1.
Province of Brandenburg
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The Province of Brandenburg was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1815 to 1946, from 1871 within the German Reich. The Prussian core territory comprised the bulk of the historic Margraviate of Brandenburg, other neighbouring provinces were Pomerania in the northeast, Silesia in the southeast, and Prussian Saxony in the southwest. Brandenburg also shared a border with the grand duchies of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Beside the Elbe and Oder river areas, the province covered large parts of the Spree, the largest cities were Berlin, located in the centre together with the growing suburbs of Spandau, Charlottenburg, Schöneberg and Neukölln. The first people who are known to have inhabited Brandenburg were the Germanic Suebi, during the Migration Period, they were succeeded by the Polabian Slavs, whose fortress at Brandenburg an der Havel was conquered by the German king Henry the Fowler in 928/29. Henry subdued the Slavic tribes up to the Oder river and his son Otto I established the marca Geronis on their territory and his son Margrave Otto I already achieved the dignity of an Arch-Chamberlain of the Holy Roman Empire in 1177. Emperor Charles IV by the Golden Bull of 1356 confirmed the electoral dignity of the Brandenburg margraves, the Elector of Brandenburg held the seventh rank among the electors of the Empire and had five votes in the Council of Princes. In 1415 Brandenburg was acquired by Burgrave Frederick of Nuremberg, the first member of the Swabian House of Hohenzollern to rule the margraviate. By the 1657 Treaty of Wehlau, Frederick William reached full sovereignty in his Prussian territories, the margraviate remained a constituent part of Prussia, until after the Napoleonic Wars and the 1815 Congress of Vienna the kingdoms administration was divided into ten provinces. Most of the Margraviates territory was incorporated into the new Province of Brandenburg, however, the Altmark on the western bank of the Elbe was incorporated into the Prussian Province of Saxony. The Province of Brandenburg also encompassed the territory of Lower Lusatia as well as the area around Belzig and Jüterbog, the Province headed by an Oberpräsident was subdivided into two governorates named after their respective capitals, Potsdam in the northwest and Frankfurt in the southeast. The provincial government was at first situated at the Potsdam royal residence, in 1827, it moved to Berlin, returned to Potsdam in 1843 and in 1918 finally settled in Charlottenburg. The conditions in the countryside remained largely untouched, even during the Revolutions of 1848 that led to violent fights in the streets of Berlin, the large estates had to deal with low soil quality and—except for brown coal occurrences in Lower Lusatia—the lack of natural resources. The provincial life was perpetuated in the novels by Theodor Fontane, the Great Depression helped the Nazi Party to establish itself as an important political power. After the Machtergreifung on 30 January 1933, the Nazi Gauleiter Wilhelm Kube held the office of the Oberpräsident, in the late days of World War II it was the site of the bloody encounters of the Seelow Heights, at Halbe and finally the Battle of Berlin. In 1946, after the war, the Neumark territory east of the Oder–Neisse line was ceded to the Republic of Poland to form the Zielona Gora Voivodeship. The remaining territory became part of the Soviet occupation zone and was transformed into the state of Brandenburg, in 1949, the state of Brandenburg became part of East Germany and, along with the other states of Eastern Germany, in 1952 was dissolved and divided into administrative districts. Brandenburgs territory roughly corresponded with the districts of Potsdam, Frankfurt/Oder, in 1990, following German reunification, Brandenburg was re-established as a state of the Federal Republic of Germany
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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
3.
German Empire
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The German Empire was the historical German nation state that existed from the unification of Germany in 1871 to the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1918, when Germany became a federal republic. The German Empire consisted of 26 constituent territories, with most being ruled by royal families and this included four kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies, seven principalities, three free Hanseatic cities, and one imperial territory. Although Prussia became one of kingdoms in the new realm, it contained most of its population and territory. Its influence also helped define modern German culture, after 1850, the states of Germany had rapidly become industrialized, with particular strengths in coal, iron, chemicals, and railways. In 1871, it had a population of 41 million people, and by 1913, a heavily rural collection of states in 1815, now united Germany became predominantly urban. During its 47 years of existence, the German Empire operated as an industrial, technological, Germany became a great power, boasting a rapidly growing rail network, the worlds strongest army, and a fast-growing industrial base. In less than a decade, its navy became second only to Britains Royal Navy, after the removal of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck by Wilhelm II, the Empire embarked on a bellicose new course that ultimately led to World War I. When the great crisis of 1914 arrived, the German Empire had two allies, Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy, however, left the once the First World War started in August 1914. In the First World War, German plans to capture Paris quickly in autumn 1914 failed, the Allied naval blockade caused severe shortages of food. Germany was repeatedly forced to send troops to bolster Austria and Turkey on other fronts, however, Germany had great success on the Eastern Front, it occupied large Eastern territories following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. German declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917 was designed to strangle the British, it failed, but the declaration—along with the Zimmermann Telegram—did bring the United States into the war. Meanwhile, German civilians and soldiers had become war-weary and radicalised by the Russian Revolution and this failed, and by October the armies were in retreat, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire had collapsed, Bulgaria had surrendered and the German people had lost faith in their political system. The Empire collapsed in the November 1918 Revolution as the Emperor and all the ruling monarchs abdicated, and a republic took over. The German Confederation had been created by an act of the Congress of Vienna on 8 June 1815 as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, German nationalism rapidly shifted from its liberal and democratic character in 1848, called Pan-Germanism, to Prussian prime minister Otto von Bismarcks pragmatic Realpolitik. He envisioned a conservative, Prussian-dominated Germany, the war resulted in the Confederation being partially replaced by a North German Confederation in 1867, comprising the 22 states north of the Main. The new constitution and the title Emperor came into effect on 1 January 1871, during the Siege of Paris on 18 January 1871, William accepted to be proclaimed Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. The second German Constitution was adopted by the Reichstag on 14 April 1871 and proclaimed by the Emperor on 16 April, the political system remained the same. The empire had a parliament called the Reichstag, which was elected by universal male suffrage, however, the original constituencies drawn in 1871 were never redrawn to reflect the growth of urban areas
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Chicago
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Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the third-most populous city in the United States. With over 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the state of Illinois, and it is the county seat of Cook County. In 2012, Chicago was listed as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Chicago has the third-largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—about $640 billion according to 2015 estimates, the city has one of the worlds largest and most diversified economies with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. In 2016, Chicago hosted over 54 million domestic and international visitors, landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis Tower, Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicagos culture includes the arts, novels, film, theater, especially improvisational comedy. Chicago also has sports teams in each of the major professional leagues. The city has many nicknames, the best-known being the Windy City, the name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, known to botanists as Allium tricoccum, from the Miami-Illinois language. The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as Checagou was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir, henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the wild garlic, called chicagoua, grew abundantly in the area. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, the first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African and French descent and arrived in the 1780s and he is commonly known as the Founder of Chicago. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed in 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, on August 12,1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 4,000 people, on June 15,1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as U. S. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4,1837, as the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicagos first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois, the canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad, manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy. The Chicago Board of Trade listed the first ever standardized exchange traded forward contracts and these issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage
5.
Illinois
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Illinois is a state in the midwestern region of the United States, achieving statehood in 1818. It is the 6th most populous state and 25th largest state in terms of land area, the word Illinois comes from a French rendering of a native Algonquin word. For decades, OHare International Airport has been ranked as one of the worlds busiest airports, Illinois has long had a reputation as a bellwether both in social and cultural terms and politics. With the War of 1812 Illinois growth slowed as both Native Americans and Canadian forces often raided the American Frontier, mineral finds and timber stands also had spurred immigration—by the 1810s, the Eastern U. S. Railroads arose and matured in the 1840s, and soon carried immigrants to new homes in Illinois, as well as being a resource to ship their commodity crops out to markets. Railroads freed most of the land of Illinois and other states from the tyranny of water transport. By 1900, the growth of jobs in the northern cities and coal mining in the central and southern areas attracted a new group of immigrants. Illinois was an important manufacturing center during both world wars, the Great Migration from the South established a large community of African Americans in Chicago, who created the citys famous jazz and blues cultures. Three U. S. presidents have been elected while living in Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, additionally, Ronald Reagan, whose political career was based in California, was the only U. S. president born and raised in Illinois. Today, Illinois honors Lincoln with its official slogan, Land of Lincoln. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is located in the capital of Springfield. Illinois is the spelling for the early French Catholic missionaries and explorers name for the Illinois Native Americans. American scholars previously thought the name Illinois meant man or men in the Miami-Illinois language and this etymology is not supported by the Illinois language, as the word for man is ireniwa and plural men is ireniwaki. The name Illiniwek has also said to mean tribe of superior men. The name Illinois derives from the Miami-Illinois verb irenwe·wa he speaks the regular way and this was taken into the Ojibwe language, perhaps in the Ottawa dialect, and modified into ilinwe·. The French borrowed these forms, changing the ending to spell it as -ois. The current spelling form, Illinois, began to appear in the early 1670s, the Illinois name for themselves, as attested in all three of the French missionary-period dictionaries of Illinois, was Inoka, of unknown meaning and unrelated to the other terms. American Indians of successive cultures lived along the waterways of the Illinois area for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans, the Koster Site has been excavated and demonstrates 7,000 years of continuous habitation
6.
German Americans
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The German American ethnic group consists of Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 46 million in 2014, German Americans are the largest of the groups reported by the US Census Bureau in its American Community Survey. The group accounts for about 1⁄3 of the total ethnic German population in the world, none of the German states had American colonies. In the 1670s the first significant groups of German immigrants arrived in the British colonies, settling primarily in New York, immigration continued in very large numbers during the 19th century, with eight million arrivals from Germany. Between 1820 and 1870 over seven and a half million German immigrants came to the United States — more than doubling the population of the country. By 2010, their population grew to 49.8 million immigrants, there is a German belt that extends all the way across the United States, from eastern Pennsylvania to the Oregon coast. The state of Pennsylvania has 3.5 million people of German ancestry and they were pulled by the attractions of land and religious freedom, and pushed out of Europe by shortages of land and religious or political oppression. Many arrived seeking religious or political freedom, others for economic opportunities greater than those in Europe, the arrivals before 1850 were mostly farmers who sought out the most productive land, where their intensive farming techniques would pay off. After 1840, many came to cities, where Germania—German-speaking districts—soon emerged, German Americans established the first kindergartens in the United States, introduced the Christmas tree tradition, and introduced popular foods such as hot dogs and hamburgers to America. The great majority of people with some German ancestry have become Americanized and hardly can be distinguished, traditional Oktoberfest celebrations and the German-American Day are popular festivities. There are major events in cities with German heritage including Chicago, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, San Antonio. The Germans included many quite distinct subgroups with differing religious and cultural values and they generally opposed womens suffrage but this was used as argument in favor of suffrage when German Americans became pariahs during World War I. The first English settlers arrived at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607 and he was followed in 1608 by five glassmakers and three carpenters or house builders. The first permanent German settlement in what became the United States was Germantown, Pennsylvania, large numbers of Germans migrated from the 1680s to 1760s, with Pennsylvania the favored destination. They migrated to America for a variety of reasons, often immigrants paid for their passage by selling their labor for a period of years as indentured servants. Large sections of Pennsylvania and upstate New York attracted Germans, most were Lutheran or German Reformed, many belonged to small religious sects such as the Moravians and Mennonites. German Catholics did not arrive in number until after the War of 1812, in 1709, Protestant Germans from the Pfalz or Palatine region of Germany escaped conditions of hardship, traveling first to Rotterdam and then to London. Anne, Queen of Great Britain, helped them get to her colonies in America, the trip was long and difficult to survive because of the poor quality of food and water aboard ships and the infectious disease typhus
7.
