title: Tagalog people

text: During later centuries, Tagalog nobles would wear the "barong tagalog" for men and the "baro't saya" for women. When the Philippines became independent, the barong Tagalog became popularised as the national costume of the country, as the wearers were the majority in the new capital, Manila.


title: Tagalog people

text: Metalworking is one of the most prominent trades of pre-colonial Tagalog, noted for the abundance of terms recorded in Vocabulario de la Lengua Tagala that is related to metalworking, signifying a sophisticated practice of this art which has died down during the colonial period.


title: Tagalog people

text: bahay kubo, bahay na bato, religious architecture (churches, convents, monasteries), precolonial architecture types


title: Tagalog people

text: The Tagalog mostly practice Christianity (majority Catholicism and minority Protestantism) with a minority practicing Islam, Buddhism, indigenous Philippine folk religions (Tagalog religion), and other religions as well as no religion.


title: Tagalog people

text: Precolonial Tagalog societies were largely animist, alongside a gradual spread of mostly syncretic forms of Islam since roughly the early 16th century. Subsequent Spanish colonization in the latter part of the same century ushered a gradual spread of Roman Catholicism, resulting as the dominant religion today alongside widespread syncretic folk beliefs both mainstream and rural Since the American occupation there is also a small minority of Protestant and Restorationist Christians. Even fewer today are muslim 'reverts' called "balik-islam", and revivals of worship to pre-Hispanicized anito.


title: Tagalog people

text: Most pre-Hispanic Tagalogs at the time of Spanish advent followed indigenous polytheistic and animist beliefs, syncretized primarily with some Hindu-Buddhist and Islamic expressions from a long history of trade with kingdoms and sultanates elsewhere in Southeast Asia. "Anitism" is the contemporary academic term for these beliefs, which had no documented explicit label among Tagalogs themselves. Many characteristics like the importance of ancestor worship, shamanism, coconuts, swine, fowl, reptilians, and seafaring motifs share similarities with other indigenous animist beliefs not just elsewhere in the Philippines, but also much of maritime Southeast Asia, Taiwanese aboriginal cultures, the Pacific islands, and several Indian Ocean islands.


title: Tagalog people

text: Bathala is the supreme creator god who sends ancestor spirits and deities called anito as delegates to intervene in earthly affairs, and sometimes as intercessors for invocations on their behalf. Katalonan and the dambana, known also as "lambana" in the Old Tagalog language.


title: Tagalog people

text: Roman Catholicism arrived in Tagalog areas in the Philippines during the late 16th century, starting from the Spanish conquest of the Maynila and its subsequent claim for the Crown. Augustinian friars, later followed by Franciscans, Jesuits, and Dominicans would subsequently establish churches and schools within Intramuros, serving as base for further (but gradual) proselytization to other Tagalog areas and beyond in Luzon. By the 18th century, the majority of Tagalogs are Catholics; indigenous Tagalog religion was largely purged by missionaries, or otherwise undertook Catholic idioms which comprise many syncretic folk beliefs practiced today. The "Pista ng Itim na Nazareno" (Feast of the Black Nazarene) of Manila is the largest Catholic procession in the nation.


title: Tagalog people

text: Notable Roman Catholic Tagalogs are St. Lorenzo Ruiz of Manila, Venerable Alfredo Obviar, the cardinals Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle and Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales.


title: Tagalog people

text: A minority of Tagalogs are also members of numerous Protestant and Restorationist faiths such as the Iglesia ni Cristo, the Aglipayans, and other denominations introduced during American rule.


title: Tagalog people

text: A few Tagalogs practice Islam, mostly by former Christians either by study abroad or contact with Moro migrants from the southern Philippines. By the early 16th century, some Tagalogs (especially merchants) were Muslim due to their links with Bruneian Malays. The old Tagalog-speaking Kingdom of Maynila was ruled as a Muslim kingdom, Islam is prominent enough in coastal areas of Tagalog region that Spaniards mistakenly called them "Moros" due to abundance of indications of practicing Muslim faith and their close association with Brunei.


title: Tagalog people

text: The language of the Tagalog people evolved from Old Tagalog to Modern Tagalog. Modern Tagalog has five distinct dialects:


title: Tagalog people

text: Baybayin is the indigenous Tagalog writing system. Few people today know how to read and write in Baybayin, yielding the script as nearly extinct. A bill in Congress was filed to make Baybayin the country's national script, yet remains pending in the Senate and the House of Representatives. Nowadays, the Baybayin is artistically expressed in calligraphy, drawing new forms and from old writings.


title: Tagalog people

text: The Tagalog people were skilled Spanish speakers from the 18th to 19th centuries due to the Spanish colonial occupation era. When the Americans arrived, English became the most important language in the 20th century. At present-time, the language of the Tagalogs are Tagalog, English, and a mix of the two, known in Tagalog pop culture as Taglish. Some Spanish words are still used by the Tagalog, though sentence construction in Spanish is no longer used.


title: Namitha

text: Namitha Vankawala is an Indian actress, model and politician who predominantly works in Tamil and Telugu cinema along with a few films in Kannada and Malayalam. She serves as a state executive member of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in Tamil Nadu.


title: Namitha

text: Starting her career as a beauty pageant contestant, Namitha was crowned Miss Surat during the year of 1998 at the age of 17. She went on to participate in the 2001 Miss India pageant and ended up as the third runner-up, while Celina Jaitley was crowned Miss India. The publicity she garnered during the competition prompted her to move to Mumbai and subsequently she did a number of TV commercials such as Himani cream and hand soap, Arun Ice Creams, Manikchand Gutka, and Nile Herbal Shampoo early in her career. Unable to make a breakthrough into the Hindi film industry, she enrolled in an English Literature course and then considered returning to Surat but chose to later accept an invitation to audition for a Telugu film. After being selected, she consequently made her acting debut in Sreenu Vaitla's coming-of-age romantic film, "Sontham" (2002). Her next film, Saran's big budget action film "Gemeni" (2002) opposite Venkatesh, garnered her further attention and her portrayal of a Marwardi girl won critical acclaim. She had also briefly given herself the stagename of "Bhairavi" for the film, but later reverted to her original name.


title: Namitha

text: In the mid-2000s, she quickly became popular in Tamil language films with her mature look and tall frame prompting film makers to cast her opposite ageing actors such as Vijayakanth, Sathyaraj, Arjun, Parthiban, Sundar C and Sarathkumar. She appeared in a series of commercial action films opposite such actors, including roles in "Aai" (2005), "Chanakya" (2005) and "Aanai" (2005). Likewise, she was regularly cast in comedy films with senior actors too, making appearances in Siddique's "Engal Anna" (2004) and six of Sakthi Chidambaram's comedy dramas. During the period, she appeared in her first Hindi film "Love Ke Chakkar Mein", worked on a Kannda film titled "Namitha I Love You" and shot for an English film, "Maya", which was later released in 2008 as "Kamasutra Nights". In 2007, she had the opportunity to work with two leading actors from Tamil cinema, respectively appearing with Vijay in the A. R. Rahman-musical "Azhagiya Tamil Magan" (2007) and Ajith Kumar in Vishnuvardhan's gangster film "Billa" (2007). By the end of the period, Namitha had developed a "cult following" in Tamil Nadu as a result of her glamorous appearances in films, with the media regularly looking to feature her in reports and Behindwoods.com labelled her "omnipotent and omnipresent".


title: Namitha

text: However, by the turn of the decade, Namitha's popularity began to decline after several of her films failed to perform well and the South Indian film industry moved away from casting women in outright glamorous roles, a character that Namitha had become famed for performing. Film makers were also reluctant to cast Namitha opposite young male actors, as the older generation began to stop appearing in leading roles. She was relegated to increasingly smaller roles and guest appearances, while the big-budget horror film, "Jaganmohini" (2009), where she played the title role performed poorly at the box office. Likewise, she became engaged in disputes with her filmmakers, with the director of "Azhagana Ponnuthan" (2010), criticising the actress's lack of cooperation for the film's failure. She briefly prioritized her work in Kannada films in the early 2010s, while several of her films endured production delays including "Ilamai Oonjal" (2016). After several years without any film releases, she announced plans of making a comeback in 2016.


title: Namitha

text: In 2017, Namitha appeared on the Tamil reality television show, "Bigg Boss" hosted by Kamal Haasan. During her stint in the show, she was widely criticised for her harsh treatment of actress Oviya. Her upcoming projects include T. Rajender's "Indraya Kadhal Da", where she plays the antagonist.


title: Namitha

text: At the height of her success in 2008, Namitha's devotee built her a temple near Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. She became the second actress after Khushbu in the state to be immortalised in such a fashion by her fan following. In October 2010, there was an attempt to kidnap her by a fan at Trichy in Tamil Nadu. In 2012, the actress was chosen by Tokyo TV, a Japanese media station, as the "most beautiful person" in India. Namitha has been an advocate of safe driving and in June 2012, she and Tamil actor Bharat promoted awareness of safe driving.


title: Namitha

text: She joined AIADMK in 24 April 2016 the presence of party general secretary and Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa in Trichy on Saturday evening.In 2019, Namitha along with actor Radha Ravi joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in the presence of party's national president J. P. Nadda in Chennai. In July 2020, after 8 months of joining the BJP, Namitha was appointed as one of the state executive member of the BJP in Tamil Nadu.


