Richard "Dickie" Doyle (18 September 1824 – 10 December 1883) was a British illustrator of the Victorian era. His work frequently appeared, amongst other places, in Punch magazine; he drew the cover of the first issue, and designed the magazine's masthead, a design that was used for over a century.

Biography
Born at 17 Cambridge Terrace, London, one of seven children of Irish cartoonist John Doyle (known as 'H.B'), a noted political caricaturist, Doyle had three brothers, James, Charles and Henry Edward Doyle, who were also artists. The young Doyle had no formal art training other than his father's studio, but from an early age displayed a gifted ability to depict scenes of the fantastic and grotesque. Throughout his life he was fascinated by fairy tales. He produced his first complete illustrated book, Home for the Holidays, when he was twelve; it was published posthumously in 1887.

He joined the staff of Punch in 1843 aged 19, remaining there for seven years.

He was the uncle of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the  Sherlock Holmes stories.

Career
Doyle's first published illustrations appeared in The Eglinton Tournament (1840), a humour book set in the Middle Ages, which met with commercial success.

Doyle collaborated with John Leech, W. C. Stanfield and other artists to co-illustrate three Charles Dickens Christmas books, The Chimes (1844), The Cricket on the Hearth (1845) and The Battle of Life (1846).

In 1846 Doyle's illustrations for The Fairy Ring (a new translation of Grimm's tales), first made his name as a fairytale illustrator. Following this in 1849 he produced Fairy Tales from All Nations (compiled by 'Anthony R. Montalba', which proved a tremendous success. Doyle was able to fully explore his love of fairy mythology with his many illustrations and borders filled with elves, pixies and other mythical creatures.

Following this success Doyle illustrated a string of fantasy titles: The Enchanted Doll by Mark Lemon (1849), The Story of Jack and the Giants (1850), and John Ruskin's The King of the Golden River (1850), which went through three editions in its first year of publication.

Edward Ellice was a serial host for notable visitors to Scotland. In 1859 Doyle was invited and Katherine Ellice, an amateur artist, served as host when he visited. Katherine was given an illustrated diary of a journey to the islands of Rona and Skye and this is extant.

He also wrote for Punch a series of articles entitled Manners and Customes of ye Englyshe. A devout Roman Catholic, he resigned his position on the staff of Punch in 1850 in response to its hostility to what was termed "papal aggression", and spent the remainder of his career in preparing drawings for book illustration and to painting in watercolour. Doyle published works of his own, which helped establish his reputation with a large readership: Manners and Customs of Ye Englishe (1849) and Bird's Eye View of Society (1864).

His chief series of illustrations were those for The Newcomes, The King of the Golden River, and The Foreign Tour of Brown, Jones and Robinson. In 1844, Doyle designed the cover of Punch's sixth issue. It became the basis of the magazine's masthead until 1954, and was based on Titian's "Bacchus and Ariadne".

His masterpiece is indubitably In Fairyland, a series of Pictures from the Elf World, with a poem by William Allingham, printed by Edmund Evans and published by Longman in time for Christmas 1869 (dated 1870). In the 16 colour plates and 36 line illustrations plus title page, Doyle was given a completely free hand. The folio was richly bound in green cloth, and has been described as one of the finest examples of Victorian book production (Richard Dalby, The Golden Age of Children's Book Illustration, 1991 p. 12). The illustrations were used in the publication of another book as well, The Princess Nobody by Andrew Lang (1884).

Doyle was generally regarded as being brilliant but unreliable. For example, he was consistently late with his illustrations for The Newcomes, only meeting his commitments when Thackeray threatened to give the work to another artist. Doyle's excuses were often ridiculous, and the Dalziel brothers reported that on one occasion he failed to meet a deadline because he had 'not got any pencils'. Such amateurism hampered Doyle's success. Several books he had been commissioned to illustrate did not appear because he lacked the application needed to finish them, and completed work was often uneven in quality and 'deplorably pedestrian'.

Doyle signed many of his drawings with the depiction of a small bird standing on the initials 'RD', a reference to his nickname "Dickie" (as in "dickie bird").

Gallery

References

External links

 Detailed biography on Victorianweb
 Works by Richard Doyle in the University of Florida Digital Collections including Princess Nobody

 Fairy tales from all nations, illus. Richard Doyle
 Manners and customs of ye Englyshe by Percival Leigh and illustrated by Doyle

 Grant F. Scott, ed. The Illustrated Letters of Richard Doyle to His Father, 1842-1843 (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2016). https://www.ohioswallow.com/book/9780821421857

1824 births
1883 deaths
English illustrators
British speculative fiction artists
19th-century English painters
English male painters
English watercolourists
Fantasy artists
Punch (magazine) cartoonists
19th-century illustrators of fairy tales
English Roman Catholics
English people of Irish descent
Richard
19th-century English male artists

Richard Doyle (illustrator)


Friedrich Pollock (; ; 22 May 1894 – 16 December 1970) was a German social scientist and philosopher. He was one of the founders of the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt am Main, and a member of the Frankfurt School of neo-Marxist theory.

Life
Friedrich Pollock was born to a leather factory owner in Freiburg im Breisgau. Pollock's Jewish-born father turned away from Judaism, and raised his son accordingly. Pollock was educated in finance 1911 to 1915. During this time he met Max Horkheimer, with whom he became a lifelong friend. He then studied economy, sociology and philosophy in Frankfurt am Main, where he wrote his thesis on Marx's labor theory of value and received his doctorate in 1923.

The Institute for Social Research was founded in 1923 by Pollock and fellow Marxist Felix Weil, who funded the group. Weil was inspired to found the institute after the success of his week-long conference, the Erste Marxistische Arbeitswoche (First Marxist Workweek), in 1923. Weil's goal was to bring together different schools of Marxism, and included György Lukács, Karl Korsch, Karl August Wittfogel, and Friedrich Pollock.

In 1927/1928 Pollock traveled to the Soviet Union in honor of the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution. His research there led to his treatise: Attempts at Planned Economy in the Soviet Union 1917–1927.  Thereafter he took a post as lecturer at the University of Frankfurt and he replaced the ill Carl Grünberg as Director of the institute from 1928–1930.

Prior to the Nazi seizure of power, Pollock had used his contacts in the International Labour Organization to establish a Geneva branch of the Institute. In 1933, Pollock and Horkheimer moved into exile, first in Geneva, then to London, Paris, and finally New York City.

In 1950, he was finally able to return to Frankfurt, taking part in the reestablishment of the Institute, again taking the role of director. From 1951 to 1958 he was professor of economics and sociology at the University of Frankfurt.

In 1959, Pollock and Horkheimer moved to Montagnola, Ticino, Switzerland, although Pollock held a position as professor Emeritus at the University of Frankfurt until 1963. He died in Montagnola in 1970.

Selected works

 Werner Sombart's "Refutation" of Marxism, Leipzig, 1926

References

External links
Frankfurt School page at Marxist.org

→

1894 births
1970 deaths
Writers from Freiburg im Breisgau
Goethe University Frankfurt alumni
Academic staff of Goethe University Frankfurt
20th-century German philosophers
German economists
Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to Switzerland
German sociologists
German Marxists
Jewish philosophers
Marxist writers
Marxist theorists
Revolution theorists
Frankfurt School
German male writers

Friedrich Pollock


Kapakau ʻo Tafahi (the wings of Tafahi) is a constellation of 8 stars, standing above Tafahi as a brooding hen spreading her wings to protect her chicks. It may be the constellation of Cassiopeia

Tafahi is either the island, or it may refer to an old Polynesian hero, Tafaki (Māori: Tawhaki, Tahiti: Tafaʻi).

