1.
Ravensburg
–
Ravensburg is a town in Upper Swabia in Southern Germany, capital of the district of Ravensburg, Baden-Württemberg. Ravensburg was first mentioned in 1088, in the Middle Ages, it was an Imperial Free City and an important trading centre. The Great Ravensburg Trading Society owned shops and trading companies all over Europe, the historic town centre is still very much intact, including three town gates and over 10 towers of the medieval fortification. The all-white Mehlsack is a tower marking the Altstadt’s southern edge, a steep staircase leads up to the Veitsburg, a quaint baroque castle. The towns most popular festival is the Rutenfest in mid year, Ravensburg was first mentioned in writing in 1088. It was founded by the Welfs, a Frankish dynasty in Swabia who became later Dukes of Bavaria and Saxony, with the death of Conradin 1268 in Naples the Hohenstaufen line became extinct. Their former estates became imperial property of the Holy Roman Empire, like many other cities in Swabia, at the end of the 13th century Ravensburg became an Imperial Free City in 1276. The Great Ravensburg Trading Society was founded at Ravensburg and Konstanz around 1380 by the merchant families of Humpis, Mötteli, at first, the society mostly dealt in the production of linen and fustian. With the opening of one of the first paper mills north of the Alps in 1402 in Ravensburg, the Ravensburg stores also sold oriental spices, Mediterranean wines and Bohemian ores. After the liquidation of the Great Ravensburg Trading Society in 1530, the Thirty Years War caused a grave decline of the population. Swedish troops destroyed the old castle, now named Veitsburg after the St. Veit chapel at the castle grounds, following the Reformation a paritetic government emerged, meaning an equal distribution of public offices between the Catholic and Protestant confession. The city council was one half each Protestant and Catholic, for some time there was even a Catholic and a Protestant mayor at the same time, and the both confessions celebrated the village fair, the Rutenfest, apart from each other. This system was approved at the end of the Thirty Years War in the Peace of Westphalia which named four Paritetic Imperial Cities, Augsburg, Biberach, Dinkelsbühl, as a result, Ravensburg first became a Bavarian exclave within Württemberg. After a swap of estates between Bavaria and Württemberg it was incorporated in the Kingdom of Württemberg in 1810, since Ravensburg was impoverished and depopulated after the Thirty Years War, only a few new buildings were raised during the 18th and the early 19th century. The benefit of this economic stagnation was the conservation of an intact medieval city with nearly all towers. During World War II Ravensburg was strategically of no relevance, Ravensburg did not harbor any noteworthy arms industry, but was home to a big aid supplies center belonging to the Swiss Red Cross, so no air raid destroyed the historic city center. In the 1970s, Ravensburg increased in population and territory by the incorporation of communities like Eschach, Schmalegg. Ravensburg University of Cooperative Education was established in the town in 1978, in the 1980s, the Old Town was renovated and all transit traffic was banned from the city center
Ravensburg
–
Ravensburg, seen from the west
Ravensburg
Ravensburg
–
Ravensburg landscape showing local landmarks: 23. Weinberge with Torkeln; 24. St. Christina; 25. Veitsburg; 26. Ravensburg with Mehlsack. Most of the hillsides are shown covered with vineyards. From Kloster Weißenau (stylized print by Johann Mathias Steidlin, 1734).
Ravensburg
–
Ravensburg, Blaserturm (trumpeter's tower), Waaghaus (
weighing house) and Rathaus (town hall)
2.
Germany
–
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
Germany
–
The
Nebra sky disk is dated to c. 1600 BC.
Germany
–
Flag
Germany
–
Martin Luther (1483–1546) initiated the
Protestant Reformation.
Germany
–
Foundation of the
German Empire in
Versailles, 1871.
Bismarck is at the center in a white uniform.
3.
Brothers Grimm
–
Their first collection of folk tales, Childrens and Household Tales, was published in 1812. The brothers spent their formative years in the German town of Hanau and their fathers death in 1796 caused great poverty for the family and affected the brothers for many years after. They both attended the University of Marburg where they developed a curiosity about German folklore, which grew into a dedication to collecting German folk tales. The rise of romanticism during the 19th century revived interest in folk stories. With the goal of researching a scholarly treatise on folk tales, between 1812 and 1857, their first collection was revised and republished many times, growing from 86 stories to more than 200. The popularity of the Grimms best folk tales has endured well, Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm was born on 4 January 1785 and his brother Wilhelm Carl Grimm on 24 February 1786. They were the second- and third-eldest surviving siblings in a family of nine children, in 1791, the family moved to the countryside town of Steinau, when Philipp was employed there as district magistrate. The family became prominent members of the community, residing in a home surrounded by fields. Biographer Jack Zipes writes that the brothers were happy in Steinau, the children were educated at home by private tutors, receiving strict instruction as Lutherans that instilled in both a lifelong religious faith. In 1796, Philipp Grimm died of pneumonia, plunging his family into poverty, Dorothea depended on financial support from her father and sister, first lady-in-waiting at the court of William I, Elector of Hesse. Jacob was the eldest living son, and he was forced at age 11 to assume adult responsibilities for the two years. The two boys adhered to the advice of their grandfather, who continually exhorted them to be industrious, the brothers left Steinau and their family in 1798 to attend the Friedrichsgymnasium in Kassel, which had been arranged and paid for by their aunt. By then, they were without a provider, forcing them to rely entirely on each other. The two brothers differed in temperament, Jacob was introspective and Wilhelm was outgoing, sharing a strong work ethic, they excelled in their studies. In Kassel, they became aware of their inferior social status relative to high-born students who received more attention. Still, each brother graduated at the head of his class, Jacob in 1803, after graduation from the Friedrichsgymnasium, the brothers attended the University of Marburg. The university was small with about 200 students and there they became aware that students of lower social status were not treated equally. They were disqualified from admission because of their standing and had to request dispensation to study law
Brothers Grimm
–
Wilhelm Grimm (left) and Jacob Grimm in an 1855 painting by
Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann
Brothers Grimm
–
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm lived in this house in
Steinau from 1791 to 1796.
Brothers Grimm
–
Jacob Grimm lecturing (illustration by
Ludwig Emil Grimm, c. 1830)
Brothers Grimm
–
The graves of the Brothers Grimm in
Schöneberg, Berlin (St. Matthäus Kirchhof Cemetery)
4.
Bavaria
–
Bavaria is a free state and one of 16 federal states of Germany. Located in the German southeast with an area of 70,548 square kilometres and its territory comprises roughly a fifth of the total land area of Germany, and, with 12.9 million inhabitants, it is Germanys second most populous state. Munich, Bavarias capital and largest city, is the third largest city in Germany, the Duchy of Bavaria dates back to the year 555. In the 17th century CE, the Duke of Bavaria became a Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Bavaria existed from 1806 to 1918, when Bavaria became a republic. In 1946, the Free State of Bavaria re-organised itself on democratic lines after the Second World War, Bavaria has a unique culture, largely because of the states Catholic majority and conservative traditions. Bavarians have traditionally been proud of their culture, which includes such as Oktoberfest. The state also has the second largest economy among the German states by GDP figures, modern Bavaria also includes parts of the historical regions of Franconia, Upper Palatinate and Swabia. The Bavarians emerged in a north of the Alps, previously inhabited by Celts. The Bavarians spoke Old High German but, unlike other Germanic groups, rather, they seem to have coalesced out of other groups left behind by Roman withdrawal late in the 5th century. These peoples may have included the Celtic Boii, some remaining Romans, Marcomanni, Allemanni, Quadi, Thuringians, Goths, Scirians, Rugians, the name Bavarian means Men of Baia which may indicate Bohemia, the homeland of the Celtic Boii and later of the Marcomanni. They first appear in written sources circa 520, a 17th century Jewish chronicler David Solomon Ganz, citing Cyriacus Spangenberg, claimed that the diocese was named after an ancient Bohemian king, Boiia, in the 14th century BCE. From about 554 to 788, the house of Agilolfing ruled the Duchy of Bavaria and their daughter, Theodelinde, became Queen of the Lombards in northern Italy and Garibald was forced to flee to her when he fell out with his Frankish overlords. Garibalds successor, Tassilo I, tried unsuccessfully to hold the frontier against the expansion of Slavs. Tassilos son Garibald II seems to have achieved a balance of power between 610 and 616, after Garibald II little is known of the Bavarians until Duke Theodo I, whose reign may have begun as early as 680. From 696 onwards he invited churchmen from the west to organize churches and his son, Theudebert, led a decisive Bavarian campaign to intervene in a succession dispute in the Lombard Kingdom in 714, and married his sister Guntrud to the Lombard King Liutprand. At Theodos death the duchy was divided among his sons, at Hugberts death the duchy passed to a distant relative named Odilo, from neighbouring Alemannia. He was defeated near Augsburg in 743 but continued to rule until his death in 748, saint Boniface completed the peoples conversion to Christianity in the early 8th century. Bavaria was in ways affected by the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century
Bavaria
–
Prehistoric Heunischenburg, in the vicinity of
Kronach
Bavaria
–
Flag
Bavaria
–
Kingdom of Bavaria 900
Bavaria
–
Bavarian stamps during the German empire period
5.
German language
–
German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
German language
–
Old Frisian (Alt-Friesisch)
German language
–
The widespread popularity of the
Bible translated into German by
Martin Luther helped establish modern German
German language
–
Examples of German language in
Namibian everyday life
German language
–
German-language newspapers in the U.S. in 1922
6.
