(, literally "East settlement") is the term for the Early Medieval and High Medieval migration of ethnic Germans into the territories in the eastern part of Francia, East Francia, and the Holy Roman Empire and beyond; and the consequences for settlement development and social structures in the areas of settlement. Generally sparsely and in some inland areas only relatively recently populated by Slavic, Baltic and Finnic peoples, the most settled area was known as . Other regions were also settled, though not as heavily. The Ostsiedlung encompassed multiple modern and historical regions such as Germany east of the Saale and Elbe rivers, the states of Lower Austria and Styria in Austria, Livonia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, and Transylvania in Romania.

Since the 1980s, historians have interpreted the  as a part of a civil and social development, termed the High Middle Age Land Consolidation  (). In a pan-European intensification process from the Carolingian-Anglo-Saxon core countries to the periphery of the continent, societies progressed in culture, religion, law and administration, trade and agriculture.

The majority of  settlers moved individually, in independent efforts, in multiple stages and on different routes. Many settlers were encouraged and invited by the local princes and regional lords, who sometimes even expelled the indigenous populations to make room for German settlers.

Smaller groups of migrants first moved to the east during the early Middle Ages. Larger treks of settlers, which included scholars, monks, missionaries, craftsmen and artisans, often invited, in numbers unverifiable, first moved eastwards during the mid-12th century. The military territorial conquests and punitive expeditions of the Ottonian and Salian emperors during the 11th and 12th centuries do not form part of the , as these actions didn't result in any noteworthy settlement establishment east of the Elbe and Saale rivers. The  is considered to have been a purely Medieval event as it ended in the beginning of the 14th century. The legal, cultural, linguistic, religious and economic changes caused by the movement had a profound influence on the history of Eastern Central Europe between the Baltic Sea and the Carpathians until the 20th century.

In the 20th century, accounts of the  were heavily exploited by German nationalists (including the Nazi movement) to press the territorial claims of Germany and to demonstrate supposed German superiority over non-Germanic peoples, whose cultural, urban and scientific achievements in that era were undermined, rejected, or presented as German. After World War I (1914–1918), the fact that Germany and Austria lost part of their territories in the East appeared as a counterpoint to  because some of the Germans in the East became foreign citizens when their homes were no longer part of Germany and Austria. The Germans in the East outside Germany and Austria were not expelled and the regions that Germany and Austria lost in the East were dominated by non-German peoples, so the German loss here was not as severe as after World War II.

In and after World War II (1944–1950), Germans were driven out and deported to rump Germany from the East and their language and culture were lost in most areas (including the German-dominated lands which Germany lost after this war) in which German people had settled during the Ostsiedlung; except part of Eastern Austria and especially Eastern Germany.

Early medieval Central Europe
During the 4th and 5th centuries, in what is known as the Migration Period, Germanic peoples seized control of the decaying Western Roman Empire in the South and established new kingdoms within it. Meanwhile, formerly Germanic areas in Eastern Europe and present-day Eastern Germany, were settled by Slavs.

Under Carolingian rule

Charlemagne, ruler of the Carolingian Empire of Francia, which was founded by Franks (a Germanic people), under whom most of Western and Central continental Europe had been united during the 8th and 9th centuries, created numerous border territories, so called marches (), where a substantial portion of the  would later take place. The territories (from north to south):
 the Danish March (south of the Danevirke fortifications, between the Eider and Schlei), against the Danes and Jutes
 the Saxon Eastern March or Nordalbingen March between the Eider and Elbe in what is now Holstein against the Obotrites
 the Thuringian or Sorbian March on the Saale, against the Sorbs dwelling behind the
 the Franconian march in what is now Upper Franconia, against the Czechs
 the Avar March between the Enns and the Vienna Woods (the later Austrian March), against the Avars
 the March of Pannonia east of Vienna (divided into Upper and Lower)
 the Carantanian march
 the Friulian march

This was the earliest recorded and planned "eastern policy" under Charlemagne, who wanted to protect the eastern border of the Frankish Empire, and also wanted to solidify his position in the east by declaring war on the Obotrites and Wilzes in the North, as well as on the Sorbs (east of Thuringia) and Czech tribal princes. However, since the goal wasn't to establish an ethnic and linguistic boundary between the Slavs and Germanic tribes, Slavic settlement continued in Thuringia and Northern Bavaria, with individual Slavs even making it to the Rhine Basin.

The tribes that populated these marches were generally unreliable allies of the Empire, and successor kings led numerous, yet not always successful, military campaigns to maintain their authority.

In 843 the Carolingian Empire was partitioned into three independent kingdoms as a result of dissent among Charlemagne's three grandsons over the continuation of the custom of partible inheritance or the introduction of primogeniture.

East Francia and Holy Roman Empire
Louis the German inherited the eastern territories, East Francia, that included all lands east of the Rhine river and to the north of Italy, which roughly corresponded with the territories of the German stem duchies, that formed a federation under the first king Henry the Fowler (919 to 936). The Slavs living within the reach of East Francia (since 962 C.E. the Holy Roman Empire), collectively called Wends or "Elbe Slavs", seldom formed larger political entities. They rather constituted various small tribes, settling as far west as to a line from the Eastern Alps and Bohemia to the Saale and Elbe rivers. As the East Frankish kingdom expanded, various Wendish tribes, that were conquered or allied with the Eastern Franks, such as the Obotrites, aided the Franks in defeating the West Germanic Saxons. The Carolingian tradition of setting up marches at the periphery of the empire would be continued by the East Frankish and Holy Roman Empire's kings during the 11th and 12th centuries.

Under the rule of King Louis the German and Arnulf of Carinthia, the first groups of civilian Catholic settlers were led by Franks and Bavarii to the lands of Pannonia (present-day Burgenland, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia).

In a series of punitive actions, large territories in the northeast between the Elbe, Saale, Naab rivers in the west and the Oder, Bober, Kwisa and Vltava rivers in the east were conquered (see also: Battle on the Raxa), and border marches were established in these areas. Fortifications were occupied and new castles built, reinforced by military units to exert military control and collect tributes. No civilian settlers occupied these lands. Christianization was limited to the establishment of mission dioceses such as Lübeck, Brandenburg or Havelberg. The development of a Parish church system only took place after the settlement of German colonists, beginning in the 2nd half of the 12th century. Control over areas that had already been conquered was repeatedly lost. The Slavic revolt of 983 and an uprising of the Obotrites in 1066 had particularly serious consequences.

Slavic revolt of 983

In 983, the Polabian Slavs in the Billung and Northern Marches, stretching from the Elbe river to the Baltic Sea succeeded in a rebellion against the political rule and Christian mission of the recently established Holy Roman Empire. In spite of their new-won independence, the Obotrites, Rani, Liutizian and Hevelli tribes were soon faced with internal struggles and warfare as well as raids from the newly constituted and expanding Piast dynasty (the early Polish) state from the east, Denmark from the north and the Empire from the west, eager to reestablish her marches. The area remained under rule of the Polabian tribes and uncolonized and unchristianized into the 12th century.

Eastern marches of East Francia and Holy Roman Empire
The territories (from north to south):
 the Billung March on the Baltic Sea, stretching approximately from Groswin to Schleswig
  (march of Gero), a precursor of the Saxon Eastern March, later divided into smaller marches (the Northern March, which later was reestablished as Margraviate of Brandenburg; the March of Lusatia and the Margravate of Meissen in what is now Saxony; the March of Zeitz; the March of Merseburg; the Milzener March around Bautzen)
 Austrian March (, the "Eastern March" or "Bavarian Eastern March" () in what is now lower Austria)
 the Carantania or March of Styria
 the Drau March (Maribor and Ptuj)
 the Sann March (Celje)
 the  or Carniola march, also Windic March and White Carniola (White March), in what is now Slovenia

Eastern Saxon Marches
The Sorbian March east of the Saale river was established in the 9th century. King Otto I designated a larger area – the Saxon Eastern March – in 937, that encompassed the territory between the Elbe, the Oder and the Peene rivers. Governed by Margrave Gero, it is also referred to as Marca Geronis. After Gero's death in 965, the march was divided in smaller sectors: Northern March, Lusatian March, Margraviate of Meissen, and March of Zeitz. The march was populated by various West Slavic tribes, the largest being Polabian Slavs tribes in the north and Sorbian tribes in the south.

The Margravate of Meissen and Transylvania were populated by German settlers, beginning in the 12th century. From the end of the 12th century onwards, monasteries and cities were established in Pomerania, Brandenburg, Silesia, Bohemia, Moravia and eastern Austria. In the Baltics, the Teutonic Order founded a crusader state in the beginning of the 13th century.

Northeastern Germany and Holstein

Background

A call for a crusade against the Wends in 1108, probably coming from a Flemish clerk in the circles of the archbishop of Magdeburg, which included the prospect of profitable land gains for new settlers, had no noticeable effect and resulted in neither a military campaign nor a movement of settlers into the area.

Although the first settlers had already arrived in 1124, being mostly of Flemish and Dutch origin, they settled south of the Eider river, followed by the conquest of the land of the Wagri in 1139, the founding of Lübeck in 1143 and the call by Count Adolf II of Schauenburg to settle in Eastern Holstein, and Pomerania in the same year.

Weakened by ongoing internal conflicts and constant warfare, the independent Wendish territories finally lost the capacity to provide effective military resistance. From 1119 to 1123, Pomerania invaded and subdued the northeastern parts of the Lutici lands. In 1124 and 1128, Wartislaw I, Duke of Pomerania, at that time a vassal of Poland, invited bishop Otto of Bamberg to Christianize the Pomeranians and Liutizians of his duchy. In 1147, as a campaign of the Northern Crusades, the Wendish Crusade was mounted in the Duchy of Saxony to retake the marches lost in 983. The crusaders also headed for Pomeranian Demmin and Szczecin (Stettin), despite these areas having already been successfully Christianized. The Crusade caused widespread devastation and slaughter.

Settlement
This created ideal conditions for German settlement, some of the most prominent supporters of settlement included William IV who had purchased small amounts of land on the frontier of Pomerania, and Wichmann von Seeburg. In 1152 the large numbers of Flemish and Dutch people were introduced to the unoccupied and uncultivated marshlands just east of Magdeburg near the Havel. They founded the cities of Fläming and Jüterbog. Henry the Lion, also settled Mecklenburg with a large number of Flems. With the formation of the Hanseatic League, which allowed further German settlement in coastal towns due to it being the dominant trade republic in the Baltic and North seas.

