1.
Generalfeldmarschall
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Generalfeldmarschall was a rank in the armies of several German states and the Holy Roman Empire, in the Habsburg Monarchy, the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, the rank Feldmarschall was used. The rank was the equivalent to Großadmiral in the Kaiserliche Marine and Kriegsmarine, the title of Kaiserlich-Königlicher Feldmarschall is used in statutes of the Holy Roman Empire to describe senior military officials. The rank existed in the Austrian Empire as Kaiserlicher Feldmarschall and in the Austro-Hungarian Empire as Kaiserlicher und königlicher Feldmarschall, both were based on usage in the Holy Roman Empire. The monarch held the ex officio, other officers were promoted as required. Between 1914 and 1918, ten men attained this rank, of four were members of the reigning Habsburg dynasty. The equivalent of colonel-general in the German Navy was the rank of Generaladmiral, in 1870 Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia and Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm—who had commanded armies during the Franco-Prussian War—became the first Prussian princes appointed as field marshals. Not even such well-known German commanders as Erich Ludendorff and Erich von Falkenhayn received marshals batons, the equivalent of a Generalfeldmarschall in the navy was Großadmiral. Unlike Kaiser Wilhelm II, Adolf Hitler distributed the rank more widely, promoting 26 Heer and Luftwaffe officers in total and two Kriegsmarine Grand Admirals. Four weeks after the Heer and Luftwaffe had won the Battle of France, in the promotion Hitler noted that no German or Prussian field marshal at that point in history had ever been captured alive. Paulus surrendered the day anyway, claiming Ich habe nicht die Absicht. A disappointed Hitler commented, Thats the last field marshal I make in this war, Generalfeldmarschall was the highest regular general officer rank in the German Wehrmacht, comparable to NATO rank codes OF10, and to the five-star rank in anglophone armed forces. It was equivalent to Großadmiral of the German Kriegsmarine and he also bestowed generous presents on his highest officers, with Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb receiving RM250,000 for his 65th birthday from Hitler. Promotion to the rank did not guarantee Hitlers ongoing favor, however, as the tide of the war turned, Hitler took out his frustrations on his top commanders, relieving most of the Generalfeldmarschalls of duty before the wars conclusion. Von Bock, Von Brauchitsch, Von Leeb, and List were all relieved of their posts in 1942 for perceived failures during Operation Barbarossa, paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist, Von Manstein and Sperrle were similarly retired in 1944 and Von Rundstedt and Maximilian von Weichs in March 1945. Grand Admiral Erich Raeder was retired in January 1943 following an argument with Hitler over the future of the German surface fleet. Walther Model, one of Hitlers most successful commanders, had nevertheless lost the Fuhrers confidence by wars end and committed suicide to avoid capture, ferdinand Schörner ignominiously abandoned his command to save himself in the wars last days. Von Kluge, Von Witzleben and Rommel were either executed or forced to suicide for their real or imagined roles in assassination plots against Hitler. By wars end, only Keitel, Kesselring, Robert Ritter von Greim, the Nationale Volksarmee of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR created the rank of Marschall der DDR on 25 March 1982
2.
Oberkommando der Wehrmacht
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The Oberkommando der Wehrmacht was part of the command structure of the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II. Created in 1938, the OKW had nominal oversight over the Heer, the Kriegsmarine, rivalry with the armed services branch commands, mainly with the Oberkommando des Heeres, prevented the OKW from becoming a unified German General Staff in an effective chain of command. However, it did coordinate operations between the three services, during the war, the OKW, subordinate to Adolf Hitler as Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht, acquired more and more operational powers. By 1942, OKW had responsibility for all theaters except for the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union, Hitler manipulated the bipolar system to keep ultimate decisions in his own hands. Hitler took the chance to get rid of his critics within the armed forces, the Reich War Ministry was dissolved and replaced with the OKW led by devoted General Wilhelm Keitel in the rank of a Reich Minister, with Alfred Jodl as Chief of the Operations Staff. Nevertheless, all Supreme Commanders of the service branches, like OKH Chief General Walther von Brauchitsch, had direct access to Hitler and were able to circumvent Keitels command. By June 1938, the OKW comprised four departments, Wehrmacht-Führungsamt – operational orders, Chief, Major General Hasso von Wedel,1 September 1939 –8 May 1945 Heeresstab – army staff. Chief, General Walther Buhle,15 February 1942 –8 May 1945 Inspekteur der Wehrmachtnachrichtenverbände – Chief of Staff, Chief, Major General Hans Oster,1 September 1939 – January 1944 Abteilung Ausland – foreign. Hitler promoted Keitel to Chief of the OKW, i. e, Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces. As head of the WFA, Keitel appointed Max von Viebahn although after two months he was removed from command, and this post was not refilled until the promotion of Alfred Jodl, to replace Jodl at Abteilung Landesverteidigungsführungsamt, Walther Warlimont was appointed. In December 1941 further changes took place with Abteilung Landesverteidigungsführungsamt being merged into the Wehrmacht-Führungsamt and these changes were largely cosmetic however as key staff remained in post and continued to fulfill the same duties. The OKW directed the operations of the German Armed Forces during World War II, the OKW was almost always represented at daily situation conferences by Jodl, Keitel, and the officer serving as Hitlers adjutant. During these conferences situation reports prepared by the head of WFA/L would be delivered to Hitler, following these discussions, Hitler would issue further operational orders. These orders were then relayed back to WFA/L by Jodl along with the minutes of the meeting and these would then be converted into orders for issuance to the appropriate commanders. Officially, the OKW served as the general staff for the Third Reich, coordinating the efforts of the Army, Navy. In practice, the OKW acted as Hitlers personal military staff, translating his ideas into military orders, however, as the war progressed the OKW found itself exercising increasing amounts of direct command authority over military units, particularly in the West. This created a situation such that by 1942 the OKW held the de facto command of Western forces while the Army High Command exercised de facto command of the Eastern Front. It was not until 28 April 1945 that Hitler placed OKH under OKW, since most German operations during World War II were Army controlled, the OKH demanded control over German military forces
3.
Nazi Germany
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Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945, when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Under Hitlers rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the Nazi Party took totalitarian control over all aspects of life. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich from 1933 to 1943, the period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period. The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated Germany in May 1945, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the powers and offices of the Chancellery, a national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitlers person, and his word became above all laws, the government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitlers favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending, extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen. The return to economic stability boosted the regimes popularity, racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the purest branch of the Aryan race, millions of Jews and other peoples deemed undesirable by the state were murdered in the Holocaust. Opposition to Hitlers rule was ruthlessly suppressed, members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned, education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed, recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, the government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others. Beginning in the late 1930s, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands and it seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939. In alliance with Italy and smaller Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940, reichskommissariats took control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in what was left of Poland. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned, murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the tide gradually turned against the Nazis, who suffered major military defeats in 1943
4.
Bad Gandersheim
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Bad Gandersheim is a town in southern Lower Saxony, Germany, located in the district of Northeim. As of December 2008, it had a population of 10,572, bad Gandersheim has many half-timbered houses and is located on the German Timber-Frame Road. The town contains an airport as well, to the north lies the Heber Ridge. The Harz Mountains begin about 10 kilometres east of the town, the first abbey church in the town proper was begun in 856. In 990 the abbey received the market and tax rights, during the 10th century, Gandersheim was one of the most important towns of Saxony, the first German poet Hrosvit lived and worked here until 973. In 1159 Gandersheim was first mentioned as a town, when a mineral spring was discovered in 1240, Pope Gregory IX initiated the erection of the Holy Spirit hospital. Around 1330, the Dukes of Brunswick built a castle as a counterbalance to the abbey church. This building serves today as the court and youth correctional facility. In the summer of 1926 there was a three-day Roswitha Memorial Celebration in 1000-year old Gandersheim and this was the first time the medieval author was used as a symbolic figure for the town. Similar celebrations took place in 1930 and 1933, these had clear national-socialist themes, during World War 2, from October 1944 to April 1945, the town was the site of a subcamp of the Buchenwald Concentration Camp that produced aircraft parts. In 1952, the town celebrated the 1100-year jubilee of the founding of the monastery by Liudolf, a history play, The Song of Gandersheim, was presented in the market square. This was the prelude to the summer festival Gandersheimer Domfestspiele. Since this time, it has established itself as Lower Saxonys largest professional theatre festival. In 2006, its four productions were attended by approximately 55,000 theatre visitors
5.
German Empire
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The German Empire was the historical German nation state that existed from the unification of Germany in 1871 to the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1918, when Germany became a federal republic. The German Empire consisted of 26 constituent territories, with most being ruled by royal families and this included four kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies, seven principalities, three free Hanseatic cities, and one imperial territory. Although Prussia became one of kingdoms in the new realm, it contained most of its population and territory. Its influence also helped define modern German culture, after 1850, the states of Germany had rapidly become industrialized, with particular strengths in coal, iron, chemicals, and railways. In 1871, it had a population of 41 million people, and by 1913, a heavily rural collection of states in 1815, now united Germany became predominantly urban. During its 47 years of existence, the German Empire operated as an industrial, technological, Germany became a great power, boasting a rapidly growing rail network, the worlds strongest army, and a fast-growing industrial base. In less than a decade, its navy became second only to Britains Royal Navy, after the removal of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck by Wilhelm II, the Empire embarked on a bellicose new course that ultimately led to World War I. When the great crisis of 1914 arrived, the German Empire had two allies, Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy, however, left the once the First World War started in August 1914. In the First World War, German plans to capture Paris quickly in autumn 1914 failed, the Allied naval blockade caused severe shortages of food. Germany was repeatedly forced to send troops to bolster Austria and Turkey on other fronts, however, Germany had great success on the Eastern Front, it occupied large Eastern territories following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. German declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917 was designed to strangle the British, it failed, but the declaration—along with the Zimmermann Telegram—did bring the United States into the war. Meanwhile, German civilians and soldiers had become war-weary and radicalised by the Russian Revolution and this failed, and by October the armies were in retreat, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire had collapsed, Bulgaria had surrendered and the German people had lost faith in their political system. After at first attempting to control, causing massive uprisings. This left a republic to manage a devastated and unsatisfied populace, the German Confederation had been created by an act of the Congress of Vienna on 8 June 1815 as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, after being alluded to in Article 6 of the 1814 Treaty of Paris. German nationalism rapidly shifted from its liberal and democratic character in 1848, called Pan-Germanism and he envisioned a conservative, Prussian-dominated Germany. The war resulted in the Confederation being partially replaced by a North German Confederation in 1867, the new constitution and the title Emperor came into effect on 1 January 1871. During the Siege of Paris on 18 January 1871, William accepted to be proclaimed Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. The second German Constitution was adopted by the Reichstag on 14 April 1871 and proclaimed by the Emperor on 16 April, the political system remained the same
6.
Nuremberg
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Nuremberg is a city on the river Pegnitz and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia, about 170 kilometres north of Munich. It is the second-largest city in Bavaria, and the largest in Franconia, the population as of February 2015, is 517,498, which makes it Germanys fourteenth-largest city. The urban area also includes Fürth, Erlangen and Schwabach with a population of 763,854. The European Metropolitan Area Nuremberg has ca.3.5 million inhabitants, Nuremberg was, according to the first documentary mention of the city in 1050, the location of an Imperial castle between the East Franks and the Bavarian March of the Nordgau. From 1050 to 1571, the city expanded and rose dramatically in importance due to its location on key trade routes, Nuremberg is often referred to as having been the unofficial capital of the Holy Roman Empire, particularly because Imperial Diet and courts met at Nuremberg Castle. The Diets of Nuremberg were an important part of the structure of the empire. The increasing demand of the court and the increasing importance of the city attracted increased trade. Nuremberg soon became, with Augsburg, one of the two great trade centers on the route from Italy to Northern Europe. In 1298, the Jews of the town were accused of having desecrated the host, behind the massacre of 1298 was also the desire to combine the northern and southern parts of the city, which were divided by the Pegnitz. The Jews of the German lands suffered many massacres during the plague years, in 1349, Nurembergs Jews were subjected to a pogrom. They were burned at the stake or expelled, and a marketplace was built over the former Jewish quarter, the plague returned to the city in 1405,1435,1437,1482,1494,1520 and 1534. Charles was the patron of the Frauenkirche, built between 1352 and 1362, where the Imperial court worshipped during its stays in Nuremberg. Charles IV conferred upon the city the right to conclude alliances independently, frequent fights took place with the burgraves without, however, inflicting lasting damage upon the city. Through these and other acquisitions the city accumulated considerable territory, the Hussite Wars, recurrence of the Black Death in 1437, and the First Margrave War led to a severe fall in population in the mid-15th century. During the Middle Ages, Nurembergs literary culture was rich, varied, the cultural flowering of Nuremberg, in the 15th and 16th centuries, made it the centre of the German Renaissance. In 1525, Nuremberg accepted the Protestant Reformation, and in 1532, during the 1552 revolution against Charles V, Nuremberg tried to purchase its neutrality, but the city was attacked without a declaration of war and was forced into a disadvantageous peace. The state of affairs in the early 16th century, increased trade routes elsewhere, frequent quartering of Imperial, Swedish and League soldiers, the financial costs of the war and the cessation of trade caused irreparable damage to the city and a near-halving of the population. In 1632, the city, occupied by the forces of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, was besieged by the army of Imperial general Albrecht von Wallenstein, the city declined after the war and recovered its importance only in the 19th century, when it grew as an industrial centre
7.