It was the starpath for navigators from Vavaʻu to the Niua and back.

Kapakau ʻo Tafahi/en


A Scattering of Seeds, also known as A Scattering of Seeds: The Creation of Canada is a Canadian documentary television series.

The series explored the contributions of immigrants to Canada. It was produced by White Pine Pictures. A total of 52 episodes originally aired on the History channel from 1998 to 2001, with repeats on various Canadian Television Networks, such as CBC Television, Société Radio-Canada (in French), TVOntario, Vision TV and The Discovery Channel.

Episodes

External links

 A Scattering of Seeds: The Creation of Canada - White Pine Pictures

1998 Canadian television series debuts
2001 Canadian television series endings
1990s Canadian documentary television series
2000s Canadian documentary television series
History (Canadian TV network) original programming
History of immigration to Canada
Television series about immigration in Canada

A Scattering of Seeds


August Becker (c. 1810–1875) was a German political activist, politician, and journalist. Becker was a member of the legislature of the German state of Hesse. In his later years he emigrated to the United States of America, where he worked as a journalist until the time of his death.

Biography

Early years
August Becker was born sometime around 1810 in Germany, the son of a clergyman. In his youth he studied theology for a brief time before being introduced to socialist ideas and turning his activity towards that realm.

Political career
Becker's political activity brought him into conflict with the law, and he was subsequently arrested and imprisoned for four years. Following his release, Becker emigrated to Geneva, Switzerland, where he published political pamphlets as well as articles for the radical press. Among those papers for which he wrote were the  and the .

With the eruption of the Revolutions of 1848, Becker returned to Germany. There he published a political journal and was elected a member of the parliament for the Central German state of Hesse.

Emigration
With the fall of the 1848 revolution, the "Red '48-er" Becker emigrated to the United States of America. He ultimately moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he worked as a journalist until his death in 1875.

References

1810s births
1875 deaths
German socialists
Hessian emigrants to the United States
American socialists
Ohio socialists
Members of the Second Chamber of the Estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse
People of the Revolutions of 1848

August Becker (socialist)


The Robin Hood Plan is a somewhat pejorative nickname given to a provision of Texas Senate Bill 7 (73rd Texas Legislature) (the provision is officially referred to as "recapture"), originally enacted by the U.S. state of Texas in 1993 (and revised frequently since then) to provide equity of school financing within all school districts in the state of Texas.

The original bill was passed in response to numerous court rulings (both Federal and state, notably the Texas Supreme Court's ruling in Edgewood Independent School District v. Kirby) that previous financing schemes were in violation of the Texas Constitution's requirements regarding what constitutes "an efficient system of public free schools" as that provision interacts with another provision prohibiting a statewide ad valorem property tax.  Though the legislation has been revised since then, its basic premise remains the same: it limits both the amounts that school districts can both spend on public schools and the amounts that they can raise through locally assessed property taxes and further requires that any amounts in excess be "recaptured" by the state and given to other districts which are unable to raise the required revenue.

Constitutional and Statutory Requirements
Article 7, Section 1, of the Texas Constitution states:

However, state funding is constrained, in part, by Article 8, Section 1-e, of the Texas Constitution, which states:

As such, and because Texas has no personal income tax (which it repeatedly mentions when encouraging businesses and individuals to relocate), the Legislature has been required to provide other sources of dedicated revenue for to fund public education.  Some of the more prominent ones are:
Dedicating specified proceeds from the Permanent School Fund (which are transferred into the Available School Fund)
Dedicating 25% of all motor fuels taxes collected
Dedicating 25% of all business occupational taxes collected
Dedicating net proceeds (after payout of prizes, operating costs, and specified transfers for veterans' assistance) from the Texas Lottery

Otherwise, outside of other minor dedicated revenue sources, public education funding is primarily provided by Legislative appropriations, and a school district's ability to assess property taxes in amounts sufficient to provide an adequate education.  The ability of local school districts, specifically those which are "property poor", when considered in conjunction with the Constitutional requirement to provide an adequate education and the prohibition against a statewide property tax, have formed the bases for the numerous lawsuits against the State of Texas, claiming violations.

Local Property Taxes in Texas

Property taxes in Texas consist of two components:
The largest component is for maintenance and operations (M&O).  This portion of the tax rate funds teacher, administrative, and other district employee salaries, educational materials used in classrooms, utilities, and routine facility maintenance including minor construction projects.  M&O rates consist of two tiers of funding:
Tier I funding is based on a series of state-mandated funding amounts.  The predominant one is the per-student allotment (set at $6,160/student as of 2023; the amount is set by statute and notably is not indexed for inflation, which has been the subject of much political debate within Texas), which is then multiplied by a series of weights depending on the student's educational level and other factors.  Additional amounts are provided for student success and to cover transportation costs.  The sum of all these amounts is then compared to a state-mandated funding cap (calculated as the taxable value of property within a district -- regardless of whether the property can be taxed at full value or even at all-- multiplied by the MCR.  Amounts below the calculated sum are made up by the state; amounts in excess are subject to recapture.
It should be noted that funds received from federal sources -- such as payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs) for Federal land holdings within a district (such as an Army Corps of Engineers lake), along with any private donations received, are not subject to recapture.
School districts then have the option to increase the tax rate by up to $0.17/$100 above their MCR to provide "Tier II Enrichment" funding.  The funding can only be used for M&O, not for capital projects.  The funding consists of two levels, each resulting in differing levels of funding, requiring different levels of approval, and differing in their interplay with recapture:
A district can propose an increase of up to $0.08/$100 above the MCR.  This rate provides a guaranteed yield ($7.9 million as of 2023).  If the tax increase doesn't provide the stated yield, the state makes up the difference; if the tax increase results in more than the yield, it is not subject to recapture (thus it is often referred to colloquially as "golden pennies").  The district's board can increase the rate by up to five "golden pennies" solely on its own action by majority vote; the remaining three pennies require voter approval in what is officially termed a Voter Approved Tax-Rate Ratification Election or VATRE (pronounced "vater").  Once the voters approve a VATRE, the board can continue to assess at the approved rate without further voter approval (unless less than the maximum three pennies were approved).
After assessing the maximum eight "golden pennies", a district can then propose up to an additional $0.09/$100 above the MCR.  This rate provides a lower, non-guaranteed yield ($3.9 million as of 2023) and is subject to recapture (thus it is often referred to colloquially as "copper pennies").  These pennies require voter approval via VATRE (it can be combined with a VATRE for "golden pennies", and again does not require further voter approval (unless less than the maximum nine pennies were approved).
The final component of the tax rate is for "interest and sinking fund" (I&S).  These funds allow districts to issue bonds for major improvements such as land acquisition, new or major renovations to schools, technology purchases (computers and supporting infrastructure) or performing arts centers and/or sports facilities, and can only be used for such, not for M&O.  These funds are not subject to recapture but are capped at $0.50/$100, except that if the district's property value would fall to a level where the maximum rate would not prevent default, the cap can be exceeded.
Prior to 2019, districts in Texas would frequently combine all desired capital improvements into one bond package.  Since voters grew tired of having bond money for schools tied to a district's desire for a state-of-the-art football stadium (notwithstanding the popularity of high school football in Texas), the law was changed to require sports facilities to be separate proposals from general school items.

