|
Lichterfelde (Berlin)
Lichterfelde () is a locality in the Boroughs of Berlin, borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf in Berlin, Germany. Until 2001 it was part of the former borough of Steglitz, along with Steglitz and Lankwitz. Lichterfelde is home to institutions like the Berlin Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum, Berlin Botanical Garden and Museum, the Federal Intelligence Service, German Federal Intelligence Service (BND), the German Federal Archives and the Charité university hospital's ''Benjamin Franklin Campus''. Many embassies and landmark-protected buildings are located in the affluent mansion settlement in Lichterfelde West. History The Prussian village ' was founded in the 13th century by Flemish settlers. It witnessed considerable growth in the 19th century when the two "villa colonies" of and were founded: elegant settlements for wealthy Berliners consisting completely of villas or mansions. These settlements and the historical villages of , Lichterfelde and Giesensdorf were united in 1880 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lichterfelde West
Lichterfelde West is part of Lichterfelde (Berlin), Lichterfelde in the Steglitz-Zehlendorf borough of Berlin. It is known for its historic mansions, tree-lined streets and green squares. Next to Dahlem (Berlin), Dahlem and Grunewald (locality), Grunewald, Lichterfelde West is one of the German capital's wealthiest and most sought-after residential areas. Since the Decision on the Capital of Germany, German government's move to Berlin in 2000, it has seen the highest rises in real-estate prices of any area in former West-Berlin. Today, many mansions in Lichterfelde West are used by diplomats for representative purposes. Lichterfelde West is home to the Berlin Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum, Berlin Botanical Garden and Museum, the Schlosspark Lichterfelde manor and park, as well as the Charité university hospital's ''Benjamin Franklin Campus''. The former Prussian Main Cadet School is home to the German Federal Archives, while the Federal Intelligence Service, German Federa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German Nobility
The German nobility () and Royal family, royalty were status groups of the Estates of the realm, medieval society in Central Europe, which enjoyed certain Privilege (law), privileges relative to other people under the laws and customs in the German-speaking area, until the beginning of the 20th century. Historically, German entities that recognized or conferred nobility included the Holy Roman Empire (962–1806), the German Confederation (1814–1866), and the German Empire (1871–1918). Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in the German Empire had a policy of expanding his political base by ennobling nouveau riche industrialists and businessmen who had no noble ancestors. The nobility flourished during the dramatic industrialization and urbanization of Germany after 1850. Landowners modernized their estates, and oriented their business to an international market. Many younger sons were positioned in the rapidly growing national and regional civil service bureaucracies, as well as in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners throughout World War II. Prominent prisoners included Joseph Stalin's oldest son, Yakov Dzhugashvili; assassin Herschel Grynszpan; Paul Reynaud, the penultimate prime minister of the French Third Republic; Francisco Largo Caballero, prime minister of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War; the wife and children of the Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria, crown prince of Bavaria; Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera; and several enemy soldiers and political dissidents. Sachsenhausen was a labour camp, outfitted with several subcamps, a gas chamber, and a medical experimentation area. Prisoners were treated inhumanely, fed inadequately, and killed openly. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ludwig Beck
Ludwig August Theodor Beck (; 29 June 1880 – 20 July 1944) was a German general who served as Chief of the German General Staff from 1933 to 1938. Beck was one of the main conspirators of the 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Beck was a staff officer in the '' Truppenamt'' of the '' Reichswehr'' and became a fellow traveller of the Nazis during the Weimar Republic. Beck was appointed Chief of Staff of the German Army shortly after the Nazi rise to power, supporting Hitler's rearmament of Germany and forceful denunciation of the Treaty of Versailles, although he believed Germany needed more time to prepare for another war. Beck was increasingly disillusioned with Hitler's aggressive foreign policy, the rising totalitarianism of the Nazi regime, and the influence of the SS over the army in military affairs. Beck became a leader of resistance to Nazism in military circles after retiring in 1938 due to public disagreements with Hitler on foreign policy, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Generaloberst
A ("colonel general") was the second-highest general officer rank in the German '' Reichswehr'' and ''Wehrmacht'', the Austro-Hungarian Common Army, the East German National People's Army and in their respective police services. The rank was equal to a four-star full general but below a '' Generalfeldmarschall''. The rank was equivalent to a '' Generaladmiral'' in the ''Kriegsmarine'' until 1945 or to a '' Flottenadmiral'' in the '' Volksmarine'' until 1990. It was the highest ordinary military rank and the highest military rank awarded in peacetime; the higher rank of general field marshal was awarded only in wartime by the head of state. In general, a ''Generaloberst'' had the same privileges as a general field marshal. A literal translation of ''Generaloberst'' would be "uppermost general", but it is often translated as "colonel-general" by analogy to ''Oberst'', "colonel", such as in countries in which the rank was adopted like Russia (). "Oberst" derives from the su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Third Reich
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictatorship. The Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", referred to the Nazi claim that Nazi Germany was the successor to the earlier Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) and German Empire (1871–1918). The Third Reich, which the Nazis referred to as the Thousand-Year Reich, ended in May 1945, after 12 years, when the Allies defeated Germany and entered the capital, Berlin, ending World War II in Europe. After Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933, the Nazi Party began to eliminate political opposition and consolidate power. A 1934 German referendum confirmed Hitler as sole '' Führer'' (leader). Power was centralised in Hitler's person, and his word became the highest law. The government was not a coordinated, coopera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helmuth James Graf Von Moltke
