1.
Berlin
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Berlin is the capital and the largest city of Germany as well as one of its constituent 16 states. With a population of approximately 3.5 million, Berlin is the second most populous city proper, due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one-third of the area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers. Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world, following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the capital of all-Germany. Berlin is a city of culture, politics, media. Its economy is based on high-tech firms and the sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations. Berlin serves as a hub for air and rail traffic and has a highly complex public transportation network. The metropolis is a popular tourist destination, significant industries also include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology, construction and electronics. Modern Berlin is home to world renowned universities, orchestras, museums and its urban setting has made it a sought-after location for international film productions. The city is known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts. Since 2000 Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene, the name Berlin has its roots in the language of West Slavic inhabitants of the area of todays Berlin, and may be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl-. All German place names ending on -ow, -itz and -in, since the Ber- at the beginning sounds like the German word Bär, a bear appears in the coat of arms of the city. It is therefore a canting arm, the first written records of towns in the area of present-day Berlin date from the late 12th century. Spandau is first mentioned in 1197 and Köpenick in 1209, although these areas did not join Berlin until 1920, the central part of Berlin can be traced back to two towns. Cölln on the Fischerinsel is first mentioned in a 1237 document,1237 is considered the founding date of the city. The two towns over time formed close economic and social ties, and profited from the right on the two important trade routes Via Imperii and from Bruges to Novgorod. In 1307, they formed an alliance with a common external policy, in 1415 Frederick I became the elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440. In 1443 Frederick II Irontooth started the construction of a new palace in the twin city Berlin-Cölln
2.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
3.
Brandenburg Gate
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The Brandenburg Gate is an 18th-century neoclassical monument in Berlin, and one of the best-known landmarks of Germany. It is built on the site of a city gate that marked the start of the road from Berlin to the town of Brandenburg an der Havel. It is located in the part of the city centre of Berlin within Mitte, at the junction of Unter den Linden and Ebertstraße. One block to the stands the Reichstag building, which houses the German parliament. The gate is the entry to Unter den Linden, the renowned boulevard of linden trees. It was commissioned by King Frederick William II of Prussia as a sign of peace, having suffered considerable damage in World War II, the Brandenburg Gate was restored from 2000 to 2002 by the Stiftung Denkmalschutz Berlin. During the post-war Partition of Germany, the gate was isolated, the area around the gate was featured most prominently in the media coverage of the tearing down of the wall in 1989, and the subsequent German reunification in 1990. Georgen Tor, Stralower Tor, Cöpenicker Tor, Neues Tor, relative peace, a policy of religious tolerance, and status as capital of the Kingdom of Prussia facilitated the growth of the city. The Brandenburg Gate was not part of the old fortifications, but one of 18 gates within the Berlin Customs Wall, erected in the 1730s, including the old fortified city, the new gate was commissioned by Frederick William II of Prussia to represent peace. The gate consists of twelve Doric columns, six to each side, citizens originally were allowed to use only the outermost two on each side. Atop the gate is a Quadriga, a chariot drawn by four horses, the new gate was originally named the Peace Gate and the goddess is Eirene, the goddess of peace. The gates design is based upon the Propylaea, the gateway to the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, the gate was the first element of Athens on the River Spree by architect Langhans. The Brandenburg Gate has played different political roles in German history, after the 1806 Prussian defeat at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt, Napoleon was the first to use the Brandenburg Gate for a triumphal procession, and took its Quadriga to Paris. After Napoleons defeat in 1814 and the Prussian occupation of Paris by General Ernst von Pfuel, the Quadriga faces east, as it did when it was originally installed in 1793. Only the royal family was allowed to pass through the archway, as well as members of the Pfuel family. The Kaiser granted this honour to the family in gratitude to Ernst von Pfuel, in addition, the central archway was also used by the coaches of ambassadors on the single occasion of their presenting their letters of credence to council. When the Nazis ascended to power, they used the gate as a party symbol, the gate survived World War II and was one of the damaged structures still standing in the Pariser Platz ruins in 1945. The gate was damaged with holes in the columns from bullets
4.
Unter den Linden
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Unter den Linden is a boulevard in the central Mitte district of Berlin, the capital of Germany. Running from the City Palace to Brandenburg Gate, it is named after the trees that line the grassed pedestrian mall on the median. The avenue links numerous Berlin sights and landmarks, Unter den Linden runs east–west from the site of the Stadtschloss royal palace at the Lustgarten park, where the demolished Palace of the Republic once stood, to Pariser Platz and Brandenburg Gate. Eastward the boulevard crosses the Spree river at Berlin Cathedral and continues as Karl-Liebknecht-Straße, the western continuation behind Brandenburg Gate is Straße des 17. Major north–south streets crossing Unter den Linden are Friedrichstraße and Wilhelmstrasse and it was replaced by a boulevard of linden trees planted in 1647, extending from the city palace to the gates of the city, by order of the Great Elector Frederick William. By the 19th century, as Berlin grew and expanded to the west, Unter den Linden became the best-known, in 1851 the famous equestrian statue of King Frederick II of Prussia was erected on the centre strip, designed by Christian Daniel Rauch. Johann Strauss III wrote the waltz „Unter den Linden“ in 1900, the present-day linden were replanted in the 1950s. Since 1937, the numbering of the properties on the street has started at the Schlossbrücke, the reconstructed Alte Kommandantur is at No. 1, standing opposite the Zeughaus arsenal, the oldest building on Unter den Linden, buildings along the street include the Crown Princes Palace, at No. 3, opposite the Neue Wache war memorial, No,4, Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s masterpiece built in 1817. Further along, on Bebelplatz, the Berlin State Opera, No,7, colloquially called Lindenoper, St. Hedwigs Cathedral and the Altes Palais, No. 9, the residence of Emperor Wilhelm I, next on the north side are the main building of the Humboldt University. 6, and House I of the Berlin State Library, No.8, at the western end are the Russian Embassy (former Soviet Embassy, Nos. 63-65, the Hungarian Embassy, No. 76, standing at the junction with Wilhelmstrasse, and finally the Hotel Adlon,77, at the corner of Pariser Platz, which has been completely rebuilt on the site of the pre-war hotel. Well-known statues of Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt in front of the university as well as of the Prussian generals Scharnhorst and Bülow, also adorn the street. A street sign carrying the name Unter den Linden dating from before the 1930s was taken away by British forces and can now be seen at the Imperial War Museum, London. Unter den Linden - Interactive 360° Panorama Webcam, Live-View of the street Unter den Linden with Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany
5.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
6.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
7.
Battle of Paris (1814)
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The Battle of Paris was fought on March 30–31,1814 between the Sixth Coalition—consisting of Russia, Austria, and Prussia against the French Empire. After a day of fighting in the suburbs of Paris, the French surrendered on March 31, ending the War of the Sixth Coalition and forcing Emperor Napoleon to abdicate, Napoleon was retreating from his failed invasion of Russia in 1812. With the Russian armies following up victory, the Sixth Coalition was formed with Russia, Austria, Prussia, Great Britain, Sweden, Spain, after the battle, the Pro-French German Confederation of the Rhine collapsed, thereby losing Napoleons hold on Germany east of the Rhine. The Coalition forces, numbering more than 400,000 and divided into three groups, finally entered northeastern France in January 1814. Utilizing his advantages, Napoleon defeated the divided Coalition forces in detail, starting with the battles at Brienne and La Rothière and he then launched his brilliant six-day campaign against the huge Coalition army, under Blücher, threatening Paris to its northeast at the Aisne River. He successfully defeated and halted it, but could not seize the initiative back in their favor as Blüchers forces were still largely intact. The Austrian emperor Francis I and King Frederick William III of Prussia felt very demoralized upon hearing the setbacks brought about by Napoleons victories since the start of the campaign and they even considered ordering a general retreat. But the Tsar Alexander I was far more determined than ever to victoriously enter Paris whatever the cost, imposing his will upon Schwarzenberg and the wavering monarchs. He was successful in defeating this army, but it was not enough to halt it in time, after this the Coalition forces advanced yet again towards Paris. Until this battle it had been nearly 400 years since a foreign army had entered Paris, since the disaster in Russia and the start of the war, the French populace had been increasingly becoming war-weary. France had been exhausting itself at war for 25 years, and many of its men had died during the wars Napoleon had fought until then, the leaders of the Coalition decided that Paris, and not Napoleon himself, was now the main objective. The Tsar intended to ride out to meet the Prussian king and they met on a road leading directly to Paris and the Tsar proposed his intentions. He brought a map and spread it to the ground for all of them to see as they talked about the plan, the plan was for the entire main Coalition army to stop pursuing Napoleon and his army and instead march directly to Paris. The exception was Wintzingerodes 10, 000-strong cavalry detachment and eight horse batteries which were to follow, as was usual, the king agreed as did Schwarzenberg. The main Coalition army began its march towards Paris on 28 March, while the main Coalition army attacked Paris, Wintzingerodes unit hotly pursued Napoleon and his rag-tag army to the southeast, but was later beaten back by the latter. However, by the time the emperor knew of the subterfuge, he was too far away to the southeast of Paris. He would never reach the city in time, thus he also could not participate in the battle for the city. The Coalition army totaled about 150,000 troops, assisting the French were the incomplete trenches and other defenses in and around the city
8.
Kingdom of Prussia
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It was the driving force behind the unification of Germany in 1871 and was the leading state of the German Empire until its dissolution in 1918. Although it took its name from the region called Prussia, it was based in the Margraviate of Brandenburg, the kings of Prussia were from the House of Hohenzollern. Prussia was a power from the time it became a kingdom, through its predecessor, Brandenburg-Prussia. Prussia continued its rise to power under the guidance of Frederick II, more known as Frederick the Great. After the might of Prussia was revealed it was considered as a power among the German states. Throughout the next hundred years Prussia went on to win many battles and it was because of its power that Prussia continuously tried to unify all the German states under its rule. Attempts at creation of a federation remained unsuccessful and the German Confederation collapsed in 1866 when war ensued between its two most powerful states, Prussia and Austria. The North German Confederation which lasted from 1867–1871, created a union between the Prussian-aligned states while Austria and most of Southern Germany remained independent. The North German Confederation was seen as more of an alliance of military strength in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War, the German Empire lasted from 1871–1918 with the successful unification of all the German states under Prussian hegemony. This was due to the defeat of Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, in 1871, Germany unified into a single country, minus Austria and Switzerland, with Prussia the dominant power. Prussia is considered the predecessor of the unified German Reich. The Kingdom left a significant cultural legacy, today notably promoted by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, in 1415 a Hohenzollern Burgrave came from the south to the March of Brandenburg and took control of the area as elector. In 1417 the Hohenzollern was made an elector of the Holy Roman Empire, after the Polish wars, the newly established Baltic towns of the German states including Prussia, suffered many economic setbacks. Many of the Prussian towns could not even afford to attend political meetings outside of Prussia, the towns were poverty stricken, with even the largest town, Danzig, having to borrow money from elsewhere to pay for trade. Poverty in these towns was partly caused by Prussias neighbors, who had established and developed such a monopoly on trading that these new towns simply could not compete and these issues led to feuds, wars, trade competition and invasions. However, the fall of these gave rise to the nobility, separated the east and the west. It was clear in 1440 how different Brandenburg was from the other German territories, not only did it face partition from within but also the threat of its neighbors. It prevented the issue of partition by enacting the Dispositio Achillea which instilled the principle of primogeniture to both the Brandenburg and Franconian territories, the second issue was solved through expansion
9.