Theology
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Theology is the critical study of the nature of the divine. It is taught as a discipline, typically in universities, seminaries. Augustine of Hippo defined the Latin equivalent, theologia, as reasoning or discussion concerning the Deity, the term can, however, be used for a variety of different disciplines or fields of study. Theologians use various forms of analysis and argument to help understand, explain, test, critique, the English equivalent theology had evolved by 1362. Greek theologia was used with the discourse on god in the fourth century BC by Plato in The Republic, Book ii. Drawing on Greek Stoic sources, the Latin writer Varro distinguished three forms of discourse, mythical, rational and civil. Theologos, closely related to theologia, appears once in some manuscripts, in the heading to the book of Revelation, apokalypsis ioannoy toy theologoy. The Latin author Boethius, writing in the early 6th century, used theologia to denote a subdivision of philosophy as a subject of study, dealing with the motionless. Boethius definition influenced medieval Latin usage, Theology can also now be used in a derived sense to mean a system of theoretical principles, an ideology. They suggest the term is appropriate in religious contexts that are organized differently. Kalam. does not hold the place in Muslim thought that theology does in Christianity. To find an equivalent for theology in the Christian sense it is necessary to have recourse to several disciplines, and to the usul al-fiqh as much as to kalam. Jose Ignacio Cabezon, who argues that the use of theology is appropriate, can only do so, he says, I take theology not to be restricted to its etymological meaning. In that latter sense, Buddhism is of course atheological, rejecting as it does the notion of God, within Hindu philosophy, there is a solid and ancient tradition of philosophical speculation on the nature of the universe, of God and of the Atman. The Sanskrit word for the schools of Hindu philosophy is Darshana. Nevertheless, Jewish theology historically has been active and highly significant for Christian. It is sometimes claimed, however, that the Jewish analogue of Christian theological discussion would more properly be Rabbinical discussion of Jewish law, the history of the study of theology in institutions of higher education is as old as the history of such institutions themselves. Modern Western universities evolved from the institutions and cathedral schools of Western Europe during the High Middle Ages
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Philosopher
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A philosopher is someone who practices philosophy, which involves rational inquiry into areas that are outside of either theology or science. The term philosopher comes from the Ancient Greek φιλόσοφος meaning lover of wisdom, the coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek thinker Pythagoras. Typically, these brands of philosophy are Hellenistic ones and those who most arduously commit themselves to this lifestyle may be considered philosophers. The separation of philosophy and science from theology began in Greece during the 6th century BC, thales, an astronomer and mathematician, was considered by Aristotle to be the first philosopher of the Greek tradition. While Pythagoras coined the word, the first known elaboration on the topic was conducted by Plato, in his Symposium, he concludes that Love is that which lacks the object it seeks. Therefore, the philosopher is one who seeks wisdom, if he attains wisdom, therefore, the philosopher in antiquity was one who lives in the constant pursuit of wisdom, and living in accordance to that wisdom. Disagreements arose as to what living philosophically entailed and these disagreements gave rise to different Hellenistic schools of philosophy. In consequence, the ancient philosopher thought in a tradition, as the ancient world became schism by philosophical debate, the competition lay in living in manner that would transform his whole way of living in the world. Philosophy is a discipline which can easily carry away the individual in analyzing the universe. The second is the change through the Medieval era. With the rise of Christianity, the way of life was adopted by its theology. Thus, philosophy was divided between a way of life and the conceptual, logical, physical and metaphysical materials to justify that way of life, philosophy was then the servant to theology. The third is the sociological need with the development of the university, the modern university requires professionals to teach. Maintaining itself requires teaching future professionals to replace the current faculty, therefore, the discipline degrades into a technical language reserved for specialists, completely eschewing its original conception as a way of life. In the fourth century, the word began to designate a man or woman who led a monastic life. Gregory of Nyssa, for example, describes how his sister Macrina persuaded their mother to forsake the distractions of life for a life of philosophy. Later during the Middle Ages, persons who engaged with alchemy was called a philosopher - thus, many philosophers still emerged from the Classical tradition, as saw their philosophy as a way of life. Among the most notable are René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, Nicolas Malebranche, with the rise of the university, the modern conception of philosophy became more prominent
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Christian existentialism
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Christian existentialism is a theo-philosophical movement which takes an existentialist approach to Christian theology. The school of thought is traced back to the work of the Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard. The existential approach to Christian theology has a long and diverse history including Augustine, Aquinas, Pascal, Christian existentialism relies on Kierkegaards understanding of Christianity. Kierkegaard argued that the universe is fundamentally paradoxical, and that its greatest paradox is the transcendent union of God, Kierkegaard proposed that each person must make independent choices, which then constitute his existence. Each person suffers from the anguish of indecision until he commits to a choice about the way to live. Kierkegaard also proposed three rubrics with which to understand the conditions that issue from distinct life choices, the aesthetic, the ethical, one of the major premises of Kirkegaardian Christian existentialism entails calling the masses back to a more genuine form of Christianity. This form is identified with some notion of Early Christianity. Beginning with the Edict of Milan, which was issued by Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD313, Christianity enjoyed a level of popularity among Romans, another major premise of Kierkegaardian Christian existentialism involves Kierkegaards conception of God and Love. For the most part, Kierkegaard equates God with Love, thus, when a person engages in the act of loving, he is in effect achieving an aspect of the divine. Kierkegaard also viewed the individual as a synthesis of both finite and infinite elements. Therefore, when an individual does not come to a realization of his infinite side. For many contemporary Christian theologians, the notion of despair can be viewed as sin, however, to Kierkegaard, a man sinned when he was exposed to this idea of despair and chose a path other than one in accordance with Gods will. A final major premise of Kierkegaardian Christian existentialism entails the systematic undoing of evil acts, Kierkegaard asserted that once an action had been completed, it should be evaluated in the face of God, for holding oneself up to divine scrutiny was the only way to judge ones actions. Because actions constitute the manner in which something is deemed good or bad, Kierkegaard believed that the choice for goodness ultimately came down to each individual. Yet Kierkegaard also foresaw the potential limiting of choices for individuals who fell into despair, Christian Existentialism often refers to what it calls the indirect style of Christs teachings, which it considers to be a distinctive and important aspect of his ministry. Christs point, it says, is left unsaid in any particular parable or saying. This is particularly evident in his parables, for example, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells a story about a man who is heavily in debt. The debtor and his family are about to be sold into slavery and his master accordingly cancels the debt and sets them free
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Ontology
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Ontology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, becoming, existence or reality as well as the basic categories of being and their relations. Although ontology as an enterprise is highly hypothetical, it also has practical application in information science and technology. Some philosophers, notably of the Platonic school, contend that all refer to existent entities. Other philosophers contend that nouns do not always name entities, between these poles of realism and nominalism, stand a variety of other positions. An ontology may give an account of which refer to entities, which do not, why. Principal questions of ontology include, What can be said to exist, into what categories, if any, can we sort existing things. What are the meanings of being, what are the various modes of being of entities. Various philosophers have provided different answers to these questions, one common approach involves dividing the extant subjects and predicates into groups called categories. Such an understanding of ontological categories, however, is merely taxonomic, what does it mean for a being to be. Is existence a genus or general class that is divided up by specific differences. Which entities, if any, are fundamental, how do the properties of an object relate to the object itself. What features are the essential, as opposed to merely accidental attributes of a given object, how many levels of existence or ontological levels are there. Can one give an account of what it means to say that an object exists. Can one give an account of what it means to say that an entity exists. What constitutes the identity of an object, when does an object go out of existence, as opposed to merely changing. Do beings exist other than in the modes of objectivity and subjectivity, i. e. is the subject/object split of modern philosophy inevitable. e. Being, that which is, which is the present participle of the verb εἰμί, eimí, i. e. to be, I am, and -λογία, -logia, i. e. logical discourse. The first occurrence in English of ontology as recorded by the OED came in a work by Gideon Harvey, Archelogia philosophica nova, or, New principles of Philosophy
11.
Absolute (philosophy)
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In philosophy, metaphysics, religion, spirituality, and other contexts, the Absolute is a term for the most real being. The Absolute is conceived as being itself or perhaps the being that transcends and comprehends all other beings, while there is agreement that there must be some fundamental reality, there is disagreement as to what exactly that might be. For example, some theist philosophers argue that the most real being is a personal God, some pantheist philosophers argue that the most real being is an impersonal existence, such as reality or awareness. Others argue that various similar terms and concepts designate to the same Absolute entity, atheist, agnostic, and scientific pantheist philosophers might argue that some natural law such as gravity or simply nature itself is the most real being. The basic concept of the Absolute is that it is the truest reality, however, there are three general ways of conceiving it. The Absolute might be the first and greatest being, not a being at all but the ground of being, in conception the Absolute is the most true and intelligible reality. It can be spoken of and known, for example, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegels Absolute Spirit is the most true reality. It is thinkable, speakable, and exists in objective world by comprehending everything, including people, states, in the Absolute might be conceived of as utterly outside of all other reality and hence unintelligible. It cannot be known or spoken about, platos Socrates says that The Form of the Good is beyond being, implying that it is even beyond thought, language, and normal categories of existence. In the Absolute might be conceived of as transcending duality and distinction and this concept of a fundamental reality that transcends or includes all other reality is usually associated with divinity. While this conception initially seems contradictory, it has been highly influential, One way to understand this third conception is to consider the Tao te Ching. The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao, the name that can be named is not the eternal name. These opening lines distinguish between two Taos, One is the eternal Tao and the other Tao seems to exist in space and time. The eternal Tao is beyond existence and cannot be named or fully understood, while the other Tao exists, the eternal Tao is infinite, the other is finite. The eternal Tao is formless, the other is formed, the eternal Tao is transcendent, the other is immanent. The other Tao is an attempt to describe the eternal Tao in human terms, in these lines, he further discusses the difference between the two Taos. The eternal Tao is nameless and is the origin of Heaven and Earth, later, he points out that both the named and the nameless emerge together from the same eternal Tao. This seemingly self-contradictory unity, of course, is said to be the mystery to be understood, One or more of these three conceptions of the Absolute can be found in various other religions or philosophies. H
12.
