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Magdeburg

Magdeburg

Magdeburg, the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, lies on the Elbe river.

History

Magdeburg was one of the most important medieval cities of Germany. Emperor Otto I lived during most of his reign in the town and was buried in the cathedral after his death. Important dates in the town's history include:
- 805 First recorded mention in the Diedenhof Capitulary as Magadoburg. Although settlement on the site had existed for centuries, the first mention of Magdeburg occurred during the reign of the emperor Charlemagne, when he secured the small fishing and trading town.
- 919 King Henry I the Fowler fortified Magdeburg against the Magyars and Slavs.
- 929 Henry I arranged with king Edward the Elder for Edward's daughter Edith (Editha, Eadgyth) to marry Otto I, son of Henry. At Otto and Edith's wedding she received Magdeburg as a Morgengabe - a Germanic customary gift received by the new bride from the groom and his family after the wedding night. Editha had a particular love for the town and often lived there. The emperor also continually returned to it.
- 937 A royal assembly took place in Magdeburg. At the same time, the Benedictine abbey of Saint Maurice, later the cathedral, was founded.
- 946 Queen Edith died and was buried in the abbey church crypt.
- 968 At the Synod of Ravenna, the Archbishopric of Magdeburg was founded and Adalbert received consecration as its first archbishop. It included the bishoprics of Havelberg, Brandenburg, Merseburg, Meissen, and Zeitz-Naumburg. The archbishops played a preeminent role in the task of German colonizaziont of the Slavic lands east of the Elbe river.
- 973 Emperor Otto I died and was buried in the cathedral of Magdeburg.
- 1035 Magdeburg received a patent giving the city the right to hold trade exhibits and conventions, the basis of the later family of city laws known as Magdeburg rights. Many visitors from many countries began to trade in Magdeburg.
- 1118 The city is almost destroyed by a burning. 1118
- 13th century Magdeburg became a member of the Hanseatic League. At the time of the Hanseatic League it was with Brussels, Antwerp, Cologne, Nuremberg, Lübeck, Padova, Mantova, Cremona, Verona, Piacenza, Milano, Genova, Firenze, Metz and Strasbourg one of the cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants in the Roman Empire. The town had an active maritime commerce on the west (towards Flanders), with the countries of the Baltic Sea, and maintained traffic and communication with the interior (for example Brunswick). The city had an autonomous administration form, known as Magdeburger Recht (Magdeburg Right), that later was adopted by many cities of Eastern Europe. The people was constantly in struggle against the archbishop, becoming nearly indipendent from him by the end of the 15th century.
- 1524 Martin Luther was called to Magdeburg, where he preached and caused the city's defection from Catholicism. The Reformation had found speedy adherents in in the city, where Luther had been a schoolboy. The archbishops (apart a single exception) themselves embraced the new confession. In the following years Magdeburg therefore gained a reputation as a stronghold of Protestantism and it became the first major city to publish the writings of Martin Luther. The emperor Charles V outlawed repeatedly the unruly town, which had in 1526 joined the Alliance of Torgau, and in 1531 the Smalkaldic League.
- 1550-1551 Because it had not accept the "Interim" (1548), the city was, by the emperor's commands, besieged (1550-1551) by the Margrave Maurice of Saxony; it defended itself bravely and retained its religious liberty when peace was declared. Here Flacius Illyricus and his companions wrote their bitterest pamphlets and the great work on church history, The Magdeburg Centuries, in which they tried to prove that the Catholic Church had become the kingdom of Anti-Christ.
- 1631 During the Thirty Years' War imperial troops stormed the city and committed a massacre, killing about 20,000 inhabitants and burning the town in the sack of Magdeburg. The city had withstood a first siege in 1629 by Albrecht von Wallenstein. After the war only a population of 400 remained in the totally destroyed town.
- 1648 The archbishopric is secularized as a duchy.
- 1654 Otto von Guericke made the Magdeburg hemispheres, two hollow shells with rings for attaching ropes, puts them together with grease, and evacuates the air with a pump that he had invented some years before. Sixteen horses failed to pull the hemispheres apart.
- 1680 Brandenburg annexed Magdeburg, which thus lost its status as an Imperial Free City.
- 1806 The fortress surrendered to the French troops, in the course of the Napoleonic Wars. The city is annexed to the French-controlled Kingdom of Westphalia.
- 1815 After the Napoleonic Wars Prussia set up the province of the Prussian Province of Saxony, with Magdeburg as its capital.
- 1912 The fortress is dismantled.
- Before the Second World War Magedburg was the seat of the German section of the Watchtower Society.
- 1945 During World War II Magdeburg (then a city of 350,000 inhabitants) suffered near total destruction from Allied firebombing. The very impressive Gründerzeit suburbs north of the city, called the Nordfront, were destroyed. It was the second most devastated city in Germany; only Dresden suffered more. American and Soviet troops occupied the city; however, the Americans soon left, leaving the city under Soviet stewardship.
- 1945-1990 In the postwar years, most of the remaining city buildings were destroyed, with only a few buildings near the Cathedral restored to their pre-war state. Prior to Reunification, many surviving Gründerzeit buildings were left uninhabited and, after years of degradation, are waiting for demolition. From 1949 on until German reunification on 3 october 1990 Magdeburg belonged to the German Democratic Republic.
- 1990 Magdeburg became the capital of the new state of Saxony-Anhalt within reunified Germany. The city center has been rebuilt almost exclusively in a modern style.
- 1994 Magdeburg became the seat of a Roman Catholic diocese.

Cathedral of Magdeburg

Cathedral of Magdeburg]] Magdeburg's most impressive building, the cathedral of Saints Catherine and Maurice, has a height of 104 m.: the highest church building of eastern Germany. The predecessor of the cathedral was a church built in 937 within an abbey, called St. Maurice. Emperor Otto I the Great was buried here beside his wife in 973. St. Maurice burnt to ashes in 1207. The exact location of that church remained unknown for a long time. The foundations were rediscovered in May 2003, revealing a building 80 m long and 41 m wide. The construction of the new church lasted 300 years. The cathedral of Saints Catherine and Maurice was the first Gothic church building of Germany. The completion of the steeples took place only in 1520. While the cathedral was virtually the only building to survive the massacres of the Thirty Years' War, it nevertheless suffered destruction in World War II. But it was soon rebuilt and completed in 1955. The place in front of the cathedral (sometimes called "new marketplace", Neuer Markt) was occupied by an imperial palace (Kaiserpfalz), which was destroyed in the fire of 1207. The stones of the ruin served for building the cathedral. The presumptive remains of the palace were excavated in the 1960s.

Other sights

1960s
- Monastery "Unser Lieben Frauen" (literally "Our Beloved Ladies"), 11th century, containing the church of St. Mary.
- Town hall (1698); a town hall has stood on the marketplace since the 13th century, but it was destroyed in the Thirty Years' War; the new town hall was built in a Renaissance style influenced by Dutch architecture.
- Landtag; the seat of the government of Saxony-Anhalt is a Baroque palace built in 1724.
- Monuments: the city has monuments depicting emperor Otto I (old marketplace, 1240) and Otto von Guericke (1907).
- Ruins of the greatest stronghold of the former kingdom of Prussia
- Rotehorn-Park
- [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbauenpark Elbauenpark] containing the highest wooden tower in the world
- Hundertwasser-Building, built in 2005
- Johannischurch
- Magdeburg Water Bridge Europe's longest water bridge

Trivia

SC Magdeburg is an important handball club. Georg Philipp Telemann, Otto von Guericke and SPD politician Erich Ollenhauer were from Magdeburg. Also FDP politician Burkhard Hirsch is from Magdeburg. In the Magdeburg Diet the FDP has the highest share of the seats of any state. The German twin town of Magdeburg is Braunschweig.