title: Namitha

text: Namitha married businessman Veerendra Chowdary in Tirupathi in November 2017. The couple announced their pregnancy via Namitha's Instagram on her 41st birthday. She delivered twin sons in August 2022.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: The Phaistos Disc (also spelled Phaistos Disk, Phaestos Disc) is a disk of fired clay from the Minoan palace of Phaistos on the island of Crete, possibly dating to the middle or late Minoan Bronze Age (second millennium BC). The disk is about in diameter and covered on both sides with a spiral of stamped symbols. Its purpose and its original place of manufacture remain disputed. It is now on display at the archaeological museum of Heraklion.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: The disc was discovered in 1908 by the Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier in the Minoan palace-site of Phaistos, and features 241 tokens, comprising 45 distinct signs, which were apparently made by pressing hieroglyphic "seals" into a disc of soft clay, in a clockwise sequence spiralling toward the center of the disk.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: The Phaistos Disc captured the imagination of amateur and professional archaeologists, and many attempts have been made to decipher the code behind the disc's signs. While it is not clear that it is a script, most attempted decipherments assume that it is; most additionally assume a syllabary, others an alphabet or logography. Attempts at decipherment are generally thought to be unlikely to succeed unless more examples of the signs are found, as it is generally agreed that there is not enough context available for a meaningful analysis.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: Although the Phaistos Disc is generally accepted as authentic by archaeologists, a few scholars believe that the disc is a forgery or a hoax.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: The Phaistos Disc was discovered in the Minoan palace-site of Phaistos, near Hagia Triada, on the south coast of Crete; specifically the disc was found in the basement of room 8 in building 101 of a group of buildings to the northeast of the main palace. This grouping of four rooms also served as a formal entry into the palace complex. Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier recovered the intact "dish", about in diameter and uniformly slightly more than in thickness, on 3 July 1908 during his excavation of the first Minoan palace.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: The disc was found in the main cell of an underground "temple depository". These basement cells, only accessible from above, were neatly covered with a layer of fine plaster. Their content was poor in precious artifacts, but rich in black earth and ashes, mixed with burnt bovine bones. In the northern part of the main cell, in the same black layer, a few centimetres south-east of the disc and about above the floor, Linear A tablet 'PH-1' was also found. The site apparently collapsed as a result of an earthquake, possibly linked with the eruption of the Santorini volcano that affected large parts of the Mediterranean region during the mid-2nd millennium B.C.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: The Phaistos Disc is generally accepted as authentic by archaeologists. The assumption of authenticity is based on the excavation records by Luigi Pernier. This assumption is supported by the later discovery of the Arkalochori Axe with similar, though not identical, glyphs.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: The possibility that the disc is a 1908 forgery or hoax has been raised by two scholars. According to a report in "The Times", the date of manufacture has never been established by thermoluminescence dating. In his 2008 review, Robinson does not endorse the forgery arguments, but argues that "a thermoluminescence test for the Phaistos Disc is imperative. It will either confirm that new finds are worth hunting for, or it will stop scholars from wasting their effort."


title: Phaistos Disc

text: A gold signet ring from Knossos (the Mavro Spilio ring), found in 1926, contains a Linear A inscription developed in a field defined by a spiral—similar to the Phaistos Disc. A sealing found in 1955 shows the only known parallel to sign 21 (𐇤, the "comb") of the Phaistos disc. This is considered as evidence that the Phaistos Disc is a genuine Minoan artifact.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: Yves Duhoux (1977) dates the disc to between 1850 B.C. and 1600 B.C. (MMIII in Minoan chronology) on the basis of Luigi Pernier's report, which says that the disc was in a Middle Minoan undisturbed context. Jeppesen (1963) dates it to after 1400 (LMII–LMIII in Minoan chronology). Doubting the viability of Pernier's report, Louis Godart (1990) resigns himself to admitting that archaeologically, the disc may be dated to anywhere in Middle or Late Minoan times (MMI–LMIII, a period spanning most of the second millennium B.C.). J. Best suggests a date in the first half of the 14th century B.C. (LMIIIA) based on his dating of tablet PH-1.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: The disc's inscription was likely made by pressing hieroglyphic "seals" into the soft clay, in a clockwise sequence spiraling toward the center of the disk. It was then fired at high temperature. The unique character of the Phaistos Disc stems from the fact that the entire text was inscribed in this way, reproducing a body of text with reusable characters.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: The German typesetter and linguist Herbert Brekle, in his article "The typographic principle" in the , argues that the Phaistos Disc is an early document of movable type printing, since it meets the essential criterion of typographic printing, that of type identity:


title: Phaistos Disc

text: As a medieval example of the same technique, he goes on to cite the Prüfening dedicatory inscription.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: In his work on decipherment, Benjamin Schwartz also refers to the Phaistos Disc as "the first movable type".


title: Phaistos Disc

text: In his popular science book "Guns, Germs and Steel", Jared Diamond describes the disc as an example of a technological advancement that did not become widespread because it was made at the wrong time in history, and contrasts this with Gutenberg's printing press.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: There are 242 tokens on the disc, comprising 45 distinct signs. Many of these 45 signs represent easily identifiable objects, such as plants. In addition to these, there is a small diagonal line that occurs underneath the final sign in a group a total of 18 times. The disc shows traces of corrections made by the scribe in several places. The 45 symbols were numbered by Arthur Evans from 01 to 45, and this numbering has become the conventional reference used by most researchers. Some symbols have been compared with Linear A characters by Nahm, Timm, and others. Other scholars (J. Best, S. Davis) have pointed to similar resemblances with the Anatolian hieroglyphs, or with Egyptian hieroglyphs (A. Cuny). In the table below, the character "names" as given by Louis Godart (1995) are given in upper case; where other description or elaboration applies, they are given in lower case.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: The nine "hapaxes" (symbols occurring just once) are 04 (A5), 05 (B3), 11 (A13), 15 (B8), 17 (A24), 30 (B27), 42 (B9), 43 (B4), 44 (A7). Of the eight twice-occurring symbols, four (03, 21, 28, 41) occur on side A only, three (09, 16, 20) on side B only, and only one (14) occurs on both sides.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: There are a number of signs marked with an oblique stroke; the strokes are not imprinted but carved by hand, and are attached to the first or last sign of a "word", depending on the direction of reading chosen. Their meaning is a matter of discussion. One hypothesis, supported by Evans, Duhoux, Ohlenroth and others, is that they were used to subdivide the text into paragraphs, but alternative meanings have been offered by other scholars.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: Evans, at one point, published an assertion that the disc had been written, and should be read, from the center out; because it would have been easiest to place the inscription first and then size the disc to fit the text. There is general agreement that he was wrong, and Evans himself later changed his mind: the inscription was made, and should be read, from the outside in toward the centre. The centres of the spirals are not in the centre of the disc, and some of the symbols near the centre are crowded, as though the maker was cramped for space. One pair of symbols are set top-to-bottom, so it is hard to tell what order they should be in. Except in the cramped section, when there are overstrikes, the inner symbol overlies the outer symbol. Jean Faucounau has proposed a reconstruction of the scribe's movements, which would also require an inward direction; Yves Duhoux says that any outward reading may be discarded. Despite this consensus, there are still a few such attempted decipherments (See Phaistos Disc decipherment claims).


title: Phaistos Disc

text: In addition to the question of the directionality of the text on the disc itself, different viewpoints are held as to how the Phaistos Disc characters should be displayed when transcribed into text. The disc itself probably has right-to-left directionality, if reading proceeds from the outside to the centre; this means that the reading direction is into the faces of the people and animals, as it is in Egyptian and Anatolian. Phaistos Disc characters are shown with left-to-right directionality in this article, with the glyphs mirrored compared to their orientation on the disc; which is also the typical practice for edited Egyptian and Anatolian hieroglyphic text.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: There are 61 "words" on the Disc; 31 on side A and 30 on side B (numbered A1 to A31 and B1 to B30, outside to inside), here read outside-to-inside (putting the "plumed head" signs word-initially and the strokes word-finally). The shortest words are two symbols in length, the longest seven symbols. The strokes are here transcribed as diagonal strokes. The transcription begins at the vertical line of five dots, circling the rim of the disc once, clockwise (13 words on A, 12 words on B) before spiralling toward the center (18 more words on each side). There is one word-final effaced sign at A8, which Godart (1995:101) notes as resembling sign 3 or 20; or less probably 8 or 44. Evans considered side A as the front side, but technical arguments have since been forwarded favouring side B as the front side.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: 02-12-13-01-18/ 24-40-12 29-45-07/ 29-29-34 02-12-04-40-33 27-45-07-12 27-44-08 02-12-06-18-? 31-26-35 02-12-41-19-35 01-41-40-07 02-12-32-23-38/ 39-11


title: Phaistos Disc

text: 02-27-25-10-23-18 28-01/ 02-12-31-26/ 02-12-27-27-35-37-21 33-23 02-12-31-26/ 02-27-25-10-23-18 28-01/ 02-12-31-26/ 02-12-27-14-32-18-27 06-18-17-19 31-26-12 02-12-13-01 23-19-35/ 10-03-38 02-12-27-27-35-37-21 13-01 10-03-38


title: Phaistos Disc

text: 02-12-22-40-07 27-45-07-35 02-37-23-05/ 22-25-27 33-24-20-12 16-23-18-43/ 13-01-39-33 15-07-13-01-18 22-37-42-25 07-24-40-35 02-26-36-40 27-25-38-01


title: Phaistos Disc

text: 29-24-24-20-35 16-14-18 29-33-01 06-35-32-39-33 02-09-27-01 29-36-07-08/ 29-08-13 29-45-07/ 22-29-36-07-08/ 27-34-23-25 07-18-35 07-45-07/ 07-23-18-24 22-29-36-07-08/ 09-30-39-18-07 02-06-35-23-07 29-34-23-25 45-07/


title: Phaistos Disc

text: The "plumed head" (02) only ever occurs word-initially, in 13 instances followed by the "shield" (12, which in some instances also occurs word-finally). Six words occur twice each:


title: Phaistos Disc

text: The three-word sequence 02-27-25-10-23-18 28-01/ 02-12-31-26/ occurs twice (A14-16, A20-22). 02-12-31-26/ recurs for a third time (A19). Four more words occur twice each, 02-12-27-27-35-37-21 (A17, A29), 10-03-38 (A28, A31), 22-29-36-07-08/ (B21, B26) and 29-45-07/ (A3, B20).


