A baseband processor (also known as baseband radio processor, BP, or BBP) is a device (a chip or part of a chip) in a network interface controller that manages all the radio functions (all functions that require an antenna); however, this term is generally not used in reference to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios.  A baseband processor typically uses its own RAM and firmware. Baseband processors are typically fabricated using CMOS (complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor) or RF CMOS technology, and are widely used in radio-frequency (RF) and wireless communications.

Overview
Baseband processors typically run a real-time operating system (RTOS) as their firmware, such as ENEA's OSE, Nucleus RTOS (iPhone 3G/3GS/iPad), ThreadX (iPhone 4), and VRTX.  There are more than a few significant manufacturers of baseband processors, including Broadcom, Icera, Intel Mobile Communications (former Infineon wireless division), MediaTek, Qualcomm,  Spreadtrum, and ST-Ericsson.

The rationale of separating the baseband processor from the main processor (known as the AP or application processor) is threefold:

 Radio performance
 Radio control functions (signal modulation, encoding, radio frequency shifting, etc.) are highly timing-dependent, and require a real-time operating system.
 Radio reliability
 Separating the BP into a different component ensures proper radio operation while allowing application and OS changes.
 Legal
 Some authorities (e.g. the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC)) require that the entire software stack running on a device which communicates with the mobile telephony network must be certified. Separating the BP into a different component allows reusing a stack without having to recertify the full AP.

Security concerns

Since the software which runs on baseband processors is usually proprietary, it is impossible to perform an independent code audit. By reverse engineering some of the baseband chips, researchers have found security vulnerabilities that could be used to access and modify data on the phone remotely. In March 2014, makers of the free Android derivative Replicant announced they had found a backdoor in the baseband software of Samsung Galaxy phones that allows remote access to the user data stored on the phone.

See also
 OsmocomBB a free software for baseband processors

References

Further reading
 Baseband Processor entry at openezx.org, archived from the original on May 5, 2013
 Babin, Steve. Developing software for Symbian OS: A beginner's guide to creating Symbian OS v9 smartphone applications in C++. Symbian Press, 2007, p. 80.

Antennas (radio)
Embedded microprocessors
Radio electronics

Baseband processor


The Potato Germans (Kartoffeltyskere) were a group of German families who settled in the heathlands of central Jutland in Denmark during the mid-1700s. The term is sometimes also extended to their descendants.

History
The German immigrants moved to central Jutland when King Frederick V of Denmark promised 20 years of tax freedom, soil, livestock, money, and freedom from military service, for anyone who would cultivate the Jutlandic heaths. The settlers were mostly from Hesse and the Palatinate in modern-day Germany as well as from Austria. Men, women, and children included, 965 individuals spread across 265 families first arrived between 1759 and 1763.

The majority settled on Alheden in the southernmost part of Fjends and the northernmost part of Lysgård in central Jutland. This comprises the site of the towns of Frederiks, Grønhøj, Havredal, and Karup. Much of this land was difficult to cultivate because of how much heather the soil contained, but after it was burned the area became better suited for the cultivation of potatoes.

The situation was difficult for the families. Many of settlers were craftsmen with little knowledge of farming. Most of the settlers subsequently left, with many moving back to Germany, but 59 of the families stayed on Alheden for more than a year.

Surnames
The Potato German settlers introduced a number of new surnames to Denmark. Though still rare in the country as a whole, many people living near Alheden still carry these surnames.

Agricola
Betzer, Bitsch, Bräuner, Bärthel
Cramer
Dickes, Dürr
Frank
Gantzhorn
Harritz, Herbel-Schmidt, Hermann, Herold
Jung
Keller
Krath, Kriegbaum
Lajer, Lauth
Marcher, Marquard, Maul, Morratz
Philbert
Rost
Schönheider (also spelled Schønheider)
Wacher, Wendel, Winkler, Woller, Würtz

See also

North Schleswig Germans

References

Bibliography
Valdemar Andersen (1970) Den jyske hedekolonisation (Aarhus: Universitetsforlaget. Skrifter udgivet af Jysk Selskab for Historie, Number 24)

External links
 "Bemærkninger over Alheden og dens Colonier, af Fr. C. Carstens, Præst paa Colonien. Viborg, 1839. 137 S. 8." (Historisk Tidsskrift, 1. række, Bind 1; 1840)
 Ejlif Bøgebjerg: "Den danske Regering og de tyske Kolonisters Indkaldelse 1759—65" (Historie/Jyske Samlinger, 5. række, Bind 1; 1932)
 P. M. Rørsig: "Fra Alhedens første Kolonisation" (Historie/Jyske Samlinger, 4. række, Bind 5; 1925)
 Fridlev Skrubbeltrang (anmeldelse af): "Valdemar Andersen: Den jyske hedekolonisation. Skrifter udgivet af Jysk Selskab for Historie 24. Universitetsforlaget i Århus, 1970" (Historisk Tidsskrift, 12. række, Bind 5; 1971)

Emigrants from the Holy Roman Empire to Denmark-Norway
1759 in Denmark
German Palatines
Ethnic groups in Denmark
German diaspora in Europe

Potato Germans


The Albany Welcome Center, formerly known as the Bridge House, is a historic residential building in Albany, Georgia. It was designed by African American architect and engineer Horace King and built in 1858. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 19, 1974. It is located at 112 North Front Street.

Born into slavery, King was granted special rights by the Alabama Legislature in 1858 and was a successful  engineer and architect of bridges in the American South. Colonel Nelson Tift hired him in 1858 to build a covered bridge across the Flint River at Albany and King's design included an adjoining Bridge House that served as a gateway to the city.

The home's cellars were used during the American Civil War for a meat packing operation to feed Confederate soldiers, and ground were used as for the slaughter of thousands of cows, hogs and sheep that were pickled in barrels.

On the second floor is a room known as "Tift's Hall" that was made into a theater. It was described as the social center of Albany. Tift hired artists from New York to decorate the hall's walls and ceilings with ornate frescoes. The room was used to host actors, hold dances, stage plays, and was also used for Ku Klux Klan meetings.

In 1887, Nelson Tift sold his bridge rights to Dougherty County, which later built a new bridge south of the Bridge House. The building was home for several decades to an auto parts store, and following the Flood of 1994, was purchased by Dougherty County as part of downtown Albany's redevelopment. The Bridge House was meticulously restored under the direction of David Maschke, a local architect, and reopened as the Albany Welcome Center in August 2008.

See also
National Register of Historic Places listings in Dougherty County, Georgia

References

External links
 The Bridge House historical marker

Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Georgia (U.S. state)
Houses completed in 1858
Buildings and structures in Albany, Georgia
Houses in Dougherty County, Georgia
National Register of Historic Places in Dougherty County, Georgia

Bridge House (Albany, Georgia)


Clara Calamai (7 September 1909 – 21 September 1998) was an Italian actress.

Career
Calamai's first acting role was in the 1938 war film  Pietro Micca, directed by Aldo Vergano.

In Alessandro Blasetti's The Jester's Supper (1942), Calamai briefly appeared topless in a scene. The scene is commonly credited with being the first time that an actress had appeared topless in an Italian sound film, although Vittoria Carpi showed a bare breast for a moment in the 1941 film La corona di ferro (The Iron Crown), which was also directed by Blasetti. Calamai stated in a later interview that the original script did not have the character revealing herself this way and did not want to do the scene, but felt compelled by the director to do it and gave in when she was promised a closed set. Nevertheless, many people reportedly saw the film many times because of the topless scene.

Her most remembered role was in the film Luchino Visconti's Ossessione (1943), in which she played Giovanna, the ill-fated female protagonist.

Calamai was offered the lead role in L'adultera (The Adulteress, 1946, directed by Duilio Coletti), after Anna Magnani, originally cast in the part, "was visibly five months' pregnant when she arrived on the set." Calamai was awarded the Nastro d'Argento (Silver Ribbon) in 1946 for best actress for her performance in the film.

She played a prostitute in Luchino Visconti's Le notti bianche (1957) and appeared in Le streghe (1967).

After years of retirement, she returned in 1975 to appear in the  horror film Profondo rosso (Deep Red, directed by  Dario Argento) as the eccentric matriarch, Marta.

Personal life

On 19 May 1945 she married explorer, and documentary film maker Count Leonardo Bonzi with whom she had two daughters. The marriage was annulled in November 1959, and she lived with Captain of Aviation Valerio Andreoni. Calamai died of a stroke in Rimini on 21 September 1998.

