Geography.

The town of Blankenburg (Harz) lies on the northern edge of the Harz mountains at a height of about 234 metres. It is located west of Quedlinburg, south of Halberstadt and east of Wernigerode. The stream known as the Goldbach flows through the district of Oesig northwest of the town centre.

Borough divisions.

The borough includes the following parishes:  In addition there are the following unofficial names for districts in the town:

Neighbouring settlements.

Clockwise from the north:

History.

The first traces of settlement date to the Old Stone Age, but the first recorded mention of Blankenburg goes back to 1123. The Saxon duke, Lothair of Supplinburg, installed Poppo, a nephew of Bishop Reinhard of Halberstadt, as count at the castle, which stood on a bare limestone rock on the site of the present castle. The name of the town derives from this castle.  Count Poppo I of Blankenburg very probably came from the Frankish noble family of Reginbodonen. His descendants were also subject to the nearby Regenstein Castle. This was a fief from the Bishopric of Halberstadt like the County of Blankenburg, also called the "Hartingau". In 1180/82 Frederick Barbarossa had Blankenburg devastated because it had pledged "sole allegiance" to the Welf, Henry the Lion. In 1386 Blankenburg suffered heavy destruction again.  Following the death of the last count of Regenstein, John Ernest, the county went in 1599 as an agreed enfeoffment ("") back to the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg. During the Thirty Years' War Blankenburg was hard pressed by Wallenstein and was occupied in 1625. Nine cannonballs embedded in the walls of the town hall evince this difficult time.  The dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg turned the place into a secondary residence in the 17th century and it enjoyed its heyday under Duke Louis Rudolf (1690–1731), the second son of Anthony Ulrich of Wolfenbüttel. Rudolf was given Blankenburg in 1707 as a "". At the same time the County of Blankenburg was elevated to the status of an imperial principality ("Reichsfürstentum") which was ruled independently until 1731, but then, because Louis Rudolf became a duke, was reunited with Brunswick where it remained. The present-day Little Castle with its terraced garden and Baroque pleasure garden stems from that period. From 1807 to 1813 Blankenburg belonged to the Kingdom of Westphalia.  In the Seven Years' War the absolute neutrality of the town made it a safe refuge for the Brunswick court. Louis XVIII also stayed in Blankenburg under the name of Count of Lille from 24 August 1796 to 10 February 1798, after his escape from Dillingen.  In the early days of Nazi era, those who opposed the Nazi regime were persecuted and murdered. In a notorious campaign by Brunswick SS commander, Jeckeln, in September 1933, 140 communists and social democrats were herded together in the inn, "Zur Erholung". Here and in the "Blankenburger Hof" they were severely beaten, some dying as a result. During the Second World War the Blankenburg-Oesig subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp was set up in the Dr. Dasch (Harzer Werke) Monastery Works and, shortly thereafter, subordinated to Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. Here some 500 prisoners had to carry out forced labour in the monastery factory and Oda Works. In addition, there was a work camp run by the Gestapo for "half-Jews" who were forced to do hard labour. Another camp was occupied in February 1945 by inmates of the Auschwitz subcamp of Fürstengrube and managed as Blankenburg Regenstein subcamp.  As part of the division of Germany into occupation zones in 1945, Blankenburg district was actually assigned to the British zone in accordance with the Potsdam Conference and London Protocol. But because the larger eastern part of the district was linked to the rest of the British zone only by a road and a railway, the boundary was adjusted and Blankenburg incorporated into the Soviet zone. The largest part of the district thus ended up later in East Germany and became part of the state of Saxony-Anhalt. The main part of the former Free State of Brunswick went to the British zone and thus became part of Lower Saxony.  The tunnels of the Regenstein-Blankenburg facility were used from 1974 by the National People's Army (NVA) in the GDR as a large ammunition depot. In 1992 the Bundeswehr were given the 8 km long tunnel system and established there, "the largest underground pharmacy in the world", both for routine Bundeswehr missions, but also for disaster relief around the world and for cases of serious military "operations".

Jewish life in Blankenburg.

At end of the 12th century, the abbess of Quedlinburg pledged estates to Blankenburg Jews. These appear at the time to have been both in Blankenburg and in Quedlinburg. Whether there was a synagogue in Blankenburg in the Middle Ages, is not clear.  In modern times, there was no longer a synagogue in Blankenburg. On Saturdays several Jewish families met at "Chrons" for the Sabbath, including the families of the businessmen Alexander Meyer, Moritz Westfeld and Conrad Hesse, as well as Anna Ewh and Lydia Rhynarsewsky. In the wake of "Kristallnacht" on 9 November 1938, Jews were deported from Blankenburg to different camps. In the census on 17 May 1939 there were still twelve Jewish citizens registered, including five men.

Politics.

On 25 May 2009 the title "Ort der Vielfalt ("Place of Variety") was conferred on the town by the federal government.

Town council.

Since the local elections on 11 April 2010 the town council has been composed as follows:

Economy and infrastructure.

The most important economic factors for Blankenburg (Harz) are tourism and facilities for spa and health industry. In addition there are several small to medium sized businesses. The largest industrial concern in the town is the "Harzer Werke Motorentechnik" with about 60 employees, which grew out of a grey iron foundry founded in about 1870.

Transport.

Blankenburg (Harz) station is a terminus and has a bypass for goods traffic. There are connexions to Elbingerode (Rübeland Railway) (goods trains only) and Halberstadt. The Harz-Elbe Express has worked the line to Halberstadt since 15 December 2005. In the 20th century there was a line to Thale and Quedlinburg.  Blankenburg (Harz) is located next to the B 6n, a newly built dual carriageway, and is linked to it over two junctions: Blankenburg Ost and Blankenburg Zentrum. In addition the B 27 federal road runs southwest and the B 81 north to south through Blankenburg (Harz).

Culture and places of interest.

Theatre.

In the Great Castle is a theatre which is to be restored again.

Blankenburg (Harz) is a town and health resort in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, at the north foot of the Harz Mountains, southwest of Halberstadt.


Etymology.

The etymology of the word "gardening" refers to enclosure: it is from Middle English "gardin", from Anglo-French "gardin", "jardin", of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German "gard", "gart", an enclosure or compound, as in Stuttgart. See Grad (Slavic settlement) for more complete etymology. The words "yard", "court", and Latin "hortus" (meaning "garden," hence horticulture and orchard), are cognates—all referring to an enclosed space.  The term "garden" in British English refers to a small enclosed area of land, usually adjoining a building. This would be referred to as a yard in American English.

Design.

Garden design is the process of creating plans for the layout and planting of gardens and landscapes. Gardens may be designed by garden owners themselves, or by professionals. Professional garden designers tend to be trained in principles of design and horticulture, and have a knowledge and experience of using plants. Some professional garden designers are also landscape architects, a more formal level of training that usually requires an advanced degree and often a state license.  Elements of garden design include the layout of hard landscape, such as paths, rockeries, walls, water features, sitting areas and decking, as well as the plants themselves, with consideration for their horticultural requirements, their season-to-season appearance, lifespan, growth habit, size, speed of growth, and combinations with other plants and landscape features. Consideration is also given to the maintenance needs of the garden, including the time or funds available for regular maintenance, which can affect the choices of plants regarding speed of growth, spreading or self-seeding of the plants, whether annual or perennial, and bloom-time, and many other characteristics. Garden design can be roughly divided into two groups, formal and naturalistic gardens.  The most important consideration in any garden design is how the garden will be used, followed closely by the desired stylistic genres, and the way the garden space will connect to the home or other structures in the surrounding areas. All of these considerations are subject to the limitations of the budget. Budget limitations can be addressed by a simpler garden style with fewer plants and less costly hard landscape materials, seeds rather than sod for lawns, and plants that grow quickly; alternatively, garden owners may choose to create their garden over time, area by area.

Elements.

Most gardens consist of a mix of natural and constructed elements, although even very 'natural' gardens are always an inherently artificial creation. Natural elements present in a garden principally comprise flora (such as trees and weeds), fauna (such as arthropods and birds), soil, water, air and light. Constructed elements include paths, patios, decking, sculptures, drainage systems, lights and buildings (such as sheds, gazebos, pergolas and follies), but also living constructions such as flower beds, ponds and lawns.

Uses.

A garden can have aesthetic, functional, and recreational uses:

Types.

Gardens may feature a particular plant or plant type(s):  Gardens may feature a particular style or aesthetic:  Other types:

Other similar spaces.

Other outdoor spaces that are similar to gardens include:

Gardens and the environment.

Gardeners may cause environmental damage by the way they garden, or they may enhance their local environment. Damage by gardeners can include direct destruction of natural habitats when houses and gardens are created; indirect habitat destruction and damage to provide garden materials such as peat, rock for rock gardens, and by the use of tapwater to irrigate gardens; the death of living beings in the garden itself, such as the killing not only of slugs and snails but also their predators such as hedgehogs and song thrushes by metaldehyde slug killer; the death of living beings outside the garden, such as local species extinction by indiscriminate plant collectors; and climate change caused by greenhouse gases produced by gardening.

Climate change.

Climate change will have many impacts on gardens; some studies suggest most of them will be negative. Gardens also contribute to climate change. Greenhouse gases can be produced by gardeners in many ways. The three main greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Gardeners produce carbon dioxide directly by overcultivating soil and destroying soil carbon, by burning garden waste on bonfires, by using power tools which burn fossil fuel or use electricity generated by fossil fuels, and by using peat. Gardeners produce methane by compacting the soil and making it anaerobic, and by allowing their compost heaps to become compacted and anaerobic. Gardeners produce nitrous oxide by applying excess nitrogen fertiliser when plants are not actively growing so that the nitrogen in the fertiliser is converted by soil bacteria to nitrous oxide. Gardeners can help to prevent climate change in many ways, including the use of trees, shrubs, ground cover plants and other perennial plants in their gardens, turning garden waste into soil organic matter instead of burning it, keeping soil and compost heaps aerated, avoiding peat, switching from power tools to hand tools or changing their garden design so that power tools are not needed, and using nitrogen-fixing plants instead of nitrogen fertiliser.