Kairos
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Kairos is an ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment. The ancient Greeks had two words for time, Greek, χρόνος and kairos, while the former refers to chronological or sequential time, the latter signifies a period or season, a moment of indeterminate time in which an event of significance happens. What is happening when referring to kairos depends on who is using the word, while chronos is quantitative, kairos has a qualitative, permanent nature. Kairos also means weather in modern Greek, the plural, καιροί means the times. In Onians 1951 etymological studies of the word, he traces the primary root back to the ancient Greek association with both archery and weaving, in archery, kairos denotes the moment in which an arrow may be fired with sufficient force to penetrate a target. In weaving, kairos denotes the moment in which the shuttle could be passed through threads on the loom, in rhetoric, kairos is a passing instant when an opening appears which must be driven through with force if success is to be achieved. Kairos was central to the Sophists, who stressed the ability to adapt to and take advantage of changing. Kairos is also important in Aristotles scheme of rhetoric. Kairos is, for Aristotle, the time and space context in which the proof will be delivered, in Ancient Greece, kairos was utilized by both of the two main schools of thought in the field of rhetoric. The competing schools were that of the Sophists, and that of their opposition, led by such as Aristotle. Sophism approached rhetoric as an art form, members of the school would travel around Greece teaching citizens about the art of rhetoric and successful discourse. Aristotle and Plato, on the hand, viewed Sophistic rhetoric as a tool used to manipulate others. Kairos fits into the Sophistic scheme of rhetoric in conjunction with the ideas of prepon and dynaton and these two terms combined with kairos are their keys to successful rhetoric. As stated by Poulakos, Prepon deals with the notion that what is said must conform to audience and occasion. Dynaton has to do with the idea of the possible, or what the speaker is attempting to convince the audience of, Kairos in the Sophistic context is based on the thought that speech must happen at a certain time in order for it to be most effective. If rhetoric is to be meaningful and successful, it must be presented at the right moment, Aristotle and his followers also discuss the importance of kairos in their teachings. In his Rhetoric, one of the ways that Aristotle uses the idea of kairos is in reference to the specificity of each rhetorical situation, Aristotle believed that each rhetorical situation was different, and therefore different rhetorical devices needed to be applied at that point in time. One of the most well known parts of Aristotles Rhetoric is when he discusses the roles of pathos, ethos, Aristotle ties kairos to these concepts, claiming that there are times in each rhetorical situation when one needs to be utilized over the others
13.
Lutheranism
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Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestant Christianity which identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German friar, ecclesiastical reformer and theologian. Luthers efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched the Protestant Reformation in the German-speaking territories of the Holy Roman Empire. Lutheranism advocates a doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone on the basis of Scripture alone and this is in contrast to the belief of the Catholic Church, defined at the Council of Trent, concerning authority coming from both the Scriptures and Tradition. In addition, Lutheranism accepts the teachings of the first seven ecumenical councils of the undivided Christian Church, unlike Calvinism, Lutherans retain many of the liturgical practices and sacramental teachings of the pre-Reformation Church, with a particular emphasis on the Eucharist, or Lords Supper. Lutheran theology differs from Reformed theology in Christology, the purpose of Gods Law, the grace, the concept of perseverance of the saints. Today, Lutheranism is one of the largest denominations of Protestantism, with approximately 80 million adherents, it constitutes the third most common Protestant denomination after historically Pentecostal denominations and Anglicanism. The Lutheran World Federation, the largest communion of Lutheran churches, Other Lutheran organizations include the International Lutheran Council and the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference, as well as independent churches. The name Lutheran originated as a term used against Luther by German Scholastic theologian Dr. Johann Maier von Eck during the Leipzig Debate in July 1519. Eck and other Catholics followed the practice of naming a heresy after its leader. Martin Luther always disliked the term Lutheran, preferring the term Evangelical, which was derived from euangelion, the followers of John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, and other theologians linked to the Reformed tradition also began to use that term. To distinguish the two groups, others began to refer to the two groups as Evangelical Lutheran and Evangelical Reformed. As time passed by, the word Evangelical was dropped, Lutherans themselves began to use the term Lutheran in the middle of the 16th century, in order to distinguish themselves from other groups such as the Philippists and Calvinists. In 1597, theologians in Wittenberg defined the title Lutheran as referring to the true church, Lutheranism has its roots in the work of Martin Luther, who sought to reform the Western Church to what he considered a more biblical foundation. Lutheranism spread through all of Scandinavia during the 16th century, as the monarch of Denmark–Norway, through Baltic-German and Swedish rule, Lutheranism also spread into Estonia and Latvia. Since 1520, regular Lutheran services have been held in Copenhagen, under the reign of Frederick I, Denmark-Norway remained officially Catholic. Although Frederick initially pledged to persecute Lutherans, he adopted a policy of protecting Lutheran preachers and reformers. During Fredericks reign, Lutheranism made significant inroads in Denmark, at an open meeting in Copenhagen attended by the king in 1536, the people shouted, We will stand by the holy Gospel, and do not want such bishops anymore. Fredericks son Christian was openly Lutheran, which prevented his election to the throne upon his fathers death, however, following his victory in the civil war that followed, in 1537 he became Christian III and advanced the Reformation in Denmark-Norway
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Protestantism
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Protestantism is a form of Christianity which originated with the Reformation, a movement against what its followers considered to be errors in the Roman Catholic Church. It is one of the three divisions of Christendom, together with Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy. The term derives from the letter of protestation from German Lutheran princes in 1529 against an edict of the Diet of Speyer condemning the teachings of Martin Luther as heretical. Although there were earlier breaks from or attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church—notably by Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe, Protestants reject the notion of papal supremacy and deny the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, but disagree among themselves regarding the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The Five solae summarize the reformers basic differences in theological beliefs, in the 16th century, Lutheranism spread from Germany into Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Baltic states, and Iceland. Reformed churches were founded in Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Scotland, Switzerland and France by such reformers as John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, the political separation of the Church of England from Rome under King Henry VIII brought England and Wales into this broad Reformation movement. Protestants developed their own culture, which made major contributions in education, the humanities and sciences, the political and social order, the economy and the arts, some Protestant denominations do have a worldwide scope and distribution of membership, while others are confined to a single country. A majority of Protestants are members of a handful of families, Adventism, Anglicanism, Baptist churches, Reformed churches, Lutheranism, Methodism. Nondenominational, evangelical, charismatic, independent and other churches are on the rise, and constitute a significant part of Protestant Christianity. Six princes of the Holy Roman Empire and rulers of fourteen Imperial Free Cities, the edict reversed concessions made to the Lutherans with the approval of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V three years earlier. During the Reformation, the term was used outside of the German politics. The word evangelical, which refers to the gospel, was more widely used for those involved in the religious movement. Nowadays, this word is still preferred among some of the historical Protestant denominations in the Lutheran and Calvinist traditions in Europe, above all the term is used by Protestant bodies in the German-speaking area, such as the EKD. In continental Europe, an Evangelical is either a Lutheran or a Calvinist, the German word evangelisch means Protestant, and is different from the German evangelikal, which refers to churches shaped by Evangelicalism. The English word evangelical usually refers to Evangelical Protestant churches, and it traces its roots back to the Puritans in England, where Evangelicalism originated, and then was brought to the United States. Protestantism as a term is now used in contradistinction to the other major Christian traditions, i. e. Roman Catholicism. Initially, Protestant became a term to mean any adherent to the Reformation movement in Germany and was taken up by Lutherans. Even though Martin Luther himself insisted on Christian or Evangelical as the only acceptable names for individuals who professed Christ, French and Swiss Protestants preferred the word reformed, which became a popular, neutral and alternative name for Calvinists
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Revelation
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In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing of some form of truth or knowledge through communication with a deity or other supernatural entity or entities. Some religions have religious texts which they view as divinely or supernaturally revealed or inspired, for instance, Orthodox Jews, Christians and Muslims believe that the Torah was received from Yahweh on biblical Mount Sinai. Most Christians believe that both the Old Testament and the New Testament were inspired by God, Muslims believe the Quran was revealed by God to Muhammad word by word through the angel Gabriel. In Hinduism, some Vedas are considered apauruṣeya, not human compositions, and are supposed to have been directly revealed, and thus are called śruti, what is heard. The 15,000 handwritten pages produced by the mystic Maria Valtorta were represented as direct dictations from Jesus, aleister Crowley stated that The Book of the Law had been revealed to him through a higher being that called itself Aiwass. A revelation communicated by a supernatural entity reported as being present during the event is called a vision, direct conversations between the recipient and the supernatural entity, or physical marks such as stigmata, have been reported. In rare cases, such as that of Saint Juan Diego, the Roman Catholic concept of interior locution includes just an inner voice heard by the recipient. In the Abrahamic religions, the term is used to refer to the process by which God reveals knowledge of himself, his will, in secondary usage, revelation refers to the resulting human knowledge about God, prophecy, and other divine things. Revelation from a supernatural source plays an important role in some other religious traditions such as Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. Revelation may be defined as the communication of truth by God to a rational creature through means which are beyond the ordinary course of nature. George Joyce draws a distinction between revelation and inspiration, with the Age of Enlightenment in Europe, beginning about the mid-17th century, the development of rationalism, materialism and atheism, the concept of supernatural revelation itself faced skepticism. In The Age of Reason, Thomas Paine develops the theology of deism, rejecting the possibility of miracles, Thomas Aquinas believed in two types of individual revelation from God, general revelation and special revelation. In general revelation, God reveals himself through his creation, such that at least some truths about God can be learned by the study of nature, physics, cosmology. Special revelation is the knowledge of God and spiritual matters which can be discovered through supernatural means, such as scripture or miracles, direct revelation refers to communication from God to someone in particular. Though one may deduce the existence of God and some of Gods attributes through general revelation, Aquinas believed that special revelation is equivalent to the revelation of God in Jesus. The major theological components of Christianity, such as the Trinity and the Incarnation, are revealed in the teachings of the church, special revelation and natural revelation are complementary rather than contradictory in nature. Continuous revelation is a term for the position that God continues to reveal divine principles or commandments to humanity. In the 20th century, religious existentialists proposed that revelation held no content in and of itself, Revelation is a human response that records how we respond to God
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Existentialism
