A traditional metronome works by clockwork. It has a pendulum which makes a loud tick as it goes to and fro, like the pendulum of a grandfather clock. It has to be wound up after a few minutes of ticking. There is a weight on the pendulum which can be slid up or down and set to a particular speed. There are numbers on the metronome to which you can set it. These numbers mean the number of ticks per minutes. A speed of 60 will make it tick 60 times a minute (i.e. every second). The numbers usually go from 40 (slow) to 208 (very fast). Nowadays many people use electronic metronomes. These are very accurate, do not need to be wound and often have other helpful things like an A to tune to (see musical tuning). Some of them are hardly bigger than a credit card.
The metronome was invented by Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel in Amsterdam in 1812. A man called Johann Maelzel copied Winkel’s ideas and improved them. He made a small, portable metronome which was patented in 1816.
The metronome made it possible for a composer to show the performer what speed he wanted. If the composer writes at the top of his music: Crotchet (quarter note) = 76, for example, then the metronome can be set at 76 and it will tick at the right speed for that piece of music. Sometimes they write "MM76". The "MM" stands for "Maelzel's Metronome". Beethoven was the first composer to use metronome markings, but he often gave very fast speed indications, and some people wonder whether he made mistakes or whether his metronome worked properly.
Lübeck
Lübeck (Low German: "Lübęk", "Lübeek"; adjective: "lübsch", "lübisch", at the latest since the 19th century also "Lübeck", Latin: "Lubeca") is a city in the North of Germany, in the state of Schleswig-Holstein.
It has about 210,000 inhabitants and a university.
The city's full name is "Hansestadt Lübeck" (Hanseatic city of Lubeck) in memory of its history. It was an important part in the Hanseatic League. The architecture of the city and the region as well is influenced by this historic period. As the "Free City of Lübeck", the city was a state of the Weimar Republic. Other Hanseatic cities today are: Hamburg, Rostock, Wismar, Stralsund, Bremen, Greifswald and Demmin.
The most famous citizen is the author Günter Grass. He won the Nobel Prize for literature.
Luebeck has an oceanic climate ("Cfb" in the Koeppen climate classification).
Weimar
Weimar is a city in the middle of Germany, in the state of Thuringia.
It has about 60,000 inhabitants and a university.
Most famous citizens in the past were the German poets Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller.
The city is well known for the Weimar Republic, too. It was founded in Weimar in 1919.
Augsburg
Augsburg ( ]; Swabian German: "Augschburg" ]; Bavarian: "Augschbuag", Latin: "Augusta Vindelicorum" or "Augusta Vindelicum") is a city in the South of Germany, in the state of Bavaria.
It has about 272,000 inhabitants and a university.
It was founded in the Roman age. In the time of Renaissance (after the Middle Ages) a family of bankers, the Fuggers, became very rich and powerful in Augsburg.
The Protestant Augsburg Confession was made in 1530.
In 1555, a peace agreement called The Peace of Augsburg between Catholics and Protestants was signed in Augsburg.
Augsburg has a humid continental climate ("Dfb" in the Köppen climate classification).
Münster
Münster (Münster dialect: "Mönster", Dutch: "Munster", Frisian: "Múnster", Old Saxon: "Mimigernaford", Latin: "Monasterium") is the historical capital of Westphalia and belongs now to the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
It has about 270,000 inhabitants, an airport and a university.
Münster was very powerful in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
The Westphalian Peace was signed in Münster.
Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ""; ]; East Franconian: "Närmberch" ]) is a city in the German "state" of Bavaria, in Middle Franconia. It is on the river Pegnitz and the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal and is Franconia's largest city. It is about north of Munich, at 49.27° N 11.5° E. As of June 2017, there were 530,771 people.
From 1050 to 1571, the city became very important because it was on key trade routes. Many of the parliaments of the Holy Roman Empire (called the "Reichstage") met at Nuremberg Castle. The Diets of Nuremberg were an important part of the administrative structure of the empire. In 1219, Nuremberg became an Imperial Free City under Emperor Frederick II. This meant it was ruled by the Emperor, not one of the local lords or princes. It also meant that Nuremberg had a seat in the Imperial Parliament.
In 1298 there was a big "". Nearly 700 Jews were killed. The Jews lived near the river, and by getting rid of the Jews the northern and southern parts of the city could be linked together. This area is now the place of the City Market, Frauenkirche and Rathaus (City Hall).
In 1532, the Peace of Nuremberg, gave Lutherans important concessions. In 1632 during the Thirty Years' War, the Imperial general Albrecht von Wallenstein besieged King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden in the Siege of Nuremberg. The city became less important after this war, and only recovered in the nineteenth century, when it grew as an industrial centre.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century Nuremberg was practically bankrupt. In 1806 the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved, and Nuremberg became part of the Kingdom of Bavaria, and Bavaria took over the city's debts. The first German railway, from Nuremberg to nearby Fürth, was opened in 1835.
Nuremberg was very important during the Nazi Germany period. The Nazi Party held huge Nazi Party conventions – the Nuremberg rallies in the city.
The rallies were held every year from 1927 to 1938 in Nuremberg. After Hitler's rise to power in 1933 the Nuremberg rallies became huge state propaganda events, and a centre of anti-Semitism and other Nazi ideas. At one rally, Hitler passed the anti-Semitic (anti Jewish) Nuremberg Laws which took German citizenship away from all Jews. A number of buildings were built for the rallies, some of which were not finished.
Today many examples of Nazi architecture can still be seen in the city. The city was also the home of the Nazi propagandist Julius Streicher, the publisher of "Der Stürmer".
During World War II, Nuremberg was the headquarters of "Wehrkreis" (military district) XIII, and an important site for military production, including airplanes, submarines, and tank engines. A subcamp of Flossenbürg concentration camp was here. A lot of the factories used slave labour.
The city was badly damaged in bombing World War II, especially between 1943 and 1945. On January 2, 1945, the medieval city centre was bombed by the Royal Air Force and the U.S. Air Force and about ninety percent of it was destroyed in only one hour, with 1800 residents killed and roughly 100,000 left homeless. In February 1945, more attacks followed. In total, about 6000 Nuremberg residents are estimated to have been killed in air raids. Despite this, the city was rebuilt after the war and was to some extent, restored to its pre-war appearance including the reconstruction of some of its medieval buildings.
Between 1945 and 1946, German officials involved in the Holocaust and other war crimes were taken in front of the International Military Tribunal in the Nuremberg Trials. The Soviet Union had wanted the trials to take place in Berlin, but Nuremberg was chosen as the site for the trials for specific reasons:
The same courtroom in Nuremberg was the venue of the Nuremberg Military Tribunals, organised by the United States as occupying power in the area.