province of Metsepole and the mixed Livonian-Latgallian inhabited county of Idumea was converted to the Roman Catholic faith, the last battle against the Livonians was the siege of Satezele hillfort near to Sigulda in 1212. The Livonians, who had been paying tribute to the East Slavic Principality of Polotsk, had at first considered the Germans as useful allies, the first prominent Livonian to be christened was their leader Caupo of Turaida. As the German grip tightened, the Livonians rebelled against the crusaders and the christened chief, Caupo of Turaida remained an ally of the crusaders until his death in the Battle of St. Matthews Day in 1217
Northern Crusades
–
Ruins of the castle in
Sigulda.
Northern Crusades
–
Norway
Northern Crusades
–
Kuressaare Castle, Estonia, constructed by the Teutonic Order
Northern Crusades
–
Tērvete castle hill in 2010.
42.
Ostsiedlung
–
The affected area roughly stretched from Slovenia in the south to Estonia in the north, and extended into Transylvania in the southeast. In part, Ostsiedlung followed the expansion of the Empire. German historians of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries often exaggerated the importance of the adoption of Salic law and settlement in Central, thus Ostsiedlung is part of a process termed Ostkolonisation or Hochmittelalterlicher Landesausbau, although these terms are sometimes used synonymously. Ethnic conflicts erupted between the newly arrived settlers and local populations and expulsions of native populations are known of. In several areas subject to the Ostsiedlung, the population was later discriminated against. Central Europe underwent dramatic changes after the Migration period of 300 to 700 CE, the Roman Empire had lost its dominant position. The Franks had created an empire that, besides former Roman Gallia, had united the former West Germanic tribes, East Francia, an early predecessor of Germany, aimed to be the successor to the Christian Western Roman Empire, and developed into the Holy Roman Empire. In Scandinavia, the former North Germanic tribes entered the Viking Age, affecting the whole of Europe through trade, some former East Germanic tribes had entered and merged into Rome, their own culture ceasing to exist. The Slavs living within the reach of the Frankish Empire were collectively called Wends and they seldom formed larger political entities, but rather constituted various small tribes, dwelling as far west as to a line from the Eastern Alps and Bohemia to the Saale and Elbe rivers. As the Frankish Empire expanded, various Wendish tribes were conquered or allied with the Franks, such as the Obodrites, the conquered Wendish areas were organized by the Franks into marches, which were administered by an entrusted noble who collected the tribute, reinforced by military units. The establishing of marches was also accompanied by missionary efforts, Frankish kings initiated numerous, yet not always successful, military campaigns to maintain their authority. Weakened by ongoing conflicts and constant warfare, the independent Wendish territories finally lost the capacity to provide effective military resistance. From 1119 to 1123, Pomerania invaded and subdued the northeastern parts of the Liutizian lands, in 1124 and 1128, the Pomeranian duke Wartislaw I, at that time a vassal of Poland, invited bishop Otto von Bamberg to Christianize the Pomeranians and Liutizians of his duchy. In 1147, as a campaign of the Northern Crusade, the Wendish Crusade was mounted in the Duchy of Saxony to retake the marches lost in 983, the crusaders also headed for Pomeranian Demmin and Stettin, despite these areas having already been successfully Christianized. The Havelberg bishopric was set up again to Christianize the Wends, after Henry the Lion lost an internal struggle with Emperor Frederick I, Mecklenburg and Pomerania became part of the Holy Roman Empire in 1181. Terra Mariana was the name for Medieval Livonia or Old Livonia which was formed in the aftermath of the Livonian Crusade in the territories comprising present day Estonia and Latvia. It was established on February 2,1207 as a principality of the Holy Roman Empire, the nominal head of Terra Mariana as well as the city of Riga was the Archbishop of Riga as the apex of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. In 1561, during the Livonian war, Terra Mariana ceased to exist, the island of Saaremaa became part of Denmark
Ostsiedlung
–
West-Slavic peoples in Europe until 1125 (yellow borders).
Prussia (identified as Pruzzia) has not been a Slavic land.
Ostsiedlung
–
Phases of German eastward expansion according to
Walter Kuhn
Ostsiedlung
–
Poznań (Posen) as an example of an Ostsiedlung town attached to a pre-existing castrum (castle with a suburbium). The castrum was located on the island with the cathedral, the Ostsiedlung town with its rectilinear streets was built on the river's bank.
Ostsiedlung
–
Greifswald in
medieval Pomerania is an example of an Ostsiedlung town built in a previously unsettled area. Locators set up rectangular blocks in an area resembling an oval with a central market, and organized the settlement.
43.