Partial filmography

Pietro Micca (1938, directed by Aldo Vergano) - La contessa de Lassere
Il destino in tasca (1938, directed by Gennaro Righelli)
They've Kidnapped a Man (1938, directed by Gennaro Righelli)
Ettore Fieramosca (1938, directed by Alessandro Blasetti) - Fulvia
I, His Father (1939, directed by Mario Bonnard) - Renata
The Fornaretto of Venice (1939, directed by Duilio Coletti) (doppiata da Tina Lattanzi) - Olimpia Zeno
L'eredità in corsa (1939, directed by Oreste Biancoli) - Lilli
The Silent Partner (1939, directed by Roberto Roberti) - La moglie di Prado
Le sorprese del vagone letto (1940, directed by Gian Paolo Rosmino) - La canzonettista
Boccaccio (1940, directed by Marcello Albani) - Giannina, falso Boccaccio
Captain Fracasse (1940, directed by Duilio Coletti) (doppiata da Tina Lattanzi) - Iolanda De Foix
Goodbye Youth (1940, directed by Ferdinando Maria Poggioli) - Elena
Manovre d'amore (1940, directed by Gennaro Righelli) - Agnese, l'istitutrice
Caravaggio (1941, directed by Goffredo Alessandrini) - Madonna Giaconella
Il re del circo (1941, directed by Hans Hinrich) - Bianca
I mariti - Tempesta d'amore (1941, directed by Camillo Mastrocinque) - Clara Ferri
Light in the Darkness (1941, directed by Mario Mattoli) - Amelia Gioiosi
Brivido (1941, directed by Giacomo Gentilomo) - Federica Usticky
Pirates of Malaya (1941, directed by Enrico Guazzoni) - Ada
The Adventuress from the Floor Above (1941, directed by Raffaello Matarazzo) - Biancamaria Rossi
The Jester's Supper (1942, directed by Alessandro Blasetti) - Ginevra
The Queen of Navarre (1942, directed by Carmine Gallone) - Isabella del Portogallo
La guardia del corpo (1942, directed by Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia) - Adriana
Le vie del cuore (1942, directed by Camillo Mastrocinque) - La baronessa Emilia Carpineti
Ossessione (1943, directed by Luchino Visconti) - Giovanna Bragana
Enrico IV (1943, directed by Giorgio Pàstina) - Matilde Spina / Frida
A Little Wife (1943, directed by Giorgio Bianchi) - Isa
 Farewell Love! (1943, directed by Gianni Franciolini) - Laura Acquaviva
The Materassi Sisters (1944, directed by Ferdinando Maria Poggioli) - Peggy
La resa di Titì (1945, directed by Giorgio Bianchi) - Paola De Marchi
Due lettere anonime (1945, directed by Mario Camerini) - Gina
The Adulteress (1946, directed by Duilio Coletti) - Velca
The Tyrant of Padua (1946, directed by Max Neufeld) - Tisbe
Il mondo vuole così (1946, directed by Giorgio Bianchi) - Carla
Last Love (1947, directed by Luigi Chiarini) - Maria, la canzonetista
When the Angels Sleep (1947, directed by Gilberto Gascon) - Elena
 Prelude to Madness (1948, directed by Gianni Franciolini (doppiata da Lydia Simoneschi) - Elena Leonardi
Romanticismo (1949, directed by Clemente Fracassi) - Giuditta Ansperti
Sicilian Uprising (1949, directed by Giorgio Pàstina) - Elena Di Caltabellotta
 The Phantom Musketeer (1952, directed by Max Calandri) - Marina Venier
Carne inquieta (1952, directed by Silvestro Prestifilippo) - Marchesa di Francavilla
Le notti bianche (1957, directed by Luchino Visconti) - La prostituta
Afrodite, dea dell'amore (1958, directed by Mario Bonnard) - Stenele
Tom Jones (1960, TV Mini-Series)
Le streghe (1967, directed by Luchino Visconti) - Ex-actress (segment "Strega Bruciata Viva, La")
Profondo rosso (1975, directed by Dario Argento) - Marta
La peccatrice (1975, directed by Pier Luigi Pavoni) - Michele's Mother (final film role)

References

External links

1909 births
1998 deaths
Nastro d'Argento winners
People from Prato
20th-century Italian actresses

Clara Calamai


Amanda Majeski (October 20, 1984) is an American operatic soprano.

Early life
Amanda Majeski was born in Gurnee, Illinois, near Chicago. She studied ballet and learned how to play the piano and the cello as a child.

Majeski attended Carmel Catholic High School in Mundelein, Illinois. She graduated from the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. She was trained further at the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center, an artist-development program at the Lyric Opera of Chicago; the Merola Opera Program at the San Francisco Opera; the Gerdine Young Artist Program at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; and the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival.

Career
Majeski started her career at the Chicago Opera Theater, where she performed the role of Vitellia in Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito in 2009. She subsequently performed the same role in Madrid, Spain, Dresden, Germany, the Lyric Opera of Chicago (2014), and the Paris Opera (2017). Meanwhile, she performed as Countess Almaviva in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro at the Metropolitan Opera (2014), the Lyric Opera of Chicago (2015), Teatro Campoamor (2015), and the Washington National Opera (2016). In 2016 she portrayed The Marschallin in Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Majeski performs in Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the 2016 Glyndebourne Festival Opera. In 2018 she  was the soprano soloist in Benjamin Britten's War Requiem with the Colorado Symphony and performed the role of the Composer in Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos at the Santa Fe Opera. In 2019 she is scheduled to make her debut at the Royal Opera House in London in the title role of Janáček's Kát'a Kabanová.

References

External links

 Agent: Columbia Artists
 Amanda Majeski Operabase

Living people
1984 births
People from Gurnee, Illinois
Northwestern University alumni
American operatic sopranos
Singers from Illinois
21st-century American women  opera singers
Classical musicians from Illinois

Amanda Majeski


Infundibulicybe mediterranea is a species of agaric fungus in the family Tricholomataceae. Found in Mediterranean Europe, it was described as new to science in 2011. It is closely related to Infundibulicybe gibba, but can be distinguished from that species by its darker colored fruitbody and smaller spores, which measure 4.5–6 to 3–4 µm. The fungus is edible. It fruits singly in groups, or occasionally in rings under oaks, such as Quercus suber and Quercus ilex.

References

External links

Edible fungi
Fungi described in 2011
Fungi found in fairy rings
Fungi of Europe

Infundibulicybe mediterranea


A Gunn diode, also known as a transferred electron device (TED), is a form of diode, a two-terminal semiconductor electronic component, with negative resistance, used in high-frequency electronics. It is based on the "Gunn effect" discovered in 1962 by physicist J. B. Gunn. Its largest use is in electronic oscillators to generate microwaves, in applications such as radar speed guns, microwave relay data link transmitters, and automatic door openers.

Its internal construction is unlike other diodes in that it consists only of N-doped semiconductor material, whereas most diodes consist of both P and N-doped regions. It, therefore, conducts in both directions and cannot rectify alternating current like other diodes, which is why some sources do not use the term diode but prefer TED. In the Gunn diode, three regions exist: two are heavily N-doped on each terminal, with a thin layer of lightly n-doped material between them. When a voltage is applied to the device, the electrical gradient will be largest across the thin middle layer. If the voltage increases, the layer's current will first increase. Still, eventually, at higher field values, the conductive properties of the middle layer are altered, increasing its resistivity and causing the current to fall. This means a Gunn diode has a region of negative differential resistance in its current–voltage characteristic curve, in which an increase of applied voltage causes a decrease in current. This property allows it to amplify, functioning as a radio frequency amplifier, or to become unstable and oscillate when it is biased with a DC voltage.

Gunn diode oscillators

The negative differential resistance, combined with the timing properties of the intermediate layer, is responsible for the diode's largest use: in electronic oscillators at microwave frequencies and above. A microwave oscillator can be created simply by applying a DC voltage to bias the device into its negative resistance region. In effect, the diode's negative differential resistance cancels the load circuit's positive resistance, thus creating a circuit with zero differential resistance, which will produce spontaneous oscillations. The oscillation frequency is determined partly by the properties of the middle diode layer but can be tuned by external factors. In practical oscillators, an electronic resonator is usually added to control frequency in the form of a waveguide, microwave cavity, or YIG sphere. The diode is usually mounted inside the cavity. The diode cancels the resonator's loss resistance, producing oscillations at its resonant frequency. The frequency can be tuned mechanically, by adjusting the size of the cavity, or in the case of YIG spheres, by changing the magnetic field. Gunn diodes are used to build oscillators in the 10 GHz to THz frequency range.

Gallium arsenide Gunn diodes are made for frequencies up to 200 GHz, gallium nitride materials can reach up to 3 terahertz.

History

The Gunn diode is based on the Gunn effect, and both are named for physicist J. B. Gunn. At IBM in 1962, he discovered the effect because he refused to accept inconsistent experimental results in gallium arsenide as "noise", and determined the cause. Alan Chynoweth of Bell Telephone Laboratories showed in June 1965 that only a transferred-electron mechanism could explain the experimental results. It was realized that the oscillations he detected were explained by the Ridley–Watkins–Hilsum theory, named for British physicists Brian Ridley, Tom Watkins and Cyril Hilsum who in scientific papers in 1961 showed that bulk semiconductors could display negative resistance, meaning that increasing the applied voltage causes the current to decrease.

The Gunn effect and its relation to the Watkins–Ridley–Hilsum effect entered electronics literature in the early 1970s, e.g., in books on transferred electron devices and, more recently, on nonlinear wave methods for charge transport.

How it works

The electronic band structure of some semiconductor materials, including gallium arsenide (GaAs), have another energy band or sub-band in addition to the valence and conduction bands which are usually used in semiconductor devices. This third band is at higher energy than the normal conduction band and is empty until energy is supplied to promote electrons to it. The energy comes from the kinetic energy of ballistic electrons, that is, electrons in the conduction band but moving with sufficient kinetic energy such that they are able to reach the third band.

These electrons either start below the Fermi level and are given a sufficiently long mean free path to acquire the needed energy by applying a strong electric field, or they are injected by a cathode with the right energy. With forward voltage applied, the Fermi level in the cathode moves into the third band, and reflections of ballistic electrons starting around the Fermi level are minimized by matching the density of states and using the additional interface layers to let the reflected waves interfere destructively.

In GaAs, the effective mass of the electrons in the third band is higher than those in the usual conduction band, so the mobility or drift velocity of the electrons in that band is lower. As the forward voltage increases, more and more electrons can reach the third band, causing them to move slower, and the current through the device decreases. This creates a region of negative differential resistance in the voltage/current relationship.

When a high enough potential is applied to the diode, the charge carrier density along the cathode becomes unstable and will develop small segments of low conductivity, with the rest of the cathode having high conductivity. Most of the cathode voltage drop will occur across the segment so that it will have a high electric field. Under the influence of this electric field, it will move along the cathode to the anode. It is impossible to balance the population in both bands, so thin slices of high-field strength will always be in a background of low-field strength. So in practice, with a slight increase in forward voltage, a low conductivity segment is created at the cathode, resistance increases, the segment moves along the bar to the anode, and when it reaches the anode, it is absorbed, and a new segment is created at the cathode to keep the total voltage constant. Any existing slice is quenched if the voltage is lowered and resistance decreases again.

The laboratory methods used to select materials for manufacturing Gunn diodes include angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy.

Applications

Because of their high-frequency capability, Gunn diodes are mainly used at microwave frequencies and above. They can produce some of the highest output power of any semiconductor device at these frequencies. Their most common use is in oscillators, but they are also used in microwave amplifiers to amplify signals. Because the diode is a one-port (two terminal) device, an amplifier circuit must separate the outgoing amplified signal from the incoming input signal to prevent coupling. One common circuit is a reflection amplifier that separates the signals using a circulator. A bias tee is needed to isolate the bias current from the high-frequency oscillations.