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While the predominant value of existentialist thought is commonly acknowledged to be freedom, its primary virtue is authenticity. Many existentialists have also regarded traditional systematic or academic philosophies, in style and content, as too abstract and remote from concrete human experience. Søren Kierkegaard is generally considered to have been the first existentialist philosopher and he proposed that each individual—not society or religion—is solely responsible for giving meaning to life and living it passionately and sincerely, or authentically. Existentialism became popular in the years following World War II, and strongly influenced many disciplines besides philosophy, including theology, drama, art, literature, and psychology. The term is seen as a historical convenience as it was first applied to many philosophers in hindsight. In fact, while existentialism is generally considered to have originated with Kierkegaard, Sartre posits the idea that what all existentialists have in common is the fundamental doctrine that existence precedes essence, as scholar Frederick Copleston explains. Sartre himself, in a lecture delivered in 1945, described existentialism as the attempt to draw all the consequences from a position of consistent atheism and this assertion comes from two sources. The Norwegian philosopher Erik Lundestad refers to the Danish philosopher Fredrik Christian Sibbern, Sibbern is supposed to have had two conversations in 1841, the first with Welhaven and the second with Kierkegaard. This was then brought to Kierkegaard by Sibbern, the second claim comes from the Norwegian historian Rune Slagstad, who claims to prove that Kierkegaard himself said the term existential was borrowed from the poet. He strongly believes that it was Kierkegaard himself who said that Hegelians do not study philosophy existentially, on the other hand, the Norwegian historian Anne-Lise Seip is critical of Slagstad, and believes the statement in fact stems from the Norwegian literary historian Cathrinus Bang. The actual life of the individuals is what constitutes what could be called their true essence instead of there being an arbitrarily attributed essence others use to define them, thus, human beings, through their own consciousness, create their own values and determine a meaning to their life. However, an existentialist philosopher would say such a wish constitutes an inauthentic existence - what Sartre would call bad faith, instead, the phrase should be taken to say that people are defined only insofar as they act and that they are responsible for their actions. For example, someone who acts cruelly towards other people is, by that act, furthermore, by this action of cruelty, such persons are themselves responsible for their new identity. This is as opposed to their genes, or human nature, as Sartre writes in his work Existentialism is a Humanism. Man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world—and defines himself afterwards. Of course, the positive, therapeutic aspect of this is also implied, A person can choose to act in a different way. Here it is clear that since humans can choose to be either cruel or good, they are, in fact. Sartres definition of existentialism was based on Heideggers magnum opus Being and this way of living, Heidegger called average everydayness
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Former eastern territories of Germany
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The former eastern territories of Germany are those provinces or regions east of the current eastern border of Germany which were lost by Germany after World War I and then World War II. All territories lost in both World Wars account for 33% of the former German Empire, while land ceded by Germany after World War II constituted roughly 25% of its pre-war Weimar territory. The post-war border between Germany and Poland along the Oder–Neisse line was recognized by East Germany in 1950 by the Treaty of Zgorzelec. In 1952, recognition of the Oder–Neisse line as a permanent boundary was one of Stalins conditions for the Soviet Union to agree to a reunification of Germany, the offer was rejected by West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. In 1970, West Germany recognised the line as a de facto boundary in the Treaty of Warsaw, with this repeal the post-1990 boundaries of Germany are closed to further expansion. In German there is only one term, Ostdeutschland, meaning East Germany or Eastern Germany. The rather ambiguous German term never gained prevailing use for the GDR as did the English term, since Ostdeutschland has been used to denote the post-war and the respective five states of the reunited Germany. At the time of the foundation of the German Empire in 1871, prussian territory east of the Oder-Neisse line included West Prussia and Posen, also Silesia, East Brandenburg, and Pomerania. Later, these territories would come to be called in Germany Ostgebiete des deutschen Reiches, the territories ceded to Poland in 1919 were those with an apparent Polish majority, such as the Province of Posen, the east-southern part of Upper Silesia and the Polish Corridor. The city of Danzig with the delta of the Vistula river at the Baltic Sea, was made the Free City of Danzig under the League of Nations, however, as distinct from other lost Czechoslovakian domains, it was not attached to Sudetengau but to Prussia. By late 1938, Lithuania had lost control over the situation in the Memel Territory, between the two world wars, many in Germany claimed that the territory ceded to Poland in 1919–1922 should be returned to Germany. This claim was one of the justifications for the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Third Reich annexed the former German lands, comprising the Polish Corridor, West Prussia, the Province of Posen, and parts of eastern Upper Silesia. The council of the Free City of Danzig voted to become a part of Germany again, although Poles and Jews were deprived of their voting rights, in addition to taking territories lost in 1919, Germany also took additional land that had never been German. These territories had an area of 94,000 km2 and a population of 10,000,000 people, the remainder of Polish territory was annexed by the Soviet Union or made into the German-controlled General Government occupation zone. The open question was whether the border should follow the Eastern or Lusatian Neisse rivers, and whether Stettin, originally, Germany was to retain Stettin while the Poles were to annex East Prussia with Königsberg. Eventually, however, Stalin decided that he wanted Königsberg as a warm water port for the Soviet Navy. The wartime Polish government in exile had little to say in these decisions, at the Yalta Conference, it was agreed to split Germany into four occupation zones after the war, with a quadripartite occupation of Berlin as well, prior unification of Germany. The status of Poland was discussed, but was complicated by the fact that Poland was at this time under the control of the Red Army and this effectively excluded the Polish government-in-exile that had evacuated in 1939
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Prussia
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Prussia was a historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg, and centred on the region of Prussia. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organised, Prussia, with its capital in Königsberg and from 1701 in Berlin, shaped the history of Germany. In 1871, German states united to create the German Empire under Prussian leadership, in November 1918, the monarchies were abolished and the nobility lost its political power during the German Revolution of 1918–19. The Kingdom of Prussia was thus abolished in favour of a republic—the Free State of Prussia, from 1933, Prussia lost its independence as a result of the Prussian coup, when the Nazi regime was successfully establishing its Gleichschaltung laws in pursuit of a unitary state. Prussia existed de jure until its liquidation by the Allied Control Council Enactment No.46 of 25 February 1947. The name Prussia derives from the Old Prussians, in the 13th century, the Teutonic Knights—an organized Catholic medieval military order of German crusaders—conquered the lands inhabited by them. In 1308, the Teutonic Knights conquered the region of Pomerelia with Gdańsk and their monastic state was mostly Germanised through immigration from central and western Germany and in the south, it was Polonised by settlers from Masovia. The Second Peace of Thorn split Prussia into the western Royal Prussia, a province of Poland, and the part, from 1525 called the Duchy of Prussia. The union of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia in 1618 led to the proclamation of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701, Prussia entered the ranks of the great powers shortly after becoming a kingdom, and exercised most influence in the 18th and 19th centuries. During the 18th century it had a say in many international affairs under the reign of Frederick the Great. During the 19th century, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck united the German principalities into a Lesser Germany which excluded the Austrian Empire. At the Congress of Vienna, which redrew the map of Europe following Napoleons defeat, Prussia acquired a section of north western Germany. The country then grew rapidly in influence economically and politically, and became the core of the North German Confederation in 1867, and then of the German Empire in 1871. The Kingdom of Prussia was now so large and so dominant in the new Germany that Junkers and other Prussian élites identified more and more as Germans and less as Prussians. In the Weimar Republic, the state of Prussia lost nearly all of its legal and political importance following the 1932 coup led by Franz von Papen. East Prussia lost all of its German population after 1945, as Poland, the main coat of arms of Prussia, as well as the flag of Prussia, depicted a black eagle on a white background. The black and white colours were already used by the Teutonic Knights. The Teutonic Order wore a white coat embroidered with a cross with gold insert
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Prussian Union of Churches
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Although not the first of its kind, the Prussian Union was the first to occur in a major German state. It became the biggest independent religious organisation in the German Empire and later Weimar Germany, the church underwent two schisms, due to changes in governments and their policies. After being the state church of Prussia in the 19th century, it suffered interference and oppression at several times in the 20th century. In the course of the Second World War, Church property was damaged or destroyed by strategic bombing. After the war, complete ecclesiastical provinces vanished following the flight, the two post-war periods saw major reforms from within the Church, strengthening the parishioners democratic participation. In the early 1950s the Church body was transformed into an umbrella, following the decline in number of parishioners due to the German demographic crisis and growing irreligion, the Church was subsumed into the Union of Evangelical Churches in 2003. The many changes in the Church throughout its history are reflected in its name changes. 20 November 1934 –1945, The Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union, thus, two church bodies–one Nazi-recognised and one gradually driven underground–each claimed to represent the true church. 1945–1953, The Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union partially cleansed its leading bodies from German Christians and appointed Nazi opponents, 1953–2003 Evangelical Church of the Union, an independent ecclesiastical umbrella among other recognised Protestant umbrellas and church bodies. 2004 The Evangelical Church of the Union merged in the Union of Evangelical Churches and their descendants made up the bulk of the Calvinists in Brandenburg. At issue over many decades was how to unite into one church, the king, a Reformed Christian, lived in a denominationally mixed marriage with the Lutheran Queen Louise, which is why they never partook of the Lords Supper together. A commission was formed in order to prepare this common agenda, Major reforms to the administration of Prussia were undertaken after the defeat by Napoléons army at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt. In 1808 the Reformed Friedrich Schleiermacher, pastor of Trinity Church, issued his ideas for a reform of the Protestant Churches. This differed from the old structure in that the new leadership administered the affairs of all faiths, Catholics, Jews, Lutherans, Mennonites, Moravians, and the Calvinists. In 1814 the Principality of Neuchâtel had been restituted to the Berlin-based Hohenzollern, in 1815 Frederick William III agreed that this French-speaking territory of his joined the Swiss Confederation as Canton of Neuchâtel. Furthermore, no Lutheran congregation existed in Neuchâtel, thus the Reformed Church of Neuchâtel Canton was not an object of Frederick Williams Union policy. In January 1817 the cult and public instruction section was hived off as the Prussian Ministry of the Spiritual, Educational and Medical Affairs, Karl vom Stein zum Altenstein was appointed as minister. The Reformed churches and the Lutheran church were administered by one department within the same ministry
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Rhineland