Lawsuits and Legislative Actions
School finance lawsuits must take place in state court, since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1973 that education is not a fundamental right protected by the U.S. Constitution (San Antonio v. Rodriguez, a case which originated in Texas).  However, in response, between 1975-1977 the Legislature increased the minimum teacher salary schedule and increased the number of instructional days required.

Edgewood I

The first of the initial four lawsuits (all of which would involve the Edgewood Independent School District of Bexar County, Texas, a low-income school district in San Antonio) which would ultimately give rise to Robin Hood would be filed in May 1984 against then state Commissioner of Education William Kirby by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, citing discrimination against students in poor school districts. Edgewood ISD charged that the state's methods of funding public schools, which resulted in a wide variation of funding between districts, violated the Texas Constitution.  The Texas Supreme Court would rule in October 1989 that the funding mechanisms in place were in violation of the Texas Constitution, ruling that an "efficient system" required "substantially equal access to similar levels of revenue per pupil at similar levels of tax effort".

In response, the Legislature passed legislation increasing the state's basic allotment and guaranteed yield to provide equalization at the 95th percentile, but specifically excluded the state's most "property wealthy" districts from the requirements.

Edgewood II

The exclusion of the wealthiest school districts from the requirement led Edgewood ISD to again file suit against Commissioner Kirby, this time in September 1990.  Once again, the Texas Supreme Court ruled in the district's favor, determining in January 1991 that excluding the wealthy districts made the legislation unconstitutional.  One month later, the Court would later issue a (rare) "advisory opinion", stating that once the Legislature created an "efficient system", it may authorize local enrichment upon voter approval.

The Legislature responded by creating 188 "County Education Districts", designed to equalize the tax base by consolidating property-wealthy districts with property-poor ones.

Edgewood III

The creation of the County Education Districts would lead Edgewood ISD into court yet again.  But this time, it would be the defendant in a June 1991 suit brought by the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District (a district north of Dallas), which argued that the districts were unconstitutional.  The Court would rule in January 1992, agreeing that the districts were unconstitutional.

The Legislature responded by proposing a constitutional amendment to allow for the "County Education Districts"; however, the amendment was rejected by voters.  It also passed Senate Bill 7 with the "Robin Hood" aspect.  Senate Bill 7 also, for the first time, introduced a state-mandated limit on M&O tax rates, capping them at $1.50/$100 valuation, which would later become the subject of its own court battle.

Under recapture, a "property wealthy" district finding itself with more tax revenue than allowed, could choose from one of five options (or combinations thereof) to reduce or eliminate the amount owed:
Consolidate with a "property poor" district (thus resulting in only one remaining district),
Detach a portion of its tax base and transfer it to a "property poor" district,
Purchase "attendance credits" from the state which provides the district with a sufficient number of students to reduce the district's local revenue level to a level that is equal to or less than the district's entitlement,
Contract with a "property poor" district to educate a sufficient number of non-resident students to provide the district with a sufficient number of students to reduce the district's local revenue level to a level that is equal to or less than the district's entitlement, or
Consolidate tax bases with a "property poor" district (but not the districts themselves).

No school district has ever chosen Options 1, 2, or 5 to avoid recapture.  Every district has chosen Options 3 or 4 or a combination of the two.

Edgewood IV
The Robin Hood plan would face yet another court challenge in June 1993, this time by two different sets of parties arguing two opposite positions:
Edgewood ISD (along with "property poor" districts) argued that the plan still didn't accomplish constitutional requirements.
On the other side, a group of "property wealthy" districts argued that the recapture mechanism was, itself, unconstitutional.

In January 1995 the Texas Supreme Court would, for a time, end the ongoing battle over school finance, ruling that the Robin Hood plan met constitutional requirements.

West Orange-Cove cases

After Edgewood IV the courts would see a roughly six-year break in the ongoing battle over school finance.

However, the state-mandated M&O cap (at which the majority of school districts were assessing taxes) would become the source of the next round of lawsuits, this time by the West Orange-Cove Consolidated Independent School District (located in southeast Texas).  The district filed suit in April 2001, arguing that the mandated cap constituted a de facto, and thus unconstitutional, state property tax, because the district had no "meaningful discretion" in setting the tax rate.

The Texas Supreme Court agreed in November 2005 with the district (West Orange-Cove I).  In response, the Legislature met in a special session during April and May of 2006, and made several changes to the tax structure:
The Legislature "compressed" (reduced) the maximum M&O rate to $1.00/$100.
It replaced the lost local revenue with additional state funding, primarily by state revenue from a new business tax and higher cigarette taxes.
Finally, it allowed local districts the option to assess up to an additional $0.17/$100 -- the "golden pennies" and "copper pennies" discussed above.
Upon passage of the legislation, the district and the state agreed to dissolve a second case (West Orange-Cove II) which was ongoing at the time.

The Texas Comptroller estimated a five-year $23 billion shortfall from the revised tax system.

Texas Taxpayer & Student Fairness Coalition
The West Orange-Cove settlement would bring another six-year break in the battle, only to then be followed by a consortium of plaintiffs under the name shown above (notably over half the state's school districts, along with individual taxpayers and business groups), once again suing (in October 2011) that the compressed rate -- even with increased state funding and the optional 17 cent rate -- was still a de facto state property taxes.

A Travis County district judge agreed in a February 2013 bench ruling that the system was unconstitutional based on equity, adequacy, and the creation of a de facto state property tax.  After a rehearing in early 2014, the judge issued his formal ruling in August of that year, generally holding to his bench ruling, but that the system did not violate the "taxpayer equity" requirements of the state constitution.

However, the Texas Supreme Court (on direct appeal) would overrule the district court's ruling in May 2016, stating that the system (though "flawed and imperfect") met constitutional requirements.  Notably, for the first time, the Court's opinion would state multiple times that the determination of a school finance system was the province of the Legislature, not the Court, and that going forward it would defer to the legislative choices unless any were "arbitrary and unreasonable".

Since May 2016 no significant challenges to the structure have been brought.  The Legislature, meanwhile, has continued to compress the maximum M&O rate, but changed the determination from a state-wide cap to a district-specific calculation.

See also
 Serrano v. Priest (California)
 Abbott v. Burke (New Jersey)
Redistributive change

References

Resources
Robin Hood Plan is Working World Internet News
"EDGEWOOD ISD V. KIRBY". The Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved 27 October 2008.
 Schools and Taxes: A Summary of Legislation of the 2006 Special Session
 An Introduction to School Finance in Texas (Fifth Edition, Revised March 2022), TTARA Research Foundation (TTARA).

Education in Texas
Education finance in the United States
Economic inequality in the United States
Taxation and redistribution

Robin Hood plan


Ottokar is the medieval German form of the Germanic name Audovacar.