After the Wendish crusade, Albert the Bear was able to establish and expand the Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1157 on approximately the territory of the former Northern March, which since 983 had been controlled by the Hevelli and Lutici tribes. The Bishopric of Havelberg, that had been occupied by revolting Lutici tribes was reestablished to Christianize the Wends.

In 1164, after Saxon duke Henry the Lion finally defeated rebellious Obotrites and Pomeranian dukes in the Battle of Verchen.  The Pomeranian duchies of Demmin and Stettin became Saxon fiefs, as well as the Obodrite territories, which became Mecklenburg, named after the Obotrites residential capital, Mecklenburg Castle. After Henry the Lion lost his internal struggle with Emperor Frederick I, Mecklenburg and Pomerania became fiefs of the Holy Roman Empire in 1181.

Bohemia

Background
German influence over Bohemia first started under the reign of Boleslaus I, these Germans were primarily trader, who dealt in furs, salt, and especially slaves. In 971 AD, Pope John XIII, authorized the creation of the first Bohemian bishopric, the Bishopric of Prague, which was created two years later under the reign of the Otto I. After that, in 993 AD, the first monastery in Bohemia, the Břevnov Monastery was founded. Spytihnev (not to be confused with Spytihnev II, Duke of Bohemia), capitalized on this anti-German sentiment , when Boleslaus III succeeded Boleslaus II in 999 AD. Holy Roman Emperor Henry II, wanting to defend the Churches and German influence , invaded Bohemia with an army of Saxons, East Franks, Bavarians assembled in Merseberg under the command of Jaromir (The son of Boleslaus II). This was part of the wider German–Polish War during Otto II's reign. Bretislav I was feared growing German domination, and made an alliance with Hungary, who was also scared of German expansionism in the east. Henry III still attacked and humiliated Bretislav I at the Diet of Regensburg. Bretislav was forced to pay an enormous sum of 8000 Marks, allow the building of German military installations in the Upper Palatinate forest, and had to return Silesia and Chrobatia to Poland, which was Bretislavs main achievement. After this, Bohemia remained loyal to Germany because of fears of another invasion, and Polish and Hungarian expansionism to the North and South . On the epoch of the war of investiture in Germany, Henry IV decisively fixed German-Bohemian relationship by playing off the Polish-Bohemian enmity. In 1080 Vratislav I, fighting under the banner of the Emperor, captured the golden lance of the papal counter-king, Rudolf of Swabia, at the battle of Flarchheim . Bohemia's reward for this loyalty came six years later, in 1086, when Henry IV elevated the Duke to the rank of king.

Settlement
All of this laid the perfect conditions for German settlement and dominance of Bohemia . German settlers, mainly traders, miners, farmers and monks. The trade fairs of Prague attracted many merchants from all over Europe, with many including the Germans settling in Prague, and even making up almost a quarter of all people in Prague . Bretislav II granted them important privileges, notably the right of self-government under magistrates of their own election, and the right of living under German law. During the late 12th and early 13th century, German settlement of the mountainous borderland (Known as the Sudetenland) began . It was caused by the successful settlement of modern day Northeastern Germany. The mountainous area settled first was the Eger Valley, partially due to its southern edges coming under the control of Diepold III who was an ally of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Furthermore, the Monastery of Waldsassen owned extensive land in the Eger Valley. The first German villages were Penerit and Neudorf, both founded in 1196. Bavarians and Austrians settled the southern edge, East Franks the middle edge, and Saxon miners the northern edge, notably the Erzgebirge. Unlike in Mecklenburg, Pomerania, Brandenburg, and Silesia, the German settlement was not as heavy, nor were many Czechs assimilated like in Eastern Germany. As German influence grew, with greater numbers of Settlers arriving each year, Soběslav II felt it was necessary to protect the Czechs from Germany, asking Henry II, Duke of Austria to renounce his claims to certain Bohemian lands, this was refused, and in the war that followed he was defeated. This made Soběslavs successors Frederick and Conrad II ruling during a period of unrest. This allowed for greater settlement during the 13th century, where even many Czech towns received so many German settlers they were practically Germanized and became majority Germany. Due to the German influence on the nobility, many castles and villages names were Germanized, such as Zvíkov Castle to Burg Klingenberg. Under the reign of Vladislaus II, various military orders, the most prominent of which, the Knights Hospitaller, were even allowed to bring German settlers into Bohemian land and settle them . During this time, German settlers were exempt from the local Župan Laws, which included various duties such as the upkeep of local infrastructure. In 1219, Litoměřice (), was the first German town to be given the privileges of the Magdeburg Laws in Bohemia. During the 13th-14th century, as much as 1 out of every 6th German settlers was going to Bohemia, while this is lower than in Upper Saxony, Lusatia, and Lower Silesia, It's still a substantial number.

End
Eventually, during the late 14th and early 15th centuries' settlement slowed down, due to numerous factors such as the Black Plague in Germany, and the Hussite Wars.

Prussia and the Baltics

The Teutonic State was formed in the aftermath of the Livonian Crusade, Prussian Crusade and in general the Northern Crusades in the territories of East Prussia, Pomeralia and Livonia. It was established on February 2, 1207 as a principality of the Holy Roman Empire and proclaimed by Pope Innocent III in 1215 as a subject to the Holy See.

The Teutonic State established a comprehensive administrative structure, and modernized the old traditional tribal structure of the region. An integral part of the Order other than converting Pagans to Christianity was also to encourage Germans to settle the sparsely populated area. Most German settlers primarily went to urban cities, such as Graudenz, Elbing, and Riga. The settlers also established numerous rural settlements, known as Vorwerke in German. Most of the settlers came from the Rhineland region. The Teutonic Order established numerous Castles, and other holdings near populated places such as Kaliningrad to consolidate the conquered lands. While East Prussia was heavily settled and Germanized, Livonia still had a very small German population, because there were no attempts to settle inland. The Germans in Livonia were mainly employees of the Teutonic Order there for administrative purposes, or merchants of the Hanseatic League who settled coastal towns.

Hungary
While Hungary was never conquered by the Holy Roman Empire and was never in focus of German settlement, it still had a sizeable German population. During the 11th century, Stephen I of Hungary invited German priests, abbots, and churchmen to found monasteries and promote the conversion of Hungary. Eventually these Germans' descendants started to fill other occupations, becoming merchants, clerks, and farmers, etc. and were granted the status of free peasants. In 1149, Géza II invited German settlers to Southern Transylvania. Written records call them "Flamands", "Teutons", and "Latins". The term "Saxons" appeared in 1206, and became the official term for local Germans in 1231. The term represented legal status rather than nationality. The Transylvanian Saxons have diverse origins, their pottery, art, and liturgy were not uniform. In the 12th and 13th centuries, more Germans arrived in Hungary, living in dispersed villages known as . By the mid-13th century, their importance in trade (especially in Pozsony, Pest and Nagyszombat) and gold and silver mining (especially in Beszterce and Radna) grew significant.

When Stephen I married Gisela of Bavaria, many German knights came to Hungary, joining its military. They were often rewarded with large estates and entry into the nobility. In 1224, Andrew II signed a charter laying out the duties and rights of the Germans in the kingdom. The king defined their duties such as the payment of tax, military service, and housing of the king and his officials. In exchange, they were able to elect their priests and officials independently and their merchants were exempt from customs duties. Their markets were also not taxed. No outsider was allowed to receive villages or estates in German land where only the monarch and the Count of Hermannstadt had jurisdiction.

Social and demographic background
Political and military events were greatly influenced by a massive population increase throughout Europe in the High Middle Ages. From the 11th to the 13th centuries, the population in the kingdom of Germany increased from about four to twelve million inhabitants. During this time, the High Medieval Landesausbau (inland settlement) took place, when arable land was largely expanded at the expense of forested areas. Although new land was won and numerous settlements created, demands could not be absorbed. Another factor was a surplus of offspring of the nobility who were not entitled to inheritance, but after the success of the first crusade, took their chances of acquiring new lands in the peripheral regions of the Empire.

There is no doubt that there were "rather numerous German settlers" in Eastern Central who were responsible for bringing German law in the earliest stages of the colonization. Other settlers included Walloons, Jews, Dutch, Flemish, and later Poles, especially in the territory of modern Ukraine.

The migration of the Walser in the territory of present-day Switzerland to areas that had formerly been inhabited by Romans. The Walser settlers left their homes in Valais and founded villages in the uplands of the Alp valleys (in the north of Italy and in the Grisons).

Technical and agricultural development
The Medieval Warm Period, which began in the 11th century resulted in higher average temperatures in Central Europe.
Additional technical progress in agriculture, for example through the construction of mills, Three-field farming and increased cultivation of grain (graining) led to general population increase.

The new settlers not only brought their customs and language with them, but also new technical skills and equipment that were adapted within a few decades, especially in agriculture and crafts. These included:

The amount of cultivated land increased as large forested areas were cleared. The extent of land increase differed by region. In Silesia it had doubled (16% of the total area) by the beginning of the 11th century, 30% in the 16th century and the highest increase rates in the 14th century, the total area of arable land increased seven – to twentyfold in many Silesian regions during the Ostsiedlung.

Parallel to agricultural innovations new forms of farm layout and settlement structuring (division and classification of land) were introduced. Farmland was divided into , (English hides) and larger villages replaced the previously dominant type of small villages consisting of four to eight farms as a complete transformation of the previous settlement structure occurred. The cultural landscape of East Central Europe formed by the medieval settlement processes essentially prevails until today.

Dutch settlers and hydraulic engineering
Flemish and Dutch settlers were among the first to immigrate to Mecklenburg at the beginning of the 12th century. In the following years, they moved further east to Pomerania and Silesia and in the south to Hungary, motivated by the lack of settlement areas in their already largely developed home areas and several flood disasters and famines.

Experienced and skilled hydraulic engineers, they were in high demand at the settlements of the as yet undeveloped areas east of the Elbe. The land was drained by creating a network-like structure of smaller drainage ditches that drained the water in main ditches. Roads connecting the settlers' individual farms ran along these main trenches.