See also


- Magdeburg rights

External links


- [http://www.magdeburg.de/english/index.html Official Magdeburg homepage (English)]
- [http://www.webuni.de/ Official Student Community WebUni]
- [http://www.unikus.de/ IKUS - the intercultural Students of Magdeburg (English/German)]
- [http://archive.spaceimaging.com/ikonos/2/kpms/2005/04//browse.7927.crss_sat.0.0.jpg Satellite photo from April, 2005] Category:German state capitals Category:Cities in Germany Category:Towns in Saxony-Anhalt ko:마그데부르크 ja:マクデブルク simple:Magdeburg

Capital City

:For the fictional city, see Capital City (The Simpsons). For centers of government and politics, see Capital. Capital City is a 60-minute television show produced by Euston Films that ran for 13 episodes in 1989 on ITV. This drama focused on the lives of investment bankers in London living and working on the corporate trading floor for the fictional international bank Shane-Longman. Despite its short run in the UK, it was rebroadcast on UKTV Gold as well as a handful of PBS stations in the United States.

External links


-
- [http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/tv/drama/capitalcity.htm Nostalgia Central]
- [http://www.offthetelly.co.uk/reviews/gold/capitalcity.htm Off the Telly]
- [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/1133069/ Screen Online] Category:ITV television programmes Category:Drama television series

States of Germany

Germany is a federal republic made up of 16 states, known in German as Länder (singular Land). Since Land is also the German word for "country", the term Bundesländer ("Federal States"; singular Bundesland) is often used instead to avoid ambiguity. A few of the states are city states, while others are Flächenländer ("area states"). The term "Bundesland" however is actually misleading, since it would imply a subordination of the German Länder to the federal Bund. It does not reflect the autonomy of the Länder per international law. The correct term, which is also used by the Grundgesetz, is therefore Länder. This differentiation is important, because after the end of the Second World War, the Länder in the western part of the former Deutsches Reich were constituted as administrative areas first, and built on them the Federation (Bund) was constructed. This in complete contrast to the post-war development in Austria, where the Bund was erected first, and then the states as units of the federal system followed. In Austria, the states are also referred to as Länder in the constitution. Each Land is represented at the federal level in the Bundesrat ("Federal Council"). The 16 Länder, by reference to the numbers on the map to the right, are: #Baden-Württemberg #Free State of Bavaria (Freistaat Bayern) #Berlin #Brandenburg #Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (Freie Hansestadt Bremen) #Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg) #Hesse (Hessen) #Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) #Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen) #North Rhine-Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen) #Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz) #Saarland #Free State of Saxony (Freistaat Sachsen) #Saxony-Anhalt (Sachsen-Anhalt) #Schleswig-Holstein #Free State of Thuringia (Freistaat Thüringen) The description Free State is merely used for historical reasons. Legally a Free State is not different to the other states.

Structure of government

The Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany, the country's federal constitution, stipulates that the structure of each Federal State's government must "conform to the principles of republican, democratic, and social government, based on the rule of law" (Article 28[1]). Most of the Länder are governed by a cabinet led by a Ministerpräsident (Minister-President), together with a unicameral legislative body known as the Landtag ("State Diet"). The relationship between the legislative and executive branches mirrors that in the federal system: the legislatures are popularly elected for four or five years (depending on the state), and the Minister-President is then chosen by a majority vote among the Landtags members. The Minister-President appoints a cabinet to run the Lands agencies and to carry out the executive duties of the Lands government. Prior to January 1 2000, Bavaria had a bicameral parliament, with a popularly elected Landtag, and an appointed Senate made up of representatives of the state's major social and economic groups. The Senate was abolished following a referendum in 1998. The Länder of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, are governed slightly differently from the other states. In each of these cities, the executive branch consists of a Senate of approximately eight selected by the Lands parliament; the senators carry out duties equivalent to those of the ministers in the larger Länder. The equivalent of the Minister-President is the Senatspräsident ("President of the Senate") in Bremen, the Erster Bürgermeister ("First Mayor") in Hamburg, and the Regierender Bürgermeister ("Governing Mayor") in Berlin. The parliament for Berlin is called the Abgeordnetenhaus ("House of Representatives"), while Bremen and Hamburg both have a Bürgerschaft.

Politics

Politics at the state level often carry implications for federal politics. Opposition victories in Landtag elections, which take place throughout the federal government's four-year term, can weaken the coalition forming the federal government. This led to all Konrad Adenauer, Willy Brandt, and Gerhard Schröder losing the federal chancellorship, in 1963, 1974 and 2005 respectively. State elections are viewed as a barometer of support for the policies of the federal government. If the parties of the governing coalition lose support in successive Land elections, those results may foreshadow political difficulties for the federal government. The outcome of Land elections also directly affects the composition of the Bundesrat ("Federal Council"), one of the two bodies of the federal parliament, which can again cause the federal government difficulties. For example, in the early 1990s, the opposition SPD commanded a two-thirds majority in the Bundesrat, making it particularly difficult for the governing CDU/CSU-FDP coalition to achieve the constitutional changes it sought; by 2003 the situation was the reverse, with an SPD-led government being severely hindered by a large CDU majority in the Bundesrat. The powers of the state governments and legislatures in their own territories have been much diminished in recent decades with an ever-increasing amount of federal legislation. A commission has been formed to examine the possibility of instituting a clearer separation of federal and state powers, to address this issue.

Further subdivisions

2003 The city-states of Berlin and Hamburg are subdivided into boroughs. The state Bremen consists of two urban districts, Bremen and Bremerhaven. In the other Länder there are the following subdivisions:

Landschaftsverbände

Landschaftsverbände ("area associations"): The most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia is uniquely divided into two Landschaftsverbände, one for the Rhineland, one for Westphalia-Lippe. This was meant to ease the friction caused by uniting the two culturally quite different regions into a single Land after World War II. The Landschaftsverbände retain little power today.

Regierungsbezirke

Regierungsbezirke ("governmental districts"): The large states of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Saxony are divided into administrative regions, or Regierungsbezirke. In Rhineland-Palatinate, the Regierungsbezirke were dissolved on 01.01.2000, in Saxony-Anhalt on 01.01.2004 and in Lower Saxony on 01.01.2005.

Kreise

Kreise (administrative districts): Every state (except the "city states" Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen) consists of rural districts, Landkreise, and urban districts, Stadtkreise (also: Kreisfreie Städte), cities which are districts in their own right. The state of Bremen consists of two urban districts, while Berlin and Hamburg are states and urban districts at the same time. There are 323 Landkreise and 116 Kreisfreie Städte, making 439 districts altogether. Each consists of an elected council and an executive, who is selected by the council and whose duties are comparable to those of a US county manager, supervising local government administration. The Landkreise have primary administrative functions in specific areas, such as highways, hospitals, and public utilities.

Ämter

Ämter ("offices"): In some states there is an administrative unit between districts and municipalities. These units are called Ämter (singular Amt), Amtsgemeinden, Samtgemeinden, Verbandsgemeinden or Verwaltungsgemeinschaften.

