George Washington

George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799)[1] led America's Continental Army to victory over Britain in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), and was later elected the first President of the United States under the U.S. Constitution (eight Presidents of the Continental Congress, a position most analogous to Speaker of the House, had served under the Articles of Confederation). He served two four-year terms from 1789 to 1797, being re-elected in 1792. Because of his central and critical role in the founding of the United States, Washington is referred to as father of the nation. His devotion to republicanism and civic virtue made him an exemplary figure among early American politicians.
In his youth, Washington worked as a surveyor of rural lands and acquired what would become invaluable knowledge of the terrain around his native state of Virginia. Washington gained command experience during the French and Indian War (1754–1763). Due to this experience, his military bearing, his enormous charisma, his leadership of the patriot cause in Virginia, and his political base in the largest colony, the Second Continental Congress chose him, in 1775, as their commander-in-chief of the American army.
In 1776, he victoriously forced the British out of Boston. But, later that same year, was badly defeated, and nearly captured, when he lost New York City. However, in the bitter-cold dead of night, he revived the patriot cause, by crossing the Delaware river in New Jersey and defeating the surprised enemy units. As a result of his strategic oversight, Revolutionary forces captured the two main British combat armies, first at Saratoga in 1777 and then at Yorktown in 1781. He handled relations with the states and their militias, dealt with disputing generals and colonels, and worked with Congress to supply and recruit the Continental army. Negotiating with Congress, the colonial states, and French allies, he held together a tenuous army and fragile birthing nation, amid the constant threats of disintegration and failure. He was also the country's first spymaster[2].
Following the end of the war in 1783, Washington emulated the Roman general Cincinnatus, and retired to his plantation on Mount Vernon, an exemplar of the republican ideal of citizen leadership who rejected power. Alarmed in the late 1780s at the many weaknesses of the new nation under the Articles of Confederation, he presided over the Constitutional Convention that drafted the much stronger United States Constitution in 1787.
In 1789, Washington became President of the United States and promptly established many of the customs and usages of the new government's executive department. He sought to create a great nation capable of surviving in a world torn asunder by war between Britain and France. His Proclamation of Neutrality of 1793 provided a basis for avoiding any involvement in foreign conflicts. He supported Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton's plans to build a strong central government by funding the national debt, implementing an effective tax system, and creating a national bank. When rebels in Pennsylvania defied Federal authority, he rode at the head of the army to authoritatively quell the Whiskey Rebellion. Washington avoided the temptation of war and began a decade of peace with Britain via the Jay Treaty in 1795; he used his immense prestige to get it ratified over intense opposition from the Jeffersonians. Although he never officially joined the Federalist Party, he supported its programs and was its inspirational leader. By refusing to pursue a third term, he made it the enduring norm that no U.S. President should seek more than two. Washington's Farewell Address was a primer on republican virtue and a stern warning against involvement in foreign wars.
As the symbol of republicanism in practice, Washington embodied American values and across the world was seen as the symbol of the new nation. Scholars perennially rank him among the three greatest U.S. Presidents. During Washington's funeral oration, Henry Lee said that of among all Americans, he was "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." (See Legacy, below.)
Contents
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1 Early life
2 French and Indian War
3 Between the wars
4 American Revolution
5 Presidency: 1789–1797
5.1 Domestic issues
5.2 Foreign affairs
5.3 Farewell Address
5.4 Speeches
5.4.1 Inaugural Addresses
5.4.2 State of the Union Address
5.5 Major acts as President
5.5.1 Legislation signed into law
5.5.2 Legislation vetoed
5.6 Administration and cabinet
5.7 Supreme Court appointments
5.8 States admitted to Union
6 Retirement and death
7 Legacy
7.1 Monuments and memorials
7.2 Washington and slavery
8 Religious beliefs
9 Interest in sport
10 Family
11 Myths and misconceptions
12 See also
13 References: biographies
14 Further reading
14.1 Primary sources
14.2 "Patriarch: George Washington and the New American Nation"
14.3 Scholarly studies
15 Notes
16 External links
Early life
Main article: George Washington's early life
George Washington was born on February 22, 1732 (February 11, 1731, O.S.), the first son of Augustine Washington and his second wife, Mary Ball Washington, on the family estate (later known as Wakefield) in Westmoreland County, Virginia. Of a wealthy family with firm roots in the Old Country, Washington embarked upon a career as a planter and in 1748 was invited to go with the party that was to survey Baron Fairfax's lands west of the Blue Ridge. In 1749 he was appointed to his first public office, surveyor of newly created Culpeper County, and through his half-brother Lawrence Washington he became interested in the Ohio Company, which had as its object the exploitation of Western lands. After Lawrence's death (1752), George inherited part of his estate and took over some of Lawrence's duties as adjutant of the colony. As district adjutant, which made (December 1752) him Major Washington at the age of 20, he was charged with training the militia in the quarter assigned him. In Fredricksburg, also at the age of 20, Washington joined the Freemasons, a fraternal organization that became a lifelong influence.
French and Indian War
Main article: George Washington in the French and Indian War