title: Phaistos Disc

text: The disc shows signs of corrections having been made, with some signs erased and over-printed by other signs.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: Godart (1995:99-107) describes these corrections as occurring in the following words: A1 (signs 02-12-13-01), A4 (29-29-34) together with A5 (02-12-04), A8 (12), A10 (02-41-19?-35), A12 (12), A16 (12-31-26?), A17 (second 27?), A29 (second 27?), B1 (12-22), B3 (37?), B4 (22-25 imprinted over the same), B10 (07?-24?-40?), B13 (beside 29?). Question marks indicate uncertainty about that particular sign being the result of a correction.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: The two signs 27 (Hide) in word A29 are rotated 180 degrees compared with all other occurrences of this sign: "head down" versus "head up". This rotation might be motivated by lack of space in A29.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: The rotations of the signs 29 (Cat) and 31 (Eagle) have no lack of space. Defining the sign 29 in words B19, B20 and B21 as "head to the right", this presents as: head down in B29; head to the left in A3 and B15; head up in B18 and B26; head in between up and left in B13; head in between right and down in A4 (twice). The direction of the head of sign 31 is as follows: to the right in A16, up in A9 and A25, and to the left in A22.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: The sign 02 (Plumed head) in word A29 is 90 degrees rotated to the right compared with all other occurrences of this sign. This might well be due to lack of space; the word is crowded and messy, with the sign 12 (Shield) pushed aside.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: The two occurrences of sign 28 (Bull's leg) are not rotated compared with each other. Rather, the way this sign is shown in the literature (including Unicode), with the foot down, is rotated compared with the sign on the disc, with the foot up.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: If assuming that the rotations are completely randomly distributed, then the probability that they end up in only two (or three) signs is very small. This suggests that these rotations might be deliberate.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: There are several occurrences on side A where the same sign is at two places near each other in adjacent windings of the spiral, such as the Plumed Head (sign 02) in word A1 and the Plumed Head in word A14. Three patterns of such occurrences have been identified. A computer analysis of one of them (involving most of the Plumed Head signs on side A) has been performed with the conclusion that the probability of this pattern being coincidental is small. The existence of the two other patterns further decreases the probability of coincidence.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: Several occurrences were caused by a correction. The orientation of the signs so seems to be relevant: the two Hides (sign 27) in word A29 are upside down, with the "heads" pointing to the Hide sign in the adjacent winding in word A23. If these occurrences are not coincidental, this narrows the potential meanings of the Disc, as it would not be a one-dimensional text.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: A great deal of speculation developed around the disc during the 20th century, particularly capturing the imagination of amateur archeologists. Many attempts have been made to decipher the code behind the disc's signs, with a wide variety of theories having been suggested, including prayers, a narrative or an adventure story, a "psalterion", a call to arms, a board game, and a geometric theorem; some of these theories are considered to be pseudoarchaeology, with little realistic chance of being accurate.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: Most linguistic interpretations assume a syllabary, based on the proportion of 45 symbols in a text of 241 tokens typical for that type of script; some assume a syllabary with interspersed logographic symbols, a property of every known syllabary of the Ancient Near East (Linear B as well as cuneiform and hieroglyphic writing). There are, however, also alphabetic and purely logographical interpretations.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: While enthusiasts still believe the mystery can be solved, scholarly attempts at decipherment are thought to be unlikely to succeed unless more examples of the signs turn up elsewhere, as it is generally thought that there is not enough context available for meaningful analysis. Any decipherment without external confirmation, such as successful comparison to other inscriptions, is unlikely to be accepted as conclusive.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: There are a few main theories about the origin of the signs. For the first few decades after its discovery most scholars argued strongly against the local origin of the artifact. Evans (1909:24f.) wrote that:


title: Phaistos Disc

text: Glotz (1925:381) claimed that the clay was not from Crete. Ipsen (1929:15) concluded that the disc was certainly from somewhere on the Aegean. Because of its differences from Linear A or B, Ipsen found it tempting to assume, like Evans, a non-Cretan origin for the Disc. He observes, however, that since Linear A was a common Aegean script such an assumption will not resolve the problem of multiplicity.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: The Arkalochori Axe and other finds have made Cretan origin more popular: female images with pendulous breasts have also been found at Malia and Phaistos. (Godart 1995:125). Duhoux asserts the Cretan provenance of the Disc; in his review of current research, Trauth (1990:154) concludes that "Crete as [the] source of the Disc can no longer be called into question." Andrew Robinson (2008), in a review in "Nature", wrote "Most scholars today, including Duhoux, think it a plausible working hypothesis that the disc was made in Crete."


title: Phaistos Disc

text: Ipsen (1929:11) also speaks against an entirely independent origin of the scripts, arguing that its inventors did not leap from no knowledge of writing to a syllabic script with these elegant signs. He goes on to cite Hieroglyphic Luwian as a "perfect parallel" (Ipsen 1929:17) of an original script inspired under the direct influence of other scripts (its symbol values inspired by cuneiform, its shapes by Egyptian hieroglyphs).


title: Phaistos Disc

text: Schwartz (1956:108) asserts a genetic relationship between the Phaistos Disc script and the Cretan linear scripts.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: Among the known scripts, there are three main candidates for being related to the Disc's script, all of them partly syllabic, partly logographic: Linear A, Anatolian hieroglyphs and Egyptian hieroglyphs. More remote possibilities are comparison with the Phoenician abjad or the Byblos syllabary.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: Some signs are close enough to both Linear A and Linear B that they may have the same phonetic values, such as glyph 12 = 'qe', glyph 43 = 'ta', or glyph 31 = 'ku'. However, this opinion is not shared by all specialists of the Aegean Scripts.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: A recent systematic comparison with Linear A is that of Torsten Timm, 2004. Based on the Linear A character distribution patterns collected by Facchetti, Timm concludes that the language of the disc inscription is the same as the language of Linear A. Timm identifies 20 of the 45 characters with Linear signs, assigning Linear B phonetic values to 16.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: Achterberg et al. (2004) present a systematic comparison with Anatolian hieroglyphs, resulting in a full decipherment claim. In particular, they consider the stroke symbol cognate to the Luwian 'r(a/i)' symbol, but assign it the value '-ti'. The stroke on A3 is identified as the personal name determinative. Phaistos glyph 01 is compared to the logogram 'SARU', a walking man or walking legs in Luwian. 02 is compared to word-initial 'a', a head with a crown in Luwian. The "bow" 11 is identified as the logogram 'sol suus', the winged sun known from Luwian royal seals. The "shield" 12 is compared to the near identical Luwian logogram 'TURPI' "bread" and assigned the value 'tu'. Phaistos glyph 39 is read as the "thunderbolt", logogram of Tarhunt, in Luwian a W-shaped hieroglyph.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: The decipherment claims listed are categorized into linguistic decipherments, identifying the language of the inscription, and non-linguistic decipherments. A purely logographical reading is not linguistic in the strict sense: while it may reveal the meaning of the inscription, it will not allow for the identification of the underlying language.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: A set of 46 Phaistos Disc characters, comprising 45 signs and one combining oblique stroke, have been encoded in Unicode since April 2008 (Unicode version 5.1). They are assigned to the range 101D0–101FF in Plane 1 (the Supplementary Multilingual Plane). Phaistos Disc characters were encoded with strong left-to-right directionality, and so in code charts and text (such as elsewhere on this page) the glyphs are mirrored from the way they appear on the disc itself.


title: Phaistos Disc

text: Side A of the Phaistos Disc is used as the logo of FORTH, one of the largest research centers in Greece.


title: EarthGang

text: EarthGang (stylized EARTHGANG) is an American hip hop duo from Atlanta, Georgia, composed of Olu (aka Johnny Venus) and WowGr8 (aka Doctur Dot – born Eian Parker). They are co-founders of the musical collective Spillage Village, with JID, Hollywood JB, JordxnBryant, 6LACK, Mereba, and Benji.


title: EarthGang

text: Formed in 2008, EarthGang released their first EP, "The Better Party," in 2010. This was followed by several singles and two mixtapes, "Mad Men" and "Good News" in 2011. In 2013, the duo released their debut album "Shallow Graves For Toys" and was largely well-received, with Noisey calling it "one of the most well thought-out releases of the year" and praising the album's "playful delivery and biting lyricism." Their second album, "Strays with Rabies", was released to positive reviews in 2015. After signing to J. Cole's Dreamville Records, EarthGang released a trilogy of EPs: "Rags", "Robots" (2017), and "Royalty" (2018), leading up to their major label debut album, "Mirrorland" (2019).


title: EarthGang

text: The rap duo EarthGang was first formed in 2008 by Johnny Venus and Doctur Dot, then both high school students in Atlanta, Georgia. According to Johnny Venus, they had first met on a field trip in 9th grade at Benjamin Elijah Mays High School, with Venus later approaching Doctur Dot to ask about forming a music group. Avid fans of rap and hip hop, both members had grown up listening to artists as diverse as the Ohio Players, Dizzy Gillespie, Madonna, and Richard Pryor. About their name EarthGang, Venus explained in 2011 that "The name came to me abruptly one day. It represents what we're made of and why we do what we do. It's for the people by the people. Our music is influenced by the conscious and subconscious, and we create it to influence the like."


title: EarthGang

text: On January 26, 2010, the group released its first EP, the mixtape titled "The Better Party." Their first full-length recording project, they recorded in a multitude of studio spaces, which, according to Venus, included "dorm rooms at Hampton University, closets in Atlanta, a house studio owned by 'Mr. Fish' (a fellow underground Atlanta musician), and finally in Hampton University's Music Recording Technology Jazz studio." The EP was mixed and mastered by EarthGang, with help from Jack Swain. Also in 2010, they began touring in the United States, performing at festivals such as the A3C Festival in Atlanta. They released periodic singles as well, and in November 2010 they debuted the song "Miss the Show." In early 2011 they taped and released a music video for "Kick'n It", a track first included on "The Better Party." Soon afterwards they released the single "Opium", which they would later film a music video for. The group self-released two albums in 2011: "Mad Men" in April, and "Good News" in December.


title: EarthGang

text: They released their track "The F Bomb" on June 4, 2012. The song would later be included on a 2014 album and was made into a music video. "Machete", a single produced by 808 Mafia, was self-released by EarthGang on February 10, 2013, shortly before the release of their music video for their 2012 single "Fire Kicking Tree Limbs". In March 2013 the group released "UFOs", a slow single over nine minutes long. According to a review in "Pigeons and Planes", "Sexual, contemplative, sprawling, and slow, EarthGang's 'UFOs' veers far left from the duo's last music expedition 'Machete' and hews a bit closer to the earthy soul that typified so much mid-'90s Dungeon Family output." They again performed at the A3C Festival in early 2013, also opening for Black Fest at Stanford University.


title: EarthGang

text: On July 8, 2013, EarthGang released their album "Shallow Graves for Toys" on the imprint Spillage Village. The album includes several singles released earlier, such as "The F Bomb", "UFOs", and "Machete". "The F Bomb" was produced by Hollywood JB of Spillage Village. The album was re-released on iTunes in the summer of 2014. In response to "Shallow Graves For Toys", in 2014, Noisey called EarthGang "an engaging, clever rap duo", praising the album's "playful delivery and biting lyricism" and calling it "one of the most well thought-out releases of the year." Since the album, EarthGang has released several official music videos from the album. In the summer of 2014, the video for "The F Bomb" was released. On September 20, 2014, EarthGang began supporting a 40 date tour with their collaborator Ab-Soul, a member of Top Dawg Entertainment.


title: EarthGang

text: On February 26, 2015, EarthGang released a 7 track EP called "Torba" with track titles for each day of the week. The EP included features from Mac Miller, OG Maco, and JordxnBryant, with production from Childish Major, Shine, Zeroh, Hollywood JB, and more. On July 6, Spillage Village released their second collaboration project "Bears Like This Too". On November 6, 2015, EarthGang released their second album, entitled "Strays with Rabies". The album includes features and cuts from JID, DJ Khalil, DrewsThatDuDe, Ducko McFli, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, Richie Quake, SykSense. They were also one of the featuring artists on Mac Miller's GO:OD AM tour. EarthGang has stated they as well contributed to the production of the album. On June 3, 2016, the duo would join Dreamville Records' Bas on his nationwide Too High to Riot Tour. The tour would later be reprised in Europe on November 13. On December 2, 2016, Spillage Village released "Bears Like This Too Much" with features from J. Cole and Bas, and production from Mac Miller, Ducko Mcfli, Childish Major and J. Cole among others.