People with the name Ottokar include:
Two kings of Bohemia, members of the Přemyslid dynasty
 Ottokar I of Bohemia (–1230)
 Ottokar II of Bohemia (–1278)
Four Styrian margraves, members of the Otakar dynasty
 Ottokar I of Styria (died 1075)
 Ottokar II of Styria (died 1122)
 Ottokar III of Styria (died 1164)
 Ottokar IV, Duke of Styria (1163–1192)
 Ottokar Chiari (1853–1918), Austrian laryngologist
 Ottokar Czernin (1872–1932), Austro-Hungarian diplomat
 Ottokar Domma (1924–2007), German journalist and writer
 Ottokar Fischer (1873–1940), Austrian magician
 Ottokar Lorenz (1832–1904), Austrian-German historian and genealogist
 Ottokar Nováček (1866–1900), Austro-Hungarian violinist
 Ottokár Prohászka (1858–1927), Hungarian Roman Catholic theologian and bishop
 Ottokar Runze (born 1925), German film producer
 Ottokar Tumlirz (1856–1928), Austrian physicist
 Ottokar Weise (), German Olympic sailor

Fictional characters
 King Ottokar IV of Syldavia, from the Tintin comic book King Ottokar's Sceptre
 The prince in Carl Maria von Weber's opera Der Freischütz

See also
 Otakar

German given names
Czech masculine given names
Masculine given names

Ottokar


James E. Rohr (born October 18, 1948) is former Chairman of PNC Financial Services Group (commonly known as PNC Bank) and former CEO. Rohr served as CEO from May 2000  to April 2013 and as Chairman from May 2001 to April 2014, both times taking over for Tom O'Brien. He was the chairman of the Carnegie Mellon University Board of Trustees until the start of the 2021 Academic year.

Early life
Rohr was the grandson of an Alsatian (then Germany) immigrant to America, a cook in a hotel, who married the hotel's Irish laundress and opened his own restaurant in Cleveland, Ohio. Rohr's father, also a Cleveland restaurateur died when Rohr was still in grade school. Rohr graduated from Cleveland's Saint Ignatius High School and from the University of Notre Dame in 1970 with a B.A. Two years later, in 1972, Rohr earned an MBA degree from Ohio State University. Rohr's wife, Sharon, is from Chagrin Falls.

Professional life

Prior to becoming Chairman & CEO of PNC, Rohr had spent his entire 28-year professional life at PNC-affiliated or predecessor companies.
As CEO, Rohr managed a major accounting scandal that plagued PNC soon after he assumed leadership of the banking firm. By shifting $762 million in underperforming assets and loans to accounts that were kept off the corporation's balance sheet, PNC was forced to restate its 2001 earnings.

The first few years in an executive role at PNC were turbulent for Rohr. PNC's stock price lost roughly half of its overall value throughout 2001 and at shareholders' meetings during that time, shareholders began to demand that Rohr resign from his position.

In the wake of that scandal, Rohr led an overhaul of PNC's risk management systems that would ultimately help position PNC well for the 2008 financial crisis to come, and his reforms helped boost the performance of PNC's stock. By 2003, PNC was in acquisition mode, picking up United National Bancorp, expanding its presence in Eastern Pennsylvania and Central New Jersey. In the first half of 2004, PNC's net income rose 41 percent compared to the same part of 2003. At the end of 2004, PNC's assets were nearly $80 billion. A year later, in 2005, PNC earned $1.3 billion (or $4.65 per share), the highest annual earnings figure in the corporation's history.

Also in 2005, Rohr engineered PNC's acquisition of Riggs National Corp., parent company of Riggs National Bank. The company's assets increased to nearly $92 billion with the addition of Riggs. The acquisition was the beginning of a series of purchases that would dramatically increase PNC's size and bring it deep into the U.S. Southeast.

In 2006, PNC and Rohr have received high marks for their decision to sell a 49.8 percent stake of the money manager firm BlackRock to Merrill Lynch in 2006. The deal valued PNC's 70 percent stake at $5.6 billion, compared to the $240 million PNC, under O'Brien had paid for the same stake in 1995.

In 2007, PNC acquired Mercantile Bankshares Corporation, headquartered in Baltimore, adding 240 branches, primarily in Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia. In 2007 it also announced agreements to purchase two other banks. In 2008 PNC gained another 33 branches when it closed the acquisition of Yardville National Bancorp in New Jersey, and immediately after closed on its acquisition of Sterling Financial Corporation, with 67 branches in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware.

Rohr's positive performance as Chairman & CEO  earned him much praise and acclaim, including the 2007 American Banker's Banker of the Year Award.

At the height of the 2008 U.S. financial crisis, Rohr oversaw PNC's acquisition of struggling National City Corporation. The transaction effectively doubled the size of PNC and briefly made PNC one of the five largest U.S. banks. Importantly, it expanded PNC's retail banking footprint to the Mississippi River in the West and to Florida in the South, making it a truly "super-regional" bank. A category in which it would repeatedly be ranked by Fortune magazine as one of the "Most Admired Companies in America."  Two years later, The Banker magazine of London named PNC "Bank of the Year in the U.S." for 2010.

In 2011 PNC agreed to purchase 19  Florida branches of BankAtlantic Bancorp, and by 2012 he had closed on the acquisition of a much bigger franchise, the 426 U.S. branches of the Royal Bank of Canada, collectively known as RBC Bank (USA).

In February 2013, Rohr announced to the PNC board that he wanted to vacate his CEO role after the 2013 annual shareholders meeting and then retire from the company altogether in 2014.

Rohr was named to the General Electric Co. board of directors in September 2013.

In April 2014, Rohr vacated his role as Chairman, retiring after 42 years with PNC, including 13 years as CEO. Upon his retirement, PNC's assets exceeded $320 billion, or four times what they had been at the beginning of Rohr's building phase.

Beyond Rohr's legacy as a builder of the franchise, Rohr was well known for his community leadership in his adopted home, PNC's headquarters city of Pittsburgh, and as the driving force behind the creation of PNC's signature philanthropic effort, PNC Grow Up Great.

Among Rohr's many contributions to the community were his chairmanship of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, which transformed Pittsburgh's former red-light district into a showcase cultural district featuring the already existing home of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Heinz Hall, the opera house known as the Benedum Theater, the smaller Byham theater concert venue, and the O'Reilly theater. Rohr helped connect these to the city's central business district by building Three PNC Plaza to house the bank's growing staff on a formerly blighted block adjacent to PNC's corporate headquarters. Completed in 2010, it featured the city's first Fairmont Hotel and was opposite a park PNC developed on the site.

In 2008, Rohr chaired Pittsburgh's 250th Anniversary celebration, bringing national attention to the city. In 2009, as chairman of the Allegheny Council on Community Development, Rohr helped Pittsburgh lure the international G-20 conference. For his contributions to the city, Pittsburgh Magazine named him "Pittsburgher of the Year" in 2012. And in 2015, with the completion of PNC's new corporate headquarters at Fifth Avenue and Wood Street, the city named a portion of Wood Street, the corner where PNC had been headquartered for more than 160 years, "Jim Rohr Way."

Beyond Pittsburgh, Rohr enhanced the lives of millions of children through PNC Grow Up Great. Long a close associate of Fred Rogers of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood fame, Rohr was intensely aware of the importance of early childhood development. In 2004, he worked with the PNC Foundation to create Grow Up Great, a 10-year, $100 million early childhood learning initiative intended to help prepare  underserved children from birth to age 5 for school and life.

Compensation
While CEO of PNC Financial Services Group in 2008, James E. Rohr earned a total compensation of $8,549,098, which included a base salary of $1,000,000, no cash bonus, stocks granted of $3,185,000, and options granted of $4,132,000.