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The Rhineland is the name used for a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine River, chiefly its middle section. In the High Middle Ages, numerous Imperial States along the river emerged from the stem duchy of Lotharingia. The term covered the whole occupied zone west of the Rhine including the bridge-heads on the eastern banks, after the collapse of the French dominated West Bank in the early 19th century, the regions of Lower Rhine and Jülich-Cleves-Berg were annexed to the Kingdom of Prussia. In 1822 the Prussian administration reorganized the territory as the Rhine Province, following the First World War, the western part of Rhineland was occupied by Entente forces, then demilitarized under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. German forces remilitarized the territory in 1936, as part of a diplomatic test of will, stretching down to the North Palatine Uplands in the south, this area, except for the Saarland, more or less corresponds with the modern use of the term. The southern and eastern parts are mainly hill country, cut by valleys, principally the Middle Rhine up to Bingen and its Ahr, Moselle. The border of the North German plain is marked by the lower Ruhr, in the south, the river cuts the Rhenish Massif. The area encompasses the western part of the Ruhr industrial region, toponyms as well as local family names often trace back to the Frankish heritage. The lands on the shore of the Rhine are strongly characterised by Roman influence. In the core territories, large parts of the population are members of the Catholic Church. On the right bank of the Rhine, between the Main and the Lahn, were the settlements of the Mattiaci, a branch of the Germanic Chatti, while farther to the north were the Usipetes and Tencteri. Julius Caesar conquered the tribes on the left bank, and Augustus established numerous fortified posts on the Rhine. The Frankish conquerors of the Rhenish districts were singularly little affected by the culture of the Roman provincials they subdued, by the 8th century the Frankish dominion was firmly established in western Germania and northern Gaul. On the division of the Carolingian Empire at the Treaty of Verdun the part the province to the east of the fell to East Francia. As the central power of the Holy Roman Emperor weakened, the Rhineland split up into small independent principalities, each with its separate vicissitudes. After the Imperial Reform of 1500/12, the territory was part of the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian, Upper Rhenish, aachen was the place of coronation of the German emperors, and the ecclesiastical principalities of the Rhine played a large role in German history. At the Peace of Basel in 1795, the whole of the bank of the Rhine was taken by France. The population was about 1.6 million in small states
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Chojna
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Chojna pronounced is a small town in western Poland in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship. It lies approximately 60 kilometres south of Szczecin, Chojna is located near two border crossings on the Oder River with Germany. It participates in the EU Douzelage town twinning initiative, from the 10th-12th centuries an early Pomeranian fortification, probably with a market, developed at the location of present-day Chojna. Because of its location on trading routes leading to the principalities of Greater Poland and the duchies of Pomerania. Duke Boguslaw I of Pomerania was entombed in the church after his death in 1187. After 1200 the settlement received Magdeburg rights from Duke Barnim I the Good and it was referred to as Konigesberge for the first time in 1244 and passed to the Bishopric of Brandenburg after Bishop Otto of Brandenburg had acquired part of the New March in 1252. A parish church existed by 1282, while an Augustinian monastery was founded in 1290, from 1310 to 1329 the town experienced an economic boom linked to the grain trade, and received further market privileges. The town hall was built in 1320, trade goods were shipped over the Oder and Röhricke rivers. During the 13th and 14th centuries a defensive wall was built around the town with numerous towers, from 1402 to 1454 the town was under the control of the Teutonic Knights after the March of Brandenburg had pawned all the New March to them. The Church of St. Mary and the new hall built during this time were some of the most aesthetically pleasing Gothic buildings in the New March. The strong town withstood an attack by the Hussites in 1433 during the Hussite Wars, the town flourished economically during the German Renaissance beginning in the 15th century, but the majority of its population died from three plagues during the 16th and 17th centuries. It had several churches, the Augustinian monastery church, the Augustinian hospital church of the Holy Spirit, and the Churches of Saints Mary, Nicholas, George, and Gertrude. The town gradually converted to Lutheranism from 1539-1553 during the Protestant Reformation and its buildings were instead used as a hospital and school, while its church was used as a storehouse, before in 1690 it was reopened as a Protestant church. After the destruction of the Church of St. Marys tower by a bolt in 1682. In the church, a new Baroque pulpit was built in 1714, the town began to revive economically after the foundation of the Kingdom of Prussia, becoming the seat of the government of the New March in 1759 during the Seven Years War. In 1767 the city gates towards Schwedt and Bernikow were partially dismantled to provide stone for the construction of a barracks at the former monastery. The towns inhabitants initially specialised in agriculture and forestry and later in weaving of fine textiles and that industry declined, however with the onset of industrialisation, around 1840. The place became the county seat of the Königsberg district in 1809, with Prussia the town became part of the German Empire in 1871 and flourished after being connected to the railway network in 1877
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Gymnasium (school)
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In its current meaning, it usually refers to secondary schools focused on preparing students to enter a university for advanced academic study. In the US, the German Gymnasium curriculum was used at a number of universities such as the University of Michigan as a model for their undergraduate college programs. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men, in the Polish educational system the gimnazjum is a middle school for pupils aged 13 to 16. The same applies in the Greek educational system, with the option of Εσπερινό Γυμνάσιο for adults. The gymnasium is a school which prepares the student for higher education at a university. They are thus meant for the more academically minded students, who are sifted out at about the age of 10–13, in addition to the usual curriculum, students of a gymnasium often study Latin and Ancient Greek. Some gymnasiums provide general education, others have a specific focus, today, a number of other areas of specialization exist, such as gymnasiums specializing in economics, technology or domestic sciences. In some countries, there is a notion of progymnasium, which is equivalent to beginning classes of the full gymnasium, here, the prefix pro indicates that this curriculum precedes normal gymnasium studies. The term was derived from the classical Greek word gymnasion, which was applied to an exercising ground in ancient Athens. Here teachers gathered and gave instruction between the hours devoted to exercises and sports, and thus the term became associated with. This use of the term did not prevail among the Romans, but was revived during the Renaissance in Italy, in 1538, Johannes Sturm founded at Strasbourg the school which became the model of the modern German gymnasium. In 1812, a Prussian regulation ordered that all schools which had the right to send their students to the university should bear the name of gymnasia, by the 20th century, this practice was followed in almost the entire Austrian-Hungarian, German, and Russian Empires. In the modern era, many countries which have gymnasiums were once part of three empires. In Albania a gymnasium education takes three years following a compulsory nine-year elementary education and ending with an aptitude test called Matura Shtetërore. The final test is standardized at the level and serves as an entrance qualification for universities. There are both public and private schools in these countries. Therefore, gymnasiums often base their admittance criteria on an entrance exam, in Austria the Gymnasium has two stages, from the age of 11 to 14, and from 15 to 18, concluding with Matura. The Humanistisches Gymnasium focuses on Ancient Greek and Latin, the Neusprachliches Gymnasium puts its focus on actively spoken languages
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Humanism
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The term was coined in 1808 by the early nineteenth century German educational reformer and theologian Friedrich Niethammer and gradually adopted into English. Niethammer had wished to introduce into German education the humane values of ancient Greece, the word Humanism is ultimately derived from the Latin concept humanitas, and, like most other words ending in -ism, entered English in the nineteenth century. Those who earnestly desire and seek after these are most highly humanized. For the desire to pursue of that kind of knowledge, and the training given by it, has granted to humanity alone of all the animals. Gellius says that in his day humanitas is commonly used as a synonym for philanthropy – or kindness and he himself was involved in public affairs. By assigning pride of place to Paideia in his comment on the etymology of humanitas, gelliuss writings fell into obscurity during the middle ages, but during the Italian Renaissance, Gellius became a favorite author. Teachers and scholars of Greek and Latin grammar, rhetoric, philosophy, during the French Revolution, and soon after, in Germany, humanism began to refer to an ethical philosophy centered on humankind, without attention to the transcendent or supernatural. The designation Religious Humanism refers to organized groups that sprang up during the late-nineteenth and it is similar to Protestantism, although centered on human needs, interests, and abilities rather than the supernatural. The first Humanist Manifesto was issued by a conference held at the University of Chicago in 1933, signatories included the philosopher John Dewey, but the majority were ministers and theologians. But in the century, during the French Enlightenment, a more ideological use of the term had come into use. In 1765, the author of an article in a French Enlightenment periodical spoke of The general love of humanity. A virtue hitherto quite nameless among us, and which we will venture to call humanism, for the time has come to create a word for such a beautiful and necessary thing. The latter part of the 18th and the early 19th centuries saw the creation of numerous philanthropic and benevolent societies dedicated to human betterment. Humanism began to acquire a negative sense, the Oxford English Dictionary records the use of the word humanism by an English clergyman in 1812 to indicate those who believe in the mere humanity of Christ, i. e. Unitarians and Deists. Human-centered philosophy that rejected the supernatural may also be found circa 1500 BCE in the Lokayata system of Indian philosophy, nasadiya Sukta, a passage in the Rig Veda, contains one of the first recorded assertions of agnosticism. Another instance of ancient humanism as a system of thought is found in the Gathas of Zarathustra. Zarathustras philosophy in the Gathas lays out a conception of humankind as thinking beings, dignified with choice, in China, Yellow Emperor is regarded as the humanistic primogenitor. Sage kings such as Yao and Shun are humanistic figures as recorded, king Wu of Zhou has the famous saying, Humanity is the Ling of the world
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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
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Humboldt University of Berlin
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The Humboldt university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities. In 1949, it changed its name to Humboldt-Universität in honour of both its founder Wilhelm and his brother, geographer Alexander von Humboldt. The first semester at the newly founded Berlin university occurred in 1810 with 256 students and 52 lecturers in faculties of law, medicine, theology, du Bois and European unifier Robert Schuman, as well as the influential surgeon Johann Friedrich Dieffenbach in the early half of the 1800s. The structure of German research-intensive universities, such as Humboldt, served as a model for institutions like Johns Hopkins University, Alexander von Humboldt, brother of the founder William, promoted the new learning. With the construction of research facilities in the second half of the 19th Century teaching of the natural sciences began. During this period of enlargement, Berlin University gradually expanded to other previously separate colleges in Berlin. An example would be the Charité, the Pépinière and the Collegium Medico-chirurgicum, in 1717, King Friedrich I had built a quarantine house for Plague at the city gates, which in 1727 was rechristened by the soldier king Friedrich Wilhelm, Es soll das Haus die Charité heißen. By 1829 the site became Berlin Universitys medical campus and remained so until 1927 when the more modern University Hospital was constructed, Berlin University started a natural history collection in 1810, which, by 1889 required a separate building and became the Museum für Naturkunde. The preexisting Tierarznei School, founded in 1790 and absorbed by the university, also the Landwirtschaftliche Hochschule Berlin, founded in 1881 was affiliated with the Agricultural Faculties of the University. After 1933, like all German universities, it was affected by the Nazi regime, the rector during this period was Eugen Fischer. The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service resulted in 250 Jewish professors and employees being fired during 1933/1934, students and scholars and political opponents of Nazis were ejected from the university and often deported. During this time one third of all of the staff were fired by the Nazis. The Soviet Military Administration in Germany ordered the opening of the university in January 1946, the SMAD wanted a redesigned Berlin University based on the Soviet model, however they insisted on the phrasing newly opened and not re-opened for political reasons. The University of Berlin must effectively start again in almost every way and you have before you this image of the old university. What remains of that is nought but ruins, the teaching was limited to seven departments working in reopened, war-damaged buildings, with many of the teachers dead or missing. However, by the semester of 1946, the Economic. This program existed at Berlin University until 1962, the East-West conflict in post-war Germany led to a growing communist influence in the university. This was controversial, and incited strong protests within the student body, Soviet NKVD secret police arrested a number of students in March 1947 as a response
26.
Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
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The Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg within Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. MLU offers German and international courses leading to academic degrees such as B. A. B. Sc, the university was created in 1817 through the merger of the University of Wittenberg and the University of Halle. The university is named after the Protestant reformer Martin Luther, who was a professor in Wittenberg, today, the university itself is located in Halle, while the Leucorea Foundation in Wittenberg serves as MLU’s convention centre for seminars as well as for academic and political conferences. Both Halle and Wittenberg are about one hour from Berlin via the Berlin–Halle railway, the University of Wittenberg was founded in 1502 by Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony. Notable attendees include George Müller, Georg Joachim Rheticus and – in fiction – William Shakespeares Prince Hamlet and Horatio, the University of Halle was founded in 1694 by Frederick III, Elector of Brandenburg, who became Frederick I, King in Prussia, in 1701. In the late 17th century and early 18th century, Halle became a centre for Pietism within Prussia, in the 17th and 18th centuries the universities were centers of the German Enlightenment. Christian Wolff was an important proponent of rationalism and he influenced many German scholars, such as Immanuel Kant. Christian Thomasius was at the time the first philosopher in Germany to hold his lectures not in Latin. He contributed to a programme in philosophy but also tried to establish a more common-sense point of view. The University of Wittenberg was closed in 1813 during the Napoleonic Wars, the town of Wittenberg was granted to Prussia in the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and the university was then merged with the Prussian University of Halle in 1817. It took its present name on 10 November 1933, more than a dozen professors were expelled. MLUs historical observatory, built in 1788 by Carl Gotthard Langhans, members are mostly gifted students of all faculties, but also academic staff and alumni. The university choir regularly performs at the international Handel Festival in George Frideric Handel’s birthplace, C. D. Wyneken, Z, Paul Zarifopol, Caspar Ziegler, Karl Ziegler, Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf, Max Zorn, Leopold Zunz. List of early modern universities in Europe The New Encyclopædia Britannica, Official website Official website Download MLU Yearbook 2007 /
27.
German Army (German Empire)
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The Imperial German Army was the name given to the combined land and air forces of the German Empire. The term Deutsches Heer is also used for the modern German Army, the German Army was formed after the unification of Germany under Prussian leadership in 1871 and dissolved in 1919, after the defeat of the German Empire in World War I. When operating together, the units were known as the Federal Army, Prussia formed the North German Confederation and the treaty provided for the maintenance of a Federal Army and a Federal Navy. Further laws on military duty also used these terms, through these conventions and the 1871 Constitution of the German Empire, an Army of the Realm was created. The contingents of the Bavarian, Saxon and Württemberg kingdoms remained semi-autonomous, the Constitution of the German Empire, dated April 16,1871, changed references in the North German Constitution from Federal Army to either Army of the Realm or German Army. After 1871, the armies of the four kingdoms remained relatively distinct. German Army was used in legal documents, such as the Military Penal Code. Württemberg and Saxon units were numbered according to the Prussian system, the commander of the Imperial German Army, less the Bavarian contingent, was the Kaiser. He was assisted by a Military Cabinet and exercised control through the Prussian Ministry of War, the Chief of the General Staff became the Kaisers main military advisor and the most powerful military figure in the Empire. Bavaria kept its own Ministry of War and General Staff, saxony also maintained its own Ministry of War and the Ministry of War of Württemberg also continued to exist. Command of the Prussian Army had been reformed in the wake of the defeats suffered by Prussia in the Napoleonic Wars, the General Staff system, that sought to institutionalize military excellence, was the main result. It provided planning and organizational work during peacetime and wartime, the Prussian General Staff, proven in battle in the Wars of Unification, became the German General Staff upon formation of the German Empire, given Prussias leading role in the German Army. During wartime, the staff of the Army inspectorates formed field army commands, during World War I, a higher command level, the army group, was created. Each army group controlled several field armies, Germany was divided into army inspectorates, each of which oversaw three or four corps. There were five in 1871, with three more added between 1907 and 1913, the corps consisted of two or more divisions and various support troops, covering a geographical area. The corps was responsible for maintaining the reserves and Landwehr in the corps area. By 1914, there were 21 corps areas under Prussian jurisdiction, besides the regional corps, there was also a Guard Corps, which controlled the elite Prussian Guard units. A corps usually included an infantry battalion, a heavy artillery battalion, an engineer battalion, a telegraph battalion
28.
Chaplain
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The concepts of multifaith, secular, generic and/or humanist chaplaincy are also gaining increasing support, particularly within healthcare and educational settings. School chaplains are a fixture in religious and, more recently, in religious schools the role of the chaplain tends to be educational and liturgical. In secular schools the role of the chaplain tends to be that of a mentor, Chaplains provide care for students by supporting them during times of crisis or need. Many chaplains run programs to promote the welfare of students, staff and parents including programs to help deal with grief. Chaplains also build relationships with students by participating in extra activities such as breakfast programs, lunchtime groups. School chaplains can also liaise with external organisations providing support services for the school, with stagnant incomes and rising prices putting pressure on independent school budgets, cutting the post of school chaplain can seem an easy saving. In Australia chaplains in schools have, controversially, been funded by the federal government. Australian chaplains assist school communities to support the spiritual, social, Chaplaincy services are provided by non denominational companies. As of August 2013 there are 2339 chaplains working in Australian secular schools, similarly, in Scotland the focus of school chaplaincy is on welfare and building positive relationships joining students on excursions and sharing meals. Chaplains are also non-denominational and act as a link between the community and society. Like Australian chaplains it is expected that they will not proselytise, in Ireland chaplaincy takes a very different approach in which chaplains are expected to teach up to four hours of class instruction per week and are usually Catholic. Chaplaincy duties include visiting homes, religious services, retreats and celebrations, Chaplains often also oversee programs on campus that foster spiritual, ethical, religious, and political and cultural exchange, and the promotion of service. Each day communities respond to disasters or emergencies. Most often, these incidents are managed effectively at the local level, however, there are some incidents that may require a collaborative approach that includes personnel from,1. A combination of specialties or disciplines,3, Chaplain Fellowship Disaster Response certifies first responder chaplain for crisis and disaster response. At the scene of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, for example, New York City Fire Department Chaplain Fr. Judge was killed by flying debris from the South Tower when he re-entered the lobby of the North Tower of the World Trade Center, environmental chaplaincy is an emerging field within chaplaincy. Environmental chaplains provide spiritual care in a way that honors humanitys deep connection to the earth, environmental chaplains may also bear witness to the Earth itself and represent the merging of science and spirituality
29.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
30.
University of Marburg
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The Philipp University of Marburg, was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse as one of Germanys oldest universities, dating back to a Protestant foundation. As a state university it no longer has any religious affiliation and it was the main university of the principality of Hesse and remains a public university of that state. It now has about 25,000 students and 7,500 employees, making Marburg, a town of 72,000 inhabitants, though most subjects are grouped, the University of Marburg is not a campus university in the broader sense. About 12% of the students are international, the highest percentage in Hesse and it offers an International summer university programme every summer and has an awarded ERASMUS programme. Marburg is home to one of Germanys most traditional medical faculties, the German physicians union is called Marburger Bund. In 1609, the University of Marburg established the worlds first professorship in chemistry, in 2012 it opened the first German participative chemistry museum, called Chemicum. Its experimental course programme is aimed at encouraging people to pursue careers in science. 20 professors were expelled in 1933, among them Wilhelm Röpke who emigrated, the university is most famous for its life sciences research, but is also home to one of the few centers that conduct research on the middle east, the CNMS. The departments of psychology and geography enjoy a reputation and reached Excellence Group status in the Europe-wide CHE Excellence Ranking 2009. According to the 2012 QS Ranking, the university ranked among the top 30 German universities, the ARWU ranking which is more focused on research, ranks the university around 200, with its life sciences and social sciences department in the 151-200 range worldwide. The strong research is illustrated by its participation in several SFBs. These collaborative research centres are financed by the German Science Foundation DFG and they encourage researchers to cross the boundaries of disciplines, institutes, departments and faculties within the participating university. It retained that strength, especially in Philosophy and Theology for a time after World War II. S. S. Eliot Wilhelm Viëtor Historical detention room
31.