Allied-occupied Germany
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The four powers divided Germany into four occupation zones for administrative purposes, into what is collectively known now as Allied-occupied Germany. This division was ratified at the Potsdam Conference, in Autumn 1944 the United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union had agreed on the zones by the London Protocol. The Final German Peace Treaty would result in the westward of Polands borders back to approximately as they were before 1722. In the closing weeks of fighting in Europe, United States forces had pushed beyond the boundaries for the future zones of occupation. The so-called line of contact between Soviet and American forces at the end of hostilities, mostly lying eastward of the July 1945-established inner German border was temporary. After two months in which they had areas that had been assigned to the Soviet zone. All territories annexed by Germany before the war from Austria and Czechoslovakia were returned to these countries, the Memel Territory, annexed by Germany from Lithuania before the war, was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1945 and transferred to the Lithuanian SSR. All territories annexed by Germany during the war from Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Poland, the American zone consisted of Bavaria and Hesse in Southern Germany, and the northern portions of the present-day German state of Baden-Württemberg. The ports of Bremen and Bremerhaven were also placed under American control because of the American request to have certain toeholds in Northern Germany, the headquarters of the American military government was the former IG Farben Building in Frankfurt am Main. Beginning in May 1945, many of the American combat troops and airmen in, Army, the Army Air Forces, and the U. S. Navy upon their return home. The Canadian Army was tied down in surrounding the Netherlands until the Germans there surrendered on 5 May 1945 – just two days before the surrender of the Wehrmacht in Western Europe to U. S. Then in July 1945, the British Army withdrew from small slices of Germany that had previously agreed to be occupied by the Soviet Army. Within the British Zone of Occupation, the CCG/BE re-established the German state of Hamburg, also in 1947, the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen became an exclave of the American Zone of Occupation located within the British Zone. In 1946, the Norwegian Brigade Group in Germany had 4,000 soldiers in Hanover, despite its being one of the Allied Powers, the French Republic was at first not granted an occupation zone in Germany. This created a French zone of occupation in the westernmost part of Germany and it consisted of two barely contiguous areas of Germany along the French border that met at just a single point along the Rhine River. It included the Saargebiet, which was disentangled from it on 16 February 1946, by 18 December 1946 customs controls were established between the Saar area and allied occupied Germany. The French zone ceded further adjacent municipalities to the Saar, included in the French zone was the town of Büsingen am Hochrhein, a German exclave separated from the rest of the country by a narrow strip of neutral Swiss territory. The Swiss government agreed to limited numbers of French troops to pass through its territory in order to maintain law
8.
Bodewin Keitel
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He was a German officer, at the end of World War II he was General of the Infantry. Bodewin Keitel was born on 25, December 1888 in Helmscherode as the son of landowner Carl Keitel and his wife Apollonia Vissering. 10 and on 22 August 1910, he was promoted to lieutenant, at the beginning of World War I Keitel was platoon leader in the company of Hunter Battalion No.10. He was promoted to lieutenant on 25 February 1915, he was appointed shortly after to company commander. As such, he moved on 18 June 1915 to Brandenburg Rifle Battalion 3, then promoted to captain on 18 December 1917. On 6 November 1918 he became the commander of the III Battalion of the 2nd Thuringian Infantry Regiment, after the end of World War I, he was transferred to the Reichswehr and then transported back to Battalion 10. During the wars aftermath, he took in the period from 21 December 1918 until 12 February 1919 in command of the battalion, on 1 February 1928 Bodewin Keitel was to promoted to major and on 1 October 1932 promoted to lieutenant colonel. On 1 March 1933 he was given command of the III Battalion of Infantry Regiment 2, was promoted to colonel followed by 1 October 1934, with his promotion, he was also appointed Chief of the General Staff of the IX. Army Corps. On 12 October 1937 he was appointed as the Chief of Training Department and is added in the General Staff of the Army, on 28 February 1938 was followed by his promotion to major general appointment as head of the Army Personnel Office. He held this position until 1 October 1942, on 1 April 1940 Keitel received his promotion to lieutenant-general and one year later the General of Infantry. In the period from 1 October 1942 to 28 February 1943 and his successor in the Army Personnel Office was Rudolf Schmundt. On March 1,1943 Keitel was appointed commanding general of the Deputy Commanding General XX Army Corps, on the day of the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler Keitel was on an inspection tour in his command area. As first general officer, Keitel took Boehmer from the Berlin Bendlerblock. On 1 December 1944 Bodewin Keitel was moved into the Führerreserve of the Army High Command, on 3 May 1945 he became a U. S. prisoner of war, then dismissed on 17 April 1947. German Cross in Silver on 2 October 1942 as Generalleutnant in the OKH/Chief of HPA Deutsches Geschlechterbuch, hans-Joachim Keitel, Geschichte der Familie Keitel. In, Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Günter Scheel, Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon,19, hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 1996, ISBN 3-7752-5838-8, S.315
9.
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
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The Knights Cross of the Iron Cross, or simply the Knights Cross, and its variants were the highest awards in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II. Presentations were made to members of the three branches of the Wehrmacht, as well as the Waffen-SS, the Reichsarbeitsdienst and the Volkssturm. The award was instituted on 1 September 1939, at the onset of the German invasion of Poland, a higher grade, the Oak Leaves to the Knights Cross, was instituted in 1940. In 1941, two grades of the Knights Cross with Oak Leaves were instituted, the Knights Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. At the end of 1944 the final grade, the Knights Cross with Golden Oak Leaves, over 7,000 awards were made since its first presentation on 30 September 1939. Analysis of the German Federal Archives revealed evidence for 7,161 officially bestowed recipients, the German Federal Archives substantiate 863 awards of the Oak Leaves to the Knights Cross, along with the 147 Swords and 27 Diamonds awards. The Golden Oak Leaves to the Knights Cross was verifiably awarded only once, the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm III established the Iron Cross at the beginning of the German campaign as part of the Napoleonic Wars. The design was a silver-framed cast iron cross on 13 March 1813, Iron was a material which symbolised defiance and reflected the spirit of the age. The Prussian state had mounted a campaign steeped in patriotic rhetoric to rally their citizens to repulse the French occupation. To finance the army, the king implored wealthy Prussians to turn in their jewels in exchange for a mens cast-iron ring or a brooch, each bearing the legend Gold I gave for iron. With the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939, a new grade of the Iron Cross series was introduced, the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross. The Knights Cross of the Iron Cross, without distinction, was awarded to officers and soldiers alike, conforming with the National Socialist slogan, One people, one nation, the renewal for the first time had created an honorary sign of the entire German state. The Knights Cross of the Iron Cross instituted on 1 September 1939 and its appearance was very similar to the Iron Cross. Its shape was that of a cross pattée, a cross that has arms which are narrow at the center and broader at the perimeter, the most common Knights Crosses were produced by the manufacturer Steinhauer & Lück in Lüdenscheid. The Steinhauer & Lück crosses are stamped with the digits 800, indicating 800 grade silver, the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves was instituted on of 3 June 1940. Before the introduction of the Oak Leaves only 124 members of the Wehrmacht had received the Knights Cross, prior to Case Yellow, the attack on the Netherlands, Belgium and France, just 52 Knights Crosses had been awarded. In May 1940 the number of presentations peaked, the timing for the introduction of the Oak Leaves is closely linked to Case Red, the second and decisive phase of the Battle of France. Like the Knights Cross to which it was added, the Oak Leaves clasp could be awarded for leadership, the Oak Leaves, just like the 1813 Iron Cross and Grand Cross of the Iron Cross, was not a National Socialist invention
10.
Weimar Republic
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Weimar Republic is an unofficial, historical designation for the German state between 1919 and 1933. The name derives from the city of Weimar, where its constitutional assembly first took place, the official name of the state was still Deutsches Reich, it had remained unchanged since 1871. In English the country was known simply as Germany. A national assembly was convened in Weimar, where a new constitution for the Deutsches Reich was written, in its fourteen years, the Weimar Republic faced numerous problems, including hyperinflation, political extremism, and contentious relationships with the victors of the First World War. The people of Germany blamed the Weimar Republic rather than their leaders for the countrys defeat. However, the Weimar Republic government successfully reformed the currency, unified tax policies, Weimar Germany eliminated most of the requirements of the Treaty of Versailles, it never completely met its disarmament requirements, and eventually paid only a small portion of the war reparations. Under the Locarno Treaties, Germany accepted the borders of the republic. From 1930 onwards President Hindenburg used emergency powers to back Chancellors Heinrich Brüning, Franz von Papen, the Great Depression, exacerbated by Brünings policy of deflation, led to a surge in unemployment. In 1933, Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor with the Nazi Party being part of a coalition government, the Nazis held two out of the remaining ten cabinet seats. Von Papen as Vice Chancellor was intended to be the éminence grise who would keep Hitler under control, within months the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act of 1933 had brought about a state of emergency, it wiped out constitutional governance and civil liberties. Hitlers seizure of power was permissive of government by decree without legislative participation and these events brought the republic to an end, as democracy collapsed, a single-party state founded the Nazi era. The Weimar Republic is so called because the assembly that adopted its constitution met at Weimar, Germany from 6 February 1919 to 11 August 1919, but this name only became mainstream after 1933. To the right of the spectrum the politically engaged rejected the new democratic model, the Catholic Centre party, Zentrum favoured the term Deutscher Volksstaat while on the moderate left the Chancellors SPD preferred Deutsche Republik. Only during the 1930s did the term become mainstream, both within and outside Germany, after the introduction of the republic, the flag and coat of arms of Germany were officially altered to reflect the political changes. The Weimar Republic retained the Reichsadler, but without the symbols of the former Monarchy and this left the black eagle with one head, facing to the right, with open wings but closed feathers, with a red beak, tongue and claws and white highlighting. If the Reichs Eagle is shown without a frame, the charge and colors as those of the eagle of the Reichs coat of arms are to be used. The patterns kept by the Federal Ministry of the Interior are decisive for the heraldic design, the artistic design may be varied for each special purpose. The achievements and signs of movement were mostly done away with after its downfall
11.