Franco-Prussian War
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The conflict was caused by Prussian ambitions to extend German unification and French fears of the shift in the European balance of power that would result if the Prussians succeeded. On 16 July 1870, the French parliament voted to declare war on the German Kingdom of Prussia, the German coalition mobilised its troops much more quickly than the French and rapidly invaded northeastern France. The German forces were superior in numbers, had training and leadership and made more effective use of modern technology, particularly railroads. The German states proclaimed their union as the German Empire under the Prussian king Wilhelm I, the Treaty of Frankfurt of 10 May 1871 gave Germany most of Alsace and some parts of Lorraine, which became the Imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine. French determination to regain Alsace-Lorraine and fear of another Franco-German war, along with British apprehension about the balance of power, the causes of the Franco-Prussian War are deeply rooted in the events surrounding the unification of Germany. In the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Prussia had annexed numerous territories and this new power destabilized the European balance of power established by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 after the Napoleonic Wars. France was strongly opposed to any further alliance of German states, in Prussia, some officials considered a war against France both inevitable and necessary to arouse German nationalism in those states that would allow the unification of a great German empire. Bismarck also knew that France should be the aggressor in the conflict to bring the southern German states to side with Prussia, many Germans also viewed the French as the traditional destabilizer of Europe, and sought to weaken France to prevent further breaches of the peace. The immediate cause of the war resided in the candidacy of Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, France feared encirclement by an alliance between Prussia and Spain. The Hohenzollern princes candidacy was withdrawn under French diplomatic pressure, releasing the Ems Dispatch to the public, Bismarck made it sound as if the king had treated the French envoy in a demeaning fashion, which inflamed public opinion in France. They also argue that he wanted a war to resolve growing domestic political problems, other historians, notably French historian Pierre Milza, dispute this. According to Milza, the Emperor had no need for a war to increase his popularity, the Ems telegram had exactly the effect on French public opinion that Bismarck had intended. This text produced the effect of a red flag on the Gallic bull, gramont, the French foreign minister, declared that he felt he had just received a slap. Napoleons new prime minister, Emile Ollivier, declared that France had done all that it could humanly and honorably do to prevent the war, a crowd of 15–20,000 people, carrying flags and patriotic banners, marched through the streets of Paris, demanding war. On 19 July 1870 a declaration of war was sent to the Prussian government, the southern German states immediately sided with Prussia. The French Army consisted in peacetime of approximately 400,000 soldiers, some of them were veterans of previous French campaigns in the Crimean War, Algeria, the Franco-Austrian War in Italy, and in the Mexican campaign. Under Marshal Adolphe Niel, urgent reforms were made, universal conscription and a shorter period of service gave increased numbers of reservists, who would swell the army to a planned strength of 800,000 on mobilisation. Those who for any reason were not conscripted were to be enrolled in the Garde Mobile, however, the Franco-Prussian War broke out before these reforms could be completely implemented
10.
Hotel Adlon
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The Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin is a luxury hotel in Berlin, Germany. The legendary original Hotel Adlon was one of the most famous hotels in Europe and it opened in 1907 and was largely destroyed in 1945 in the closing days of World War II, though a small wing continued operating until 1984. The current hotel, which opened on August 23,1997, is a new building with an inspired by the original. In 1873 the Hotel Imperial opened in Vienna, followed by the Hôtel Ritz Paris in 1898, in Berlin, capital of the German Empire the Wilhelmine high society was eager to keep up with their rival metropolises. In 1905 Lorenz Adlon, a wine merchant and restaurateur originally from Mainz. Adlon ran several coffeehouses in Berlin, among others in the Berlin Zoological Garden, the Kaiser cleared the way for Adlons purchase of the Palais and for the subsequent demolition of the historic building. Designed by Carl Gause and Robert Leibnitz, the hotel was built at a cost of 20 Million Gold Marks,2 Million of which were the majority of Adlons personal fortune. Behind a rather sober façade, the hotel was the most modern in Germany with hot and cold running water, an on-site laundry, as well as its own power plant to generate electricity. The hotel was decorated in a mix of Neo-Baroque and Louis XVI styles and furnished by the Mainz company of Bembé, the Adlon opened on October 23,1907 with the Kaiser, his wife, and many other notables in attendance. It quickly became the center of Berlin. As the rooms in the Stadtschloss were cold and drafty, the Kaiser paid a retainer to keep suites available for his guests. Likewise the Foreign Office used the Adlon for accommodation during state visits, with guests including Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, many wealthy Berliners lived for extended periods of time in the hotel, while its ballrooms hosted official government functions and society events. He therefore never looked before crossing in front of it, tragically, this resulted in Adlon being hit by a car in 1918 at that spot. Three years later, on April 7,1921, he was hit by a car at exactly the same spot. Lorenzs son Louis Adlon took over management of the hotel with his wife Hedda, the hotel was a favorite hangout of international journalists, including William L. Shirer, who mentions it frequently in his writings. Parts of the hotel were converted to a field hospital during the final days of the Battle of Berlin. The hotel survived the war without any damage, having avoided the bombs. However, on the night of May 2,1945 a fire, started in the wine cellar by drunken Red Army soldiers
11.
Tiergarten (park)
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The Tiergarten is Berlin’s most popular inner-city park, located completely in the district of the same name. The park is 210 hectares in size and is among the largest urban gardens of Germany, only the Tempelhofer Park and Munichs Englischer Garten are larger. The beginnings of the Tiergarten can be traced back to 1527 and it was founded as a hunting area for the Elector of Brandenburg, and was situated to the west of the Cölln city wall, which was the sister town of Old Berlin. It also sat in the vicinity as the City Palace. In 1530 the expansion began, acres of land were purchased, the total area extended beyond the current Tiergarten, and the forests were perfect for hunting deer and other wild animals. This hobby, however, began to fade away as the city of Berlin began to expand, Frederick Wilhelm I, Elector of Brandenburg, feeling the need to bring change to his private hunting grounds, built many structures that are still visible today. Der Große Stern, the square of the Tiergarten, and Kurfürstenplatz. This is seen as the beginning of a transformation in the Tiergarten, Frederick Wilhelm Is son and successor, Frederick II did not appreciate the hunt as his predecessors did, In 1740, he opened the parks first public gardens. Unique to the period, areas of congregation called salons were established along the many different walkways in the park. Such freedom was common under the rule of Frederick II, there were even allowed to live within the Tiergarten. Refugees, Huguenots in hiding from the French, were allowed to erect tents, a pheasant house was erected, which would later become the core of the Zoological Garden, a zoo founded in 1844 that lies within the greater Tiergarten. During the revolutions of 1848, the hosted the first assembly demanding the abolishment of the national censors. At the end of the 18th century, Knobelsdorffs late-baroque form had been all but replaced by ideas for a new, the castle park Bellevue and Rousseau Island were laid out by court gardener Justus Ehrenreich Sello in the late 18th century. It was then in 1818 that the king commissioned the help of Peter Joseph Lenné and his plans involved the creation of a rural Volkspark, or peoples park, that would also serve as a sort of Prussian national park that would help lift the spirits of those who visited. However, the King Frederick William III rejected Lennés plan, against the opposition of a hesitant bureaucracy, Lenné submitted a modified version of his concept. This plan was accepted and realized between 1833 and 1840, the park was modeled after English gardens, but Lenné made sure to pay attention to Knobelsdorffs structures and layouts. By draining forests areas he allowed for more footpaths, roadways, several features became characteristic components of the Tiergarten. Up until 1881, the Tiergarten was owned by the monarchy, soon after Emperor William I abolished his rights to the forest, he added the boundaries to the new district of Berlin, so that the people may use and uphold it
12.
Neoclassical architecture
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Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century. In its purest form, it is a style derived from the architecture of classical antiquity, the Vitruvian principles. In form, Neoclassical architecture emphasizes the wall rather than chiaroscuro, Neoclassical architecture is still designed today, but may be labelled New Classical Architecture for contemporary buildings. In Central and Eastern Europe, the style is referred to as Classicism. Many early 19th-century neoclassical architects were influenced by the drawings and projects of Étienne-Louis Boullée, the many graphite drawings of Boullée and his students depict spare geometrical architecture that emulates the eternality of the universe. There are links between Boullées ideas and Edmund Burkes conception of the sublime, the baroque style had never truly been to the English taste. The most popular was the four-volume Vitruvius Britannicus by Colen Campbell, the book contained architectural prints of famous British buildings that had been inspired by the great architects from Vitruvius to Palladio. At first the book featured the work of Inigo Jones. Palladian architecture became well established in 18th-century Britain, at the forefront of the new school of design was the aristocratic architect earl, Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, in 1729, he and William Kent, designed Chiswick House. This House was a reinterpretation of Palladios Villa Capra, but purified of 16th century elements and this severe lack of ornamentation was to be a feature of the Palladianism. In 1734 William Kent and Lord Burlington designed one of Englands finest examples of Palladian architecture with Holkham Hall in Norfolk, the main block of this house followed Palladios dictates quite closely, but Palladios low, often detached, wings of farm buildings were elevated in significance. This classicising vein was also detectable, to a degree, in the Late Baroque architecture in Paris. This shift was even visible in Rome at the redesigned façade for S, by the mid 18th century, the movement broadened to incorporate a greater range of Classical influences, including those from Ancient Greece. The shift to neoclassical architecture is conventionally dated to the 1750s, in France, the movement was propelled by a generation of French art students trained in Rome, and was influenced by the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann. The style was adopted by progressive circles in other countries such as Sweden. A second neoclassic wave, more severe, more studied and more consciously archaeological, is associated with the height of the Napoleonic Empire, in France, the first phase of neoclassicism was expressed in the Louis XVI style, and the second in the styles called Directoire or Empire. The Scottish architect Charles Cameron created palatial Italianate interiors for the German-born Catherine II the Great in St. Petersburg, indoors, neoclassicism made a discovery of the genuine classic interior, inspired by the rediscoveries at Pompeii and Herculaneum. These had begun in the late 1740s, but only achieved an audience in the 1760s
13.