Sensors and measuring instruments
Gunn diode oscillators generate microwave power for: airborne collision avoidance radar, anti-lock brakes, sensors for monitoring the flow of traffic, car radar detectors, pedestrian safety systems, "distance travelled" recorders, motion detectors, "slow-speed" sensors (to detect pedestrian and traffic movement up to 85 km/h (50 mph)), traffic signal controllers, automatic door openers, automatic traffic gates, process control equipment to monitor throughput, burglar alarms and equipment to detect trespassers, sensors to avoid derailment of trains, remote vibration detectors, rotational speed tachometers, moisture content monitors.

Radio amateur use
By virtue of their low voltage operation, Gunn diodes can serve as microwave frequency generators for very low-powered (few-milliwatt) microwave transceivers called Gunnplexers. British radio amateurs first used them in the late 1970s, and many Gunnplexer designs have been published in journals. They typically consist of an approximately 3 inch waveguide into which the diode is mounted. A low voltage (less than 12 volt) direct current power supply that can be modulated appropriately is used to drive the diode. The waveguide is blocked at one end to form a resonant cavity, and the other end usually feeds a horn antenna. An additional "mixer diode" is inserted into the waveguide, and it is often connected to a modified FM broadcast receiver to enable listening of other amateur stations. Gunnplexers are most commonly used in the 10 GHz and 24 GHz ham bands, and sometimes 22 GHz security alarms are modified as the diode(s) can be put in a slightly detuned cavity with layers of copper or aluminium foil on opposite edges for moving to the licensed amateur band.
If intact, the mixer diode is reused in its existing waveguide, and these parts are well known for being extremely static sensitive.
On most commercial units, this part is protected with a parallel resistor and other components, and a variant is used in some Rb atomic clocks.
The mixer diode is useful for lower frequency applications even if the Gunn diode is weakened from use, and some amateur radio enthusiasts have used them in conjunction with an external oscillator or n/2 wavelength Gunn diode for satellite finding and other applications.

Radio astronomy
Gunn oscillators are used as local oscillators for millimeter-wave and submillimeter-wave radio astronomy receivers. The Gunn diode is mounted in a cavity tuned to resonate at twice the fundamental frequency of the diode. The cavity length is changed by a micrometer adjustment. Gunn oscillators capable of generating over 50 mW over a 50% tuning range (one waveguide band) are available.

The Gunn oscillator frequency is multiplied by a diode frequency multiplier for submillimeter-wave applications.

References

Diodes
Microwave technology
Terahertz technology

Gunn diode


Alfons Goppel (1 October 1905 – 24 December 1991) was a German politician of the CSU party and Prime Minister of Bavaria (1962–1978).

Biography
Alfons Goppel was born in Reinhausen (now Regensburg), one of the nine children of the baker Ludwig Goppel and his wife Barbara.

He married Gertrud Wittenbrink in 1935 and they had six sons.

Goppel studied law in Munich from 1925 to 1929 and, after graduating, moved back to Regensburg, where he became a lawyer. He joined the state prosecutors office in 1934 and was posted to Mainburg, Kaiserslautern and finally Aschaffenburg. He joined the conservative Bavarian People's Party in 1930 and was a member until the party's self-dissolution in November 1933. He joined the SA (1933) and the NSDAP (1937) in the following years.

He took part in the campaigns in France and Russia in the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War and later became an instructor at the Infanterieschule Döberitz, near Berlin, a training camp of the German army.

Returning from the war, he became an official at the city of Aschaffenburg, responsible for housing and refugees. He was elected to the Bavarian Landtag in October 1947 but barred from taking up his seat due to his political past. He, unsuccessfully, campaigned for the Landtag in 1950 again, became second mayor of Aschaffenburg in 1952 and finally, in 1954, was elected to the Landtag and permitted to take up his seat. He remained in the Bavarian parliament until 1978, when he gave it up to become a member of the European Parliament.

He unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Würzburg in 1956 and became an under secretary in the Bavarian Ministry of Justice the year after. He was Bavarian Minister of the Interior (1958–1962) and prime minister of Bavaria from 11 December 1962 to 7 November 1978, serving as President of the Bundesrat in 1972/73. In 1974 he gained the highest election victory for the CSU in Bavarian history with 62.1% of the votes.

From 1979 to 1984 he was a member of the European Parliament, as such being part of the first freely elected group of MPs in 1979. He died, aged 86, in Johannesberg, near Aschaffenburg.

One of his sons, Thomas Goppel, later served amongst others as Minister of Science, Research and the Arts (2003–2008).

The Alfons-Goppel-Stiftung (Alfons Goppel Foundation), formed in 1980 and named after him, supports needy children in third-world countries.

Honors
 Honorary doctorate of the University of Würzburg and the St. John's University Minnesota.

References

External links

 Alfons-Goppel-Stiftung, official website (in German)
 Official Bavarian government website -  Alfons Goppel biography (in German)

1905 births
1991 deaths
Sturmabteilung personnel
People from Regensburg
Politicians from the Kingdom of Bavaria
Presidents of the German Bundesrat
Ministers-President of Bavaria
Ministers of the Bavaria State Government
Members of the Landtag of Bavaria
Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Recipients of the Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg
Burials at Munich Waldfriedhof

Alfons Goppel


Many changes were made during the reign of Haile Selassie  toward the modernization of Ethiopia upon his accession as Emperor (King of Kings) on 2 November 1930, as well as before, beginning from the time he effectively controlled Ethiopia in 1916 as Regent Plenipotentiary, Ras Tafari.

First modernization

Many of the details of the modernizations made before the fascist invasion during the Second Italo–Ethiopian War are written in Haile Selassie I's autobiography, My Life and Ethiopia's Progress Vol. I (written 1938), particularly in Chapter 12, "About the improvement, by ordinance and proclamation, of internal administration, and about the efforts to allow foreign civilization to enter Ethiopia".

Modernization was temporarily interrupted in 1935 following the invasion of Ethiopia by fascist Italy, eventually culminating in the Second World War. As the Emperor himself noted in his Introduction to Volume I, "We were particularly convinced, by the policies directed against Us, that the enemy's heart was stricken with envy at Our setting up a constitution to strengthen and to consolidate Ethiopia's unity, at Our opening schools for boys and girls, at Our building hospitals in which Our people's health was to be safeguarded, as well as at all sorts of other initiatives of Ours by which Ethiopia's independence would be affirmed, not only in terms of history but in actual fact."

Abolition of slavery
Slavery as practiced in what is modern Ethiopia and Eritrea was essentially domestic. Slaves thus served in the houses of their masters or mistresses and were not employed to any significant extent for productive purpose. Among the Amhara and Tigray slaves were normally regarded as second-class members of their owners' family. and were fed, clothed and protected. They generally roamed around freely and conducted business as free people. They had complete freedom of religion and culture. The first attempt to abolish slavery in Ethiopia was made by Emperor Tewodros II (r. 1855–1868), but the slave trade was not abolished completely until 1923 with Ethiopia's accession to the League of Nations. The Anti-Slavery Society estimated there were 2 million slaves in the early 1930s out of an estimated population of between 8 and 16 million.

He described in the whole of Chapter 14 his efforts to eradicate slavery, which he noted was a persistent custom in Ethiopia arising from intertribal wars, where the captured slaves could hardly be distinguished in appearance from their owners and sometimes even married them. The slave trade had already been banned unsuccessfully by his predecessors Tewodros II, Yohannes IV and Menelik II. Beginning in 1924, Haile Selassie I began doing everything possible to liberate all remaining slaves in Ethiopia, enrolling many of them in education programs.

Despite all this, Haile Selassie asserted that Benito Mussolini's propaganda agents (Haile Selassie singled out the Italian consul at Harar in particular) were constantly broadcasting to the world many false reports that slavery was still being promoted in Ethiopia, in an attempt to influence world opinion against Ethiopia, have Ethiopia indicted in the League of Nations, and create a casus belli for the invasion, genocide, and attempted recolonization of Ethiopia with Italians.

"Again, when in 1923 (= 1931) a delegation, sent by the British Anti-Slavery Society, came to Addis Ababa, We informed them orally and in writing, after a great deal of discussion, that We shall see to it that within fifteen or, at most, twenty years from now all slaves would go free and that slavery would be totally eliminated from Ethiopia. But in any country a few offenders must always be expected, and if some men are found transgressing the proclamation that has been promulgated, all the foreign envoys know that We have punished them even with the death penalty. Therefore, Our conscience does not rebuke Us, for We have done unceasingly everything possible as regards the liberation of the slaves."

The institution of slavery was again abolished by order of the Italian occupying forces. On 26 August 1942, during the Second Modernization, Haile Selassie issued a proclamation completely outlawing all slavery.

Second modernization

Following the Second World War, Haile Selassie opened Ethiopia's first university. The University College of Addis Ababa was founded in 1950. In 1962, it was renamed Haile Selassie I University but is currently known as Addis Ababa University.

In 1955, the 1931 Constitution of Ethiopia was replaced with the 1955 Constitution of Ethiopia, extending the power of Parliament. Haile Selassie improved diplomatic ties with the United States, as well as Ethiopia's relationship with the rest of Africa. He initiated the Organization of African Unity in 1963.

References

20th century in Ethiopia
Haile Selassie

Modernization under Haile Selassie


Last Chance to Breathe is the fifth studio album from the Christian rock band Spoken.

Critical reception

Awarding the album three stars for Christianity Today, Russ Breimeier states, "this is still a fine entry for the genre." Josh Taylor, giving the album three and a half stars at Jesus Freak Hideout, describes, "Last Time to Breathe is one tasty treat." Rating the album an eight out of ten from Cross Rhythms, Tony Cummings writes, "'Last Chance To Breathe' is well above average." Sarah Verno, indicating in a three and a half out of five review by The Phantom Tollbooth, says, "Last Chance to Breathe...is a reasonably solid album that's worth checking out." Reviewing the album for The Phantom Tollbooth, Justin Wright comments, "this album will please old Spoken fans while allowing them to continue to reach out to new fans alike."