Dutch settlers were recruited by the local rulers in large numbers, especially during the second half of the 12th century. In 1159/60, for example, Albert the Bear granted Dutch settlers the right to take possession of former Slavic settlements. The preacher Helmold of Bosau reported on this in his Slavic chronicle: "Finally, when the Slavs were gradually dispersing, he (Albrecht) sent to Utrecht and the Rhine region, and also to those who live by the ocean, who under the power of the sea had suffered, the Dutch, Zealanders and Flemings, where he attracted a lot of people and let them live in the castles and villages of the Slavs."

Agricultural implements

The Slavs used ploughs and agricultural implements before the arrival of German settlers. The oldest meaningful reference to this can be found in a Slavic chronicle, in which the use of a plough as an areal measurement is mentioned. Although heavier and useful ploughs were brought by the settlers.

In the 12th and 13th century documents, the Ard without a mouldboard is mentioned. It tear opens the soil and spreads the soil to both sides without turning it. It is therefore particularly suitable for light and sandy subsoil. In the mid 13th century, the Three-field system was introduced east of the Elbe. This new cultivation method required the use of the heavy mouldboard plough that digs up the earth deeply and turns it around in a single operation.

The different modes of operation of the two devices also had an impact on the shape and size of the cultivation areas. The fields worked with the ard had about the same field length and width and a square base. Long fields with a rectangular base were much more suitable for the mouldboard plough, as the heavy implements had to be turned less often. Planting and cultivation of oats and rye was promoted, and soon these cereals became the most important type of grain. Farmers who used mouldboard ploughs were required to pay double tax fees.

Pottery
Potters were among the first group of artisans who also settled in the rural areas. Typical Slavic ceramics were the Flat-bottom vessels. With the influx of western settlers, new vessel shapes such as the rounded jar were introduced, inclusive hard-fired processes, that improved ceramics quality. This type of ceramics, known as Hard Grayware, became widespread east of the Elbe by the end of the 12th century. It was manufactured extensively in Pomerania by the 13th century, when more advanced manufacturing methods, such as the tunnel kiln, enabled the mass production of ceramic household goods. The demand for household goods such as pots, jugs, jugs and bowls, which had previously been made of wood, increased steadily and promoted the development of new sales markets.

During the 13th century, glazed ceramics were introduced and the import of stoneware increased. The transfer of technology and knowledge affected the way of life of old and new settlers in a variety of ways and, in addition to innovations in agriculture and handicrafts, also included other areas, such as weapons technology, documents and coins.

Architecture

The Slavic population (Sorbs), who lived east of the Elbe, primarily built log houses, which had proven suitable for the regional climates and wood was plentiful in the continental regions. The German settlers, mainly from Franconia and Thuringia, who advanced into the area in the 13th century, brought with them the half-timbering style, which was already known to the Germanic peoples, as a wood-saving, solid and stable construction method, that allowed multi-storey buildings. A combination of the two construction methods was difficult because the horizontally stacked wood of the log room expands differently in height than the vertical posts of the framework. The result was the new type of half-timbered house with a timber frame around the ground floor block, capable to support a second floor, which was made of half-timber.

Population and settlement

The Ostsiedlung followed an immediate rapid population growth throughout Central and Eastern Europe. During the 12th and 13th centuries, the population density increased considerably. The increase was due to the influx of settlers on the one hand and an increase in slavic populations after the settlement on the other hand. Settlement was the primary reason for the increase e.g. in the areas east of the Oder, the Duchy of Pomerania, western Greater Poland, Silesia, Austria, Moravia, Prussia and Transylvania, while in the larger part of Central and Eastern Europe indigenous populations were responsible for the growth. Author Piskorski wrote that "insofar as it is possible to draw conclusions from the less than rich medieval source material, it appears that at least in some East Central European territories the population increased significantly. It is however possible to contest to what extent this was a direct result of migration and how far it was due to increased agricultural productivity and the gathering pace of urbanization." In contrast to Western Europe, this increased population was largely spared by the 14th-century Black Death pandemic.

With the German settlers new systems of taxation arrived. While the existing Wendish tithe was a fixed tax depending on village size, the German tithe depended on the actual crop yield. Thus higher taxes were collected from the settlers than from the Wends, although settlers were partly exempted from tax payments during the first years after settlement establishment.

Urban development and city foundations

The development of  was also associated with the establishment of towns. There already existed Slavic castle towns, in which merchant quarters formed suburbs at fortified strongholds (grads). Wendish-Scandinavian merchants founded manufacturing and trading settlements (emporia) at the Baltic coast. Large cities included Szczecin which reached 9,000 inhabitants, Kraków which was the capital of the state of Piast Poland and Wrocław, already under civil and religious administration and centers of power. However, they experienced substantial growth since the end of the 12th century through new settlers and expansion (). The foundation of a bishopric, for example in Havelberg, would lead to the development of a town, although cities were also founded out of nowhere, such as Neubrandenburg. Characteristic of the founding cities are geometrical or rasterized floor plans with main streets, intersecting axes and a central market place. Different settlement phases are reflected in twin cities names such as New town or Old town.

The towns established during the  were Free Towns () or called "New Towns" by its contemporaries. The rapid increase in the number of towns led to an "urbanization of East Central Europe". The new towns differed from their predecessors in:
 The introduction of German town law, resulting in far-reaching administrative and judicial rights for the towns. The townspeople were personally free, enjoyed far-reaching property rights and were subject to the town's own jurisdiction only. The privileges granted to the towns were copied, sometimes with minor changes, from the legal charters of the (Lübeck Law in 33 towns at the southern coast of the Baltic Sea), the Magdeburg Law in Brandenburg, areas of modern Saxony, Lusatia, Silesia, northern Bohemia, northern Moravia and the Teutonic Order state, the Nuremberg Law in southwestern Bohemia, the Brünn Law (Brno) in Moravia, based on the charter of Vienna), the Iglau Law (Jihlava) in Bohemian and Moravian mining areas. Besides these basic town laws, several adapted town charters.
 The introduction of permanent markets. As previously, markets were held only periodically, townspeople were now free to trade and marketplaces became a central feature of the new towns.
 Layout: The new towns were planned towns as their layout was usually rectangular.

City laws and grants
The granting of city rights played an important role in attracting German settlers. The town charter privileged the new residents and existing suburban settlements with a market were given formal town charter and then rebuilt or expanded. Even small settlements inhabited by native people would eventually be granted these new rights. Regardless of existing suburban settlements, locators were commissioned to establish completely new cities, as the goal was to attract as many people as possible in order to create new, flourishing population centers.

Expansion of the German city laws
Among the many different German city laws, the Magdeburg law and the Lübeck law played the greatest role in the new settlements as they served, often in more or less modified form, as models for most cities. Other city rights that were of regional importance include the. Nuremberg law, the Mecklenburg law and the Iglau law. The Lübeck law of 1188 served in the 13th and 14th centuries as the model for around 100 cities in the entire Baltic Sea trading area. Around 350,000 people lived under Lübeck law in the early 15th century. The Magdeburg law, which has its origins in the privileges granted by Archbishop Wichmann of Magdeburg, first spread into Brandenburg, Saxony and Lusatia. Laws based on the Magdeburg model (for example the Kulmer law and Neumarkt law) were introduced in Silesia, Poland, the State of the Teutonic Order, Bohemia and Moravia and beyond.

Religious changes

The pagan Wends had been the target of Christianization attempts before the beginning of the Ostsiedlung, since the government of emperor Otto I and the establishment of dioceses east of the Elbe. The Slav uprising of 983 put an end to these efforts for almost 200 years. In contrast to the Czechs and Poles who had been Christianized before the turn of the millennium, the conversion attempts of the Elbe Slavs initially accompanied by violence. The arrival of new settlers from around 1150 on led to a civil Christianization of the areas between the Elbe and Oder. The new settlers first built wooden and later field stone parish churches in their villages. Some places of worship, such as the St. Mary in Brandenburg, and the Lehnin Abbey, were built on pagan shrines. The Cistercians, who had been assigned a prominent role by church authorities, combined the spread of faith and settlement development. Their monasteries with extensive international connections played a vital role in the development of the communities.

Settlers

The majority of the settlers were Germans of the Holy Roman Empire. Significant numbers of Dutch settlers participated, particularly in the early 12th century in the area surrounding the Middle Elbe River. To a lesser extent Danes, Scots or local Wends and (French-speaking) Walloons participated as well. Among the settlers were landless children of noble families who could not inherit property.

Besides the marches, adjacent to the Empire, Germans settled in areas farther east, such as the Carpathians, Transylvania, and along the Gulf of Riga. Settlers were invited by local secular rulers, such as dukes, counts, margraves, princes and (only in a few cases due to the weakening central power) the king. The sovereigns in East Central Europe owned large territories, of which only small portions were arable, which generated very little income. The lords offered considerable privileges to new settlers from the Empire. Starting in the border marks, the princes invited people from the Empire by granting them land ownership and improved legal status, binding duties and the inheritance of the farm. The landowners eventually benefited from these rather generous conditions for the farmers, and generated income from the land that had previously been fallow.

Most sovereigns transferred the specific recruitment of settlers, the distribution of the land and the establishment of the settlements to so-called  (allocator of land). These men, who usually came from the lower nobility or the urban bourgeoisie, organized the settlement trains, that included advertising, equipment and transport, land clearing and preparation of the settlements. Locator contracts settled rights and obligations of the locators and the new settlers.

Towns were founded and granted German town law. The agricultural, legal, administrative, and technical methods of the immigrants, as well as their successful Christianization of the native inhabitants, led to a gradual transformation of the settlement areas, as Slavic communities adopted German culture. German cultural and linguistic influence lasted in some of these areas right up to the present day.

In the mid 14th century, the migration process slowed considerably as a result of the Black Death. The population probably decreased by that time and economically marginal settlements were left, in particular at the coast of Pomerania and Western Prussia. Only a century later, local Slavic leaders of Pomerania, Western Prussia and Silesia invited German settlers again.

Assimilation
Settlement was the pretext for assimilation processes that lasted centuries. Assimilation occurred in both directions – depending on the region and the majority population, Slavic and German settlers mutually assimilated each other.