Irrigation.

Some gardeners manage their gardens without using any water from outside the garden. Examples in Britain include Ventnor Botanic Garden on the Isle of Wight, and parts of Beth Chatto's garden in Essex, Sticky Wicket garden in Dorset, and the Royal Horticultural Society's gardens at Harlow Carr and Hyde Hall. Rain gardens absorb rainfall falling onto nearby hard surfaces, rather than sending it into stormwater drains. For irrigation, see rainwater, sprinkler system, drip irrigation, tap water, greywater, hand pump and watering can.

A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, or enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. The most common form today is a residential garden, but the term "garden" has traditionally been a more general one. Zoos, which display wild animals in simulated natural habitats, were formerly called zoological gardens. Western gardens are almost universally based on plants, with garden often signifying a shortened form of botanical garden. Some traditional types of eastern gardens, such as Zen gardens, use plants sparsely or not at all.


Early life.

Jähn was born on 13 February 1937 in Morgenröthe-Rautenkranz, in the Vogtland region of Saxony, Germany. From 1943 to 1951 he attended school in his hometown. He trained as a printer until 1954 and then managed the pioneer program in a local school.  On 26 April 1955 he joined the East German Air Force, where he became a pilot. From 1961 to 1963 he was deputy commander for political work as an adamant socialist and in 1965 became responsible for air tactics and air shooting. From 1966 to 1970 he studied at the Gagarin Air Force Academy in Monino, in the Soviet Union. From 1970 to 1976, he worked in the administration of the East German air force, responsible for pilot education and flight safety.

Space career.

On 25 November 1976, Jähn and his backup Eberhard Köllner were selected for the Interkosmos program. After a brief period of basic training, they devoted a year to mission-specific training. He trained in Star City near Moscow. He flew on board Soyuz 31, launched 26 August 1978 to the Soviet space station Salyut 6, where he conducted experiments in remote sensing of the earth, medicine, biology, materials science, and geophysics. After 124 orbits he returned on Soyuz 29 and landed on 3 September 1978, having spent 7 days, 20 hours, and 49 minutes in space. Because the Soviet and American space programs maintained distinctive vocabularies, he was referred to as a "cosmonaut" rather than an "astronaut". During and after the flight, the socialist authorities of the GDR acclaimed him as "the first German in space", emphasizing an East German victory over West Germany.  Upon his return he headed the East Germany Army's Cosmonaut Training Center near Moscow until German unification in 1990, when he left the East German military with the rank of major general. Jähn was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on 3 September 1978. In 1983 he received a doctorate at the in Potsdam, specialising in remote sensing of the earth. He was instrumental in forming the Association of Space Explorers. He was a founding member in 1985 and served for several years on its Executive Committee.

After space.

Starting in 1990, after Germany was reunited, he worked as a freelance consultant for the German Aerospace Center and from 1993 also for the European Space Agency (ESA) to prepare for the Euromir missions. He retired in 2002. In 2011, on the 50th anniversary of the first manned space flight by Yuri Gagarin, he explained to "Der Spiegel" that his taking a toy figure on his flight was not a personal choice. He took a, an animated character featured on an East German children's television show, in order to film material for the show. Because he and fellow cosmonaut Vladimir Kovalyonok joked about marrying another toy figure of the Russia mascot Masha, authorities found the material unsuitable for the public.

Personal life.

Jähn was married and had two children. He lived in Strausberg in the later part of his life and enjoyed reading and hunting. He died on 21 September 2019 at age 82.

Sigmund Werner Paul Jähn (; 13 February 1937 – 21 September 2019) was a German cosmonaut and pilot who in 1978 became the first German to fly into space as part of the Soviet Union's Interkosmos programme.


Etymology.

Originally known in Swiss German as "Birchermüesli" or simply "Müesli", the word is an Alemannic diminutive of "Mues" (non-Swiss Standard German: "Mus") which means "mush" or "purée".

History.

Muesli was not originally intended as a breakfast food, but as an appetiser similar to bread and butter. It was consumed as "Schweizer Znacht" (lit.: Swiss supper), but not as a breakfast cereal.  It was introduced around 1900 by Bircher-Benner for patients in his hospital, where a diet rich in fresh fruit and vegetables was an essential part of therapy. It was inspired by a similar "strange dish" that he and his wife had been served on a hike in the Swiss Alps.  Bircher-Benner himself referred to the dish simply as "d'Spys" (Swiss German for "the dish", in German "die Speise"); it was commonly known as "Apfeldiätspeise" (Apple Diet Meal). Bircher opened a chalet-style sanitorium in Zürichberg called "Lebendige Kraft" (lit.: lively power). These facilities had risen in popularity during the era of "lebensreform", a social movement which valued health foods and vegetarianism.

Recipes.

Original Bircher-Benner recipe.

The original Bircher-Benner recipe consists of the following ingredients:  The dish was prepared by mixing the cream and honey or condensed milk with the soaked oats and lemon juice and, while stirring, grating the whole apple into the mixture. This method prevented the apple pulp from browning. The intent was to serve the dish fresh, immediately before any other dishes in the meal.

Fresh muesli.

Muesli traditionally is freshly prepared using dried rolled oats or whole grain oats that have been soaked in water or fruit juice. Other common ingredients are grated or chopped fresh fruit (e.g., bananas, apples, berries, grapes, mango), dried fruit, milk products (e.g., fresh milk, yoghurt, cream, condensed milk, fromage frais, quark, cottage cheese, or nondairy milk substitutes), lemon juice, ground nuts, seeds, spices (especially cinnamon), honey and muesli mix.  The preparation of home-made muesli varies according to the tastes and preferences of the cook, but the basic proportions are around 80% grain, 10% nuts and seeds and 10% dried fruits. Some home cooks prefer to mix the dry ingredients ahead of time and store a batch of it in a container, adding wet ingredients such as fresh fruit, dairy products, honey and fruit juice immediately before serving.

Packaged muesli.

Packaged "muesli" is a loose mixture of mainly rolled oats or cornflakes together with various dried fruit pieces, nuts, and seeds – the main ingredients of any muesli. It commonly contains other rolled cereal grains such as wheat or rye flakes.  There are many varieties, which may also contain honey, spices, or chocolate. Dry packaged muesli can be stored for many months and served quickly after mixing with milk, filmjölk, yogurt, coffee, hot chocolate, fruit juice, or water. If desired, pieces of fresh fruit may be added. Alternatively, the mix may be soaked overnight in milk and then served with fresh fruit or compote to taste.  Cafes, restaurants and chefs in the English-speaking world often use the label bircher muesli to distinguish their dishes from the store-bought variety, indicating it has been prepared in a manner based on the original recipe - with grated fresh apple, lemon juice, cream and honey - rather than just being poured from a packet and having milk added. However, these dishes are usually a marked modification of the original recipe rather than a faithful reproduction. Many use orange or apple juice instead of lemon juice, and add other more exotic ingredients such as berries, grated fresh pears, poached or roasted fruit, vanilla essence and agave syrup.  Muesli has been associated from the beginning with health-conscious diets and back-to-nature lifestyles. In English-speaking countries, these connotations have led to the coinage of terms linking muesli to social liberalism and the middle classes. These include the British muesli belt and the American granola type.

Muesli ( ;, ) is a cold oatmeal dish based on rolled oats and ingredients like grains, nuts, seeds and fresh or dried fruits. This mix may be combined with one or more liquids like milk, almond milk, other plant milks, yogurt, or fruit juice and left for a time to soften the oats before being consumed.


Biography.

He was born in Molmerswende (now a part of Mansfeld), Principality of Halberstadt, where his father was the Lutheran pastor. He showed an early predilection for solitary and gloomy places and the making of verses, for which he had no other model than hymnals. At the age of twelve, Bürger was practically adopted by his maternal grandfather, Bauer, at Aschersleben, who sent him to the Pädagogium at Halle. He learned Latin with difficulty. In 1764 he passed to the University of Halle, as a student of theology, which, however, he soon abandoned for the study of jurisprudence. There he fell under the influence of Christian Adolph Klotz (1738–1771), who directed Bürger's attention to literature and encouraged his natural disposition to a wild and unregulated life. In consequence of his dissipated habits, he was in 1767 recalled by his grandfather, but on promising to reform was in 1768 allowed to enter the University of Göttingen as a law student.  As he continued his wild career, however, his grandfather withdrew his support and he was left to his own devices. Meanwhile, he had made fair progress with his legal studies, and had the good fortune to form a close friendship with a number of young men of literary tastes. He studied the ancient classics and the best works in French, Italian, Spanish and English, particularly Shakespeare, and the old English and Scottish ballads. Thomas Percy's "Reliques of Ancient English Poetry" was his constant companion. In the Göttingen "Musenalmanach", edited by Heinrich Christian Boie and Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter, Bürger's first poems were published, and by 1771 he had already become widely known as a poet. In 1772, through Boie's influence, Bürger obtained the post of "Amtmann" or district magistrate at Altengleichen near Göttingen. His grandfather was now reconciled to him, paid his debts and established him in his new sphere of activity.  Meanwhile, he kept in touch with his Göttingen friends, and when the "Göttinger Bund" or "Hain" ("Göttinger Hainbund") was formed, Bürger, though not himself a member, kept in close touch with it. In 1773, the ballad "Lenore" was published in the "Musenalmanach". This poem, which in dramatic force and in its vivid realization of the weird and supernatural remains without a rival, made his name a household word in Göttingen. "Lenore" was paraphrased by Walter Scott under the title "William and Helen" and Goethe did the same under the title "Bride of Corinth". In 1774 he married Dorette Leonhart, the daughter of a Hanoverian official; but his passion for his wife's younger sister Auguste (the "Molly" of his poems and elegies) rendered the union unhappy and unsettled his life. In 1778 Bürger became editor of the "Musenalmanach", a position he retained until his death. In the same year published the first collection of his poems. In 1780 he took a farm at Appenrode, but in three years lost so much money that he had to abandon the venture. Pecuniary troubles oppressed him, and being accused of neglecting his official duties, and feeling his honour attacked, he gave up his official position and removed in 1784 to Göttingen, where he established himself as "Privatdozent". Shortly before his removal there his wife died (July 30, 1784), and on June 29 in the next year he married his sister-in-law "Molly." Her death in childbirth on January 9, 1786 affected him deeply. He appeared to lose at once all courage and all bodily and mental vigour. He still continued to teach in Göttingen; at the jubilee of the foundation of the university in 1787 he was made an honorary doctor of philosophy, and in 1789 was appointed extraordinary professor in that faculty, though without a stipend. He was obliged to gain his living by poorly rewarded translations for booksellers.  In 1790, he married a third time, his wife being a certain Elise Hahn, who, enchanted with his poems, had offered him her heart and hand. Only a few weeks of married life with his "Schwabenmädchen" sufficed to prove his mistake, and after two and a half years he divorced her. Deeply wounded by Schiller's criticism, in the 14th and 15th part of the "Allgemeine Literaturzeitung" of 1791, of the second edition of his poems, disappointed, wrecked in fortune and health, Bürger eked out a precarious existence as a teacher in Göttingen until, ill with tuberculosis, he died there on June 8, 1794. The government of Hanover afforded him some assistance shortly before his death.  Bürger's talent for popular poetry was very considerable, and his ballads are among the finest in the German language. Besides "Lenore", "Das Lied vom braven Manne", "Die Kuh", "Der Kaiser und der Abt" and "Der wilde Jäger" are famous. Among his purely lyrical poems, but few have earned a lasting reputation; but mention may be made of "Das Blümchen Wunderhold", "Lied an den lieben Mond", and a few love songs. His sonnets, particularly the elegies, are of great beauty. Bürger revived the sonnet form in German, and his experiments in it were praised as models by Schiller, despite his severe criticism of some of Bürger's more popular poems.