Criticism

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review newspaper began running "The Jim Rohr Box." The editorial section bearing Rohr's name chided the PNC Chairman for accepting a $48 million public subsidy to help fund the construction of the new Three PNC Plaza.

Personal wealth

Forbes magazine's profile of Rohr shows his annual salary at PNC totaling $950,000 with PNC stock options valued at $11.4 million.

References

1948 births
American bankers
American business writers
American chief executives of financial services companies
Businesspeople from Cleveland
Carnegie Mellon University trustees
Living people
Ohio State University Fisher College of Business alumni
Saint Ignatius High School (Cleveland) alumni
University of Notre Dame alumni
University of Notre Dame Trustees

Jim Rohr


Lyubers (люберы lyubery or любера lyubera) were a youth group in the late 1970s and early 1980s in USSR, starting in Lyubertsy, a suburb of Moscow. It was dedicated to an athletic lifestyle, engaging in activities such as bodybuilding, boxing, athletics, gymnastic exercises and/or other forms of sport.

History
It became active during the period of Glasnost in the late 1980s in the Soviet Union. It was a youth group whose aim was to "cleanse" Soviet society of the influences of various Western subcultures which they viewed as decadent, and often attacked other youth, mainly in major cities such as Moscow. However, they always held to certain principles such as fair fight and to never attack women and couples. The "Lyubers" were against outwardly informal dress groups such as hippies, punks and metalheads but also held strong anti-fascist views and had conflicts with the emerging Neo-nazi groups. The name "Lyubers" ("Люберы") comes the Moscow industrial suburb of Lyubertsy. As the Perestroika program opened up the market economy, some of the Lyubers turned to racketeering and organized crime syndicates, this however was swallowed up by a larger group in the 1990s.

References

Jim Riordan, Soviet Studies, Vol. 40, No. 4 (Oct. 1988)  pp 556–572

Society of the Soviet Union
Russian youth culture
1970s neologisms
Crime in the Soviet Union
1970s in Russia
1980s in Russia

Lyubery


Sandeep Jyoti (born 14 December 1973) is an Indian-born Canadian cricketer.

Jyoti was born in Shimla, India, ando migrated to Canada when he was fourteen years old. Upon arrival in Canada, Sandeep joined the Mississauga Ramblers Cricket Club in Mississauga, Ontario.  Here he learned his cricket and is still currently playing for the club where he coaches as well.  Sandeep made his debut for the Canadian National Cricket side in 2002 when he participated in the Red Stripe Bowl in Jamaica.

In 2006, he played for the national team in the America's cup tournament. Sandeep had a good Americas Cup where he had some great opening partnerships with John Davison. Sandeep also had a couple of not out innings vital to Canadian victories.

Sandeep is an opening batsman and a right-arm off-break bowler. His highest batting score for Canada is 117.

References

External links
 Sandeep Jyoti on Cricinfo
 Sandeep Jyoti on Real Champions

1973 births
Living people
Canadian cricketers
Canada One Day International cricketers
Canada Twenty20 International cricketers
Indian cricketers
Indian emigrants to Canada
Indian cricket coaches
Canadian Hindus
People from Shimla
Canadian people of Indian descent
Cricketers from Himachal Pradesh

Sandeep Jyoti


The Jaldhaka River (Pron:/ˌdʒælˈdɑːkə/) (), also known as Dichu, a tributary of Brahmaputra is a trans-boundary river flowing through India, Bhutan and Bangladesh with a length of 233 kilometres. It originates from the Bitang Lake (or Kupup Lake) at Kupup, Gangtok District, Sikkim, near the Jelep La pass below Dongkya Mountain Range. It flows through Pakyong District of Sikkim, India and then passes through forests of  Samtse District of Bhutan where it flows for around 40 Kilometres and than re-enters India at Bindu, Kalimpong district. Further it passes through Neora Valley National Park,  Chapramari Wildlife Sanctuary & Gorumara National Park in West Bengal along with cities and towns like,Paren, Gairibas, Jhalong, Dhupguri, Falakata, Mathabhanga and flows through Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar districts in West Bengal, India before the river enters Bangladesh at Mogolhat, Lalmonirhat District of Rangpur Division. It is known as Dharla River in Bangladesh and flows through towns like Kolaghat, Phulbari and Kurigram City and Passes southwards until the Dharla debouches into the Brahmaputra River at Bagua Anantpur of Kurigram District. Due to the river's wandering over several international borders, only a small length of the river lies in Bangladesh and Bhutan and most of its path lies in India. In some places, this river is also known as Mansai river and Singhimari river.

Geography
Jaldhak or Dichu originates from the Kupup Lake, a small glacial lake in Sikkim. It gains volume through the confluence of two other streams near Bindu, viz., Bindu Khola and Dudh Pokhri. The combined stream meet at Bindu to increase the volume of Jaldhaka River, thus forming a riverine boundary with India and Bhutan in the left bank. The main tributaries that join the river on its right bank are the Murti, the Jholung khola, the Naksal Khola, the Sutunga and the Jarda in the lower reach. The Diana, Rehti-Duduya and Mujnai are the main left bank tributaries.

The river flows through the three North Bengal districts of Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Bihar. The entire watershed is the most fertile agricultural zone along with the Teesta Basin. The upper course is famous for crops like ginger, medicinal herbs and fruits like oranges and pomegranate. The middle course comprising Jalpaiguri district is entirely tea and corn dominated and the lower course is dominated by rice, jute and tobacco. The inter-river formed lands are cultivated with crops like bamboo and mat sticks. In the lower basin, the inter-river lands are cultivated with banana.

The river enters Bangladesh at Ghoksadanga district to meet the Brahmaputra or the Jamuna as it is known there.

Floods
River Jaldhaka, along with River Teesta have created major flooding multiple times in Bangladesh during monsoon season between June and September.

See also
River Teesta

References

External links
 Jaldhaka River mapped on OpenStreetMap

Rivers of Bangladesh
Rivers of Sikkim
Rivers of West Bengal
International rivers of Asia
Rivers of Rangpur Division
Rivers of Kalimpong district
Tributaries of the Brahmaputra River

Jaldhaka River


Joe Medwick (June 21, 1931 – April 12, 1992), probably born Medwick N. Veasey though some sources suggest Joe Medwick Masters or Joe Medwick Veasey, was an American rhythm and blues singer and songwriter.  He is officially credited with writing relatively few songs, including "Further On Up The Road", but is widely believed to have written many others, including "I Pity the Fool" and "Turn On Your Love Light".  He sold all rights over many of his songs cheaply to record label owner Don Robey.  Medwick also recorded under various names including Joe Veasey, Joe Masters and Joe Melvin.

Biography
An African-American, he was born in Houston, Texas, where he attended Yates High School.  It is suggested that he (or his parents) adopted the name "Joe" in tribute to the baseball player Joe "Ducky" Medwick, who played for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1932 onwards.  When in his teens, he sang with a gospel group, the Chosen Gospel Singers, before turning to secular music. After serving in Korea with the US Army, he returned to the Third Ward in Houston, where he performed in a blues club, Shady's Playhouse, often with pianist Teddy Reynolds (who later accompanied Bobby Bland), and increasingly spent his time writing lyrics and composing tunes for other blues musicians to sing.