Track listing

Chart performance

References

Spoken (band) albums
2005 albums
Tooth & Nail Records albums

Last Chance to Breathe


Ensuring adequate energy supply to sustain economic growth has been a core concern of the Chinese Government since the founding of People's Republic of China in 1949.  Since the country's industrialization in the 1960s, China is currently the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and coal in China is a major cause of global warming. However, from 2010 to 2015 China reduced energy consumption per unit of GDP by 18%, and  emissions per unit of GDP by 20%. On a per-capita basis, it was only the world's 51st largest emitter of greenhouse gases in 2016. China is also the world's largest renewable energy producer (see this article), and the largest producer of hydroelectricity, solar power and wind power in the world. The energy policy of China is connected to its industrial policy, where the goals of China's industrial production dictate its energy demand managements.

Being a country that depends heavily on foreign petroleum import for both domestic consumption and as raw materials for light industry manufacturing, electrification is a huge component of the Chinese national energy policy. Details for the power sector are likely to be released winter 2021/22 for the 14th five-year plan, and this is expected to determine whether the country builds more coal-fired power stations, and therefore whether global climate targets are likely to be met.

Summary

Environment and carbon emissions

Between 1980 and 2000, China's emissions density (its ratio of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions to gross domestic product) declined sharply. The country quadrupled its GDP while only doubling the energy it consumed. No other country at a similar stage of industrial development has matched this achievement.

On June 19, 2007, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency announced that a preliminary study had indicated that China's greenhouse gas emissions for 2006 had exceeded those of the United States for the first time. The agency calculated that China's  emissions from fossil fuels increased by 9% in 2006, while those of the United States fell by 1.4%, compared to 2005. The study used energy and cement production data from British Petroleum which they believed to be 'reasonably accurate', while warning that statistics for rapidly changing economies such as China are less reliable than data on OECD countries.

The Initial National Communication on Climate Change of the People's Republic of China calculated that carbon dioxide emissions in 2004 had risen to approximately 5.05 billion metric tons, with total greenhouse gas emissions reaching about 6.1 billion metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent.

In 2002, China ranked 2nd (after the United States) in the list of countries by carbon dioxide emissions, with emissions of 3.3 billion metric tons, representing 14.5% of the world total. In 2006, China overtook the US, producing 8% more emissions than the US to become the world's largest emitter of  emissions. However per capita China was ranked 51st in  emissions per capita in 2016, with emissions of 7.2 tonnes per person (compared to 15.5 tonnes per person in the United States). In addition, it has been estimated that around a third of China's carbon emissions in 2005 were due to manufacturing exported goods.

Energy use and carbon emissions by sector
In the industrial sector, six industries – electricity generation, steel, non-ferrous metals, construction materials, oil processing and chemicals – account for nearly 70% of energy use.

In the construction materials sector, China produced about 44% of the world's cement in 2006. Cement production produces more carbon emissions than any other industrial process, accounting for around 4% of global carbon emissions.

National Action Plan on Climate Change

China has been taking action on climate change for some years, with the publication on June 4, 2007, of China's first National Action Plan on Climate Change, and in that year China became the first developing country to publish a national strategy addressing global warming. The plan did not include targets for carbon dioxide emission reductions, but it has been estimated that, if fully implemented, China's annual emissions of greenhouse gases would be reduced by 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2010. Other commentators, however, put the figure at 0.950 billion metric tons.

The publication of the strategy was officially announced during a meeting of the State Council, which called on governments and all sectors of the economy to implement the plan, and for the launch of a public environmental protection awareness campaign.

The National Action Plan includes increasing the proportion of electricity generation from renewable energy sources and from nuclear power, increasing the efficiency of coal-fired power stations, the use of cogeneration, and the development of coal-bed and coal-mine methane.

In addition, the one child policy in China has successfully slowed down the population increase, preventing 300 million births, the equivalent of 1.3 billion tons of  emissions based on average world per capita emissions of 4.2 tons at 2005 level.

11th and 12th Five-Year Plans
Beginning with the 11th, each of China's Five Year plans have sought to move China away from energy-intensive manufacturing and into high-value sectors and have highlighted the importance of low-carbon technology as a strategic emerging industry, particularly in the areas of wind and solar power. The Plan set a national energy intensity target. of a 20% reduction. It was identified as a "binding target" and focused on throughout the Plan's implementation.Policymakers viewed emissions reductions and energy conservation as the highest priority environmental matters under the 11th Five-Year Plan.

Successful achievement of emissions and energy conservation targets in the 11th Five-Year Plan shaped policymaker's approach for the 12th Five-Year Plan, prompting expanded use of binding targets to capitalize on successes in these areas.

In January 2012, as part of its 12th Five-year Plan, China published a report 12th Five-year Plan on Greenhouse Emission Control (guofa [2011] No. 41), which establishes goals of reducing carbon intensity by 17% by 2015, compared with 2010 levels and raising energy consumption intensity by 16%, relative to GDP. More demanding targets were set for the most developed regions and those with most heavy industry, including Guangdong, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Tianjin. China also plans to meet 11.4% of its primary energy requirements from non-fossil sources by 2015.

The plan will also pilot the construction of a number of low-carbon Development Zones and low-carbon residential communities, which it hopes will result in a cluster effect among businesses and consumers.

To facilitate carbon trading and to more broadly help assess emissions targets and meet the transparency requirements of the Paris Agreement, the Plan improved the system for greenhouse gas emissions monitoring. This was the first time that carbon emissions trading had featured in one of China's Five-Year Plans.

The Plan also provided for the development of an ultra-high-voltage (UHV) transmission corridor to increase the integration of renewable energy from the point of generation to its point of consumption.

In addition, the Government will in future include data on greenhouse emissions in its official statistics.

Carbon trading scheme
In a separate development, on January 13, 2012, the National Development and Reform Commission announced that the cities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing and Shenzhen, and the provinces of Hubei and Guangdong would become the first to participate in a pilot carbon cap and trade scheme that would operate in a similar way to the European Union Emission Trading Scheme. The development follows an unsuccessful experiment with voluntary carbon exchanges that was set up in 2009 in Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin.

Fossil fuels

Coal

Coal remains the foundation of the Chinese energy system, covering close to 70 percent of the country's primary energy needs and representing 80 percent of the fuel used in electricity generation. China produces and consumes more coal than any other country. Analysis in 2016 shows that China's coal consumption appears to have peaked in 2014.  According to Global Energy Monitor, China's government has limited the hours of 40% of coal-fired power stations built in 2019, due to overcapacity in electricity generation.

Petroleum

China's oil supply was 4,855 TWh in 2009 which represented 10% of the world's supply.

Although China is still a major crude oil producer, it became an oil importer in the 1990s. China became dependent on imported oil for the first time in its history in 1993 due to demand rising faster than domestic production. In 2002, annual crude petroleum production was 1,298,000,000 barrels, and annual crude petroleum consumption was 1,670,000,000 barrels. In 2006, it imported 145 million tons of crude oil, accounting for 47% of its total oil consumption. By 2014 China was importing approximately 7 mil. barrels of oil per day. Three state-owned oil companies – Sinopec, CNPC, and CNOOC – dominate its domestic market.

China announced on June 20, 2008, plans to raise petrol, diesel and aviation kerosene prices. This decision appeared to reflect a need to reduce the unsustainably high level of subsidies these fuels attract, given the global trend in the price of oil.

Top oil producers were in 2010: Russia 502 Mt (13%), Saudi Arabia 471 Mt (12%), US 336 Mt (8%), Iran 227 Mt (6%), China 200 Mt (5%), Canada 159 Mt (4%), Mexico 144 Mt (4%), UAE 129 Mt (3%). The world oil production increased from 2005 to 2010 1.3% and from 2009 to 2010 3.4%.

Natural gas

China's natural gas supply was 1,015 TWh in 2009 that was 3% of the world supply.

CNPC, Sinopec, and CNOOC are all active in the upstream gas sector, as well as in LNG import, and in midstream pipelines. Branch pipelines and urban networks are run by city gas companies including China Gas Holdings, ENN Energy, Towngas China, Beijing Enterprises Holdings and Kunlun Energy.

China was top seventh in natural gas production in 2010.

Issued by China's State Council in September 2013, China's Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution illustrates government desire to increase the share of natural gas in China's energy mix. In May 2014 China signed a 30-year deal with Russia to deliver 38 billion cubic metres of natural gas each year. The Power of Siberia pipeline is designed to reduce China's dependence on coal, which is more carbon intensive and causes more pollution than natural gas. The proposed western gas route from Russia's West Siberian petroleum basin to North-Western China is known as Power of Siberia 2.

In November 2021, U.S. producer Venture Global LNG signed a twenty-year contract with China's state-owned Sinopec to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG). China's imports of U.S. natural gas would more than double.

Electricity generation

In 2013, China's total annual electricity output was 5.398 trillion kWh and the annual consumption was 5.380 trillion kWh with an installed capacity of 1247 GW (all the largest in the world).

This is an increase from 2009, when China's total annual electricity output was 3.71465 trillion kWh, and the annual consumption was 3.6430 trillion kWh (second largest in the world). In the same year, the total installed electricity generating capacity was 874 GW. China is undertaking substantial long-distance transmission projects with record breaking capacities, and has the goal of achieving an integrated nationwide grid in the period between 2015 and 2020.

Coal

In 2015, China generated 73% of its electricity from coal-fired power stations, which has been dropping from a peak of 81% in 2007.

In recent years, China has increased its use of coal power and continued to build new coal power plants. The National Energy Administration's early warning risk rating for coal plants approved the establishment of new power plants in 2020. China shut down roughly 7GW of power plants at the same time, continuing to decommission ageing coal-fired power reactors.

Renewables

China is the world's leading renewable energy producer, with an installed capacity of 152 GW. China has been investing heavily in the renewable energy field in recent years. In 2007, the total renewable energy investment was US$12 billion, second only to Germany. In 2012, China invested US$65.1 billion in clean energy (20% more than in 2011), fully 30% of the total investment by the G-20, including 25% (US$31.2 billion) of global solar energy investment, 37% percent (US$27.2 billion) of global wind energy investment, and 47% (US$6.3 billion) of global investment in "other renewable energy" (small hydro, geothermal, marine, and biomass); 23 GW of clean generation capacity was installed.