Carl Gotthard Langhans
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Carl Gotthard Langhans was a Prussian builder and architect. His works are among the earliest buildings in the German classicism movement and his best-known work is the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Langhans was born in Landeshut, Silesia and he was not educated as an architect. Through the intervention of the Count of Hatzfeld, he became known in the royal court in Berlin. As his first work in the service of the family, he built in 1766 the stairwell. His designs were used in the construction of the The Princely Pheasantry in Pszczyna-Poręba in southern Poland and he died at Grüneiche near Breslau. In 1771, Langhans married Anna Elisabeth Jaeckel, the daughter of a jurist in Breslau and she had five children, daughters Louise Amalie and Juliane Wilhelmine, a son, theater architect Carl Ferdinand as well as two other children, who died soon after birth. From 1782 he lived with his family in his in-laws house at Albrechtstraße 18 in Breslau, and in 1788, he moved to Berlin, where he lived at Charlottenstraße 48, at the corner of Behrensstraße. The fulfillment of this dream was not granted only to Goethe and Schinkel, but Langhans, too, was able to afford a trip in 1768 and 1769 thanks to the support of the Count of Hatzfeld. When he was assigned to be the leader of the Breslau war and dominion chamber, he visited the countries of England, Holland, Belgium
14.
Napoleon
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Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814, Napoleon dominated European and global affairs for more than a decade while leading France against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars. He won most of these wars and the vast majority of his battles, one of the greatest commanders in history, his wars and campaigns are studied at military schools worldwide. Napoleons political and cultural legacy has ensured his status as one of the most celebrated and he was born Napoleone di Buonaparte in Corsica to a relatively modest family from the minor nobility. When the Revolution broke out in 1789, Napoleon was serving as an officer in the French army. Seizing the new opportunities presented by the Revolution, he rose through the ranks of the military. The Directory eventually gave him command of the Army of Italy after he suppressed a revolt against the government from royalist insurgents, in 1798, he led a military expedition to Egypt that served as a springboard to political power. He engineered a coup in November 1799 and became First Consul of the Republic and his ambition and public approval inspired him to go further, and in 1804 he became the first Emperor of the French. Intractable differences with the British meant that the French were facing a Third Coalition by 1805, in 1806, the Fourth Coalition took up arms against him because Prussia became worried about growing French influence on the continent. Napoleon quickly defeated Prussia at the battles of Jena and Auerstedt, then marched the Grand Army deep into Eastern Europe, France then forced the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to sign the Treaties of Tilsit in July 1807, bringing an uneasy peace to the continent. Tilsit signified the high watermark of the French Empire, hoping to extend the Continental System and choke off British trade with the European mainland, Napoleon invaded Iberia and declared his brother Joseph the King of Spain in 1808. The Spanish and the Portuguese revolted with British support, the Peninsular War lasted six years, featured extensive guerrilla warfare, and ended in victory for the Allies. The Continental System caused recurring diplomatic conflicts between France and its client states, especially Russia, unwilling to bear the economic consequences of reduced trade, the Russians routinely violated the Continental System and enticed Napoleon into another war. The French launched an invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The resulting campaign witnessed the collapse of the Grand Army, the destruction of Russian cities, in 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in a Sixth Coalition against France. A lengthy military campaign culminated in a large Allied army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813, the Allies then invaded France and captured Paris in the spring of 1814, forcing Napoleon to abdicate in April. He was exiled to the island of Elba near Rome and the Bourbons were restored to power, however, Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and took control of France once again. The Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June, the British exiled him to the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died six years later at the age of 51
15.
Berlin Customs Wall
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The wall was erected after the old Berlin Fortress was demolished in 1734, the walls of the latter had already started to crumble and its military function was questionable. Frederick William I of Prussia ordered the construction of stockades around the city which were completed in 1737 - the new ring fence incorporated the existing northern palisade line built in 1705, the location of this oldest stockade is recalled today by the street name Linienstraße. Few parts of this original wall were stone-built. The original customs wall had 14 city gates which were named after the city to which the ensuing road led. The new wall engirded not only the city of Berlin and its suburbs but also encompassed some rural land in the east, with the growth of Berlin, the stockades and gates were moved as dictated by circumstances during the following decades. Between 1786 and 1802 the wooden stockades were replaced by walls at a height of 4 metres. Also, various gates were rebuilt in a style, one notable example being the Brandenburg Gate. In the middle of the century more gates were added to meet the transport requirements - these included New Gate, Anhalt Gate, Köpenick Gate. The middle of the century was marked by new lines terminating in stations built in front of the wall usually near one of its gates. This was the case with Potsdam Station, Anhalt Station, Stettin Station, with the rise of Berlin, new suburbs were built outside the Customs Wall, which increasingly became a hindrance to the continued development of the city. In 1860 the Customs Wall was removed and on 1 January 1861 Berlin amalgamated its suburbs resulting in a doubling of the citys population, the remaining walls were demolished for the most part between 1867 and 1870 - including most of the gates. Only some imposing gates were kept, the Brandenburg Gate being the one to be rebuilt after World War II. With the old walls out of the way, the city developed quickly almost doubling in population over the following decade, the interconnecting railway line was replaced by the circle line railway in 1871 - the existing railway track was then used by horsecar lines. The 18 city gates and 2 river gates are still visible on the map, their names having been given to squares, in clockwise order these are, Brandenburg Gate the only city gate left. Oranienburg Gate – the original gate was sold to Groß Behnitz Hamburg Gate, Water Gate, named the crossing point of the new Luisenstadt canal. Halle Gate, After the original gate was dismantled, two buildings were built by Heinrich Strack in 1876-9, the twin structures were destroyed in World War II. Die Berliner Akzisemauer – Die vorletzte Mauer der Stadt
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House of Hohenzollern
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The House of Hohenzollern is a dynasty of former princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenburg, Prussia, the German Empire, and Romania. The family arose in the area around the town of Hechingen in Swabia during the 11th century, the first ancestor of the Hohenzollerns was mentioned in 1061. They may have derived from the Burchardinger dynasty, the Hohenzollern family split into two branches, the Catholic Swabian branch and the Protestant Franconian branch, which later became the Brandenburg-Prussian branch. The Swabian branch ruled the principalities of Hohenzollern-Hechingen and Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen until 1849, members of the Franconian branch became Margrave of Brandenburg in 1415 and Duke of Prussia in 1525. The Margraviate of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia were ruled in personal union after 1618 and were called Brandenburg-Prussia, germanys defeat in World War I in 1918 led to the German Revolution. The Hohenzollerns were overthrown and the Weimar Republic was established, thus bringing an end to the German monarchy, Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia is the current head of the royal Prussian line, while Karl Friedrich, Prince of Hohenzollern is the head of the princely Swabian line. Zollern, from 1218 Hohenzollern, was a county of the Holy Roman Empire and its ruling dynasty was first mentioned in 1061. The Hohenzollerns named their estates after Hohenzollern Castle in the Swabian Alps, the Hohenzollern Castle still belongs to the family today. According to the medieval chronicler Berthold of Reichenau, Burkhard I, Count of Zollern was born before 1025, the Zollerns received the comital title from Emperor Henry V in 1111. As loyal vassals of the Swabian Hohenstaufen dynasty, they were able to enlarge their territory. In 1218 the burgraviate passed to Fredericks younger son Conrad I, he became the ancestor of the Franconian Hohenzollern branch. 1150-1155 and 1160, Gotfried of Zimmern, 4th oldest son of Frederick I before 1171 – c,1200, Frederick III/I Count Frederick III of Zollern was a loyal retainer of the Holy Roman Emperors Frederick Barbarossa and Henry VI. In about 1185 he married Sophia of Raabs, the daughter of Conrad II, after the death of Conrad II who left no male heirs, Frederick III was granted Nuremberg in 1192 as Burgrave Frederick I of Nuremberg-Zollern. Since then the name has been Hohenzollern. The younger brother, Conrad III, received the burgraviate of Nuremberg from his older brother Frederick IV in 1218, members of the Franconian line eventually became the Brandenburg-Prussian branch. The Franconian line later converted to Protestantism, the cadet Franconian branch of the House of Hohenzollern was founded by Conrad I, Burgrave of Nuremberg. Beginning in the 16th century, this branch of the family became Protestant and decided on expansion through marriage, the family supported the Hohenstaufen and Habsburg rulers of the Holy Roman Empire during the 12th to 15th centuries, being rewarded with several territorial grants. He ruled the Margraviate of Brandenburg-Ansbach after 1398, from 1420, he became Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach
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East Germany
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East Germany, formally the German Democratic Republic, was an Eastern Bloc state during the Cold War period. The Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin, but did not include it, as a result, the German Democratic Republic was established in the Soviet Zone, while the Federal Republic was established in the three western zones. East Germany, which lies culturally in Central Germany, was a state of the Soviet Union. Soviet occupation authorities began transferring administrative responsibility to German communist leaders in 1948, Soviet forces, however, remained in the country throughout the Cold War. Until 1989, the GDR was governed by the Socialist Unity Party, though other parties participated in its alliance organisation. The economy was centrally planned, and increasingly state-owned, prices of basic goods and services were set by central government planners, rather than rising and falling through supply and demand. Although the GDR had to pay war reparations to the USSR. Nonetheless it did not match the growth of West Germany. Emigration to the West was a significant problem—as many of the emigrants were well-educated young people, the government fortified its western borders and, in 1961, built the Berlin Wall. Many people attempting to flee were killed by guards or booby traps. In 1989, numerous social and political forces in the GDR and abroad led to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the following year open elections were held, and international negotiations led to the signing of the Final Settlement treaty on the status and borders of Germany. The GDR was dissolved and Germany was unified on 3 October 1990, internally, the GDR also bordered the Soviet sector of Allied-occupied Berlin known as East Berlin which was also administered as the states de facto capital. It also bordered the three sectors occupied by the United States, United Kingdom and France known collectively as West Berlin. The three sectors occupied by the Western nations were sealed off from the rest of the GDR by the Berlin Wall from its construction in 1961 until it was brought down in 1989, the official name was Deutsche Demokratische Republik, usually abbreviated to DDR. West Germans, the media and statesmen purposely avoided the official name and its abbreviation, instead using terms like Ostzone, Sowjetische Besatzungszone. The centre of power in East Berlin was referred to as Pankow. Over time, however, the abbreviation DDR was also used colloquially by West Germans. However, this use was not always consistent, for example, before World War II, Ostdeutschland was used to describe all the territories east of the Elbe, as reflected in the works of sociologist Max Weber and political theorist Carl Schmitt
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World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
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Embassy of the United States, Berlin