TU Dresden
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The name Technische Universität Dresden has only been used since 1961, the history of the university, however, goes back nearly 200 years to 1828. The university is a member of TU9, a consortium of the nine leading German Institutes of Technology, the university is one of eleven German universities which succeeded in the Excellence Initiative in 2012, thus getting the title of a University of Excellence. The TU Dresden succeeded in all three rounds of the German Universities Excellence Initiative, in 1828, with emerging industrialization, the Saxon Technical School was founded to educate skilled workers in technological subjects such as mechanics, mechanical engineering and ship construction. In 1871, the year the German Empire was founded, the institute was renamed the Royal Saxon Polytechnic Institute, at that time, subjects not connected with technology, such as history and languages, were introduced. By the end of the 19th century the institute had developed into a university covering all disciplines, in 1961 it was given its present name, the Dresden University of Technology. Upon German reunification in 1990, the university had already integrated the College of Forestry, formerly the Royal Saxony Academy of Forestry, some faculties were newly founded, the faculties of Information Technology, Law, Education and Economics. With 4,390 students the Faculty of Mathematics and the Natural Sciences is the second-largest faculty at the university and it is composed of 5 departments, Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics and Psychology. The departments are all located on the main campus, in 2006, a new research building for the biology department opened. The Faculty of Architecture comprises 6 departments, currently, there are 1,410 students enrolled. The Faculty of Civil Engineering is structured into 11 departments and it is the oldest and smallest of the faculties. There are currently 800 students enrolled, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology is organized into 13 departments. The faculty is the heart of the so-called Silicon Saxony in Dresden, the Faculty of Environmental Sciences has 2,914 students. The faculty is located on the campus, except for the Forestry department which is located in Tharandt. The Forestry department is the oldest of its kind in Germany and its history goes back to the foundation of the Royal Saxon Academy of Forestry in 1816. The Faculty of Mechanical Engineering comprises 19 departments and has 5,731 students and it is the largest faculty at TUD. The Faculty of Economics comprises five departments, Business Education Studies, Business Management, Economics, Management Information Systems, the Faculty of Education, located East of the main campus, has 2,075 students. The Faculty of Languages, Literature and Culture is structured into five departments, American Studies, English Studies, German Studies, Philology, Romance Languages, there are 3,215 students at this faculty. The Faculty of Law is going to close in the few years
32.
Leipzig University
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Leipzig University, in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the worlds oldest universities and the second-oldest university in Germany. Famous alumni include Leibniz, Goethe, Ranke, Nietzsche, Wagner, Angela Merkel, Raila Odinga, Tycho Brahe, and nine Nobel laureates are associated with the university. The university was founded on December 2,1409 by Frederick I, Elector of Saxony and his brother William II, Margrave of Meissen, since its inception, the university has engaged in teaching and research for over 600 years without interruption. The university was modelled on the University of Prague, from which the German-speaking faculty members withdrew to Leipzig after the Jan Hus crisis, the Alma mater Lipsiensis opened in 1409, after it had been officially endorsed by Pope Alexander V in his Bull of Acknowledgment on. Its first rector was Johann von Münsterberg, from its foundation, the Paulinerkirche served as the university church. After the Reformation, the church and the buildings were donated to the university in 1544. As many European universities, the university of Leipzig was structured into colleges responsible for organising accommodation, among the colleges of Leipzig were the Small College, the Large College, the Red College, the College of our Lady and the Pauliner-College. There were also private residential halls, the colleges had jurisdiction over their members. The college structure was abandoned later and today only the names survive, during the first centuries, the university grew slowly and was a rather regional institution. This changed, however, during the 19th century when the university became an institution of higher education. At the end of the 19th century, important scholars such as Bernhard Windscheid, Leipzig University was one of the first German universities to allow women to register as guest students. At its general assembly in 1873, the Allgemeiner Deutscher Frauenverein thanked the University of Leipzig and this was the year that the first woman in Germany obtained her JD, Johanna von Evreinov. Many of the alumni became important scientists. Under Nazi rule many Jews degrees were cancelled, some were reinstated as Karl-Marx University degrees by the GDR. The university was open throughout World War II, even after the destruction of its buildings. After the destruction of most of the buildings and the majority of its libraries and this is what must be preserved as the great repository of value in the university. By the end of the war 60 per cent of the buildings and 70 per cent of its books had been destroyed. The university reopened after the war on February 5,1946, in 1948 the freely elected student council was disbanded and replaced by Free German Youth members
33.
Goethe University Frankfurt
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Goethe University is a university located in Frankfurt, Germany. The original name was Universität Frankfurt am Main, in 1932, the universitys name was extended in honour of one of the most famous locals of Frankfurt, the poet and writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It is thus referred to as the Goethe University in both formal and informal settings. The university currently has around 46,000 students, distributed across four campuses within the city. 18 Nobel Prize winners have been affiliated with the university, including Max von Laue, the university is also affiliated with 11 winners of the prestigious Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize. The university celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2014, the first female president of the university, Birgitta Wolff, was sworn into office in 2015. The University of Frankfurt has at times been considered liberal, or left-leaning, during the Nazi period, almost one third of its academics and many of its students were dismissed for racial and/or political reasons—more than at any other German university. The university also played a part in the German student movement of 1968. Some of the scholars associated with this school include Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, and Jürgen Habermas, as well as Herbert Marcuse, Erich Fromm. The university also has been influential in the sciences and medicine, with Nobel Prize winners including Max von Laue and Max Born. In recent years, the university has focused in particular on law, history, and economics, creating new institutes, such as the Institute for Law and Finance and the Center for Financial Studies. One of the universitys ambitions is to become Germanys leading university for finance and economics, the Goethe Business School offers a M. B. A. program, in cooperation with Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Goethe university has established an award for research in financial economics. The university consists of 16 faculties, ordered by their sorting number, these are, ：01. “Campus Westend” of the University is dominated by the IG Farben Building by architect Hans Poelzig, after the university took over the complex, new buildings were added to the campus. On 30 May 2008, the House of Finance relocated to a new building designed by the architects Kleihues+Kleihues, the upper floors of the House of Finance building have several separate offices as well as shared office space for researchers and students. The ground floor is open to the public and welcomes visitors with a spacious, naturally lit foyer that leads to lecture halls, seminar rooms, and the information center, the ground floor also accommodates computer rooms and a café. The floors, walls and ceiling of the foyer are decorated with a design that is continued throughout the entire building
34.
Nazism
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National Socialism, more commonly known as Nazism, is the ideology and practice associated with the 20th-century German Nazi Party and Nazi Germany, as well as other far-right groups. Nazism subscribed to theories of racial hierarchy and Social Darwinism, identifying Germans as part of what Nazis regarded as an Aryan or Nordic master race and it aimed to overcome social divisions and create a homogeneous society, unified on the basis of racial purity. The term National Socialism arose out of attempts to create a nationalist redefinition of socialism, the Nazi Partys precursor, the Pan-German nationalist and anti-Semitic German Workers Party, was founded on 5 January 1919. By the early 1920s, Adolf Hitler assumed control of the organisation, following the Holocaust and German defeat in World War II, only a few fringe racist groups, usually referred to as neo-Nazis, still describe themselves as following National Socialism. The full name of Adolf Hitlers party was Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, the shorthand Nazi was formed from the first two syllables of the German pronunciation of the word national. The term was in use before the rise of the NSDAP as a colloquial and derogatory word for a peasant, characterizing an awkward. It derived from Ignaz, being a version of Ignatius, a common name in Bavaria. Opponents seized on this and shortened the first word of the name, Nationalsozialistische. The NSDAP briefly adopted the Nazi designation, attempting to reappropriate the term, the use of Nazi Germany, Nazi regime, and so on was popularised by German exiles abroad. From them, the spread into other languages and was eventually brought back to Germany after World War II. In English, Nazism is a name for the ideology the party advocated. The majority of scholars identify Nazism in practice as a form of far-right politics, far-right themes in Nazism include the argument that superior people have a right to dominate over other people and purge society of supposed inferior elements. Adolf Hitler and other proponents officially portrayed Nazism as being neither left- nor right-wing, but the politicians of the Right deserve exactly the same reproach. It was through their miserable cowardice that those ruffians of Jews who came into power in 1918 were able to rob the nation of its arms, a major inspiration for the Nazis were the far-right nationalist Freikorps, paramilitary organisations that engaged in political violence after World War I. The Nazis stated the alliance was purely tactical and there remained substantial differences with the DNVP, the Nazis described the DNVP as a bourgeois party and called themselves an anti-bourgeois party. After the elections in 1932, the alliance broke after the DNVP lost many of its seats in the Reichstag, the Nazis denounced them as an insignificant heap of reactionaries. The DNVP responded by denouncing the Nazis for their socialism, their violence. Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was pressured to abdicate the throne and flee into exile amidst an attempted communist revolution in Germany, there were factions in the Nazi Party, both conservative and radical
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Adolf Hitler
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Adolf Hitler was a German politician who was the leader of the Nazi Party, Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and Führer of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. As dictator of the German Reich, he initiated World War II in Europe with the invasion of Poland in September 1939 and was central to the Holocaust, Hitler was born in Austria, then part of Austria-Hungary, and raised near Linz. He moved to Germany in 1913 and was decorated during his service in the German Army in World War I and he joined the German Workers Party, the precursor of the NSDAP, in 1919 and became leader of the NSDAP in 1921. In 1923 he attempted a coup in Munich to seize power, the failed coup resulted in Hitlers imprisonment, during which he dictated the first volume of his autobiography and political manifesto Mein Kampf. Hitler frequently denounced international capitalism and communism as being part of a Jewish conspiracy, by 1933, the Nazi Party was the largest elected party in the German Reichstag, which led to Hitlers appointment as Chancellor on 30 January 1933. Hitler aimed to eliminate Jews from Germany and establish a New Order to counter what he saw as the injustice of the post-World War I international order dominated by Britain, Hitler sought Lebensraum for the German people in Eastern Europe. His aggressive foreign policy is considered to be the cause of the outbreak of World War II in Europe. He directed large-scale rearmament and on 1 September 1939 invaded Poland, resulting in British, in June 1941, Hitler ordered an invasion of the Soviet Union. By the end of 1941 German forces and the European Axis powers occupied most of Europe, failure to defeat the Soviets and the entry of the United States into the war forced Germany onto the defensive and it suffered a series of escalating defeats. In the final days of the war, during the Battle of Berlin in 1945, Hitler married his long-time lover, on 30 April 1945, less than two days later, the two killed themselves to avoid capture by the Red Army, and their corpses were burned. Hitler and the Nazi regime were also responsible for the killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians, in addition,29 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of military action in the European Theatre of World War II. The number of civilians killed during the Second World War was unprecedented in warfare, Hitlers father Alois Hitler Sr. was the illegitimate child of Maria Anna Schicklgruber. The baptismal register did not show the name of his father, in 1842, Johann Georg Hiedler married Aloiss mother Maria Anna. Alois was brought up in the family of Hiedlers brother, Johann Nepomuk Hiedler, in 1876, Alois was legitimated and the baptismal register changed by a priest to register Johann Georg Hiedler as Aloiss father. Alois then assumed the surname Hitler, also spelled Hiedler, Hüttler, the Hitler surname is probably based on one who lives in a hut. Nazi official Hans Frank suggested that Aloiss mother had been employed as a housekeeper by a Jewish family in Graz, and that the familys 19-year-old son Leopold Frankenberger had fathered Alois. No Frankenberger was registered in Graz during that period, and no record has been produced of Leopold Frankenbergers existence, Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn, a town in Austria-Hungary, close to the border with the German Empire. He was one of six born to Alois Hitler and Klara Pölzl
36.