Wehrmacht
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The Wehrmacht was the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1946. It consisted of the Heer, the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe, after the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, one of Adolf Hitler’s most overt and audacious moves was to establish the Wehrmacht, a modern armed forces fully capable of offensive use. In December 1941, Hitler designated himself as commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht, the Wehrmacht formed the heart of Germany’s politico-military power. In the early part of World War II, Hitlers generals employed the Wehrmacht through innovative combined arms tactics to devastating effect in what was called a Blitzkrieg, the Wehrmachts new military structure, unique combat techniques, newly developed weapons, and unprecedented speed and brutality crushed their opponents. Closely cooperating with the SS, the German armed forces committed war crimes and atrocities. By the time the war ended in Europe in May 1945, only a few of the Wehrmacht’s upper leadership were tried for war crimes, despite evidence suggesting that more were involved in illegal actions. The German term Wehrmacht generically describes any nations armed forces, for example, the Frankfurt Constitution of 1848 designated all German military forces as the German Wehrmacht, consisting of the Seemacht and the Landmacht. In 1919, the term Wehrmacht also appears in Article 47 of the Weimar Constitution, establishing that, from 1919, Germanys national defense force was known as the Reichswehr, a name that was dropped in favor of Wehrmacht on 21 May 1935. In January 1919, after World War I ended with the signing of the armistice of 11 November 1918, in March 1919, the national assembly passed a law founding a 420, 000-strong preliminary army, the Vorläufige Reichswehr. The terms of the Treaty of Versailles were announced in May, the army was limited to one hundred thousand men with an additional fifteen thousand in the navy. The fleet was to consist of at most six battleships, six cruisers, submarines, tanks and heavy artillery were forbidden and the air-force was dissolved. A new post-war military, the Reichswehr, was established on 23 March 1921, General conscription was abolished under another mandate of the Versailles treaty. The Reichswehr was limited to 115,000 men, and thus the armed forces, under the leadership of Hans von Seeckt, though Seeckt retired in 1926, the army that went to war in 1939 was largely his creation. Germany was forbidden to have an air-force by the Versailles treaty, nonetheless and these officers saw the role of an air-force as winning air-superiority, tactical and strategic bombing and providing ground support. That the Luftwaffe did not develop a strategic bombing force in the 1930s was not due to a lack of interest, but because of economic limitations. The leadership of the Navy led by Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, officers who believed in submarine warfare led by Admiral Karl Dönitz were in a minority before 1939. By 1922, Germany had begun covertly circumventing the conditions of the Versailles Treaty, a secret collaboration with the Soviet Union began after the treaty of Rapallo. Major-General Otto Hasse traveled to Moscow in 1923 to further negotiate the terms, Germany helped the Soviet Union with industrialization and Soviet officers were to be trained in Germany
12.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
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World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
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Field marshal
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Field marshal is a very senior military rank, ordinarily senior to the general officer ranks. Usually it is the highest rank in an army, and when it is and it is considered as a five-star rank in modern-day armed forces in many countries. The origin of the dates to the early Middle Ages, originally meaning the keeper of the kings horses. Promotion to the rank of marshal in many countries historically required extraordinary military achievement by a general. However, the rank has also used as a divisional command rank. The traditional attribute distinguishing a field marshal is a baton, the baton nowadays is purely ornamental, and as such may be richly decorated. That said, it is not necessary for the insignia to be a baton, the exact wording of the titles used by field marshals varies, examples include marshal and field marshal general. The air force equivalent in Commonwealth and many Middle Eastern air forces is marshal of the air force. Navies, which usually do not use the nomenclature employed by armies or air forces, use titles such as fleet admiral, Field marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim was a politician in Afghanistan who served as Vice President from June 2002 until December 2004 and from November 2009 until his death. Between September 2001 and December 2004, he served as Defense Minister under the Afghan Transitional Administration. As military commander of the Northern Alliance, Fahim captured the Afghan capital Kabul in the fall of 2001 from the Taliban government, in 2004 President Hamid Karzai provided Fahim the honorary title Marshal and a year later he became member of the House of Elders. He later became a recipient of the Ahmad Shah Baba Medal, Fahim was a member of Afghanistans Tajik ethnic group. He was affiliated with the Jamiat Islami party of Afghanistan, Sir Thomas Blamey was the first and is the only Australian-born field marshal. He was promoted to the rank on the insistence of the Australian prime minister, Sir Robert Menzies, Blamey was, at the time of his promotion, seriously ill and mostly bed-ridden in the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital. He was presented with his marshals baton at a ceremony held in the sunroom at the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital by the Governor-General of Australia. Blameys field marshals baton is on display in the Second World War galleries at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Currently, the only Australian field marshal is HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, during Imperial rule in China, different dynasty gave different titles to generals. A very similar title is 司馬 in Eastern Han dynasty, which means master of horse
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War crimes
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A war crime is an act that constitutes a serious violation of the law of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility. The concept of war crimes emerged at the turn of the century when the body of customary international law applicable to warfare between sovereign states was codified. Moreover, trials in national courts during this period further helped clarify the law, following the end of World War II, major developments in the law occurred. Numerous trials of Axis war criminals established the Nuremberg principles, such as notion that war crimes constituted crimes defined by international law, additionally, the Geneva Conventions in 1949 defined new war crimes and established that states could exercise universal jurisdiction over such crimes. The trial of Peter von Hagenbach by an ad hoc tribunal of the Holy Roman Empire in 1474 was the first international war crimes trial, and also of command responsibility. He was convicted and beheaded for crimes that he as a knight was deemed to have a duty to prevent, although he had argued that he was only following orders. In 1654 a Major Connaught was tried at Chester Assizes and hanged for his part in the massacre of villagers in the church at the village of Boughton, twelve villagers were smoked out, stripped naked and had their throats cut. He was hanged at the scene of the crime having been convicted of striking a blow to the head of John Fowler with an axe. The Geneva Conventions are four related treaties adopted and continuously expanded from 1864 to 1949 that represent a legal basis, accordingly, states retain different codes and values with regard to wartime conduct. Some signatories have routinely violated the Geneva Conventions in a way which either uses the ambiguities of law or political maneuvering to sidestep the laws formalities and principles. Three conventions were revised and expanded with the one added in 1949, First Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded. Second Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick, third Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, Protocol II relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts. Protocol III relating to the Adoption of an Additional Distinctive Emblem, a small number of German military personnel of the First World War were tried in 1921 by the German Supreme Court for alleged war crimes. The modern concept of war crime was further developed under the auspices of the Nuremberg Trials based on the definition in the London Charter that was published on August 8,1945. Along with war crimes the charter also defined crimes against peace and crimes against humanity, on July 1,2002, the International Criminal Court, a treaty-based court located in The Hague, came into being for the prosecution of war crimes committed on or after that date. Several nations, most notably the United States, China, Russia, the United States still participates as an observer. Article 12 of the Rome Statute provides jurisdiction over the citizens of non-contracting states in the event that they are accused of committing crimes in the territory of one of the state parties
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Crimes against humanity
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The first prosecution for crimes against humanity took place at the Nuremberg trials. The law of crimes against humanity has developed through the evolution of customary international law. Crimes against humanity are not codified in a convention, although there is currently an international effort to establish such a treaty. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during peace or war and they are not isolated or sporadic events, but are part either of a government policy or of a wide practice of atrocities tolerated or condoned by a government or a de facto authority. The term crimes against humanity is potentially ambiguous because of the ambiguity of the word humanity, the history of the term shows that the latter sense is intended. The term crimes against humanity was used by George Washington Williams, in a pamphlet published in 1890, the preamble of the two Conventions referenced the “laws of humanity” as an expression of underlying inarticulated humanistic values. The term is part of what is known as the Martens Clause, on May 24,1915, the Allied Powers, Britain, France, and Russia, jointly issued a statement explicitly charging for the first time ever another government of committing a crime against humanity. At the conclusion of the war, a war crimes commission recommended the creation of a tribunal to try violations of the laws of humanity. However, the US representative objected to references to law of humanity as being imprecise and insufficiently developed at that time, the drafters of this document were faced with the problem of how to respond to the Holocaust and grave crimes committed by the Nazi regime. A traditional understanding of war crimes gave no provision for crimes committed by a power on its own citizens, the legal basis for the trial was established by the Charter of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East that was proclaimed on 19 January 1946. The tribunal convened on May 3,1946, and was adjourned on November 12,1948, in the Tokyo Trial, Crimes against Humanity was not applied for any suspect. This was because the values of lives of Asian civilians were considered to be less than the lives of Caucasian or Jewish civilians. Prosecutions related to the Nanking Massacre were categorised as infringements upon the Laws of War, War crimes charges against more junior personnel were dealt with separately, in other cities throughout Far East Asia, such as the Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal and the Khabarovsk War Crimes Trials. A panel of eleven judges presided over the IMTFE, one each from victorious Allied powers, the different types of crimes which may constitute crimes against humanity differs between definitions both internationally and on the domestic level. The Charter of the United Nations makes actions of the General Assembly advisory to the Security Council, in regard to apartheid in particular, the UN General Assembly has not made any findings, nor have apartheid-related trials for crimes against humanity been conducted. The statutes of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, there are eleven international texts defining crimes against humanity, but they all differ slightly as to their definition of that crime and its legal elements. In 2008, the Crimes Against Humanity Initiative was launched to address this gap in international law, the Initiative represents the first concerted effort to address the gap that exists in international criminal law by enumerating a comprehensive international convention on crimes against humanity. On July 30,2013, the United Nations International Law Commission voted to include the topic of crimes against humanity in its program of work
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International Military Tribunal
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The trials were held in the city of Nuremberg, Germany, and their decisions marked a turning point between classical international law and contemporary international law. Not included were Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and Joseph Goebbels, all of whom had committed suicide in the spring of 1945, reinhard Heydrich was not included, as he had been assassinated in 1942. The second set of trials of war criminals was conducted under Control Council Law No.10 at the U. S. Nuremberg Military Tribunals, which included the Doctors Trial. This article primarily deals with the IMT, see Subsequent Nuremberg Trials for details on the NMT, at the beginning of 1940, the Polish government-in-exile asked the British and French governments to condemn the German invasion of their country. The British initially declined to do so, however, in April 1940, three-and-a-half years later, the stated intention to punish the Germans was much more trenchant. In order that justice may be done and this intention by the Allies to dispense justice was reiterated at the Yalta Conference and at Berlin in 1945. British War Cabinet documents, released on 2 January 2006, showed that as early as December 1944 the Cabinet had discussed their policy for the punishment of the leading Nazis if captured. In late 1943, during the Tripartite Dinner Meeting at the Tehran Conference, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt joked that perhaps 49,000 would do. Churchill was vigorously opposed to executions for political purposes, US Secretary of the Treasury, suggested a plan for the total denazification of Germany, this was known as the Morgenthau Plan. The plan advocated the forced de-industrialisation of Germany and the execution of so-called arch-criminals. Roosevelt initially supported this plan, and managed to convince Churchill to support it in a less drastic form, later, details were leaked generating widespread condemnation by the nations newspapers. Roosevelt, aware of public disapproval, abandoned the plan. The demise of the Morgenthau Plan created the need for a method of dealing with the Nazi leadership. The plan for the Trial of European War Criminals was drafted by Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, following Roosevelts death in April 1945, the new president, Harry S. Truman, gave strong approval for a judicial process. After a series of negotiations between Britain, the US, Soviet Union and France, details of the trial were worked out, the trials were to commence on 20 November 1945, in the Bavarian city of Nuremberg. On 20 April 1942, representatives from the nine countries occupied by Germany met in London to draft the Inter-Allied Resolution on German War Crimes, France was also awarded a place on the tribunal. The legal basis for the jurisdiction of the court was that defined by the Instrument of Surrender of Germany. Because the court was limited to violations of the laws of war, leipzig and Luxembourg were briefly considered as the location for the trial
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Duchy of Brunswick
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The Duchy of Brunswick was a historical German state. Its capital was the city of Brunswick and it was established as the successor state of the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. In the course of the 19th-century history of Germany, the duchy was part of the German Confederation and it was disestablished after the end of World War I, its territory incorporated into the Weimar Republic as the Free State of Brunswick. The title Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg was held, from 1235 on and these holdings did not have all of the formal characteristics of a modern unitary state, being neither compact nor indivisible. The unifying element of all territories was that they were ruled by male-line descendants of Duke Otto I. After several early divisions, Brunswick-Lüneburg re-unified under Duke Magnus II, following his death, his three sons jointly ruled the Duchy. After the murder of their brother Frederick I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, brothers Bernard and Henry redivided the land, received the southern half of Brunswick-Lüneburg as Prince of Wolfenbüttel while his brother John became Prince of Lüneburg. Wolfenbüttel fell to his brother Albert II, Otto the Mild 1318–1344, son of Albert II, was Prince of Wolfenbüttel and Prince of Göttingen. After his death his son Ernest became Prince of Göttingen 1344–1367, Magnus the Pious became Prince of Wolfenbüttel 1344–1369. Magnus son Magnus II with the Necklace, Prince of Wolfenbüttel 1369–1373, the War of the Lüneburg Succession continued until 1388. Frederick 1373–1400, son of Magnus II, conquered Lüneburg in 1388, succeeded by his brothers, Henry the Mild, 1400–1408 Bernard, 1409–1428. Returned control of Wolfenbüttel to his nephew, Henrys son, was deprived by his brother, Henry the Peaceful 1432–1473, moved the residence to Wolfenbüttel. William regained control of Wolfenbüttel after his brothers death, and left the Principality to his two sons, Frederick III 1482–1484, imprisoned and deprived of power by his younger brother, William IV 1484–1491. Took control of all of Wolfenbüttel, then ceded Wolfenbüttel to his sons, co-rulers, sons of William IV, Eric I 1491–1494. Divided the territory in 1494, taking Calenberg, sole ruler in Wolfenbüttel from 1494. Acquired Calenberg in 1584 on the death of his cousin Eric II, last of the male descendants of Albert the Tall. On Frederick Ulrichs death, his complex of territories passed to a line of distant cousins ruling in Lüneburg, Wolfenbüttel was eventually awarded to Augustus, son of Henry of Dannenberg. Augustus 1635–1666 Augustuss sons succeeded him, sometimes ruling together, Rudolph Augustus 1666–1704 Anthony Ulrich 1685–1702, deposed 1702–1704 for allying with France in the War of the Spanish Succession