Germans

The Polonization process of German settlers in Kraków and Poznań lasted about two centuries. The community could only continue its isolated position with a continuation of newcomers from German lands. The Sorbs also assimilated German settlers, yet at the same time, small Sorbic communities were themselves assimilated by the surrounding German-speaking population. Many Central and Eastern European towns developed into multi-ethnic melting pots.

Treatment, involvement and traces of the Wends
Although Slavic population density was generally not very high compared to the Empire and had, as a result of the extensive warfare during the 10th to 12th centuries, even further declined, some settlement centers maintained their Wendish populations to varying degrees, resisting assimilation for a long time.

In the territories of Pomerania and Silesia, German migrants did not settle in the old Wendish villages and set up new ones on grounds allotted to them by the Slavic nobility and the monastic clergy. In the marches west of the Oder, the Wends were occasionally driven out and the villages rebuilt by settlers. The new villages would nevertheless keep their former Slavic names. In the case of the village  in Mecklenburg, the evicted Wendish inhabitants repeatedly invaded their former village, hindering a resettlement.

In the Sorbian March the situation was again different as the area and in particular Upper Lusatia is situated close to Bohemia, ruled by a Slavic dynasty, a loyal and powerful duchy of the Empire. In this environment, German feudal lords often cooperated with the Slavic inhabitants. Wiprecht of Groitzsch, a prominent figure during the early German migration period only acquired local power through the marriage to a Slavic noblewoman and the support of the Bohemian king. German-Slavic relations were generally good, while relations between Slavic-governed Bohemia and Slavic-governed Poland were marred by constant struggle.

Discrimination against the Wends was not a part of the general concept of the . Rather, the Wends were subject to a low taxation mode and thus not as profitable as new settlers. Even though the majority of the settlers were Germans (Franks and Bavarians in the South, and Saxons and Flemings in the North), Wends and other tribes also participated in the settlement. New settlers were not chosen just because of their ethnicity, a concept unknown in the Middle Ages, but because of their manpower and agricultural and technical know-how.

Most of the Wends were gradually assimilated. However, in isolated rural areas where Wends constituted a substantial part of the population, they continued their culture. These were the Drevani Polabians of the Wendland east of the Lüneburg Heath, the Jabelheide Drevani of southern Mecklenburg, the Slovincians and Kashubs of Eastern Pomerania, and the Sorbs of Lusatia. Lusatia was inhabited by a large population of Sorbs until the end of the 19th century as linguistic assimilation occurred in a relatively short time.

Language exchange
The Ostsiedlung caused the adoption of loan words, foreign words and loan translations among the German and the Slavic languages. Direct contact between Germans and Slavs caused direct language exchange of language elements due to the bilingualism of people or the spatial proximity of the speakers of the respective language. Remote contact took place during trade travels or political embassies.

The oldest adoption of naming units dates back to Proto-Germanic and Proto-Slavic. The original Slavic word  can be found in almost all Slavic languages. German was mainly used to convey words in Slavic languages that related to handicraft, politics, agriculture and nutrition. This includes Old High German , Middle High German ,  (brick), that resulted from the sound shift of the Latin tegula. An example of borrowing from Slavic into Germanic usage is the word for border. In Middle High German called , which is a borrowing of the old Czech word  or the Polish word . City names are also affected by language exchange, sound shifting and the Slavic second palatalization. The city of  is called  in Czech and  in Proto-Slavic. Due to the intensive language contact, idioms were also transmitted. Two examples from Czech and Polish are  /  ('on your own') or  /  ('armed to the teeth'), in Hungarian  ('one's own beard') and  ('armed to the chin'), with different wording, but with the same meaning.

Names of localities and settlements

As Slavic and Wendish locality names were widely adopted, they represent, in adapted and further developed form, a very high proportion of East German toponyms and place names. These are recognizable at word endings, such as -ow (Germanized , as in Spandau), -vitz or -witz and sometimes -in. Newly created villages were given German names that ended, for example, with  or  in the North, and  or  in the South. The name of the settler's place of origin (example: Lichtervelde in Flanders) could also become part of the place name. If a German settlement was founded alongside a Wendish settlement, the name of the  could also be adopted for the German village, the distinction was then made through additions (for example:  or  /  for Wendendorf,  or  for German).

In German-speaking areas most inherited surnames were formed only after the  period, and many German surnames are in fact Germanized Wendish placenames.

The former ethnic variety of German () and Slavic (, , ) toponyms was discontinued by the Eastern European republics after World War II. Villages and towns were renamed in Slavic only. Memory of the history of German settlement was no longer appreciated.

Family Names
It's estimated that approximately 25% of all German family names are of Slavic origin, most of these are Polish.

End of migration
There is no clear cause nor a definite end point in time of the Ostsiedlung. However, a slowdown in the settlement movement can be observed after the year 1300 and in the 14th century only a few new settlements with the participation of German-speaking settlers were founded. An explanation for the end of the Ostsiedlung must include various factors without being able to clearly weigh or differentiate between them. The deterioration of the climate from around 1300 as the beginning of the "Little Ice Age", the agricultural crisis that began in the mid 14th century. In the wake of the demographic slump caused by the 1347 Plague, profound devastation processes have taken place. If a clear connection could be established here, the end of the Ostsiedlung would be understood as part of the crisis of the 14th century.

In the 19th century, recognition of this complex phenomenon coupled with the rise of nationalism. This led to a largely unhistoric ethnically inspired nationalist reinterpretation of the medieval process. In Germany and some Slavic countries, most notably Poland, the  was perceived in nationalist circles as a prelude to contemporary expansionism and Germanization efforts, the slogan used for this perception was  (Drive or Push to the East).

The German settlement processes in Pomerania did not follow any kind of ideology, nor did the other migratory movements. Rather, the German settlement in Pomerania was shaped exclusively by practical requirements...The national historiography that established itself around the middle of the 19th century retrospectively constructed a Slavic-Germanic contrast in the  process of the High Middle Ages. However, that was the ideology of the 19th century, not the Middle Ages...Settlement was to be "" ('people of whatever origin and whatever craft') which was recorded in numerous documents issued by Pomeranian dukes and Rügish princes.
-Buchholz

Legacy

The 20th century wars and nationalist policies severely altered the ethnic and cultural composition of Central and Eastern Europe. After World War I, Germans in reconstituted Poland were set under pressure to leave the Polish Corridor, the eastern part of Upper Silesia and Poznań. During World War II, the Nazis initiated the Nazi-Soviet population transfers, wiping out the old settlement areas of the Baltic Germans, the Germans in Bessarabia and others, to resettle them in the future territories in occupied Poland.

Room for them was made during World War II, in line with the  by expulsion of Poles and enslaving these and other Slavs according to the Nazi's  concept. In order to press the territorial claims of Germany and to demonstrate supposed German superiority over non-Germanic peoples, whose cultural, urban and scientific achievements in that era were undermined, rejected, or presented as German. While further realization of this mega plan, aiming at a total reconstitution of Central and Eastern Europe as a German colony, was prevented by the war's turn, the beginning of the expulsion of 2 million Poles and settlement of  in the annexed territories yet was implied by 1944.

The Potsdam Conference – the meeting between the leaders of the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union – sanctioned the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary. With the Red Army's advance and Nazi Germany's defeat in 1945, the ethnic make-up of Central and Eastern and East Central Europe was radically changed, as nearly all Germans were expelled not only from all Soviet conquered German settlement areas across Central and Eastern Europe, but also from former territories of the Reich east of the Oder-Neisse line, mainly, the provinces of Silesia, East Prussia, East Brandenburg, and Pomerania. The Soviet-established People's Republic of Poland annexed the majority of the lands while the northern half of East Prussia was taken by the Soviets, becoming the Kaliningrad Oblast, an exclave of the Russian SFSR. The former German settlement areas were resettled by ethnic citizens of the respective succeeding state, (Czechs in the former Sudetenland and Poles in Silesia and Pomerania). However, some areas settled and Germanized in the course of the  still form the northeastern part of modern Germany, such as the  of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Saxony and east of the  in Holstein (part of Schleswig-Holstein).

The Medieval settlers areas, that constituted the Eastern provinces of the modern German Empire and Austria, were inhabited estimated 30 million Germans at beginning of 20th century. The Westward withdrawal of political boundaries of Germany, first in 1919, but substantially in 1945, was followed by removal of some 15 million people, to resettle within borders of present-day Germany. Only the oldest 12th-century and partially 13th-century colonization areas remained German in language and culture, that are situated within area of the post-1945 Eastern Germany and part of Eastern Austria; in which Eastern Germany is a part of Germany, especially from German reunification on 3 October 1990.

See also

 Cultural assimilation
 German diaspora
 Zipser Willkür
 Transylvanian Saxon University

 Barbarian invasions
 Wends
 Wendish Crusade
 Northern Crusades
 Medieval demography
 German exonyms
 Germanization
 Germanization of Poles during Partitions
 History of Germans in Russia and the Soviet Union
 Historical migration
 Josephine colonization
 Population transfer in the Soviet Union
 Polonization
 Pre-modern human migration

Notes

References

Sources

  (unabridged facsimile of the edition published by Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1896)

Further reading
 Charles Higounet (1911–1988)
 German translation:
 Japanese translation: , by Naoki Miyajima
 Bielfeldt et al., , Hg. Joachim Herrmann, Akademie-Verlag Berlin, 1985

Estonia–Germany relations
Estonia–Russia relations
Former eastern territories of Germany
German diaspora in Europe
German words and phrases
Germany–Latvia relations
Germany–Lithuania relations
Germany–Romania relations
Historical migrations
History of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Medieval Germany
Migration Period
Prussian Crusade
Social history of the Holy Roman Empire

Ostsiedlung


Subinvolution is a medical condition in which after childbirth, the uterus does not return to its normal size.

Presentation

Symptoms
The condition may be asymptomatic. The predominant symptoms are:
 Abnormal lochial discharge either excessive or prolonged
 Irregular or at times excessive uterine bleeding
 Irregular cramp like pain is cases of retained products or rise of temperature in sepsis

Signs
 The uterine height is greater than the normal for the particular day of puerperium. Normal puerperal uterus may be displaced by a full bladder or a loaded rectum. It feels boggy and softer upon palpation.
 Presence of features responsible for subinvolution may be evident.