title: EarthGang

text: On August 31, 2017, rapper J. Cole's imprint Dreamville Records announced the signing of the duo and they released their Dreamville debut project the following day, the first extended play from their trilogy titled "Rags". The project features guest appearances from DC Young Fly, Childish Major, Mick Jenkins, and fellow Spilage Village member and Dreamville artist JID. Their second EP in the trilogy "Robots" was released on October 20, with SiR as a guest feature. The third was released on February 23, 2018, named "Royalty", with features coming from Ari Lennox and Mereba. In 2017 and 2018, EarthGang co-headlined in the North American and European Never Had Shit Tour with JID, and guests Lute, Chaz French, and Mereba. A year after serving as the opening act on the European leg of J. Cole's 4 Your Eyez Only World Tour, EarthGang were also the supporting act on 36 shows of the North American KOD Tour in 2018.


title: EarthGang

text: On September 4, 2018, EarthGang premiered the song "Up" on the Berlin platform "Colors Studio". On September 21, they released a single titled "Stuck" featuring Arin Ray. In January 2019, the duo announced that they will be a supporting act for Smino on the Hoopti Tour. On February 5, 2019, they released the second single "Proud of U" featuring Young Thug. On July 5, 2019, Dreamville Records released their 3rd collaborative album, "Revenge of the Dreamers III". Earthgang contributed to five songs including "Down Bad", "Swivel", and "Sacrifices" on the album. On August 30, they officially released the single "Up", and "Ready to Die" on September 2. "Mirrorland" was released on September 6, 2019, and includes features from Young Thug, T-Pain, Kehlani, and Arin Ray. The production of the album was handled by a variety of producers including Olu, J. Cole, Elite, Ron Gilmore, Christo, Bink, DJ Dahi, Childish Major and Groove, among others.


title: EarthGang

text: On September 25, 2020, Spillage Village released their fourth collective album "Spilligion", with EarthGang part of the singles "End of Daze", "Baptize", and "Hapi". The duo also released the single "Powered Up" and appeared on songs with TOKiMONSTA, Louis The Child, Sinéad Harnett, and Gorillaz in 2020. On December 18, EarthGang released the first single from their next album, "Options" featuring Wale. On February 16, 2021, EarthGang revealed the album title, "Ghetto Gods".


title: EarthGang

text: On December 8, 2021, EarthGang released the first official single for the album titled "American Horror Story". On January 14, 2022, the second single titled "All Eyes On Me" was released, accompanied by a music video. The third single, "Amen" featuring Musiq Soulchild was released on February 22, and was premiered on the Apple Music 1 radio show. On the same day, they also announced the Biodeghettable Tour, with Mike Dimes and "Pigeons & Planes" supporting. On February 25, 2022, "Ghetto Gods" was released, including guest appearances from Future, JID, J. Cole, Musiq Soulchild, Baby Tate, Lynae Vanee, CeeLo Green, Nick Cannon, and Ari Lennox. On March 31, they appeared on the Dreamville compilation "", on the songs "Ghetto Gods Freestyle", "Jozi Flows" and "Everybody Ain't Shit".


title: EarthGang

text: Incorporating Southern hip hop and genres such as funk and soul music, EarthGang has drawn comparisons to groups such as Outkast, Dungeon Family and The Pharcyde, among other artists. Stated the duo in early 2011, "When we create, our goal is to set the listener in a mood for each track... the style is all a part of the execution. You'll hear who we are, where we're from, and what sounds we like through our music. We pay attention to details."


title: Erfurt

text: Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits in the middle of an almost straight line of cities consisting of the six largest Thuringian cities forming the central metropolitan corridor of the state, the "Thuringian City Chain" ("") with more than 500,000 inhabitants, stretching from Eisenach in the west, via Gotha, Erfurt, Weimar and Jena, to Gera in the east. Erfurt and the city of Göttingen in southern Lower Saxony are the two cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants closest to the geographic center of Germany. Erfurt is located south-west of Leipzig, north-east of Frankfurt, south-west of Berlin and north of Munich.


title: Erfurt

text: Erfurt's old town is one of the best preserved medieval city centres in Germany. Tourist attractions include the Merchants' Bridge ("Krämerbrücke"), the Old Synagogue ("Alte Synagoge"), the oldest still standing synagogue in Europe, Cathedral Hill ("Domberg") with the ensemble of Erfurt Cathedral ("Erfurter Dom") and St Severus' Church ("Severikirche") and Petersberg Citadel ("Zitadelle Petersberg"), one of the largest and best preserved town fortresses in Central Europe. The city's economy is based on agriculture, horticulture and microelectronics. Its central location has made it a logistics hub for Germany and central Europe. Erfurt hosts the second-largest trade fair in eastern Germany (after Leipzig), as well as the public television children's channel KiKa.


title: Erfurt

text: The city is situated on the Via Regia, a medieval trade and pilgrims' road network. Modern day Erfurt is also a hub for ICE high speed trains and other German and European transport networks. Erfurt was first mentioned in 742, as Saint Boniface founded the diocese. Although the town did not belong to any of the Thuringian states politically, it quickly became the economic centre of the region and it was a member of the Hanseatic League. It was part of the Electorate of Mainz during the Holy Roman Empire, and later became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1802. From 1949 until 1990 Erfurt was part of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).


title: Erfurt

text: The University of Erfurt was founded in 1379, making it the first university to be established within the geographic area which constitutes modern-day Germany. It closed in 1816 and was re-established in 1994, with the main modern campus on what was a teachers' training college. Martin Luther (1483–1546) was its most famous student, studying there from 1501 before entering St Augustine's Monastery in 1505. Other noted Erfurters include the medieval philosopher and mystic Meister Eckhart (c. 1260–1328), the Baroque composer Johann Pachelbel (1653–1706) and the sociologist Max Weber (1864–1920).


title: Erfurt

text: Erfurt is an old Germanic settlement. The earliest evidence of human settlement dates from the prehistoric era; archaeological finds from the north of Erfurt revealed human traces from the paleolithic period, ca. 10,000 BCE.


title: Erfurt

text: To the west of Erfurt in Frienstedt existed, in the AD era, a big Germanic village, which was found during the construction of a highway. Where they also discovered the oldest Germanic word ever discovered in Central Germany written in runic script was found on a comb from a sacrificial shaft the word: "kaba". From Roman Times, however, they found 200 coins dating back to the third century, plus 150 Roman ceramic fragments and more than 200 fibulae. Also 11 inhumation graves of the Haßleben-Leuna group, which is an archeological cultural group.


title: Erfurt

text: The Melchendorf dig in the southern city part showed a settlement from the neolithic period. The Thuringii inhabited the Erfurt area in "c." 480 and gave their name to Thuringia in "c." 500.


title: Erfurt

text: The town is first mentioned in 742 under the name of "Erphesfurt": in that year, Saint Boniface wrote to Pope Zachary to inform him that he had established three dioceses in central Germany, one of them "in a place called Erphesfurt, which for a long time has been inhabited by pagan natives." All three dioceses (the other two were Würzburg and Büraburg) were confirmed by Zachary the next year, though in 755 Erfurt was brought into the diocese of Mainz. That the place was populous already is borne out by archeological evidence, which includes 23 graves and six horse burials from the sixth and seventh centuries.


title: Erfurt

text: Throughout the Middle Ages, Erfurt was an important trading town because of its location, near a ford across the Gera river. Together with the other five Thuringian woad towns of Gotha, Tennstedt, Arnstadt and Langensalza it was the centre of the German woad trade, which made those cities very wealthy. Erfurt was the junction of important trade routes: the Via Regia was one of the most used east–west roads between France and Russia (via Frankfurt, Erfurt, Leipzig and Wrocław) and another route in the north–south direction was the connection between the Baltic Sea ports (e. g. Lübeck) and the potent upper Italian city-states like Venice and Milan.


title: Erfurt

text: During the tenth and eleventh centuries both the Emperor and the Electorate of Mainz held some privileges in Erfurt. The German kings had an important monastery on Petersberg hill and the Archbishops of Mainz collected taxes from the people. Around 1100, some people became free citizens by paying the annual "" (liberation tax), which marks a first step in becoming an independent city. During the 12th century, as a sign of more and more independence, the citizens built a city wall around Erfurt (in the area of today's ). After 1200, independence was fulfilled and a city council was founded in 1217; the town hall was built in 1275. In the following decades, the council bought a city-owned territory around Erfurt which consisted at its height of nearly 100 villages and castles and even another small town (Sömmerda). Erfurt became an important regional power between the Landgraviate of Thuringia around, the Electorate of Mainz to the west and the Electorate of Saxony to the east. Between 1306 and 1481, Erfurt was allied with the two other major Thuringian cities (Mühlhausen and Nordhausen) in the Thuringian City Alliance and the three cities joined the Hanseatic League together in 1430. A peak in economic development was reached in the 15th century, when the city had a population of 20,000 making it one of the largest in Germany. Between 1432 and 1446, a second and higher city wall was established. In 1483, a first city fortress was built on Cyriaksburg hill in the southwestern part of the town.


title: Erfurt

text: In the year 1184, Erfurt was the location of a notable accident called the "Erfurter Latrinensturz" ('Erfurt latrine fall'). King Henry VI held council in a building of the Erfurt Cathedral to negotiate peace between two of his vassals, Archbishop Konrad I of Mainz and Landgrave Ludwig III of Thuringia. The amassed weight of all the gathered men proved too heavy for the floor to bear, which collapsed. According to contemporary accounts, dozens of people fell to their death into the latrine pit below. Ludwig III, Konrad I and Henry VI survived the affair.


title: Erfurt

text: The Jewish community of Erfurt was founded in the 11th century and became, together with Mainz, Worms and Speyer, one of the most influential in Germany. Their Old Synagogue is still extant and a museum today, as is the mikveh at Gera river near . In 1349, during the wave of Black Death Jewish persecutions across Europe, the Jews of Erfurt were rounded up, with more than 100 killed and the rest driven from the city. Before the persecution, a wealthy Jewish merchant buried his property in the basement of his house. In 1998, this treasure was found during construction works. The Erfurt Treasure with various gold and silver objects is shown in the exhibition in the synagogue today. Only a few years after 1349, the Jews moved back to Erfurt and founded a second community, which was disbanded by the city council in 1458.