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The Embassy of the United States of America in Berlin is the diplomatic mission of the United States of America in the Federal Republic of Germany. The U. S. Embassy in Germany has not always been in Berlin, the U. S. Embassy in Berlin probably began with the 1797 appointment of John Quincy Adams to the then capital of Prussia, Berlin. At the time these missions in Berlin, Prussia were called legations, there were breaks in these formative years of German-American diplomatic relations where there was no official American diplomatic presence in Berlin. After the late 19th century the term embassy would be used to describe the American mission to the new unified German empire, there was also a break in relations with Germany during World War I. In these early years the embassy of the U. S. in Berlin changed as frequently as a new Ambassador changed his residence, the last temporary embassy location was on Bendlerstraße 39, close to the Tiergarten. In 1930 the Blücher Palace, located on Pariser Platz, was purchased as a new, there was a fire in the Blücher Palace on April 15,1931 before it could be fully utilized and converted for Embassy use. Money shortages in America, due to the Depression, plus soured relations with the Nazi regime further delayed the refurbishing of the damaged building. In fact Ambassador Dodd asked the State Department not to rebuild or refurbish on the site because of the use of Pariser Platz as a Nazi showcase for rallies and marches, in the meantime the Embassy operated out of a location in the Tiergarten area on Stauffenbergstraße. In 1938 Ambassador Hugh Wilson was recalled to the U. S. by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in protest over the Kristallnacht, from 1939 to 1941 there was no Ambassador assigned to Berlin, and the Embassy was led by a Chargé daffaires. Nevertheless, British bombing of Berlin brought bomb damage to the U. S. Embassy chancery, the Swiss, as a neutral state, took over the building for the rest of the war. US Consul William Russell wrote a book about his experiences during the stages of the Second World War in the book Berlin Embassy. At wars end the U. S. Embassy, now even more damaged by many months of Allied bombing, was just barely inside East Berlin. The East German government would demolish the ruins of the Embassy building in April 1957, in 1949 Bonn became the capital of West Germany, and a U. S. Embassy was opened there. The Soviet supported state of East Germany was set up about the same time, for many years the U. S. position in regards to East Berlin was to not recognize it as the capital of East Germany. The position held that Berlin should only be the capital of a unified Germany, however, in lieu of an Embassy the U. S. State Department had a presence in West Berlin called U. S. Mission Berlin was located on Clayallee in the suburban part of West Berlin called Zehlendorf. Berlin was a city, with a status very different than any other part of East or West Germany. This status of being occupied would technically last until 1994 when foreign forces left Berlin, Mission Berlin was in many matters under the authority of the commanding U. S
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Embassy of France, Berlin
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The Embassy of France in Berlin is the diplomatic mission of the French Republic in Germany. Designed by Christian de Portzamparc and completed in 2002, it is at the address, Pariser Platz 5. Prior to German reunification, France had an embassy in the German Democratic Republic at a different address, following German unification and the resumption of diplomatic relations after the Franco-Prussian War, it became the French embassy to the German Empire. During World War I, when relations were suspended, it was in the care of the Spanish Embassy. It was destroyed during the Battle of Berlin on 2 May 1945, the embassy site was very close to the border between the Western zones and the Soviet zone which became East Berlin and, like the nearby British Embassy, it was not rebuilt. The ruins were cleared in 1959, and after the construction of the Berlin Wall, after France recognised the German Democratic Republic in 1973, an embassy was established at Unter den Linden 40, next door to the FDJ. The embassy has approximately 250 employees and is one of Frances largest and it is substantially on the original site, but the northern portion was exchanged in a land swap for a piece of land on Wilhelmstraße. An auditorium and meeting rooms are in the centre of the building, the interior decoration is by the architects wife, Elizabeth de Portzamparc, with art deco touches in the ambassadorial residence. The foundation stone for the new building was laid in 1998, the building was occupied in October 2002 and formally opened by Jacques Chirac on 23 January 2003, the 40th anniversary of the Élysée Treaty between Germany and France. The style is a modern neo-classical in harmony with the buildings in Pariser Platz. However, the building was criticised by the reconstructionist Gesellschaft Historisches Berlin and in the city press as resembling a barricade or a bunker. The narrow windows meant to enliven and give rhythm to the stone base required by the regulations. The mayor of Mitte, Joachim Zeller, described the architecture as wilful, however, the Berlin Senates Director of Building, Hans Stimmann, defended it as an excellent interpretation of the restrictions and praised the inclusion of a garden, up to then unique in the square. Some have found the interior disappointingly incoherent, official site Maren Bückmann and Arne Eicher, Ambassade de France / Die französische Botschaft am Pariser Platz, thesis at GoogleDocs
21.
Diplomatic mission
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In practice, a diplomatic mission usually denotes the resident mission, namely the office of a countrys diplomatic representatives in the capital city of another country. As well as being a mission to the country in which it is situated. There are thus resident and non-resident embassies, a permanent diplomatic mission is typically known as an Embassy, and the head of the mission is known as an Ambassador, or High Commissioner. Therefore, the Embassy operates in the Chancery, European Union missions abroad are known as EU delegations. Some countries have more particular naming for their missions and staff, under the rule of Muammar Gaddafi, Libyas missions used the name peoples bureau and the head of the mission was a secretary. Missions between Commonwealth countries are known as commissions and their heads are High Commissioners. This is because Ambassadors are exchanged between foreign countries, but since the beginning of the Commonwealth, member countries have maintained that they are not foreign to one another. An ambassador represents one head of state to another and a letters of credence are addressed by one head of state to another. Until India became a republic on 26 January 1950, all members of the Commonwealth had the head of state. In the past a diplomatic mission headed by an official was known as a legation. Since the ranks of envoy and minister resident are effectively obsolete, a consulate is similar to, but not the same as a diplomatic office, but with focus on dealing with individual persons and businesses, as defined by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. A consulate or consulate general is generally a representative of the embassy in locales outside of the capital city. For instance, the United Kingdom has its Embassy of the United Kingdom in Washington, D. C. but also maintains seven consulates-general, the person in charge of a consulate or consulate-general is known as a consul or consul-general, respectively. Similar services may also be provided at the embassy in what is called a consular section. In cases of dispute, it is common for a country to recall its head of mission as a sign of its displeasure, a chargé daffaires ad interim also heads the mission during the interim between the end of one chief of missions term and the beginning of another. Contrary to popular belief, most diplomatic missions do not enjoy full extraterritorial status, rather, the premises of diplomatic missions usually remain under the jurisdiction of the host state while being afforded special privileges by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Diplomats themselves still retain full diplomatic immunity, and the host country may not enter the premises of the mission without permission of the represented country, international rules designate an attack on an embassy as an attack on the country it represents. The term extraterritoriality is often applied to missions, but normally only in this broader sense
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Academy of Arts, Berlin
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The Academy of Arts is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to art, as well as to advise. The current Academy was founded on 1 October 1993 as the re-unification of formerly separate East and West German academies, the Academy is an incorporated body of the public right under the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany. New members are nominated by secret ballot of the general assembly, founded by the Hohenzollern elector Frederick III, it was the third-oldest such academy in Europe. The institution was housed on No.8 Unter den Linden, until from 1902 the site was cleared, the Academy also served as a training school since its founding, and created a number of affiliated schools. The first was the Bauakademie for architectural training, founded in 1799, the academic arm was fully separated in 1931 and developed into the present-day Berlin University of the Arts. In postwar divided Germany, two parallel organizations took its place, the western successor organization was called the Akademie der Künste, founded in 1954 under President Hans Scharoun, which resided in the rebuilt Hansaviertel quarter of West Berlin. Its presidents included Arnold Zweig, Ludwig Renn, Johannes R. Becher, Otto Nagel, Willi Bredel, Konrad Wolf, Manfred Wekwerth and Heiner Müller. These two were merged on 1 October 1993 into the academy, which took its seat in a new building at the former location on Pariser Platz
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Berlin Wall
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The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and was completed in 1992, the barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area that contained anti-vehicle trenches, fakir beds and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc claimed that the Wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the will of the people in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that had marked East Germany, the West Berlin city government sometimes referred to it as the Wall of Shame—a term coined by mayor Willy Brandt—while condemning the Walls restriction on freedom of movement. Between 1961 and 1989, the Wall prevented almost all such emigration, during this period, around 5,000 people attempted to escape over the Wall, with an estimated death toll ranging from 136 to more than 200 in and around Berlin. After several weeks of civil unrest, the East German government announced on 9 November 1989 that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany, crowds of East Germans crossed and climbed onto the Wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few weeks, euphoric people and souvenir hunters chipped away parts of the Wall, contrary to popular belief the Walls actual demolition did not begin until the summer of 1990 and was not completed until 1992. The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification, the capital of Berlin, as the seat of the Allied Control Council, was similarly subdivided into four sectors despite the citys location, which was fully within the Soviet zone. Within two years, political divisions increased between the Soviets and the occupying powers. Property and industry was nationalized in the East German zone, if statements or decisions deviated from the described line, reprimands and punishment would ensue, such as imprisonment, torture and even death. Indoctrination of Marxism-Leninism became a part of school curricula, sending professors. The East Germans created a political police apparatus that kept the population under close surveillance. In 1948, following disagreements regarding reconstruction and a new German currency, Stalin instituted the Berlin Blockade, preventing food, materials and supplies from arriving in West Berlin. The United States, Britain, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and several countries began a massive airlift, supplying West Berlin with food. The Soviets mounted a public campaign against the Western policy change. Communists attempted to disrupt the elections of 1948, preceding large losses therein, in May 1949, Stalin lifted the blockade, permitting the resumption of Western shipments to Berlin. The German Democratic Republic was declared on 7 October 1949, by a secret treaty, the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs accorded the East German state administrative authority, but not autonomy. The Soviets permeated East German administrative, military and secret police structures and had full control, East Germany differed from West Germany, which developed into a Western capitalist country with a social market economy and a democratic parliamentary government
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Commerzbank
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Commerzbank AG is a global banking and financial services company founded in 1870 with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It offers its clients retail and commercial financing services, investment banking services, asset management, Commerzbank was founded in 1870 by individual and merchant bankers in Hamburg, Germany. Woermann was the first chairman of the board of Commerz- und Disconto-Bank from 1870. The bank grew through a series of over 50 mergers, acquisitions and restructures in the period through hyperinflation. In 1940, the name Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft, by which the bank was known, was officially adopted. With the division of Europe after World War II, three banks were united in 1958 to form Commerzbank AG, which had its headquarters in Düsseldorf. Commerzbank stepped up its financing activities and started expanding around the globe. From 1970 onwards, the administrative activities were shifted to Frankfurt am Main. What was left of Commerzbank Securities was folded into a division of the bank called Corporates. To get “sustainable profitability”, in 2016 Commerzbank planned to cut 9,600 jobs or about a fifth of its workforce in 4 years, the Commerzbank Tower is the tallest building in Frankfurt and in Germany, measuring 300,1 m to the top of the antenna. The 56-story building was designed by British architect Norman Foster and was Europes first ecological skyscraper, for more than a decade, Commerzbank was involved in laundering hundreds of billions of dollars out of Iran, Sudan, and Myanmar, against US sanctions. Media related to Commerzbank at Wikimedia Commons Official website