Causes

Predisposing factors
 Grand multiparity
 Overdistension of uterus as in twins and hydramnios
 Ill maternal health
 Caesarean section
 Uterine prolapse
 Retroversion after the uterus becomes pelvic organ
 Uterine fibroid

Aggravating factors
 Retained products of conception
 Uterine sepsis, endometritis

Factors
 Persistent lochia/fresh bleeding
 Long labor
 Anesthesia
 Full bladder
 Difficult delivery
 Retained placenta
 Maternal infection

Diagnosis

Definition
When the involution is impaired or retarded it is called subinvolution. The uterus is the most common organ affected by subinvolution. As it is the most accessible organ to be measured per abdomen, the uterine involution is considered clinically as an index to assess subinvolution.

Management
 Antibiotics in endometritis
 Exploration of the uterus in retained products
Pessary in prolapse or retroversion.
 Ergometrine so often prescribed to enhance the involution process by reducing the blood flow of the uterus is of no value in prophylaxis.

References
DC Dutta Textbook of obstetrics sixth edition

Obstetrics
Uterus

Subinvolution


Sir Julius Charles Wernher, 1st Baronet (9 April 1850 – 21 May 1912) was a German-born Randlord, diamond magnate, and art collector who became part of the English establishment.

Life history
Born in Darmstadt, Hesse, Wernher was the son of Elisabeth (Weidenbusch) and Friedrich Augustus Wernher, a railway engineer of Protestant stock. He was educated at Frankfurt-am-Main, where he entered a merchant bank. In 1871, having served in the Franco-German War, he moved to London at the age of 21. His talent for business was spotted by a diamond dealer named Jules Porgès of London and Paris, who sent Wernher in 1873 as his agent to the diamond mines of Kimberley, South Africa to buy and export diamonds. Wernher bought up mining interests and by 1875 was a member of the Kimberley mining board. In that same year, Porgès and Alfred Beit joined him in Kimberley, and Porgès formed the Compagnie Française des Mines de Diamants du Cap. Porgès returned to London after having made Wernher and Beit partners in the firm of Jules Porgès & Co. By 1884 Wernher returned to London and traded in diamond shares, while Beit remained in Kimberley to look after their interests. On Porgès' retirement in 1889, the firm was restructured and named Wernher, Beit & Co.

With the discovery in 1886 of gold on the Witwatersrand, the firm appointed Hermann Eckstein as their representative in Johannesburg, while Cecil Rhodes and Beit effectively amalgamated the Kimberley diamond mines by 1888 and enabled Wernher, Beit & Co. to acquire a controlling interest in De Beers Consolidated Mines. Wernher by now was managing over 70 South African companies from his London office, and developing a passion for collecting art. He was created a baronet in 1905, as well as being a member of the Order of the Crown of Prussia. Despite having a reputation for prudence in business, Wernher was swindled out of £64,000 in 1906 by Henri Lemoine, who claimed he could make synthetic diamonds.

Beset by failing health in 1911, Wernher merged the shareholdings of Wernher, Beit & Co. with those of Central Mining and Investment Corporation and Rand Mines Ltd. Besides his interest in art, Wernher funded an extension to the National Physical Laboratory. He also bequeathed £250,000 to establishing a university in Cape Town, and £100,000 to the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London.

At the time of his death in London, he was one of the richest men in the United Kingdom with a fortune of £12 million (then $60 million in face value, then more than about 20–30 times current purchasing power). This accumulation of wealth was due to his level-headedness and attention to detail. In contrast, Beit was shrewd but impulsive, leading to fiascos like the Jameson Raid.

Art
Wernher kept his art collection at his London mansion, Bath House in Piccadilly, and at his country house Luton Hoo (occupied by Robert de Hoo in 1245). Much of it is now on display at Ranger's House in the London suburb of Greenwich. In 1897 Wernher bought what was thought to be a later copy of the Madonna of the Pomegranate; the original was painted by Sandro Botticelli in 1487. Restoration work carried out by English Heritage, and extensive testing, have shown that the painting at Ranger's House did in fact originate from Botticelli's 15th Century workshop in Florence.

A large memorial to Wernher now flanks the entrance to the Royal School of Mines in London.

Marriage and children

On 12 June 1888, he married socialite Alice Sedgwick Mankiewicz (1862 – 30 November 1945), nicknamed "Birdie", whom he described as "bright-eyed, fair-haired, small, intelligent and musical". She was the daughter of Jacob "James" Mankiewicz (1830–1879) from Danzig, the son of Joel Mankiewicz, a Polish Jewish merchant. Her mother was Ada Susan Pigott from Colchester, who had a brother who was a general. Birdie and her mother lived in part of a big mid-Victorian house in Bayswater, at 15a Pembridge Square.

They had three sons:
 Sir Derrick Julius Wernher, 2nd Baronet (7 June 1889 – 6 March 1948), married Theodora Anna Romanoff, daughter of Nikita Romanoff (from an exiled Russian noble family – not related to the Imperial House of Romanov—whose members were in charge of the enterprise Sibirsky telegraf, "The Siberian Telegraph", in 1861), on 14 December 1922.
 Anna Alexandra Wernher (14 May 1924 – May 2010)
 Major-General Sir Harold Augustus Wernher, 3rd Baronet (16 January 1893 – 30 June 1973), married Countess Anastasia de Torby (9 September 1892 – 7 December 1977), eldest child of Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia and his morganatic wife, Sophie of Merenberg, Countess de Torby, daughter of Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau and his morganatic wife, Russian noblewoman Natalia Pushkina.
 Captain George Michael Alexander Wernher (Edinburgh, Scotland, 22 August 1918 – Béja, Tunisia, 4 December 1942), killed in action during the North Africa Campaign, aged 24, while serving with 17th/21st Lancers Royal Armoured Corps. He is buried at Medjez-el-Bab War Cemetery at Béja in Tunisia.
 Georgina Wernher (17 October 1919 – 28 April 2011), married London 10 October 1944 Lt.-Col. Harold Pedro Joseph Phillips (1909–1980), son of Colonel Joseph Harold John Phillips. Remarried London December 1992 Lt.-Col. Sir George Arnold Ford Kennard, 3rd Bt., son of Sir Coleridge Arthur Fitzroy Kennard, 1st Bt., and Dorothy Katherine Barclay. She had five children from her first marriage.
 Myra Alice Wernher, CVO (born 8 March 1925), married 5 November 1946 Major Sir David Henry Butter, son of Colonel Charles Adrian James Butter. They had five children, including Georgina Butter, goddaughter and bridesmaid to Princess Alexandra of Kent.
Second Lieutenant Alexander Pigott Wernher (18 January 1897 – 10 September 1916), killed in action at the Battle of Delville Wood, aged 19, while serving with Prince of Wales's Coy., 1st Bn. Welsh Guards. He is buried in the Citadel New Military Cemetery at Fricourt.

The Wernher Mausoleum is in the Churchyard of Holy Trinity, East Hyde.

Alice, Lady Wernher, the widow of Sir Julius, remarried on 25 September 1919 to Henry Lopes, 2nd Baron Ludlow (30 September 1865 – 8 November 1922). Upon her remarriage, she became known as Lady Ludlow.

Arms

References

External links

Wernher Collection

British mining businesspeople
Emigrants from the German Empire
Immigrants to the United Kingdom
Randlords
English art collectors
German art collectors
Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom
1850 births
1912 deaths
Julius
Kimberley, Northern Cape
Businesspeople from Darmstadt
Immigrants to the Cape Colony
Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom
19th-century British businesspeople

Julius Wernher


The Center for Adoption Policy (CAP) is a New York based 501(c)(3) organization. Its mission is to provide research, analysis, advice and education to practitioners and the public about current legislation and practices governing domestic and inter-country adoption in the United States, Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa. CAP is an independent entity. It is not affiliated with any agency or entity involved in the placement of children.

External links
Center for Adoption Policy

Adoption-related organizations
Children's charities based in the United States
Charities based in New York City

Center for Adoption Policy


Pierre Brabant (26 August 1925 – 28 August 2014) was a Canadian composer and pianist. He appeared in concerts and recitals throughout Canada and performed numerous times on Canadian television and radio. He wrote music for a number of programs for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and worked as a composer, arranger, and music director for numerous recordings by a variety of Canadian artists. Starting in 1987 he performed regularly in concerts and recitals as the accompanist for opera singer Joseph Rouleau.

Life and career
Brabant was born in Montreal, Quebec, he began his studies in piano as a child and gave his first public recital while a teenager. In 1942 he appeared on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation program Young Artists of Tomorrow. The following year he was awarded first prize in the CBC radio competition Les Talents de chez-nous. From 1942 to 1943 he was a piano student of Raymond David and Joseph-Élie Savaria.

In 1947-1948 Brabant took a sojourn in Paris, after which he embarked on a Canadian recital tour; giving a total of 78 recitals. He notably included some of his own compositions in his recital program, including Sonatine en do, Caprice laurentien, Cinq Cantilènes and Cinq Églogues. In his review of Brabant's 1948 recital at Plateau Hall in Montreal Jean Vallerand wrote, "Pierre Brabant is a splendid pianist and a fine artist. He also is a very intelligent, sensitive composer, with a solid technique and something to say."

In 1949 Brabant studied the organ with Marcel Dupré in Paris. That same year his ballet La Gaspésienne, which was choreographed by Ruth Sorel, premiered in Montreal. The ballet was given performances in Toronto, New York City, and at the Great Theatre, Warsaw in 1950. He entered the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal in 1951 where he studied for two years. In 1954 he appeared as a soloist on several CBC Television programs, including L'Heure du concert. In 1957 he pursued studies in the organ with Eugène Lapierre.

In the early 1960s Brabant developed an interest in expanding his compositional repertoire into the pop music genre. One of his earliest forays into this area was the music for Jean-Pierre Ferland's program Feuilles de gui, which was awarded prizes in 1962 from the CBC and in Brussels. Several soundtracks for CBC children's programs followed, including Tour de terre, Au clair de soleil, and Soleil et jours de pluie. He also composed music for a number of albums for children, including 20 Contes pour enfants par Tante Lucille for RCA. He also recorded the theme song and played the background music for the popular TV series Rue des Pignons from 1967 to 1978, and composed music for the TV show La Semaine verte.