title: Erfurt

text: In 1379, the University of Erfurt was founded. Together with the University of Cologne it was one of the first city-owned universities in Germany, while they were usually owned by the ". Some buildings of this old university are extant or restored in the "Latin Quarter" in the northern city centre (like , student dorms "" and others, the hospital and the church of the university). The university quickly became a hotspot of German cultural life in Renaissance humanism with scholars like Ulrich von Hutten, Helius Eobanus Hessus and Justus Jonas.


title: Erfurt

text: In 1501 Martin Luther (1483–1546) moved to Erfurt and began his studies at the university. After 1505, he lived at St. Augustine's Monastery as a friar. In 1507 he was ordained as a priest in Erfurt Cathedral. He moved permanently to Wittenberg in 1511. Erfurt was an early adopter of the Protestant Reformation, in 1521.


title: Erfurt

text: In 1530, the city became one of the first in Europe to be officially bi-confessional with the Hammelburg Treaty. It kept that status through all the following centuries. The later 16th and the 17th century brought a slow economic decline of Erfurt. Trade shrank, the population was falling and the university lost its influence. The city's independence was endangered. In 1664, the city and surrounding area were brought under the dominion of the Electorate of Mainz and the city lost its independence. The Electorate built a huge fortress on Petersberg hill between 1665 and 1726 to control the city and instituted a governor to rule Erfurt.


title: Erfurt

text: In 1682 and 1683 Erfurt experienced the worst plague years in its history. In 1683 more than half of the population died because of the deadly disease.


title: Erfurt

text: In Erfurt witch-hunts are known from 1526 to 1705. Trial records are only incomplete. Twenty people were involved in witch trials and at least eight people died.


title: Erfurt

text: During the late 18th century, Erfurt saw another cultural peak. Governor Karl Theodor Anton Maria von Dalberg had close relations with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Johann Gottfried Herder, Christoph Martin Wieland and Wilhelm von Humboldt, who often visited him at his court in Erfurt.


title: Erfurt

text: Erfurt became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1802, to compensate for territories Prussia lost to France on the Left Bank of the Rhine. In the Capitulation of Erfurt the city, its 12,000 Prussian and Saxon defenders under William VI, Prince of Orange-Nassau, 65 artillery pieces, and the Petersberg Citadel and Cyriaksburg Citadel were handed over to the French on 16 October 1806;<ref name="Petre 1907/1993"></ref> At the time of the capitulation, Joachim Murat, Marshal of France, had about 16,000 troops near Erfurt. With the attachment of the Saxe-Weimar territory of Blankenhain, the city became part of the First French Empire in 1806 as the Principality of Erfurt, directly subordinate to Napoleon as an "imperial state domain" (), separate from the Confederation of the Rhine, which the surrounding Thuringian states had joined. Erfurt was administered by a civilian and military Senate (") under a French governor, based in the , previously the seat of city's governor under the Electorate. Napoleon first visited the principality on 23 July 1807, inspecting the citadels and fortifications. In 1808, the Congress of Erfurt was held with Napoleon and Alexander I of Russia visiting the city.


title: Erfurt

text: During their administration, the French introduced street lighting and a tax on foreign horses to pay for maintaining the road surface. The suffered under the French occupation, with its inventory being auctioned off to other local churches – including the organ, bells and even the tower of the chapel (") – and the former monastery's library being donated to the University of Erfurt (and then to the Boineburg Library when the university closed in 1816). Similarly the Cyriaksburg Citadel was damaged by the French, with the city-side walls being partially dismantled in the hunt for imagined treasures from the convent, workers being paid from the sale of the building materials.


title: Erfurt

text: In 1811, to commemorate the birth of the Prince Imperial, a ceremonial column (') of wood and plaster was erected on the common. Similarly, the ' – a Greek-style temple topped by a winged victory with shield, sword and lance and containing a bust of Napoleon sculpted by Friedrich Döll – was erected in the ' woods, including a grotto with fountain and flower beds, using a large pond (') from the , inaugurated with ceremony on 14 August 1811 after extravagant celebrations for Napoleon's birthday, which were repeated in 1812 with a concert in the conducted by Louis Spohr.


title: Erfurt

text: With the Sixth Coalition forming after French defeat in Russia, on 24 February 1813 Napoleon ordered the Petersburg Citadel to prepare for siege, visiting the city on 25 April to inspect the fortifications, in particular both Citadels. On 10 July 1813, Napoleon put , baron of the Empire, in charge of the defences of Erfurt. However, when the French decreed that 1000 men would be conscripted into the , the recruits were joined by other citizens in rioting on 19 July that led to 20 arrests, of whom 2 were sentenced to death by French court-martial; as a result, the French ordered the closure of all inns and alehouses.


title: Erfurt

text: Within a week of the Sixth Coalition's decisive victory at Leipzig (16–19 October 1813), however, Erfurt was besieged by Prussian, Austrian and Russian troops under the command of Prussian Lt Gen von Kleist. After a first capitulation signed by d'Alton on 20 December 1813 the French troops withdrew to the two fortresses of Petersberg and Cyriaksburg, allowing for the Coalition forces to march into Erfurt on 6 January 1814 to jubilant greetings; the ' ceremonial column was burned and destroyed as a symbol of the citizens' oppression under the French; similarly the ' was burned on 1 November 1813 and completely destroyed by Erfurters and their besiegers in 1814. After a call for volunteers 3 days later, 300 Erfurters joined the Coalition armies in France. Finally, in May 1814, the French capitulated fully, with 1,700 French troops vacating the Petersberg and Cyriaksburg fortresses. During the two and a half months of siege, the mortality rate rose in the city greatly; 1,564 Erfurt citizens died in 1813, around a thousand more than the previous year.


title: Erfurt

text: After the Congress of Vienna, Erfurt was restored to Prussia on 21 June 1815, becoming the capital of one of the three districts ("") of the new Province of Saxony, but some southern and eastern parts of Erfurter lands joined Blankenhain in being transferred to the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach the following September. Although enclosed by Thuringian territory in the west, south and east, the city remained part of the Prussian Province of Saxony until 1944.


title: Erfurt

text: After the 1848 Revolution, many Germans desired to have a united national state. An attempt in this direction was the failed Erfurt Union of German states in 1850.


title: Erfurt

text: The Industrial Revolution reached Erfurt in the 1840s, when the Thuringian Railway connecting Berlin and Frankfurt was built. During the following years, many factories in different sectors were founded. One of the biggest was the "Royal Gun Factory of Prussia" in 1862. After the Unification of Germany in 1871, Erfurt moved from the southern border of Prussia to the centre of Germany, so the fortifications of the city were no longer needed. The demolition of the city fortifications in 1873 led to a construction boom in Erfurt, because it was now possible to build in the area formerly occupied by the city walls and beyond. Many public and private buildings emerged and the infrastructure (such as a tramway, hospitals, and schools) improved rapidly. The number of inhabitants grew from 40,000 around 1870 to 130,000 in 1914 and the city expanded in all directions.


title: Erfurt

text: The "Erfurt Program" was adopted by the Social Democratic Party of Germany during its congress at Erfurt in 1891.


title: Erfurt

text: Between the wars, the city kept growing. Housing shortages were fought with building programmes and social infrastructure was broadened according to the welfare policy in the Weimar Republic. The Great Depression between 1929 and 1932 led to a disaster for Erfurt, nearly one out of three became unemployed. Conflicts between far-left and far-right-oriented milieus increased and many inhabitants supported the new Nazi government and Adolf Hitler. Others, especially some communist workers, put up resistance against the new administration. In 1938, the new synagogue was destroyed during the . Jews lost their property and emigrated or were deported to Nazi concentration camps (together with many communists). In 1914, the company "Topf and Sons" began the manufacture of crematoria later becoming the market leader in this industry. Under the Nazis, "JA Topf & Sons" supplied specially developed crematoria, ovens and associated plants to the Auschwitz-Birkenau, Buchenwald and Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camps. On 27 January 2011 a memorial and museum dedicated to the Holocaust victims was opened at the former company premises in Erfurt.


title: Erfurt

text: During World War II, Erfurt experienced more than 27 British and American air raids, about 1600 civilians died. Bombed as a target of the Oil Campaign of World War II, Erfurt suffered only limited damage and was captured on 12 April 1945, by the US 80th Infantry Division. On 3 July, American troops left the city, which then became part of the Soviet Zone of Occupation and eventually of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). In 1948, Erfurt became the capital of Thuringia, replacing Weimar. In 1952, the in the GDR were dissolved in favour of centralization under the new socialist government. Erfurt then became the capital of a new "" (district). In 1953, the of education was founded, followed by the of medicine in 1954, the first academic institutions in Erfurt since the closing of the university in 1816.


title: Erfurt

text: On 19 March 1970, the East and West German heads of government Willi Stoph and Willy Brandt met in Erfurt, the first such meeting since the division of Germany. During the 1970s and 1980s, as the economic situation in GDR worsened, many old buildings in city centre decayed, while the government fought against the housing shortage by building large settlements in the periphery. The Peaceful Revolution of 1989/1990 led to German reunification.


title: Erfurt

text: With the re-formation of the state of Thuringia in 1990, the city became the state capital. After reunification, a deep economic crisis occurred in Eastern Germany. Many factories closed and many people lost their jobs and moved to the former West Germany. At the same time, many buildings were redeveloped and the infrastructure improved massively. In 1994, the new university was opened, as was the Fachhochschule in 1991. Between 2005 and 2008, the economic situation improved as the unemployment rate decreased and new enterprises developed. In addition, the population began to increase once again.


title: Erfurt

text: Since the 1990s, organized crime has gained a foothold in Erfurt, with several mafia groups, including the Armenian mafia present in the city. Among other events, there has been a robbery and an arson attack targeting the gastronomy sector and in 2014 there was a shoot-out in an open street.


title: Erfurt

text: Erfurt is situated in the south of the Thuringian basin, a fertile agricultural area between the Harz mountains to the north and the Thuringian forest to the southwest. Whereas the northern parts of the city area are flat, the southern ones consist of hilly landscape up to 430 m of elevation. In this part lies the municipal forest of "" with beeches and oaks as main tree species. To the east and to the west are some non-forested hills so that the Gera river valley within the town forms a basin. North of the city are some gravel pits in operation, while others are abandoned, flooded and used as leisure areas.