Saxony
–
Its capital is Dresden, and its largest city is Leipzig. Saxony is the tenth largest of Germanys sixteen states, with an area of 18,413 square kilometres, located in the middle of a large, formerly all German-speaking part of Europe, the history of the state of Saxony spans more than a millennium. It has been a medieval duchy, an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire, a kingdom, the area of the modern state of Saxony should not be confused with Old Saxony, the area inhabited by Saxons. Old Saxony corresponds approximately to the modern German states of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony is divided into 10 districts,1. After a reform in 2008, these regions - with some alterations of their respective areas - were called Direktionsbezirke, in 2012, the authorities of these regions were merged into one central authority, the Landesdirektion Sachsen. The Erzgebirgskreis district includes the Ore Mountains, and the Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district includes Saxon Switzerland, the largest cities in Saxony according to the 31 December 2015 estimate. To this can be added that Leipzig forms a metropolitan region with Halle. The latter city is located just across the border to Saxony-Anhalt, Leipzig shares for instance an S-train system and an airport with Halle. Saxony has, after Saxony Anhalt, the most vibrant economy of the states of the former East Germany and its economy grew by 1. 9% in 2010. Nonetheless, unemployment remains above the German average, the eastern part of Germany, excluding Berlin, qualifies as an Objective 1 development-region within the European Union, and is eligible to receive investment subsidies of up to 30% until 2013. FutureSAX, a business competition and entrepreneurial support organisation, has been in operation since 2002. Microchip makers near Dresden have given the region the nickname Silicon Saxony, the publishing and porcelain industries of the region are well known, although their contributions to the regional economy are no longer significant. Today the automobile industry, machinery production and services contribute to the development of the region. Saxony is also one of the most renowned tourist destinations in Germany - especially the cities of Leipzig and Dresden, new tourist destinations are developing, notably in the lake district of Lausitz. Saxony reported an unemployment of 8. 8% in 2014. By comparison the average in the former GDR was 9. 8% and 6. 7% for Germany overall, the unemployment rate reached 8. 2% in May 2015. The Leipzig area, which recently was among the regions with the highest unemployment rate, could benefit greatly from investments by Porsche. With the VW Phaeton factory in Dresden, and many part suppliers, zwickau is another major Volkswagen location
Saxony
–
State capital
Dresden
Saxony
–
Flag
Saxony
–
View over
Leipzig centre
Saxony
–
Chemnitz, view over Falkeplatz
44.
Denmark
–
Denmark, officially the Kingdom of Denmark, is a Scandinavian country in Europe and a sovereign state. The southernmost and smallest of the Nordic countries, it is south-west of Sweden and south of Norway, Denmark also comprises two autonomous constituent countries in the North Atlantic Ocean, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Denmark has an area of 42,924 square kilometres. The country consists of a peninsula, Jutland, and an archipelago of 443 named islands, with the largest being Zealand, the islands are characterised by flat, arable land and sandy coasts, low elevation and a temperate climate. The unified kingdom of Denmark emerged in the 10th century as a proficient seafaring nation in the struggle for control of the Baltic Sea, Denmark, Sweden and Norway were ruled together under the Kalmar Union, established in 1397 and ending with Swedish secession in 1523. Denmark and Norway remained under the monarch until outside forces dissolved the union in 1814. The union with Norway made it possible for Denmark to inherit the Faroe Islands, Iceland, beginning in the 17th century, there were several cessions of territory to Sweden. In the 19th century there was a surge of nationalist movements, Denmark remained neutral during World War I. In April 1940, a German invasion saw brief military skirmishes while the Danish resistance movement was active from 1943 until the German surrender in May 1945, the Constitution of Denmark was signed on 5 June 1849, ending the absolute monarchy which had begun in 1660. It establishes a constitutional monarchy organised as a parliamentary democracy, the government and national parliament are seated in Copenhagen, the nations capital, largest city and main commercial centre. Denmark exercises hegemonic influence in the Danish Realm, devolving powers to handle internal affairs, Home rule was established in the Faroe Islands in 1948, in Greenland home rule was established in 1979 and further autonomy in 2009. Denmark became a member of the European Economic Community in 1973, maintaining certain opt-outs, it retains its own currency, the krone. It is among the members of NATO, the Nordic Council, the OECD, OSCE. The etymology of the word Denmark, and especially the relationship between Danes and Denmark and the unifying of Denmark as a kingdom, is a subject which attracts debate. This is centred primarily on the prefix Dan and whether it refers to the Dani or a historical person Dan and the exact meaning of the -mark ending. Most handbooks derive the first part of the word, and the name of the people, from a word meaning land, related to German Tenne threshing floor. The -mark is believed to mean woodland or borderland, with references to the border forests in south Schleswig. The first recorded use of the word Danmark within Denmark itself is found on the two Jelling stones, which are believed to have been erected by Gorm the Old and Harald Bluetooth
Denmark
–
The gilded side of the
Trundholm sun chariot dating from the Nordic Bronze Age.