Brabant served as music director and arranger for several recordings during the 1960s through the 1980s, including ones by Jean-Paul Filion, Hervé Brousseau, Georges Dor and Félix Leclerc. In 1987 he began working regularly with bass Joseph Rouleau as an accompanist. Many of their recitals together have been devoted to Leclerc's music.

References

1925 births
2014 deaths
Canadian classical pianists
Male classical pianists
Canadian male composers
Canadian male pianists
Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal alumni
Musicians from Montreal
20th-century Canadian male musicians
20th-century Canadian pianists
20th-century classical pianists

Pierre Brabant


Alec Denton (born 30 July 1994) is an English footballer who plays as a forward.

Career
Denton was born in Sheffield. He joined Rotherham United in 2006, having previously played for Worksop Town Juniors. In April 2010, Denton signed a two-year scholarship with the club after progressing through the Centre of Excellence. In March 2012, Denton joined Northern Premier League side Stocksbridge Park Steels on loan after impressing in a friendly against the club. On 5 May 2012, Denton made his professional debut for the Millers in a 1–1 draw with Northampton Town, coming on as a substitute for Sam Hoskins. He was then offered a one-year development professional contract.

His first appearance in the 2012-13 season was when he came on as a substitute in a game where Rotherham lost 3–0 to Southend United.

On 11 January, Denton and fellow Miller youngster Mitch Rose joined Stamford on a one-month loan deal.

On 2 May 2013, Denton was released by Rotherham.

References

External links

1994 births
Living people
English men's footballers
Footballers from Sheffield
Men's association football forwards
Rotherham United F.C. players
Stocksbridge Park Steels F.C. players
Clipstone F.C. players
Sheffield F.C. players
English Football League players

Alec Denton


Jerry D. Porter (born c. 1949 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) is a minister and general superintendent emeritus in the Church of the Nazarene.

Education

Porter graduated from Bethany Nazarene College in 1971 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in religion. In the summer of 1972 he received a Master of Arts in theology degree.

Ministry

Porter's first pastorate was in Angleton, Texas and he was ordained in 1974 on the Houston District Church of the Nazarene by General Superintendent Charles H. Strickland. After two and a half years in Angleton Porter was appointed to be a missionary to the Dominican Republic to start the Nazarene work in that country. He was next assigned to San José, Costa Rica, where he was rector of the Nazarene Seminary of the Americas.

Porter was elected by the General Board of the Church of the Nazarene to be the regional director for the Church of the Nazarene in the Mexico/Central America Region in 1986, which includes eight nations from Panama to Mexico.

In 1992, while his daughter Amy was receiving treatment for cancer in Dallas, Texas, he was elected by the Mid-Atlantic District to be the third district superintendent. During this time he also served on the Board of Trustees of Eastern Nazarene College and Nazarene Theological Seminary.

Porter was elected to be General Superintendent at the 24th General Assembly of the Church of the Nazarene in San Antonio, Texas, in June 1997.

References
Biography on the official website of the Church of the Nazarene
Board of General Superintendent's officers listed at the official website of the Church of the Nazarene

Nazarene General Superintendents
1940s births
Living people
Southern Nazarene University alumni
Clergy from Oklahoma City
American Nazarene ministers

Jerry D. Porter


Moses Rothman (January 14, 1919 – September 15, 2011) was a Canadian-born, American studio executive who persuaded Charlie Chaplin to return to the United States in 1972, ending Chaplin's  twenty year, self-imposed exile. Chaplin's return to the United States restored his popularity and public reputation.

Jeffrey Vance, author of the 2003 Chaplin biography, Chaplin: Genius of the Cinema, wrote that Chaplin's 1972 return to the United States, which was arranged by Rothman, was "one of the greatest P.R. coups, and personal rehabilitations" in the history of the film industry. Vance further wrote that, "Rothman is the guy who re-made Chaplin."

Biography

Career
Rothman was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on January 14, 1919, to Meyer and Molly Rotman. Rothman was one of his parents four children. His father worked as a kosher butcher. Rothman would later change his name from Moses to Mo once he entered the work force. Rothman served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II, stationed in Dublin, Ireland. While in Ireland, Rothman began to meet Americans who worked in the film industry, who invited him to New York City to work in entertainment after the war.

Rothman took their advice and moved to New York City after the end of the war. He worked for Universal Pictures from 1946 to 1952 as an overseas manager in India, Singapore and Venezuela. In 1952, Rothman joined United Artists' office in Paris, France, as the studio's continental European manager, where he worked from 1952 to 1959.

Rothman was hired by Columbia Pictures in 1960 as the CEO of Columbia's international division. He rose to become Columbia Pictures' vice president for worldwide marketing. Rothman also served as Columbia Pictures' representative to director Stanley Kubrick during the production of his 1964 film, Dr. Strangelove. He retired from Columbia Pictures in 1971 to focus on the distribution of Charlie Chaplin's film library.

Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin, one of Hollywood's best known figures, had founded United Artists with Mary Pickford, D. W. Griffith and Douglas Fairbanks. By the early 1950s, Chaplin's stardom had dimmed due to perceived Communist sympathies and scandals involving his two previous, early marriages to sixteen-year-old girls. Chaplin, though a British citizen, had lived in the United States for forty years, but his political affiliations made him a subject of suspicion during the McCarthy Era.

In 1952, Chaplin traveled to his native home to promote the London premiere of Limelight, the last film he made in the United States. While abroad, United States Attorney General James P. McGranery revoked Chaplin's re-entry permit and would not allow him to return to the United States. Chaplin moved to Switzerland in 1952, and swore never to return to the United States. Chaplin owned and retained the rights to most of his movies, which he took with him to Switzerland.

Rothman's relationship to Chaplin stretched back to the 1950s, when he first met Chaplin while working as United Artists' European manager. In early 1971, a group of investors, led by Rothman, paid Chaplin $6 million, plus 50% royalties, for the distribution rights to some of his best known movies, including The Great Dictator, Limelight, City Lights, The Gold Rush and Modern Times. Rothman left his job as vice president of worldwide marketing for Columbia Pictures in 1971 to lead the investors and handle the distribution of Chaplin's films on a full-time basis.

Rothman successfully persuaded Chaplin, who was 83 years old at the time, to return to the United States in order to promote the re-release of his film catalog. Chaplin was hesitant, but agreed to Rothman's offer. Charlie Chaplin, accompanied by both his wife, Oona, and Mo Rothman, arrived in New York City on April 2, 1972. Chaplin attended a tribute to his films held by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York. He was further awarded the honorary Academy Award one week later.

The visit, orchestrated by Rothman, restored Chaplin's popularity and reputation. At the time, the New York Times noted Rothmam's extensive involvement with the visit describing Rothman as "abrupt and ingratiating five times in three minutes" — as a kind of performance in its own right, evoking the manner of "the Hollywood tycoon of the 1930s." Chaplin's daughter, Geraldine Chaplin, later wrote that Rothman was the "brave and clever reviver of Charlie Chaplin worldwide."

Chaplin died in 1977, his popularity restored. Rothman continued to release his films throughout the 1970s and 1980s. During the mid-1980s, Rothman loaned the now defunct United States Information Agency twelve of Chaplin's films, which were screened at American embassies worldwide as an example of American film and art.

Later life
In 1982, Rothman was the recipient of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic for his contributions to Italian cinema. He served as a judge for both the Venice Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival in 1985.

Rothman was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease later in life. In 2001, his wife, Lyn Rothman, spurred on by her husband's diagnosis, founded the Parkinson's Appeal for Deep Brain Stimulation, based in London.

Mo Rothman died from Parkinson's disease in Los Angeles on September 15, 2011, at the age 92. and is survived by his wife, Lyn Rothman, with whom he had been married for 37 years; three children from two previous marriages: Keith from his first marriage and Nicole and Monique from his second marriage to German actress Hanna Rucker (1923-1982); two stepchildren, Sebastian and Arabella; and seven grandchildren. He was interred at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

References

1919 births
2011 deaths
American film studio executives
20th-century American Jews
Recipients of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
Royal Canadian Air Force personnel
Canadian military personnel of World War II
Canadian emigrants to the United States
Businesspeople from Los Angeles
Businesspeople from Montreal
Businesspeople from New York City
Burials at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery
20th-century American businesspeople
21st-century American Jews

Mo Rothman


Emmen () is a municipality and town of the province of Drenthe in the northeastern Netherlands.

History

A planned city, Emmen arose from several small farming and peat-harvesting communities which have dotted the province of Drenthe since the Middle Ages. Traces of these communities can still be seen in the form of the villages of Westenesch, Noordbarge and Zuidbarge: they have a separate history and layout but are surrounded by the suburbs and the center of Emmen.

The expansion of the town did not happen until after the Second World War. Suburbs were built around the old center of Emmen, starting with Emmermeer directly to the north, and followed to the south-east by Angelslo (for which an old village of the same name was demolished), Emmerhout (famed at the time for being separated from the town by an existing forest) to the east, Bargeres, the Rietlanden and Parc Sandur to the south and south-west. Construction of the last suburb, called Delftlanden, is well underway with many homes already built and people living in the area.

There are few historic landmarks left within the town, but those few include the church on the market square, where a church has been standing since the Middle Ages, the court of law building, dating from the beginning of the twentieth century, and the post office from the same time.  In the town's environs, an earthwork by Robert Smithson, "Broken Circle/Spiral Hill", may be found.

In 1957 it hosted the 1st Women's Chess Olympiad.

The prime economic booster since the 1980s has been the zoo, the Dierenpark Emmen. Begun in the 1930s, it was almost completely redesigned in the 1970s and is now co-owned by the municipality of Emmen. It attracts over 1.5 million visitors per year. It was replaced by Wildlands in 2016, when the old zoo closed. Important industries include Teijin Aramid, DSM Engineering Plastics, Wellman and Diolen Industrial Fibers (currently Senbis Polymer Innovations). There are extensive glasshouse complexes for horticulture, especially in the Klazienaveen-Erica area.  The municipality offers some 38,000 jobs.

Emmen is the most populous urban area of Drenthe. The municipality of Emmen is one of the largest in the Netherlands, although the area outside the town borders of Emmen is rather rural. The other villages of importance are Emmer-Compascuum, Klazienaveen, Nieuw-Amsterdam and Schoonebeek.