China is also the largest producer of wind turbines and solar panels. Approximately 7% of China's energy was from renewable sources in 2006, a figure targeted to rise to 10% by 2010 and to 16% by 2020. The major renewable energy source in China is hydropower. Total hydro-electric output in China in 2009 was 615.64 TWh, constituting 16.6% of all electricity generated. The country already has the most hydro-electric capacity in the world, and the Three Gorges Dam is currently the largest hydro-electric power station in the world, with a total capacity of 22.5 GW. It has been in full operation since May 2012.

Nuclear power

In 2012, China had 15 nuclear power units with a total electric capacity of 11 GW and total output of 54.8 billion kWh, accounting for 1.9% country's total electricity output. This rose to 17 reactors in 2013. By 2016 the number of operating nuclear reactors was 32 with 22 under construction and other dozen to start construction this year. There are plans to increase nuclear power capacity and nuclear power percentage, bringing the total electricity output to 86 GW and 4% respectively by 2020. Plans are to increase this to 200 GWe by 2030, and 400 GWe by 2050. China has set an end-of-the-Century goal 1500GWs of nuclear energy, most of this from fast reactors. China has 32 reactors under construction, the highest number in the world.

Rural electrification
Following the completion of the similar Township Electrification Program in 2005, the Village Electrification Program plans to provide renewable electricity to 3.5 million households in 10,000 villages by 2010. This is to be followed by full rural electrification using renewable energy by 2015.

Renewable energy sources

Although a majority of the renewable energy in China is from hydropower, other renewable energy sources are in rapid development. In 2006, a total of 10 billion US dollars had been invested in renewable energy, second only to Germany.

China is a major source of clean energy technology transfer to other developing countries.

Bioenergy

In 2006, 16 million tons of corn have been used to produce a first generation biofuel (ethanol). However, because food prices in China rose sharply during 2007, China has decided to ban the further expansion of the corn ethanol industry.

On February 7, a spokesman for the State Forestry Administration announced that  would be devoted to biofuel production. Under an agreement reached with PetroChina in January 2007, 400 square kilometres of Jatropha curcas is to be grown for biodiesel production. Local governments are also developing oilseed projects. There were concerns that such developments may lead to environmental damage.

In 2018, The Telegraph reported that the biofuel industry is further on the rise. There also seems to be considerable interest in biofuels (i.e. biodiesel, green jet fuel, ...)  which use waste material as the input source (second generation biofuel).

Solar power

China has become the world's largest consumer of solar energy. It is the largest producer of solar water heaters, accounting for 60 percent of the world's solar hot water heating capacity, and the total installed heaters is estimated at 30 million households. Solar PV production in China is also in rapid development. In 2007, 0.82 GW of Solar PV was produced, second only to Japan.

China's Sixth Five-Year Plan (1981-1985) was the first to address government policy support for solar PV panel manufacturing. Policy support for solar panel manufacturing has been a part of every Five-Year Plan since.

As part of the stimulus plan of "Golden Sun", announced by the government in 2009, several developments and projects became part of the milestones for the development of solar technology in China. These include the agreement signed by LDK for a 500MW solar project, a new thin film solar plant developed by Anwell Technologies in Henan province using its own proprietary solar technology and the solar power plant project in a desert, headed by First Solar and Ordos City. The effort to drive the renewable energy use in China was further assured after the speech by the Chinese President, given at the UN climate summit on 22 Sept 2009 in New York, pledging that China will plan to have 15% of its energy from renewable sources within a decade. China is using solar power in houses, buildings, and cars.

Because solar works well as a distributed power source, recent Chinese policies have focused on increasing the prevalence of distributed solar energy and for developing systems so that electricity from solar energy can be used at its point of generation instead of transmitted over long distances.

Wind power

China's total wind power capacity reached 2.67 gigawatts (GW) in 2006 and 44.7 GW by 2010. This figure reached 281 GW in 2020, an increase of 71.6 GW on the previous year.

Energy conservation

General work plan
Officials were warned that violating energy conservation and environmental protection laws would lead to criminal proceedings, while failure to achieve targets would be taken into account in the performance assessment of officials and business leaders.

After achieving less than half the 4% reduction in energy intensity targeted for 2006, all companies and local and national government were asked to submit detailed plans for compliance before June 30, 2007.

During the first four years of the plan, energy intensity improved by 14.4%, but dropped sharply in the first quarter of 2010. In August 2010, China announced the closing of 2,087 steel mills, cement works and other energy-intensive factories by September 30, 2010. The factory closings were made more palatable by a labor shortage in much of China making it easier for workers to find other jobs.

Space heating and air conditioning
A State Council circular issued on June 3, 2007, restricts the temperature of air conditioning in public buildings to no lower than 26 °C in summer (78.8 °F), and of heating to no higher than 20 °C (68 °F) in winter. The sale of inefficient air conditioning units has also been outlawed.

Public opinion
The Chinese results from the 1st Annual World Environment Review, published on June 5, 2007, revealed that, in a sample of 1024 people (50% male):

88% are concerned about climate change.
97% think their government should do more to tackle global warming.
63% think that China is too dependent on fossil fuels.
56% think that China is too reliant on foreign oil.
91% think that a minimum 25% of electricity should be generated from renewable energy sources.
61% are concerned about nuclear power.
79% are concerned about carbon dioxide emissions from developing countries.
62% think it appropriate for developed countries to demand restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions from developing countries.

Another survey published in August 2007 by China Youth Daily and the British Council sampled 2,500 Chinese people with an average age of 30.1. It showed that 80% of young Chinese are concerned about global warming.

See also

Climate change in China
China Energy Conservation Investment Corporation
Environment of China
Electricity sector in China
List of power stations in China
Low-carbon economy
Peak oil
Pollution in China
Renewable energy in China
Wind power in China
Solar power in China
Nuclear power in China
Economics of nuclear power plants
List of countries by energy consumption and production
World energy consumption
:Category:Energy by country

References

China
China
Science and technology in the People's Republic of China

Energy policy of China


The Brabant killers, also named the Nijvel Gang in Dutch-speaking media (), and the mad killers of Brabant in French-speaking media (), are responsible for a series of violent attacks that mainly occurred in the Belgian province of Brabant between 1982 and 1985. A total of 28 people died and 22 were injured. The actions of the gang, believed to consist of a core of three men, made it Belgium's most notorious unsolved crime spree. The active participants were known as The Giant (; a tall man who may have been the leader); the Killer (Le Tueur; the main shooter) and the Old Man (Le Vieux; a middle aged man who drove). The identities and whereabouts of the "Brabant killers" are unknown. Although significant resources are still dedicated to the case, the most recent arrests are of the now-retired original senior detectives themselves, for alleged evidence tampering.

The gang abruptly ceased their activities in 1985. The ensuing chaotic investigation failed to catch them or even make serious inroads into solving the case. This led to a parliamentary inquiry and public discussion, both of which revolved around the possibility that the gang members were Belgian or foreign state security elements either carrying out covert missions (disguising targeted assassinations) or conducting political terrorism.

Overview of crimes attributed to the gang

1981
December 31: Burglary at a Gendarmerie barracks in Etterbeek. Theft of automatic weapons, ammunition, and a car. Some of these items were later allegedly recovered in a garage belonging to Madani Bouhouche.

1982
March 13: Theft of a 10-gauge fowling shotgun from a store in Dinant, Belgium. Two men were seen running away.
May 10: Theft at gunpoint of an Austin Allegro. One of two such instances in which the Killer was seen without a mask. He spoke French, apparently as a first language and with the inflection of an educated man. The car was dumped almost immediately. Theft of a Volkswagen Santana from a car showroom.
August 14: Armed robbery of a grocery store in Maubeuge, France. Food and wine were stolen. Two French police officers were shot and seriously wounded when they arrived on the scene while the goods were being loaded into a vehicle.
September 30: Armed robbery of a weapons dealer in Wavre, Belgium. Fifteen firearms were stolen, including sub-machine guns. A policeman was killed at the scene; two others were shot and seriously wounded later.
December 23: Armed robbery of a restaurant in Beersel, Belgium. Coffee and wine were stolen. The caretaker was tortured and killed.

1983
January 9: Robbery and murder of a taxi driver in Brussels, Belgium. The car was later found in Mons, Belgium.
January 28: Theft of a Peugeot at gunpoint.
February 11: Armed robbery of a supermarket in Rixensart, Belgium. Less than $18,000 () was stolen. Several people were wounded. No one was killed.
February 22: An Audi 100 with bullet holes from the February 11 incident was stolen from a commercial garage where it was being repaired, but quickly abandoned.
February 25: Armed robbery of a supermarket in Uccle, Belgium. Less than $16,000 () was stolen. No one was killed.
March 3: Armed robbery and murder at a supermarket in Halle, Belgium. Less than $18,000 () was stolen. One supermarket-staff member was killed.
May 7: Armed robbery of a supermarket in Houdeng-Gougnies, Belgium. Less than $22,000 () was stolen. No one was killed.
September 10: Armed robbery and murder at a textile factory in Temse, Belgium. Seven bullet-proof jackets were stolen. A worker was killed and his wife severely wounded. The firm had recently begun manufacturing the jackets (for the police) which was not widely known.
September 17: A couple were murdered in the early hours after stopping their Mercedes at a 24-hour self-service gas station beside a store that the gang was burgling. Despite the alarm going off, the gang took the time to load twenty kilos of tea and coffee and 10 litres of cooking oil. Two gendarmes responding to the alarm were shot as they arrived on the scene; one was killed, the other seriously wounded. The gang escaped in a Saab turbo stolen on February 22 and the murdered couple's Mercedes. After shooting up a police car that began following them, the gang used a little-known minor road to get away in the Saab; after unsuccessful attempts to destroy the car by shooting the petrol tank, they left it near to the garage from which the Audi had been stolen (also linked to the Volkswagen hijacked in 1982, and close to the Delhaize supermarket that would be attacked on September 27, 1985). Investigators believe that the repeated propinquity may indicate that some members lived in the area. Potentially crucial evidence collected from the Saab 'disappeared'.
October 2: Armed robbery of a restaurant in Ohain, Belgium. Nothing was stolen. The owner was killed.
October 7: Armed robbery of a supermarket in Beersel, Belgium. Less than $35,000 () was stolen. One customer was killed.
December 1: Armed robbery of a shop in Anderlues and murder of the couple who owned it. About 3,000 Euros of jewelry was stolen. The owner's wife was instantly killed without warning as the gang entered. The owner attempted to defend himself with a pistol, but was shot dead. The gang destroyed a surveillance camera recording before leaving. The stolen Volkswagen used had fake license plates copied from a legitimately owned Volkswagen of the same model that was linked to the garage where the Audi was taken, and where the new Volkswagen taken at gunpoint in 1982 was bought.