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DZ Bank building
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The DZ Bank building is an office, conference, and residential building located at Pariser Platz 3 in Berlin. It was designed by architect Frank Gehry and engineered by Hans Schober of Schlaich Bergermann & Partner, construction began in 1998 and was completed in 2000. Facing the Brandenburg Gate are offices, the headquarters of Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank, on the other side, facing Behrenstraße, are 39 residential apartments. Between the two is an atrium, designed to be used as a conference or performance space. This is covered with a sophisticated glass-grid roof, curved in a form typical of Gehrys designs. List of skyscrapers Thin-shell structure History of Berlin Architectural Record page on DG Bank building
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DZ Bank
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DZ Bank AG is the third largest bank in Germany by asset size and the central institution for more than 1,000 co-operative banks and their 12,000 branch offices. DZ Bank is an acronym for Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank, as a holding, the DZ Bank Group defines itself primarily as a service provider for the local cooperative banks and their 30 million or so clients. DZ Bank is a member of CIBP, EACB, the Euro Banking Association, DZ Bank is headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany and maintains branches, subsidiaries and representative offices in key financial centers and economic regions worldwide. The DZ Bank building in Berlin, located at Pariser Platz 3, was designed by architect Frank Gehry, DZ Bank also has one of the most significant collections of contemporary artistic photography which today comprises over 6,000 works by more than 550 artists. In 2016 DZ Bank was merged with WGZ Bank, the institute of the co-operative banks of Rhineland. Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken Bundesverband der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken Official website
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Dresdner Bank
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Dresdner Bank AG was one of Germanys largest banking corporations and was based in Frankfurt. It was acquired by competitor Commerzbank in December 2009, Dresdner Bank was established on 12 November 1872 through the conversion of private bank Michael Kaskel. In the 1870s, Dresdner Bank acquired smaller regional institutes and several banks, the new branch in Berlin quickly exceeded the office in Dresden, therefore, the registered office moved to Berlin in 1884 leaving the place of jurisdiction in Dresden until 1950. After few new acquisitions, opened the first international branch in London in 1895, by 1900, Dresdner bank had the largest German branch network. In all, the Dresdner Bank had 27 branches, all, with the exception of the one in London, in addition it had one silent partner and 57 deposit offices,23 being in Berlin. In 1905 a close alliance was formed with the house of J. P. Morgan & Co. New York, for joint action in international finance and issue operations, operations in the orient and South America were carried on jointly in cooperation with the A. Schaaffhausenscher Bankverein. During the First World War, the London branch was forced to close, however, after the banking crisis in 1931 the German Reich owned 66% and Deutsche Golddiskontbank owned 22% of Dresdner Bank shares. Its deputy director was Dr Schacht, Minister of Economy under Nazism, the Bank was reprivatised in 1937. During World War II, Dresdner Bank controlled various banks in countries under German Occupation and it took over the Bohemian Discount Bank in Prague, the Societa Bancara Romana in Bucharest, the Handels- und Kreditbank in Riga, the Kontinentale Bank in Brussels, and Banque dAthenes. It maintained majority control of the Croatian Landerbank and the Kommerzialbank in Kraków and it took over the French interests in the Hungarian General Bank and the Greek Credit Bank, and it founded the Handelstrust West N. V. in Amsterdam. It also controlled Banque Bulgare de Commerce in Sofia and the Deutsche Orient-Bank in Turkey, as a result of World War II 80% of the Banks buildings were destroyed, costing the Bank 162 offices in 56 locations. Monetary reform and the introduction of the Deutsche Mark in 1948 helped return banking to normality. Dresdner Bank expanded its network with acquisition and opening new offices not only in Europe but also in the United States, Singapore, Canada, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, and China. Dresdner Bank was the first to open its own office in former eastern Germany in Dresden on 2 January 1990, after the acquisition of Kleinwort Benson in 1995 to form its investment-banking arm Dresdner Kleinwort, Dresdner Bank took over the American investment bank Wasserstein Perella Group Inc. This investment banking unit was then renamed Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, in 2002 Dresdner Bank became a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance corporation Allianz. In July 2006 Dresdner Kleinwort, dropped Wasserstein from their name and went through a re-organization of corporate bank, capital markets, the arm made up of Capital Markets and Investment Banking. In 2008 it was reported that Allianz was looking to dispose of Dresdner Bank, british banking group Lloyds TSB were amongst those rumoured to be interested
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Reichstag building
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The Reichstag building is a historical edifice in Berlin, Germany, constructed to house the Imperial Diet, of the German Empire. It was opened in 1894 and housed the Diet until 1933, after its completion in 1999, it once again became the meeting place of the German parliament, the modern Bundestag. The term Reichstag, when used to connote a diet, dates back to the Holy Roman Empire, the building was built for the Diet of the German Empire, which was succeeded by the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic. The latter would become the Reichstag of Nazi Germany, which left the building after the 1933 fire and never returned, in todays usage, the German word Reichstag refers mainly to the building, while Bundestag refers to the institution. Construction of the building began well after the unification of Germany in 1871, after lengthy negotiations, the Raczyński Palace was purchased and demolished, making way for the new building. In 1882, another architectural contest was held, with 200 architects participating and this time the winner, the Frankfurt architect Paul Wallot, would actually see his Neo-Baroque project executed. The direct model for Wallots design was Philadelphias Memorial Hall, the building of the 1876 Centennial Exhibition. Some of the Reichstags decorative sculptures, reliefs, and inscriptions were by sculptor Otto Lessing, on 29 June 1884, the foundation stone was finally laid by Wilhelm I, at the east side of the Königsplatz. Before construction was completed by Philipp Holzmann A. G. in 1894 and his eventual successor, Wilhelm II, took a more jaundiced view of parliamentary democracy than his grandfather. The original building was acclaimed for the construction of a cupola of steel and glass. But its mixture of architectural styles drew widespread criticism, the building continued to be the seat of the parliament of the Weimar Republic, which was still called the Reichstag. The building caught fire on 27 February 1933, under circumstances still not entirely known, during the 12 years of National Socialist rule, the Reichstag building was not used for parliamentary sessions. Instead, the few times that the Reichstag convened at all, it did so in the Kroll Opera House, the main meeting hall of the building was instead used for propaganda presentations and, during World War II, for military purposes. It was also considered for conversion to a tower but was found to be structurally unsuitable. The building, having never fully repaired since the fire, was further damaged by air raids. During the Battle of Berlin in 1945, it one of the central targets for the Red Army to capture due to its perceived symbolic significance. Today, visitors to the building can still see Soviet graffiti on walls inside as well as on part of the roof. Yevgeny Khaldei took the picture, Raising a flag over the Reichstag
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Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
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It consists of a 19,000 m2 site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs or stelae, arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. The stelae are 2.38 m long,0.95 m wide and they are organized in rows,54 of them going north–south, and 87 heading east–west at right angles but set slightly askew. An attached underground Place of Information holds the names of approximately 3 million Jewish Holocaust victims, building began on April 1,2003, and was finished on December 15,2004. It was inaugurated on May 10,2005, sixty years after the end of World War II and it is located one block south of the Brandenburg Gate, in the Friedrichstadt neighborhood. The cost of construction was approximately €25 million, nestled next to the Tiergarten, it has a central location in the Friedrichstadt district of Berlin. The memorial is close to the Reichstag building and the Brandenburg Gate. It can be reached by transportation, via the Potsdamer Platz exit on the U-Bahn Line 2, Lines 1,2, or 25 of the S-Bahn and Bus Lines 100,200,347, M41. The monument is located on the location of the Berlin Wall. It acts as a point, connecting the various holocaust monuments spread across the city and the country. The center represents a central focus on the memorial sites across Germany which stress the living memory aspect of remembrance. In Berlin an example of this is the Stolpersteine initiative – plaques on street pavements, usually outside the main entrance. The monument is composed of 2711 rectangular concrete blocks, laid out in a grid formation and this lets for long, straight, and narrow alleys between them, along which the ground undulates. The installation is an experiment in montage, a Kuleshov of the juxtaposition of image. People have applauded the location of the memorial, during the war, the area acted as the administrative center of Hitlers killing machine. “His chancellery building, designed by Albert Speer and since demolished, was a few hundred yards away just to the south, however, observers have noted the memorials resemblance to a cemetery. The abstract installation leaves room for interpretation, the most common being that of a graveyard. “The memorial evokes a graveyard for those who were unburied or thrown into unmarked pits, Wolfgang Thierse, the president of Germanys parliament described the piece as a place that where people can grasp what loneliness, powerlessness and despair mean. Mr. Thierse talked about the memorial as creating a type of fear in the visitor
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Embassy of the United Kingdom, Berlin
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British Embassy, Berlin is the United Kingdoms diplomatic mission to Germany. It is located on 70-71 Wilhelmstraße, near the Hotel Adlon, the current ambassador is Sir Sebastian Wood. Before moving to the Wilhelmstraße the British mission used, among others, the Building Leipziger Platz 12 and the Dutch Palace, this from 1797 to 1803. The original building at 70 Wilhelmstraße, known as the Palais Strousberg, in December 1884 the United Kingdom bought the site after renting it for some years after Strousbergs bankruptcy and the subsequent sale of the building to Hugo zu Hohenlohe-Öhringen in 1876. Wilhelmstraße was then a centre for the German government, being the location of the Imperial Chancellery, when diplomatic relations were broken off at the outbreak of World War I the building stood empty. Surviving a fire during the upheavals of the 1919 revolution, it was reoccupied in 1920 when Edgar Vincent dAbernon became Ambassador, at the beginning of World War II relations were broken off again. The building was damaged by Allied bombing during the war and was demolished in 1950. The title to the land remained in the possession of the British state. Between 1949 and 1991, Germany was divided, the British Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany was based in Bonn, the capital city of that state. The British embassy to the German Democratic Republic was situated near to the old embassy, upon reunification in 1991, the German government returned the seat of government from Bonn to Berlin. Accordingly, the British government decided to reoccupy the Wilhelmstraße site, despite the German Foreign Office no longer being located in this street, an architectural competition was held, and won by the practice of Michael Wilford and Partner. Ground was broken at the site on 29 June 1998 by Derek Fatchett MP, the British embassy is the first, and to date, only embassy in Germany to be built under a Private Finance Initiative. Arteos, a Bilfinger Berger owned special purpose entity, financed and were to operate the building for 30 years. A further 30-year extension is possible, following which the building will revert to British government ownership, in December 2006 Bilfinger sold their interest in the embassy to the UK firm Secondary Market Infrastructure Fund. Conscious of the necessity for modern embassies to forge good and open relationships with the German public, Wilford endowed the main floor with a café, library and restaurant. List of diplomats of the United Kingdom to Germany This article contains material that was translated from the German Wikipedia article Britische Botschaft in Berlin. That article contains the references, - Thomas Michael Krüger, Florian Bolk. Broschüre, ISBN 3-933743-36-2 Ulf Meyer, Bundeshauptstadt Berlin, jovis Verlag, Berlin,1999, ISBN 3-931321-98-3 British embassy Berlin Photograph of the old embassy
31.