Ethnic group
–
An ethnic group or ethnicity is a category of people who identify with each other based on similarities, such as common ancestral, language, social, cultural or national experiences. Unlike other social groups, ethnicity is often an inherited status based on the society in which one lives, in some cases, it can be adopted if a person moves into another society. Ethnic groups, derived from the historical founder population, often continue to speak related languages. By way of language shift, acculturation, adoption and religious conversion, it is possible for individuals or groups to leave one ethnic group. Ethnicity is often used synonymously with terms such as nation or people. In English, it can also have the connotation of something exotic, generally related to cultures of more recent immigrants, the largest ethnic groups in modern times comprise hundreds of millions of individuals, while the smallest are limited to a few dozen individuals. Conversely, formerly separate ethnicities can merge to form a pan-ethnicity, whether through division or amalgamation, the formation of a separate ethnic identity is referred to as ethnogenesis. The term ethnic is derived from the Greek word ἔθνος ethnos, the inherited English language term for this concept is folk, used alongside the latinate people since the late Middle English period. In Early Modern English and until the mid-19th century, ethnic was used to mean heathen or pagan, as the Septuagint used ta ethne to translate the Hebrew goyim the nations, non-Hebrews, non-Jews. The Greek term in antiquity could refer to any large group, a host of men. In the 19th century, the term came to be used in the sense of peculiar to a race, people or nation, the abstract ethnicity had been used for paganism in the 18th century, but now came to express the meaning of an ethnic character. The term ethnic group was first recorded in 1935 and entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1972, depending on the context that is used, the term nationality may either be used synonymously with ethnicity, or synonymously with citizenship. The process that results in the emergence of an ethnicity is called ethnogenesis, the Greeks at this time did not describe foreign nations but had also developed a concept of their own ethnicity, which they grouped under the name of Hellenes. Herodotus gave an account of what defined Greek ethnic identity in his day, enumerating shared descent. Whether ethnicity qualifies as a universal is to some extent dependent on the exact definition used. Many social scientists, such as anthropologists Fredrik Barth and Eric Wolf and they regard ethnicity as a product of specific kinds of inter-group interactions, rather than an essential quality inherent to human groups. According to Thomas Hylland Eriksen, the study of ethnicity was dominated by two distinct debates until recently, one is between primordialism and instrumentalism. In the primordialist view, the participant perceives ethnic ties collectively, as a given, even coercive
Ethnic group
–
Before the 1970s, the
Korowai people of
Papua were an
uncontacted people. Their population numbers no more than 3,000.
Ethnic group
–
The
Assyrians are the indigenous peoples of
Northern Iraq.
Ethnic group
–
Some European ethnic groups, such as
Basque people, do not constitute a majority in any one country.
7.
Germans
–
Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe, who share a common German ancestry, culture and history. German is the mother tongue of a substantial majority of ethnic Germans. The English term Germans has historically referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages, before the collapse of communism and the reunification of Germany in 1990, Germans constituted the largest divided nation in Europe by far. Ever since the outbreak of the Protestant Reformation within the Holy Roman Empire, of approximately 100 million native speakers of German in the world, roughly 80 million consider themselves Germans. Thus, the number of Germans lies somewhere between 100 and more than 150 million, depending on the criteria applied. Today, people from countries with German-speaking majorities most often subscribe to their own national identities, the German term Deutsche originates from the Old High German word diutisc, referring to the Germanic language of the people. It is not clear how commonly, if at all, the word was used as an ethnonym in Old High German, used as a noun, ein diutscher in the sense of a German emerges in Middle High German, attested from the second half of the 12th century. The Old French term alemans is taken from the name of the Alamanni and it was loaned into Middle English as almains in the early 14th century. The word Dutch is attested in English from the 14th century, denoting continental West Germanic dialects, while in most Romance languages the Germans have been named from the Alamanni, the Old Norse, Finnish and Estonian names for the Germans were taken from that of the Saxons. In Slavic languages, the Germans were given the name of němьci, originally with a meaning foreigner, the English term Germans is only attested from the mid-16th century, based on the classical Latin term Germani used by Julius Caesar and later Tacitus. It gradually replaced Dutch and Almains, the latter becoming mostly obsolete by the early 18th century, the Germans are a Germanic people, who as an ethnicity emerged during the Middle Ages. Originally part of the Holy Roman Empire, around 300 independent German states emerged during its decline after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 ending the Thirty Years War and these states eventually formed into modern Germany in the 19th century. The concept of a German ethnicity is linked to Germanic tribes of antiquity in central Europe, the early Germans originated on the North German Plain as well as southern Scandinavia. By the 2nd century BC, the number of Germans was significantly increasing and they began expanding into eastern Europe, during antiquity these Germanic tribes remained separate from each other and did not have writing systems at that time. In the European Iron Age the area that is now Germany was divided into the La Tène horizon in Southern Germany and the Jastorf culture in Northern Germany. By 55 BC, the Germans had reached the Danube river and had either assimilated or otherwise driven out the Celts who had lived there, and had spread west into what is now Belgium and France. Conflict between the Germanic tribes and the forces of Rome under Julius Caesar forced major Germanic tribes to retreat to the east bank of the Rhine, in Roman-held territories with Germanic populations, the Germanic and Roman peoples intermarried, and Roman, Germanic, and Christian traditions intermingled. The adoption of Christianity would later become an influence in the development of a common German identity
Germans
Germans
–
Germanic Kingdoms in Europe c. 500 AD
Germans
–
Extent of
Holy Roman Empire in 972 (red line) and 1035 (red dots) with
Kingdom of Germany marked in blue
Germans
–
18 January 1871: The proclamation of the
German Empire in the
Hall of Mirrors of the
Palace of Versailles.
Bismarck appears in white. The Grand Duke of Baden stands beside Wilhelm, leading the cheers. Crown Prince Friedrich, later
Friedrich III, stands on his father's right.
8.
Swabia
–
Swabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. This territory would include all of the Alemannic German area, but the concept of Swabia is more restricted. Swabians are the natives of Swabia and speakers of Swabian German and their number was estimated at close to 0.8 million by SIL Ethnologue as of 2006, compared to a total population of 7.5 million in the regions of Tübingen, Stuttgart and Bavarian Swabia. Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabias borders are not clearly defined, like all of Southern Germany, Swabia was part of the La Tène culture, and as such has a Celtic substrate. In the Roman era, it was part of the Raetia province, in the third century, it was gradually settled by the Elbe Germanic Suebi and other components that came to make up the Alemanni. The Alemanni were ruled by independent kings throughout the fourth and fifth centuries, Swabia became a duchy under the Frankish Empire in 496, following the Battle of Tolbiac. Swabia was one of the stem duchies of East Francia. Due to the foundation of the important abbeys of St. Gallen and Reichenau, in the following years the original duchy gradually broke up into many smaller units. Rudolf I of Habsburg, elected in 1273 as emperor, tried to restore the duchy, but met the opposition of the higher nobility who aimed to limit the power of the emperor. The rural regions were merged into the Reichslandvogtei of Swabia, which was given as Imperial Pawn to Duke Leopold III of Austria in 1379 and again to Sigismund and he took the title of a Prince of Swabia and integrated the Landvogtei of Swabia in the realm of Further Austria. Charlemagnes family is known to have hailed from Swabia, the major dynasties that arose out of the region were the Habsburgs and the Hohenzollerns, who rose to prominence in Northern Germany. Also stemming from Swabia are the dynasties of the dukes of Württemberg. The Welf family went on to rule in Bavaria and Hanover, smaller feudal dynasties eventually disappeared, however, for example, branches of the Montforts and Hohenems lived until modern times, and the Fürstenberg survive still. The territory of Swabia as understood today emerges in the modern period. It corresponds to the Swabian Circle established in 1512, the Old Swiss Confederacy was de facto independent from Swabia from 1499 as a result of the Swabian War, while the Margraviate of Baden had been detached from Swabia since the twelfth century. Fearing the power of the princes, the cities and smaller secular rulers of Swabia joined to form the Swabian League in the fifteenth century. The region was divided by the Reformation. In the wake of the reorganization of the empire of 1803 by the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss
Swabia
–
Map of the
Swabian Circle (1572)
Swabia
–
Imperial abbeys and Free cities in Swabia in the late eighteenth century
9.