Helmuth James Graf von Moltke (11 March 1907 – 23 January 1945) was a German jurist who, as a draftee in the German Abwehr, acted to subvert German human-rights abuses of people in territories occupied by Germany during World War II. He was a founding member of the Kreisau Circle opposition group, whose members opposed the government of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany, and discussed prospects for a Germany based on moral and democratic principles after Hitler. The Nazis executed him for treason for his participation in these discussions. Moltke was the grandnephew of Helmuth von Moltke the Younger and the great-grandnephew of Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, the victorious commander in the Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian Wars, from whom he inherited the Kreisau estate in Prussian Silesia, now Krzyżowa in Poland. Early life Moltke was born in Kreisau (now Krzyżowa, Świdnica County, Poland) in the Prussian Province of Silesia. His mother, Dorothy (''née'' Rose Inne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Yorck Von Wartenburg
Peter Graf Yorck von Wartenburg (13 November 1904 – 8 August 1944) was a German jurist and a member of the German Resistance against Nazism. He studied law and politics in Bonn and Breslau from 1923 to 1926, gaining his doctorate in Breslau in 1927 and passing the civil service entrance examination for lawyers in Berlin in 1930. He married Marion Winter that same year. Career After working as a lawyer, a legal consultant for the Osthilfe government program reducing agricultural debt in East Prussia, and for the municipal government in Breslau, Yorck served on the Reich Price Commission in Berlin from 1936 to 1941 as the department head responsible for fundamental issues. He refused to join the NSDAP and was thus no longer promoted from 1938 on. He first became involved in the resistance in 1938, working in close collaboration with his friends Fritz-Dietlof Graf von der Schulenburg and Ulrich-Wilhelm Graf von Schwerin von Schwanenfeld. After the Kristallnacht pogroms of 9– ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kreisau Circle
The Kreisau Circle (German: ''Kreisauer Kreis'', ) (1940–1944) was a group of about twenty-five German dissidents in Nazi Germany led by Helmuth James von Moltke, who met at his estate in the rural town of Kreisau, Silesia. The circle was composed of men and a few women from a variety of backgrounds, including those of noble descent, devout Protestants and Catholics, intellectuals, military personnel, socialists and conservatives. Despite their differences, the members of the Kreisau Circle found common interest in their opposition to Hitler's regime on moral and religious grounds. At their meetings, the circle discussed how they would reorganize the German government after the end of the Third Reich. Although the circle did not promote violent overthrow of the regime, their planning was considered by the Nazis to be treasonous as it rested on the assumption that Germany would lose the war. The group began to falter after Helmuth von Moltke was arrested by the Gestapo in Janu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler
The 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler or SS Division Leibstandarte, abbreviated as LSSAH (), began as Adolf Hitler's personal bodyguard unit, responsible for guarding the Führer's person, offices, and residences. Initially the size of a regiment, the LSSAH eventually grew into an elite division-sized unit during World War II. The LSSAH participated in combat during the invasion of Poland and was amalgamated into the Waffen-SS together with the '' SS-Verfügungstruppe'' (SS-VT) and the combat units of the ''SS-Totenkopfverbände'' (SS-TV) prior to Operation Barbarossa in 1941. By mid-1942 it had been increased in size from a regiment to a division and was designated SS Division "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler". It received its final form as a Panzer division in October 1943. Members of the LSSAH perpetrated numerous atrocities and war crimes, including the Malmedy massacre. They killed an estimated 5,000 prisoners of war in the period 1940–1945, mostly o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berlin Police
The Berlin Police (; formerly , ) is the force for the city-state of Berlin, Germany. Law enforcement in Germany is divided between federal and state () agencies. The Berlin Police is headed by the ('Chief of Police'), Dr. Barbara Slowik. Her deputy is Police Vice-Chief Marco Langner. They are supported in the management of the force by the Staff Office of the Police Chief, the commanders of the five Local Divisions, the Division for Central Tasks, the Criminal Investigation Department, and the Central Services Division and the Academy of Police. History The Royal Prussian Police of Berlin was founded on 25 March 1809, with Justus Gruner as the first chief of police. In March 1848, Berlin was one of the places where the Revolution of 1848 took place (also called the March Revolution). At this time, just a small number of police officers (approx. 200 officers for 400,000 citizens) with limited authority, the so-called ''Revierpolizei'' (literally "police station police"), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greater Berlin Act
The Greater Berlin Act (), officially Law Regarding the Creation of the New Municipality of Berlin (), was a law passed by the Prussian state government in 1920, which greatly expanded the size of the Prussian and German capital of Berlin. History Berlin had been part of the Province of Brandenburg since 1815. On 1 April 1881, the city became Stadtkreis Berlin, a city district separate from Brandenburg. The Greater Berlin Act was passed by the Prussian Parliament on 27 April 1920 and came into effect on 1 October of the same year. The new Prussian province then termed ''Greater Berlin'' acquired territories from the Province of Brandenburg and consisted of the following: * the city of Berlin (''Alt-Berlin''); * seven towns that surrounded Berlin, namely Charlottenburg, Köpenick, Lichtenberg, Neukölln/Rixdorf, Schöneberg, Spandau and Wilmersdorf; * 59 rural communities and 27 estate districts from the surrounding districts of Niederbarnim, Osthavelland and Teltow; * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