Wilhelmstrasse
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Wilhelmstrasse is a major thoroughfare in the central Mitte and Kreuzberg districts of Berlin, Germany. Between Unter den Linden and parallel Behrenstraße, the road is closed for vehicles as a protection of the Embassy of the United Kingdom. The street was renamed Wilhelmstraße in honour of the king, who had died in 1740. In 1858 King Frederick William IV acquired the former Palais Schwerin on No.73 as the seat of the Prussian minister for the Royal Household. In 1869 the nearby Palais Schulenburg residence of late Prince Antoni Radziwiłł,77, was purchased by the Prussian state government at the behest of Schleinitz opponent Minister-President Otto von Bismarck. Rebuilt from 1875 until 1878, it served as his seat as German chancellor. The next door building on No.76 was used for the chancellerys Foreign Office department, in 1877 the Borsig Palace was erected on the corner with Voss-Strasse. Hitler addressed the crowds on Wilhelmstasse from a window of a modern chancellery annex building erected in 1930. Styling himself Führer and Reich Chancellor from 1934, he regarded the residence inadequate, the Foreign Office moved into the former Reich Presidents palace, the old building being refurbished in grandiose style at the behest of Nazi Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. Vis-à-vis on Wilhelmplatz, the Baroque Ordenspalais was refurbished as seat of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment, in 1935/36 his party fellow Hermann Göring had the huge Ministry of Aviation edifice designed by Ernst Sagebiel built on the corner with Leipziger Strasse. Most of the buildings along Wilhelmstrasse were destroyed by Allied bombing during 1944 and early 1945. One of the earliest reconstructions was the 1948-built provisional wooden church hall of the Moravian Brethren congregation on Wilhelmstrasse 138, in the late 1950s there were almost no buildings at all along the Wilhelmstrasse from Unter den Linden to the Leipziger Strasse. The only major surviving public building in the Wilhelmstrasse was just Görings Reich Air Ministry, as Haus der Ministerien it was at the centre of the popular demonstrations during the workers uprising of 17 June 1953. The building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 cut the street in half, in 1964 the East Berlin section of the street was named after the former GDR Minister-president Otto Grotewohl, who had died in office on September 21. Several embassies of befriended countries were erected on the corner with Unter den Linden from about 1970 onwards, the new embassy building of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was erected from 1974 to 1978 on Wilhelmplatz. In the 1980s, several Plattenbau apartment blocks were built on the premises along East Berlin Otto-Grotewohl-Straße. The flats were popular among the nomenklatura, as they provided an undisturbed view across the Walls towards West Berlin. The former death strip is today the site of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, today the Wilhelmstrasse is an important traffic artery, but has not regained its former status
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Ludwig Achim von Arnim
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Arnim was born in Berlin, descending from a Brandenburgian Uradel noble family first mentioned in 1204. His father was the Prussian chamberlain Joachim Erdmann von Arnim, royal envoy in Copenhagen and Dresden and his mother, Amalia Carlonia Labes, died three weeks after Arnims birth. Arnim and his elder brother Carl Otto spent their childhood with their maternal grandmother Caroline von Labes in Zernikow and in Berlin, in 1798 he went on to study law, natural science and mathematics at the University of Halle. His early writings included numerous articles for scientific magazines and his first major work, Theorie der elektrischen Erscheinungen showed a leaning to the supernatural, common among the German romanticists. In Halle he associated with the composer Johann Friedrich Reichardt, in whose house he became acquainted with the Romantic poet Ludwig Tieck. From 1800 he continued his studies at the University of Göttingen, though, having met Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Clemens Brentano, Arnim received the degree of a Doctor of Medicine in 1801, but never practiced. He went on to travel through Europe with his brother from 1801 to 1804, Arnim was influenced by the earlier writings of Goethe and Herder, from which he learned to appreciate the beauties of German traditional legends and folk songs. Back in Germany, he began forming a collection of these and in 1805 first published the result, in collaboration with Clemens Brentano and he went to see Goethe in Weimar, in order to edit the collection. In Frankfurt he met with the jurist Friedrich Carl von Savigny, arnimss editorial work was increasingly affected by the Napoleonic Wars. Upon the Prussian defeat in the 1806 Battle of Jena–Auerstedt, he followed the court to Königsberg. In 1807 he moved back to Weimar and Kassel, where he visited the Brothers Grimm, the Heidelberg Romanticist circle also included Tieck, Friedrich Schlegel, Jean Paul, Justinus Kerner, and Ludwig Uhland. From 1809 Arnim again lived in Berlin, however, his plans to enter the Prussian civil service failed, in 1810 he affianced Brentanos sister Bettina, who won wide recognition as a writer in her own right. They married on 11 March 1811, their daughter Gisela became a writer as well, shortly after their marriage the couple went on to visit Goethe in to Weimar, however, the reunion was overshadowed by a heated quarrel between Bettina and Goethes wife Christiane. In Berlin, Achim worked on Heinrich von Kleists legacy and founded the patriotic Deutsche Tischgesellschaft association of Christian men and he remained connected with the Prussian patriots such as Adam Heinrich Müller and Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué and even commanded a Landsturm battalion during the German Campaign of 1813. From October 1813 he acted as publisher of the Berlin newspaper The Prussian Correspondent, while his wife stayed in Berlin, Arnim in 1814 retired to Künstlerhaus Schloss Wiepersdorf, his family home, where he lived until his death by a stroke in 1831. His output, published in newspapers, magazines and almanacs as well as self-contained books, included novels, dramas, stories, poems, following his death, his library was taken over by the Weimar court library. Arnim is considered one of the most important representatives of German Romanticism and his works were collected, with an introduction by Wilhelm Grimm, in twenty volumes. Heinrich Heine wrote a eulogy of Arnim in his Deutschland, kaiser Karl des Fünften erste Jugendliebe Schaubühne Frau von Saverne Die Kronenwächter
33.
August von Kotzebue
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August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue was a German dramatist and writer who also worked as a consul in Russia and Germany. In 1817, one of Kotzebues books was burned during the Wartburg festival and he was murdered in 1819 by Karl Ludwig Sand, a militant member of the Burschenschaften. In 1776 the young Kotzebue acted alongside Goethe in the latter’s play Die Geschwister when it premiered in Weimar, in 1777, aged sixteen, he enrolled at the University of Jena to study legal science. He continued his studies at the University of Duisburg, graduating in 1780, through his association with Graf Goertz, Prussian ambassador at the Russian court, Kotzebue became secretary to the Governor General of Saint Petersburg. In 1783 he was appointed assessor to the court of appeals in Reval. He was ennobled in 1785 and became president of the Magistrat of the Governorate of Estonia, in Reval his first literary works were favourably received. Written in response to contention between J. G, Zimmermann and leaders of Berlins party of the Enlightenment, it linked each of Zimmermanns opponents to a particular sexual perversion. Kotzebue denied authorship, even when the police began to investigate the matter and this alienated both Zimmermann and Knigge, formerly his allies, and also gained Kotzebue a reputation for dishonesty and lasciviousness that he would never shake off. After the death of his first wife in 1790, Kotzebue retired from the Russian service and lived for a time in Paris, in 1795 he settled on an estate which he had acquired near Reval and devoted himself to writing. In the space of only a few years, he published six volumes of sketches and stories and more than twenty plays. In 1798 he was appointed dramatist to the theatre in Vienna. In April 1800 he decided to return to Saint Petersburg, Kotzebue wrote about this period in his life in the autobiographical Das merkwürdigste Jahr meines Lebens. Kotzebue returned to Germany in 1801, after the assassination of Tsar Paul I, failing to establish himself in Weimars literary circles, he moved to Berlin, where he edited Der Freimutige in collaboration with Garlieb Merkel from 1803 to 1807. In 1803 he began his Almanach dramatischer Spiele, which was published posthumously in 1820 and he started working for the department of foreign affairs in Saint Petersburg in 1816 and was sent to Germany as consul general for Russia a year later. Some suspected him of being a spy, and this persisted for a long time. Nevertheless, it is fair to say he was Russias advocate in Germany, in a weekly journal which he published in Weimar, he scoffed at the pretensions of those Germans who demanded free institutions, and soon became detested by nationalist liberals. One of them, Karl Ludwig Sand, a theology student, on 18 March 1819, soon after Kotzebue had moved with his family to Mannheim, Sand attacked Kotzebue at his house. According to Alexandre Dumas, père, when one of Kotzebues children appeared and started to cry, Sand became overwrought, Sand was arrested and carefully nursed back to health
34.