Duchy of Swabia
–
The Duchy of Swabia was one of the five stem duchies of the medieval German kingdom, and its dukes were thus among the most powerful magnates of Germany. Swabia takes its name from the tribe of the Suebi, dwelling in the angle formed by the Rhine and the Danube, they were joined by other tribes, and were called Alamanni, until about the 11th century, when the form Swabia began to prevail. The duchy was proclaimed by Burchard II in 917, Burchard had allied himself with king Conrad I and defeated his rivals for the rule of Alemannia in a battle at Wahlwies in 915. The most notable family to hold Swabia were the Hohenstaufen, who held it, with a brief interruption, for much of this period, the Hohenstaufen were also Holy Roman Emperors. The duchy persisted until 1268, ending with the execution of Conradin, Rudolph I of Germany in 1273 attempted to revive the title of duke of Swabia, bestowing it on his youngest son, the later Rudolf II, who passed it to his son John Parricida. John died without an heir, in 1312 or 1313, marking the end of the revived title, the Margraviate of Baden detached itself from the duchy in the 12th century. In 496 the Alamanni were defeated by King Clovis I, brought under Francia, in the 7th century the people were converted to Christianity, bishoprics were founded at Augsburg and Konstanz, and in the 8th century abbeys at Reichenau Island and Saint Gall. At this time the duchy, which was divided into gaus or counties and it was bounded by the Rhine, Lake Constance, the Lech River and the Duchy of Franconia. During the later and weaker years of the Carolingian Empire the counts became almost independent, the chief family in Alamannia was that of the counts of Raetia Curiensis, who were sometimes called margraves and sometimes, as in the case of Conrad II and Rudolf, dukes. Finally, Burchard I, was called duke of the Alaminnia and he was killed in 911, for which two counts palatine, Bertold and Erchanger, were accused of treason and put to death by order of the German king Conrad I. In 917, Burchard II, son of Burchard I and count in Raetia Curiensis, took the title of duke, and was recognized as such by King Henry I, the Fowler in 919. In the Battle at Winterthur in 919, Burchard defended the Thurgau against the claims of Rudolf II of Burgundy, Rudolf had attempted to expand his territory by capitalising on the feud between the Ahalolfing and Burcharding dynasties. He occupied the palace at Zürich and marched into the Thurgau from there and he was defeated by Burchard near Winterthur and was forced to abandon Zürich, retreating beyond the Reuss. Burchards position was virtually independent, and when he died in 926 he was succeeded by Hermann, a Franconian noble, liudolf revolted, and was deposed, and other dukes followed in quick succession. Burchard III, son of Burchard II, ruled from 954 to 973, when he was succeeded by Liudolfs son, Otto, afterwards duke of Bavaria, to 982, and Conrad I, a relative of Duke Hermann I, until 997. Hermann II, possibly a son of Conrad, succeeded, and, during these years the Swabians were loyal to the kings of the Saxon house, probably owing to the influence of the bishops. Hermann III had no children, and the passed to Ernest II, son of his eldest sister Gisela and Ernest I. In 1045 Henry, who had become German king as Henry III, granted Alamannia to Otto, grandson of the emperor Otto II and count palatine of the Rhine, and, in 1048, to Otto III, count of Schweinfurt
Duchy of Swabia
–
Map showing
Upper Burgundy (green) and the Duchy of Swabia (orange)
10.
Stem duchy
–
The Carolingians had dissolved the original tribal duchies of the Frankish Empire in the 8th century. As the Carolingian Empire declined in the late 9th century, the old tribal areas assumed new identities as the subdivisions of the realm and these are the five stem duchies, Bavaria, Franconia, Lotharingia, Saxony and Swabia. The term Stammesherzogtum as used in German historiography dates to the mid-19th century, the terms applicability, and the nature of the stem duchies in medieval Germany consequently have a long history of controversy. The overly literal or etymologizing English translation stem duchy was coined in the early 20th century, while later authors tend to clarify the term by using the alternative translation tribal, use of the term stem duchies has become conventional. The derivation of the German people from a number of German tribes developed in 18th to 19th century German historiography and ethnography and this concept of German stems relates to the early and high medieval period and is to be distinguished from the more generic Germanic tribes of Late Antiquity. A distinction was made between the ancient stems, which were in existence in the 10th century, and recent stems. The delineation of the two concepts is necessarily vague, and as a result the concept has a history of political, the terms Stamm, Nation or Volk variously used in modern German historiography reflect the Middle Latin gens, natio or populus of the medieval source material. Traditional German historiography counts six Altstämme or ancient stems, viz. Bavarians, Swabians, Franks, all of these were incorporated in the Carolingian Empire by the late 8th century. The customary or tribal laws of these groups were recorded in the medieval period. Franconian, Saxon and Swabian law remained in force and competed with imperial law well into the 13th century, the use of Stämme, tribes, rather than Völker nations, peoples, emerged in the early 19th century in the context of the project of German unification. Karl Friedrich Eichhorn in 1808 still used Deutsche Völker German nations, Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann in 1815 asked for unity of the German nation in its tribes. This terminology became standard and is reflected in the preamble of the Weimar constitution of 1919, reading Das deutsche Volk, einig in seinen Stämmen The German nation, united in its tribes. The division remains in current use in the classification of German dialects into Franconian, Alemannic, Thuringian, Bavarian. In the Free State of Bavaria, the division into Bavarian stems remains current for the populations of Altbayern, within East Francia were large duchies, sometimes called kingdoms after their former status, which had a certain level of internal solidarity. Early among these were Saxony and Bavaria, which had been conquered by Charlemagne, in German historiography they are called the jüngere Stammesherzogtümer, or more recent tribal duchies, although the term stem duchies is common in English. The duchies are often called younger in order to them from the older duchies which were vassal-states of the Merovingian monarchs. Certainly, their names had already appeared during the Migrations, yet, their political institutional, and biological structures had more often than not thoroughly changed. The kingdom was divided in 864–865 among the sons of Louis the German, after the death of the last Carolingian, Louis the Child, in 911, the stem duchies acknowledged the unity of the kingdom
Stem duchy
–
Linguistic map of
Old High German (Alemannic and Bavarian),
Old Frankish,
Old Saxon and
Old Frisian at the time of
Otto I.
Stem duchy
–
Duchy of Saxony
Stem duchy
–
The
Eastern Frankish Kingdom (919–1125) with the later stem duchies:
Saxony in yellow,
Franconia in blue,
Bavaria in green,
Swabia in light orange, and
Lotharingia in pink
11.
Alemannia
–
Alamannia or Alemannia was the territory inhabited by the Germanic Alemanni after they broke through the Roman limes in 213. The Alemanni expanded from the Main basin during the 3rd century, raiding the Roman provinces, the term Swabia was often used interchangeably with Alamannia in the 10th to 13th centuries. Raetia Curiensis, although not part of Alemannia, was ruled by Alemannic counts, the territory corresponds to what was still the areal of Alemannic German in the modern period, i. e. French Alsace, German Baden and Swabia, German-speaking Switzerland and Austrian Vorarlberg. The Alamanni were pushed south from their area of settlement in the Main basin and in the 5th and 6th century settled new territory on either side of the Rhine. In Swabia, Hegowe, between Lake Constance, the upper Danube and the Swabian Jura, perahtoltaspara in the upper Neckar basin, left of the upper Danube as far as Ulm, including the source of the Danube. Swiggerstal, Filiwigawe, Trachgowe and Alba between the Neckar and the Danube, albegowe, Keltinstein and Augestigowe along the Lech forming the border to Bavaria. Rezia in the Northeastern corner, left of the Danube, linzgowe and Argungowe north of Lake Constance. Eritgau, Folcholtespara, Rammegowe and Illargowe on the side of the Danube. In Baden, Brisigowe along the Upper Rhine opposite Sundgau, and Mortunova, the pertinence of this territory to either Alamannia or Upper Burgundy was disputed. The county of Raetia Curiensis was absorbed into Alamannia in the early 10th century and it comprised the Ringowe and Retia proper. The Alemanni during the Roman Empire period were divided into a number of cantons or goviae, but there appears to have been the custom of the individual kings uniting under the leadership of a single king in military expeditions. Some kings of the Alemanni of the 4th and 5th centuries are known by name, the first being Chrocus, chnodomarius supported Constantius II in the rebellion of Magnentius. Chnodomarius was the leader of the Alemannic army in the battle of Strasbourg in 357, macrian, Hariobaud, Urius, Ursicinus, Vadomar, and Vestralp were Alemannic kings who in 359 made treaties with Julian the Apostate. Macrian was deposed in an expedition ordered by Valentinian I in 370, macrian appears to have been involved in building a large alliance of Alemannic tribes against Rome, which earned him the title of turbarum rex artifex. Macrian was killed on campaign against the Franks, in an ambush laid by the Frankish king Mallobaudes, gibuld is the last known king of the Alemanni. His raid on Passau is mentioned in the vita of Saint Lupus, the name of Gibulds successor who was defeated at Tolbiac is not known. Thereafter, Alamannia was a nominal dukedom within Francia, though ruled by their own dukes, it is not likely that they were very often united under one duke in the 6th and 7th centuries. The Alemanni most frequently appear as auxiliaries in expeditions to Italy, Rhaetia too, though Alamannic, was ruled by the Victorids coterminously with the Diocese of Chur
Alemannia
–
Alemannia (orange) and Upper Burgundy (green) in the 10th century
12.
Alemannic German
–
Alemannic is a group of dialects of the Upper German branch of the Germanic language family. The name derives from the ancient Germanic alliance of tribes known as the Alemanni. S, ISO 639-3 distinguishes four languages, gsw, swg, wae and gct. At this level, the distinction between a language and a dialect frequently is considered a cultural and political question, in part because linguists have failed to agree on a clear standard, the following variants comprise Alemannic, Swabian. Unlike most other Alemannic dialects, it does not retain the Middle High German monophthongs û, î, for this reason, Swabian is sometimes used in opposition to Alemannic. Retain German initial /k/ as rather than fricativising to as in High Alemannic, subvariants, Lake Constance Alemannic Upper-Rhine Alemannic in Southwestern Baden and its variant Alsatian Alemán Coloniero Basel German High Alemannic. Complete the High German consonant shift by fricativising initial /k/ to, subvariants, Bernese German Zürich German Vorarlbergisch Liechtensteinisch Highest Alemannic does not have the hiatus diphthongisation of other dialects of German. For example, instead of, instead of, subvariants, Walliser German Walser German Note that the Alemannic dialects of Switzerland are often called Swiss German or Schwiizertüütsch. The oldest known texts in Alemannic are brief Elder Futhark inscriptions dating to the sixth century, in the Old High German period, the first coherent texts are recorded in the St. Gall and Reichenau Island, a considerable part of the Old High German corpus has Alemannic traits. Alemannic Middle High German is less prominent, in spite of the Codex Manesse compiled by Johannes Hadlaub of Zürich, the rise of the Old Swiss Confederacy from the fourteenth century leads to the creation of Alemannic Swiss chronicles. Huldrych Zwinglis bible translation of the 1520s was in an Alemannic variant of Early Modern High German, the 1665 revision of the Froschauer Bible removed the Alemannic elements, approaching the language used by Luther. Johann Peter Hebel published his Allemannische Gedichte in 1803, Swiss authors often consciously employ Helvetisms within Standard German, notably Jeremias Gotthelf in his novels set in the Emmental, and more recently Tim Krohn in his Quatemberkinder. The diminutive is used frequently in all Alemannic dialects, northern and eastern dialects use the suffix -le, southern dialects use the suffix -li. Depending on dialect, thus, little house could be Heisle, Hüüsle, a significant difference between the high and low variants is the pronunciation of ch after the front vowels and consonants. In Standard German and the variants, this is a palatal, whereas in the higher variants
Alemannic German
–
The traditional distribution area of Western Upper German (=Alemannic) dialect features in the 19th and 20th century
13.