Denmark
–
Flag
Denmark
–
The
Ladby ship, the largest ship burial found in Denmark.
Denmark
–
Larger of the two Jelling stones, raised by
Harald Bluetooth.
45.
Liutizic
–
The Lutici were a federation of West Slavic Polabian tribes, who between the 10th and 12th centuries lived in what is now northeastern Germany. Four tribes made up the core of the federation, the Redarians, Circipanians, Kessinians and Tollensians, at least in part, the Lutici were a continuation of the Veleti. The political and religious center was Radgosc, the Lutici were first recorded by written sources in the context of the uprising of 983, by which they annilihated the rule of the Holy Roman Empire in the Billung and Northern Marches. Thereafter, tensions with the empire eased, and in 1003 the Lutici entered an alliance with the emperor against duke Boleslaw I of Poland, a civil war between the core tribes began the decline of the Lutici in 1056/57. The neighboring Obodrites intervened and subdued the northwestern faction, in 1066, the Lutici succeeded in stirring up a revolt against the Obodrite elites, in the course of which John, the bishop of Mecklenburg, was captured and sacrificed at Radgosc. Another civil war in the 1070s led to a decline of the Lutician federation. The Lutici were converted to Christianity, and in the 13th century were assimilated by German settlers, whether the Lutici were ethnically identical with the Veleti remains unproven. Modern scholarship sometimes refers to both entities by a name, e. g. Wilzen-Lutizen in German or Wieleci-Lucice in Polish. In the second half of the 9th century, the Veleti disappeared from written records. Lutician tribes first appear in records after this gap, the Redarii were mentioned first in 928 by Widukind of Corvey. Incidentally, this list also contains the first mention of the Veleti after beforementioned gap, in 955, the Tollensians and Circipanians are first mentioned in the annals of St. Gallen, likewise in addition to the Veleti, in the context of the Battle of Recknitz. According to Fritze, this reflects the uncertain nomenclature after the Veletis decline, at least as a political entity, in the mid-9th century. A variant of the designation Lutici was first recorded in the annals of Hildesheim in 991, and starting in eastern Saxony, the first mention of the Kessinians is an entry in Adam von Bremens Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum, referring to the year of 1056. Within the federation, power was asserted by representatives of the clans, during the Lutician assemblies, decisions were made based on consensus, and once a decision had been made it was enforced by severe punishment of any violations. Though missing a monarch, the Lutici had a social hierarchy, political power was asserted by nobles, priests and free farmers. A reference to social differentiation is made by Thietmar, who reported a fine system imposing higher fines for offenses on persons with a higher social status. Thietmar refers to the way of life as libertas more Liuticio. The most important stronghold of the Lutici was Radgosc or Riedegost in the territory of the Redarii, after a period of dominance by the Hevelli, centered on the other important Wendish stronghold of Brenna, the Redarii became a dominant regional power themselves after the 930s
Liutizic
–
"Sclavinia", "Germania", "Gallia" and "Roma" with presents for
Otto III (~1000)
Liutizic
–
Lutician federation (983-1056/57)
Liutizic
–
"Germania", "Gallia" and "Roma" pay hommage to
Henry II (between 1007 and 1012)
Liutizic
–
Conrad II
46.