1985
September 27: Armed robbery at the Delhaize supermarket on rue de la Graignette in Braine-l'Alleud. Less than $6,000 () was stolen. Three people were killed and two wounded. Between 15 and 25 minutes later, there was an armed robbery of the Delhaize supermarket on Brusselsesteenweg in Overijse. Less than $25,000 () was stolen. Five people were killed and one wounded.

As a result of these robberies, security was increased at many stores in the region — including armed guards.

November 9, around 7:30 p.m.: Armed robbery at the Delhaize supermarket on the Parklaan in Aalst. This market was outside the area the gang usually operated in. They arrived while an armed patrol that checked the supermarket was still present. A family of four encountered the perpetrators in the parking lot after they left the shop and the mother, father, and daughter were killed apparently without motive. The surviving boy from the family ran back into the shop where he was singled out and shot at point blank range; he was very badly wounded in the hip. Less than $25,000 was taken, and eight people were killed with several others seriously injured. Gang members (wearing bizarre face paint and disguises) roared at and taunted customers. They also were reportedly laughing and smiling during the gratuitous shootings, which were done by the "Killer". The robbers did not leave the scene right away after returning to their parked getaway vehicle. The patrol vehicle from Belgium's Rijkswacht/Gendarmerie backed some distance away when shooting started; the municipal police arrived, although many of their cars had refused to start, but mainly remained at an exit of the parking lot that was well away from the gang. The getaway began with the "Giant" walking alongside the getaway car. A policeman fired his revolver at the gang's VW, which went through an unblocked exit and sped away. Rijkswacht/Gendarmerie vehicles stayed put, but a police van pursued the gang for a few kilometers.

In November 1986, the discovery in a canal of various items and weapons taken or used in the gang's crimes provided important evidence. A long running dispute erupted over the find, amid assertions that the location was checked in 1985; therefore the weapons could not have been there from before that time and a second search must have been done with guilty knowledge. In 2019, the now-retired officers responsible for ordering the 1986 search were officially questioned on suspicion of manipulating the investigation, but they protested that original search of the canal was not an underwater inspection by frogmen, as done in 1986. A Volkswagen Golf car — similar to that used in the getaway — had been found burned out in 1985 in woods relatively close by to the canal, however it was said the condition of the items meant they could not have been immersed since that time.

Method of operation
The items taken and paraphernalia they disposed of seemed to indicate that the gang were shooting enthusiasts involved in drug dealing and burglaries, combining their criminal activity with daytime jobs such as food preparation or scrap metal dealing. Under this interpretation, the crimes were largely for material reward and escalated out of bravado. On the other hand, odd elements were also evident:
 Robbery proceeds were modest relative to the extreme risks. Early raids were often amateurish – for example, the Giant not wearing gloves, and the Killer and the Old Man allowing themselves to be seen without masks while taking a car at gunpoint.
 The pause in the raids and the killings followed by the escalated resumption in 1985, when a nine-year-old girl and other bystanders were shot dead for no reason in the parking lot before the gang had entered the supermarkets.
 Firearms were a particular interest; the 12-gauge pump shotguns used were loaded with a rare buckshot similar to that used by Group Diane (a former special forces unit of the Belgian Gendarmerie). Some policemen thought the gang used tactics in gunfights very similar to those taught on police courses.
 The cars used, often Volkswagens, were stripped of distinctive trim and had vehicle modifications including repainting, indicating a mechanic's facilities and expertise, but also a desire to retain VW parts.
 Getaway routes were well planned and navigated at top speed, but the gang were often still on the scene when armed police arrived.

The gang is believed to have had at least one helper on its last raid. In 1986, weapons that the gang had were found along with bullet proof jackets and other items in a canal about 30 km outside Brussels. The Winchester pump shotguns used in the massacres were never found.

Ulterior motives

Official complicity
Certain events surrounding the robbery of the Delhaize supermarket in Aalst on 9 November 1985 served to further strengthen media-fuelled rumours of a connection between the gang and elements of the Belgian military and the Belgian Gendarmerie in particular. For example, the supermarket was hit despite patrols passing it every twenty minutes and gendarmes close to the scene did not engage or pursue the robbers. Although no such connection has been officially proven, the lack of satisfactory performance in the Brabant killers case was among the reasons for the subsequent abolishing of the Belgian Gendarmerie.

A connection to the clandestine stay-behind network S.D.R.A VIII (Operation Gladio) has also been suggested. However, an official parliamentary inquiry found no substantive evidence that the network was involved in any terrorist acts or that criminal groups had infiltrated it.

A supposed connection between the Brabant killers, Gladio, and the by-then defunct Belgian far-right organisation Westland New Post led by Paul Latinus is mentioned in the 1992 BBC Timewatch documentary series Operation Gladio, directed by Allan Francovich, in which it is suggested that Latinus said that his organisation was sanctioned by the Belgian government.

Westland New Post
In March 1981, Paul Latinus and members of Front de la Jeunesse founded Westland New Post, a paramilitary far-right group that was investigated after a 1980 incident in which a member shot at a group of North Africans, causing one death and a national outcry. The killer was with a firearms enthusiast who was a friend of Madani Bouhouche, and decades later let him stay in a French property after Bouhouche was released on licence from a life sentence for two murders. The milieu of WNP included a former member (now deceased) of the French terrorist group OAS, and several others from the Front de la Jeunesse who conducted paramilitary firearms training in some of the forested areas that were later used by the Brabant killers. The WNP was a secret organisation. Speculation about a connection to the Brabant killers increased after former WNP members — including the only Gendarmerie — recalled being ordered to covertly surveil and compile a report on security arrangements at Belgian supermarkets of a large chain that was targeted by the killers. WNP had a genuine intelligence operative advising on covert techniques; NATO behind-the-lines units are known to have used the planning of robberies as a training exercise. Michel Libert, the former second-in-command of Westland New Post, admitted passing on Latinus's orders to gather detailed information on supermarkets with a view to robberies, but denied knowing of any purpose to the assignments beyond developing clandestine skills.

Marcel Barbier, an enforcer-type WNP member who lived with Libert, was arrested in August 1983 after a shooting, and became suspected in a double murder at a synagogue a year earlier. Latinus went to police and informed them that Barbier and another WNP member had committed the synagogue murders, and that he (Latinus) had helped Barbier get rid of the murder weapon. This caused dissension within the WNP as Latinus was seen as having betrayed a member of the organisation. Also in 1983 several members of WNP who were in Front de la Jeunesse (Belgium) were convicted of organising it as an illegal militia, and given terms in prison. Leading WNP members were also arrested for unauthorised possession of low-level classified NATO documents. Latinus committed suicide in April 1984, and his followers formed rival cliques. Some theories have connected these facts to the inactivity of the Brabant Killers gang between December 1983 and September 1985, and them having a seemingly intensified grudge against society during the supermarket massacres of 27 September and 9 November 1985.

Barbier was convicted for the synagogue murders. His co-accused, WNP member Eric Lamers, was acquitted of murder but received 5 years for other offences, and in 1991 was convicted of a separate double murder. Lammers fled the country after being accused of a sexual exposure against a child and accessing images of child sex abuse. After he was brought back from Serbia he appeared in a 2014 Belgian TV program in which he accused WNP leaders of being behind the Brabant killings, based on WNP reconnaissance on the supermarket chain whose premises were subjected to the murderous attacks of 1985. Libert was arrested as a suspect soon after the program was broadcast, but released without charge after 48 hours. In 2018 a former subordinate of Libert publicly accused him of being the 'Giant', although without any official reaction. Libert went on television to yet again deny the allegations, and said the accuser had mental health difficulties.

Other speculation
Various conspiracy theories link the killings to political scandals, illegal gun-running mafias, and legitimate businesses, suggesting they were done to disguise targeted assassinations. It has been suggested that one of the supposed victims of these assassinations was the banker Léon Finné, who was shot by the gang during the robbery of the Delhaize supermarket in Overijse on 27 September 1985.

Possible suspects
Notorious professional criminals, including Patrick Haemers and Madani Bouhouche (both deceased) have been canvassed as likely suspects. Haemers's height made him an apparent fit for the Brabant gang's 'Giant', but his known crimes lacked the gratuitous violence and small-time takings that were the Brabant killers' hallmark.

Bouhouche was a former gendarme and gun shop owner suspected and known to have been involved in a number of violent crimes. He was arrested in 1986 for the murder of Juan Mendez, an acquaintance of his who had expressed his fear that some weapons stolen from him by Bouhouche had been used in the Brabant killers crimes. Although he was released in 1988, police had found that Bouhouche had anonymously rented garages to store stolen cars, weapons he had stolen in a 1981 burglary of a Gendarmerie guard station in Etterbeek, and false duplicate car plates, some of which could have a connection to the Brabant killers. Also, items thought to have been abandoned by the Brabant killers turned out to include several TV remote controls adapted for triggering explosions, not unlike Bouhouche had intended to use in a complex extortion scheme involving IED attacks against a supermarket chain years before the Brabant killers started targeting supermarkets. This and all other evidence seemingly connecting him to the Brabant killers was considered inconclusive, but did little to allay the suspicion that he may have had inside information about the Brabant killers. He eventually died in 2005 while employed by a rental accommodation business owned by an old shooting and Westland New Post acquaintance.

Investigation
In 1983, on the basis of a forensic examination of a weapon, and a witness who said he had seen the Saab hidden, authorities charged the gun owner (a former municipal policeman) and several other men ("Borains") with the Brabant killings. Police said they obtained incriminating statements containing guilty knowledge. The Brabant killers' jewelry shop double murder occurred while the "Borains" accused were in detention. After it was found that a German ballistic experts' report discrediting the main hard evidence against the accused had been suppressed by the prosecutor, charges against the "Borains" were dismissed, and the freed men furiously alleged they had been coerced in abusive 36 hour interrogations, and supplied with details for false confessions. The original "Borains" suspect was unsuccessfully approached for information in 2015.

An initially promising lead for the enquiry concerned a member of a family of Romany origin that was well known in the underworld, who led a group of armed robbers. He was charged with being one of the Brabant Killers and at one point made (later retracted) admission to having participated without his gang in the massacres, but provided no details, and the line of investigation proved fruitless.

The law enforcement agencies hunting the killers made many mistakes during the early years of the investigation, often as a result of rivalries among the various authorities. Among the worst oversights were failure to preserve cars the gang modified and dumped, and loss of items with fingerprints. The original investigating magistrate was criticized for lack of professionalism by mishandling evidence and not considering alternatives to his hypotheses. Publicity about the case and the offer of a substantial reward resulted in a vast number of tips from ordinary Belgians with personal scores to settle, thereby diverting investigative resources from viable suspects.

Current lines of inquiry
Most suspects date back to the beginning of the investigation, and have been repeatedly questioned over the years. The latest was Christiaan Bonkoffsky, ex-Gendarmerie unit Group Diane, who before his alcohol-related 2015 death made a confession to being the so-called Giant. A riot gun and ammunition basket labelled "Gendarmerie-Politie", were apparently dumped by the Brabant killers (possibly after having been stolen by them). Bonkoffsky had already been scrutinised as a potential suspect in 2000. Investigators utilising forensic DNA and fingerprints have definitely ruled him out as the Giant.

In June 2020 Belgian detectives appealed for information on the identity of man in a photograph sent to police in 1986. They reissued a photo of a man holding a SPAS-12 in a forest. The photo was reissued on the orders of a judge. They also appealed for information on the identity of a man with a 3.5 cm wine stain birthmark on the nape of his neck who took part in one of the gang's raids on a Delhaize supermarket in Beersel on the southern outskirts of Brussels in October 1983.

A special extension to the statute of limitations on the case runs out in 2025, by which time the core members of the gang would be in their mid seventies at least, if still alive.

In the media
In 2018 Stijn Coninx directed the Belgian film Don't Shoot (Niet Schieten), screenplay by Stijn Coninx and Rik D'Hiet. It is based on the last, November 9, 1985 bloody raid by the Brabant Killers on the Delhaize Supermarket in Aalst. Eight innocent people were murdered, among whom were Gilbert and Thérèse Van de Steen and their daughter Rebecca. Their nine-year-old son David although critically injured in the leg, survived the shooting and was raised by his grandparents. It follows the 25 year long battle of David's grandfather, Albert (played by Jan Decleir), to bring the killers to justice.
 In 2023, Belgian TV channels Eén and La Une aired 1985, a television series created by Wouter Bouvijn and Willem Wallyn, focusing on the Brabant killers. A joint production between public broadcasters VRT and RTBF, the series offers a coming-of-age crime drama perspective, following three youths -- Marc, Vicky, and her brother Franky -- as they navigate the tumultuous 1980s in Brussels, becoming entangled in the intrigue surrounding the gang, with diverging allegiances and the historical backdrop adding complexity. The show features notable Belgian music from the late '70s and early '80s, along with tracks from international acts like The Psychedelic Furs, Gruppo Sportivo, and The Clash.

See also
 List of fugitives from justice who disappeared
 Operation Gladio

References

External links

 Official website of police investigation
 Chronologie des faits attribués aux tueurs du Brabant page 21–22
 bendevannijvel.com/forum » Forum
 Belgian Chamber of Representatives, parliamentary investigation into the Brabant killers.
 Belgian Chamber of Representatives, parliamentary investigation into banditism.
 Belgian Senate, parliamentary investigation into Gladio
 Belgian Senate, parliamentary investigation into private militias

1982 in Belgium
1982 murders in Belgium
1983 in Belgium
1983 murders in Belgium
1985 in Belgium
1985 murders in Belgium
1980s murders in Belgium
Belgian mass murderers
Belgian serial killers
Belgian spree killers
Controversies in Belgium
Gangs in Belgium
History of Walloon Brabant
Nivelles
Political controversies in Belgium
Serial mass murderers
Terrorism in Belgium
Terrorist incidents in Belgium in the 1980s
Unidentified serial killers
Unsolved mass murders
Unsolved murders in Belgium
Year of birth unknown

Brabant killers


USS Cimarron (AO-22) was a  oiler serving with the United States Navy and the second ship to be named for the Cimarron River in the Southwestern United States. She was launched 7 January 1939 by Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Chester, Pennsylvania; sponsored by Mrs. William D. Leahy; and commissioned 20 March 1939.

World War II
Cimarron cleared Houston on 31 May 1939 for Pearl Harbor, arriving on 21 July. She transported oil between west coast ports and Pearl Harbor, making 13 such voyages until she sailed for the east coast on 19 August 1940. After repairs and alterations, she began oil runs on the east coast, principally between Baton Rouge and Norfolk, until August 1941, when she took part in amphibious operations. From 5–16 September she put to sea with a transport convoy bound for Iceland, and voyaged north again from 12 October to 5 November to refuel ships at Placentia Bay. On 15 November 1941, she joined a convoy at Trinidad bound for Singapore with reinforcements, but was detached from the convoy on 9 December at Cape Town, South Africa. Returning to Trinidad on 31 December, she operated from Brazilian ports to Iceland until 4 March 1942, when she cleared Norfolk for San Francisco.

Pacific War
Cimarron reached San Francisco on 1 April 1942 and sailed the next day with the task force bound for the first air raid on Tokyo on 18 April. With , they fueled the fleet at sea before and after the raid, and returned to Pearl Harbor on 25 April. She sailed on 29 April, bound to join the force soon to join battle with the Japanese naval forces in the Coral Sea, but arrived after the battle to refuel destroyers at Nouméa, and returned to Pearl Harbor on 26 May. She cleared Pearl Harbor on 28 May to fuel the force which defeated the Japanese in the Battle of Midway and returned on 12 June, departing on 7 July to support the operation in the Solomon Islands. Using Nouméa as her principal base, Cimarron occasionally reloaded at Suva and Efate. After repairs at San Francisco in November 1942, she sailed for the forward area 18 December. She operated again out of Nouméa supporting the final stages of the Guadalcanal action, then fueled out of Efate, carried cargo to Sydney, Australia, and returned to fueling at Dumbea Bay in support of the occupation of New Georgia. She returned to San Francisco, in July 1943, and then made two trips from the west coast to Pearl Harbor.

Cimarron departed Pearl Harbor 29 September 1943 with the force which raided Wake Island on 5–6 October, and returned to Pearl Harbor on 16 October. She sailed once again on 14 November to fuel in support of the Gilbert Islands campaign, returning 1 December, and sailed to San Pedro, California, to reload 12 December to 4 January 1944. Clearing Pearl Harbor on 13 January 1944, she supported the Marshall Islands operation and the February attacks on Truk from Majuro until 6 June; the Marianas operation from Eniwetok until 26 August; and the Palau Islands operation from Ulithi.

After a stateside overhaul from October through December 1944, Cimarron arrived at Ulithi on 26 December 1944. From 27 December to 21 January 1945 she sailed to fuel the task force launching air attacks on Indo-China and Philippine targets as part of the Luzon invasion, and put to sea again from 8 February to 22 March for air raids on the Japanese home islands and the invasion of Iwo Jima. From 26 March to 23 May she sailed from Ulithi to fuel ships engaging in the Okinawa operation, and from 3 June shuttled between Ulithi and the areas from which the mighty carrier task forces launched the final series of raids upon the heartland of Japan. Ulithi remained her base as she supported the occupation until 10 September, when she anchored in Tokyo Bay. Operations in the Far East continued until 4 February 1946, when she arrived at Long Beach Naval Shipyard, for overhaul.

Korean War
Between July 1946 and June 1950, Cimarron ferried oil from the Persian Gulf to naval bases in the Marianas and Marshalls, occasionally continuing on to the US West Coast. Her first tour of duty in the Korean war, from 6 July 1950 to 3 June 1951, found her fueling ships of the Taiwan Patrol at Okinawa, amphibious ships at Kobe, and operating from Sasebo to the waters off Korea to fuel task forces. Several times she entered the heavily mined waters of Wonsan Harbor South Korea to fuel the ships carrying out the lengthy blockade and bombardment of that key port.

Returning to the west coast, she gave service as a training tanker until her second Korean tour, from 1 August to 10 December 1951. During this time she spent a month at Taiwan fueling the ships on duty in the Formosa Straits, and made three voyages to Korean waters from Sasebo. During 1952, overhaul and training on the west coast preceded her third Korean war deployment from 9 April to 5 January 1953, when her duty was similar to that of her second. Her fourth tour of duty in the Far East was completed between 11 April and 27 November 1953.

Cimarron sailed to the Far East again between 14 June 1954 and 8 February 1955, during which she served as flagship of the United Nations support group for Operation Passage to Freedom, the evacuation of refugees from Communist North Vietnam. Her pattern of operations from that time into 1963 included highly effective support of the guardian U.S. 7th Fleet in its Far Eastern operations through deployments in 1955, 1956-1957, 1957-1958, 1958-1959, 1959, and 1960. As of 1963, she had the longest continuous commissioned service of any active ship in the United States Navy, belying her age as she continued to provide her essential support with outstanding skill and efficiency.

Vietnam War

Cimarron continued her service into the Vietnam War between 1965 and 1967 and received the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal and Vietnam Service Medal for its participation in the Vietnam Advisory Campaign, Vietnam Defense, and Vietnamese Counteroffensive Phases I through III. In 1968, she was the oldest US Navy ship in continuous active service. Cimarron was decommissioned and struck from the Navy List in October 1968 and sold for scrap in 1969.

The bell from the ship was installed at Cimarron High School in Cimarron, New Mexico, where it was donated to honor the Santa Fe Trail "Cimarron Cutoff" and its proximity to Cimarron River Basin's headwaters.

Awards
Cimarron received 10 battle stars for World War II service, 7 for the Korean War, and 4 campaign stars for her Vietnam War service.

See also
1936 Merchant Marine Act  and MARCOM
Naval Control And Protection of Shipping (NCAPS)
Naval War College Simulations - 1936-38 War Plan Orange
W. W. Behrens, Jr. - US Naval Academy Midshipman, who may have influenced fleet oiler naming protocol with CNO William D. Leahy, whose wife sponsored Cimarron.
Cimarron Basin Watershed Reducing Elevation Awareness Deficiency (EAD) by adding self-defense gunnery weapons that also enabled independent steaming between fortified fuel storage facilities and more forward fleet operating areas.

References

External links

T3-S2-A1 Type Tankers
Biography of Cimarron's first CO
Korean War Project Connections
Vice Admiral David C. Richardson (former Cimarron CO)

Cimarron-class oilers (1939)
1939 ships
Ships built by the Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Company
World War II auxiliary ships of the United States
World War II tankers of the United States
Cold War auxiliary ships of the United States
Korean War auxiliary ships of the United States
Vietnam War auxiliary ships of the United States

USS Cimarron (AO-22)


Basoeki Resobowo (Perfected Spelling: Basuki Resobowo; 18 February 1916 – 5 January 1999) was an Indonesian painter. Born to a transmigrant father in Sumatra, from a young age he showed interest in the visual arts but was taught to be a teacher. After a short time at a Taman Siswa school in Batavia (now Jakarta), he studied design and worked as a surveyor while producing sketches and book covers. He only acted in a single film, Kedok Ketawa, but remained close to the acting community, first as a set designer during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies then for Perfini in the early 1950s.

During the 1940s and 50s Resobowo became recognised as a painter, working with such artists as Trisno Sumardjo and Oesman Effandi. By the late 1950s he was head of the visual arts department of the Institute for the People's Culture. However, the political climate of Indonesia soon made Resobowo's leftist leanings dangerous, and he went into exile beginning in the 1960s, ultimately settling in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. There he wrote extensively on art until his death.

Early life
Resobowo was born on 18 February 1916 as the second child to Prawiroatmojo and his wife. Sources disagree as to where he was born. The Jakarta City Government's Encyclopedia of Jakarta states his place of birth as Palembang, West Sumatra, but Taman Ismail Marzuki's biography of the artists gives a birthplace of Bengkulu, with Palembang and Lampung as locations in which he lived as a child with his transmigrant family. As a child, he enjoyed drawing.

In order to become a teacher, Resobowo was sent to live with his uncle in the capital of the Dutch East Indies, Batavia (now Jakarta). There he attended a Dutch-run school for indigenes, the Europesche Largere School. After graduating, in 1930 Resobowo was sent to live with another uncle and started his studies at a Dutch-run middle school, or MULO. However, in his second year he moved to Yogyakarta, where he completed his education in a Taman Siswa-run school and was primed to be a teacher. One of his classmates in Yogyakarta was Sindoesoedarsono Soedjojono, and the two often painted together.

Resobowo returned to Batavia in 1933 and, for a short while, served as a teacher at a Taman Siswa school there. This return was only temporary, however, as between 1936 and 1938 he lived in Bandung, West Java, and studied design at a school established by the architect Ir. Roosseno. While in that city, Resobowo was active with the social organization Indonesia Muda, becoming the head of the Bandung Chapter and attending the group's 1937 conference in Surabaya.

Developing career
In 1938, Resobowo again returned to Batavia, finding a house in the Tangkiwood area of the city, in which many of the domestic film industry's stars lived. There he met such actors as Roekiah and her husband Kartolo; Resobowo, together with S. Toetoer, drew a portrait of her. Over the next several years Resobowo served as a surveyor in areas such as Sawangan and Pamengpeuk. In the meantime, he remained active in the visual arts, becoming a member of the Indonesian Visual Artists' Association ( or PERSAGI) and designing book covers, including to Armijn Pane's translation of Door Duisternis tot Licht (Out of the Darkness Comes the Light), a collection of Kartini's letters.

Union Films, a company established by ethnic Chinese businessmen, signed Resobowo to act in their first film, Kedok Ketawa, in 1941. Resobowo was cast as the painter Basuki, who must work with the "Laughing Mask" in order to save his lover Minarsih from a lecherous rich man. The studio emphasised Resobowo's education in order to draw audiences. Although this film was a critical success, Union's subsequent releases — beginning with Harta Berdarah (1941) - did not include Resobowo.

During the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies, which lasted from 1942 and 1945, Resobowo spent time working for the visual arts division of the Cultural Centre (in Indonesian, ; in Japanese, ), where he was tasked with writing radio broadcasts regarding the visual arts. However, he left this position in order to handle stage decor for various acting troupes, including Bintang Surabaya, Fifi Young's Pagoda, and Tjahaja Timur. While doing the decor for these troupes he would often travel with them, and in his spare time he would sketch their stars. He won best painting at a Cultural Centre competition in 1943, and as such he was compared to Basuki Abdullah and Affandi.

Indonesian independence
Indonesia proclaimed its independence on 17 August 1945, and Resobowo worked to spread this news. Together with M. Balfas, he designed posters related to Indonesian independence which he spread through the kampung of Jakarta (renamed during the occupation). He was also a member of the Menteng 31 group. However, when the returning Dutch colonial forces forced the republican government out of Jakarta in 1946, Resobowo left the city. He spent the remainder of the Indonesian National Revolution (1945–1949) in cities such as Yogyakarta, Madiun (where he sketched Lake Sarangan), and Sukabumi. When he was living in Madiun he worked with Sudjojono, Sudibio, and Trisno Sumardjo to establish the Young Indonesian Artists (, or SIM); he remained active with this group even after moving to Surakarta and Yogyakarta.

After the end of the revolution, Resobowo worked regularly with Trisno Sumardjo, Oesman Effandi, and Zaini. The painters held exhibitions in several cities, including Yogyakarta in 1952, Padang, Medan, and Bali. The four, as well as several other artists, were also commissioned to sketch historical figures for schoolbooks by the Familij Sarekat Compagnij.

Meanwhile, Resobowo joined Usmar Ismail's film company Perfini. Beginning with Darah dan Doa (1950), Resobowo became production designer; he also assisted Sitor Situmorang in polishing the script. With the company's next production, Embun (1951), Resobowo again worked on the script, the majority of which was penned by director D. Djajakusuma. For three further films, Enam Djam di Djogdja (1951), Dosa Tak Berampun (1951), and Terimalah Laguku (1952), he again served as artistic director. For his last film with the company, Tamu Agung (1955), Resobowo adapted Nikolai Gogol's The Government Inspector into an Indonesian context: the film focuses on the anticipation of the visit of a dignitary to a small isolated village in East Java.

In 1955 Resobowo ran in the legislative election, running for the Communist Party of Indonesia (, or PKI). Towards the end of the 1950s, Resobowo was selected to head the visual arts department of the Institute for the People's Culture (, or Lekra), a leftists organisation active in the arts and literature. He also contributed articles on the visual arts to such magazines as  Budaya, Harian Rakyat, Indonesia, Seniman, Zaman Baru, and Zenith.

Life in exile and death
Amidst a background of an increasingly unstable political situation in Indonesia, including conflicts between leftists (such as the PKI and Lekra) and rightists such as the military, in 1962 Resobowo left the country for China. The failed G30S coup of 1965, which was blamed on the Communists and followed by an anti-communist purge, left the artist unable to return to Indonesia. He lived in China until 1962, before moving to Germany and ultimately Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

During his over thirty years of exile, Resobowo wrote extensively. He published a graphic novel in two volumes, titled Cut Nyak Din, about the Acehnese warrior. He also wrote an autobiography, Riwayat Hidupku, as well as books such as Bercermin Di Muka Kaca and Karmiatun. He never abandoned his leftist leanings, writing in his 1994 book Seniman, Seni, dan Masyarakat (Art, Artists, and Society; the title taken from a 1947 essay by Sudjojono) that politics and art were inseparable, and that artists could only truly serve their society through Marxism. He likewise remained politically active, participating in a hunger strike in 1992 against the threatened executions of Ruslan Wijayasastra and other former PKI members.

Resobowo was only able to return to Indonesia in 1998, when he visited the country and met many of its artists. He returned to the Netherlands and died in Amsterdam on 5 January 1999, leaving two children and an ex-wife.

Legacy
The poet Chairil Anwar dedicated two poems to Resobowo. The first, "Sorga" ("Heaven"), was written in Malang on 25 February 1947 and included in Anwar's collection Deru Tjampur Debu. The second, "Sajak Buat Basuki Resobowo" ("A Poem for Basuki Resobowo"), was penned three days later and included in the anthology Tiga Menguak Takdir. When HB Jassin compiled Chairil Anwar Pelopor Angkatan '45, these two poems were combined as "Dua Sajak Buat Basuki Resobowo". English translations of these poems were published by Burton Raffel in 1970.

Monash University describes Tamu Agung as "brilliantly interweav[ing] modern political discourse (including a militant feminism that appears to have emerged with the Indonesian revolution) with archaic Javanese rhetoric, taken from the narratives of the Wayang (traditional Javanese shadow play)".

Resobowo's portrait of Soetomo is held in the Presidential Palace in Jakarta. The portrait was completed on government commission.

References

Works cited

External links

1916 births
1999 deaths
Male actors from the Dutch East Indies
Indonesian communists
Indonesian screenwriters
Indonesian art directors
20th-century Indonesian painters
20th-century Indonesian male actors
Members of the Lembaga Kebudajaan Rakjat
20th-century screenwriters

Basuki Resobowo