Holy Roman Empire
–
The Holy Roman Empire was a multi-ethnic complex of territories in central Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806. On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as Emperor, reviving the title in Western Europe, more than three centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The title was revived in 962 when Otto I was crowned emperor, fashioning himself as the successor of Charlemagne, some historians refer to the coronation of Charlemagne as the origin of the empire, while others prefer the coronation of Otto I as its beginning. Scholars generally concur, however, in relating an evolution of the institutions and principles constituting the empire, the office of Holy Roman Emperor was traditionally elective, although frequently controlled by dynasties. Emperor Francis II dissolved the empire on 6 August 1806, after the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine by Napoleon, before 1157, the realm was merely referred to as the Roman Empire. In a decree following the 1512 Diet of Cologne, the name was changed to Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, by the end of the 18th century, the term Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation had fallen out of official use. As Roman power in Gaul declined during the 5th century, local Germanic tribes assumed control, by the middle of the 8th century, however, the Merovingians had been reduced to figureheads, and the Carolingians, led by Charles Martel, had become the de facto rulers. In 751, Martel’s son Pepin became King of the Franks, the Carolingians would maintain a close alliance with the Papacy. In 768 Pepin’s son Charlemagne became King of the Franks and began an expansion of the realm. He eventually incorporated the territories of present-day France, Germany, northern Italy, on Christmas Day of 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor, restoring the title in the west for the first time in over three centuries. After the death of Charles the Fat in 888, however, the Carolingian Empire broke apart, according to Regino of Prüm, the parts of the realm spewed forth kinglets, and each part elected a kinglet from its own bowels. After the death of Charles the Fat, those crowned emperor by the pope controlled only territories in Italy, the last such emperor was Berengar I of Italy, who died in 924. Around 900, autonomous stem duchies reemerged in East Francia, on his deathbed, Conrad yielded the crown to his main rival, Henry the Fowler of Saxony, who was elected king at the Diet of Fritzlar in 919. Henry reached a truce with the raiding Magyars, and in 933 he won a first victory against them in the Battle of Riade, Henry died in 936, but his descendants, the Liudolfing dynasty, would continue to rule the Eastern kingdom for roughly a century. Upon Henry the Fowlers death, Otto, his son and designated successor, was elected King in Aachen in 936 and he overcame a series of revolts from an elder brother and from several dukes. After that, the managed to control the appointment of dukes. In 951, Otto came to the aid of Adelaide, the queen of Italy, defeating her enemies, marrying her. In 955, Otto won a victory over the Magyars in the Battle of Lechfeld
Holy Roman Empire
–
The Holy Roman Empire at its maximal extent, in the 13th century
Holy Roman Empire
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Imperial Banner
Holy Roman Empire
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An illustration from
Schedelsche Weltchronik depicting the structure of the Reich: The Holy Roman Emperor is sitting; on his left are three ecclesiastics; on his right are four secular electors.
Holy Roman Empire
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Double-headed eagle with coats of arms of individual states, symbol of the Holy Roman Empire (painting from 1510)
14.
Early Modern period
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The early modern period of modern history follows the late Middle Ages of the post-classical era. Historians in recent decades have argued that from a worldwide standpoint, the period witnessed the exploration and colonization of the Americas and the rise of sustained contacts between previously isolated parts of the globe. The historical powers became involved in trade, as the exchange of goods, plants, animals, and food crops extended to the Old World. The Columbian Exchange greatly affected the human environment, New economies and institutions emerged, becoming more sophisticated and globally articulated over the course of the early modern period. This process began in the medieval North Italian city-states, particularly Genoa, Venice, the early modern period also included the rise of the dominance of the economic theory of mercantilism. The European colonization of the Americas, Asia, and Africa occurred during the 15th to 19th centuries, the early modern trends in various regions of the world represented a shift away from medieval modes of organization, politically and economically. Historians typically date the end of the modern period when the French Revolution of the 1790s began the modern period. Early modern themes Other In 16th century China, the Ming Dynastys economy was stimulated by trade with the Portuguese, Spanish. China became involved in a new trade of goods, plants, animals. Trade with Early Modern Europe and Japan brought in massive amounts of silver, during the last decades of the Ming the flow of silver into China was greatly diminished, thereby undermining state revenues and the entire Chinese economy. This damage to the economy was compounded by the effects on agriculture of the incipient Little Ice Age, natural calamities, crop failure, the ensuing breakdown of authority and peoples livelihoods allowed rebel leaders such as Li Zicheng to challenge Ming authority. The Ming Dynasty fell around 1644 to the Qing Dynasty, which was the last ruling dynasty of China, during its reign, the Qing Dynasty became highly integrated with Chinese culture. The Azuchi-Momoyama period saw the unification that preceded the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate. The Edo period from 1600 to 1868 characterized early modern Japan, the Tokugawa shogunate was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period gets its name from the city, Edo. The Tokugawa shogunate ruled from Edo Castle from 1603 until 1868, in 1392, General Yi Seong-gye established the Joseon Dynasty with a largely bloodless coup. Joseon experienced advances in science and culture, King Sejong the Great promulgated hangul, the Korean alphabet. The period saw various other cultural and technological advances as well as the dominance of neo-Confucianism over the entirety of Korea, during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, invasions by the neighboring Japanese and Qing Chinese nearly overran the Korean peninsula
Early Modern period
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Waldseemüller map with joint sheets, 1507
Early Modern period
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15th century Hanging Houses in
Cuenca,
Spain from the
Early Renaissance, and the Early modern period.
Early Modern period
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Gutenberg reviewing a press proof (a colored engraving created probably in the 19th century)
Early Modern period
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The
Cantino planisphere (1502), the oldest surviving Portuguese nautical chart showing the results of the explorations of
Vasco da Gama to India,
Columbus to Central America,
Gaspar Corte-Real to Newfoundland and
Pedro Álvares Cabral to Brazil. The meridian of
Tordesillas, separating the Portuguese and Spanish halves of the world is also depicted
15.
Swabian League
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The League held regular meetings, supported tribunals and maintained a unified force of 12,000 infantrymen and 1200 cavalry. On 14 February 1488 a new Swabian League was formed, at the Reichstag of Esslingen, not only of 22 Imperial cities but also of the Swabian knights League of St. Georges Shield, bishops, and princes. The league was governed by a council of three colleges of princes, cities, and knights calling upon an army of 13,000 men. It aided in the rescue of the future emperor Maximilian I, son of Emperor Frederick III, held prisoner in the Low Countries, and later was his main support in southern Germany. In 1519, the League conquered Württemberg and sold it to Charles V after its duke Ulrich seized the Free Imperial City of Reutlingen during the interregnum that followed the death of Maximilian I. The religious revolution of the Protestant Reformation divided its members, and it helped to suppress the Peasants Revolt in 1524–26 and defeat an alliance of robber barons in the Franconian War. The Reformation caused the league to be disbanded in 1534, attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Alfred Bradley Gough
Swabian League
–
Coat of arms of the Swabian League. Two
putti support a red
Cross pattée in a white field; the motto: What God has joined let man not separate. Colored woodcut by Hans Burgkmair, 1522.
16.
Margraviate of Baden
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The Margraviate of Baden was a historical territory of the Holy Roman Empire. Spread along the east side of the Upper Rhine River in southwestern Germany, it was named a margraviate in 1112 and existed until 1803, in 1806, the Electorate of Baden, receiving territorial additions, became the Grand Duchy of Baden. The rulers of Baden belonged to the Swabian House of Zähringen, emperor Henry III had promised the ducal throne to the Zähringen scion Berthold, however, upon Henrys death in 1056 his widow Agnes of Poitou appointed Rudolf of Rheinfelden Duke of Swabia. Berthold renounced his rights and was compensated with the Duchy of Carinthia, not able to establish himself, he finally lost both territories, when he was deposed by King Henry IV of Germany during the Investiture Controversy in 1077. Berthold retired to his Swabian home territory, where he died the next year, like his father, Herman II insisted on his margravial title. He chose to establish his residence in Germany, as he had been born and his lordship of choice was Baden, where his father had gained the right to rule by marrying the heiress, Judit von Backnang-Sulichgau, Countess of Eberstein-Calw. In Baden, Herman II had Hohenbaden Castle built, construction began about 1100, and when completed in 1112, he marked the occasion by adopting the title of a Margrave of Baden. Because Baden was the capital, the new Margraviate was also known as Baden, Herman II would continue to be Margrave until his death in 1130. His son and grandson, Hermann III and Herman IV, added to their territories, around 1200, these lands were divided for the first time. Two lines, Baden-Baden and Baden-Hochberg, were founded, the latter was divided about a hundred years later to create the third line – Baden-Sausenberg. In the 12th and 13th centuries Baden was a loyal and steadfast supporter of the House of Hohenstaufen, even against its own relatives from Zähringen-Swabia, in 1219 he moved his seat of power to Pforzheim. He had to abandon his claims to Zähringen and Braunschweig, but he gained the title of Graf von Ortenau and Breisgau and his son and grandson, Herman VI, Margrave of Baden and Frederick I, Margrave of Baden, claimed the titles of Dukes of Austria and Styria. The Austrians rejected them as they did not want to be ruled by outsiders, Margrave Bernard I, Margrave of Baden-Baden united all of the acquisitions in 1391. A soldier of renown, Bernard continued the mission of his predecessors. Since 1291, Baden-Pforzheim had its own Margraviate, but in 1361 it ran out of heirs, founded in 1190, it lasted until 1418, when it too died with no male heirs. Bernard, being the closest heir, claimed Baden-Hochberg, Baden-Sausenberg, continued its own Margraviate until 1503, when the lack of its own heirs sent it back to the House of Baden-Baden. The consolidation of the Margraviate came in 1442, in that year, one-half of the dominions of Lahr and Mahlberg was brought into the fold, creating the link between the two main areas, the Breisgau in the south and Baden-Baden in the north. In 1462 the dispute over the election of the new Archbishop of Mainz sent Charles I to fight the war against Frederick I, the Count Palatine of the Rhine
Margraviate of Baden
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Christopher I of Baden, by
Hans Baldung Grien, 1515
Margraviate of Baden
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Flag
Margraviate of Baden
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Ruins of Hohenbaden Castle in
Baden-Baden
Margraviate of Baden
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The New Castle in Baden-Baden
17.
Old Swiss Confederacy
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The Old Swiss Confederacy was a precursor of the modern state of Switzerland. It was a confederation of independent small states which formed during the 14th century. From a nucleus in what is now Central Switzerland, the confederacy expanded to include the cities of Zurich and this formed a rare union of rural and urban communes, all of which enjoyed imperial immediacy in the Holy Roman Empire. Its success resulted in the addition of more confederates, increasing the number of cantons to thirteen by 1513, the confederacy pledged neutrality in 1515 and 1647, although many Swiss served privately as mercenaries in the Italian Wars and during the Early Modern period. After the Swabian War of 1499 the confederacy was a de facto independent state throughout the modern period. The Swiss Confederacy fell to invasion by the French Revolutionary Army in 1798, the adjective “old” was introduced after the Napoleonic era with Ancien Régime, retronyms distinguishing the pre-Napoleonic from the restored confederation. During its existence the confederacy was known as Eidgenossenschaft or Eydtgnoschafft, in reference to treaties among cantons, territories of the confederacy came to be known collectively as Schweiz or Schweizerland, with the English Switzerland beginning during the mid-16th century. From that time the Confederacy was seen as a single state, the foundation of the Confederacy is marked by the Rütlischwur or the 1315 Pact of Brunnen. Since 1889, the Federal Charter of 1291 among the communes of Uri, Schwyz. The initial pact was augmented by pacts with the cities of Lucerne, Zürich, in several battles with Habsburg armies, the Swiss were victorious, they conquered the rural areas of Glarus and Zug, which became members of the confederacy. From 1353 to 1481, the federation of eight cantons—known in German as the Acht Orte —consolidated its position, the members enlarged their territory at the expense of local counts—primarily by buying judicial rights, but sometimes by force. The Eidgenossenschaft, as a whole, expanded through military conquest, the Aargau was conquered in 1415, in both cases, the Swiss profited from weakness in the Habsburg dukes. In the south, Uri led a military territorial expansion that would by 1515 lead to the conquest of the Ticino, none of these territories became members of the confederacy, they had the status of condominiums. At this time, the eight cantons gradually increased their influence on neighbouring cities, individual cantons concluded pacts with Fribourg, Appenzell, Schaffhausen, the abbot and the city of St. Gallen, Biel, Rottweil, Mulhouse and others. These allies became closely associated with the confederacy, but were not accepted as full members, the Burgundy Wars prompted a further enlargement of the confederacy, Fribourg and Solothurn were accepted in 1481. In the Swabian War against Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, the Swiss were victorious, the associated cities of Basel and Schaffhausen joined the confederacy as a result of that conflict, and Appenzell followed suit in 1513 as the thirteenth member. The federation of thirteen cantons constituted the Old Swiss Confederacy until its demise in 1798, the expansion of the confederacy was stopped by the Swiss defeat in the 1515 Battle of Marignano. Only Berne and Fribourg were still able to conquer the Vaud in 1536, the Reformation in Switzerland led to doctrinal division amongst the cantons
Old Swiss Confederacy
–
The forces of Zürich are defeated in the
Second War of Kappel.
Old Swiss Confederacy
–
Swiss cross
(field sign 1470–1798)
Old Swiss Confederacy
–
Federal Charter of 1291
Old Swiss Confederacy
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Old Swiss Confederacy on 1637 map
18.
Swabian-Alemannic Fastnacht
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The Swabian-Alemannic Fastnacht, Fasnacht or Fasnat/Faschnat, is the pre-Lenten carnival in Alemannic folklore in Switzerland, southern Germany, Alsace and Vorarlberg. Popular etymology often links Fastnacht with fasten – allegedly from celebrations on the eve preceding fasting, in the beginning of the 20th century it was a common assumption that the tradition has its root in the pre Christian rituals. So there was an assumption Comparison of dialect variants however yields an OHG *fasanaht, a likely derivation looks to PIE pwo- purify, or alternatively to Middle High German vaselen prosper, bud, and interprets the festival as a fertility rite. But historians around Werner Mezger refuted all those theories, and showed that the name came from fasten and they also showed that a lot of the ritus came from the civitas diaboli model of the Catholic church. Fasching is related, probably originally with a second element -gang instead of -nacht, Fastnacht is held in the settlement area of the Germanic tribes of the Swabians and Alemanns, where Swabian-Alemannic dialects are spoken. The region covers German Switzerland, the part of Baden-Württemberg, Alsace, south-western Bavaria. The festival starts on the Thursday before Ash Wednesday, known as Schmotziger Donnerstag, elsewhere the day is called Womens Carnival, being the day when tradition says that women take control. In particular regions of Tyrol, Salzburg and Bavaria traditional processions of the Perchten welcome the springtime, the Schönperchten represent the birth of new life in the awakening nature, the Schiachperchten represent the dark spirits of wintertime. Farmers yearn for warmer weather and the Perchtenlauf is an expression of that desire. The nights between winter and spring, when evil ghosts are supposed to go around, are also called Rauhnächte, Swabian-Alemannic Fastnacht distinguishes itself from the Rhenish Carnival but did not develop an independent form until the first quarter of the 20th century. A special type of meetings, however, has been by far the most popular type of meetings for centuries. These are meetings of several thousands of jesters, and they are taking place almost every weekend in the weeks after Epiphany, in the area of the upper Neckar, “Abstauber” with black clothes will go door to door to clean the mothballed jesters clothes. In Rottenburg am Neckar, witches will conduct a similar procedure on the guests, therefore, the so-called “Fiaßwäsch“ takes place in Lauffen ob Rottweil where the jester’s council wash their feet in the ice-cold water of the fountain. At the same time, the jester’s masks take pride of place in the livingrooms of Immendingen and Möhringen, the Schramberger jesters also show their reverence towards the jester’s clothing by solemnly blessing it, “Sei mir gegrüßt, du edles Kleid der Narren. Tritt nun hervor aus Deiner Jahresbleibe, und erfülle mit Freude die Großen und die Kleinen. Dir sei geweiht die Fasnet im Jahre des Heils 20. “, the most important role on and around January 6 takes the jester’s friendly gatherings. The number of Fastnacht events again is noticeably increasing everywhere by the 40th day after Christmas, drawing on an old custom, this is the day when the masks get a dusting and the first events and parades can begin. Strictly speaking, Fastnacht only begins with Fat Thursday, which is the climax of the celebrations, there are also a number of recipes that are traditionally cooked at that time
Swabian-Alemannic Fastnacht
–
"Hopfennarr" from Tettnang with costume and mask.
Swabian-Alemannic Fastnacht
–
Fastnacht mask in
Swabia
Swabian-Alemannic Fastnacht
–
Morgestraich in
Basel (2013)
Swabian-Alemannic Fastnacht
–
Fasnacht in
Willisau (2012)
19.
Standard German
–
Standard German is the standardized variety of the German language used in formal contexts, and for communication between different dialect areas. It is a pluricentric Dachsprache with three codified specific regional variants, German Standard German, Austrian Standard German and Swiss Standard German, adherence is obligatory not for everyday use but for government institutions including schools. Adherence to those standards by private individuals and companies, including the print and audio-visual media, is voluntary, until about 1800, Standard German was almost entirely a written language. In this time, people in Northern Germany, who mainly spoke Low Saxon languages very different from Standard German, learned it as a foreign language. Currently, local dialects are used mainly in informal situations or at home and also in dialect literature, in German linguistics, only the traditional regional varieties of German are called dialects, not the different varieties of standard German. The latter are known as Umgangssprachen and in the territory of Germany began to replace the traditional dialects beginning in the nineteenth century and they constitute a mixture of old dialectal elements with Standard German. In German, Standard German is often called Hochdeutsch, a misleading term since it collides with the linguistic term High German. To avoid this confusion, some refer to Standard German as Standarddeutsch, deutsche Standardsprache, or if the context of the German language is clear, simply Standardsprache. Traditionally, though, the language spoken in the mountainous areas of southern Germany is referred to as Oberdeutsch. The most accepted distinction is between different national varieties of standard German, Austrian Standard German, Germany Standard German and Swiss Standard German, additionally, there are linguists who posit that there are different varieties of standard German within Germany. Linguistic research of the different varieties of standard German began for the most part only in the 1990s, especially in Austria, the German federal state of Bavaria has promoted language diversity in the past in an effort to preserve its distinct culture. The different varieties of standard German differ only in a few features, especially in vocabulary and pronunciation, the variation of the standard German varieties must not be confused with the variation of the local German dialects. Even though the standard German varieties are to a certain degree influenced by the local dialects, in most regions, the speakers use a continuum of mixtures from more dialectical varieties to more standard varieties according to situation. Since the former have not undergone the High German consonant shift, under a socio-linguistic approach to the problem, even if Low German dialects are Abstandsprachen, they are dialects of German, because they lack Ausbau. However, Low German did influence the standard-based vernaculars spoken today in Northern Germany by language transfer, High German heavily influenced by Low German has been known as Missingsch, but most contemporary Northern Germans exhibit only an intermediate Low German substratum in their speech. Therefore, this situation has been called a medial diglossia, although Luxembourgish is no longer considered a German dialect today but a language, the situation can be compared to that of Switzerland. Standard German is also taught in schools in Luxembourg and close to 90% of the population can speak it and this accent is documented in reference works such as Deutsches Aussprachewörterbuch by Eva-Maria Krech et al. Duden 6 Das Aussprachewörterbuch by Max Mangold and the materials at the Westdeutscher Rundfunk and Deutschlandfunk
Standard German
–
The national and regional standard varieties of the German language.
20.
German unification
–
The unification of Germany into a politically and administratively integrated nation state officially occurred on 18 January 1871, in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles in France. Princes of the German states gathered there to proclaim Wilhelm I of Prussia as German Emperor after the French capitulation in the Franco-Prussian War. The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, which had included more than 500 independent states, was dissolved when Emperor Francis II abdicated during the War of the Third Coalition. Economically, the creation of the Prussian Zollverein in 1818, and its subsequent expansion to other states of the German Confederation. Emerging modes of transportation facilitated business and recreational travel, leading to contact, the model of diplomatic spheres of influence resulting from the Congress of Vienna in 1814–15 after the Napoleonic Wars endorsed Austrian dominance in Central Europe. The negotiators at Vienna took no account of Prussias growing strength within and among the German states and this German dualism presented two solutions to the problem of unification, Kleindeutsche Lösung, the small Germany solution, or Großdeutsche Lösung, the greater Germany solution. Reaction to Danish and French nationalism provided foci for expressions of German unity, military successes—especially those of Prussia—in three regional wars generated enthusiasm and pride that politicians could harness to promote unification. This experience echoed the memory of mutual accomplishment in the Napoleonic Wars, by establishing a Germany without Austria, the political and administrative unification in 1871 at least temporarily solved the problem of dualism. 1797, The French First Republic annexed the Left Bank of the Rhine as a result of the War of the First Coalition,1802, Previous annexations by France confirmed following its victory in the War of the Second Coalition. 1804, Francis I of Austria declared the new Austrian Empire as a reaction to Napoleon Bonapartes proclamation of the First French Empire in 1804. 1806, As a result of the War of the Third Coalition, Napoleon I annexed some territories East of the Rhine,1807, Prussia lost one half of its territory following the War of the Fourth Coalition. 1815, After the defeat of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna reinstated the Germanic states into the German Confederation under the leadership of the Austrian Empire,1834, The Prussian-led custom union evolved into the Zollverein that included almost all Confederation states except the Austrian Empire. 1848, Revolts across the German Confederation, such as in Berlin, Dresden and Frankfurt, in the meantime, the Frankfurt Parliament was set up in 1848 and attempted to proclaim a united Germany, but this was refused by William IV. The question of a united Germany under the Kleindeutsch solution or the so-called Großdeutsch began to surface,1864, The Danish-Prussian War started as Prussia protested against Danish incorporation of Schleswig into the Kingdom of Denmark. The Austrian Empire was deliberately drawn into war by Otto von Bismarck. The Austro-Prussian victory led to Schleswig, the part, being governed by Prussia and Holstein. 1866, Bismarck accused the Austrian Empire of stirring up troubles in Prussian-held Schleswig, Prussian troops drove into Austrian-held Holstein and took control of the entire state of Schleswig-Holstein. Austria declared war on Prussia and, after fighting the Austro-Prussian War, was swiftly defeated, Napoleon III declared war against Prussia
German unification
–
Germania, a personification of the German nation, appears in
Philipp Veit 's fresco (1834–36). She is holding a shield with the coat of arms of the German Confederation (see enlargement below). The shields on which she stands are the arms of the seven traditional
Electors of the Holy Roman Empire.
German unification
–
The German Empire of 1871–1918. Since the German-speaking part of the multinational
Austrian Empire was excluded, this geographic construction represented a
lesser Germany (Kleindeutsch) solution.
German unification
–
The
Battle of the Nations monument, erected for the centennial in 1913, honors the efforts of the German people in the victory over Napoleon
German unification
–
In October, 1817, approximately 500 students rallied at
Wartburg Castle, where
Martin Luther had sought refuge over three centuries earlier, to demonstrate in favor of national unification. Wartburg was chosen for its symbolic connection to German national character. Contemporary, colored wood engraving.
21.
Kingdom of Prussia
–
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
Kingdom of Prussia
–
Prussian territorial acquisitions in the 18th century
Kingdom of Prussia
–
Flag
Kingdom of Prussia
–
Prussia (orange) and its territories lost after the
War of the Fourth Coalition (other colours).
Kingdom of Prussia
–
Prussian King's Crown (
Hohenzollern Castle Collection)
22.
Weimar Classicism
–
Weimar Classicism is a German literary and cultural movement, whose practitioners established a new humanism, from the synthesis of ideas from Romanticism, Classicism, and the Age of Enlightenment. The German Enlightenment, called “neo-classical”, burgeoned in the synthesis of Empiricism and Rationalism as developed by Christian Thomasius and this philosophy, circulated widely in many magazines and journals, profoundly directed the subsequent expansion of German-speaking and European culture. The inability of this common-sense outlook convincingly to bridge “feeling” and “thought”, “body” and “mind”, another, though not as abstract, approach to this problem was a governing concern with the problems of aesthetics. It was no inquiry into taste — into positive or negative appeals — nor sensations as such, therefore, the Weimar Classicism could also be started with the arrival of Wieland and extended beyond Schillers death until the death of Wieland or even of Goethe himself. In Italy Goethe aimed to rediscover himself as a writer and to become an artist, through training in Rome. While he failed as an artist, Italy appeared to have him a better writer. Schillers evolution as a writer was following a path to Goethes. He had begun as a writer of wild, violent, emotion-driven plays, in the late 1780s he turned to a more classical style. In 1794 Schiller and Goethe became friends and allies in a project to establish new standards for literature, by contrast the contemporaneous and efflorescing literary movement of German Romanticism was in opposition to Weimar and German Classicism, especially to Schiller. On this Goethe remarked, The Weimar movement was notable for its inclusion of female writers, die Horen included works by several women, including a serially published novel, Agnes von Lilien, by Schillers sister-in-law Caroline von Wolzogen. Other women published by Schiller included Sophie Mereau, Friederike Brun, Amalie von Imhoff, Elisa von der Recke, between 1786 and Schillers death in 1805 he and Goethe worked to recruit a network of writers, philosophers, scholars and artists to their cause. A work’s Gehalt is not reducible to its Inhalt, Stoff, Schiller and Goethe reserve this for the forms taken from the world or that are created. In a work of art, Stoff is to be “indifferent”, christoph Martin Wieland was the first writer to arrive in Weimar. In 1772 he was called by the widowed Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, then regent of the Duchy Sachsen-Weimar, Weimar remained Wielands home until his death. Here, in 1773, he founded Der teutsche Merkur, which under his editorship became the most influential literary review in Germany,1776, one year after his arrival, Goethe arranged that Herder was called to Weimar, whom he had admired already in his Strasbourg years. The vast array of writings themselves, other than being solely literary pursuances or distichs, include scientific, philosophic, Schiller was remarkably prolific during this period, writing his plays Wallenstein, Mary Stuart, The Maid of Orleans, The Bride of Messina and William Tell. Ein Schauspiel für Liebende Iphigenie auf Tauris Torquato Tasso Römische Elegien Venezianische Epigramme Faust, ein Fragment Beiträge zur Optik Der Bürgergeneral Reineke Fuchs Unterhaltungen deutscher Ausgewanderten Das Märchen, Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre Faust. Musicians were inspired to compose for the works of writers, Ludwig van Beethoven, Paul Dukas, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Weimar Classicism
–
Weimar’s Courtyard of the Muses (1860) by Theobald Freiherr von Oer. Schiller reads in the gardens of
Tiefurt Castle,
Weimar. Amongst the audience, seated at the far left, are Wieland and Herder, while Goethe stands before the pillar, at right.
23.