Geography

The population centres:

 Barger-Compascuum
 Emmen
 Emmer-Compascuum
 Erica
 Klazienaveen
 Nieuw-Amsterdam
 Nieuw-Dordrecht
 Nieuw-Schoonebeek
 Nieuw-Weerdinge
 Roswinkel
 Schoonebeek
 Veenoord
 Weiteveen
 Zwartemeer

Demography
The municipality of Emmen has some 107,000 inhabitants, with 56,000 living in the city of Emmen. Compared to some 3,000 inhabitants in the nineteenth century, this illustrates Emmen's rapid growth in the past 150 years.

Sports
The town's football club FC Emmen plays their home games in De Oude Meerdijk.

Every year a big cycle racing criterium called Gouden Pijl,  where all the big names in bicycle sport come to Emmen for this event. Besides the bicycle race itself, the Gouden Pijl also includes cultural events like pop-concerts, etc. In 2008, the comeback concert of The Schizo's, the infamous local punk-band from the 1980s, was organized during the Gouden Pijl.

Speedway Emmen hosts regular Stock Car and Banger Racing.

Attractions
Attractions in Emmen are Wildlands Adventure Zoo Emmen, the inner city, the natural environment and the Rensenpark (with among others the Museum of Contemporary Tibetan Art). There is also Museum Collectie Brands in the adjacent village of Nieuw-Dordrecht.

Transportation
Emmen is served by one train connection with Zwolle, which in turn leads to the rest of the country.
Emmen railway station
Emmen Zuid railway station
Nieuw Amsterdam railway station

In addition, there are regular and frequent bus lines within Emmen and towards Groningen, Hoogeveen and Assen, as well as the surrounding countryside, and Meppen in Germany, departing from Emmen's two bus terminals.

By car, the town is accessible via the N34 from Ommen via Hardenberg and Coevorden towards Emmen, ending at the A28 motorway (Netherlands) towards Groningen near de Punt, the N381 to Drachten, the N391 to Veendam which goes through Emmen (with access to almost every district) and the A37 from Hoogeveen to Meppen in Germany, although this motorway is not directly next to Emmen. From the A37 to Emmen, there are three possibilities: at Junction Holsloot (A37 x N34), at Highway-exit Schoonebeek (A37 x N853), and Highway-exit Klazienaveen (A37 x N862). The A37 is also the quickest way towards the Randstad from Emmen. The A37 ends at the German border, where it continues as the B402 or European route E233.

The nearest airport is Groningen Airport Eelde at a distance of 50 kilometers.

Furthermore, there are inland shipping connections via Nieuw-Amsterdam to Coevorden, Hoogeveen and Almelo.

Notable people

 Jaap Doek (born 1942), jurist specializing in family and juvenile law;  chairperson of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2001 to 2007
 Hanja Maij-Weggen (born 1943), retired politician
 Ben Feringa (born 1951), synthetic organic chemist specializing in molecular nanotechnology and homogenous catalysis
 Jans Aasman (born 1958), psychologist and Cognitive Science expert
 Maruschka Detmers (born 1962), actress
 Frank Westerman (born 1964), writer and former journalist
 Anne Vanschothorst (born 1974),  harpist and composer

Sport
 Dries van der Lof (1919–1990), racing driver
 Jan de Jonge (born 1963), retired football striker, 410 caps
 Erik Regtop (born 1968), retired footballer, 387 caps
 Gerald Sibon (born 1974), retired footballer, 437 caps

References

External links

Municipalities of Drenthe

Emmen, Netherlands


Giovanni Francesco Giuseppe Malfatti, also known as Gian Francesco or Gianfrancesco (26 September 1731 – 9 October 1807) was an Italian mathematician. He was born in Ala, Trentino, Italy and died in Ferrara.

Malfatti studied at the College of San Francesco Saverio in Bologna where his mentors included Vincenzo Riccati, F. M. Zanotti and Gabriele Manfredi. He moved to Ferrara in 1754, and became a professor at the University of Ferrara when it was re-established in 1771. In 1782 he was one of the founders of the Societa Italiana delle Scienze, later to become the Accademia nazionale delle scienze detta dei XL.

Contributions to mathematics

In 1803, Malfatti posed the problem of carving three circular columns out of a triangular block of marble, using as much of the marble as possible, and conjectured that three mutually-tangent circles inscribed within the triangle would provide the optimal solution. These tangent circles are now known as Malfatti circles after his work, despite the earlier work of Japanese mathematician Ajima Naonobu and of Malfatti's countryman Gilio di Cecco da Montepulciano on the same problem and despite the fact that the conjecture was later proven false. Several triangle centers derived from these circles are also named after both Ajima and Malfatti.

Additional topics in Malfatti's research concerned quintic equations, and the property of the lemniscate of Bernoulli that a ball rolling down an arc of the lemniscate, under the influence of gravity, will take the same time to traverse it as a ball rolling down a straight line segment connecting the endpoints of the arc.

Selected publications
.

Notes

References

 Leonardo Franchini, "La matematica e il gioco del lotto - Una biografia di Gianfrancesco Malfatti", Edizioni Stella, Rovereto, ottobre 2007.

External links
 Clark Kimberling's page on Malfatti
 Leonardo Franchini, "La matematica e il gioco del lotto - Una biografia di Gianfrancesco Malfatti", Edizioni Stella, Rovereto, ottobre 2007.

1731 births
1807 deaths
People from Ala, Trentino
18th-century Italian mathematicians
19th-century Italian mathematicians

Gian Francesco Malfatti


A lieutenant governor is an official in state governments of 45 out of 50 of the United States.  In most cases, the lieutenant governor is the highest officer of state after the governor, standing in for that officer when they are absent from the state or temporarily incapacitated. In the event a governor dies, resigns or is removed from office, the lieutenant governor typically becomes governor.

In 26 states, the governor and lieutenant governor are elected on the same ticket, ensuring that they come from the same political party. In 17 states, they are elected separately and, thus, may come from different parties. Among the seven states without a separate, full-time office of lieutenant governor, two states have a post of lieutenant governor that is filled by the highest officer of the state senate. In Tennessee, the full title of the leader of the Tennessee Senate is "lieutenant governor and speaker of the Senate". In West Virginia, the title of lieutenant governor is assigned by statute to the Senate president.

With the exception of Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and West Virginia, every state has had a female lieutenant governor or equivalent.

The positions are sometimes criticized for lacking duties and power and described by political insiders as "get up, read the paper, see if the governor is dead, if not, go back to sleep". In the 2010 election for the lieutenant governor of Rhode Island, 40% of the vote was won by Robert J. Healey, a perennial candidate who wanted to abolish the office, saying "If you open up the dictionary to 'sinecure', you have a picture of the Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island."

Duties
The duties of lieutenant governors vary from state to state. In most states, the office's duties are laid out in the state's original state constitution; however, responsibilities may have been added or diminished by statute or executive order.

Duties in most states
Generally, the lieutenant governor is the state's highest officer following the governor and assumes the role when the governor is out of state or incapacitated. The lieutenant governor also becomes the governor should the governor die, resign or be removed from office.

The lieutenant governor is also frequently the presiding officer of the upper house of the state legislature, similar to the vice president of the United States. Lieutenant governors are the only officials with specific duties and powers in two branches of state government: the executive and legislative branches. More than half of the NLGA members preside over their state senate. Most pursue legislative initiatives; many testify locally and in Washington D.C. in various capacities; some serve on the governors' cabinets, while others maintain varied portfolios of duties. In many states, the duties of lieutenant governor are increased by legislation to include the lieutenant governor on state boards, commissions and task forces.

Other duties
Since Alaska, Hawaii and Utah do not have a Secretary of State, the lieutenant governor performs the duties generally granted to that office. In New Jersey, the governor must appoint the lieutenant governor to head a cabinet-level department or administrative agency within the state government's executive branch—but not to the post of state attorney general. The lieutenant governor of Texas plays an active role as presiding officer of the State Senate and is often rumored to be more powerful than the state's governor.

New Jersey

In November 2005, New Jersey voters approved a constitutional amendment to create the office of lieutenant governor, which became effective with the 2009 general election. The state's first lieutenant governor, Kim Guadagno, took office in January 2010.

The position was created in response to the unusual circumstances surrounding the aftermath of the 2001 gubernatorial election. Senate President Donald DiFrancesco became acting governor early that year after Christine Todd Whitman resigned to take office as EPA Administrator. DiFrancesco's term as Senate president expired one week before governor-elect Jim McGreevey was to assume office in January 2002, and the 2001 State Senate elections resulted in the balance of the New Jersey Senate being tied between the two parties. Due to the tie, Democrat Richard Codey and Republican John O. Bennett were elected as Senate co-presidents, and in the 90-minute period between the expiration of DiFrancesco's term and the swearing-in of Codey and Bennett, State Attorney General John Farmer Jr. served as acting governor due to the position of Senate president being vacant. Subsequently, Bennett and Codey served as acting governor for three days each until McGreevey took office. All told, five people had served as governor or acting governor in the space of eight days.

States and territories without a lieutenant governor

Arizona
In Arizona, the secretary of state is the first in line to succeed the governor in the event of death, disability, resignation, or removal from office. The line of succession also includes the attorney general, state treasurer and superintendent of public instruction.

In November 2022, Arizona voters approved a state constitutional amendment to create the position and office of the lieutenant governor beginning with the 2026 election cycle. The position will be elected on a joint ticket with the governor. The lieutenant governor would ascend to the governorship if the incumbent governor dies, resigns or is removed from office.

Maine
In Maine, if the governor cannot serve, the immediate successor is the Senate president.

New Hampshire
Whenever the governor dies, resigns, is removed from office or unable to perform the duties of office, the Senate president serves as "acting governor".

Oregon
The gubernatorial line of succession is set forth in the state constitution, at Article V, Section 8a. It defines who may become or act as the governor of Oregon upon the incapacity, death, resignation, or removal from office (by impeachment and subsequent removal or recall) of a sitting governor. The current chain of succession is: secretary of state, state treasurer, president of the State Senate, and speaker of the House of Representatives. When a governor leaves office, the next available elected individual in the succession becomes governor until the next general biennial election, when a governor will be elected to either serve out the last two years of a regular term or a new four-year term. See: line of succession. In 2007, legislation was proposed to establish an office of lieutenant governor.