title: Erfurt

text: Erfurt has a humid continental climate (Dfb) or an oceanic climate ("Cfb") according to the Köppen climate classification system. Summers are warm and sometimes humid with average high temperatures of and lows of . Winters are relatively cold with average high temperatures of and lows of . The city's topography creates a microclimate caused by the location inside a basin with sometimes inversion in winter (quite cold nights under ) and inadequate air circulation in summer. Annual precipitation is only with moderate rainfall throughout the year. Light snowfall mainly occurs from December through February, but snow cover does not usually remain for long.


title: Erfurt

text: Erfurt abuts the districts of Sömmerda (municipalities Witterda, Elxleben, Walschleben, Riethnordhausen, Nöda, Alperstedt, Großrudestedt, Udestedt, Kleinmölsen and Großmölsen) in the north, Weimarer Land (municipalities Niederzimmern, Nohra, Mönchenholzhausen and Klettbach) in the east, Ilm-Kreis (municipalities Kirchheim, Rockhausen and Amt Wachsenburg) in the south and Gotha (municipalities Nesse-Apfelstädt, Nottleben, Zimmernsupra and Bienstädt) in the west.


title: Erfurt

text: The city itself is divided into 53 districts. The centre is formed by the district ' (old town) and the districts ' in the northwest, ' in the northeast, ' in the east, ' in the southeast, ' in the southwest and ' in the west. More former industrial districts are ' (incorporated in 1911), ' and ' in the north. Another group of districts is marked by Plattenbau settlements, constructed during the DDR period: ', ', ', ' and ' in the northern as well as ', ' and ' in the southern city parts.


title: Erfurt

text: Finally, there are many villages with an average population of approximately 1,000 which were incorporated during the 20th century; however, they have mostly stayed rural to date:


title: Erfurt

text: Around the year 1500, the city had 18,000 inhabitants and was one of the largest cities in the Holy Roman Empire. The population then more or less stagnated until the 19th century. The population of Erfurt was 21,000 in 1820, and increased to 32,000 in 1847, the year of rail connection as industrialization began. In the following decades Erfurt grew up to 130,000 at the beginning of World War I and 190,000 inhabitants in 1950. A maximum was reached in 1988 with 220,000 persons. The bad economic situation in eastern Germany after the reunification resulted in a decline in population, which fell to 200,000 in 2002 before rising again to 206,000 in 2011. The average growth of population between 2009 and 2012 was approximately 0.68% p. a, whereas the population in bordering rural regions is shrinking with accelerating tendency. Suburbanization played only a small role in Erfurt. It occurred after reunification for a short time in the 1990s, but most of the suburban areas were situated within the administrative city borders.


title: Erfurt

text: The birth deficit was 200 in 2012, this is −1.0 per 1,000 inhabitants (Thuringian average: -4.5; national average: -2.4). The net migration rate was +8.3 per 1,000 inhabitants in 2012 (Thuringian average: -0.8; national average: +4.6). The most important regions of origin of Erfurt migrants are rural areas of Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony as well as foreign countries like Poland, Russia, Syria, Afghanistan and Hungary.


title: Erfurt

text: Like other eastern German cities, foreigners account only for a small share of Erfurt's population: circa 3.0% are non-Germans by citizenship and overall 5.9% are migrants (according to the 2011 EU census).


title: Erfurt

text: Due to the official atheism of the former GDR, most of the population is non-religious. 14.8% are members of the Evangelical Church in Central Germany and 6.8% are Catholics (according to the 2011 EU census). The Jewish Community consists of 500 members. Most of them migrated to Erfurt from Russia and Ukraine in the 1990s.


title: Erfurt

text: The theologian, philosopher and mystic Meister Eckhart (c. 1260–1328) entered the Dominican monastery () in Erfurt when he was aged about 18 (around 1275). Eckhart was the Dominican prior at Erfurt from 1294 until 1298, and Vicar of Thuringia from 1298 to 1302. After a year in Paris, he returned to Erfurt in 1303 and administered his duties as Provincial of Saxony from there until 1311.


title: Erfurt

text: Martin Luther (1483–1546) studied law and philosophy at the University of Erfurt from 1501. He lived in St Augustine's Monastery in Erfurt, as a friar from 1505 to 1511.


title: Erfurt

text: Johann Pachelbel (1653–1706) served as organist at the (Preachers Church) in Erfurt from June 1678 until August 1690. Pachelbel composed approximately seventy pieces for organ while in Erfurt.


title: Erfurt

text: The city is the birthplace of one of Johann Sebastian Bach's cousins, Johann Bernhard Bach, as well as Johann Sebastian Bach's father Johann Ambrosius Bach. Bach's parents were married in 1668 in the (Merchant's Church) that still exists on the main square of .


title: Erfurt

text: Alexander Müller (1808–1863), pianist, conductor and composer, was born in Erfurt. He later moved to Zürich where he served as leader of the General Music Society's subscription concerts series.


title: Erfurt

text: Max Weber (1864–1920) was born in Erfurt. He was a sociologist, philosopher, lawyer, and political economist whose ideas have profoundly influenced modern social theory and social research.


title: Erfurt

text: After 1906 the composer Richard Wetz (1875–1935) lived in Erfurt and became the leading person in the city's musical life. His major works were written here, including three symphonies, a Requiem and a Christmas Oratorio.


title: Erfurt

text: The textile designer Margaretha Reichardt (1907–1984) was born and died in Erfurt. She studied at the Bauhaus from 1926 to 1930, and while there worked with Marcel Breuer on his innovative chair designs. Her former home and weaving workshop in Erfurt, the "Margaretha Reichardt Haus", is now a museum, managed by the Angermuseum Erfurt.


title: Erfurt

text: Since 2003, the modern opera house is home to Theater Erfurt and its Philharmonic Orchestra. The "grand stage" section has 800 seats and the "studio stage" can hold 200 spectators. In September 2005, the opera "Waiting for the Barbarians" by Philip Glass premiered in the opera house. The Erfurt Theatre has been a source of controversy. In 2005, a performance of Engelbert Humperdinck's opera " stirred up the local press since the performance contained suggestions of pedophilia and incest. The opera was advertised in the programme with the addition "for adults only".


title: Erfurt

text: On 12 April 2008, a version of Verdi's opera " directed by Johann Kresnik opened at the Erfurt Theatre. The production stirred deep controversy by featuring nude performers in Mickey Mouse masks dancing on the ruins of the World Trade Center and a female singer with a painted on Hitler toothbrush moustache performing a straight arm Nazi salute, along with sinister portrayals of American soldiers, Uncle Sam, and Elvis Presley impersonators. The director described the production as a populist critique of modern American society, aimed at showing up the disparities between rich and poor. The controversy prompted one local politician to call for locals to boycott the performances, but this was largely ignored and the première was sold out.


title: Erfurt

text: The Messe Erfurt serves as home court for the Oettinger Rockets, a professional basketball team in Germany's first division, the Basketball Bundesliga.


title: Erfurt

text: Notable types of sport in Erfurt are athletics, ice skating, cycling (with the oldest velodrome in use in the world, opened in 1885), swimming, handball, volleyball, tennis and football. The city's football club is member of and based in with a capacity of 20,000. The " was the second indoor speed skating arena in Germany.


title: Erfurt

text: Erfurt's cityscape features a medieval core of narrow, curved alleys in the centre surrounded by a belt of " architecture, created between 1873 and 1914. In 1873, the city's fortifications were demolished and it became possible to build houses in the area in front of the former city walls.


title: Erfurt

text: In the following years, Erfurt saw a construction boom. In the northern area (districts Andreasvorstadt, Johannesvorstadt and Ilversgehofen) tenements for the factory workers were built whilst the eastern area (Krämpfervorstadt and Daberstedt) featured apartments for white-collar workers and clerks and the southwestern part (Löbervorstadt and Brühlervorstadt) with its beautiful valley landscape saw the construction of villas and mansions of rich factory owners and notables.


title: Erfurt

text: During the interwar period, some settlements in Bauhaus style were realized, often as housing cooperatives.


title: Erfurt

text: After World War II and over the whole GDR period, housing shortages remained a problem even though the government started a big apartment construction programme. Between 1970 and 1990 large settlements with high-rise blocks on the northern (for 50,000 inhabitants) and southeastern (for 40,000 inhabitants) periphery were constructed. After reunification the renovation of old houses in city centre and the " areas was a big issue. The federal government granted substantial subsidies, so that many houses could be restored.


title: Erfurt

text: Compared to many other German cities, little of Erfurt was destroyed in World War II. This is one reason why the centre today offers a mixture of medieval, Baroque and Neoclassical architecture as well as buildings from the last 150 years.


title: Erfurt

text: Public green spaces are located along Gera river and in several parks like the ', the ' and the ". The largest green area is the , a horticultural exhibition park and botanic garden established in 1961.


title: Erfurt

text: The city centre has about 25 churches and monasteries, most of them in Gothic style, some also in Romanesque style or a mixture of Romanesque and Gothic elements, and a few in later styles. The various steeples characterize the medieval centre and led to one of Erfurt's nicknames as the "Thuringian Rome".


title: Erfurt

text: The oldest parts of Erfurt's "Alte Synagoge" (Old Synagogue) date to the 11th century. It was used until 1349 when the Jewish community was destroyed in a pogrom known as the Erfurt Massacre. The building had many other uses since then. It was conserved in the 1990s and in 2009 it became a museum of Jewish history.


title: Erfurt

text: A rare Mikveh, a ritual bath, dating from c.1250, was discovered by archeologists in 2007. It has been accessible to visitors on guided tours since September 2011.


title: Erfurt

text: In 2015 the Old Synagogue and Mikveh were nominated as a World Heritage Site. It has been tentatively listed but a final decision has not yet been made.


title: Erfurt

text: As religious freedom was granted in the 19th century, some Jews returned to Erfurt. They built their synagogue on the banks of the Gera river and used it from 1840 until 1884. The neoclassical building is known as the "Kleine Synagoge" (Small Synagogue). Today it is used an events centre. It is also open to visitors.


title: Erfurt

text: A larger synagogue, the "Große Synagoge" (Great Synagogue), was opened in 1884 because the community had become larger and wealthier. This moorish style building was destroyed during nationwide Nazi riots, known as on 9–10 November 1938.


title: Erfurt

text: In 1947 the land which the Great Synagogue had occupied was returned to the Jewish community and they built their current place of worship, the "Neue Synagoge" (New Synagogue) which opened in 1952. It was the only synagogue building erected under communist rule in East Germany.


title: Erfurt

text: Besides the religious buildings there is a lot of historic secular architecture in Erfurt, mostly concentrated in the city centre, but some 19th- and 20th-century buildings are located on the outskirts.


title: Erfurt

text: From 1066 until 1873 the old town of Erfurt was encircled by a fortified wall. About 1168 this was extended to run around the western side of Petersberg hill, enclosing it within the city boundaries.