Friedrich Schiller
–
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, physician, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life, Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with the already famous and they frequently discussed issues concerning aesthetics, and Schiller encouraged Goethe to finish works he left as sketches. This relationship and these led to a period now referred to as Weimar Classicism. They also worked together on Xenien, a collection of satirical poems in which both Schiller and Goethe challenge opponents to their philosophical vision. Friedrich Schiller was born on 10 November 1759, in Marbach, Württemberg as the son of military doctor Johann Kaspar Schiller. Schiller grew up in a religious family and spent much of his youth studying the Bible. His father was away in the Seven Years War when Friedrich was born and he was named after king Frederick the Great, but he was called Fritz by nearly everyone. Kaspar Schiller was rarely home during the war, but he did manage to visit the family once in a while and his wife and children also visited him occasionally wherever he happened to be stationed. When the war ended in 1763, Schillers father became an officer and was stationed in Schwäbisch Gmünd. Due to the high cost of living—especially the rent—the family moved to nearby Lorch, although the family was happy in Lorch, Schillers father found his work unsatisfying. He sometimes took his son with him, in Lorch, Schiller received his primary education. The quality of the lessons was fairly bad, and Friedrich regularly cut class with his older sister, because his parents wanted Schiller to become a pastor, they had the pastor of the village instruct the boy in Latin and Greek. Pastor Moser was a teacher, and later Schiller named the cleric in his first play Die Räuber after him. As a boy, Schiller was excited by the idea of becoming a cleric and often put on black robes, in 1766, the family left Lorch for the Duke of Württembergs principal residence, Ludwigsburg. Schillers father had not been paid for three years, and the family had been living on their savings but could no longer afford to do so, so Kaspar Schiller took an assignment to the garrison in Ludwigsburg. There the Schiller boy came to the attention of Karl Eugen and he entered the Karlsschule Stuttgart, in 1773, where he eventually studied medicine. During most of his life, he suffered from illnesses that he tried to cure himself. While at the Karlsschule, Schiller read Rousseau and Goethe and discussed Classical ideals with his classmates, the plays critique of social corruption and its affirmation of proto-revolutionary republican ideals astounded its original audience
Friedrich Schiller
–
Friedrich Schiller
Friedrich Schiller
–
Portrait of Friedrich Schiller by
Gerhard von Kügelgen
Friedrich Schiller
–
Lithograph portrait from 1905, captioned "Friedrich von Schiller" in recognition of his 1802 ennoblement
Friedrich Schiller
–
Germany's oldest Schiller memorial (1839) on Schillerplatz, Stuttgart
24.
Bavarians
–
Bavarians are an ethnographic group of Germans of the Bavaria region, a state within Germany. The groups dialect or speech is known as the Bavarian language, native to Altbayern, like the neighboring Swabians and Austrians, Bavarians are traditionally Catholic. There is no distinction between Bavarians and Austrians. The Bavarian language is divided into three dialects, Upper Palatinian is spoken in northern Bavaria. Danube Bavarian is spoken in central and south-eastern Bavaria and in Central, alpine Bavarian is spoken in south-western Bavaria, in southern Austria and in South Tyrol. On the southern side of the river Danube was the Roman controlled province of Raetia, Bavarians are first mentioned in the mid 6th century, in the foothills north of the Alps, on both sides of the Danube river. It is difficult to distinguish the mobile and mixing groups of the Danube in this period archaeologically and they seem to have been closely related to the Lombards who were developing as a force to the east of them. Their legal system shows heavy Roman influence, and their unification appears to have been under a Duke installed by the Franks, Elbe Germans, came from the Elbe river to the north, which was under Thuringian rule, and is where the Lombards had also been. But also more northern groups had moved along the Elbe from the direction of the North Sea, as did some Saxons who joined the Lombards, and possibly the Heruls. Also, East Germanic groups such as the Goths had entered the Pannonian region east of the Bavarians in the leading up to the empire of Attila. These peoples had not only contributed to the Hunnic empire, Slavs and Avars were settling to the north-east, and Goths and Langobards to the east and south were later displaced by Slavs and Magyars. A Diocese of Laureacum had been in existence since the 4th century, in the 8th century moved to Passau, the Bishopric of Regensburg was founded in 739 by Boniface. The Lex Baiuvariorum was a codex of Germanic law, comprising 23 articles of traditional law recorded in the 740s, Bavaria within the Carolingian Empire was bordering on Swabia in the west, Thuringia in the north, Lombardy in the south and Slavic Carinthia in the east. The Duchy of Bavaria was a duchy of the Holy Roman Empire, established in the 10th century. In the 14th and 15th centuries, upper and lower Bavaria were repeatedly subdivided, four Duchies existed after the division of 1392, Lower Bavaria-Straubing, lower Bavaria-Landshut, Bavaria-Ingolstadt and Bavaria-Munich. Munich, now the capital and cultural center of Bavaria, was founded in the medieval period. In 1503, Bavaria was re-united by Duke Albrecht IV of Bavaria-Munich, in 1623, Bavaria was elevated to Electorate. The Kingdom of Bavaria was established at the Peace of Pressburg, the kingdoms territory fluctuated greatly over the following years, eventually fixed at the Treaty of Paris, which established most of what remain the borders of the modern state
Bavarians
–
The
Oktoberfest in
Munich, the most widely-known festival of Bavarian culture, held since 1810 (2006 photograph).
Bavarians
–
Caricature of four "Munich types" (Münchner Charakterköpfe):
Highlander (Der Wastl aus dem Oberland "
Wastl from the
Oberland "),
clerk (Gerichtsschreiber "court secretary"), shirker (Invalid in Friedenszeiten "peacetime-invalid"), petty bourgeois (Münchner Hausvater "Munich pater familias"), Julius Adam,
Die Gartenlaube (1875).
25.
Wirtschaftswunder
–
The term Wirtschaftswunder, also known as The Miracle on the Rhine, describes the rapid reconstruction and development of the economies of West Germany and Austria after World War II. The expression referring to this phenomenon was first used by The Times in 1950, in Austria, efficient labor practices led to a similar period of economic growth. The era of economic growth raised West Germany and Austria from total devastation to developed nations in modern Europe. At the founding of the European Common Market in 1957 West Germanys economic growth stood in contrast to the conditions at the time in the United Kingdom. The fundamental reason for the economic recovery of West Germany can be found in the ordoliberal growth model. West Germany had a skilled workforce and a technological level in 1946. These initial problems were overcome by the time of the reform of 1948. This act to strengthen the West German economy had been forbidden during the two years that JCS1067 was in effect. JCS1067 had directed the U. S. forces of occupation in West Germany to take no steps looking toward the rehabilitation of Germany. At the same time, the government, following Erhards advice, walter Heller, a young economist with the U. S.64 cut a wide swath across the German tax system at the time of the currency reform. Individual income tax rates, in particular, fell dramatically, previously the tax rate on any income over 6,000 Deutschmark had been 95 percent. After tax reform, this 95 percent rate applied only to annual incomes above 250,000 Deutschmark, for the West German with an annual income of about 2,400 Deutschmark in 1950, the marginal tax rate fell from 85 percent to 18 percent. West Germany proceeded quickly after 1948 to rebuild its capital stock, the very high capital investment rate thanks to low consumption and a very small need for replacement capital investments drove this recovery during the 1950s. Living standards also rose steadily, with the power of wages increasing by 73% from 1950 to 1960. As noted by the British journalist Terence Prittie in the early Sixties, Today the German working-man leads a comfortable life and he eats well, and his food – although German cooking lacks the elegance of French – is wholesome and appetizing. He buys good clothes, and he dresses his wife and children well and he generally has money to spare for television sets, week-end excursions and football matches. And he is not afraid of celebrating occasionally on a grander scale, productivity growth in West Germany enabled most workers to obtain significant improvements in their living standards and ‘security of life. In addition to the barriers that had to be overcome for the West German economic recovery
Wirtschaftswunder
–
The
Volkswagen Beetle was an icon of West German reconstruction. This
one-off celebrated the 1,000,000th made.
Wirtschaftswunder
–
German children in a
refugee camp,
Western Germany, 1945
26.
Schwabenhass
–
Schwabenhass is a political slogan about the aversions against the about 300.000 strong Swabian minority in Berlin. In 2013, the so-called spätzlestreit gained nationwide attention, Schwabenhass occurs in different ethnic groups in Germany. Already neighboring Badener prefer their distance according the notion, we have nothing against Swabians, theodor Fontane had Effi Briest say, that already in the 19th century, Swabish neighbors were a reason to start leaving certain neighborhoods in Berlin. The term Schwob/ Szwab has been used by Poles and Swiss as ethnic slur for all Germans, similar prejudices applied to the Donauschwaben in Hungary despising everything German. Berlin was not accustomed to gentrification and went through a rather quick modernization process after 1989, Swabians were being deemed as gentrification drivers. „Schwaben“ as a term is being used as a Synonym for all sorts of well-to-do west-German immigrants, there have been cases of arson. E. g. on expensive buggies and trendy cars, prenzlauer Berg slogans included snowclones such as „Schwaben töten“, „Wir sind ein Volk. Und ihr seid ein anderes“ or „Ostberlin wünscht dir eine gute Heimfahrt“, the police started acting after „Kauft nicht bei Schwabn“ was used as graffiti in Berlins Rykestrasse. Politician Wolfgang Thierse had accused Swabians in Berlin of a lack of adaptive capability, the notion in a local Berlin newspaper gained nationwide flak. Germans doubt whether Berlin has any culture at all, as Berlin milieu stereotypes, Thierse himself does not any such local background, as a man of letters and catholic immigrant from former Silesia. Cicero magazine tried to describe him as an all-German square Spießer due to the controversy, Thierses use of Überfremdung points against Swabians was harshly criticized, and he faced considerable protest. During this Berliner Schwabenstreit 2013 various Spaßguerillas turned up, as „Free Schwabylon“, claiming a micronation for Swabian emigrants around Kollwitzplatz, new York Times reported about various aspects of the conflict, under the title „Swabian Separatists Fling Spätzle to Make Their Point“. Bov Bjerg, Großmaultaschenliebe – Ostberliner Schwabenhass, in, Moritz Kienast, I hate Berlin. Bastei Lübbe, Köln 2011, ISBN 3-431-03847-6, S. 161–168, tübingen 2003 Martina Schöller, Von Schwaben nach Berlin, eine empirische Untersuchung zur Bedeutung von Herkunft für Binnenmigrationen. Thomas Bürk, Thomas Götz, Schwaben in Berlin, Metamorphosen einer kulturellen Figur und ihrer urbanen Topographien, in, Beate Binder, Moritz Ege, Anja Schwanhäußer, Jens Wietschorke, Orte - Situationen - Atmosphären, kulturanalytische Skizzen. Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2010, S. 307-320, ISBN 978-3-593-39269-1
Schwabenhass
–
Schwaben, Go home to Berlin, Leipzig graffiti
Schwabenhass
–
Beach life in Berlin (1901) as depicted by
Heinrich Zille
27.