Wyoming
In Wyoming, the secretary of state stands first in the line of succession.

Puerto Rico

The highest-ranking officer after the governor of Puerto Rico is the chief of staff, who is appointed by the governor himself rather than elected. In terms of line of succession, the secretary of State of Puerto Rico acts as acting governor when the governor is temporarily disabled or unable to discharge his duties. If there is a permanent vacancy in the governorship, the Constitution of Puerto Rico establishes that the secretary becomes governor for the remainder of the term. The secretary of state also serves as acting governor whenever the governor is temporarily not present in Puerto Rico, with territorial law also establishing a line of succession for when both the governor and the secretary are unable to perform their duties.

See also
 List of current United States lieutenant governors
 List of female lieutenant governors in the United States
 State constitutional officer
 National Lieutenant Governors Association

References

Citations

Sources

 The Book of the States 2015, Duties of Lieutenant Governors Table 4.14. The Council of State Governments.  http://knowledgecenter.csg.org/kc/content/book-states-2015-chapter-4-state-executive-branch

External links
 National Lieutenant Governors Association

State government in the United States

Lieutenant governor (United States)


Hitting a New High is a 1937 American musical comedy film directed by Raoul Walsh. It stars Lily Pons and Jack Oakie. It was nominated for an Academy Award in 1938 in the category Best Sound Recording (John O. Aalberg).

Plot
Corny Davis, a press agent of an American entertainment mogul based out of Paris, France is looking for a new work. After the mogul, Lucius B Blynn, faces a series of embrassments, his press agent tries to sign an opera singer for him. He finds an opera singer named Suzette (Lily Pons), Suzette is furious with her current agent and boyfriend (Jimmy James, played by John Howard) who wants her to sing cabaret instead of opera, so she walks out on him, where Corny is waiting. However, Davis's boss is already on a quest to rebuild his reputation by going on safari in French Equatorial Africa. Therefore, he has the opera singer (played by Lily Pons) go to the French Congo and pretend to be a "bird woman", something akin to Tarzan but having been raised amongst the birds. He "finds" her in the wild singing, just as Corny intended. Despite the farcical nature of this, Blynn buys it. He has her "captured" in a wooden cage, Corny says he'll "teach her" to speak, absurdly Blynn continues to fall for the entire charade. While Blynn frantically telegrams New York telling them about his "find", Corny and Suzette (who is pretending to be "Oogahunga the Bird-Girl") scheme to keep the farce going until she's famous and he's rich. Blynn excitedly debuts Suzette on radio in New York City while he wears full safari gear despite being on radio. When questioned on why he's dressed that way he says it's so he can have "an authentic mental juxtaposition". However, during her inaugural broadcast her ex-boss/ex-boyfriend hears her singing the song she was arguing with him about when she walked out on him. Immediately he knows it's her. Shortly thereafter Jimmy James shows up in Blynn's office. Blynn kicks him out but he scales the wall and finds Suzette upstairs playing piano and singing. Corny walks in on them and makes an arrangement with Jimmy, they get Suzette to agree to do shows for both of them in exchange for James not exposing their scheme. His friend and clarinet player Cedric Cosmos (played by Eric Blore) overhears Corny, Jimmy and Suzette discussing the entire scam backstage during one such cabaret show. He asks Jimmy for hush money and when he doesn't get it he shows up the next day as adventurer "Captain Braceridge Hemingway", explorer of Africa. Blynn, unaware he's being tricked yet again falls for Cedric's imitation. Cedric, as "Captain Braceridge Hemingway" tells an elaborate tale of shipwreck off of the coast Africa. He claims to be the long lost father of "Oogahunga, the Bird-Girl". Blynn gracefully allows him to reconnect with his "long lost daughter". When Cedric and Corny are alone, Cedric makes blackmail demands of Corny. However, during the next performance of "Oogahunga", she is recognized as Suzette by Blynn's main rival. Said rival confronts Corny and he too gets cut in on the blackmail money. Blynn goes to the nightclub where Suzette also sings cabaret. He sees Suzette there singing and "Captain Braceridge Hemingway" playing clarinet in Jimmy's band, and Blynn demands she stop singing, still believing she's "Oogahunga". Everything is exposed and explained to Blynn who erupts in fury. Cedric plays on the clarinet as Blynn storms away and the rest of the band joins in. Then Corny and Blynn begin drunkenly singing along, and then Suzette joins in as well. Then the entire audience joins in as well.

Cast
 Lily Pons as Suzette, aka Oogahunga, the Bird-Girl
 Jack Oakie as Corny Davis
 John Howard as Jimmy James
 Eric Blore as Cedric Cosmo, aka Captain Braceridge Hemingway
 Edward Everett Horton as Lucius B Blynn

Reception
The film lost a reported $431,000.

References

External links

1937 films
1937 comedy films
American black-and-white films
Films directed by Raoul Walsh
American comedy films
Films scored by Nathaniel Shilkret
RKO Pictures films
1930s English-language films
1930s American films

Hitting a New High


Alfred Anderson (25 June 1896 – 21 November 2005) was a Scottish joiner and veteran of the First World War. He was the last known holder of the 1914 Star (the Old Contemptibles), the last known combatant to participate in the 1914 World War I Christmas truce, Scotland's last known World War I veteran, and Scotland's oldest man for more than a year.

Early life

Alfred Anderson was born on 25 June 1896 at 20 Kirloch Street, Dundee. He was the son of Andrew Anderson, a joiner, and Christina Thomas Emmerson. His parents married on 5 September 1888 in Chicago, Illinois, where they had two sons before returning to Scotland. The Andersons went on to have four more children, including Alfred. Andrew Anderson died on 31 July 1943, aged eighty-one, of bronchial asthmafrom which he had suffered for over twenty-five yearsand bronchopneumonia. Christina Anderson died of cardiovascular degeneration on 9 January 1953, aged eighty-four. Alfred registered both of his parents' deaths.

First World War (1914–1918)

In October 1914, Anderson left his home and with the rest of the 1/5th Angus and Dundee Battalion of the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment), travelled by train from Dundee to Southampton and then crossed the English Channel by ferry to Le Havre. The regiment was mainly recruited in the County of Angus, so Anderson was surrounded by a group of friends with whom he had joined the Territorial Force in 1912 at the age of sixteen; he thought that he was going on a grand adventure and as Anderson recalled in a television interview in 2005, it offered the chance of a holiday. The young lads who had joined up had volunteered to go and fight on the Western Front.

On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (24 and 25 December) 1914, Anderson's unit was billeted in a farmhouse away from the front line. He vividly recalled the day and once said:
I remember the silence, the eerie sound of silence. Only the guards were on duty. We all went outside the farm buildings and just stood listening. And, of course, thinking of people back home. All I'd heard for two months in the trenches was the hissing, cracking and whining of bullets in flight, machinegun fire and distant German voices.

But there was a dead silence that morning, right across the land as far as you could see. We shouted 'Merry Christmas', even though nobody felt merry. The silence ended early in the afternoon and the killing started again. It was a short peace in a terrible war.

Bertie Felstead, who died in August 2001 at the age of 106, was originally believed to have been the last survivor of the Christmas Truce. However, it later emerged that Alfred Anderson had participated in the Christmas Truce, and he outlived Felstead by four years.

The following year the 1/5th Battalion fought at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle and Loos. He became batman to his platoon commander Lieutenant Ian Bruce Gardyne MC, and also briefly to Captain Fergus Bowes-Lyon, brother to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. Bowes-Lyon (1889–1915) was killed during the Battle of the Hohenzollern Redoubt in the Battle of Loos.

Whilst Alfred Anderson was serving as a batman, he would often go out at night with Bruce-Gardyne into No-Man's Land to listen for enemy activity such as tunneling or troop movements.  On one of these night-time watches, Anderson was wounded in the back of the neck by shrapnel from shellfire in 1916. The wound, termed a 'Blighty' wound, meant that he was sent home to Britain to recuperate. After recovering at a hospital in Norfolk he became an infantry instructor at a camp near Ripon, rising to the rank of Staff Sergeant by the end of the war in 1918. It was during his time as an instructor that he met and married his wife, Susanna Iddison (1896–1979). Following  the war, he took her back to Scotland and recommenced life as a joiner in his father's business.

Second World War (1939–1945)

When the Second World War erupted in 1939, Alfred by now was aged forty-three and therefore too old to be drafted into the military. He was placed in command of a detachment of the Home Guard which ensured that he 'did his bit' for 'King and country' a second time. Following the British and Allied victory in 1945, Anderson was elected Chairman of the local branch of the British Legion.

Postwar
His wife died in 1979 and he moved to Alyth to be near his youngest daughter.

He was awarded the Légion d'honneur in 1998 as were all First World War veterans who fought on French soil. In 2003, when his service as batman to Fergus Bowes-Lyon (who was killed in 1915) came out, Prince Charles went to visit him. Charles is the great-nephew of Fergus Bowes-Lyon.

Six weeks before his own death he moved to Mundamalla Nursing Home, where he died in November 2005 at the age of 109. At his death, he was Scotland's oldest man. He died just a few weeks after featuring in the BBC One documentary The Last Tommy, which interviewed some of the last surviving First World War British Army veterans (nicknamed Tommy or Tommy Atkins).

The widower, who had five children, said he had lost count of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He was actually survived by four children, ten grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren. A biography (Alfred Anderson: A Life in Three Centuries) was published in 2002, and a bust of him stands on display at the public library in Alyth.

About Christmas, Anderson said:

References

 Obituary, The Times, page 61, 22 November 2005

External links
 BBC obituary
 Evening Telegraph obituary
 Scotsman obituary
 Times article
 Times obituary
 A history of the Black Watch
 5th (Angus & Dundee) Battalion, Black Watch (Royal Highlanders)
 Interview from 2003, originally published in The Scotsman, 25 June 2003, under the headline "Scotland's Oldest Man turns 107", by John Innes

1896 births
2005 deaths
Black Watch soldiers
British Army personnel of World War I
Recipients of the Legion of Honour
Military personnel from Dundee
Scottish centenarians
Men centenarians
British Home Guard soldiers
Participants of the Christmas truce of 1914

Alfred Anderson (veteran)