Reinhold Niebuhr
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Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr was an American theologian, ethicist, commentator on politics and public affairs, and professor at Union Theological Seminary for more than 30 years. Niebuhr was one of Americas leading public intellectuals for several decades of the 20th century, andrew Bacevich labelled Niebuhrs book The Irony of American History the most important book ever written on U. S. foreign policy. Niebuhrs realism deepened after 1945 and led him to support American efforts to confront Soviet communism around the world, a powerful speaker, he was one of the most influential thinkers of the 1940s and 1950s in public affairs. During this time he was viewed by many as the rival of John Dewey. Niebuhrs long-term impact on political philosophy involve his utilizing the resources of the Christian faith to argue for political realism and his work has also significantly influenced international relations theory, leading many scholars to move away from idealism and embrace realism. Recent years have seen a renewed interest in Niebuhrs work, in part because of Obamas stated admiration for Niebuhr, aside from his political commentary, Niebuhr is also known for having composed the Serenity Prayer, a widely-recited prayer which was popularized by Alcoholics Anonymous. Niebuhr was also one of the founders of both Americans for Democratic Action and the International Rescue Committee and also spent time at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and he was also the brother of another prominent theologian, H. Richard Niebuhr. Niebuhr was born in Wright City, Missouri, the son of German immigrants Gustav Niebuhr and his father was a German Evangelical pastor, his denomination was the American branch of the established Prussian Church Union in Germany. It is now part of the United Church of Christ, the family spoke German at home. His brother H. Richard Niebuhr also became a famous theological ethicist, the Niebuhr family moved to Lincoln, Illinois, in 1902 when Gustav Niebuhr became pastor of Lincolns St. Johns German Evangelical Synod church. Reinhold Niebuhr first served as pastor of a church when he served from April to September 1913 as interim minister of St. Johns following his fathers death, Niebuhr attended Elmhurst College in Illinois and graduated in 1910. He studied at Eden Theological Seminary in Webster Groves, Missouri, Press in biblical and systematic subjects, and Yale Divinity School, where he earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1914 and a Master of Arts degree the following year. He always regretted not taking a doctorate and he said that Yale gave him intellectual liberation from the localism of his German-American upbringing. In 1931 Niebuhr married Ursula Keppel-Compton and she was a member of the Church of England and was educated at Oxford University in theology and history. She met Niebuhr while studying for her masters degree at Union Theological Seminary, for many years, she was on faculty at Barnard College where she helped establish and then chaired the religious studies department. The Niebuhrs had two children, Christopher Niebuhr and Elisabeth Niebuhr Sifton, Ursula Niebuhr left evidence in her professional papers at the Library of Congress showing that she co-authored some of her husbands later writings. In 1915, Niebuhr was ordained a pastor, the German Evangelical mission board sent him to serve at Bethel Evangelical Church in Detroit, Michigan. The congregation numbered sixty-six on his arrival and grew to nearly 700 by the time he left in 1928, the increase reflected his ability to reach people outside the German American community and among the growing population attracted to jobs in the booming automobile industry
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Union Theological Seminary (New York City)
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Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York is an independent, ecumenical, Christian seminary located in New York City. It is the oldest independent seminary in the United States and has long known as a bastion of progressive Christian scholarship. It was founded in 1836 by members of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. but was open to students of all denominations. In 1893, Union rescinded the right of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church to veto faculty appointments, in the 20th century, Union became a center of liberal Christianity. It served as the birthplace of the Black theology, Womanist Theology, Union houses the Columbia University Burke Library, one of the largest theological libraries in the Western Hemisphere. Union is affiliated with neighboring Columbia University and the seminary serves as Columbias constituent faculty of theology, although administratively independent, Union is represented in Columbias governance structure and appoints one faculty member and one student to the Columbia University Senate. In 1964, Union also established an affiliation with the neighboring Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Unions campus is located in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan, bordered by Claremont Avenue, Broadway, 120th Street, and 122nd Street. The brick and limestone English Gothic revival architecture, by Francis R. Allen and Collins, completed in 1910, includes the tower, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 23,1980. Some sections of the campus are now on long-term lease to Columbia University, Unions urban campus is regarded by some to be among the most beautiful in the United States. The inner quadrangle and other halls and rooms are often used as a filming location by the motion picture industry. The Burke Library, the largest theological library in the western hemisphere, boniface, a 1520 imprint of Martin Luther’s first published writing, and one of the first African-American hymnals, published in Philadelphia in 1818. The Burke Library offers a number of world-renowned archival collections, including the Archives of Women in Theological Scholarship, in 2004 Unions Burke Library became fully integrated into the Columbia University Library system, which holds over 10 million volumes. The library is named in honor of Walter Burke, a benefactor to the library who served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Seminary from 1976 to 1982. Union Theological Seminary was founded in 1836, during the late-19th Century, it became one of the leading centers of liberal Christianity in the United States. In 1891, Charles A. Briggs, who was being installed as the chair of Biblical Studies, in 1939 the Auburn Theological Seminary moved to its campus. In 1895, members of the Union Theological Seminary Alumni Club founded Union Settlement Association, known as East Harlem, it was a neighborhood filled with new tenements but devoid of any civic services. The ethos of the settlement house movement called for its workers to “settle” in such neighborhoods in order to learn first-hand the problems of the residents, Union Settlement still exists, providing community-based services and programs to support the immigrant and low-income residents of East Harlem. Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich made UTS the center of liberal and neo-orthodox Protestantism in the post-War period
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Philosophy of religion
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According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, philosophy of religion is, the philosophical examination of the central themes and concepts involved in religious traditions. It is an ancient discipline, being found in the earliest known manuscripts concerning philosophy, and relates to other branches of philosophy, including metaphysics, epistemology. It is designed such that it can be carried out dispassionately by those who identify as believers or non-believers, some aspects of Philosophy of religion has classically been regarded as a part of metaphysics. In Aristotles Metaphysics, the necessarily prior cause of motion was an unmoved mover. This, according to Aristotle, is God, the subject of study in theology, although the term did not come into general use until the nineteenth century, perhaps the earliest strictly philosophical writings about religion can be found in the Hindu Upanishads. Around the same time, the works of Daoism and Confucianism also dealt, in part, the Buddhist writing in the Pali canon contains acute philosophical thinking, and we have in Buddhism a very shrewd grasp of the nature of religion as philosophy illuminates it. The philosophy of religion has been distinguished from theology by pointing out that, for theology, also, theology is responsible to an authority that initiates its thinking, speaking, and witnessing. Philosophy bases its arguments on the ground of timeless evidence, three considerations that are basic to the philosophy of religion concerning deities are, the existence of God, the nature of God, and the knowledge of God. There are several positions with regard to the existence of God that one might take. Pantheism - the belief that God exists as all things of the cosmos, panentheism - the belief that God encompasses all things of the cosmos but that God is greater than the cosmos, God is both immanent and transcendent. Deism - the belief that God does exist but does not interfere with human life, monotheism - Usually defined as the belief that a single deity exists which is omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent created everything. Polytheism - the belief that deities exist which rule the universe as separate. Henotheism - the belief that multiple deities may or may not exist, henology - believing that multiple avatars of a deity exist, which represent unique aspects of the ultimate deity. Agnosticism - the belief that the existence or non-existence of deities or God is currently unknown or unknowable, a weaker form of this might be defined as simply a lack of certainty about gods existence or nonexistence. Atheism - the rejection of belief in the existence of deities, apatheism - a complete disinterest in, or lack of caring for, whether or not any deity or deities exists. Possibilianism These are not mutually exclusive positions, for example, agnostic theists choose to believe God exists while asserting that knowledge of Gods existence is inherently unknowable. Similarly, agnostic atheists reject belief in the existence of all deities, the attempt to provide proofs or arguments for the existence of God is one aspect of what is known as natural theology or the natural theistic project. This strand of natural theology attempts to justify belief in God by independent grounds, there is plenty of philosophical literature on faith and other subjects generally considered to be outside the realm of natural theology
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Columbia University
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Columbia University is a private Ivy League research university in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It was established in 1754 as Kings College by royal charter of George II of Great Britain, after the American Revolutionary War, Kings College briefly became a state entity, and was renamed Columbia College in 1784. Columbia is one of the fourteen founding members of the Association of American Universities and was the first school in the United States to grant the M. D. degree. The university also has global research outposts in Amman, Beijing, Istanbul, Paris, Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, Asunción, Columbia administers annually the Pulitzer Prize. Additionally,100 Nobel laureates have been affiliated with Columbia as students, researchers, faculty, Columbia is second only to Harvard University in the number of Nobel Prize-winning affiliates, with over 100 recipients of the award as of 2016. In 1746 an act was passed by the assembly of New York to raise funds for the foundation of a new college. Classes were initially held in July 1754 and were presided over by the colleges first president, Dr. Johnson was the only instructor of the colleges first class, which consisted of a mere eight students. Instruction was held in a new schoolhouse adjoining Trinity Church, located on what is now lower Broadway in Manhattan, in 1763, Dr. Johnson was succeeded in the presidency by Myles Cooper, a graduate of The Queens College, Oxford, and an ardent Tory. In the charged political climate of the American Revolution, his opponent in discussions at the college was an undergraduate of the class of 1777. The suspension continued through the occupation of New York City by British troops until their departure in 1783. The colleges library was looted and its sole building requisitioned for use as a hospital first by American. Loyalists were forced to abandon their Kings College in New York, the Loyalists, led by Bishop Charles Inglis fled to Windsor, Nova Scotia, where they founded Kings Collegiate School. After the Revolution, the college turned to the State of New York in order to restore its vitality, the Legislature agreed to assist the college, and on May 1,1784, it passed an Act for granting certain privileges to the College heretofore called Kings College. The Regents finally became aware of the colleges defective constitution in February 1787 and appointed a revision committee, in April of that same year, a new charter was adopted for the college, still in use today, granting power to a private board of 24 Trustees. On May 21,1787, William Samuel Johnson, the son of Dr. Samuel Johnson, was unanimously elected President of Columbia College, prior to serving at the university, Johnson had participated in the First Continental Congress and been chosen as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. The colleges enrollment, structure, and academics stagnated for the majority of the 19th century, with many of the college presidents doing little to change the way that the college functioned. In 1857, the college moved from the Kings College campus at Park Place to a primarily Gothic Revival campus on 49th Street and Madison Avenue, during the last half of the 19th century, under the leadership of President F. A. P. Barnard, the institution assumed the shape of a modern university
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