Slavic languages
–
The Slavic languages are the Indo-European languages native to the Slavic peoples, originally from Eastern Europe. The Slavic languages are divided intro three subgroups, East, West, and South, which constitute more than twenty languages. Furthermore, the diasporas of many Slavic peoples have established isolated minorities of speakers of their languages all over the world, the number of speakers of all Slavic languages together is estimated to be 315 million. The Old Novgorod dialect may have reflected some idiosyncrasies of this group, mutual intelligibility also plays a role in determining the West, East, and South branches. Speakers of languages within the branch will in most cases be able to understand each other at least partially. The tripartite division of the Slavic languages does not take account the spoken dialects of each language. For example, Slovak and Ukrainian are bridged by the Rusyn of Eastern Slovakia, similarly, Polish shares transitional features with both western Ukrainian and Belarusian dialects. The Croatian Kajkavian dialect is similar to Slovene than to the standard Croatian language. Within the individual Slavic languages, dialects may vary to a degree, as those of Russian, or to a much greater degree. The secession of the Balto-Slavic dialect ancestral to Proto-Slavic is estimated on archaeological and glottochronological criteria to have occurred sometime in the period 1500–1000 BCE, the imposition of Church Slavonic on Orthodox Slavs was often at the expense of the vernacular. The use of such media hampered the development of the languages for literary purposes. Lockwood also notes that these languages have enriched themselves by drawing on Church Slavonic for the vocabulary of abstract concepts, the situation in the Catholic countries, where Latin was more important, was different. The Polish Renaissance poet Jan Kochanowski and the Croatian Baroque writers of the 16th century all wrote in their respective vernaculars, although Church Slavonic hampered vernacular literatures, it fostered Slavonic literary activity and abetted linguistic independence from external influences. Only the Croatian vernacular literary tradition nearly matches Church Slavonic in age, the most important early monument of Croatian literacy is the Baška tablet from the late 11th century. It is a stone tablet found in the small Church of St. Lucy, Jurandvor on the Croatian island of Krk. The independence of Dubrovnik facilitated the continuity of the tradition, more recent foreign influences follow the same general pattern in Slavic languages as elsewhere and are governed by the political relationships of the Slavs. In the 17th century, bourgeois Russian absorbed German words through direct contacts between Russians and communities of German settlers in Russia, in the 19th century, Russian influenced most literary Slavic languages by one means or another. The Proto-Slavic language existed until around AD500, by the 7th century, it had broken apart into large dialectal zones
Slavic languages
–
Baška tablet, 11th century,
Krk,
Croatia.
Slavic languages
–
Countries where an
East Slavic language is the national language
Slavic languages
–
14th-century
Novgorodian children were literate enough to send each other
letters written on birch bark.
Slavic languages
–
10th–11th century
Codex Zographensis, canonical monument of Old Church Slavonic.
47.
Ratzeburg
–
Ratzeburg is a town in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is surrounded by four lakes—the resulting isthmuses between the form the access lanes to the town. Ratzeburg is the capital of the Kreis of Lauenburg, the town was founded in the 11th century as Racisburg. The name is derived from the local Wendish ruler, Prince Ratibor of the Polabians. In the year 1044 Christian missionaries under the leadership of the monk Ansverus came into the region and it was destroyed in a pagan rebellion in 1066, the monks were stoned to death. Today monuments to the missionaries in two of the towns churches commemorate these events, Ansverus was canonised in the 12th century and his relics were entombed in the Ratzeburg cathedral. Henry the Lion became the ruler of the town in 1143 and he was also responsible for the construction of the late Romanesque Cathedral, built in typical north German red-brick style. Henry also prompted the construction of the similar-looking Lübeck Cathedral and Brunswick Collegiate Church with his remains interred in the latter, since 1180 part of Ratzeburg diocesan area formed a Prince Bishopric, whose ruler was sovereign and as such had a vote at the Imperial Diet. The Prince-Bishopric of Ratzeburg was the last state in Northern Germany remaining Catholic, after the 1550 death of its ruler Prince-Bishop Georg von Blumenthal, who feuded with Thomas Aderpul, the bishopric converted to Lutheranism in 1554. The cathedral quarter again formed an immunity district to the prince-bishopric, in 1619 Saxe-Lauenburgs capital was moved from Lauenburg upon Elbe to Ratzeburg and remained there since. After this event Ratzeburg was rebuilt in baroque style, the castle, however, should never be reconstructed or built anew. Ratzeburg briefly was part of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars, after the Danish crown lost Lauenburg in the Second Schleswig War, Lauenburgs estates of the realm offered the dukedom to the Prussian Hohenzollern dynasty in personal union, who accepted in 1865. On 1 July 1876 the Duchy of Lauenburg merged into the Kingdom of Prussias Province of Schleswig-Holstein, the former cathedral immunity district, at last a part of Mecklenburg, finally became part of the town of Ratzeburg with the 1937 Greater Hamburg Act. From 1945 to 1989 the Iron Curtain ran just east of the town, Ratzeburg is known for its Olympic champion Ratzeburg Rowing Club, which was responsible for training, among others, the Gold Medalists at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. The grave of Ernst Barlach, perhaps the most notable creative artist to have made his home in Ratzeburg, is located in one of the citys cemeteries. Sibylle of Saxe-Lauenburg Regent of Baden-Baden born here, Ernst Barlach, artist, Karl Adam, rowing coach, Magnus I, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg, Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Rußwurm, pedagogue, ethnologist and historian in Estonia
Ratzeburg
–
Ratzeburg
Ratzeburg
Ratzeburg
–
Ratzeburg, ca. 1590.
_Front.jpg)
Media related to Mecklenburg at Wikimedia Commons
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Mecklenburg". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "