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Gymnasium (Germany)
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Gymnasium, in the German education system, is the most advanced of the three types of German secondary schools, the others being Realschule and Hauptschule. Gymnasium strongly emphasizes academic learning, comparable to the British grammar school system or with prep schools in the United States, a student attending gymnasium is called a Gymnasiast. In 2009/10 there were 3,094 gymnasia in Germany, with c. 2,475,000 students, Gymnasia are generally public, state-funded schools, but a number of parochial and private gymnasia also exist. In 2009/10,11.1 percent of students attended a private gymnasium. These often charge fees, though many also offer scholarships. Tuition fees are lower than in comparable European countries, some gymnasia are boarding schools, while others run as day schools, they are now predominantly co-educational, and few single-sex schools remain. Students are admitted at 10 or 13 years of age and are required to have completed four to six years of Grundschule, traditionally, a pupil attended gymnasium for nine years in western Germany, or eight in eastern Germany. Final year students take the Abitur final exam, the Abitur is not comparable to the SAT in the United States, it tests material learned in high school across a wider spectrum than the SAT. Most gymnasia hold a meeting at least once a year. People unfamiliar with the German system sometimes wrongly assume that only those graduating from a gymnasium are admitted to university in Germany, although this is normally the case, it is not always true. There are several ways to earn the Abitur, and there are 50 ways to enter higher education in Germany. In 2008 in some states, less than half of university freshmen had graduated from a gymnasium, even in Bavaria only 56 percent of freshmen had graduated from a gymnasium. However, in cases, it is easier to be accepted by an institution of higher education if one has graduated from a gymnasium. For example, many universities require students who want to study subjects, such as medicine, to hold the Latinum. Gymnasium students can be awarded the Latinum by their school, Students attending other schools often dont have that chance, however, they can take a Latin exam, which if passed, allows the student to be awarded a Latinum. This requires extra initiative, however, because many schools do not offer Latin. Indeed, it is by far the one in the PISA league table. However some hold the opinion that this comes at the cost of a catastrophe in the Hauptschulen The gymnasium arose out of the humanistic movement of the sixteenth century
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Prussian Army
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The Royal Prussian Army served as the army of the Kingdom of Prussia. It became vital to the development of Brandenburg-Prussia as a European power, the Prussian Army had its roots in the core mercenary forces of Brandenburg during the Thirty Years War of 1618-1648. Elector Frederick William developed it into a standing army, while King Frederick William I of Prussia dramatically increased its size. The army had become outdated by the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars, conservatives halted some of the reforms, however, and the Prussian Army subsequently became a bulwark of the conservative Prussian government. In the 19th century the Prussian Army fought successful wars against Denmark, Austria and France, allowing Prussia to unify Germany, the Prussian Army formed the core of the Imperial German Army, which was replaced by the Reichswehr after World War I. The army of Prussia grew out of the armed forces created during the reign of Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg. Hohenzollern Brandenburg-Prussia had primarily relied upon Landsknecht mercenaries during the Thirty Years War, Swedish and Imperial forces occupied the country. In the spring of 1644, Frederick William started building an army through conscription to better defend his state. By 1643–44, the army numbered only 5,500 troops. The electors confidant Johann von Norprath recruited forces in the Duchy of Cleves and organized an army of 3,000 Dutch, garrisons were also slowly augmented in Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia. Frederick William sought assistance from France, the rival of Habsburg Austria. He based his reforms on those of Louvois, the War Minister of King Louis XIV of France, the growth of his army allowed Frederick William to achieve considerable territorial acquisitions in the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, despite Brandenburgs relative lack of success during the war. The provincial estates desired a reduction in the size during peacetime. In the 1653 Brandenburg Recess between Frederick William and the estates of Brandenburg, the nobility provided the sovereign with 530,000 thalers in return for affirmation of their privileges, the Junkers thus cemented their political power at the expense of the peasantry. Once the elector and his army were strong enough, Frederick William was able to suppress the estates of Cleves, Mark, Frederick William attempted to professionalize his soldiers during a time when mercenaries were the norm. Acts of violence by officers against civilians resulted in decommission for a year, Field Marshals of Brandenburg-Prussia included Derfflinger, John George II, Spaen and Sparr. The electors troops traditionally were organized into disconnected provincial forces, in 1655, Frederick William began the unification of the various detachments by placing them under the overall command of Sparr. Unification also increased through the appointment of Generalkriegskommissar Platen as head of supplies and these measures decreased the authority of the largely mercenary colonels who had been so prominent during the Thirty Years War
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Commoner
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The terms common people, common man, commoners, or the masses denote a broad social division referring to ordinary people who are members of neither royalty nor nobility nor the priesthood. Since the 20th century, the common people has been used in a more general sense to refer to typical members of society in contrast to highly privileged. In Europe, a concept analogous to common people arose in the Classical civilization of ancient Rome around the 6th century BC. The division may have been instituted by Servius Tullius, as an alternative to the clan based divisions that had been responsible for internecine conflict. The ancient Greeks generally had no concept of class and their leading social divisions were simply non-Greeks, free-Greeks, with the growth of Christianity in the 4th century AD, a new world view arose that would underpin European thinking on social division until at least early modern times. Saint Augustine postulated that social division was a result of the Fall of Man, the three leading divisions were considered to be the priesthood, the nobility, and the common people. Sometimes this would be expressed as those who prayed, those who fought, the Latin terms for the three classes – oratores, bellatores and laboratores – are often found even in modern textbooks, and have been used in sources since the 9th century. This threefold division was formalised in the system of social stratification. They were the third of the Three Estates of the Realm in medieval Europe, consisting of peasants, social mobility for commoners was limited throughout the Middle Ages. Generally, the serfs were unable to enter the group of the bellatores, commoners could sometimes secure entry for their children into the oratores class, usually they would serve as rural parish priests. There were cases of serfs becoming clerics in the Holy Roman Empire, though from the Carolingian era, of the two thousand bishops serving from the 8th to the 15th century, just five came from the peasantry. Up until the late 15th-century European social order was relatively stable, there were periods where the common people felt oppressed in certain regions, but often they were content with their lot. The social and political order of medieval Europe was shaken by the development of the cannon in the 15th century. Up until that time a noble with a force could hold their castle or walled town for years even against large armies -. Once effective cannons were available, walls were of far less defensive value and this change of orientation among the nobles left the common people less content with their place in society. A similar trend occurred regarding the clergy, where many priests began to abuse the power they had due to the sacrament of contrition. An early major social upheaval driven in part by the common peoples mistrust of both the nobility and clergy occurred in Great Britain with the English Revolution of 1642, after the forces of Oliver Cromwell triumphed, movements like the Levellers rose to prominence demanding equality for all. According to historian Roger Osbourne, the Colonels speech was the first time a prominent person spoke in favour of male suffrage
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Cavalry
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Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the most mobile of the combat arms, an individual soldier in the cavalry is known by a number of designations such as cavalryman, horseman, dragoon or trooper. The designation of cavalry was not usually given to any military forces that used animals, such as camels. Cavalry had the advantage of improved mobility, and a man fighting from horseback also had the advantages of greater height, speed, another element of horse mounted warfare is the psychological impact a mounted soldier can inflict on an opponent. In Europe cavalry became increasingly armoured, and eventually became known for the mounted knights, in the period between the World Wars, many cavalry units were converted into motorized infantry and mechanized infantry units, or reformed as tank troops. Most cavalry units that are horse-mounted in modern armies serve in purely ceremonial roles, modern usage of the term generally refers to specialist units equipped with tanks or aircraft. The shock role, traditionally filled by heavy cavalry, is filled by units with the armored designation. Before the Iron Age, the role of cavalry on the battlefield was largely performed by light chariots, the chariot originated with the Sintashta-Petrovka culture in Central Asia and spread by nomadic or semi-nomadic Indo-Iranians. The power of mobility given by mounted units was recognized early on, Cavalry techniques were an innovation of equestrian nomads of the Central Asian and Iranian steppe and pastoralist tribes such as the Persian Parthians and Sarmatians. The photograph above left shows Assyrian cavalry from reliefs of 865–860 BC, at this time, the men had no spurs, saddles, saddle cloths, or stirrups. Fighting from the back of a horse was more difficult than mere riding. The cavalry acted in pairs, the reins of the archer were controlled by his neighbours hand. Even at this time, cavalry used swords, shields. The sculpture implies two types of cavalry, but this might be a simplification by the artist, Later images of Assyrian cavalry show saddle cloths as primitive saddles, allowing each archer to control his own horse. As early as 490 BC a breed of horses was bred in the Nisaean plain in Media to carry men with increasing amounts of armour. However, chariots remained in use for purposes such as carrying the victorious general in a Roman triumph. The southern Britons met Julius Caesar with chariots in 55 and 54 BC, the last mention of chariot use in battle was by the Caledonians at the Mons Graupius, in 84 AD. During the classical Greek period cavalry were usually limited to citizens who could afford expensive war-horses
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Adjutant
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Adjutant is a military rank or appointment. An adjutant general is commander of an armys administrative services, Adjutant comes from the Latin adjutans, present participle of the verb adjuvare, to help, the Romans actually used adiutor for the noun. In various uniformed hierarchies, the term is used for number of functions, a regimental adjutant, garrison adjutant etc. is a staff officer, who assists the commanding officer of a regiment, battalion or garrison in the details of regimental, garrison or similar duty. In United States Army squadrons, the adjutant is often the officer-in-charge of the administrative platoon, in the British Army, an Adjutant is usually a senior captain. Until the 1970s the adjutant was also the operations officer. In the British Army adjutants are given field rank and as such are senior by appointment to all other captains, unlike the RAO, the adjutant is a member of the corps or regiment of which their unit is a part. The adjutants job is not solely a backroom one, since he usually accompanies the colonel - Captain David Wood, normally, in a British Infantry battalion, the adjutant controls the battle whilst the CO commands it. As such, the adjutant is usually a man of significant influence within his battalion, in the Foot Guards, the adjutant of the unit in charge of Trooping the Colour is one of three officers on horseback. In many Commonwealth armies, the adjutant performs much the role as in the British Army. There is no RAO position within the Australian Army, where an adjutant performs the role with the assistance of a Chief Clerk. In the US Army, historically the adjutant was generally a member of the branch or regiment of the parent unit. The adjutant general at the battalion-level is generally a captain or senior first lieutenant and, in conjunction with the S-1 section. There is a call announcing the adjutant that is still used in military ceremonies today. In the USMC, the adjutant serves as the administrator for their unit. Per the USMC MOS handbook, Adjutants coordinate administrative matters for Marine Corps staff sections and they ensure that every Marine in their command has administrative resources both for day-to-day tasks and long-term career progression. Adjutants supervise the execution of administrative policies and they receive and route correspondence, preparing responses to any special correspondence. They also manage their units legal matters and monitor fitness reports, in some armies, adjutant is a rank similar to a commonwealth staff sergeant or warrant officer. In the Belgian Army and Luxembourg Army, the ranks are Adjudant, Adjudant-Chef, in Dutch, they are collectively known as Keuronderofficier
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Province of Hanover
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The Province of Hanover was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1868 to 1946. During the Austro-Prussian War, the Kingdom of Hanover had attempted to maintain a neutral position, the private wealth of the dethroned House of Hanover was then used by Otto von Bismarck to finance his continuing efforts against Ludwig II of Bavaria. Hanover was subdivided into six regions first called Landdrostei, which were reorganised into Prussian standard Regierungsbezirke on 1 April 1885, 1) Aurich 2) Osnabrück 3) Stade 4) Lüneburg 5) Hildesheim 6) Hanover The Regierungsbezirke were subdivided into new urban and rural counties, the old Amt structure being disbanded. Stade Verden Wesermünde Zeven The heads of the provinces, appointed by the central Prussian government, were called Oberpräsident, the provincial executive, the Landesdirektor, was elected by the provincial parliament
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Waffen-SS
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The Waffen-SS was the armed wing of the Nazi Partys SS organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with volunteers, the Waffen-SS grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions during World War II, and served alongside the Heer, Ordnungspolizei and other security units. Prior to the war, it was under the control of the SS Führungshauptamt beneath Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, initially, in keeping with the racial policy of Nazi Germany, membership was only open to people of Germanic origin. The rules were relaxed in 1940, and later the formation of units composed largely or solely of foreign volunteers. These SS units were made up of men mainly from among the nationals of Nazi-occupied Europe, despite relaxation of the rules, the Waffen-SS was still based on the racist ideology of Nazism, and ethnic Poles were barred specifically from the formations. At the post-war Nuremberg trials the Waffen-SS was judged to be a criminal organisation due to its connection to the Nazi Party, former Waffen-SS members were denied many of the rights afforded to the military veterans. An exception was made for Waffen-SS conscripts, who were exempted because they were not volunteers, about a third of the total membership were conscripts. The origins of the Waffen-SS can be traced back to the selection of a group of 120 SS men in March 1933 by Sepp Dietrich to form the Sonderkommando Berlin. By November 1933 the formation had 800 men, and at a ceremony in Munich for the tenth anniversary of the failed Munich Putsch the regiment swore allegiance to Adolf Hitler. The oaths pledged were Pledging loyalty to him alone and Obedience unto death, the formation was given the title Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler. On 13 April 1934, by order of Himmler, the regiment became known as the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, led by one of Hitlers oldest comrades, Ernst Röhm, the SA was seen as a threat by Hitler to his newly gained political power. Hitler also wanted to conciliate leaders of the Reichswehr and conservatives of the country, when Hitler decided to act against the SA, the SS was put in charge of eliminating Röhm and the other high-ranking SA officers. The Night of the Long Knives occurred between 30 June and 2 July 1934 and saw the killing of up to 200 people and this included almost the entire SA leadership, effectively ending its power. This action was carried out by SS personnel, and the Gestapo. In September 1934, Hitler authorized the formation of the wing of the Nazi Party and approved the formation of the SS-Verfügungstruppe. The SS was given the lowest priority for recruits, at the same time Himmler established the SS-Junkerschule Bad Tölz and SS-Junkerschule Braunschweig for military training of SS officers. Both schools used regular army training methods and mainly used former army officers as instructors, Himmler initially in 1934 set stringent requirements for recruits. They were to be German nationals who could prove their Aryan ancestry back to 1800, unmarried, a four-year commitment was required for the SS-VT and LSSAH
26.