Gemeinden

Gemeinden ("municipalities"): Every rural district and every Amt is subdivided into municipalities, while every urban districts constitutes a municipality at the same time; there are 13,912 municipalities, which are the smallest administrative units in Germany. Cities are municipalities as well, which have city rights (Stadtrecht). Nowadays this is mostly just the right to be called a city; however, in older times it included many privileges such as to have their own taxes or to allow industry inside cities only. Gemeinden are ruled by elected councils and an executive, the mayor, who is chosen by either the council or the people, depending on the Bundesland. The "constitution" for the Gemeinden is created by the Länder and is uniform throughout a Land (except for Bremen, which allows Bremerhaven to have its own constitution). Gemeinden have two major policy responsibilities. First, they administer programs authorized by the federal or Land government. Such programs typically might relate to youth, schools, public health, and social assistance. Second, Article 28(2) of the Basic Law guarantees Gemeinden "the right to regulate on their own responsibility all the affairs of the local community within the limits set by law." Under this broad statement of competence, local governments can justify a wide range of activities. For instance, many municipalities develop the economic infrastructure of their communities through the development of industrial parks. Local authorities foster cultural activities by supporting local artists, building arts centers, and/or having fairs. Local government also provides basic public utilities, such as gas and electricity, as well as public transportation. Most of these functions are currently (2003) under threat since the communities are notoriously badly financed; the fact that they receive most of their money from the other levels instead of from taxes they themselves set the rates of and collect is a big factor in this. In five of the German states, there are unincorporated areas, in many cases unpopulated forest and mountain areas, but also four Bavarian lakes, that are not part of any municipality. As of Jan. 01, 2005, there were 246 such areas, most of them in Bavaria, with a total area of 4167.66 km2, or 1.2 percent of the total area of Germany. The following table gives an overview. The table shows that in 2000 the number of unincorporated areas was still 295, with a total area of 4890.33 km2. Unincorporated areas are continually being incorporated into neighboring municipalities, wholly or partially, most frequently in Bavaria. Only four unincorporated areas are populated, with an aggregate population of about 2000.

See also


- List of cities in Germany includes a table of cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants (Städte) and a general listing of cities, other municipalities, and villages.
- List of subnational entities
- List of capitals of subnational entities Germany, States of ko:독일의 행정 구역 ja:ドイツの地方行政区分 simple:States of Germany

Saxony Anhalt

Flag
image:saxony anhalt flag.jpg
Statistics
Capital:Magdeburg
Area:20,447 km²
Inhabitants:2,580,626(2001)
pop. density:126 inh./km²
Website:[http://www.sachsen-anhalt.de/ sachsen-anhalt.de]
ISO 3166-2:DE-ST
Politics
Minister-President:Wolfgang Böhmer (CDU)
Ruling party:CDU/FDP coalition
Map
250px
Saxony-Anhalt (in German, Sachsen-Anhalt) is one of the sixteen Bundesländer (federal states) that make up the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of 20,447 km², and a population of 2.6 million. Its capital is Magdeburg. The state's name is sometimes spelled Saxony Anhalt in English (ie, without the hyphen).

Geography

Lying to the northeast of central Germany, it is eighth largest in area and (since 1996) tenth in population among the country's sixteen Bundesländer. It borders on the states of Lower Saxony to the northwest, Brandenburg to the east, Saxony to the southeast and Thuringia to the southwest. Most of the state is plain and agriculturally used, but in the southwest there is the eastern part of the Harz mountains. The main river of Saxony-Anhalt is the Elbe, running through the state from southeast to northwest. The second largest river, the Saale, is a tributary of the Elbe. See also List of places in Saxony-Anhalt.

Administrative subdivision

Saxony-Anhalt is divided into 21 (rural) counties (Landkreise), Map of Saxony-Anhalt showing the district boundaries and three independent cities (Stadtkreise),
- Dessau
- Halle (Saale)
- Magdeburg From 1990 to 2003 Saxony-Anhalt was divided into three districts (Regierungsbezirke) - Dessau, Halle and Magdeburg. On January 1, 2004 these three districts were abolished, and the 24 counties have since constituted the primary divisions of the state. A reform to reduce the number of counties is currently planned. Becoming effective in July 2007 there are supposed to be only 11 counties and 3 independent cities.

History

The state was created in 1990, shortly before German reunification, covering much the same area as an earlier unit (1947-1952) comprising the former Anhalt, the former Prussian Province of Saxony and some small exclaves of the former Brunswick-Lüneburg. The state and its larger cities have lost population since 1989 with migration to the former West Germany.

List of minister presidents of Saxony-Anhalt

1945-1952

# 1945 - 1949: Erhard Hübener (LDPD) # 1949 - 1952: Werner Bruschke (SED)

1990 to date

# 1990 - 1991: Gerd Gies (CDU) # 1991 - 1993: Werner Münch (CDU) # 1993 - 1994: Christoph Bergner (CDU) # 1994 - 2002: Reinhard Höppner (SPD) # since 2002: Wolfgang Böhmer (CDU)

Economy

Saxony Anhalt is famous for its good soil. The "Magdeburger Börde" contains the best soil in all of Germany and some of the best of Europe. The food industry has an important role in this state. Some of the best known products are "Baumkuchen" from Salzwedel (Altmark) or "Hallorenkugeln" from Halle. In the industrial sector the chemical industry is quite important. One of the biggest chemical producing areas can be found around the cities of Wolfen and Bitterfeld. Because of the chemical industry Saxony Anhalt is also the largest receiver of FDIs (Foreign Direct Investments) in all of eastern Germany.

Anthem


- Lied für Sachsen-Anhalt ("Song for Saxony-Anhalt")

External link


- [http://www.sachsen-anhalt.de/ Official governmental portal]
- [http://www.sachsen-anhalt.tk/ Webportal Saxony-Anhalt] Category:Saxony-Anhalt Category:States of Germany als:Sachsen-Anhalt ko:작센안할트 주 ja:ザクセン＝アンハルト州 simple:Saxony-Anhalt

Elbe

The Elbe River (Czech Labe , Sorbian/Lusatian Łobjo, Polish Łaba, German Elbe, Hungarian Elba) is one of the major waterways of central Europe. It originates in the North West Czech Republic before traversing much of Germany and finally flowing into the North Sea. Its total length is 1165 km.

Geography

North SeaNorth Sea]] The Elbe rises at an altitude of about 1400 m (4593 ft). Of the numerous small streams whose waters compose the infant river, the most important is the Bílé Labe, or White Elbe. After plunging down the 60 m of the Labský vodopád, the latter stream unites with the steep torrential Malé Labe, and thereafter the united stream of the Elbe pursues a southerly course, emerging from the mountain glens at and continuing on to Pardubice, where it turns sharply to the west. At Kolín some 43 km (27 miles) further on, it bends gradually towards the north-west. A little above Brandýs nad Labem it picks up the Jizera and at Mělník its stream is more than doubled in volume by the Vltava, a river which winds northwards through Bohemia. Some distance lower down, at Litoměřice, the waters of the Elbe are tinted by the reddish Ohře. Thus augmented, and swollen into a stream 140 m (459 ft) wide, the Elbe carves a path through the basaltic mass of the České Středohoří, churning its way through a deep, narrow rocky gorge. Shortly after crossing the Czech-German frontier, and passing through the sandstone defiles, the stream assumes a north-westerly direction, which on the whole it preserves right to the North Sea. The river rolls through Dresden and finally, beyond Meissen, enters on its long journey across the North German Plain passing along the former border of East Germany, touching Torgau, Wittenberg, Magdeburg, Wittenberge, and Hamburg on the way, and taking on the waters of the Mulde and Saale from the west, and those of the Schwarze Elster, Havel and Elde from the east. Soon the Elbe reaches Hamburg, and then passes through Holstein until it flows into the North Sea at Cuxhaven. Near its mouth it passes Brunsbüttel and the entrance to the Kiel Canal. Kiel Canal Kiel Canal

Cities and municipalities on the river Elbe

Špindlerův Mlýn, Vrchlabí, Dvůr Králové nad Labem, Jaroměř, Hradec Králové, Pardubice, Kolín, Poděbrady, Nymburk, Lysá nad Labem, Čelákovice, Brandýs nad Labem, Stará Boleslav, Neratovice, Mělník, Roudnice nad Labem, Litoměřice, Lovosice, Ústí nad Labem, Děčín, Bad Schandau, Königstein, Pirna, Heidenau, Dresden, Radebeul, Meißen, Riesa, Strehla, Torgau, Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Dessau, Magdeburg, Tangermünde, Wittenberge, Hitzacker, Boizenburg, Lauenburg, Geesthacht, Hamburg, Wedel, Glückstadt, Brunsbüttel, Otterndorf, Cuxhaven.