According to the Texas State Historical Association:"Medwick was often able to sell the resulting material almost immediately to local music producers. In doing so, he rarely asked for formal contracts to establish proper songwriting credit for himself, instead choosing to peddle the songs outright —thereby surrendering any rights to potential royalty payments — for ready cash. Thus, among his musician peers and industry insiders (if not always supported by publishing documentation), Medwick is commonly known to have written or co-written many songs which became hits for other artists with the writing credits typically attributed exclusively to the person who had purchased (and thereafter registered the copyrights on) the compositions."

He sold many of his songs to Don Robey, the owner of the Duke and Peacock labels whose major stars were Bobby Bland and Junior Parker.  In a few cases, including "Further On Up The Road", Medwick was given a co-writing credit, though it is thought that Medwick in fact wrote the song with Johnny Copeland rather than with Robey.  Copeland said: "Joe tied the record up with Mr. Robey, just as he did with every song. Joe sold Mr. Robey maybe five hundred songs, ten, fifteen dollars apiece..." In many other cases, including "I Pity the Fool", "Turn On Your Love Light", "Call On Me", "I Don't Want No Woman", "Driving Wheel", and "Cry, Cry, Cry", it is believed that Medwick wrote the songs but the credit was taken by Robey, often using his songwriting pseudonym Deadric Malone.   In a 1990 interview, Medwick acknowledged his poor judgement in trading his songs for cash, while absolving Robey of any blame. He also sold his songs to other record producers in Houston, including Huey Meaux.

During the late 1950s, Medwick also recorded his own songs occasionally for Robey, and during the 1960s recorded for small local labels operated by Meaux such as Paradise, Boogaloo, and Pacemaker, using various names.  It is thought that his best songs were held back from him, so that bigger stars like Bobby Bland - with whom he later fell out - could record them instead.  In 1978, Huey Meaux issued a compilation LP of many of Medwick's demo recordings, Why Do Heartaches Pick On Me.   After a period of obscurity, Medwick re-emerged in the 1980s as a singer with saxophonist Grady Gaines' band of Houston blues veterans, the Texas Upsetters.  They released two CDs, Full Gain (1988) and Horn Of Plenty (1992).

Medwick died at his home in Houston in 1992 and was buried in Houston National Cemetery.

References

1931 births
1992 deaths
American blues singers
American soul musicians
Singers from Houston
African-American male singer-songwriters
American blues singer-songwriters
Singer-songwriters from Texas
20th-century African-American male singers
Burials at Houston National Cemetery

Joe Medwick (blues musician)


Portrush Hockey Club is a hockey club affiliated to the Ulster Branch of the Irish Hockey Association based in Portrush, County Antrim. The club currently plays in the Intermediate League of Ulster Hockey.

Formation
The club was founded on 29 September 1909 at a meeting held in the Osborne Hotel, Portrush. The club initially joined and played in the North West Hockey League.

Grounds
The first home ground from 1911 to 1935 was at Metropole, moving to Randal Park from 1935 to 1948. After 1948 the club found a permanent home at Seaview Park.

The advent of artificial turf pitches has necessitated playing home fixtures away from Portrush. Currently the club uses Ballycastle artificial turf pitches and UUC pitches for the occasional game

1920s and 1930s
After World War I Portrush achieved success in 1922 by winning the Braddell Shield. A win in the Intermediate Cup was gained the following year.

The North-West Senior Cup was won in 1924, 1927 and 1928.

Portrush won their first Major trophy when the Irish Junior Cup was secured in 1932. This team featured Fred Daly, who went on to become the Open Golf champion in 1947.

At this time, Portrush moved to play in the Senior Qualifying League of the Ulster Senior League. At the end of the 1930s they won the Ulster Section of the Irish Senior Cup.

1940s to 1970s
Portrush won the Irish Junior Cup for the second time in 1943, a feat that was repeated in 1946.

Senior status was granted in 1947, and was marked by the club winning the Kirk Cup and the Ulster Section of the Irish Senior Cup.

The Anderson Cup was won for the first time in the 1949–50 season.

In the 1957–58 Portrush tied a Test match against Banbridge and both were declared joint winners of the Keightley Cup for the Ulster Senior League champions.

In 1963–64, Portrush beat Lisnagarvey in the Ulster Final of the Irish Senior Cup, but went on to lose to Cork Church of Ireland in the all-Ireland semi-final.

The following year, 1964–65, was the club's most successful year. Portrush won the Anderson Cup for the third time and they also beat Banbridge in the Kirk Cup Final. In addition, the Final of the Irish Senior Cup was reached for the only time in Club history. After a 1–1 draw in Belfast, Portrush lost after extra time to Dublin YMCA in the replay.

The Kirk Cup success in 1969–70 was the last time that Portrush would win a Senior trophy.

1970s to present day
The closure of Busmills Grammar School in 1975, meant that Portrush no longer had a feeder school. A long decline eventually led to the loss of Senior status in 1988.

Senior status was obtained again for three years from 1993 to 1994 until 1995–96 and for two years in 1999-00 and 2000–01.

In 2007 the club moved their Home matches to The Quay Road, Ballycastle. As a result Ballycastle High School now became an excellent feeder school for the club and the club now has 7 players who are still attending Ballycastle High School.

Portrush won their first trophy since the Linden Cup victory in 1999. Portrush claimed a 3–2 victory over Ballynahinch on 1 January 2014 to claim the Sussex Regiment Cup. Senior Status was again obtained after a 13-year wait in 2014 after losing only one league game all season. Portrush will now play Senior League 1 hockey in the 2014/15 season.

Honours
 Irish Junior Cup
 1931–32, 1942–43, 1945–46.
 Ulster Senior League
Shared 1957–58.
 Kirk Cup
 1948–49, 1964–65, 1969–70.
 Anderson Cup
 1949–50, 1962–63, 1964–65.

Sussex Regiment Cup
2014

Senior Two (Cliftonville Cup)
2014

Irish Hockey Challenge Cup
2020

Irish Internationals
 James McVicker was capped for Ireland against Wales in 1914.
 Don Minihan
 Ronnie McManus
 Jimmy Shanks

Recent Junior Ulster representatives
Aaron Kerr
Graeme Christie

References

External links
Portrush Hockey Club website
Ulster Branch of Irish Hockey Association

1909 establishments in Ireland
Field hockey clubs established in 1909
Field hockey clubs in Northern Ireland
Sports clubs and teams in County Antrim
Hockey Club

Portrush Hockey Club


Hadmar III of Kuenring (born c. 1180 and died 1231) was a medieval Austrian ministerialis from the house of Kuenring and son of the famous Hadmar II of Kuenring, who imprisoned King Richard the Lionheart at Dürnstein castle. He was famously called the 'Hound of Kuenring', alongside his brother, Henry I of Kuenring, for their martial prowess.

He, along with his brother, Henry I, took part in the Fifth Crusade with Leopold VI, Duke of Austria.

The Altenburg Abbey Dispute
After Duke Leopold the Glorious died on 28 July 1230, disputes with his heir, Frederick II, Duke of Austria, infamously called the Warlike or Quarrelsome, rose up almost immediately. When Liutold and Conrad of Altenburg sent an appeal to Duke Frederick on 30 November 1230 for the demarcation of the abbey, the Kuenring brothers and their allies, the Sonnbergs under Hadmar I of Sonnberg, responded with vehement protest, declaring that such a thing would impoverish their houses. Frederick, in an act of apathy, waved it off and demanded they accept the new changes. This led to war in the early months of 1231, and it ended with the destruction of Sonnberg castle in April 1231. This dispute led to a complete enmity with Duke Frederick, and the forced acceptance of the Altenburg appeal. It became one of the basis for further rebellions in Austria.