Gentrification
–
Gentrification is a process of renovation of deteriorated urban neighborhoods by means of the influx of more affluent residents. This is a common and controversial topic in politics and in urban planning, conversations surrounding gentrification have evolved, as many in the social-scientific community have questioned the negative connotations associated with the word gentrification. Gentrification is typically the result of increased interest in a certain environment, early gentrifiers may belong to low-income artist or boheme communities, which increase the attractiveness and flair of a certain quarter. In addition to these benefits, gentrification can lead to population migration. The term gentrification has come to refer to a phenomenon that can be defined in different ways. Historians say that gentrification took place in ancient Rome and in Roman Britain, the word gentrification derives from gentry—which comes from the Old French word genterise, of gentle birth and people of gentle birth. In England, Landed gentry denoted the social class, consisting of gentlemen and this change has the potential to cause displacement of long-time residents and businesses. When long-time or original neighborhood residents move from an area because of higher rents, mortgages. Gentrification is a housing, economic, and health issue that affects a communitys history and culture and it often shifts a neighborhoods characteristics, e. g. racial-ethnic composition and household income, by adding new stores and resources in previously run-down neighborhoods. German geographers have a more distanced view on gentrification, actual gentrification is seen as a mere symbolic issue happening in a low amount of places and blocks, the symbolic value and visibility in public discourse being higher than actual migration trends. Gerhard Hard assumes that urban flight is more important than inner city gentrification. Volkskunde scholar Barbara Lang introduced the term symbolic gentrification with regard to the Mythos Kreuzberg in Berlin, Lang assumes that complaints about gentrification often come from those who have been responsible for the process in their youth. When former students and bohemians started raising families and earning money in better paid jobs, especially Berlin is a showcase of intense debates about symbols of gentrification, while the actual processes are much slower than in other cities. The citys Prenzlauer Berg district is, however, a child of the capitals gentrification. This leads to mixed feelings amidst the local population, the neologism Bionade-Biedermeier was coined about Prenzlauer Berg. It describes the milieu of the former quartier of the alternative scene. There are several approaches that attempt to explain the roots and the reasons behind the spread of gentrification, bruce London and J. John Palen compiled a list of five explanations, demographic-ecological, sociocultural, political-economical, community networks, and social movements. The first theory, demographic-ecological, attempts to explain gentrification through the analysis of demographics, population, social organization, environment and this theory frequently refers to the growing number of people between the ages of 25 and 35 in the 1970s, or the baby boom generation
Gentrification
–
Buildings on Mainzer Straße in Berlin.
Gentrification
–
Symbolic gentrification in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin
Gentrification
–
Gentrification in the US: The
North Loop neighborhood, Minneapolis, Minn., is the "Warehouse District" of
condominia for artists and entrepreneurs.
Gentrification
–
Ornate Edwardian architecture (seen here in
Sutton,
United Kingdom).
28.
Angela Merkel
–
Angela Dorothea Merkel is a German politician who is currently Chancellor of Germany. She is also the leader of the Christian Democratic Union, Merkel has been described at various times as the de facto leader of the European Union, the most powerful woman in the world, and the worlds second most powerful person. Following German reunification in 1990, Merkel was elected to the Bundestag for the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Merkel was appointed as the Minister for Women and Youth in the federal government under Chancellor Helmut Kohl in 1991, and became the Minister for the Environment in 1994. In the 2009 federal election, the CDU obtained the largest share of the vote, in 2007, Merkel was President of the European Council and chaired the G8, the second woman to do so. Merkel played a role in the negotiation of the Treaty of Lisbon. One of Merkels consistent priorities has been to strengthen economic relations. Merkel played a role in managing the financial crisis at the European and international level. On 26 March 2014, Merkel became the incumbent head of government in the European Union. On 20 November 2016, Merkel announced she would seek re-election to a fourth term and she has two younger siblings, her brother Marcus Kasner, a physicist, and her sister Irene Kasner, an occupational therapist. In her childhood and youth, Merkel was known among her peers by the nickname Kasi, Merkel is of Polish and German descent. Her paternal grandfather Ludwik Kaźmierczak was a German policeman of Polish ethnicity and he married Merkels grandmother Margarethe, a German girl from Berlin, and relocated to her hometown where he worked in the police. In 1930 they Germanized the Polish name Kaźmierczak to Kasner, Merkels maternal grandparents were the Danzig politician Willi Jentzsch and Gertrud Alma née Drange, a daughter of the city clerk of Elbing Emil Drange. Merkel has mentioned her Polish heritage on several occasions, but her Polish roots became better known as a result of a 2013 biography, religion played a key role in the Kasner familys migration from West Germany to East Germany. In 1954, he received a pastorate at the church in Quitzow, the family moved to Templin and Merkel grew up in the countryside 80 km north of East Berlin. Like most young people in the German Democratic Republic, Merkel was a member of the Free German Youth, membership was nominally voluntary, but those who did not join found it difficult to gain admission to higher education. She did not participate in the coming of age ceremony Jugendweihe, however. Later, at the Academy of Sciences, she became a member of the FDJ district board, Merkel claimed that she was secretary for culture. When Merkels one-time FDJ district chairman contradicted her, she insisted that, According to my memory, I believe I wont know anything when Im 80
Angela Merkel
–
Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel
–
Merkel and
Lothar de Maiziere, 1990
Angela Merkel
–
Merkel with
Vladimir Putin, 2002
Angela Merkel
–
Merkel with U.S. President
George W. Bush, 2007
29.
Euro crisis
–
The European debt crisis is a multi-year debt crisis that has been taking place in the European Union since the end of 2009. The detailed causes of the debt crisis varied, in several countries, private debts arising from a property bubble were transferred to sovereign debt as a result of banking system bailouts and government responses to slowing economies post-bubble. The structure of the eurozone as a union without fiscal union contributed to the crisis. European banks own a significant amount of debt, such that concerns regarding the solvency of banking systems or sovereigns are negatively reinforcing. The ECB also contributed to solve the crisis by lowering interest rates, return to economic growth and improved structural deficits enabled Ireland and Portugal to exit their bailout programmes in July 2014. Greece and Cyprus both managed to regain market access in 2014. Spain never officially received a bailout programme and its rescue package from the ESM was earmarked for a bank recapitalization fund and did not include financial support for the government itself. In 1992, members of the European Union signed the Maastricht Treaty, under which they pledged to limit their deficit spending and debt levels. The crisis subsequently spread to Ireland and Portugal, while raising concerns about Italy, Spain, and the European banking system, in Greece, the low forecast was reported until very late in the year, clearly not corresponding to the actual situation. The fact that the Greek debt exceeded $400 billion and France owned 10% of that debt, as of January 2009, a group of 10 central and eastern European banks had already asked for a bailout. At the time, the European Commission released a forecast of a 1. 8% decline in EU economic output for 2009, the many public funded bank recapitalizations were one reason behind the sharply deteriorated debt-to-GDP ratios experienced by several European governments in the wake of the Great Recession. The states that were affected by the crisis faced a strong rise in interest rate spreads for government bonds as a result of investor concerns about their future debt sustainability. Together these three international organisations representing the creditors became nicknamed the Troika. By the end of 2011, Germany was estimated to have more than €9 billion out of the crisis as investors flocked to safer. By July 2012 also the Netherlands, Austria, and Finland benefited from zero or negative interest rates, looking at short-term government bonds with a maturity of less than one year the list of beneficiaries also includes Belgium and France. While Switzerland equally benefited from lower interest rates, the crisis also harmed its export sector due to an influx of foreign capital. This is the biggest Swiss intervention since 1978, in total, the debt crisis forced five out of 17 eurozone countries to seek help from other nations by the end of 2012. This has also greatly diminished contagion risk for other eurozone countries, as of October 2012 only 3 out of 17 eurozone countries, namely Greece, Portugal, and Cyprus still battled with long-term interest rates above 6%
Euro crisis
–
Total (gross) government debt around the world as a percent of
GDP by IMF
Euro crisis
–
Long-term interest rates (
secondary market yields of government bonds with maturities of close to ten years) of all eurozone countries except
Estonia,
Latvia and
Lithuania. A yield being more than 4% points higher compared to the lowest comparable yield among the eurozone states, i.e. yields above 6% in September 2011, indicates that financial institutions have serious doubts about credit-worthiness of the state.
Euro crisis
–
100,000 people protest against the austerity measures in front of parliament building in Athens, 29 May 2011
Euro crisis
–
Standard & Poor's Headquarters in Lower Manhattan, New York City
Germany
Bavaria, 
Baden-Württemberg)