Navigation

The Elbe has been navigable by commercial vessels since 1842, and provides important trade links as far inland as Prague. The river is linked by canals to the industrial areas of Germany and to Berlin. The Elbe-Lübeck Canal links the Elbe to the Baltic Sea, as does the Kiel Canal, whose western entrance is near the mouth of the Elbe. Before Germany was reunited, waterway transport in Western Germany was hindered by the fact that inland navigation to Hamburg had to pass through the German Democratic Republic. The Elbe Seitenkanal (Elbe Lateral Canal) was built between the Mittellandkanal and the lower Elbe to restore this connection. When the two nations were reunited, works began to improve and restore the original links: the Elbe Canal Bridge near Magdeburg now allows large barges to cross the Elbe without having to enter the river. The often low water levels of the Elbe do not hinder navigation to Berlin any longer. (Source: [http://www.noorderSoft.com/indexen.html NoorderSoft Waterways Database])

Etymology

Its name means 'river' (cf. Scandinavian älv).

History

The Elbe has long been an important delineator of European geography. The Romans knew the river as the Albis; however, they only attempted once to move the Eastern border of their empire forward from the Rhine to the Elbe, and this attempt failed in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD, after which they never seriously tried again. In the Middle Ages it formed the eastern limit of the Empire of Charlemagne. The river's navigable sections were also essential to the success of the Hanseatic League and much trade was carried on its waters. In 1945, as World War II was drawing to a close, Nazi Germany was caught between the armies of the western Allies advancing from the west and the Soviet Union advancing from the east. On April 25, these two forces linked up near Torgau, on the Elbe. The event was marked as Elbe Day. After the war, the Elbe formed part of the border between East and West Germany.

External links

[http://www.ergis.cz/krkonose/index.php?lang=en&detail=38&path=places information and pictures of the spring of Labe in Giant Mountains (Krkonoše, Riesengebirge)] Category:Rivers of the Czech Republic Category:Rivers of Germany ko:엘베 강 ja:エルベ川

Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor

Otto I the Great (November 23, 912 - May 7, 973), son of Henry I the Fowler, king of the Germans, and Matilda of Ringelheim, was Duke of Saxony, King of the Germans and arguably the first Holy Roman Emperor. (While Charlemagne had been crowned emperor in 800, his empire was divided amongst his grandsons, and following the assassination of Berengar of Friuli in 924, the imperial title lay vacant for nearly forty years.)

Early reign

Otto succeeded his father as king of the Germans in 936. He arranged for his coronation to be held in Charlemagne's former capital, Aachen. According to the Saxon historian Widukind of Corvey, at his coronation banquet he had the four other dukes of the empire, those of Franconia, Swabia, Bavaria and Lorraine, act as his personal attendants, Arnulf I of Bavaria as marshall (or stablemaster), Herman of Swabia as cupbearer (lat. pincerna or buticularius), Eberhard III of Franconia as steward, and Gilbert of Lorraine as chamberlain. In 938, a rich vein of silver was discovered at the Rammelsberg in Saxony. This ore body would provide much of Europe's silver, copper, and lead for the next two hundred years, and this mineral wealth helped fund Otto's activities throughout his reign. Otto's early reign was marked by a series of ducal revolts. In 938, Eberhard, the new duke of Bavaria, refused to pay Otto homage. When Otto deposed him in favor of his uncle Berthold, Eberhard of Franconia revolted, together with several of the Saxon nobility, who tried to depose Otto in favor of his elder half-brother Thankmar (son of Henry's first wife Hatheburg). While Otto was able to defeat and kill Thankmar in 936, the revolt continued the next year when Gilbert, the Duke of Lorraine, swore fealty to King Louis IV of France. Meanwhile, Otto's younger brother Henry conspired with the Archbishop of Mainz to assassinate him. The rebellion ended in 939 with Otto's victory at the Battle of Andernach, where the dukes of Franconia and Lorraine both perished. Henry fled to France, and Otto responded by supporting Hugh the Great in his campaign against the French crown, but in 941 Otto and Henry were reconciled through the efforts of their mother, and the next year Otto withdrew from France after Louis recognized his suzerainty over Lorraine. To prevent further revolts, Otto arranged for all the important duchies in the German kingdom to be held by close family members. He kept the now-vacant duchy of Franconia as a personal fiefdom, while in 944 he bestowed the duchy of Lorraine upon Conrad the Red, who later married his daughter Liutgard. Meanwhile, he arranged for his son Liutdolf to marry Ida, the daughter of Duke Herman of Swabia, and to inherit that duchy when Herman died in 947. A similar arrangement led to Henry becoming duke of Bavaria in 949.

Campaigns in Italy and eastern Europe

949 Meanwhile, Italy had fallen into political chaos. On the death (950), possibly by poisoning, of Lothair of Arles, the Italian throne was inherited by a woman, Adelaide of Italy, the respective daughter, daughter-in-law, and widow of the last three kings of Italy. A local noble, Berengar of Ivrea, declared himself king of Italy, abducted Adelaide, and tried to legitimize his reign by forcing Adelaide to marry his son Adalbert. However, Adelaide escaped to Canossa and requested German intervention. Luitdolf and Henry independently invaded northern Italy to take advantage of the situation, but in 951 Otto frustrated his son's and his brother's ambitions by invading Italy himself, forcing Berengar to swear fealty, and then, having been widowed since 946, marrying Adelaide. This marriage triggered another revolt. When Adelaide bore a son, Luitdolf feared for his position as Otto's heir, and in 953 he rebelled in league with Conrad the Red and the Archbishop of Mainz. While Otto was initially successful in reasserting his authority in Lorraine, he was captured while attacking Mainz, and by the next year, the rebellion had spread throughout the kingdom. However, Conrad and Luitdolf erred by allying themselves with the Magyars. Extensive Magyar raids in southern Germany in 954 compelled the German nobles to reunite, and at the Diet of Auerstadt, Conrad and Luitdolf were stripped of their titles and Otto's authority reestablished. In 955, Otto cemented his authority by routing Magyar forces at the Battle of Lechfeld.

The Ottonian system

A key part of Otto's domestic policy lay in strengthening ecclesiastical authorities, chiefly bishops and abbots, at the expense of the secular nobility. Otto endowed the bishoprics and abbeys with large tracts of land, over which secular authorities had neither the power of taxation nor legal jurisdiction. In an extreme example, when Conrad the Red was stripped of his ducal title in Lorraine, he appointed his brother Bruno, already the Archbishop of Cologne as the new duke of Lorraine. In the lands Otto conquered from the Wends and other Slavic peoples on his eastern borders, he founded several new bishoprics. Because Otto personally appointed the bishops, these reforms strengthened his central authority, and the upper ranks of the German church functioned in some respect as an arm of the imperial bureaucracy. Conflict between Otto's successors and the growing power of the Papacy over these powerful bishoprics would, however, eventually lead to the Investiture Conflict and the undoing of central authority in Germany.

Imperial title

In the early 960s, Italy was again in political turmoil, and when Berengar occupied the northern Papal States, Pope John XII asked Otto for assistance. Otto returned to Italy and on February 2, 962, the pope crowned him emperor. (Translatio imperii.) Ten days later, the pope and emperor ratified the Diploma Ottonianum, in which the emperor became the guarantor of the independence of the papal states. After Otto left Rome and reconquered the Papal States from Berengar, however, John became fearful of the emperor's power and sent envoys to the Magyars and the Byzantine Empire to form a league against Otto. In November of 963, Otto returned to Rome and convened a synod of bishops that deposed John and crowned Leo VIII, at that time a layman, as pope. When the emperor left Rome, however, civil war broke out in the city between those who supported the emperor and those who supported John. John returned to power amidst great bloodshed and excommunicated those who had deposed him, forcing Otto to return to Rome a third time in July of 964 to depose Pope Benedict V (John having died two months earlier). On this occasion, Otto extracted from the citizens of Rome a promise not to elect a pope without imperial approval. Pope Benedict V] Otto unsuccessfully campaigned in southern Italy on several occasions from 966-972. In 967, he gave the duchy of Spoleto to Pandulf Ironhead, prince of Benevento and Capua, a powerful ally in the Mezzogiorno. In the next year (968) Otto left the siege of Bari in the charge of Pandulf, but the allied duke was captured in the battle of Bovino by the Byzantines. In 972, the Byzantine emperor John I Tzimisces recognized Otto's imperial title and agreed to a marriage between Otto's son and heir Otto II and his niece Theophano. Pandulf was released from captivity. After his death in 973 he was buried next to his first wife Edith of Wessex in the Cathedral of Magdeburg. Category:Dukes of Carinthia Category:Dukes of Saxony Category:German Kings Category:Holy Roman emperors Category:Ottonian Dynasty Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor ja:オットー1世

Charlemagne

Charlemagne (ca. 742 or 747 – January 28, 814) (or Charles the Great, in German Karl der Große, in Norwegian Karl den store, in Dutch Karel de Grote, in Latin Carolus Magnus, giving rise to the adjective form "Carolingian"), was king of the Franks from 768 to 814, King of the Lombards since 774, and the renewer of the Western Empire. His dual role as Emperor—Imperator Augustus–and King of the Franks provides the historical link between the Imperial dignity and the Frankish kingdoms and later Germany. Today both France and Germany look to him as a founding figure of their respective countries.

Date of birth

Charlemagne's birthday was believed to be April 1, 742, however several factors led to reconsideration of this traditional date. First, the year 742 was calculated from his age given at death, rather than attested with primary sources. Second, 742 precedes the marriage of his parents (in 749), yet there is no indication that Charlemagne was born out of wedlock, and he inherited from his parents. Another date is given in the Annales Petarienses, April 1, 747. In that year, April 1 is Easter. The birth of an Emperor on Easter is a coincidence likely to provoke comment, but there is no such comment documented in 747, leading some to suspect the Easter birthday was a pious fiction concocted as a way of honoring the Emperor. Other commentators weighing the primary records have suggested that the birth was one year later, 748. So at present, it is impossible to be certain of the date of the birth of Charlemagne. The best guesses include April 1, 747, after April 15, 747, or April 1, 748.

Life

Charlemagne was the elder son of Pippin the Younger (714 – 24 September 771, reigned 751 – 768) and his wife Bertrada of Laon (720 – 12 July 783); he was the brother of the Lady Bertha, mother of Roland. On the death of Pippin, the kingdom was divided between Charlemagne and his brother Carloman. Charles took the outer parts of the kingdom, bordering on the sea, namely Neustria, Aquitania and the northern parts of Austrasia, while Carloman attained the inner parts, bordering on Italy. Carloman died on 5 December 771, leaving Charlemagne the leader of a reunified Frankish kingdom. Shortly after that, he marched against the Lombards in Italy. In 774 he deposed their king Desiderius and was himself crowned king of the Lombards, permanently unifying the kingdom of Italy to the Frankish crown. Charlemagne was engaged in almost constant battle throughout his reign, with his legendary sword Joyeuse in hand. After thirty years of war and eighteen battles -- the Saxon Wars -- he conquered Saxony, a goal that had been the unattainable dream of Augustus, and proceeded to convert the conquered to Catholic Christianity, using force where necessary. In 782, at Verden in Lower Saxony, he allegedly ordered the beheading of 4,500 Saxons in one day (the Bloody Trial of Verden) who had made the error of rebelling against Frankish rule and of being caught practicing paganism after they had agreed to be Christians. Modern research has cast doubt upon this allegation, as no archeological evidence of such a massacre has been found and the original source may have mistakenly written of "beheading" instead of "exiling". Charlemagne also contemplated the reconquest of Spain, but never fully succeeded in this goal. It was during one of his futile invasions of northern Spain that the leader of his afterguard, Count Roland, was killed, inspiring the subsequent creation of the Song of Roland. Song of Roland was threatened by invaders, the king rushed to Rome to provide assistance. Shown here, the pope asks Charlemagne for help at a meeting near Rome.]] In 797 (or 801?) the caliph of Baghdad, Harun al-Rashid, presented Charlemagne with an Asian elephant named Abul-Abbas (See History of elephants in Europe.) and a mechanical clock. In 800, at Mass on Christmas day in Rome, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Imperator Romanorum (Emperor of the Romans). Though this, according to the sources, occurred against his intentions, Charles thus became the renewer of the Western Empire, which had expired in the 5th century. To avoid frictions with the Eastern Emperor, Charles later called himself not Imperator Romanorum (a title reserved for the Eastern Emperor), but rather as Imperator Romanum gubernans Imperium (Emperor ruling the Roman Empire). Pursuing his father's reforms, Charlemagne did away with the monetary system based on the gold sou. Both he and King Offa of Mercia took up the system set in place by Pippin. He set up a new standard, the livre (i.e. pound)— both monetary and unit of weight— which was worth 20 sous (like the solidus, and later the shilling) or 240 deniers (like the denarius, and eventually the penny). During this period, the livre and the sou were counting units, only the denier was a coin of the realm. Charlemagne applied the system to much of the European Continent, and Offa's standard was voluntarily adopted by much of England. England Charlemagne organized his empire into 350 counties, each led by an appointed count. Counts served as judges, administrators, and they enforced capitularies. To enforce loyalty, he set up the system of missi dominici, meaning 'Envoys of the Lord.' In this system, one representative of the church and one representative of the emperor would head to the different counties and every year report back to Charlemagne on their status. missi dominici When Charlemagne died in 814, he was buried in his own Cathedral at Aachen. He was succeeded by his only son to survive him, Louis the Pious, after whose reign the empire was divided between his three surviving sons according to Frankish tradition. These three kingdoms would be the foundations of later France and the Holy Roman Empire. After Charlemagne's death, continental coinage degraded and most of Europe resorted to using the continued high quality English coin until about 1100. It is difficult to understand Charlemagne's attitude toward his daughters. None of them contracted a sacramental marriage. This may have been an attempt to control the number of potential alliances. After his death the surviving daughters entered or were forced to enter monasteries. At least one of them, Bertha, had a recognized relationship, if not a marriage, with Angilbert, a member of Charlemagne's court circle. Charlemagne's mother tongue was the Old High German dialect called Frankish. He also spoke Latin and understood some Greek.