Issue
Albero V of Kuenring, married in 1240 Gertrude of Wildon
Henry II of Kuenring, married a Kunigunde
Gisela, died before 1270, married Schetscho of Budevice

1180s births
1231 deaths

Hadmar III of Kuenring


Sanjana Kapoor (born 27 November 1967) is an Indian theatre personality and former film actress. She is the daughter of actors Shashi Kapoor and Jennifer Kapoor. She ran the Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai from 1993 to February 2012.

Biography

Sanjna Kapoor was born in the Kapoor family. Her paternal grandfather was Prithviraj Kapoor and her paternal uncles were Raj Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor. Her brothers Kunal Kapoor and Karan Kapoor have also acted in some films. Her maternal grandparents, Geoffrey Kendal and Laura Kendal, were actors who toured India and Asia with their theatre group, Shakespeareana, performing Shakespeare and Shaw. The Merchant Ivory film, Shakespeare Wallah, was loosely based on the family, which starred her father and her aunt, actress Felicity Kendal. Sanjana attended the Bombay International School in Mumbai.

She made her acting debut in the 1981 film 36 Chowringhee Lane which was produced by her father and starred her mother Jennifer Kendal in the lead. She played the younger version of the character her mother played. She later appeared in Utsav (1984), also produced by her father, and played her first leading role in a Bollywood film titled Hero Hiralal (1989), which was successful at the box office.

She then appeared in Mira Nair's critically acclaimed film Salaam Bombay in 1988 but has since quit acting in films, shifting her focus to theatre in the 1990s. In 1991, she played the role of the Japanese wife in the theatre Production of Akira Kurosawa's immortalised film Rashomon based on the Broadway play by Fay and Michael Kanin. She has also acted in A.K. Bir's Aranyaka (1994).

She hosted the Amul India Show on television for three and a half years.

She managed the Prithvi Theatre in Juhu, Mumbai and ran theatre workshops for children till 2011.

In 2011, she announced her decision to leave Prithvi Theatre, and launched Junoon Theatre in 2012, an arts based organization which would work with traveling groups; staging plays at smaller venues across India.

Sanjna Kapoor was awarded the French honour of Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres' (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters)  for her outstanding contribution to theatre in 2020.

Personal life
Sanjana Kapoor has been married twice. Her first husband was actor and director Aditya Bhattacharya (famous for Mandi and Raakh), son of filmmaker Basu Bhattacharya and Rinki Bhattacharya (daughter of noted filmmaker Bimal Roy).

Kapoor then married the tiger conservationist, Valmik Thapar, son of the journalist Romesh Thapar. Valmik is a nephew of JNU historian Romila Thapar (sister of Romesh Thapar). Sanjana and Valmik have a son together, Hamir Thapar.

Filmography

References

External links

 Carrying On With Family Tradition, An Interview
 The Moving Stage

1967 births
Living people
Indian film actresses
Actresses from Mumbai
Indian theatre managers and producers
Actresses in Hindi cinema
Actresses of European descent in Indian films
Indian people of English descent
Sanjana
Indian women theatre directors
Businesspeople from Mumbai
20th-century Indian businesswomen
20th-century Indian businesspeople
21st-century Indian businesswomen
21st-century Indian businesspeople

Sanjana Kapoor


Harriet Fasenfest (born 1953) is an American writer, urban gardener, and food preservation educator in Portland, Oregon. A former owner/operator of several restaurants and cafes, she uses the term "householding" when referring to the practice of home food growing, canning and storage. She published her first book, A Householder's Guide to the Universe, in 2010.

Biography
Fasenfest was born and raised in Bronx, New York. She moved to the Northwest in 1978 where she owned and operated the Bertie Lou's and Harriet's Eat Now cafes. In 1990 she went back to traveling the country, married, moved back to California, and then moved to Georgia in 1992. While there, she began working with Habitat for Humanity International. In 1997 Fasenfest returned to Portland to work as director of the Performance Salon Series at North Portland's North Star Ballroom, an events arena which combined art and performance with social activism, and in 2000 opened her last cafe, Groundswell.

In 2004 she transformed her backyard in Northern Portland into a producing garden. She grows produce with an eye to home canning and storing, and teaches classes in food preservation and backyard gardening. She is the co-owner of Preserve, an educational center for home gardening and food preservation, and creator of the www.portlandpreserve.com website, on which she writes a blog called The Householder's Grab Bag. She also blogs for Culinate.com.

Fasenfest regards home food preservation as a political and economic statement. She uses the term "householding" rather than "homemaking" or "home economics" to describe her work. She published her views on home gardening and food preservation in A Householder's Guide to the Universe: A Calendar of Basics for the Home and Beyond. The book is organized by month and season.

She lives in Portland, Oregon

Bibliography

Book reviews

References

External links
www.householdinguniverse.com/
Householder's Grab Bag
Posts by Harriet Fasenfest on Culinate
"Preserving Food and Friendship" (video)

American food writers
People from the Bronx
Writers from Portland, Oregon
Food preservation
1953 births
Living people

Harriet Fasenfest


St. Benedictusberg Abbey, also Mamelis Abbey, is a Benedictine monastery established in 1922 in Mamelis, a hamlet which administratively falls within Vaals, Netherlands. It is a rijksmonument.

Since 1951 St. Benedictusberg has belonged to the Solesmes Congregation, which is part of the Benedictine monastic confederation.

History
As part of Bismarck's power struggle (Kulturkampf) with the Roman Catholic Church in Germany, monastic orders had been forbidden to accept novices. The 1872 Jesuits Law had banned the more assertively independent Catholic orders, and the Benedictines had in effect found themselves exiled. A change of pope in 1878 toned down Rome's confrontational approach, but the restrictions in Germany were relaxed only slowly, and during the 1870s large numbers of religious Catholic refugees from Germany had settled in the Netherlands and in Belgium.

A number of originally German monks remained at Affligem Abbey in central Belgium, as part of this German monastic diaspora, and in 1893 a group of them set off to found a monastery of their own, the Abbey of St. Clement in Merkelbeek, Dutch Limburg, close to the frontier with Germany. St. Clement's was the first Benedictine foundation to be authorised in the Netherlands following the Protestant Reformation, three centuries earlier. Subsequently these German monks founded (or re-founded) Kornelimünster Abbey (near Aachen) in 1906 and an abbey at Siegburg in 1914. These monasteries, like Merkelbeek itself, were at this time part of the German "pro-province" of the Subiaco Cassinese Congregation.

The outbreak of war in 1914 created difficulties for Merkelbeek, with many of the monks forced to leave: not all would return. When the war ended, in late 1918, the monks decided to relocate to a site closer to the frontier with Germany, choosing to build on farmland half a kilometer outside the hamlet of Mamelis, in the southern part of Limburg. Work on construction of St. Benedictusberg Abbey began in 1922, with the first side of an imposing four sided edifice surrounding a central precinct, designed by the distinguished church architect Dominikus Böhm, working with a young Martin Weber. Construction was interrupted almost before it had started, in 1923, by the backwash from the economic crisis.

In 1927 Dom Romuald Walters affiliated the new Abbey to the Beuronese Congregation, which was then in a particularly dynamic phase, notable both for theological research and in respect of involvement with the modernisation of Gregorian liturgy. The Beuronese were also a relatively prosperous fulcrum of monastic revival.