Western Front (World War I)
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The Western Front or Western Theater was the main theatre of war during World War I. Following the outbreak of war in August 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by invading Luxembourg and Belgium, the tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne. Following the Race to the Sea, both sides dug in along a line of fortified trenches, stretching from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier with France. This line remained unchanged for most of the war. Between 1915 and 1917 there were several major offensives along this front, the attacks employed massive artillery bombardments and massed infantry advances. However, a combination of entrenchments, machine gun emplacements, barbed wire, as a result, no significant advances were made. In an effort to break the deadlock, this front saw the introduction of new technology, including poison gas, aircraft. But it was only after the adoption of improved tactics that some degree of mobility was restored, the German Armys Spring Offensive of 1918 was made possible by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that marked the end of the conflict on the Eastern Front. In spite of the stagnant nature of this front, this theatre would prove decisive. The terms of peace were agreed upon with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, belgiums neutrality was guaranteed by Britain under the 1839 Treaty of London, this caused Britain to join the war at the expiration of its ultimatum at 11 pm GMT on 4 August. Armies under German generals Alexander von Kluck and Karl von Bülow attacked Belgium on 4 August 1914, Luxembourg had been occupied without opposition on 2 August. The first battle in Belgium was the Siege of Liège, which lasted from 5–16 August, Liège was well fortified and surprised the German Army under von Bülow with its level of resistance. German heavy artillery was able to demolish the main forts within a few days. Following the fall of Liège, most of the Belgian field army retreated to Antwerp, leaving the garrison of Namur isolated, with the Belgian capital, Brussels, although the German army bypassed Antwerp, it remained a threat to their flank. Another siege followed at Namur, lasting from about 20–23 August, for their part, the French had five armies deployed on their borders. The pre-war French offensive plan, Plan XVII, was intended to capture Alsace-Lorraine following the outbreak of hostilities, on 7 August the VII Corps attacked Alsace with its objectives being to capture Mulhouse and Colmar. The main offensive was launched on 14 August with 1st and 2nd Armies attacking toward Sarrebourg-Morhange in Lorraine, in keeping with the Schlieffen Plan, the Germans withdrew slowly while inflicting severe losses upon the French. The French advanced the 3rd and 4th Armies toward the Saar River and attempted to capture Saarburg, attacking Briey and Neufchateau, before being driven back
27.
Flanders
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Flanders is the Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium, although there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, language, politics and history. It is one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium, the demonym associated with Flanders is Fleming, while the corresponding adjective is Flemish. The official capital of Flanders is Brussels, although Brussels itself has an independent regional government, in historical contexts, Flanders originally refers to the County of Flanders, which around AD1000 stretched from the Strait of Dover to the Scheldt estuary. In accordance with late 20th century Belgian state reforms the area was made two political entities, the Flemish Community and the Flemish Region. These entities were merged, although geographically the Flemish Community, which has a cultural mandate, covers Brussels. Flanders has figured prominently in European history, as a consequence, a very sophisticated culture developed, with impressive achievements in the arts and architecture, rivaling those of northern Italy. Belgium was one of the centres of the 19th century industrial revolution, geographically, Flanders is generally flat, and has a small section of coast on the North Sea. Much of Flanders is agriculturally fertile and densely populated, with a density of almost 500 people per square kilometer. It touches France to the west near the coast, and borders the Netherlands to the north and east, the Brussels Capital Region is an enclave within the Flemish Region. Flanders has exclaves of its own, Voeren in the east is between Wallonia and the Netherlands and Baarle-Hertog in the consists of 22 exclaves surrounded by the Netherlands. It comprises 6.5 million Belgians who consider Dutch to be their mother tongue, the political subdivisions of Belgium, the Flemish Region and the Flemish Community. The first does not comprise Brussels, whereas the latter does comprise the Dutch-speaking inhabitants of Brussels, the political institutions that govern both subdivisions, the operative body Flemish Government and the legislative organ Flemish Parliament. The two westernmost provinces of the Flemish Region, West Flanders and East Flanders, forming the central portion of the historic County of Flanders, a feudal territory that existed from the 8th century until its absorption by the French First Republic. Until the 1600s, this county also extended over parts of France, one of the regions conquered by the French in Flanders, namely French Flanders in the Nord department. French Flanders can be divided into two regions, Walloon Flanders and Maritime Flanders. The first region was predominantly French-speaking already in the 1600s, the latter became so in the 20th century, the city of Lille identifies itself as Flemish, and this is reflected, for instance, in the name of its local railway station TGV Lille Flandres. The region conquered by the Dutch Republic in Flanders, now part of the Dutch province of Zeeland, the significance of the County of Flanders and its counts eroded through time, but the designation remained in a very broad sense. In the Early modern period, the term Flanders was associated with the part of the Low Countries
28.
First Battle of the Marne
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The Battle of the Marne was a World War I battle fought from 7–12 September 1914. It resulted in an Allied victory against the German Army, the battle was the culmination of the German advance into France and pursuit of the Allied armies which followed the Battle of the Frontiers in August and had reached the eastern outskirts of Paris. The Battle of the Marne was a victory for the Allies, the Battle of the Frontiers is a general name for all the operations of the French armies from 7 August to 13 September. A series of encounter battles began between the German, French and Belgian armies on the German-French frontier and in southern Belgium on 4 August 1914, Liège was occupied by the Germans on 7 August. The first units of the British Expeditionary Force landed in France, the Battle of Mulhouse was the first French offensive of World War I. The French captured Mulhouse, until forced out by a German counter-attack on 11 August, on 12 August, the Battle of Haelen was fought by German and Belgian cavalry and infantry, resulting in a Belgian defensive success. The BEF completed its move of four divisions and a division to France on 16 August. The Belgian government withdrew from Brussels on 18 August, the main French offensive, the Battle of Lorraine, began with the Battles of Morhange and Sarrebourg advances by the First Army on Sarrebourg and the Second Army towards Morhange. Château-Salins near Morhange was captured on 17 August and Sarrebourg the next day, the German 6th and 7th Armies counter-attacked on 20 August, and the Second Army was forced back from Morhange and the First Army was repulsed at Sarrebourg. The German armies crossed the border and advanced on Nancy, but were stopped to the east of the city. The Belgian 4th Division, the part of the Belgian army not to retreat to the defensive lines around Antwerp, dug in to defend Namur. Further west, the French Fifth Army had concentrated on the Sambre by 20 August, facing north on either side of Charleroi and east towards Namur, additional support was given to the Belgians at Namur by the French 45th Infantry Brigade. On the left, the Cavalry Corps of General Sordet linked up with the BEF at Mons, to the south, the French retook Mulhouse on 19 August and then withdrew. By 20 August, a German counter-offensive in Lorraine had begun, an offensive by the French Third and Fourth Armies through the Ardennes began on 20 August in support of the French invasion of Lorraine. The opposing armies met in thick fog, the French mistook the German troops for screening forces, on 22 August, the Battle of the Ardennes began with French attacks, which were costly to both sides and forced the French into a disorderly retreat late on 23 August. The Third Army recoiled towards Verdun, pursued by the 5th Army, Mulhouse was recaptured again by German forces and the Battle of the Meuse, caused a temporary halt of the German advance. At the Battle of Mons, the BEF attempted to hold the line of the Mons–Condé Canal against the advancing German 1st Army. The British were eventually forced to withdraw due to being outnumbered by the Germans and the retreat of the French Fifth Army
29.
Battle of Verdun
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The Battle of Verdun, fought from 21 February to 18 December 1916, was the largest and longest battle of the First World War on the Western Front between the German and French armies. The battle took place on the north of Verdun-sur-Meuse in north-eastern France. The German 5th Army attacked the defences of the Fortified Region of Verdun, poor weather delayed the beginning of the German attack until 21 February, but the Germans enjoyed initial success, capturing Fort Douaumont in the first three days of the offensive. Afterwards the German advance slowed, despite many French casualties, by 6 March, 20 1⁄2 French divisions were in the RFV and a more extensive defence in depth had been constructed. Pétain ordered that On ne passe pas were to be made, by 29 March, French artillery on the west bank had begun a constant bombardment of German positions on the east bank, which caused many German infantry casualties. In March, the German offensive was extended to the bank of the Meuse. The Germans were able to advance at first but French reinforcements contained the short of their objectives. In early May, the Germans changed tactics and made local attacks and counter-attacks, part of the fort was occupied, until a German counter-attack recaptured the fort and took numerous prisoners. The Germans changed tactics again, alternating their attacks on banks of the Meuse and in June captured Fort Vaux. The Germans continued the offensive beyond Vaux, towards the last geographical objectives of the plan, at Fleury-devant-Douaumont. The Germans drove a salient into the French defences, captured Fleury, a German attempt to capture Fort Souville in early July was repulsed by artillery and small-arms fire. In August and December, French counter-offensives recaptured much of the ground lost on the east bank and recovered Fort Douaumont, the Battle of Verdun lasted for 303 days and became the longest and one of the most costly battles in human history. After the German invasion of France had been halted at the First Battle of the Marne in September 1914, the war of movement ended at the Battle of the Yser and the First Battle of Ypres. The Germans built field fortifications to hold the ground captured in 1914, in late 1914 and in 1915, offensives on the Western Front had failed to gain much ground and been extremely costly in casualties. Falkenhayn offered five corps from the reserve for an offensive at Verdun at the beginning of February 1916. After the war, the Kaiser and Colonel Tappen, the Operations Officer at Oberste Heeresleitung, in the Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive, the German and Austro-Hungarian Armies attacked Russian defences frontally, after pulverising them with large amounts of heavy artillery. In the north, a British relief offensive would wear down British reserves, to no decisive effect, hints about Falkenhayns thinking were picked up by Dutch military intelligence and passed on to the British in December. The Fortified Region of Verdun lay in a salient formed during the German invasion of 1914, in a directive of the General Staff of 5 August 1915, the RFV was to be stripped of 54 artillery batteries and 128,000 rounds of ammunition
30.
Battle of Passchendaele
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The Battle of Passchendaele was a major campaign of the First World War, fought by the Allies against the German Empire. Passchendaele lay on the last ridge east of Ypres,5 miles from a junction at Roulers. The next stage of the Allied plan was an advance to Thourout–Couckelaere, to close the German-controlled railway running through Roulers, further operations and a British supporting attack along the Belgian coast from Nieuwpoort, combined with Operation Hush, were to have reached Bruges and then the Dutch frontier. The campaign ended in November, when the Canadian Corps captured Passchendaele, apart from attacks in December. In 1918, the Battle of the Lys and the Fifth Battle of Ypres were fought before the Allies occupied the Belgian coast, a campaign in Flanders was controversial in 1917 and has remained so. The British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, opposed the offensive, field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, commanding the British Expeditionary Force, did not receive approval for the Flanders operation from the War Cabinet until 25 July. Belgian independence had been recognised in the Treaty of London which created a sovereign, the German invasion of Belgium on 4 August 1914, in violation of Article VII of the treaty, was the reason given by the British government for declaring war on Germany. British military operations in Belgium began with the arrival of the British Expeditionary Force at Mons on 22 August. On 10 October, Lieutenant-General Erich von Falkenhayn, the Chief of the German General Staff, ordered an attack towards Dunkirk and Calais, followed by a turn south to gain a decisive victory. On 16 October, the Belgians and some French reinforcements began the defence of western Belgium, when the offensive failed, Falkenhayn ordered the capture of Ypres to gain a local advantage. By 18 November, the First Battle of Ypres ended in failure, large British offensive operations in Flanders were not possible in 1915, due to the consequent lack of resources. The Germans conducted their own Flanders offensive at the Second Battle of Ypres, Sir Douglas Haig succeeded Sir John French as Commander-in-Chief of the BEF on 19 December 1915. A week after his appointment, Haig met Vice-Admiral Sir Reginald Bacon, Haig preferred an advance from Ypres, to bypass the flooded area around the Yser and the coast, before a coastal attack was attempted, to clear the coast to the Dutch border. Other operations were begun by the British to regain territory or to evict the Germans from ground overlooking their positions, engagements took place on 12 February at Boesinghe and on 14 February at Hooge and Sanctuary Wood. There were actions from 14–15 February and 1–4 March at The Bluff,27 March –16 April at the St. Eloi Craters, in January 1917, the Second Army held the line in Flanders from Laventie to Boesinghe with eleven divisions and up to two in reserve. There was much trench mortaring, mining and raiding by both sides and from January to May, the Second Army had 20,000 casualties. In May, reinforcements began moving to Flanders from the south, in January 1916, General Herbert Plumer, the Second Army commander, began to plan offensives against Messines Ridge, Lille and Houthulst Forest. General Henry Rawlinson was also ordered to plan an attack from the Ypres Salient on 4 February, planning continued but the Battle of Verdun, at meetings in November 1916, Haig, the French commander-in-chief Joseph Joffre and the other Allies met at Chantilly
31.