Cultural significance

Greek. A Romantic interpretation of his appearance from the 18th century ]] Charlemagne's reign is often referred to as the Carolingian Renaissance because of the flowering of scholarship, literature, art, and architecture. Most of the surviving works of classical Latin were copied and preserved by Carolingian scholars. The pan-European nature of Charlemagne's influence is indicated by the origins of many of the men who worked for him: Alcuin, an Anglo-Saxon; Theodulf, a Visigoth; Paul the Deacon, a Lombard; and Angilbert and Einhard, Franks. Charlemagne enjoyed an important afterlife in European culture. One of the great medieval literature cycles, the Charlemagne cycle or the Matter of France, centres around the deeds of Charlemagne's historical commander of the Breton border, Roland, and the paladins who served as a counterpart to the knights of the Round Table; their tales were first told in the chansons de geste. Charlemagne himself was accorded sainthood inside the Holy Roman Empire after the 12th century. His canonization by Antipope Paschal III was never recognized by the Holy See. He was a model knight as one of the Nine Worthies. It is frequently claimed by genealogists that all people with European ancestry alive today are probably descended from Charlemagne. However, only a small percentage can actually prove descent from him. Charlemagne's marriage and relationship politics and ethics did, however, result in a fairly large number of descendants, all of whom had far better life expectancies than is usually the case for children in that time period. They were married into houses of nobility and as a result of intermarriages many people of noble descent can indeed trace their ancestry back to Charlemagne. Charlemagne's genealogical tree was quite extensive, and can be traced almost completely up to modern times; among the well known direct descendants of Charlemagne are William Howard Taft, 27th President of the United States, American actor Tyrone Power, the British actor Christopher Lee, and Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. He is without a doubt an ancestor of every royal family of Europe. Another interesting note about Charlemagne was that he took a serious effort in his and others' scholarship and had learned to read in his adulthood, although he never quite learned how to write. His handwriting was bad, from which grew the legend that he could not write. This was quite an achievement for kings at this time, of whom most were illiterate. He was an avid chess player and was known to challenge his soldiers to games before large battles. illiterate

Charlemagne's portraits

illiterate.]] The Roman tradition of realistic personal portraiture was in complete eclipse at the time of Charlemagne, where individual traits were submerged in iconic typecastings. Charlemagne, as an ideal ruler, ought to be portrayed in the corresponding fashion, any contemporary would have assumed. The images of enthroned Charlemagne, God's representative on Earth, bear more connections to the icons of Christ in Majesty than to modern (or Antique) conceptions of portraiture. Even the verbal portrait by Einhard suppresses details that would have been indecorous in this context. Charlemagne in later imagery (see Dürer portrait right) is often portrayed with flowing blond hair, due to a misunderstanding of Einhart's Vita caroli Magni (chapter 22) where Charlemagne in his age had canitie pulchra "beautiful white hair" which has been rendered as blond or fair in many translations. The Latin word for blond is "flavus", and "rutilo", meaning 'golden-red' or 'auburn', is the word Tacitus uses for the Germans' hair.

Family

Tacitus ]]

Marriages


- Himiltrude
- Ermengarda or Desiderata
- Hildegard of Savoy (married Abt 771) (758–783)
- Fastrada (married 784) (d. 794)
- Luitgard (married 794) (d. 800)
- Coo-Sheba (married 801) (d. 900)

Children

Sons:
- Pippin the Hunchback (d. 813)
- Charles, King of Neustria (d. 811)
- Pippin, King of Italy (ruled 781–810)
- Louis I The Pious, King of Aquitaine, Emperor (ruled 814–840)
- Lothar (d. 779 or 780) Daughters:
- Adelheid (b. 774)
- Rhotrud (775-810)
- Hildegarde (777-777)
- Bertha (779-823)
- Gisele (781-808)
- Aupais?

Further reading


- Alessandro Barbero: Charlemagne, father of a continent. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2004 ISBN 0-520-23943-1

See also


- Franks (main history of Frankish kingdoms)
- List of Frankish Kings
- Carolingians
- Nine Worthies

External links


- A reconstructed [http://www.reportret.info/gallery/charlemagne1.html portrait of Charlemagne], based on historical sources, in a contemporary style.
- House of Pippin / Dynasty of Charlemagne: [http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/Rulers/charlemagne.html Genealogy of Charlemagne]
- [http://www.badley.info/history/Charlamagne-I-the-Great-France.biog.html Charlemagne Chronology] Category:740s births Category:814 deaths Category:Frankish kings Category:Holy Roman emperors Category:Kings of Burgundy Category:Matter of France Category:Nine Worthies ko:카롤루스 대제 ja:カール大帝

919

Events


- King Edward I of England conquers Bedford.
- Henry the Fowler is elected King of the Germans at the Reichstag of Fritzlar, and quickly fortifies Magdeburg against the Magyars and Slavs.
- Romanus Lecapenus becomes regent for Byzantine emperor Constantine VII.
- Bulgarian Orthodox Church is proclaimed autocephalous with the rank of Patriarchate.
- Wang Kon moves the Korean Capital from Ch'orwon to Songdo.

Births

Deaths

Category:919 ko:919년

Henry I the Fowler

Henry I, the Fowler (German: Heinrich der Vogler) (876 - July 2, 936), was Duke of Saxony from 912 and king of the Germans from 919 until his death in 936. First of the Ottonian Dynasty of German kings and emperors, he is generally considered to be the founder and first king of the medieval German Empire, known until then as the East Franconian Kingdom. An avid hunter, he obtained the epithet "the Fowler" because he was allegedly fixing his birding nets when messengers arrived to inform him that he was to be king. Henry was the son of Otto the Illustrious, duke of Saxony, and his wife Hedwiga, a great-granddaughter of Charlemagne, and a daughter of Carloman of Bavaria. In 906 he married Hatheburg, daughter of the Saxon count Erwin, but divorced her in 909 after she had given birth to his son Thankmar. Later that year he married Matilda of Ringelheim, daughter of Dietrich, count in western Saxony (Westfalia). Matilda bore him three sons and two daughters and founded many religious institutions, including the abbey of Quedlinburg where Henry is buried, and was later canonized. Henry became duke of Saxony upon his father's death in 912 and, an able ruler, continued to strengthen Saxony, frequently in conflict with his neighbors to the South, the dukes of Franconia. In 918 king Conrad I of the East-Franconian Empire, and duke of Franconia, died and recommended Henry as his successor as king, despite the fact that they had been at odds with each other from 912 to 915 over the title to lands in Thuringia. Conrad's choice was conveyed by duke Eberhard III of Franconia, Conrad's brother and heir, to the assembled Franconian and Saxon nobles at the Reichstag of Fritzlar in 919, which duly elected Henry to be king. Henry refused to be anointed by a high church official, the only king of his time not to undergo that rite – allegedly because he did not wish to be king by the church's but by the people's acclaim. Duke Burkhard I of Swabia soon swore fealty to the new king, but duke Arnulf of Bavaria did not submit until Henry invaded Bavaria in 921 and Arnulf swore fealty to him. Henry regarded the kingdom as a confederation of tribal duchies rather than a feudal kingdom and himself as primus inter pares. Rather than seeking to administer the empire through counts, as Charlemagne had done and his successors had attempted, Henry allowed the dukes of Franconia, Swabia and Bavaria to maintain complete internal control of their holdings. In 925, he defeated Giselbert, duke of Lotharingia (Lorraine), and brought that realm, which had been lost in 910, back into the German kingdom as the fifth tribal duchy (the others being Saxony, Franconia, Swabia, and Bavaria), but allowing Giselbert to remain in power and marrying his daughter Gerberga to his new vassal in 928. Henry was a very able military leader. Germany had been repeatedly raided by the Magyars (Hungarians), and in 924 Henry paid them a tribute to secure a ten-year truce so that he could fortify towns and train a new elite cavalry force. With his new army, he conquered the Havelli and the Daleminzi in 928 and put down a rebellion in Bohemia in 929. When the Magyars began raiding again, he led an army of all German tribes to victory over them at the battle of Riade in 933, stopping one of their advances into Germany. He also pacified territories to the north, where the Danes had harried the Frisians off to the sea. The monk and historian Widukind of Corvey in his Rex gestae Saxonicae reports that the Danes were subjects of Henry the Fowler. Henry incorporated territories held by the Wends, who together with the Danes had attacked Germany, into his kingdom and also conquered Schleswig in 934. When Henry died on 2 July 936, all German tribes were united in a single kingdom. Henry I is therefore considered the first German king and the founder of the eventual Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation). His son Otto succeeded him as Emperor Otto I ("the Great"). His second son, Henry, became duke of Bavaria. A third son, Brun (or Bruno), became archbishop of Cologne. His son from his first marriage, Thankmar, rebelled against his half-brother Otto and was killed in battle in 936. His daughter Gerberga married Duke Giselbert of Lorraine and subsequently King Louis IV of France. His youngest daughter Hedwige of Saxony married Duke (Hugh the Great) of France and was the mother of Hugh Capet, the first Capetian king of France. ----- Henry the Fowler is also the name of a wandering minstrel from the Tirol, the author of two cycles about Dietrich von Bern. He appears in Return to Castle Wolfenstein when the Nazis are trying to wake him from the dead so they can win the war. Category:876 births Category:936 deaths Category:German Kings Category:Dukes of Saxony Category:Ottonian Dynasty