Max Liebermann
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Max Liebermann was a German-Jewish painter and printmaker, and one of the leading proponents of Impressionism in Germany. The son of a Jewish fabric manufacturer turned banker from Berlin and he first studied law and philosophy at the University of Berlin, but later studied painting and drawing in Weimar in 1869, in Paris in 1872, and in the Netherlands in 1876–77. During the Franco-Prussian War, Liebermann served as a medic with the Order of St. John near Metz, after living and working for some time in Munich, he finally returned to Berlin in 1884, where he remained for the rest of his life. He was married in 1884 to Martha Marckwald and he used his own inherited wealth to assemble an impressive collection of French Impressionist works. He later chose scenes of the bourgeoisie, as well as aspects of his garden near Lake Wannsee, in Berlin, he became a famous painter of portraits, his work is especially close in spirit to Édouard Manet. In his work he steered away from religious subject matter, with one exception being an early painting. His painting of a Semitic-looking boy Jesus conferring with Jewish scholars sparked debate, at the International Art Show in Munich it stirred up a storm for its supposed blasphemy, with one critic describing Jesus as the ugliest, most impertinent Jewish boy imaginable. Noted for his portraits, Liebermann also painted himself from time to time, on the occasion of his 50th birthday, Liebermann was given a solo exhibition at the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin, and the following year he was elected to the academy. From 1899 to 1911 he led the premier avant-garde formation in Germany, in his various capacities as a leader in the artistic community, Liebermann spoke out often for the separation of art and politics. In the formulation of arts reporter and critic Grace Glueck he pushed for the right of artists to do their own thing and his interest in French Realism was offputting to conservatives, for whom such openness suggested what they thought of as Jewish cosmopolitanism. He did contribute regularly to a put out by artists during World War I. Beginning in 1920 he was president of the Prussian Academy of Arts, in 1933 he resigned when the academy decided to no longer exhibit works by Jewish artists, before he would have been forced to do so under laws restricting the rights of Jews. While watching the Nazis celebrate their victory by marching through the Brandenburg Gate, Liebermann was reported to have commented, Ich kann gar nicht soviel fressen, wie ich kotzen möchte. In 1909 Liebermann bought property in Wannsee, a suburb of summer homes on the outskirts of Berlin. From the 1910s until his death, images of the gardens dominated his work, together with Lovis Corinth and Max Slevogt, Liebermann became an exponent of German Impressionism. On his 80th birthday, in 1927, Liebermann was celebrated with an exhibition, declared an honorary citizen of Berlin. Liebermann died on February 8,1935, at his home on Berlins Pariser Platz, according to Käthe Kollwitz, he fell asleep about 7 p. m. and was gone. However, despite official strictures by the Gestapo, more than 100 friends, among the mourners were Kollwitz, Hans Purrmann, Otto Nagel, Ferdinand Sauerbruch, Bruno Cassirer, Georg Kolbe, Max J. Friedländer and Adolph Goldschmidt
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Giacomo Meyerbeer
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Giacomo Meyerbeer was a German opera composer of Jewish birth who has been described as perhaps the most successful stage composer of the nineteenth century. With his 1831 opera Robert le diable and its successors, he gave the genre of grand opera decisive character, Meyerbeers grand opera style was achieved by his merging of German orchestra style with Italian vocal tradition. These were employed in the context of sensational and melodramatic libretti created by Eugène Scribe and were enhanced by the up-to-date theatre technology of the Paris Opéra and they set a standard which helped to maintain Paris as the opera capital of the nineteenth century. Born to a very wealthy Berlin family, Meyerbeer began his career as a pianist but soon decided to devote himself to opera. His 1824 opera Il crociato in Egitto was the first to bring him Europe-wide reputation and he was at his peak with his operas Les Huguenots and Le prophète, his last opera was performed posthumously. His operas made him the most frequently performed composer at the leading opera houses in the nineteenth century. He was a supporter of Richard Wagner, enabling the first production of the latters opera. He was commissioned to write the patriotic opera Ein Feldlager in Schlesien to celebrate the reopening of the Berlin Royal Opera House in 1844, apart from around 50 songs, Meyerbeer wrote little except for the stage. Meyerbeers works are infrequently performed today. Meyerbeers birthname was Jacob Liebmann Beer, he was born in Tasdorf, near Berlin, then the capital of Prussia, to a Jewish family. His father was the wealthy financier Judah Herz Beer and his mother, Amalia Wulff, to whom he was particularly devoted. Their other children included the astronomer Wilhelm Beer and the poet Michael Beer and he was to adopt the surname Meyerbeer on the death of his grandfather Liebmann Meyer Wulff and the first name Giacomo during his period of study in Italy, around 1817. Judah Beer was a leader of the Berlin Jewish community and maintained a synagogue in his house which leaned towards reformist views. Jacob Beer wrote a cantata for performance at this synagogue. The brothers Alexander von Humboldt, the renowned naturalist, geographer and explorer, beers first keyboard instructor was Franz Lauska, a pupil of Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and a favoured teacher at the Berlin court. Beer also became one of Muzio Clementis pupils while Clementi was in Berlin, the boy made his public debut in 1801 playing Mozarts D minor Piano Concerto in Berlin. Beer, as he named himself, studied with Antonio Salieri. Louis Spohr organised a concert for Beer at Berlin in 1804 and continued his acquaintance with the lad later in Vienna, beers first stage work, the ballet Der Fischer und das Milchmädchen was produced in March 1810 at the Court Opera in Berlin
36.
Friedrich Carl von Savigny
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Friedrich Carl von Savigny was a German jurist and historian. Savigny was born at Frankfurt, of a family recorded in the history of Lorraine, after the fashion of German students, Savigny visited several universities, notably Jena, Leipzig and Halle, and returning to Marburg, took his doctors degree in 1800. At Marburg he lectured as Privatdozent on criminal law and the Pandects, in 1803 Savigny published Das Recht des Besitzes. Anton Thibaut hailed it as a masterpiece which brought the old uncritical study of Roman law to an end and it quickly obtained a European reputation, and still remains a prominent landmark in the history of jurisprudence. In 1804 he married Kunigunde Brentano, sister of Bettina von Arnim, the same year he embarked on an extensive tour through France and south Germany in search of fresh sources of Roman law. In 1808 Savigny was appointed professor of Roman law at Landshut. He remained in position for a year and a half. In 1810 he was appointed to the chair of Roman law at the new University of Berlin and this was the busiest time of his life. He was engaged in lecturing, in the government of the university, during his time in Berlin Savigny befriended Niebuhr and Eichhorn. In 1814 Savigny wrote the pamphlet Vom Beruf unserer Zeit für Gesetzgebung und Rechtswissenschaft, in an earlier pamphlet Thibaut had argued for the creation of a unified legal code for Germany, independent of the influence of foreign legal systems. Savigny argued that such a codification of the law would have an adverse effect, according to Savigny the damage which had been caused by the neglect of former generations of jurists could not be quickly repaired, and more time was required to set the house in order. Moreover, a legal code would almost certainly be influenced by natural law, with its infinite arrogance. It was Savignys opinion that jurisprudence should be saved from the hollow abstractions of such a work as the Institutiones juris naturae et gentium of Christian Wolff. Savigny opposed this conception of jurisprudence to the study of the positive law. However, Savigny did not oppose to the introduction of new laws or of a new system of laws, in 1815 Savigny, together with Karl Friedrich Eichhorn and Johann Friedrich Ludwig Göschen, founded the Zeitschrift für geschichtliche Rechtswissenschaft, the organ of the new historical school. In this periodical Savigny made known to the world the discovery by Niebuhr at Verona of the lost text of Gaius, Savigny pronounced it to be the work of Gaius himself and not, as Niebuhr suggested, of Ulpian. The same year,1815, Savigny published the first volume of his Geschichte des römischen Rechts im Mittelalter and he had been prompted to write this work by his early instructor Weiss. Savigny intended it to be a history of Roman law from Irnerius to the present time
37.
Albert Speer
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Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer was a German architect who was, for most of World War II, Reich Minister of Armaments and War Production for Nazi Germany. Speer was Adolf Hitlers chief architect before assuming ministerial office, Speer joined the Nazi Party in 1931, launching himself on a political and governmental career which lasted fourteen years. His architectural skills made him increasingly prominent within the Party and he became a member of Hitlers inner circle, Hitler instructed him to design and construct structures including the Reich Chancellery and the Zeppelinfeld stadium in Nuremberg where Party rallies were held. Speer also made plans to reconstruct Berlin on a scale, with huge buildings, wide boulevards. In February 1942, Hitler appointed Speer Reich Minister of Armaments, after the war, he was tried at Nuremberg and sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in the Nazi regime, principally for the use of forced labor. Despite repeated attempts to gain early release, he served his full sentence and he later wrote a third book, Infiltration, about the SS. Speer died of a stroke in 1981 while on a visit to London, Speer was born in Mannheim, into an upper-middle-class family. He was the second of three sons of Luise Máthilde Wilhelmine and Albert Friedrich Speer, in 1918, the family moved permanently to their summer home Villa Speer on Schloss-Wolfsbrunnenweg, Heidelberg. According to Henry T. King, deputy prosecutor at Nuremberg who later wrote a book about Speer, Love, Speer was active in sports, taking up skiing and mountaineering. Speers Heidelberg school offered rugby football, unusual for Germany, and he wanted to become a mathematician, but his father said if Speer chose this occupation he would lead a life without money, without a position and without a future. Instead, Speer followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, Speer began his architectural studies at the University of Karlsruhe instead of a more highly acclaimed institution because the hyperinflation crisis of 1923 limited his parents income. In 1924 when the crisis had abated, he transferred to the more reputable Technical University of Munich. In 1925 he transferred again, this time to the Technical University of Berlin where he studied under Heinrich Tessenow, after passing his exams in 1927, Speer became Tessenows assistant, a high honor for a man of 22. As such, Speer taught some of Tessenows classes while continuing his own postgraduate studies, in Munich, and continuing in Berlin, Speer began a close friendship, ultimately spanning over 50 years, with Rudolf Wolters, who also studied under Tessenow. In mid-1922, Speer began courting Margarete Weber, the daughter of a craftsman who employed 50 workers. The relationship was frowned upon by Speers class-conscious mother, who felt that the Webers were socially inferior, despite this opposition, the two married in Berlin on 28 August 1928, seven years were to elapse before Margarete Speer was invited to stay at her in-laws home. Speer stated he was apolitical when he was a man. On March 1,1931, he applied to join the Nazi Party, in 1931, Speer surrendered his position as Tessenows assistant and moved to Mannheim
38.