Iron Cross
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The Iron Cross was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later in the German Empire and Nazi Germany. It was established by King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia in March 1813 backdated to the birthday of his late wife Queen Louise on 10 March 1813 during the Napoleonic Wars, Louise was the first person to receive this decoration. The recommissioned Iron Cross was also awarded during the Franco-Prussian War, World War I, the Iron Cross was normally a military decoration only, though there were instances of it being awarded to civilians for performing military functions. The design of the symbol was black with a white or silver outline. It was ultimately derived from the cross pattée occasionally used by the Teutonic Order from the 13th century, the black cross patty was also used as the symbol of the German Army from 1871 to March/April 1918, when it was replaced by the Balkenkreuz. In 1956, it was re-introduced as the symbol of the Bundeswehr, the Black Cross is the emblem used by the Prussian Army, and by the army of Germany from 1871 to present. It was designed on the occasion of the German Campaign of 1813, from this time, the Black Cross also featured on the Prussian war flag alongside the Black Eagle. The design is due to neoclassical architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, based on a sketch by Frederick William, the design is ultimately derivative of the black cross used by the Teutonic Order. This heraldic cross took various forms throughout the history, including a simple Latin cross. When the Quadriga of the Goddess of Peace was retrieved from Paris at Napoleons fall, an Iron Cross was inserted into her laurel wreath, making her into a Goddess of Victory. The Black Cross was used on the naval and war flags of the German Empire, the Black Cross was used as the symbol of the German Army until 1915, when it was replaced by a simpler Balkenkreuz. The Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic, the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany, the traditional design in black is used on armored vehicles and aircraft, while after German reunification, a new design in blue and silver was introduced for use in other contexts. The ribbon for the 1813,1870 and 1914 Iron Cross was black with two white bands, the colors of Prussia. The non-combatant version of this award had the same medal, but the black, the ribbon color for the 1939 EKII was black/white/red/white/black. Since the Iron Cross was issued several different periods of German history. For example, an Iron Cross from World War I bears the year 1914, the reverse of the 1870,1914 and 1939 series of Iron Crosses have the year 1813 appearing on the lower arm, symbolizing the year the award was created. The 1813 decoration also has the initials FW for King Frederick William III, the final version shows a swastika. There was also the 1957 issue, a replacement medal for holders of the 1939 series which substituted an oak-leaf cluster for the banned swastika
32.
Reichswehr
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The Reichswehr formed the military organisation of Germany from 1919 until 1935, when it was united with the new Wehrmacht. At the end of World War I, the forces of the German Empire had mostly split up, many of them joined the Freikorps, a collection of volunteer paramilitary units that were involved in suppressing the German Revolution and border clashes between 1918 and 1923. The Vorläufige Reichswehr was made up of 43 brigades, on 30 September 1919, the army was reorganised as the Übergangsheer, and the force size was reduced to 20 brigades. About 400,000 men served in the armed forces, in May 1920 it was downsized to 200,000 men and restructured again, forming three cavalry divisions and seven infantry divisions. On 1 October 1920 the brigades were replaced by regiments and the manpower was now only 100,000 men as stipulated by the Treaty of Versailles and this lasted until 1 January 1921, when the Reichswehr was officially established according to the limitations imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. The Reichswehr was an organisation composed of the following, The Reichsheer, an army consisting of, seven infantry divisions. General Command 1 at Berlin supervised 1st Division, 2nd Division, 3rd Division, general Command 2 at Kassel supervised 5,6,7 and 3rd Cavalry divisions. The Reichsmarine, a navy with a number of certain types of ships. The Reichswehr was limited to an army of 100,000 men. The establishment of a staff was prohibited. Heavy weapons such as artillery above the calibre of 105 mm, armoured vehicles, submarines and capital ships were forbidden, compliance with these restrictions was monitored until 1927 by the Military Inter-Allied Commission of Control. Despite the limitations on its size, their analysis of the loss of World War I, research and development, secret testing abroad and planning for better times went on. In addition, although forbidden to have a staff, the army continued to conduct the typical functions of a general staff under the disguised name of Truppenamt. During this time, many of the leaders of the Wehrmacht — such as Heinz Guderian — first formulated the ideas that they were to use so effectively a few years later. Reflecting this position as a “state within the state”, the Reichswehr created the Ministeramt or Office of the Ministerial Affairs in 1928 under Kurt von Schleicher to lobby the politicians. The biggest influence on the development of the Reichswehr was Hans von Seeckt, after the Kapp Putsch, Hans von Seeckt took over this post. After Seeckt was forced to resign in 1926, Wilhelm Heye took the post, Heye was in 1930 succeeded by Kurt Freiherr von Hammerstein-Equord, who submitted his resignation on December 27,1933. The reduction of the strength of the German army from 780,000 in 1913 to 100,000 enhanced the quality of the Reichsheer because only the best were permitted to join the army
33.
Freikorps
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Freikorps were German volunteer units that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries, the members of which effectively fought as mercenaries, regardless of their own nationality. In German-speaking countries the first so-called Freikorps free regiments were formed in the 18th century from native volunteers, enemy renegades and deserters and these sometimes exotically equipped units served as infantry and cavalry or, more rarely, as artillery. Sometimes in just company strength, sometimes in formations up to several thousand strong, the Prussian von Kleist Freikorps included infantry, jäger, dragoons, and hussars. The French Volontaires de Saxe combined uhlans and dragoons and these units roamed the countryside, killing with impunity. They engaged in confrontations with republican loyalists and engineered some of the more notorious assassinations of the Weimar period. An entire series of Freikorps awards also existed, the very first Freikorps were recruited by Frederick the Great during the Seven Years War. On 15 July 1759, Frederick ordered the creation of a squadron of hussars to be attached to the 1st Regiment of Hussars. He entrusted the creation and command of new unit to Colonel Friedrich Wilhelm von Kleist. This first squadron was raised in Dresden and consisted mainly of Hungarian deserters and this squadron was placed under the command of Lieutenant Johann Michael von Kovacs. At the end of 1759, the first 4 squadrons of dragoons of the Freikorps were organised and they initially consisted of Prussian volunteers from Berlin, Magdeburg, Mecklenburg and Leipzig but later recruited deserters. The Freikorps were regarded as unreliable by regular armies, so they were used as sentries. Even during the last Kabinettskrieg, the War of the Bavarian Succession, germans, Hungarians, Poles, Lithuanians and South Slavs, as well as Turks, Tatars and Cossacks, were believed by all warring parties to be inherently good fighters. The nationality of many soldiers can no longer be ascertained with certainty as the origin was often described imprecisely in the regimental lists. Slavs were often referred to as Hungarians or Croats, and Muslim recruits as Turks, for Prussia, the Pandurs, who were made up of Serbs and Croats, were a clear model for the organization of such free troops. They were often used to ward off Maria Theresas Pandurs, in the era of linear tactics, light troops had been seen necessary for outpost, reinforcement and reconnaissance duties. Because, with exceptions, they were seen as undisciplined and less battleworthy, they were used for less onerous guard. In the so-called petty wars, the Freikorps interdicted enemy supply lines with guerrilla warfare, in the case of capture, their members were at risk of being executed as irregular fighters. In Prussia the Freikorps, which Frederick the Great had despised as vermin, were disbanded and their soldiers were given no entitlement to pensions or invalidity payments
34.
Berlin
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Berlin is the capital and the largest city of Germany as well as one of its constituent 16 states. With a population of approximately 3.5 million, Berlin is the second most populous city proper, due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one-third of the area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers. Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world, following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the capital of all-Germany. Berlin is a city of culture, politics, media. Its economy is based on high-tech firms and the sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations. Berlin serves as a hub for air and rail traffic and has a highly complex public transportation network. The metropolis is a popular tourist destination, significant industries also include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology, construction and electronics. Modern Berlin is home to world renowned universities, orchestras, museums and its urban setting has made it a sought-after location for international film productions. The city is known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts. Since 2000 Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene, the name Berlin has its roots in the language of West Slavic inhabitants of the area of todays Berlin, and may be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl-. All German place names ending on -ow, -itz and -in, since the Ber- at the beginning sounds like the German word Bär, a bear appears in the coat of arms of the city. It is therefore a canting arm, the first written records of towns in the area of present-day Berlin date from the late 12th century. Spandau is first mentioned in 1197 and Köpenick in 1209, although these areas did not join Berlin until 1920, the central part of Berlin can be traced back to two towns. Cölln on the Fischerinsel is first mentioned in a 1237 document,1237 is considered the founding date of the city. The two towns over time formed close economic and social ties, and profited from the right on the two important trade routes Via Imperii and from Bruges to Novgorod. In 1307, they formed an alliance with a common external policy, in 1415 Frederick I became the elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440. In 1443 Frederick II Irontooth started the construction of a new palace in the twin city Berlin-Cölln
35.
Adolf Hitler
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Adolf Hitler was a German politician who was the leader of the Nazi Party, Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and Führer of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. As dictator of the German Reich, he initiated World War II in Europe with the invasion of Poland in September 1939 and was central to the Holocaust, Hitler was born in Austria, then part of Austria-Hungary, and raised near Linz. He moved to Germany in 1913 and was decorated during his service in the German Army in World War I and he joined the German Workers Party, the precursor of the NSDAP, in 1919 and became leader of the NSDAP in 1921. In 1923 he attempted a coup in Munich to seize power, the failed coup resulted in Hitlers imprisonment, during which he dictated the first volume of his autobiography and political manifesto Mein Kampf. Hitler frequently denounced international capitalism and communism as being part of a Jewish conspiracy, by 1933, the Nazi Party was the largest elected party in the German Reichstag, which led to Hitlers appointment as Chancellor on 30 January 1933. Hitler aimed to eliminate Jews from Germany and establish a New Order to counter what he saw as the injustice of the post-World War I international order dominated by Britain, Hitler sought Lebensraum for the German people in Eastern Europe. His aggressive foreign policy is considered to be the cause of the outbreak of World War II in Europe. He directed large-scale rearmament and on 1 September 1939 invaded Poland, resulting in British, in June 1941, Hitler ordered an invasion of the Soviet Union. By the end of 1941 German forces and the European Axis powers occupied most of Europe, failure to defeat the Soviets and the entry of the United States into the war forced Germany onto the defensive and it suffered a series of escalating defeats. In the final days of the war, during the Battle of Berlin in 1945, Hitler married his long-time lover, on 30 April 1945, less than two days later, the two killed themselves to avoid capture by the Red Army, and their corpses were burned. Hitler and the Nazi regime were also responsible for the killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians, in addition,29 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of military action in the European Theatre of World War II. The number of civilians killed during the Second World War was unprecedented in warfare, Hitlers father Alois Hitler Sr. was the illegitimate child of Maria Anna Schicklgruber. The baptismal register did not show the name of his father, in 1842, Johann Georg Hiedler married Aloiss mother Maria Anna. Alois was brought up in the family of Hiedlers brother, Johann Nepomuk Hiedler, in 1876, Alois was legitimated and the baptismal register changed by a priest to register Johann Georg Hiedler as Aloiss father. Alois then assumed the surname Hitler, also spelled Hiedler, Hüttler, the Hitler surname is probably based on one who lives in a hut. Nazi official Hans Frank suggested that Aloiss mother had been employed as a housekeeper by a Jewish family in Graz, and that the familys 19-year-old son Leopold Frankenberger had fathered Alois. No Frankenberger was registered in Graz during that period, and no record has been produced of Leopold Frankenbergers existence, Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn, a town in Austria-Hungary, close to the border with the German Empire. He was one of six born to Alois Hitler and Klara Pölzl
36.