Magyars

Magyars are an ethnic group primarily associated with Hungary. In English they are more often called Hungarians. The word Hungarian has also a wider meaning, because – especially in the past – it referred to all inhabitants of the Kingdom of Hungary irrespective of their ethnicity (i.e. not only to the Magyars). Specifically, the Latin term natio hungarica referred to all nobles of the Kingdom of Hungary irrespective of their ethnicity. There are around 10. million Magyars in Hungary (2001). Magyars have been the main inhabitants of the Kingdom of Hungary that existed through most of the second millennium. Following its disappearance with the Treaty of Trianon, Magyars have become minority inhabitants of Romania (official: 1,440,000; see: Hungarian minority in Romania), Slovakia (520,500), Serbia and Montenegro (293,000; largely in Vojvodina), Ukraine and Russia (170,000), Austria (70,000), Croatia (16,500), the Czech Republic (14,600) and Slovenia (10,000). Significant groups of people with Magyar ancestry live in various other parts of the world (e.g. 1,400,000 in the United States), but unlike the Magyars living within the former Kingdom of Hungary, only a minority of these preserves the Hungarian language and tradition. There was a referendum in Hungary in December 2004 on whether to grant Hungarian citizenship to Magyars living outside Hungary's borders (i.e., without requiring a permanent residence in Hungary). The referendum failed due to insufficient participation on the part of the population.

History after 896

The Magyar leader Árpád is believed to have led the Hungarians into the Carpathian Basin in 896. Magyar expansion was checked at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955. Hungarian settlement in the area became approved by the Pope by the crowning of Stephen I the Saint (Szent István) in 1001 when the leaders accepted Christianity. The century between the Magyars' arrival from the eastern European plains and the consolidation of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1001 were dominated by pillaging campaigns across Europe, from Dania (Denmark) to the Iberian peninsula (Spain). At the Hungarian conquest, the Hungarian nation numbered between 250,000 and 450,000 people. The Slavic population of the region (and remnants of the Avars in the southwest) was also assimilated by the Magyars, except those living approximately in present-day Slovakia (the ancestors of the Slovak people) and those living in present-day Croatia. Croatia joined the Kingdom in 1102. The first accurate measurements of the population of the Kingdom of Hungary including ethnic composition were carried out in 1850-51. There is a debate among Magyar and non-Magyar (especially Slovak and Romanian) historians about the possible changes in the ethnic structure throughout history.
- Magyar historians support the theory that the Magyars' percentage in the Carpathian Basin was at an almost constant 80% during the Middle Ages, and began to decrease only at the time of the Ottoman conquest, reaching as low as 39% in the end of the 18th century (or 29% according to historians outside Hungary). The decline of the Magyars was due to the constant wars, famines and plagues during the 150 years of Ottoman rule. The main zones of war were the territories inhabited by the Magyars, so the death toll among them was much higher than among other nationalities. In the 18th century their percentage declined further because of the influx of new settlers from Germany, Serbia, and other countries.
- Non-Magyar historians tend to emphasise the multi-ethnic nature of the Kingdom even in the Middle Ages, and argue that there was not enough reason for such a drastic change in the ethnic structure, thus implying that Magyars accounted for about 30%/40% of the Kingdom's population since its establishment. In particular, there is a fierce debate among Magyar and Romanian historians about the ethnic composition of Transylvania through the times; see Origin of Romanians. In the 19th century, the percentage of Magyars in the Kingdom of Hungary rose gradually, reaching over 50% by 1900. However, it should be noted that this increase is largely due to the fact that non-Magyar population of the Kingdom was subjected to Magyarisation in the period between 1867 (the Ausgleich) and World War I. Spontaneous assimilation was important too, especially between the German and Jewish minorities and the citizens of the bigger towns. The years 1918 - 1920 were a turning point in the Magyars' history. By the Treaty of Trianon the Kingdom was split up, and about one third of the Magyars became minorities. In the 20th century the Magyar population of Hungary grew from 7,1 million (1920) to around 10,4 million (1980), in spite of the big human loss in the second world war and the wave of emigration after the failed revolution in 1956. The number of Hungarians in the neighboring countries mostly stagnated or slightly decresed, because of the assimilation, emigration to Hungary (in the 1990s, especially from Transylvania and Vojvodina) and natural decrease. After the "baby boom" of the 1960s a serious demographic crisis began to develop in Hungary, parallel to the neighbouring countries. The Magyars reached their highest point in 1980 and after that they began to sink. The Magyar population of Hungary and neighbouring countries is expected to further decrease to 7-8 million by 2050. The Magyars represent today only around 33% of the population of the Carpathian Basin. Their number is appr. 11,5-12 million in 2001, almost the same as in 1910. While other ethnic groups increased their numbers 2 or 3 times (or even more) during the 20th century, the Magyar population stagnated. The increase of population in Hungary was the third slowest in the world after Bulgaria and St. Kitts & Nevis between 1950 and 2000 -- only 8.6% (from 9,338,000 to 10,137,000).

Origin of the word "Hungarian"

The word derives from the old Slavic word og(ъ)r- for the proto-Magyars. Through Germanic languages, the word got into other European languages ((H)ungarus, (H)ungarn, Vengry etc.). The Slavic word is thought to be derived from the Bulgaro-Turkic Onogur, possibly because the proto-Magyars were neighbours (or confederates) of the Empire of the Onogurs in the 6th century, whose leading tribal union was called the "Onogurs" (meaning "ten tribes"). The H- in many languages (Hungarians, Hongrois, Hungarus etc.) is a later addition. It was taken over from the word "Huns", which was a similar semi-nomadic tribe living some 400 years earlier in present-day Hungary and having a similar way of life (or according to the older theories the people from which the Magyars arose). In ancient times, through the middle ages, and even today, the identification of Hungarians with the Huns has often occurred in history and literature, however this identification began to be disputed around the late 19th century, and is still a source of major controversy among scholars who insist that there could be no direct connection between the two. Hun names like Attila and Réka are still popular among Hungarians, and forms derived from Latin Hungaria are used like in the racetrack Hungaroring (mostly due to the strong English language pressure in tourism and international matters). Magyar is today simply the Hungarian word for Hungarian. In English and many other languages, however, Magyar is used instead of Hungarian in certain (mainly historical) contexts, usually to distinguish ethnic Hungarians (i.e. the Magyars) from the other nationalities living in the Hungarian kingdom.