title: Erfurt

text: After German Unification in 1871, Erfurt became part of the newly created German Empire. The threat to the city from its Saxon neighbours and from Bavaria was no longer present, so it was decided to dismantle the city walls. Only a few remnants remain today. A piece of inner wall can be found in a small park at the corner Juri-Gagarin-Ring and Johannesstraße and another piece at the flood ditch ("Flutgraben") near Franckestraße. There is also a small restored part of the wall in the Brühler Garten, behind the Catholic orphanage. Only one of the wall's fortified towers was left standing, on Boyneburgufer, but this was destroyed in an air raid in 1944.


title: Erfurt

text: The Petersberg Citadel is one of the largest and best preserved city fortresses in Europe, covering an area of 36 hectares in the north-west of the city centre. It was built from 1665 on Petersberg hill and was in military use until 1963. Since 1990, it has been significantly restored and is now open to the public as an historic site.


title: Erfurt

text: The is a smaller citadel south-west of the city centre, dating from 1480. Today, it houses the German horticulture museum.


title: Erfurt

text: Between 1873 and 1914, a belt of ' architecture emerged around the city centre. The mansion district in the south-west around , and hosts some interesting ' and "Art Nouveau" buildings.


title: Erfurt

text: The "Mühlenviertel" ("mill quarter"), is an area of beautiful Art Nouveau apartment buildings, cobblestone streets and street trees just to the north of the old city, in the vicinity of Nord Park, bordered by the Gera river on its east side. The Schmale Gera stream runs through the area. In the Middle Ages numerous small enterprises using the power of water mills occupied the area, hence the name "Mühlenviertel", with street names such as Waidmühlenweg (woad, or indigo, mill way), Storchmühlenweg (stork mill way) and Papiermühlenweg (paper mill way).


title: Erfurt

text: The "Bauhaus" style is represented by some housing cooperative projects in the east around and and in the north around . Lutherkirke Church in (1927), is an Art Deco building.


title: Erfurt

text: The former malt factory "Wolff" at in the east of Erfurt is a large industrial complex built between 1880 and 1939, and in use until 2000. A new use has not been found yet, but the area is sometimes used as a location in movie productions because of its atmosphere.


title: Erfurt

text: Examples of Nazi architecture include the buildings of the (Thuringian parliament) and (an event hall) in the south at . While the building (1930s) represents more the neo-Roman/fascist style, (1940s) is marked by some neo-Germanic "" style elements.


title: Erfurt

text: The Stalinist early-GDR style is manifested in the main building of the university at (1953) and the later more international modern GDR style is represented by the horticultural exhibition centre "" at , the housing complexes like Rieth or and the redevelopment of and area along in the city centre.


title: Erfurt

text: The current international glass and steel architecture is dominant among most larger new buildings like the Federal Labour Court of Germany (1999), the new opera house (2003), the new main station (2007), the university library, the Erfurt Messe (convention centre) and the ice rink.


title: Erfurt

text: During recent years, the economic situation of the city improved: the unemployment rate declined from 21% in 2005 to 9% in 2013. Nevertheless, some 14,000 households with 24,500 persons (12% of population) are dependent upon state social benefits (Hartz IV).


title: Erfurt

text: Farming has a great tradition in Erfurt: the cultivation of woad made the city rich during the Middle Ages. Today, horticulture and the production of flower seeds is still an important business in Erfurt. There is also growing of fruits (like apples, strawberries and sweet cherries), vegetables (e.g. cauliflowers, potatoes, cabbage and sugar beets) and grain on more than 60% of the municipal territory.


title: Erfurt

text: Industrialization in Erfurt started around 1850. Until World War I, many factories were founded in different sectors like engine building, shoes, guns, malt and later electro-technics, so that there was no industrial monoculture in the city. After 1945, the companies were nationalized by the GDR government, which led to the decline of some of them. After reunification, nearly all factories were closed, either because they failed to successfully adopt to a free market economy or because the German government sold them to west German businessmen who closed them to avoid competition to their own enterprises. However, in the early 1990s the federal government started to subsidize the foundation of new companies. It still took a long time before the economic situation stabilized around 2006. Since this time, unemployment has decreased and overall, new jobs were created. Today, there are many small and medium-sized companies in Erfurt with electro-technics, semiconductors and photovoltaics in focus. Engine production, food production, the Braugold brewery, and Born Feinkost, a producer of Thuringian mustard, remain important industries.


title: Erfurt

text: Erfurt is an "" (which means "supra-centre" according to Central place theory) in German regional planning. Such centres are always hubs of service businesses and public services like hospitals, universities, research, trade fairs, retail etc. Additionally, Erfurt is the capital of the federal state of Thuringia, so that there are many institutions of administration like all the Thuringian state ministries and some nationwide authorities. Typical for Erfurt are the logistic business with many distribution centres of big companies, the Erfurt Trade Fair and the media sector with KiKa and MDR as public broadcast stations. A growing industry is tourism, due to the various historical sights of Erfurt. There are 4,800 hotel beds and (in 2012) 450,000 overnight visitors spent a total of 700,000 nights in hotels. Nevertheless, most tourists are one-day visitors from Germany. The Christmas Market in December attracts some 2,000,000 visitors each year.


title: Erfurt

text: The ICE railway network puts Erfurt 1 hours from Berlin, 2 hours from Frankfurt, 2 hours from Dresden, and 45 minutes from Leipzig. In 2017, the ICE line to Munich opened, making the trip to Erfurt main station only 2 hours.


title: Erfurt

text: There are regional trains from Erfurt to Weimar, Jena, Gotha, Eisenach, Bad Langensalza, Magdeburg, Nordhausen, Göttingen, Mühlhausen, Würzburg, Meiningen, Ilmenau, Arnstadt, and Gera.


title: Erfurt

text: In freight transport there is an intermodal terminal in the district of Vieselbach "()" with connections to rail and the autobahn.


title: Erfurt

text: The two Autobahnen crossing each other nearby at "Erfurter Kreuz" are the Bundesautobahn 4 (Frankfurt–Dresden) and the Bundesautobahn 71 (Schweinfurt–Sangerhausen). Together with the east tangent both motorways form a circle road around the city and lead the interregional traffic around the centre. Whereas the A 4 was built in the 1930s, the A 71 came into being after the reunification in the 1990s and 2000s. In addition to both motorways there are two Bundesstraßen: the Bundesstraße 7 connects Erfurt parallel to A 4 with Gotha in the west and Weimar in the east. The Bundesstraße 4 is a connection between Erfurt and Nordhausen in the north. Its southern part to Coburg was annulled when A 71 was finished (in this section, the A 71 now effectively serves as B 4). Within the circle road, B 7 and B 4 are also annulled, so that the city government has to pay for maintenance instead of the German federal government. The access to the city is restricted as " since 2012 for some vehicles. Large parts of the inner city are a pedestrian area which can not be reached by car (except for residents).


title: Erfurt

text: The Erfurt public transport system is marked by the area-wide (light rail) network, established as a tram system in 1883, upgraded to a light rail (") system in 1997, and continually expanded and upgraded through the 2000s. Today, there are six "Stadtbahn" lines running every ten minutes on every light rail route.


title: Erfurt

text: Additionally, Erfurt operates a bus system, which connects the sparsely populated outer districts of the region to the city center. Both systems are organized by "SWE EVAG", a transit company owned by the city administration. Trolleybuses were in service in Erfurt from 1948 until 1975, but are no longer in service.


title: Erfurt

text: Erfurt-Weimar Airport lies west of the city centre. It is linked to the central train station via Stadtbahn (tram). It was significantly extended in the 1990s, with flights mostly to Mediterranean holiday destinations and to London during the peak Christmas market tourist season. Connections to longer haul flights are easily accessible via Frankfurt Airport, which can be reached in 2 hours via a direct train from Frankfurt Airport to Erfurt, and from Leipzig/Halle Airport, which can be reached within half an hour.


title: Erfurt

text: Biking is becoming increasingly popular since construction of high quality cycle tracks began in the 1990s. There are cycle lanes for general commuting within Erfurt city.


title: Erfurt

text: Long-distance trails, such as the "Gera track" and the "" (Thuringian cities trail), connect points of tourist interest. The former runs along the Gera river valley from the Thuringian forest to the river Unstrut; the latter follows the medieval Via Regia from Eisenach to Altenburg via Gotha, Erfurt, Weimar, and Jena.


title: Erfurt

text: The Rennsteig Cycle Way was opened in 2000. This designated high-grade hiking and bike trail runs along the ridge of the Thuringian Central Uplands. The bike trail, about long, occasionally departs from the course of the historic Rennsteig hiking trail, which dates back to the 1300s, to avoid steep inclines. It is therefore about longer than the hiking trail.


title: Erfurt

text: The Rennsteig is connected to the E3 European long distance path, which goes from the Atlantic coast of Spain to the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria, and the E6 European long distance path, running from Arctic Finland to Turkey.


title: Erfurt

text: After reunification, the educational system was reorganized. The University of Erfurt, founded in 1379 and closed in 1816, was refounded in 1994 with a focus on social sciences, modern languages, humanities and teacher training. Today there are approximately 6,000 students working within four faculties, the Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, and three academic research institutes. The university has an international reputation and participates in international student exchange programmes.


title: Erfurt

text: The "Fachhochschule Erfurt", is a university of applied sciences, founded in 1991, which offers a combination of academic training and practical experience in subjects such as social work and social pedagogy, business studies, and engineering. There are nearly 5,000 students in six faculties, of which the faculty of landscaping and horticulture has a national reputation.


title: Erfurt

text: The International University of Applied Sciences Bad Honnef – Bonn (IUBH), is a privately run university with a focus on business and economics. It merged with the former Adam-Ries-Fachhochschule in 2013.


title: Erfurt

text: The world renowned Bauhaus design school was founded in 1919 in the city of Weimar, approximately from Erfurt, 12 minutes by train. The buildings are now part of a World Heritage Site and are today used by the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, which teaches design, arts, media and technology related subjects.


title: Erfurt

text: Furthermore, there are eight ', six state-owned, one Catholic and one Protestant (Evangelisches Ratsgymnasium Erfurt). One of the state-owned schools is a ', an elite boarding school for young talents in athletics, swimming, ice skating or football. Another state-owned school, "", offers a focus in sciences as an elite boarding school in addition to the common curriculum.


title: Erfurt

text: MDR, Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, a radio and television company, has a broadcast centre and studios in Erfurt.