German re-armament
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The German rearmament was an era of rearmament in Germany during the interwar period, in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. It began as soon as the treaty was signed, on a small, secret, and informal basis, but it was massively expanded after the Nazi Party came to power in 1933. The re-armament program quickly increased the size of the German officer corps, count Johann von Kielmansegg later said that the very involved process of outfitting 36 divisions kept him and his colleagues from reflecting on larger issues. The World War I reparations would be difficult or impossible to pay without viable export markets for Germanys industrial sector, another example was that the government tolerated that various Weimar paramilitary groups armed themselves to a dangerous degree. Thus various Freikorps, the Stahlhelm, the Reichsbanner, the Nazi SA, the Nazi SS, one of the reasons why this militarization of society was difficult to prevent relates to the distinction between the government and the state. The democratically elected government, being composed of groups of people, inevitably reflected the factional strife, some of the antidemocratic ideas aimed for zero democracy via totalitarianism. Others aimed for diminished democracy subordinated in power to other forces, after the Nazi takeover of power in January 1933, the Nazis pursued a greatly enlarged and more aggressive version of rearmament. During its struggle for power, the National Socialist party promised to recover Germanys lost national pride and it proposed military rearmament claiming that the Treaty of Versailles and the acquiescence of the Weimar Republic were an embarrassment for all Germans. The rearmament became the topmost priority of the German government, Hitler would then spearhead one of the greatest expansions of industrial production and civil improvement Germany had ever seen. Covert organizations like the Deutsche Verkehrsfliegerschule were established under a civilian guise in order to train pilots for the future Luftwaffe, although available statistics dont include non-citizens or women, the massive Nazi re-armament policy almost led to full employment during the 1930s. The re-armament began a change in fortune for many factories in Germany. Many industries were taken out of a crisis that had been induced by the Great Depression. By 1935, Hitler was open about rejecting the military restrictions set forth by the Treaty of Versailles, Rearmament was announced on 16 March as was the reintroduction of conscription. Some large industrial companies, which had until then specialized in traditional products began to diversify. Shipyards, for example, created branches that began to design, thus the German re-armament provided an opportunity for advanced, and sometimes revolutionary, technological improvements, especially in the field of aeronautics. The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939 would provide an ideal testing ground for the proficiency of the new weapons produced by the German factories during the re-armament years, Hitler insisted, however, that his long-term designs were peaceful, a strategy labelled as Blumenkrieg. Re-armament in the 1930s saw the development of different theories of how to prepare the German economy for total war, the first amongst these was defence in depth which was put forward by Georg Thomas. He suggested that the German economy needed to achieve Autarky and one of the main proponents behind this was I. G, since World War II, both academics and laypeople have discussed the extent to which German re-armament was an open secret among national governments
37.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
38.
Werner von Fritsch
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Werner, Freiherr von Fritsch was the commander-in-chief of the German Army from 1933 to 1938. He served in the German High Command, Fritsch was born in Benrath in the Rhine Province of the German Empire. He entered the Prussian Army at the age of 18, in 1901, in 1911, he was appointed to the German General Staff, where he served during World War I. During the interwar period, Fritsch served in the Weimar Republics Armed Forces, Fritsch declared he was totally opposed to seeing another black, red and gold cur as Chancellor and wrote that he believed that Germany was being ruined by the propaganda of the Jewish papers. There may be small differences, but in the end it all amounts to the same. extreme disloyalty to the republic to which he had sworn an oath. As such, Fritsch who worked closely with the Soviet Union in secret rearmament favored a foreign policy. In 1928, Fritsch began work on the plan that became Fall Weiss and he was promoted to Major-General in 1932 by Kurt von Schleicher, who regarded him as a promising young officer. Schleicher then assigned Fritsch and Gerd von Rundstedt the duty of carrying out the Prussian coup that saw the Reichswehr oust the Social Democratic government of Prussia. In February 1934, when Blomberg ordered that all soldiers who might be considered Jewish be given dishonorable discharges, Fritsch made no objection, Fritsch ultimately betrayed the officer corps to the Führer by agreeing to this demand after consulting with his generals. He was named Commander-in-Chief of the Army in 1935, Fritsch supported the Nazi regime but he was antagonistic towards attempts to create rivals to the Army, especially the SS. Shirer recalled hearing Fritsch make sarcastic remarks about the SS, as well as several Nazi leaders from Hitler on down, at a parade in Saarbrücken. He was also worried that Hitler would cause a war with the Soviet Union, like most of his fellow officers, given this compatibility of outlook, one may doubt whether Fritschs pronounced anti-Semitism reflected political naïveté as the historian Klaus-Jürgen Müller has asserted. In 1936, when Blomberg was promoted to Field Marshal, Fritsch received promotion to Blombergs vacated rank of Colonel General, Fritsch was among the officers present at the Hossbach Conference in 1937 where Hitler announced that he wanted to go to war as early as 1938. He was very critical of this demand, as he knew the army was not ready, Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Göring—inspired by the resignation of Blomberg—accused the unmarried Fritsch of engaging in homosexual activity. Fritsch had never been a womaniser and had preferred to concentrate on his army career and he was forced to resign on 4 February 1938. His replacement—Walther von Brauchitsch—was recommended for the post by Fritsch, adolf Hitler took advantage of the situation through the replacement of several generals and ministers with Nazi loyalists, which strengthened his control of the German Armed Forces. It soon became known that the charges were false, and a court of officers examined the Blomberg–Fritsch Affair. The successful annexation of Austria into Greater Germany of 12 March silenced all critics of Hitler, Göring, Fritsch was acquitted on 18 March, but the damage to his name had been done
39.
Werner von Blomberg
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Werner Eduard Fritz von Blomberg was a German Generalfeldmarschall, Minister of War, and Commander-in-Chief of the German Armed Forces until January 1938. Born in Stargard, Pomerania, Prussia, Werner von Blomberg joined the army in 1897, in April 1904, he married Charlotte Hellmich. After graduating in 1907, Blomberg entered the General Staff in 1908, serving with distinction on the Western Front during the First World War, Blomberg was awarded the Pour le Mérite. In 1920, Blomberg was appointed chief of staff of the Döberitz Brigade, in 1925, Blomberg was made chief of army training by General Hans von Seeckt. By 1927, Blomberg was a major-general and chief of the Troop Office and this was part and parcel of a broader shift on the part of the German military to the idea of a totalitarian Wehrstaat which had become popular with officers starting in the mid-1920s. The German historian Eberhard Kolb wrote that, Blombergs visit to the Soviet Union in 1928 had the effect of confirming his views about totalitarian powers being the greatest military powers. After arguing with the powerful General Kurt von Schleicher in 1929, however, Blomberg was removed from his post, in 1929, Schleicher came into conflict with Blomberg at the Truppenamt. As a result, Blomberg was demoted from command of the Truppenamt, Blomberg was later to emerge as Schleichers most powerful enemy within the Reichswehr. Blombergs relations with the SA were excellent at this time, many generals saw East Prussia as an model for future Army-Nazi co-operation all over Germany. Blombergs interactions with the SA in East Prussia led him to the conclusion that Nazis made for excellent soldiers, which further increased the appeal of National Socialism for him. But at the time, Blomberg saw the SA only as a junior partner to the Army. In 1931, Blomberg visited the US, where he proclaimed his belief in the certainty. Blombergs first wife Charlotte died on 11 May 1932, leaving him two sons and three daughters. In his reports to Hindenburg, Blomberg wrote that his arch-rival Schleichers attempts to create the Wehrstaat had clearly failed, by late January 1933 it was clear that the Schleicher government could only stay in power by proclaiming martial law, and by sending the Reichswehr to crush popular opposition. Blomberg was one of the channels by which the Reichswehr informed Hindenburg of their wish to see Hitler become the chancellor. Upon learning of this, Schleicher guessed correctly that the order to recall Blomberg to Berlin meant his government was doomed. When Blomberg arrived at the station in Berlin on 28 January 1933, he was met by Major von Kuntzen and by Major Oskar von Hindenburg, adjutant. Kuntzen had orders from Hammerstein for him to report at once to the Defence Ministry, over Kuntzens protests, Blomberg chose to go with Hindenburg to meet the president, who swore him in as defence minister
40.
Walther von Brauchitsch
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Walther von Brauchitsch was a German field marshal and the Commander-in-Chief of the German Army in the early years of World War II. Born into a military family, Brauchitsch entered army service in 1901. During World War I, he served with distinction on the staff of the XVI Corps, 34th Infantry Division, after the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, Brauchitsch was put in charge of the East Prussian Military District. Although he personally disliked Nazism, he borrowed immense sums of money from Hitler, Brauchitsch served as Commander-in-Chief of the German Army from February 1938 until December 1941. He played a key role in the Battle of France and oversaw the German invasions of Yugoslavia, for his part in the Battle of France, Brauchitsch became one of 12 generals promoted to Field Marshal. After World War II, Brauchitsch was arrested on charges of war crimes, Brauchitsch was born in Berlin on 4 October 1881 as the sixth child of Bernhard Eduard von Brauchitsch, a cavalry general, and his wife Charlotte Bertha von Gordon. The Brauchitsch family had a tradition of military service, and like his forefathers. His family moved in the social circles of Berlins high society. In his teens, Brauchitsch was interested in politics, and was fascinated by art, to help him pursue these interests, his father enrolled him at Französisches Gymnasium Berlin rather than a military academy. In 1895 Brauchitsch joined the academy in Potsdam. During his time serving the empress at court, he learned manners, upon graduation in 1900 he received his commission in an infantry regiment. A medical condition made him unfit for service in the infantry and he was put in charge of training recruits in riding and driving. He then joined the General Staff office in Berlin, where he was promoted to first lieutenant in 1909. By the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Brauchitsch had reached the rank of captain, during World War I, he served with the 34th Infantry Division and Guards Reserve Corps. Between 1914 and 1916, he took part in the Battle of Verdun, Brauchitsch was awarded the Iron Cross 1st Class and the House Order of Hohenzollern, and ended the war with the rank of major. The German military underwent a reduction in 1919 to comply with the Treaty of Versailles. He remained with the General Staff, where he had no opportunity to use his knowledge of artillery, eventually, in 1920, he was permitted to transfer to the staff of the 2nd Artillery Regiment. The following year, he worked in the Ministry of the Reichswehr, Brauchitschs assignment in the Artillery Department was to reorganize artillery formations and implement lessons learned in the closing months of the war
41.
Sudetenland
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The Sudeten crisis of 1938 was provoked by the demands of Nazi Germany that the Sudetenland be annexed to Germany, which in fact took place after the later infamous Munich Agreement. Part of the borderland was invaded and annexed by Poland, when Czechoslovakia was reconstituted after the Second World War, the Sudeten Germans were largely expelled, and the region today is inhabited almost exclusively by Czech speakers. Parts of the current Czech regions of Karlovy Vary, Liberec, Olomouc, Moravia-Silesia, the Celtic and Boii tribes settled there and the region was first mentioned on the map of Ptolemaios in the 2nd century AD. The Germanic tribe of the Marcomanni dominated the core of the region in later centuries. Those tribes already built cities like Brno, but moved west during the Migration Period, in the 7th century AD Slavic people moved in and were united under Samos realm. Later in the High Middle Ages Germans settled into the less populated border region, in the Middle Ages the regions situated on the mountainous border of the Duchy and the Kingdom of Bohemia had since the Migration Period been settled mainly by western Slavic Czechs. In the course of the Ostsiedlung German settlement from the 13th century onwards continued to move into the Upper Lusatia region, after the extinction of the Přemyslid dynasty in 1306, the Bohemian nobility backed John of Luxembourg as king against his rival Duke Henry of Carinthia. His son, Bohemian King Charles IV, was elected King of the Romans in 1346 and he added the Lusatias to the Lands of the Bohemian Crown, which then comprised large territories with a significant German population. In the hilly border regions German settlers established major manufactures of forest glass, the situation of the German population was aggravated by the Hussite Wars, though there were also some Germans among the Hussite insurgents. The city of Prague had a German-speaking majority from the last third of the 17th century until 1860, from the Luxembourgs, the rule over Bohemia passed through George of Podiebrad to the Jagiellon dynasty and finally to the House of Habsburg in 1526. Both Czech and German Bohemians suffered heavily in the Thirty Years War, Bohemia lost 70% of its population. From the defeat of the Bohemian Revolt that collapsed at the 1620 Battle of White Mountain, during the subsequent Counter-Reformation, less populated areas were resettled with Catholic Germans from the Austrian lands. Also in 1749 Austrian Empire enforced German as the language again. Emperor Joseph II in 1780 renounced the coronation ceremony as Bohemian king, nevertheless, German cultural influence grew stronger during the Age of Enlightenment and Weimar Classicism. The Bohemian Kingdom remained a part of the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary until its dismemberment after the First World War, in the wake of growing nationalism, the name Sudetendeutsche emerged by the early 20th century. Of these three terms, only the term Sudetendeutsche survived, because of the ethnic and cultural conflicts within Bohemia, thirty-four of each 1,000 inhabitants were killed. Austria-Hungary broke apart at the end of World War I, late in October 1918, an independent Czechoslovak state, consisting of the lands of the Bohemian kingdom and areas belonging to the Kingdom of Hungary, was proclaimed. The German deputies of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia in the Imperial Council referred to the Fourteen Points of U. S, on 20 September 1918, the Prague government asked the United Statess opinion for the Sudetenland
42.