Ethnic affiliations and origins of the Hungarian people

The origin of the Hungarians (more correctly Magyars) is partly disputed. The most widely accepted Finno-Ugric theory from the late 18th century is based primarily on linguistic and ethnographical arguments, while it is criticised by some as relying too much on linguistics. There are also other theories stating that the Magyars are descendants of Scythians, Huns, Turks, Avars, and/or Sumerians. These are primarily based on medieval legends – whose authenticity and scientific reliability is strongly questionable – and non-systematic linguistic similarities. Most scholars therefore dismiss these claims as mere speculation. The following section shows the Finno-Ugric theory of the origin of modern Hungarian people. For some other theories see Hungarian prehistory. Finno-Ugric is a group of related languages, which does not mean that the peoples currently speaking those languages are equally related. Same holds true, for example, for Indo-European languages. The Ugric Hungarian language is about as distantly related to Finnic languages like Finnish and Estonian as, e.g., European German is related to Hindi and Nepali.

East of the Ural mountains (before the 4th century AD)

According to this theory, in the 4th millennium BC, some of the earliest settlements of the Finno-Ugric-speaking peoples were situated east of the Ural Mountains, where they hunted and fished. From there, the Ugrians, i.e., the ancestors of the Magyars, were settled in the wood-steppe parts of western Siberia (i.e. to the east of the Urals) – from c. 2000 BC onwards at least. Their settlements were identical with the north-western part of the Andronovo Culture. Some more advanced tribes coming from the southern steppes taught them how to do agriculture, breed cattle and produce bronze objects. Around 1500 BC, they started to breed horses and horse riding became one of their typical activities. Due to climatic changes in the early 1st millennium BC, the Ugrian subgroup known as the Ob-Ugrians – until then living more in the north - moved to the lower Ob River, while the Ugrian subgroup being the ancestor of the proto-Magyars remained in the south and became nomadic herdsmen. From the definitive departure of the Ob-Ugrians (around 500 BC), the ancestors of present-day Magyars can be considered a separate ethnic group – the proto-Magyars. During the following centuries, the proto-Magyars still lived in the wood-steppes and steppes southeast of the Ural Mountains, and they were immediate neighbours of and were strongly influenced by the ancient Sarmatians.

Bashkiria and the Khazar khaganate (4th century – c. 830 AD)

In the 4th and 5th centuries AD, the Proto-Magyars moved to the west of the Ural Mountains to the area between the southern Ural Mountains and the Volga River (Bashkiria, or Bashkortostan). In the early 8th century, a part of the proto-Magyars moved to the Don River (to a territory between the Volga, the Don and the Donets), a territory later called Levedia. The descendants of those proto-Magyars who stayed in Bashkiria were seen in Bashkiria as late as in 1241. Indeed, many historical references related both the Magyars (Hungarians) and the Bashkirs as two branches of the same nation. However, modern Bashkirs are quite different from their original stock, largely decimated during the Mongol invasion (13th century), and assimilated into Turkic peoples. The proto-Magyars around the Don River were subordinates of the Khazar khaganate. Their neighbours were the archaeological Saltov Culture, i.e. Bulgars (Proto-Bulgarians, descendants of the Onogurs) and the Alans, from whom they learned gardening, elements of cattle breeding and of agriculture. The Bulgars and Magyars shared a long-lasting relationship in Khazaria, either by alliance or rivalry. The system of 2 rulers (later known as kende and gyula) is also thought to be a major inheritance from the Khazars. Tradition holds that the Magyars were organized in a confederacy of seven tribes called Jenő, Kér, Keszi, Kürt-Gyarmat, Megyer (Magyar), Nyék, and Tarján.

Etelköz (c. 830 – c. 895)

Around 830, a civil war broke out in the Khazar khaganate. As a result, three Kabar tribes out of the Khazars joined the Proto-Magyars and they moved to what the Magyars call the Etelköz, i.e. the territory between the Carpathians and the Dnieper River (today's Ukraine). Around 854, the Proto-Magyars had to face a first attack by the Pechenegs. (According to other sources, the reason for the departure of the Proto-Magyars to Etelköz was the attack of the Pechenegs.) Both the Kabars and earlier the Bulgars may have taught the Magyars their Turkic languages; according to the Finno-Ugric theory, this is used to account for at least 300 Turkic words and names still in modern Hungarian. The new neighbours of the Proto-Magyars were the Vikings and the eastern Slavs. Archaeological findings suggest that the Proto-Magyars entered into intense interaction with both groups. From 862 onwards, the proto-Magyars (already referred to as the Ungri) along with their allies, the Kabars, started a series of looting raids from the Etelköz to the Carpathian Basin -- mostly against the Eastern Frankish Empire (Germany) and Great Moravia, but also against the Balaton principality and Bulgaria.

Entering the Carpathian Basin (after 895)

Bulgaria In 895/896, probably under the leadership of Árpád, a part of them crossed the Carpathians to enter the Carpathian basin. The tribe called Magyars (Megyer) was the leading tribe of the Magyar alliance that conquered the center of the basin. At the same time (c. 895), the proto-Magyars in Etelköz were attacked by Bulgaria (due to the involvement of the proto-Magyars in the Bulgaro-Byzantine war of 894-896), and then by their old enemies, the Pechenegs. It is uncertain whether or not those conflicts were the cause of the Magyar departure from Etelköz. In the Carpathian Basin, the Magyars initially occupied the Great Moravian territory at the upper/middle Tisza river – a scarcely populated territory, where, according to Arabian sources, Great Moravia used to send its criminals, and where the Roman Empire had settled the Iazyges centuries earlier. From there, they intensified their looting raids all over continental Europe. In 900, they moved from the upper Tisza river to Transdanubia (Pannonia), which later became the core of the arising Hungarian state. Their allies, the Kabars, probably led by Kursan, probably settled in the region around Bihar. Upon entering the Carpathian basin, the Magyars found a largely Slavic population there, such as the Bulgarians, Slovaks, Slovenians, Croats etc., and minor remnants of the Avars (in the southwest). Influenced by the Slavic population of this territory, the Magyars gradually changed their pastoral way of life to an agricultural one, and borrowed hundreds of Slavic words. See History of Hungary for a continuation, and Hungary before the Magyars for the background. Many of the "proto-Magyars", however, remained to the north of the Carpathians after 895/896, as archaeological findings e.g. in Polish Przemysl suggest. They seem to have joined the other Magyars in 900. There is also a consistent Hungarian population in Transylvania that is historically not related to the Magyars led by Árpád: the Székelys, the main ethnic component of the Hungarian minority in Romania. They are fully acknowledged as Magyars. The Székely people's origin, and in particular the time of their settlement in Transylvania, is a matter of historical controversy (see Székely for details).

Later genetic influences

Besides the various peoples mentioned above, who mixed with the Magyars during their long way to and at their arrival in Hungary, the Magyars also include "genes" from other peoples settled in this territory after the arrival of the Magyars, for example the Cumanians, the Pechenegs and the Germans in the Middle Ages, the Turks – who occupied the central part of present-day Hungary from c. 1541 to c. 1699 - and especially the various nations (Germans, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats and others), invited to resettle the depopulated territories after the departure of the Turks in the 18th century. A Jewish and Gypsy minority has been living in Hungary since the Middle Ages - all of them added their contribution in composing the modern Hungarian nation.

See also


- List of Hungarians
- List of people of Hungarian origin - People with significant Magyar origin, but neither Hungarian citizens nor Hungarian-born
- Csango
- Székely
- Kabar
- Turul

External links


- [http://mek.oszk.hu/01900/01993/html/index1.html Origins of the Hungarians from the Enciklopédia Humana (with many maps and pictures) ]
- [http://hungarianhistory.freeservers.com/Magyars.html An overview of all the various theories]
- [http://arpad.org/pages.php?menuid=6&pageid=3 On the origins of the Hungarians] by Marcell Jankovics Category:Ethnic groups of Europe Category:Eurasian nomads Category:History of Hungary