Friedrich Graf von Wrangel
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Friedrich Heinrich Ernst Graf von Wrangel was a Generalfeldmarschall of the Prussian Army. He was nicknamed Papa Wrangel and a member of the Baltic German noble family of Wrangel, Wrangel was born in Stettin in Pomerania. He entered a regiment in 1796 and became second lieutenant in 1798. He fought as a subaltern during the Napoleonic Wars, especially distinguishing himself at Heilsberg in 1807, Wrangel commanded a cavalry brigade in 1821, and two years later was promoted major-general. He was promoted to Lieutenant-General, received many honours from the court, enjoyed the confidence of the Junker party, and commanded successively at Königsberg and Stettin. In 1848 Wrangel commanded the II Corps of the army of the German Confederation in the First Schleswig War, was promoted to General of Cavalry, and won several confrontations. However, the other European powers pressured Prussia to withdraw its forces, Wrangel refused, asserting that he was under the command not of the king of Prussia but of the regent of Germany. Wrangels insubordination was not counted against him, when in the autumn he was summoned to Berlin to suppress the riots there during the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states. As governor of Berlin and commander-in-chief of Brandenburg he proclaimed a state of siege, thus on two occasions in the troubled history of Prussian revival Wrangels uncompromising sternness achieved its object without bloodshed. In 1856, having then seen sixty years service, he was made a field marshal, at the age of eighty he commanded the Austro-Prussian army in the Second Schleswig War with Denmark in 1864. After the Battle of Düppel, Wrangel resigned his command, was created a graf, in 1866 Papa Wrangel assisted in the Austro-Prussian War, but without a command on account of his great age. He took a keen interest in the reorganization of the cavalry arm 1866-1870. He died at Berlin in 1877, on the seventieth anniversary of his entering the army, Wrangels regiment, the 3rd Cuirassiers, was given the title Graf Wrangel. Regarding personal names, Graf was a title before 1919, before the August 1919 abolition of nobility as a legal class, titles preceded the full name when given. Since 1919, these titles, along with any nobiliary prefix, can be used, but are regarded as a dependent part of the surname, titles and all dependent parts of surnames are ignored in alphabetical sorting. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Wrangel, Friedrich Heinrich Ernst, porträt, Ehrenbürger Friedrich von Wrangel Berlin-Lexikon Media related to Friedrich von Wrangel at Wikimedia Commons
39.
Berlin S-Bahn
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The Berlin S-Bahn is a rapid transit railway system in and around Berlin, the capital city of Germany. It has been in operation under this name since December 1930, having previously called the special tariff area Berliner Stadt-. It complements the Berlin U-Bahn and is the link to many outer-Berlin areas, in other parts of Germany and other German-speaking countries, the brand name S-Bahn is used without those Berlin specific features. The Hamburg S-Bahn is the other system using third-rail electrification. The Berlin S-Bahn consists today of 15 lines serving 166 stations, the S-Bahn carried 395 million passengers in 2012. It is integrated with the mostly underground U-Bahn to form the backbone of Berlins rapid transport system, unlike the U-Bahn, the S-Bahn crosses Berlin city limits into the surrounding state of Brandenburg, e. g. to Potsdam. Although the S- and U-Bahn are part of a fare system. The S-Bahn is operated by S-Bahn Berlin GmbH, a subsidiary of the Deutsche Bahn, whereas the U-Bahn is run by BVG, the main public transit company for the city of Berlin. The S-Bahn routes all feed into one of three lines, a central, elevated east-west line, a central, mostly underground north-south line. Outside the Ringbahn, suburban routes radiate in all directions, lines S1, S2 and S25 are north-south lines that use the North-South tunnel as their midsection. They were equally distributed into Oranienburg, Bernau and Hennigsdorf in the north, lines S3, S5, S7 and S75 are east-west lines using the Stadtbahn cross-city railway. The western termini are located at Potsdam and Spandau, the eastern termini are Erkner, Strausberg Nord, Ahrensfelde and Wartenberg. Before 2009 and after 2017, the S9 used and will use a curve at Ostkreuz to change from Stadtbahn to the South-Western leg of the Ringbahn. Lines S41 and S42 continuously circle around the Ringbahn, the former clockwise, lines S45, S46 and S47 link destinations in the southeast with the southern section of the Ringbahn via the tangential link from the Görlitzer Bahn to the Ring via Köllnische Heide. Lines S8, S85, and S9 are north-south lines using the section of the Ringbahn between Bornholmer Straße and Treptower Park via Ostkreuz, using the Görlitzer Bahn in the South. Generally speaking, the first digit of a number denotes the main route or a group of routes. Thus, S25 is a branch of S2, while S41, S42, S45, S46, so S41, S42, S45, S46 and S47 are together S4. However, the S4 does not exist as an independent entity, since 9 January 1984, all the West Berlin S-Bahn routes are labelled with an S followed by a number
40.
U55 (Berlin U-Bahn)
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U55 is an U-Bahn line in the German capital city of Berlin. It connects the new Berlin Hauptbahnhof, or main railway station, currently, it has only three stations, does not connect to any other U-Bahn line, and is operated as a shuttle line using a single train. The line is the newest U-Bahn line, and was constructed as part of an extension of the U5 that was postponed due to financial difficulties. As much of the work on this section of the extension had been completed, it was decided to complete the section. The line was opened in 2009, and work is now under way on the section needed to unite it with U5. The unusual nature of U55 reflects Berlins troubled finances, as this was a long-planned route, short tunnels exist at both Jungfernheide and Turmstraße to accommodate the new line. However, these plans were cut back for financial reasons before construction began, for now, the line is only approved to terminate at the Hauptbahnhof, with the route to Jungfernheide and beyond to be built later. In the late 1990s, construction began on the end of this extension. However, around that time the city suffered a major financial crisis. The opening of the line between Berlin Hauptbahnhof and Brandenburger Tor was delayed owing to extreme groundwater problems at the site of the new station. It was finally opened on 8 August 2009, with the opening of the U-Bahn station, the existing Unter den Linden S-Bahn station was renamed Brandenburger Tor. The title Unter den Linden has been given to a further east at the junction with Friedrichstraße. There is also a workshop for basic maintenance and cleaning of carriages. The designation of the line as U55 indicates that it is intended to become part of the U5 line. Construction of the link to enable this commenced in April 2010 was originally expected to be completed by 2017, construction works suffered from continued difficulties, mainly concerning high water contents in the soil, in November 2015 the opening date was postponed to 2020. The link will be 2.2 kilometres in length, along its route it will serve new U-bahn stations at Berliner Rathaus, Museumsinsel and Unter den Linden, with the last providing an interchange with line U6. This new interchange station will replace the current U6 station at Französische Straße, located a little further to the south on Friedrichstraße, which will then be closed
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Berlin U-Bahn
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The Berlin U-Bahn is a rapid transit railway in Berlin, the capital city of Germany, and a major part of the citys public transport system. Together with the S-Bahn, a network of train lines. In addition, a tram network operates in the parts of the city. Opened in 1902, the U-Bahn serves 173 stations spread across ten lines, with a track length of 151.7 kilometres. Trains run every two to five minutes during peak hours, every five minutes for the rest of the day, over the course of a year, U-Bahn trains travel 132 million km, and carry over 400 million passengers. In 2015,534.5 million passengers rode the U-Bahn, the entire system is maintained and operated by the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe, commonly known as the BVG. Designed to alleviate traffic flowing into and out of central Berlin, the East Berlin U-Bahn lines from West Berlin were severed, except for two West Berlin lines that ran through East Berlin. These were allowed to pass through East Berlin without stopping at any of the stations, Friedrichstraße was the exception because it was used as a transfer point between U6 and the West Berlin S-Bahn system, and a border crossing into East Berlin. The system was reopened following the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Berlin U-Bahn is the most extensive network in Germany. In 2006, travel on the U-Bahn was equivalent to 122.2 million km of car journeys, at the end of the 19th century, city planners in Berlin were looking for solutions to the increasing traffic problems facing the city. As potential solutions, industrialist and inventor Ernst Werner von Siemens suggested the construction of elevated railways, while AEG proposed an underground system. Years of negotiations followed until, on 10 September 1896, work began on an elevated railway to run between Stralauer Tor and Zoologischer Garten, with a short spur to Potsdamer Platz. Known as the Stammstrecke, the route was inaugurated on 15 February 1902, before the year ended, the railway had been extended, by 17 August, east to Warschauer Brücke, and, by 14 December, west to Knie. In a bid to secure its own improvement, Schöneberg also wanted a connection to Berlin, the elevated railway company did not believe such a line would be profitable, so the city built the first locally financed underground in Germany. It was opened on 1 December 1910, just a few months earlier, work began on a fourth line to link Wilmersdorf in the south-west to the growing Berlin U-Bahn. The early network ran mostly east to west, connecting the areas in and around Berlin. In order to open up the network to more of the workers of Berlin, in 1920, the surrounding areas were annexed to form Groß-Berlin, removing the need for many negotiations, and giving the city much greater bargaining power over the private Hochbahngesellschaft
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Ghost station
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Ghost stations is the usual English translation for the German word Geisterbahnhöfe. This term was used to describe certain stations on Berlins U-Bahn and S-Bahn metro networks that were closed during the period of Berlins division during the Cold War. Since then, the term has come to be used to any disused underground station actively passed through by passenger trains. In August 1961 the East German government built the Berlin Wall, as a result, the Berlin public transit network, which had formerly spanned both halves of the city, was also divided into two. Some U- and S-Bahn lines fell entirely into one half of the city or the other, other lines were divided between the two jurisdictions, with trains running only to the border and then turning back. The name Geisterbahnhof was soon applied to these dimly lit, heavily guarded stations by travelers from West Berlin. However, the term was never official, West Berlin subway maps of the period simply labelled these stations Bahnhöfe, East Berlin subway maps neither depicted the West Berlin lines nor the ghost stations. The situation was less than ideal. If a train on a West Berlin line broke down in East Berlin territory, then passengers had to wait for Eastern border police to appear and escort them out. The East German government occasionally hinted that it might block access to the tunnels at the border. However, this status quo persisted for the entire 28-year period of the division of Berlin. An alarm was triggered if anyone breached one of the barriers, as for the entrances, the signage was removed, walkways were walled up and stairways were sealed with concrete slabs. Police stations were built into the windowed platform service booths, from which the platform area could be monitored. A wide white line on the wall marked the location of the border. Later, gates were installed at stations that could be rolled into place at night while the guards were off-duty. Guard posts at other stations were staffed continuously, creating additional employment positions with the transport police, in the platform area, the guards always worked in pairs, and care was taken in their assignment to assure that there would be no personal ties between them. In addition, superior officers could conduct surprise inspections at any time, thus, other stations were secured by the border guards. Friedrichstraße station, though served by Western lines and located in East Berlin territory, was not a Geisterbahnhof, instead, it served as a transfer point between U6 and several S-Bahn lines
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Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