Erich Raeder
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Erich Raeder was a naval leader in Germany who played a major role in the naval history of World War II. Raeder attained the highest possible naval rank—that of Grand Admiral — in 1939, Raeder led the Kriegsmarine for the first half of the war, he resigned in 1943 and was replaced by Karl Dönitz. He was sentenced to life in prison at the Nuremberg Trials, Raeder was born in Wandsbek in the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein in the German Empire. Raeder joined the Kaiserliche Marine in 1894 and rapidly rose in rank, from 1901 to 1903 Raeder served on the staff of Prince Heinrich of Prussia, and gained a powerful patron in the process. Raeders rise up the ranks was due mostly to his intelligence, owing to his cold and distant personality, Raeder was a man whom even his friends often admitted to knowing very little about. The dominating figure of the Navy was Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, Tirpitz transformed the Navy from the small coastal defense force of 1897 into the mighty High Seas Fleet of 1914. Raeder was married in 1903 and had three children by his first wife, in 1904, Raeder, who spoke fluent Russian, was sent to the Far East as an observer of the Russo-Japanese War. Raeder was the captain of Kaiser Wilhelm IIs private yacht in the leading up to World War I. In itself, this was not a rewarding post, but often people in this post were quickly promoted afterwards, Raeder served as Hippers Chief of Staff during World War I, as well as in combat posts. He took part in the Battle of Dogger Bank in 1915, during and after World War I the German navy had divided into two factions. This marked the beginning of a feud between Raeder and Wegener, with Wegener claiming that his former friend Raeder was jealous of what Wegener insisted were his superior ideas. In May 1916 Raeder played a major role planning a raid by Hippers battlecruisers that aimed to lure out the British battlecruiser force which would then be destroyed by the main High Seas Fleet and this raid turned into the Battle of Jutland. Raeder played a prominent role, and was forced midway through the battle to transfer from the SMS Lützow to the SMS Moltke as a result of damage to Hippers flagship, though Hippers plans were rejected as far too risky, they significantly influenced Raeders later thinking. On 14 October 1918, Raeder received a promotion with appointment as deputy to Admiral Paul Behncke. Raeder had doubts about submarines, but he spent the last weeks of the war working to achieve the Scheer Programme of building 450 U-boats, on 28 October 1918 the Imperial German fleet mutinied. Raeder played a role in attempting to crush the mutiny. Raeders two younger brothers were killed in action in the First World War, and in 1919 his first marriage. For the puritanical Raeder, the divorce was a huge personal disgrace, the years 1918–1919 were some of the most troubled in his life
43.
Western Front (World War II)
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The Western Front of the European theatre of World War II encompassed Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Germany. World War II military engagements in Southern Europe and elsewhere are generally considered under separate headings, the Western Front was marked by two phases of large-scale combat operations. The second phase consisted of ground combat, which began in June 1944 with the Allied landings in Normandy. The Phoney War was a phase of World War II marked by a few military operations in Continental Europe in the months following the German invasion of Poland. Although the great powers of Europe had declared war on one another, neither side had yet committed to launching a significant attack and this was also the period in which The United Kingdom and France did not supply significant aid to Poland, despite their pledged alliance. While most of the German Army was fighting against Poland, a much smaller German force manned the Siegfried Line, there were only some local, minor skirmishes. The British Royal Air Force dropped propaganda leaflets on Germany and the first Canadian troops stepped ashore in Britain, while Western Europe was in a strange calm for seven months. In their hurry to re-arm, Britain and France had both begun to buy large numbers of weapons manufacturers in the United States at the outbreak of hostilities. The non-belligerent United States, contributed to the Western Allies by discounted sales of military equipment, German efforts to interdict the Allies trans-Atlantic trade at sea ignited the Battle of the Atlantic. However, when the Allies made a counter-landing in Norway following the German invasion, the Kriegsmarine, nonetheless, suffered very heavy losses during the two-months of fighting required to seize all of mainland Norway. In May 1940, the Germans launched the Battle of France, the Western Allies soon collapsed under the onslaught of the so-called blitzkrieg strategy. The majority of the British and elements of the French forces escaped at Dunkirk, with the fighting ended, the Germans began to consider ways of resolving the question of how to deal with Britain. If the British refused to agree to a treaty, one option was to invade. However, Nazi Germanys Kriegsmarine, had suffered losses in Norway. With the Luftwaffe unable to defeat the RAF in the Battle of Britain and these were built in anticipation of an Allied invasion of France. Because of the massive logistical obstacles a cross-channel invasion would face, on 19 August 1942, the Allies began the Dieppe Raid, an attack on Dieppe, France. Most of the troops were Canadian, with some British contingents, the raid was a disaster, almost two-thirds of the attacking force became casualties. However, much was learned as a result of the operation – these lessons would be put to use in the subsequent invasion
44.
Eastern Front (World War II)
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The battles on the Eastern Front constituted the largest military confrontation in history. They were characterized by unprecedented ferocity, wholesale destruction, mass deportations, and immense loss of life due to combat, starvation, exposure, disease, and massacres. The Eastern Front, as the site of nearly all extermination camps, death marches, ghettos, of the estimated 70 million deaths attributed to World War II, over 30 million, many of them civilian, occurred on the Eastern Front. The Eastern Front was decisive in determining the outcome of the European portion of World War II and it resulted in the destruction of the Third Reich, the partition of Germany for nearly half a century and the rise of the Soviet Union as a military and industrial superpower. The two principal belligerent powers were Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, along with their respective allies. Though never engaged in action in the Eastern Front, the United Kingdom. The joint German–Finnish operations across the northernmost Finnish–Soviet border and in the Murmansk region are considered part of the Eastern Front, in addition, the Soviet–Finnish Continuation War may also be considered the northern flank of the Eastern Front. Despite their ideological antipathy, both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union shared a dislike for the outcome of World War I. The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact signed in August 1939 was an agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. It contained a secret protocol aiming to return Central Europe to the pre–World War I status quo by dividing it between Germany and the Soviet Union, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania would return to Soviet control, while Poland and Romania would be divided. I need the Ukraine so that they cant starve us out, the two powers invaded and partitioned Poland in 1939. The annexations were never recognized by most Western states, the annexed Romanian territory was divided between the Ukrainian and Moldavian Soviet republics. Adolf Hitler had argued in his autobiography Mein Kampf for the necessity of Lebensraum, acquiring new territory for Germans in Eastern Europe, Wehrmacht officers told their troops to target people who were described as Jewish Bolshevik subhumans, the Mongol hordes, the Asiatic flood and the red beast. The vast majority of German soldiers viewed the war in Nazi terms, Hitler referred to the war in unique terms, calling it a war of annihilation which was both an ideological and racial war. In addition, the Nazis also sought to wipe out the large Jewish population of Central, after Germanys initial success at the Battle of Kiev in 1941, Hitler saw the Soviet Union as militarily weak and ripe for immediate conquest. On 3 October 1941, he announced, We have only to kick in the door, thus, Germany expected another short Blitzkrieg and made no serious preparations for prolonged warfare. Throughout the 1930s the Soviet Union underwent massive industrialization and economic growth under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, Stalins central tenet, Socialism in one country, manifested itself as a series of nationwide centralized Five-Year Plans from 1929 onwards. It served as a testing ground for both the Wehrmacht and the Red Army to experiment with equipment and tactics that they would later employ on a wider scale in the Second World War
45.
Battle of France
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The Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries in 1940 during the Second World War. Italy entered the war on 10 June 1940 and attempted an invasion of France, the German plan for the invasion of France consisted of two main operations. After the withdrawal of the BEF, the German forces began Fall Rot on 5 June, the sixty remaining French divisions made a determined resistance but were unable to overcome the German air superiority and armoured mobility. German tanks outflanked the Maginot Line and pushed deep into France, German forces occupied Paris unopposed on 14 June after a chaotic period of flight of the French government that led to a collapse of the French army. German commanders met with French officials on 18 June with the goal of forcing the new French government to accept an armistice that amounted to surrender and this led to the end of the French Third Republic. France was not liberated until the summer of 1944, in 1939, Britain and France offered military support to Poland in the likely case of a German invasion. In the dawn of 1 September 1939, the German Invasion of Poland began, France and the United Kingdom declared war on 3 September, after an ultimatum for German forces to immediately withdraw their forces from Poland was met without reply. Following this, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada, on 7 September, in accordance with their alliance with Poland, France began the Saar Offensive with an advance from the Maginot Line 5 km into the Saar. France had mobilised 98 divisions and 2,500 tanks against a German force consisting of 43 divisions, the French advanced until they met the then thin and undermanned Siegfried Line. On 17 September, the French supreme commander, Maurice Gamelin gave the order to withdraw French troops to their starting positions, following the Saar Offensive, a period of inaction called the Phoney War set in between the belligerents. Adolf Hitler had hoped that France and Britain would acquiesce in the conquest of Poland, on 6 October, he made a peace offer to both Western powers. On 9 October, Hitler issued a new Führer-Directive Number 6, the plan was based on the seemingly more realistic assumption that German military strength would have to be built up for several years. For the moment only limited objectives could be envisaged and were aimed at improving Germanys ability to survive a long war in the west. Hitler ordered a conquest of the Low Countries to be executed at the shortest possible notice to forestall the French and it would also provide the basis for a long-term air and sea campaign against Britain. On 10 October 1939, Britain refused Hitlers offer of peace and on 12 October, colonel-General Franz Halder, presented the first plan for Fall Gelb on 19 October. This was the codename of plans for a campaign in the Low Countries. Halders plan has been compared to the Schlieffen Plan, the given to the German strategy of 1914 in the First World War. It was similar in both plans entailed an advance through the middle of Belgium
46.
Operation Barbarossa
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Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germanys invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II, which was launched on Sunday 22 June 1941. In the two leading up to the invasion, the two countries signed political and economic pacts for strategic purposes. Nevertheless, the German High Command began planning an invasion of the Soviet Union in July 1940, over the course of the operation, about four million Axis personnel invaded the western Soviet Union along a 2, 900-kilometer front, the largest invasion force in the history of warfare. In addition to troops, the Wehrmacht employed some 600,000 motor vehicles, the offensive marked an escalation of the war, both geographically and in the formation of the Allied coalition. Despite their successes, the German offensive stalled in the Battle of Moscow and was pushed back by the Soviet winter counteroffensive. The Red Army repelled the Wehrmachts strongest blows and forced the unprepared Germans into a war of attrition, the Wehrmacht would never again mount a simultaneous offensive along the entire strategic Soviet–Axis front. The failure of the operation drove Hitler to demand further operations of limited scope inside the Soviet Union, such as Case Blue. The failure of Operation Barbarossa proved a point in the fortunes of the Third Reich. Most importantly, the operation opened up the Eastern Front, in more forces were committed than in any other theater of war in world history. The German armies captured 5,000,000 Soviet prisoners of war who were not granted protections stipulated in the Geneva Conventions, a majority of them never returned alive. The Nazis deliberately starved 3.1 million of the prisoners to death as part of a Hunger Plan that aimed to reduce the population of Eastern Europe, over a million Soviet Jews were murdered by Einsatzgruppen death squads and gassing as part of the Holocaust. On 10 February 1939, Hitler told his commanders that the next war would be purely a war of Weltanschauungen. Totally a peoples war, a racial war, on 23 November, once World War II had already started, Hitler declared that racial war has broken out and this war shall determine who shall govern Europe, and with it, the world. The racial policy of Nazi Germany viewed the Soviet Union as populated by non-Aryan Untermenschen, Hitler claimed in Mein Kampf that Germanys destiny was to turn to the East as it did six hundred years ago. Accordingly, it was stated Nazi policy to kill, deport, or enslave the majority of Russian and other Slavic populations and repopulate the land with Germanic peoples, under the Generalplan Ost. Likening the Soviets to the forces of Genghis Khan, Hitler told Croatian military leader Slavko Kvaternik that the Mongolian race threatened Europe. Following the invasion, Wehrmacht officers told their soldiers to target people who were described as Jewish Bolshevik subhumans, the Mongol hordes, the Asiatic flood, German army commanders cast the Jews as the major cause behind the partisan struggle. The main guideline policy for German troops was Where theres a partisan, theres a Jew, many German troops viewed the war in Nazi terms and regarded their Soviet enemies as sub-human
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