The return of war in 1939 and the German invasion in 1940 brought massive new challenges, because the German monks were called up for military service. Those who refused were faced with sustaining their neutrality in an occupied country. Liberation in September 1944 brought no respite for the German monks in Limburg who were initially interned and then expelled to what remained of Germany.

The monastery buildings were occupied by the American Army, later being used to house "political delinquents" and returning Dutch refugees from Indonesia. Just one monk, having Dutch citizenship, was permitted to remain within the walls of the monastery, and he prevented the total pillage and destruction of the monastic records, but most of these nevertheless disappeared.

In 1947 the diocese began negotiations with the Benedictine congregation over revival of monasticism at Mamelis, and it was agreed that the foundation should be placed within the Benedictine Solesmes Congregation. That happened in 1951, with the arrival in November of thirteen monks from Oosterhout.

Finally a monastery church was built, and consecrated in 1962. It received abbey status in 1964.

Today
Offices are sung in Latin, with prominence given to Gregorian chant.

From 1964 tot 1996, Dom Nicolaas de Wolf (1931-2015) was abbot. He was succeeded by Dom Adrianus (Ad) Lenglet. At the moment (June 2020) about 17 monks are living in the abbey. In addition, the abbey has about 60 oblates.

References

Further reading
 Lambertus Moonen osb, 'Abdij St.-Benedictusberg', in: Historische en Heemkundige Studies in en rond het Geuldal, Jaargang 14 (2004), pp. 251–345.
 Lambertus Moonen osb, 'Ora et Labora De monniken van de abdij St. Benedictusberg, 1951–2005', in: Historische en Heemkundige Studies in en rond het Geuldal, Jaargang 15 (2005), pp. 137–304.
 Renout Robbertz, 'St. Benedictusberg: Architectuur voor feilbare wezens', in: Desipienta: Zin en Waan, Jaargang 13, nr. 2 (September 2006), pp. 40–43.

Benedictine monasteries in the Netherlands
Christian monasteries in Limburg (Netherlands)
Rijksmonuments in Limburg
Vaals
Christian organizations established in 1922

St. Benedictusberg Abbey


Daniel Thürer (born 6 June 1945 in St. Gallen) is a Swiss jurist and professor emeritus of international, comparative constitutional, and European law at the University of Zurich. He is a member of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and of the Institut de Droit International, and presides the German International Law Association. Currently, he is a Fernand Braudel Senior Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence.

Career
Thürer graduated from the Law Faculty of the University of Zurich in 1970. Subsequently, he obtained an LL.M. at the University of Cambridge, and completed his PhD thesis on self-determination in 1974. After conducting post-doctoral research at the University of Zurich (with Prof. Dietrich Schindler jun.), as a fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, and the Harvard Law School, he was the Legal Adviser to the Government of the Canton of Aargau. In 1985, he was appointed to the Chair of International, European and Constitutional Law at the University of Zurich, which he held until 2010, and whose previous occupants include Max Huber and Dietrich Schindler sen. and jun. He was also director of the university's Institute of Public International Law.
Professor Thürer has been teaching regularly at other universities as well. He was a Visiting Research Professor at the Stanford Law School, a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Hong Kong, a member of the Advisory Board of the Concord Center, School of Law in Jerusalem, a Visiting Research Professor at the Harvard Law School, a Consultant and Honorary Professor at the Gujarat National Law University, a Visiting Professor at the University of Cambridge (Herbert Smith Visiting Programme), a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Higher International Studies, Panthéon-Assas University and at the Institut des droits de l'homme in Strasbourg.
In addition to his teaching activities, Professor Thürer has been an expert for and member of numerous international institutions. In 1991, he was elected to the Assembly, the supreme governing body of the International Committee of the Red Cross. In this capacity, he participated in missions to Zimbabwe, Zambia, Russia, Belarus, Poland, East Timor, India, Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines and New Zealand. As CSCE/Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe expert (human rights dimension), he visited the Baltic States, Czechia and Slovakia, Moldavia and Ukraine. Since 2004, he has been a Member of the Council of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI)). He was a member of the Constitutional Court of Liechtenstein from 1989 to 2000.
From 1993 to 1998, Professor Thürer was a member of the expert commission on the revision of the Swiss Federal Constitution. From 2000 to 2001, he was also a member of the so-called Bergier Commission, which re-considered Swiss policies during the Second World War.

Scholarship
Daniel Thürer is noted for an original humanist approach to international law that eschews simplistic realism as well as the positivism still prevalent in international legal scholarship. His multi-layered approach is best illustrated by the 2008 lecture on International Humanitarian Law at the Hague Academy, where this highly technical body of law is, through an inter-disciplinary methodology incorporating religion, history and moral philosophy, re-interpreted to honour its original purpose of reducing human suffering and protecting civilians.

While he maintains a strong idealist belief in the transformative power of international law, his scholarship also advocates a bottom-up approach relying on successful local or regional institutions and traditions. More recently, he has focussed on applying the traditional concept of the res publica to modern constitutional law.

Works (selection)
 Das Selbstbestimmungsrecht der Völker – Mit einem Exkurs zur Jurafrage (PhD Thesis, 1974)
 Perspektive Schweiz. Schulthess, Zürich 1998
 Bund und Gemeinden – Eine rechtsvergleichende Untersuchung (Beiträge des Max-Planck-Instituts zum ausländischen öffentlichen Recht und Völkerrecht, Band 90), Berlin 1986
 Verfassungsrecht der Schweiz – Droit constitutionnel suisse. Schulthess, Zürich 2001 (herausgegeben mit Jean-François Aubert und Jörg Paul Müller)
 Kosmopolitisches Staatsrecht. Schulthess, Zürich 2005 (Grundidee Gerechtigkeit, Band 1)
 Völkerrecht als Fortschritt und Chance. Dike/Nomos, Zürich/Baden-Baden 2009 (Grundidee Gerechtigkeit, Band 2)
 Thomas Buergenthal and Daniel Thürer: Menschenrechte. Ideale, Instrumente, Institutionen. Dike, Zürich / St. Gallen, und Nomos, Baden-Baden 2010. 453 p.
 International Humanitarian Law: Theory and Practice (The Pocket Books of the Hague Academy of International Law), Martinus Nijhoff, Leiden, forthcoming 2010, .

References

External links
 Institute for Public International and Foreign Constitutional Law, University of Zurich: http://www.ivr.uzh.ch/institutsmitglieder/thuerer.html
 ICRC: http://www.icrc.org/Web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/icrc-members-biography-250108
 ECRI: http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/ecri/about/Members/THUERER_CV.asp#TopOfPage
 Institut de Droit International: https://web.archive.org/web/20130704193742/http://www.idi-iil.org/idiE/navig_members.html#titulaires
 Deutsche Gesellschaft für Völkerrecht: http://www.dgvr.de/organe.htm
 Fernand Braudel Fellowship at the EUI: http://www.eui.eu/DepartmentsAndCentres/Law/People/Fellows/FernandBraudelFellows.aspx

Swiss jurists
Members of the Institut de Droit International
Red Cross personnel
University of Zurich alumni
Academic staff of the University of Zurich
Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law people
1945 births
Living people
Alumni of the University of Cambridge
Fernand Braudel Fellows
People from St. Gallen (city)

Daniel Thürer