title: Erfurt

text: The first freely elected mayor after German reunification was Manfred Ruge of the Christian Democratic Union, who served from 1990 to 2006. Since 2006, Andreas Bausewein of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) has been mayor. The most recent mayoral election was held on 15 April 2018, with a runoff held on 29 April, and the results were as follows:


title: Eleanor Powell

text: Eleanor Torrey Powell (November 21, 1912 – February 11, 1982) was an American dancer and actress. Best remembered for her tap dance numbers in musical films in the 1930s and 1940s, she was one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's top dancing stars during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Powell appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and most prominently, in a series of movie musical vehicles tailored especially to showcase her dance talents, including "Born to Dance" (1936), "Broadway Melody of 1938" (1937), "Rosalie" (1937), and "Broadway Melody of 1940" (1940). She retired from films in the mid-1940s and then began hosting a Christian children's TV show, but she resurfaced for the occasional specialty dance scene in films such as "Thousands Cheer" and eventually headlined a successful nightclub act in Las Vegas. She died from cancer at 69. Powell is known as one of the most versatile and powerful female dancers of the Hollywood studio era.


title: Eleanor Powell

text: Powell was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, to Clarence Gardner Powell and Blanche Torrey. Her father left her and her mother when she was two years old. She was raised by her mother with the help of her maternal grandparents (who also lived with them). Eleanor Powell was a painfully shy child, not even able to greet guests that would come into their own house.


title: Eleanor Powell

text: Powell's mother, Blanche, sent Eleanor to dance lessons at age 11, in hopes that it would combat her shyness. She trained locally with Ralph McKernan (also the teacher of dancer/choreographer Robert Alton) in classical ballet and "interpretive" modern dance. Powell also trained extensively in acrobatics. She immediately showed a natural aptitude for movement, and was discovered by Gus Edwards (of the "Vaudeville Kiddie Review") whilst performing acrobatics on a beach in Atlantic City, NJ. She subsequently began working her first paid gigs for Edwards at the age of 12, during her summer holidays. Powell's first gig was in Atlantic City at the Ritz Grill, located in the Ambassador Hotel. She performed an acrobatic "specialty" act, and was by no means a star in the show, however she received consistently favorable reviews and this led to other paid performance opportunities, and eventually, more featured spots. Jack Benny and Eddie Cantor, who frequented Atlantic City and saw her perform (and her teacher, McKernan) are credited with having suggested to Powell that she set her sights on Broadway.


title: Eleanor Powell

text: In 1927, Powell took a break from her schooling and moved with her mother to New York City. She was signed by William Grady at the William Morris Agency, and although she managed to book jobs almost immediately dancing in clubs, vaudeville and at private parties, her acrobatic specialty which had impressed in Atlantic City was not enough for a career on Broadway. Realizing that in order to be marketable as a dancer on Broadway at that time one had to be able to tap dance, Powell began a package of ten tap lessons at a school run by Jack Donahue and Johnny Boyle – these lessons would be the only formal tap training she would ever have. Powell disliked tap at first and had to be coaxed in order to return after her first lesson. She is quoted as saying "in about the seventh lesson it all came together. Just like an algebra problem – you have a tutor teaching you and all of a sudden you say, 'oh, now I see!'".


title: Eleanor Powell

text: In training Powell, Donohue and Boyle used an unconventional method: in order to counteract her tendency toward pulling away from the floor and working through her feet, as one does in classical ballet and acrobatics, they had her wear an army surplus belt during her lessons, which had one sandbag attached on either side. This was intended to weigh her down, help her to feel the floor in a different way, and engage with it – to "play" the floor as if it were an instrument. This not only served to help Powell "find her legs" in tap dance, it also was to be a catalyst in the development of her uniquely grounded and smooth tap style.


title: Eleanor Powell

text: Powell, now 16 years of age, booked tour on the vaudeville circuit, where she shared a bill with, among others, the renowned tap dance duo Buck & Bubbles. She was strongly influenced by John "Bubbles" Sublett in particular, who was a highly inventive and creative tap dancer. Hailed as the "Father of Rhythm Tap," he is known for bringing tap dance down into the heels, and incorporating unexpected rhythms that broke out of the more predictable meter of the time. Bill "Bojangles" Robinson had popularized an extremely Irish-influenced tap style, barely leaving the balls of his feet – it was bouncy and buoyant. Sublett "got down into the floor" and his style and inventiveness were a huge inspiration to Eleanor, who had recently "found the floor" herself. Powell named John "Bubbles" Sublett as one of her main influences, and it shows in her grounded, syncopated footwork (what is now thought of as "hoofing," even though in that era, hoofing really referred to any vaudeville tap act, tap improviser, or tapping chorus member – and a hoofer did not use their arms, instead dancing from the waist-down and letting their upper body stay free and loose).


title: Eleanor Powell

text: Eleanor Powell developed a dance style that fused her ballet and acrobatic abilities with her grounded taps. She moved smoothly and effortlessly through fast, complex footwork, barely leaving the floor, even to perform tap steps that take place while airborne, such as double pullbacks (sometimes tapping in a "hoofing" style, with natural, loose arms, and other times with a more technical, placed port de bras). This was contrasted with energetic turn sequences, high-flying, buoyant leaps, such as "grand jeté en tourants," and grande battements, which further showed her technique and flexibility. She incorporated Hula for the film Honolulu, which then infiltrated her choreography for years to come.


title: Eleanor Powell

text: When she was 17, she brought her graceful, athletic style to Broadway, where she starred in various revues and musicals, including "Follow Thru" (1929), which represented her first Broadway success, "Fine and Dandy" (1930), and "At Home Abroad" (1935). During this time, she was dubbed "the world's greatest female tap dancer" due to her machine-gun footwork. In the early 1930s, she appeared as a chorus girl in a couple of early minor musical films.


title: Eleanor Powell

text: In 1935, Powell made the move to Hollywood and performed a specialty number in her first major film, "George White's 1935 Scandals", which she later described as a disaster because she was accidentally made up to look like an Egyptian. The experience left her unimpressed with Hollywood and when she was courted by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, she initially refused their offers of a contract. Powell reportedly attempted to dissuade the studio by making what she felt would be unreasonable salary demands, but MGM agreed to them and she finally accepted. The studio groomed her for stardom, making minimal changes in her makeup and conduct.


title: Eleanor Powell

text: Powell was well received in her first starring role in 1935 "Broadway Melody of 1936" (in which she was supported by Jack Benny and Frances Langford), and delighted 1930s audiences with her endless energy and enthusiasm, not to mention her stunning dancing. According to dancer Ann Miller, quoted in the "making-of" documentary "That's Entertainment! III", MGM was headed for bankruptcy in the late 1930s, but the films of Eleanor Powell, particularly "Broadway Melody of 1936", were so popular that they made the company profitable again. Miller also credits Powell for inspiring her own dancing career, which would lead her to become an MGM musical star a decade later.


title: Eleanor Powell

text: Powell would go on to star opposite many of the decade's top leading men, including James Stewart, Robert Taylor, Fred Astaire, George Murphy, Nelson Eddy, and Robert Young. Among the films she made during the height of her career in the mid-to-late 1930s were "Born to Dance" (1936), "Rosalie" (1937), "Broadway Melody of 1938" (1937), "Honolulu" (1939), and "Broadway Melody of 1940" (1940). All of these movies featured her amazing solo tapping, although her increasingly huge production numbers began to draw criticism. Her characters also sang, but Powell's singing voice was usually (but not always) dubbed. (This would also happen to one of Powell's successors, Cyd Charisse.) "Broadway Melody of 1940", in which Powell starred opposite Fred Astaire, featured an acclaimed musical score by Cole Porter.


title: Eleanor Powell

text: Together, Astaire and Powell danced to Porter's "Begin the Beguine", which is considered by many to be one of the greatest tap sequences in film history. According to accounts of the making of this film, including a documentary included on the DVD release, Astaire was somewhat intimidated by Powell, who was considered the only female dancer ever capable of out-dancing Astaire. In his autobiography "Steps in Time", Astaire remarked, "She 'put 'em down like a man', no ricky-ticky-sissy stuff with Ellie. She really knocked out a tap dance in a class by herself." In his introduction to the clip, featured in "That's Entertainment", Frank Sinatra said, "You know, you can wait around and hope, but I tell ya, you'll never see the likes of this again."


title: Eleanor Powell

text: Following "Broadway Melody of 1940" Powell was sidelined for many months following a gall stone operation and things changed somewhat for the worse, at least as far as Powell's movie career was concerned. "Lady Be Good" (1941) gave Powell top billing and a classic dance routine to "Fascinatin' Rhythm," but the main stars were Ann Sothern and Robert Young. "Ship Ahoy" (1942) and "I Dood It" (1943), in which Powell starred with Red Skelton, are considered lesser efforts, although in "Ship Ahoy" her character nonetheless played a central role in the story, and Powell's dance skills were put to practical use when she managed to tap out a Morse code message to a secret agent in the middle of a dance routine. In another routine from "Ship Ahoy", she danced to the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra with Buddy Rich on drums and the two performed a great musical partnership with the number "Tallulah". She was signed to play opposite Dan Dailey in "For Me and My Gal" in 1942, but the two actors were removed from the picture during rehearsals and replaced by Gene Kelly and Judy Garland. Later, production of a new "Broadway Melody" film that would have paired Powell with Kelly was also cancelled.


title: Eleanor Powell

text: Powell parted with MGM in 1943 after her next film, "Thousands Cheer", in which she appeared only for a few minutes to perform a specialty number (as part of an all-star cast), and the same year married actor Glenn Ford. She danced in a giant pinball machine in "Sensations of 1945" (1944) for United Artists, but the film was a critical and commercial disappointment. Her performance was overshadowed by what was to be the final film appearance of W. C. Fields. She then retired to concentrate on raising her son, Peter Ford, who was born that year. She appeared in a couple of documentary-style short subjects about celebrities in the late 1940s. Overseas audiences did get to see one additional Powell dance performance in 1946, however: the compilation "The Great Morgan" included a number that had been cut from "Honolulu".


title: Eleanor Powell

text: In 1950, Powell returned to MGM one last time in "Duchess of Idaho", starring Esther Williams. Appearing as herself in a nightclub scene, a hesitant Powell is invited to dance by bandleader Dick Layne (Van Johnson). She begins with a staid, almost balletic performance until she is chided by Layne for being lazy. She then strips off her skirt, revealing her famous legs, and performs a "boogie-woogie"-style specialty number very similar to the one she performed in "Thousands Cheer" seven years earlier. Williams, in her autobiography "The Million Dollar Mermaid", writes of being touched, watching Powell rehearsing until her feet bled, in order to make her brief appearance as perfect as possible.