Editions.

Editions of Bürger's "Sämtliche Schriften" appeared at Göttingen, 1817 (incomplete); 1829—1833 (8 vols.), and 1835 (one vol.); also a selection by Eduard Grisebach (5th ed, 1894). The "Gedichte" have been published in innumerable editions, the best being that by August Sauer (2 vols., 1884). "Briefe von und an Bürger" were edited by Adolf Strodtmann in 4 vols. (1874). Bürger was introduced to English readers in "William and Helen" (1775), Walter Scott's version of "Lenore". The elder Dumas translated "Lenore" into French.  Bürger is known for German translations of "Baron Munchausen’s narrative of his marvellous travels and campaigns in Russia" by Rudolf Erich Raspe (1786, after the release of the 4th English edition; 2nd expanded ed. 1788, after the release of the 5th expanded English edition). In his introduction to the 1788 German edition, Bürger admitted to adapting and elaborating the original English-language works, and, despite his clear notice that he was doing a translation, for some time Bürger was believed to be the author of the tales. Raspe had originally concealed his authorship.

Gottfried August Bürger (December 31, 1747 – June 8, 1794) was a German poet. His ballads were very popular in Germany. His most noted ballad, "Lenore", found an audience beyond readers of the German language in an English and Russian adaptation and a French translation.


Early life.

Dutschke was born in Schönefeld (present-day Nuthe-Urstromtal) near Luckenwalde, Brandenburg, the 4th son of a postal clerk. Raised in East Germany (GDR), he attended school and graduated from the "Gymnasium" there. Interested in the ideas of religious socialism, he was engaged in the youth organisation of the East German Evangelical Church. In 1956 he joined the socialist Free German Youth aiming at a sporting career as a decathlete.  In the same year he witnessed the Hungarian Uprising and began to advocate the ideals of a democratic socialism beyond the official line of the Socialist Unity Party. He obtained his "Abitur" degree in 1958 and completed an apprenticeship as an industrial clerk. As he refused to join the East Germany National People's Army and convinced many of his fellow students to refuse as well, he was prevented from attending university in the GDR. In August 1961, Dutschke fled to the Marienfelde transit camp in West Berlin, just three days before the Berlin Wall was built.  He began to study sociology, ethnology, philosophy and history at the Free University of Berlin under Richard Löwenthal and Klaus Meschkat where he became acquainted with the existentialist theories of Martin Heidegger and Jean-Paul Sartre, and soon after also with alternative views of Marxism and the history of the labour movement. Dutschke joined the German SDS "Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund" (which was not the same as the SDS in the US, but quite similar in goals) in 1965 and from that time on the SDS became the center of the student movement, growing very rapidly and organizing demonstrations against the war in Vietnam.  He married the American Gretchen Klotz () in 1966. They had three children. Dutschke's third child, 1980-born Rudi-Marek Dutschke was born after his father's death. He is a politician of the German Green Party as well as Dean's Office staffer of the Hertie School of Governance today. His older siblings are Hosea-Che Dutschke (named after the Old Testament minor prophet Hosea and Che Guevara) and their sister Polly-Nicole, both born in 1968.

Political views.

Influenced by critical theory, Rosa Luxemburg, and critical Marxists and informed through his collaboration with fellow students from Africa and Latin America, Dutschke developed a theory and code of practice of social change via the practice of developing democracy in the process of revolutionizing society, collaborating with foreign students.  Dutschke also advocated that the transformation of Western societies should go hand in hand with Third World liberation movements and with democratization in communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. He was from a pious Lutheran family and his socialism had strongly Christian roots; he called Jesus Christ the "greatest revolutionary", and in Easter 1963, he wrote that "Jesus is risen. The decisive revolution in world history has happened – a revolution of all-conquering love. If people would fully receive this revealed love into their own existence, into the reality of the 'now', then the logic of insanity could no longer continue."  Benno Ohnesorg's death in 1967 at the hands of German police pushed some in the student movement toward increasingly extremist violence and the formation of the Red Army Faction. The violence against Dutschke further radicalised parts of the student movement into committing several bombings and murders. Dutschke rejected this direction and feared that it would harm or cause the dissolution of the student movement. Instead he advocated a 'long march through the institutions' of power to create radical change from within government and society by becoming an integral part of the machinery. The meaning of Dutschke's idea of a "long march through the institutions" is in fact highly contested: most historians of '68 in West Germany understand it to mean advocating setting up an alternative society and recreating the institutions which were seen by Dutschke as beyond reform in their current state. It is highly unlikely Dutschke would have promoted change from within the parliamentary and judicial system, which were populated by former Nazis and political conservatives. This is made clear in the SDS reaction to the Kiesinger-led CDU-SPD grand coalition and the authoritarian Emergency Laws they passed.

Shooting and later life.

On 11 April 1968, Dutschke was shot in the head by a young anti-communist, Josef Bachmann. Dutschke survived the assassination attempt, and he and his family went to the United Kingdom in the hope that he could recuperate there. Dutschke and Bachmann shared correspondence over the next year, until Bachmann's suicide in 1970. Dutschke was accepted at Clare Hall, a graduate college at the University of Cambridge, to finish his degree in 1969, but in 1971 the Conservative government under Edward Heath expelled him and his family as an "undesirable alien" who had engaged in "subversive activity", causing a political storm in London. They then moved to Århus, Denmark, after professor Johannes Sløk had offered him a job at the University of Aarhus which made it possible for Dutschke to gain a Danish residence permit.  Dutschke re-entered the German political scene after protests against the building of nuclear power plants activated a new movement in the mid-1970s. He also began working with dissidents opposing the Communist governments in East Germany, Poland, Yugoslavia, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, including Robert Havemann, Wolf Biermann, Milan Horáček, Adam Michnik and others.  Because of brain damage sustained in the assassination attempt, Dutschke continued to suffer health problems. He died on 24 December 1979 in Århus. He had an epileptic seizure while in the bathtub and drowned.  In 2018, it emerged that Rudolf Augstein, publisher of "Der Spiegel", provided financial support to Dutschke so he could continue to work on his dissertations. Between 1970 and 1973, he paid 1,000 German Marks per year. At the same time they started an exchange of letters in which they also discussed the student revolts.

Alfred Willi Rudolf "Rudi" Dutschke (; 7 March 1940 – 24 December 1979) was a German Marxist sociologist and a political activist in the German student movement and the APO protest movement of the 1960s.


History.

Before the early nineteenth century, books were hand-bound, in the case of luxury medieval manuscripts in treasure bindings using materials such as gold, silver and jewels. For hundreds of years, book bindings had functioned as a protective device for the expensively printed or hand-made pages, and as a decorative tribute to their cultural authority. In the 1820s great changes began to occur in how a book might be covered, with the gradual introduction of techniques for mechanical book-binding. Cloth, and then paper, became the staple materials used when books became so cheap—thanks to the introduction of steam-powered presses and mechanically produced paper—that to have them hand-bound became disproportionate to the cost of the book itself.  Not only were the new types of book-covers cheaper to produce, they were also printable, using multi-colour lithography, and later, halftone illustration processes. Techniques borrowed from the nineteenth-century poster-artists gradually infiltrated the book industry, as did the professional practice of graphic design. The book cover became more than just a protection for the pages, taking on the function of advertising, and communicating information about the text inside.

Cover design.

The Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau movements at the turn of the twentieth century stimulated a modern renaissance in book cover design that soon began to infiltrate the growing mass book industry through the more progressive publishers in Europe, London and New York. Some of the first radically modern cover designs were produced in the Soviet Union during the 1920s by avant-gardists such as Alexander Rodchenko and El Lissitzky. Another highly influential early book cover designer was Aubrey Beardsley, thanks to his striking covers for the first four volumes of "The Yellow Book" (1894–5).  In the post-war era, book covers have become vitally important as the book industry has become commercially competitive. Covers now give detailed hints about the style, genre and subject of the book, while many push design to its limit in the hope of attracting sales attention.  This can differ from country to country because of other tastes of the markets. So translated books can also have different book-accessories such as toys belonging to children's books, for example "Harry Potter".  The era of internet sales has arguably not diminished the importance of the book cover, as it now continues its role in a two-dimensional digital form, helping to identify and promote books online.  Wraparound covers are also common.

A book cover is any protective covering used to bind together the pages of a book. Beyond the familiar distinction between hardcovers and paperbacks, there are further alternatives and additions, such as dust jackets, ring-binding, and older forms such as the nineteenth-century "paper-boards" and the traditional types of hand-binding. The term "Bookcover" is often used for a book cover image in library management software. This article is concerned with modern mechanically produced covers.


Process.

In intaglio printing, the lines to be printed are cut into a metal (e.g. copper) plate by means either of a cutting tool called a burin, held in the hand – in which case the process is called "engraving"; or through the corrosive action of acid – in which case the process is known as "etching". In etching, for example, the plate is pre-covered in a thin, acid-resistant resin or wax "ground". Using etching needles or burins, the artist or writer (etcher) engraves their image (therefore to be only where the plate beneath is exposed). The plate's ground side is then dipped into acid, or the acid poured onto it. The acid bites into the surface of the plate where it was exposed. Biting is a printmaking term to describe the acid's etching, or incising, of the image; its duration depends on the acid strength, metal's reactivity, temperature, air pressure and the depth desired. After the plate is sufficiently bitten it is removed from the acid bath, the ground is removed gently and the plate is usually dried or cleaned.  To print an intaglio plate, ink or inks are painted, wiped and/or dabbed into the recessed lines (such as with brushes/rubber gloves/rollers). The plate is then rubbed with tarlatan cloth to remove most of its waste (surface ink) and a final smooth wipe is often done with newspaper or old public phone book pages, leaving it in the incisions. Dampened imprint (product) paper will usually be fed against the plate, covered by a blanket, so when pressed by rolling press it is squeezed into the plate's ink-filled grooves with uniform very high pressure. The blanket is then lifted, revealing the paper and printed image. The final stages repeat for each copy needed.

Brief history.

Intaglio printmaking emerged in Europe well after the woodcut print, with the earliest known surviving examples being undated designs for playing cards made in Germany, using drypoint technique, probably in the late 1430s. Engraving had been used by goldsmiths to decorate metalwork, including armor, musical instruments and religious objects since ancient times, and the niello technique, which involved rubbing an alloy into the lines to give a contrasting color, also goes back to late antiquity. Scholars and practitioners of printmaking have suggested that the idea of making prints from engraved plates may well have originated with goldsmiths' practices of taking an impression on paper of a design engraved on an object, in order to keep a record of their work, or to check the quality.  Martin Schongauer was one of the earliest known artists to exploit the copper-engraving technique, and Albrecht Dürer is one of the most famous intaglio artists. Italian and Dutch engraving began slightly after the Germans, but were well developed by 1500. Drypoint and etching were also German inventions of the fifteenth century, probably by the Housebook Master and Daniel Hopfer respectively.  In the nineteenth century, Viennese printer Karel Klíč introduced a combined intaglio and photographic process. Photogravure retained the smooth continuous tones of photography but was printed using a chemically-etched copper plate. This permitted a photographic image to be printed on regular paper, for inclusion in books or albums.  In the 1940s and 1950s the Italian security printer Gualtiero Giori brought intaglio printing into the era of high-technology by developing the first ever six-colour intaglio printing press, designed to print banknotes which combined more artistic possibilities with greater security.

Current use.

At one time intaglio printing was used for all mass-printed materials including banknotes, stock certificates, newspapers, books, maps and magazines, fabrics, wallpapers and sheet music. Today intaglio engraving is largely used for paper or plastic currency, banknotes, passports and occasionally for high-value postage stamps. The appearance of engraving is sometimes mimicked for items such as wedding invitations by producing an embossment around lettering printed by another process (such as lithography or offset) to suggest the edges of an engraving plate.

Intaglio (, ) is the family of printing and printmaking techniques in which the image is incised into a surface and the incised line or sunken area holds the ink. It is the direct opposite of a relief print.


Early life.

Wowereit was born in West Berlin. Until 1973, Wowereit attended the Ulrich-von-Hutten-Oberschule in Berlin-Lichtenrade. Afterwards, he studied law at the Free University Berlin (State Exams, 1981 and 1984).

Political career.

After three years as a civil servant in the Senate office of the Interior, Wowereit stood for election as municipal councillor in the Tempelhof district. At the age of 30, he was, therefore, the youngest councilor in the city of Berlin. After eleven years as a District Councillor he stood for the Berlin House of Representatives (Abgeordnetenhaus von Berlin) which serves as the City's State Parliament in 1995. In December 1999, he was elected chairman of the SPD parliamentary group in the Abgeordnetenhaus.

Mayor of Berlin, 2001–2014.

Since June 2001 he served as Governing Mayor ("") of Berlin. Previously, the SPD had left the grand coalition with the CDU and initiated new elections. After this election and following long-time negotiations, Wowereit finally started a coalition with the PDS.  In the elections held on 17 September 2006, Wowereit's SPD finished as the strongest party with a plurality of 30.8%. A coalition with Die Linke was continued. However the 16th Abgeordnetenhaus re-elected Wowereit as Governing Mayor on 23 November 2006, in the second ballot with only a 75:74 majority. CDU, Free Democrats and the Green Party voted against him. In the elections held on 18 September 2011 he and his party were again the strongest party.  Throughout his tenure, public discussions on the integration of Germany's largely Muslim immigrant population featured prominently. In 2011 he published "Mut zur Integration – für ein neues Miteinander" ("Courage for integration - for a new together"), a book written in response to the controversial book "Germany Abolishes Itself" written by his former State Minister of Finance Thilo Sarrazin. That same year, he appointed Turkish-origin politician Dilek Kolat Senator for Labour, Integration and Women. In May 2012, Wowereit named Şermin Langhoff artistic director of the Maxim Gorki Theater.  In the negotiations to form a "Grand Coalition" of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian CSU) and the SPD following the 2013 federal elections, Wowereit led the SPD delegation in the working group on cultural and media affairs; his counterpart of the CDU was Michael Kretschmer.  On 26 August 2014 Wowereit announced that he would resign his position as of 11 December 2014. At the time of his resignation, he was the longest-serving head of a German state.

Resignation and Berlin-Brandenburg Airport debacle.

On 21 October 2003 Wowereit became one of four members representing the "Land" of Berlin in the supervisory board of the project to build the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport. In 2006, he was elected chairman of the board. However, on 7 January 2013, Wowereit relinquished his chairmanship after the continuing delay of the airport's opening date. The prime minister of the "Land" of Brandenburg, Matthias Platzeck was appointed as his successor. Wowereit survived a vote of no confidence brought against him in the Berlin House of Representatives on 12 January. When Platzeck gave up his political offices for health reasons in July 2013, Wowereit was eventually appointed chairman again, despite much criticism. Critics have accused Wowereit of being responsible for the various delays and cost overruns of the airport project. He has been accused of being blind to looming problems, and reacting angrily to unfavorable reports. Also, he is said to have filled the board with political friends rather than professionals.  Wowereit announced his intention to resign at the end of 2014 due to the airport delays saying it was the "biggest failure" of his term in office, but that there were also other "several difficult times here."

Life after politics.

Alongside Jutta Allmendinger, Wowereit co-chaired an independent expert commission on gender-based discrimination at Germany's Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency from 2015 until 2016. In 2017, he briefly arbitrated wage negotiations between Eurowings and UFO, a flight attendant trade union.

Personal life.

Wowereit is the youngest child in his family, with two other brothers and two sisters, who grew up without a father. One of his brothers supported his studies and later he took care of his brother, who was paralyzed after an accident, as well as his mother, who was suffering from cancer.  Wowereit is one of the most famous German politicians who is openly gay. In coming out, prior to the 2001 mayoral elections, he coined the now famous German phrase "" ("I'm gay, and that's a good thing.") In his autobiography, Wowereit states that his decision to come out in public was made because after his nomination as candidate to become the Mayor of Berlin, he felt that the German tabloids were already "on the right track". With his coming out, Wowereit wanted to beat the tabloids to it and prevent them from writing wild, sensational and fabricated stories about his private life. Wowereit said those now famous words during a convention of the Berlin SPD. After the end of his speech, there was half a second of surprised silence, then spontaneous cheering and loud applause to support him.  In a 2010 interview with "Time magazine" he said that coming out may actually have strengthened his campaign.  His election as mayor made Berlin one of three major European cities with an openly gay mayor, along with Paris, whose mayor was Bertrand Delanoë, and Hamburg, whose mayor was Ole von Beust at that time, who both also took office in 2001. However, von Beust resigned in 2010 and Delanoë left office in 2014, making Wowereit the only gay mayor of a major European and German city. Berlin being the largest and Hamburg being the second largest city in Germany, they are also German states in their own right, having made both Wowereit and von Beust also state premiers.  In September 2007, Wowereit published an autobiographical book titled """", after his famous coming-out phrase ().  Wowereit's civil partner, Jörn Kubicki, was a neurosurgeon. They were in a relationship from 1993 to March 2020 when Kubicki died as a result of a Covid-19-infection.

Klaus Wowereit (born 1 October 1953) is a German politician, member of the SPD (Social Democratic Party), and was the Governing Mayor of Berlin from 21 October 2001 to 11 December 2014. In 2001 state elections his party won a plurality of the votes, 29.7%. He served as President of the Bundesrat (the fourth highest office in Germany) in 2001/02. His SPD-led coalition was re-elected in the 2006 elections; after the 2011 elections the SPD's coalition partner changed from the Left to the Christian Democratic Union. He was also sometimes mentioned as a possible SPD candidate for the Chancellorship of Germany ("Kanzlerkandidatur"), but that never materialized.


Periods through history.

Pre-history.

Humans had settled in the region by the (Lower Paleolithic) (2.5mil – 300,000 BP). Several Paleolithic cultures settled here, including Acheulean, Micoquien, Mousterian, and Aurignacian. The Předmostí archaeological site near Brno is dated to between 24,000 and 27,000 years old. The figurines (Venus of Dolní Věstonice) found here are the oldest known ceramic articles in the world.

Early tribes.

The area was settled by the Celts (called Boii, who gave the name to the region: Bohemia, which means more or less "the home of the Boii") from 5th century BCE until 2nd century CE and from 1st century by various Germanic tribes (Marcomanni, Quadi, Lombards). Germanic towns are described on the Map of Ptolemaios in the 2nd century, e.g. Coridorgis for Jihlava. Those tribes migrated to the West in 5th century and then came Slavs.

Arrival of the Slavs.

The first Slavic people (Czech tribes in Bohemia and Moravians in Moravia) arrived in the 6th century. According to historian Dušan Třeštík, they advanced through the Moravian Gate ("Moravská brána") valley and in the year 530 moved into Eastern Bohemia, along the rivers Labe (Elbe) and Vltava (Moldau) further into Central Bohemia. Many historians support the theory of a further wave of Slavs coming from the south during the first half of the 7th century. They fought with neighboring Avars until the rise of the empire of Samo (see below).

Samo's realm.

According to the Chronicle of Fredegar, some of the Slavs living on what is now Czech territory, mainly in southern Moravia, were exposed for a number of years to violence and marauding raids from the Avars, whose empire stretched across the territory of present-day Hungary. In 623, the Slavic tribes revolted against the oppression of the Avars. During this time, the Frankish merchant Samo allegedly came to the Czech lands with his entourage and joined with the Slavs to defeat the Avars. Thus the Slavs adopted Samo as their ruler. "So it happened that he self-founded the first Slavic empire. He married the then twelve Slavic women had with them twenty-two sons and fifteen daughters and happily ruled for 35 years. All other fights, which under his leadership Slavs fought with the Avars, were victorious," the Frankish chronicler Reich (called Fredegar) wrote about Samo in the oldest extant written report by the Slavs in the Czech lands.  Later Samo and the Slavs came into conflict with the Frankish empire whose ruler Dagobert I wanted to extend his rule to the east, but Dagobert was defeated in the memorable battle of Wogastisburg in 631. To this day, historians are searching in vain for this stronghold's actual location. Over the next five years Samo and the Slavs undertook raids on Frankish territory, but no one knows exactly how far to the northeast Samo's power eventually reached, probably beyond the boundaries of today's Czech Republic. After Samo's death, his empire seems to have disappeared; in fact, however, there never was a real state structure with solid organization. The empire was created to unite Slavs to defend against Avars and Franks and to facilitate Slavic plundering expeditions against their neighbors. Once the Avar and Frankish danger had passed, the united empire disintegrated and the fragmented territories were ruled by Samo's various followers. These remnants continued their further development and became the core foundation for the future Great Moravian Empire.

Great Moravia.

A Slavic state Great Moravia was created by the ancestors of the Czechs, Slovaks and Poles and its core area lay on both sides of the Morava river.

Duchy of Bohemia and Kingdom of Bohemia to 1526.

The Duchy of Bohemia established in the 9th century raised to a Kingdom in 1198. The country reached its greatest territorial extent and is considered as the Golden Age.

Bohemian Estates against Habsburg absolutism.

Ferdinand II, who ruled 1619–1637, sharply curtailed the power of the largely Protestant representative assembly known as the "Bohemian Estates". He confiscated lands of Protestant nobles and gave them to his Catholic friends and to the generals who led the foreign mercenaries he employed.

Czechoslovakia.

The Kingdom of Bohemia officially ceased to exist in 1918 when the Czecho-Slovak Republic was declared, a merger of the lands of the Bohemian Crown, Slovakia, and Carpathian Ruthenia. Czechoslovakia before WW2 remained the only democracy in central and eastern Europe.

Second Republic / Occupation.

The large German population of the Czech lands was expelled after fall of Nazi Germany and of its occupation of Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovaks were now almost homogenous in their composition, dominated by ethnic Czechs and Slovaks.

The Czech Republic.

On 1 January 1993, the Velvet Divorce occurred, whereby two separate states were created out of the former Czechoslovakia: the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. The Czech Republic became a member of NATO in 1999, and the European Union in May 2004.

See also.

Lists:  General:

The history of what are now known as the Czech lands () is very diverse. These lands have changed hands many times, and have been known by a variety of different names. Up until the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy after the First World War, the lands were known as the lands of the Bohemian Crown and formed a constituent state of that empire: the Kingdom of Bohemia (in Czech: "Království české", the word "Bohemia" is a Latin term for "Čechy").


History.

Up until 1945, the modern-day towns of Zgorzelec and Görlitz were a single entity; their history up to that point is shared. The date of the town's foundation is unknown.

Middle Ages to 19th C.

Zgorzelec/Görlitz was first mentioned in 1071 as a small Sorbian village named Gorelic in the region of Upper Lusatia. It was conquered by Polish Duke, and future King, Bolesław I the Brave in 1002, and was part of Poland during the reign of the first Polish kings Bolesław I the Brave and Mieszko II Lambert until 1031, when the region briefly fell again to the Margraviate of Meissen, and soon after became a part of Bohemia. In the 13th century the village gradually turned into a town. It became rich due to its location on the Via Regia, an ancient and medieval trade road. In 1319 it became part of the Piast-ruled Duchy of Jawor, and later on, became part of Bohemia again.  In the following centuries, from 1346, it was a wealthy member of the Six-City League of Upper Lusatia, consisting of the six Lusatian cities Bautzen, Görlitz, Kamenz, Lauban, Löbau and Zittau. The town of Gorlice in southern Poland was founded during the reign of Casimir the Great in 1354 by ethnic German colonists from Görlitz, in the last phases of eastward settlement by Germans (in this case by Walddeutsche). In the 15th century, the city came under Hungarian rule, but eventually returned to Bohemia. After suffering for years in the Thirty Years' War, the region of Upper Lusatia (including Görlitz) passed to Saxony (1635), whose Electors were also Kings of Poland from 1697. One of the two main routes connecting Warsaw and Dresden ran through the city at that time.  In 1815, after the Napoleonic Wars, the Congress of Vienna awarded Görlitz to the Kingdom of Prussia and subsequently the city became part of the German Empire in 1871. The city was a part of the Prussian province of Silesia from 1815 to 1919.

20th century.

After the abolition of the Kingdom of Prussia in the aftermath of World War I, Görlitz became a part of the newly established Province of Lower Silesia in the Free State of Prussia.  During World War II a German prisoner-of-war camp, Stalag VIII-A was located in present-day territory of Zgorzelec. The French composer Olivier Messiaen was one of its inmates.  The Treaty of Zgorzelec, between Poland and East Germany, was signed in the city's community center in 1950. The establishment of the Oder-Neisse line as the Polish-East German border divided Görlitz (lying on the Neisse) between the two countries. The German part retained the name Görlitz, while the Polish part became Zgorzelec. The German and Sorbian population was expelled from Zgorzelec. New Polish and Greek settlers arrived in the town. Starting in 1948, some 10,000 Greek Refugees of the Greek Civil War, mainly communist partisans, were allowed into Poland and settled mainly in Zgorzelec. There were Greek schools, a Greek retirement home and even a factory reserved for Greek employees. The majority of those refugees later returned to Greece, but a part remains to this day (see Greeks in Poland). The Greek community of Zgorzelec was instrumental in the building of The Orthodox church of Ss Constantine and Helen in 2002. Since 1999, an annual international Greek Song Festival has been held in Zgorzelec.

Recent history.

Since the fall of communism in 1989, Zgorzelec and Görlitz have developed a close political relationship. Two of the numerous bridges over the Neisse river that had been blown up by retreating German forces in World War II have been rebuilt, reconnecting the two towns with one bus line. There is also common urban management and annual common sessions of both town councils. In 2006 the towns jointly applied to be the European Capital of Culture in 2010. It was hoped that the jury would be convinced by the concept of Polish-German cooperation, but the award fell to Essen, with Görlitz/Zgorzelec in second place.

Transport.

Zgorzelec is served by two railway stations, Zgorzelec in the southern part of the town, and Zgorzelec Miasto in the eastern part.

Sports.

Turów Zgorzelec men's basketball team until 2018 played in the Polish Basketball League (top division). In 2014 Turów won its only national championship and qualified to the Euroleague for the first time.

Twin towns – sister cities.

Zgorzelec is twinned with:

Zgorzelec (,,, ) is a town in southwestern Poland with 30,374 inhabitants (2019). It lies in Lower Silesian Voivodeship (in 1975–1998 it was in the former Jelenia Góra Voivodeship). It is the seat of Zgorzelec County and of Gmina Zgorzelec (although it is not part of the territory of the latter, as the town is an urban gmina in its own right). Zgorzelec is located on the Lusatian Neisse river, on the post-1945 Polish-German Neisse border adjoining the German town of Görlitz, of which it constituted the eastern part up to 1945.


Administrative divisions.

The South Moravian Region is divided into 7 districts (Czech: "okres"): There are in total 673 municipalities in the region, of which 49 have the status of towns. There are 21 municipalities with extended powers and 34 municipalities with a delegated municipal office.  The region is famous for its wine production. The area around the towns of Mikulov, Znojmo, Velké Pavlovice along with the Slovácko region provide 94% of the Czech Republic's vineyards.

Population.

The region has approximately 1,188,000 inhabitants. The net migration has been positive in all years since 2003, reaching its peak in 2007 when it reached 7,374 people. Since 2007 the region has also experienced natural population growth. In 2012 there were 37 thousand foreigners living in the region, forming 3.2% of the total population of the region.  The average age of citizens in the region was 42.4 years in 2019. The average age has grown by 5 years over the last two decades. The life expectancy at birth in 2012 was 75.2 years for men and 81.7 years for women. Life expectancy has been growing over recent years. The divorce-marriage ratio in the region was 60.3 in 2012.  One third of the region's population lives in the capital Brno. The share of inhabitants living in towns and cities on the total population of the region has been steadily decreasing due to suburbanization. The table below displays 12 municipalities with the highest number of inhabitants in the region (as of 1 January 2019):

Geography.

With an area of 7,187.8 km2 the South Moravian Region is the fourth largest region of the Czech Republic. The highest point of the region is located in the eastern part on Durda mountain (842 m). The point with the lowest elevation (150 m) is situated in Břeclav District at the meeting of the rivers Morava and Dyje.  The northern and north-western part of the region is covered by the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands (Czech: "Českomoravská vrchovina") and the Moravian Karst. There is an extensive cave complex in the Moravian Karst with a 138.5 m depth in the Macocha Gorge in the Punkva Caves. In the eastern part, the region reaches to the Carpathian Mountains. The Bohemian-Moravian Highlands and the Carpathian Mountains are separated by the Lower-Moravian Valley (Czech: "Dolnomoravský úval"). The southern part of the region is predominantly flat and dominated by fields, meadows, and the remainders of riparian forests.  The largest river of the region is the Morava river. Other significant rivers are the Dyje, Svratka (and its tributary the Svitava), which are all tributaries of the Morava river. The whole region belongs to the drainage basin of the Danube and subsequently of the Black Sea.  There are a number of landscape parks (Czech: "chráněná krajinná oblast") located across the region: the White Carpathians Landscape Park, the Moravian Karst Landscape Park and Pálava Landscape Park. Moreover, Podyjí National Park is situated in the south-eastern part of the region.

Living conditions.

In 2016, three quarters of households in the region had a computer and 75% of the households had Internet connection. There were in total 781 thousand motor vehicles, of which 482 thousand were cars and 110 thousand were motorbikes.  The unemployment rate in the region was 4.3% as of October 2017.

Economy.

The nominal gross domestic product of the South Moravian Region was 397.2 billion CZK in 2011, which is 10.3% of the national GDP. Among other regions, South Moravian Region had the third largest share on the national GDP. The GDP per capita was 341,000 CZK in the same period, which is 93.6% of the national average.  Mechanical engineering has an essential role in the economy of the region. Important centers of mechanical engineering are Brno (PBS, Siemens, Zetor Brno), Blansko (ČKD Blansko, Metra Blansko), Kuřim (TOS Kuřim), Boskovice (Minerva, Novibra) and Břeclav (OTIS). Electrical engineering has a tradition for more than a century. Significant producers are Siemens Drásov, VUES Brno and ZPA Brno. Food industry forms another important sector, especially in the southern and eastern part of the region. Important activities are the meat processing, canning of fruits and vegetables (Znojmia, Fruta), sugar industry, brewing (Starobrno, Černá Hora, Vyškov and Hostan) and winemaking (Znovín Znojmo, Vinium Velké Pavlovice). Chemical and pharmaceutical industry is concentrated especially in Brno (Pliva-Lachema), Ivanovice na Hané (Bioveta) and Veverská Bítýška (Hartmann Rico). The South-Moravian Region has an important role in the nation and international transit. It is served by a network of motorways and roads of almost 4,500 km. The motorways D1 and D2 and the expressways R43 and R52 form the skeleton of the road network in the region. Brno is an important crossing of road and railway transport and a hub of the integrated regional public transport system.  Brno has an international airport Brno–Tuřany. The airport was opened in 1954 and in 2012 it served 535 thousand passengers. The agricultural land covers 426 thousand ha, which is 59.3% of all land in the region. The arable land occupies 49% of the total area. Znojmo District and Vyškov District have the highest proportion of arable land in the region. The agricultural production is oriented on the production of cereals, rapeseed and sugar beet. Other important agricultural sectors in the region are viticulture, fruit farming and vegetable growing. The viticulture is especially developed in Břeclav District, which has 46% of the total area of Czech vineyards.

The South Moravian Region (; ; ) is an administrative unit () of the Czech Republic, located in the south-western part of its historical region of Moravia (an exception is Jobova Lhota which belongs to Bohemia). Its capital is Brno, the 2nd largest city in the Czech Republic. It is bordered by the South Bohemian Region (west), Vysočina Region (north-west), Pardubice Region (north), Olomouc Region (north east), Zlín Region (east), Trenčín and Trnava Regions, Slovakia (south east) and Lower Austria, Austria (south).


Geography.

The city lies at the confluence of the Elbe and the Orlice rivers close to Krkonoše (Giant Mountains), the highest of the Czech mountains, with its peak, Sněžka (Snowhill), at 1,603 m.

History.

The original name of one of the oldest settlements in the Czech Republic was "Hradec" (the Castle); "Králové" (of the queen) was affixed when it became one of the dowry towns of Elisabeth Richeza of Poland (1286–1335), who lived there for thirty years, having been the second wife of two Bohemian Kings, Wenceslaus II and then Rudolph I of Habsburg. In Latin, the "Castle of the Queen" was called "Grecz Reginae", the original German "Königingrätz" was shortened to Königgrätz by 1800. It remained a dowry town until 1620.  Hradec Králové was the first town to declare for the national cause during the Hussite Wars in the first half of the 15th century. After the Battle of White Mountain (1620), a large segment of the Protestant population left the area. In 1639 the town was occupied for eight months by the Swedes. Several churches and convents were pulled down to make way for fortifications erected under Joseph II.  The Battle of Königgrätz, the decisive battle of the Austro-Prussian War, took place on 3 July 1866 near Hradec Králové. This event is commemorated in the famous "Königgrätzer Marsch". Moreover, the battle put an end to the age of fortifications, which were finally destroyed in 1884.  The city is situated in the centre of a very fertile region called the "Golden Road", at the confluence of the Elbe and the Orlice, and contains many buildings of historical and architectural interest. The Cathedral of the Holy Spirit was founded in 1303 by Elizabeth, and the church of St. John, built in 1710, stands on the ruins of the old castle. During the 1920s and 1930s the city grew rapidly, thanks to decisions made by the heads of the city to develop a modern city, which included razing the fortress and opening the town for expansion. During this era many buildings of modern architecture were built, and Hradec Králové became known as the "Salon of the Republic". This nickname was given to the city by its citizens, who were enamored by the architecture of Josef Gočár and Jan Kotěra.

Airport.

Hradec Králové Airport is a public domestic and private international airport located about from the city centre.  There are currently no scheduled flights operating to the airport. It is sometimes visited by private jet traffic.

Culture.

Theatre.

Every May, an Air Ambulance Show is held for both the general public and Air Ambulance personnel. Every June the Theatre of European regions, an international theatre festival, takes place.

Music.

Since 2004 the city hosts Hip Hop Kemp, one of the biggest European hip hop festivals, in August.  Since 2007 the city hosts Rock for People, the biggest rock festival in the Czech Republic, in July.  "Jazz goes to town", an international jazz festival, is held in Hradec Králové every October.  The city's museum currently holds one of the oldest surviving collections of Czech Renaissance polyphony, the Codex Speciálník manuscript.  The city is home to one of the Czech Republic's leading orchestras, the Hradec Králové Philharmonic Orchestra.

Sport.

The ice hockey club of Hradec Králové is Mountfield HK, which plays in the Czech Extraliga.  The most successful football club is FC Hradec Králové, which plays in the Czech National Football League.  The women's basketball team, Hradecké Lvice, plays in the national women basketball league.

Twin towns – sister cities.

Hradec Králové is twinned with:

Cooperation agreements.

Hradec Králové cooperates with:

Hradec Králové (; ) is a city of the Czech Republic, in the Hradec Králové Region of Bohemia. The city's economy is based on food-processing technology, photochemical, electronics manufacturing services (EMS) and IT. Traditional industries include musical instrument manufacturing – the best known being Petrof pianos. The University of Hradec Králové is located in the city, the University of Defense has its only medical faculty in Hradec Králové and Charles University in Prague also has its Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Pharmacy there.


History.

An ancient late Bronze Age fortified settlement was found in Drahovice. A Slavic settlement on the site of Karlovy Vary is documented by findings in Tašovice and Sedlec. People lived in close proximity to the site as far back as the 13th century and they must have been aware of the curative effects of thermal springs.  From the end of the 12. century to the early 13. century, German settlers from nearby German-speaking regions came as settlers, craftsmen and miners to develop the region's economy. Eventually, Karlovy Vary/Karlsbad became a town with a German-speaking population.  Around 1350, Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor organized an expedition into the forests surrounding modern-day Karlovy Vary during a stay in Loket. On the site of a spring, he established a spa mentioned as "in dem warmen Bade bey dem Elbogen" in German, ("Hot Spas at the ellbow") or "Horké Lázně u Lokte". The location was subsequently named "Karlovy Vary" after the emperor, who extolled the healing powers of the hot springs, at least according to legend. Charles IV granted the town privileges on 14 August 1370. Earlier settlements can also be found on the outskirts of today's town.  An important political event took place in the town in 1819, with the issuing of the Carlsbad Decrees following a conference there. Initiated by the Austrian Minister of State Klemens von Metternich, the decrees were intended to implement anti-liberal censorship within the German Confederation.  Due to publications produced by physicians such as David Becher and Josef von Löschner, the town developed into a famous spa resort in the 19th century and was visited by many members of European aristocracy as well as celebrities from many fields of endeavour. It became even more popular after railway lines were completed from Prague to Cheb in 1870.  The number of visitors rose from 134 families in the 1756 season to 26,000 guests annually at the end of the 19th century. By 1911, that figure had reached 71,000, but the outbreak of World War I in 1914 greatly disrupted the tourism on which the town depended.  At the end of World War I in 1918, the large German-speaking population of Bohemia was incorporated into the new state of Czechoslovakia in accordance with the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919). As a result, the German-speaking majority of Karlovy Vary protested. A demonstration on 4 March 1919 passed peacefully, but later that month, six demonstrators were killed by Czech troops after a demonstration became unruly.  In 1938, the majority German-speaking areas of Czechoslovakia, known as the Sudetenland, became part of Nazi Germany according to the terms of the Munich Agreement. After World War II, in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement, the vast majority of the people of the town were forcibly expelled because of their German ethnicity. In accordance with the Beneš decrees, their property was confiscated without compensation, and the city was renamed again Karlovy Vary.  Since the end of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia in 1989 and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the presence of Russian businesses in Karlovy Vary has steadily increased.

Demographics of the district, not the city.

In 1930 the city itself had 23,901 inhabitants, of which 20,856 were German, 1,446 Czech and 1,309 others. (In 1910: 17,446 inhabitants, 16,791 German and 95 Czech.)  In 2012, non-Czech residents were around 7% of the population of the Karlovy Vary region. After Prague, this is the highest proportion in the Czech Republic. The largest group of foreigners were Vietnamese, followed by Germans, Russians, and Ukrainians.

Transport.

Local buses (Dopravní Podnik Karlovy Vary) and cable cars take passengers to most areas of the city. The Imperial funicular is the oldest tunnel funicular in Europe and the steepest in the Czech Republic, the Diana funicular was at the time of commissioning the longest funicular in Austria-Hungary.  The city is accessible via the expressway R6 and inter-city public transport options include inter-city buses, Czech Railways, and Deutsche Bahn via the Karlovy Vary–Johanngeorgenstadt railway. Karlovy Vary Airport is an international airport located south-east from the city, at the nearby village of Olšová Vrata. In winter 2020, the airport is only serviced by scheduled flights to Moscow.

Culture.

In the 19th century, Karlovy Vary became a popular tourist destination, especially known for international celebrities who visited for spa treatment. The city is also known for the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, which is one of the oldest in the world and one of Europe's major film events.  It is also known for the popular Czech liqueur "Becherovka" and the production of the famous glass manufacturer Moser Glass, which is considered as the most luxurious Czech brand. The famous "Karlovarské oplatky" (Carlsbad wafers) originated in the city in 1867. It has also lent its name to "Carlsbad plums", candied stuffed zwetschgen.  The city has been used as the location for a number of film-shoots, including the 2006 films "Last Holiday" and box-office hit "Casino Royale", both of which used the city's Grandhotel Pupp in different guises. Moreover, the Palace Bristol Hotel in Karlovy Vary had been used as a model for The Grand Budapest Hotel movie.  Karlovy Vary is also home to ice hockey club HC Karlovy Vary and its junior branch HC Energie Karlovy Vary (juniors).

International relations.

Carlsbad, New Mexico, United States (after which Carlsbad Caverns National Park is named), Carlsbad, California, USA Carlsbad Springs, Ontario, Canada, and Carlsbad, Texas, USA, take their names from Karlovy Vary's English name, Carlsbad. All of these places were so named because they were the sites of mineral springs or natural sources of mineral water.

Twin towns – sister cities.

Karlovy Vary is twinned with:

Further reading.

Published in the 19th century  Published in the 20th century

Karlovy Vary (; ) is a spa town situated in western Bohemia, Czech Republic, on the confluence of the rivers Ohře and Teplá, approximately west of Prague (Praha). It is named after Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia, who founded the city in 1370. It is the site of numerous hot springs (13 main springs, about 300 smaller springs, and the warm-water Teplá River), and is the most visited spa town in the Czech Republic. Until 1945, when the German-speaking inhabitants were expelled, the town was overwhelmingly German speaking for most of its history. The city has approximately 48,500 inhabitants.


Name.

The village of Jablonec was first mentioned in a Latin document from 1356 ("in nouo Jablonecz"). The name "Jablonec" is of Czech origin and means ""little apple tree"" ("jablonče" was a diminutive of the old Czech "jabloň" – "apple tree"), for the village was founded on a place where an apple tree grew. German-speaking settlers who came to the village during the 16th century adjusted the In name to "Gablonz". During the 19th century, the attribute "German" was often added to the name (like in the 1848, ). In 1904, the official attribute became "on the Neisse", which described the location of the town upon the river Lusatian Neisse (, ).  After the war, the expelled German-speaking citizens of Jablonec founded a new settlement in Bavaria and called in remembrance of their home town "Neugablonz" ("New Jablonec"). Today, it is one of the districts of the city of Kaufbeuren.

History.

Jablonec was founded in the 14th century, according to the first written document which dates back to 1356. In August 1469, the village was burnt to the ground by troops of rebelling Lusatians in the war between them and King George of Bohemia. The village was then resettled during the 16th century by mostly German-speaking colonists.  In the 18th century, the first artificial jewellery was produced and the first exporter, J. F. Schwan, spread the town's name throughout Europe. The village of Gablonz was declared a "market town" by Emperor Francis II on 21 April 1808 and was given full town status by Emperor Francis Joseph on 28 March 1866. In the 19th century the town became prosperous and wealthy, as Gablonz traders seized the foreign markets. A steady supply of a wide range of glass and artificial jewellery products flowed out of the town. This industrial advancement also improved the quality of life, and Jablonec's appearance changed dramatically. However, Black Friday in 1929 damaged the glass and jewellery industry and the crisis of the 1930s with its unemployment and hunger led to great support of Nazis. In October 1938, Gablonz was occupied by Hitler's German Reich after the Munich Agreement, as a part of so-called Sudetenland. Before 1938, the population of Gablonz was composed of 86% German inhabitants, and the rest Czechs, Jews and many other groups. In Autumn 1938, most of the Jews, Czechs and anti-Nazi Germans escaped to other parts of Czechoslovakia and the Jewish synagogue was burned down. In May 1945, the town was liberated by the underground anti-Nazi groups together with some 700 French and Italian soldiers who were captives in Gablonz's camps.  Between 1945 and 1949, most of the Germans were expelled under the terms of Beneš decrees. However, a few thousand Germans who were active in struggle against the Nazi rule, Germans who had married Czechs, and Germans with special permits were allowed to stay home in Gablonz. Despite assimilation and emigration to Germany in 1968, the German minority in Gablonz still exists (there are some 1000–2000 in the town). With the exception of original Czech and Jewish Gablonz residents who returned to the area, many of the new Czech inhabitants of Gablonz came from nearby Czech towns and villages. Gablonz has also an important Greek minority, founded by Communist refugees of the Greek Civil War in 1949, and a minority of Roma. Some of the Germans expelled from Gablonz and its surroundings founded the quarter of Neugablonz near Kaufbeuren in Bavaria and a group in Enns in Upper Austria after 1950.

Present day.

Jablonec is a centre of active holiday tourism and sport, with a swimming pool, three football and athletic stadiums, an ice hockey arena, 13 gyms, and 16 playgrounds. It is also well known for its modern architecture from the 1900s, 1920s, and 1930s. The Jablonec valley dam is the northern-most intra-urban valley dam in Europe.  Jablonec holds the Czech Mint (Česká mincovna) after Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia (the Czechoslovakian mint, also known as the Kremnica Mint, is now in Slovakia).  Jablonec shares the tramway line which connects it to its neighboring city, Liberec.

Sport.

Football.

The city is nowadays represented by FK Jablonec in the Czech First League.  Before the Second World War, a number of ethnic German football clubs existed in Gablonz, "Fortuna", "DSK" and "BSK". These were merged into "NSTG Gablonz" in 1939 by the Nazis, "NSTG" standing for "Nationalsozialistische Turngemeinde". "NSTG" played in the Gauliga Sudetenland but disappeared with the end of the war. "BSK" however was reformed in 1950 in Bavaria, under the name of BSK Neugablonz. In 2009, a friendly is planned between the "BSK" and FK Jablonec in an attempt to improve contacts between Neugablonz and Jablonec nad Nisou.

Twin towns — sister cities.

Jablonec nad Nisou is twinned with:

Jablonec nad Nisou (; ), known locally as Jablonec, is a city in northern Bohemia, the second-largest city of the Liberec Region. It is a mountain resort in the Jizera Mountains, and also a local centre for education, and is known for its glass and jewelry production. From 1938 to 1945 it was one of the municipalities in Sudetenland.


Terminology.

In ancient Rome, a "benefice" (from the Latin noun "beneficium", meaning "benefit") was a gift of land ("precaria") for life as a reward for services rendered, originally, to the state. In medieval Latin European documents, a land grant in exchange for service continued to be called a "beneficium" (Latin). Later, the term "feudum", or "feodum", began to replace "beneficium" in the documents. The first attested instance of this is from 984, although more primitive forms were seen up to one hundred years earlier. The origin of the "feudum" and why it replaced "beneficium" has not been well established, but there are multiple theories, described below.  The most widely held theory is put forth by Marc Bloch that it is related to the Frankish term "*fehu-ôd", in which "*fehu" means "cattle" and "-ôd" means "goods", implying "a moveable object of value." When land replaced currency as the primary store of value, the Germanic word "*fehu-ôd" replaced the Latin word "beneficium". This Germanic origin theory was also shared by William Stubbs in the 19th century.  A theory put forward by Archibald R. Lewis is that the origin of 'fief' is not "feudum" (or "feodum"), but rather "foderum", the earliest attested use being in Astronomus's "Vita Hludovici" (840). In that text is a passage about Louis the Pious which says "annona militaris quas vulgo foderum vocant", which can be translated as "(Louis forbade that) military provender which they popularly call 'fodder' (be furnished)."  A theory by Alauddin Samarrai suggests an Arabic origin, from "fuyū" (the plural of "fay", which literally means "the returned", and was used especially for 'land that has been conquered from enemies that did not fight'). Samarrai's theory is that early forms of 'fief' include "feo", "feu", "feuz", "feuum" and others, the plurality of forms strongly suggesting origins from a loanword. First use of these terms was in Languedoc, one of the least-Germanized areas of Europe, and bordering Muslim Spain, where the earliest use of "feuum" as a replacement for "beneficium" can be dated to 899, the same year a Muslim base at Fraxinetum (La Garde-Freinet) in Provence was established. It is possible, Samarrai says, that French scribes, writing in Latin, attempted to transliterate the Arabic word "fuyū" (the plural of "fay"), which was being used by the Muslims at the time, resulting in a plurality of forms - "feo, feu, feuz, feuum" and others - from which eventually "feudum" derived. Samarrai, however, also advises medieval and early modern Muslim scribes often used etymologically "fanciful roots" in order to claim the most outlandish things to be of Arabian or Muslim origin.  In the 10th and 11th centuries the Latin terms for fee could be used either to describe dependent tenure held by a man from his lord, as the term is used now by historians, or it could mean simply "property" (the manor was, in effect, a small fief). It lacked a precise meaning until the middle of the 12th century, when it received formal definition from land lawyers.  In English usage, the word "fee" is first attested around 1250–1300 (Middle English); the word "fief" from around 1605–15. In French, the term "fief" is found from the middle of the 13th century (Old French), derived from the 11th-century terms "feu", "fie". The odd appearance of the second "f" in the form "fief" may be due to influence from the verb "fiever" 'to grant in fee'. In French, one also finds "seigneurie" (land and rights possessed by a "seigneur" or "lord", 12th-century), which gives rise to the expression "seigneurial system" to describe feudalism.

Early feudal grants.

Originally, vassalage did not imply the giving or receiving of landholdings (which were granted only as a reward for loyalty), but by the 8th century the giving of a landholding was becoming standard. The granting of a landholding to a vassal did not relinquish the lord's property rights, but only the use of the lands and their income; the granting lord retained ultimate ownership of the fee and could, technically, recover the lands in case of disloyalty or death. In Francia, Charles Martel was the first to make large-scale and systematic use (the practice had remained until then sporadic) of the remuneration of vassals by the concession of the usufruct of lands (a "beneficatium" or "benefice" in the documents) for the life of the vassal, or, sometimes extending to the second or third generation.  By the middle of the 10th century, fee had largely become hereditary. The eldest son of a deceased vassal would inherit, but first he had to do homage and fealty to the lord and pay a "relief" for the land (a monetary recognition of the lord's continuing proprietary rights over the property).  Historically, the fees of the 11th and the 12th century derived from two separate sources. The first was land carved out of the estates of the upper nobility. The second source was allodial land transformed into dependent tenures. During the 10th century in northern France and the 11th century in France south of the Loire, local magnates either recruited or forced the owners of allodial holdings into dependent relationships and they were turned into fiefs. The process occurred later in Germany, and was still going on in the 13th century.  In England, Henry II transformed them into important sources of royal income and patronage. The discontent of barons with royal claims to arbitrarily assessed "reliefs" and other feudal payments under Henry's son King John resulted in Magna Carta of 1215.  Eventually, great feudal lords sought also to seize governmental and legal authority (the collection of taxes, the right of high justice, etc.) in their lands, and some passed these rights to their own vassals.  The privilege of minting official coins developed into the concept of seigniorage.

Later feudal grants and knightly service.

In 13th-century Germany, Italy, England, France, and Spain the term "feodum" was used to describe a dependent tenure held from a lord by a vassal in return for a specified amount of knight service and occasional financial payments (feudal incidents).  However, knight service in war was far less common than:  A lord in late 12th-century England and France could also claim the right of:  In northern France in the 12th and 13th centuries, military service for fiefs was limited for offensive campaigns to 40 days for a knight. By the 12th century, English and French kings and barons began to commute military service for cash payments (scutages), with which they could purchase the service of mercenaries.

Feudal registers.

A list of several hundred such fees held in chief between 1198 and 1292, along with their holders' names and form of tenure, was published in three volumes between 1920 and 1931 and is known as "The Book of Fees"; it was developed from the 1302 "Testa de Nevill".

A fief (; ) was the central element of feudalism. It consisted of heritable property or rights granted by an overlord to a vassal who held it in fealty (or "in fee") in return for a form of feudal allegiance and service, usually given by the personal ceremonies of homage and fealty. The fees were often lands or revenue-producing real property held in feudal land tenure: these are typically known as fiefs or fiefdoms. However, not only land but anything of value could be held in fee, including governmental office, rights of exploitation such as hunting or fishing, monopolies in trade, and tax farms.


Background.

Bultmann was born on 20 August 1884 in Wiefelstede, Oldenburg, the son of Arthur Kennedy Bultmann, a Lutheran minister. He did his "Abitur" at the "Altes Gymnasium" in the city of Oldenburg, and studied theology at Tübingen. After three terms, Bultmann went to the University of Berlin for two terms, and finally to Marburg for two more terms. He received his degree in 1910 from Marburg with a dissertation on the Epistles of St Paul, written under the supervision of Johannes Weiss. After submitting a Habilitation two years later, he became a lecturer on the New Testament at Marburg.  Bultmann married Helene Feldmann on 6 August 1917. The couple had three daughters. Bultmann's wife died in 1973.  After brief lectureships at Breslau and Giessen, Bultmann returned to Marburg in 1921 as a full professor, and stayed there until his retirement in 1951. From autumn 1944 until the end of the Second World War in 1945 he took into his family Uta Ranke-Heinemann, who had fled the bombs and destruction in Essen.  Bultmann was a student of Hermann Gunkel, Johannes Weiss, and Wilhelm Heitmüller. His doctoral students included Hans Jonas, Ernst Käsemann, Günther Bornkamm, Helmut Koester, and Ernst Fuchs. He also taught Hannah Arendt.  He was a member of the Confessing Church and critical towards Nazism. He spoke out against the mistreatment of Jews, against nationalistic excesses and against the dismissal of non-Aryan Christian ministers. He did not, however, speak out against "the antiSemitic[sic] laws which had already been promulgated" and he was philosophically limited in his ability to "repudiate, in a comprehensive manner, the central tenets of Nazi racism and antiSemitism[sic]."  Bultmann became friends with Martin Heidegger who taught at Marburg for five years, and Heidegger's views on existentialism had an influence on Bultmann's thinking. What arose from this friendship was a "sort of comradery" grounded on an active and open dialogue between Bultmann and Heidegger from 1923-1928. However, Bultmann himself stated that his views could not simply be reduced to thinking in Heideggerian categories, in that "the New Testament is not a doctrine about our nature, about our authentic existence as human beings, but a proclamation of this liberating act of God."  He died on 30 July 1976 in Marburg.

Theological approaches.

Bultmann's "History of the Synoptic Tradition" (1921) remains highly influential as a tool for biblical research, even among scholars who reject his analyses of the conventional rhetorical pericopes (narrative units) which comprise the gospels, and the historically-oriented principles of "form criticism" of which Bultmann was the most influential exponent. According to Bultmann's definition, "[t]he aim of form-criticism ["sic"] is to determine the original form of a piece of narrative, a dominical saying or a parable. In the process we learn to distinguish secondary additions and forms, and these in turn lead to important results for the history of the tradition." In 1941 Bultmann applied form criticism to the Gospel of John, in which he distinguished the presence of a lost Signs Gospel on which John — alone of the evangelists — depended. His monograph, "Das Evangelium des Johannes", highly controversial at the time, became a milestone in research into the historical Jesus. The same year his lecture "New Testament and Mythology: The Problem of Demythologizing the New Testament Message" called on interpreters to demythologize The New Testament, in particular he argued for replacing supernatural biblical interpretations with temporal and existential categorizations. His argument, in many ways, reflected a hermeneutical adaption of the existentialist thought of his colleague at the time, the philosopher Martin Heidegger. This approach led Bultmann to reject doctrines such as the pre-existence of Christ. Bultmann believed his endeavors in this regard would make accessible to modern audiences — already immersed in science and technology — the significance (or existential quality) of Jesus' teachings. Bultmann thus thought of his endeavor of "demythologizing the New Testament proclamation" as fundamentally an evangelism task, clarifying the "kerygma", or gospel proclamation, by stripping it of elements of the first-century "mythical world picture" that had potential to alienate modern people from Christian faith:  It is impossible to repristinate a past world picture by sheer resolve, especially a "mythical" world picture, now that all of our thinking is irrevocably formed by science. A blind acceptance of New Testament mythology would be simply arbitrariness; to make such acceptance a demand of faith would be to reduce faith to a work. Bultmann saw theology in existential terms, and maintained that the New Testament was a radical text, worthy of understanding yet questioned in his time because of the prevailing Protestant conviction in a supernatural interpretation. In both the boasting of legalists "who are faithful to the law" and the boasting of the philosophers "who are proud of their wisdom", Bultmann finds a "basic human attitude" of "highhandedness that tries to bring within our own power even the submission that we know to be our authentic being". Standing against all human high-handedness is the New Testament, "which claims that we can in no way free ourselves from our factual fallenness in the world but are freed from it only by an act of God... the salvation occurrence that is realized in Christ." Bultmann remained convinced that the narratives of the life of Jesus offered theology in story form, teaching lessons in the familiar language of myth. They were not to be excluded, but given explanation so they could be understood for today. Bultmann thought faith should become a present-day reality. To Bultmann, the people of the world appeared to be always in disappointment and turmoil. Faith must be a determined vital act of will, not a culling and extolling of "ancient proofs". Bultmann said about salvation and eternity: "As from now on there are only believers and unbelievers, so there are also now only saved and lost, those who have life and those who are in death."  Bultmann carried Form criticism so far as to call the historical value of the gospels into serious question. Some scholars, such as Craig L. Blomberg, criticized Bultmann and other critics for excessive skepticism regarding the historical reliability of the gospel narratives. The full impact of Bultmann was felt with the English translation of many of his works, notably "Kerygma and Mythos" (1948).

Rudolf Karl Bultmann (; 20 August 1884 – 30 July 1976) was a German Lutheran theologian and professor of the New Testament at the University of Marburg. He was one of the major figures of early-20th-century biblical studies. A prominent critic of liberal theology, Bultmann instead argued for an existentialist interpretation of the New Testament. His hermeneutical approach to the New Testament led him to be a proponent of dialectical theology.