This, the earliest portrait of Washington, was painted in 1772 by Charles Willson Peale, and shows Washington in uniform as colonel of the Virginia Regiment.
At 22 years of age Washington fired some of the first shots of the French and Indian War, soon to become part of the worldwide Seven Years' War. The trouble began in 1753, when France began building a series of forts in the Ohio Country, a region also claimed by Virginia. Governor Dinwiddie sent young Major Washington to the Ohio Country to assess French military strength and intentions, and ask the French to leave. When the French refused, Washington's published report was widely read in both Virginia and Britain. In 1754, Dinwiddie sent Washington, now commissioned a Lieutenant Colonel in the newly created Virginia Regiment, to drive the French away. Along with his American Indian allies, Washington and his troops ambushed a French scouting party of some 30 men led by Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville, sent from Fort Duquesne to discover if Washington had in fact invaded French-claimed territory. Were this to be the case he was to send word back to the fort, then deliver a formal summons to Washington calling on him to withdraw. His small force was an embassy, resembling Washington’s to Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre the preceding year, and he neglected to post sentries around his encampment. At daybreak on the 28th, Washington with 40 men stole up on the French camp near present Jumonville, Pa. Some were still asleep, others preparing breakfast. Without warning, Washington gave the order to fire. The Canadians who escaped the volley scrambled for their weapons, but were swiftly overwhelmed. Jumonville, the French later claimed, was struck down while trying to proclaim his official summons. Ten of the Canadians were killed, one wounded, all but one of the rest taken prisoner. Washington and his men then retired, leaving the bodies of their victims for the wolves. Washington then built Fort Necessity, which soon proved inadequate, as he was soon compelled to surrender to a larger French and Indian force. The surrender terms that Washington signed included an admission that he had assassinated Jumonville. Because the French claimed that Jumonville's party had been on a diplomatic (rather than military) mission, the "Jumonville affair" became an international incident and helped to ignite a wider war. Washington was released by the French with his promise not to return to the Ohio Country for one year. Back in Virginia, Governor Dinwiddie broke up the Virginia Regiment into independent companies; Washington resigned from active military service rather than accept a demotion to captain.
In 1755, British General Edward Braddock headed a major effort to retake the Ohio Country. Washington eagerly volunteered to serve as one of Braddock's aides, although the British officers held the colonials in contempt.[3] The expedition ended in disaster at the Battle of the Monongahela. Washington distinguished himself in the debacle—he had two horses shot out from under him, and four bullets pierced his coat—yet, he sustained no injuries and showed coolness under fire. While Washington's exact leadership role during the battle has been debated, biographer Joseph Ellis asserts that Washington rode back and forth across the battlefield, rallying the remnant of the British and Virginian forces to a retreat. In Virginia, Washington was acclaimed as a hero.
In fall 1755, Governor Dinwiddie appointed Washington commander in chief of all Virginia forces, with rank of colonel, with responsibility for defending 300 miles (480 km) of mountainous frontier with about 300 men. Washington supervised savage, frontier warfare that averaged two engagements a month. His letters show he was moved by the plight of the frontiersmen he was protecting. With too few troops and inadequate supplies, lacking sufficient authority with which to maintain complete discipline, and hampered by an antagonistic governor, he had a severe challenge. In 1758, he took part in the Forbes Expedition, which successfully drove the French away from Fort Duquesne.
Washington's goal at the outset of his military career had been to secure a commission as a British officer, which had more prestige than serving in the provincial military. However, the British officers had disdain for the amateurish, non-aristocratic Americans. Washington's commission never came; in 1758, Washington resigned from active military service and spent the next sixteen years as a Virginia planter and politician.[4]
Between the wars
Main article: George Washington between the wars

Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Journal of George Washington


A mezzotint of Martha Dandridge Custis, based on a 1757 portrait by John Wollaston.
On January 6, 1759, Washington married Martha Dandridge Custis, a widow. They had a good marriage, and together raised her two children, John Parke Custis and Martha Parke Custis, affectionately called "Jackie" and "Patsy". Later the Washingtons raised two of Mrs. Washington's grandchildren, Eleanor Parke Custis and George Washington Parke Custis. George and Martha never had any children together—his earlier bout with smallpox followed, possibly, by tuberculosis may have made him sterile. The newlywed couple moved to Mount Vernon, where he took up the life of a genteel planter and political figure.[5]
Washington's marriage to a wealthy widow greatly increased his property holdings and social standing. He acquired one-third of the 18,000-acre (73 km²) Custis estate upon his marriage, and managed the remainder on behalf of Martha's children. He frequently purchased additional acreage in his own name, and was granted land in what is now West Virginia as a bounty for his service in the French and Indian War. By 1775, Washington had doubled the size of Mount Vernon to 6,500 acres (26 km²), with over 100 slaves. As a respected military hero and large landowner, he held local office and was elected to the Virginia provincial legislature, the House of Burgesses, beginning in 1758.[6]
Washington first took a leading role in the growing colonial resistance in 1769, when he introduced a proposal drafted by his friend George Mason which called for Virginia to boycott imported English goods until the Townshend Acts were repealed. Parliament repealed the Acts in 1770. Washington regarded the passage of the Intolerable Acts in 1774 as "an Invasion of our Rights and Privileges". In July 1774, he chaired the meeting at which the Fairfax Resolves were adopted, which called for, among other things, the convening of a Continental Congress. In August, he attended the First Virginia Convention, where he was selected as a delegate to the First Continental Congress.[7]

National Socialist German Workers Party

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The National Socialist German Workers Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (help·info)), better known as the NSDAP or the Nazi Party was a political party that was led to power in Germany by Adolf Hitler in 1933. The term Nazi is a short form of the German word Nationalsozialist shortened to two syllables, and spelled with -zi, because the ti syllable is pronounced [tsi] in German (National Socialist), reflecting the ideology of the NSDAP. After Hitler's appointment as Chancellor and the democratic election of the party to lead the German government in 1933, the NSDAP organized and established the Third Reich.
The NSDAP was the main political force in Nazi Germany from the fall of the Weimar Republic in 1933 until the end of World War II in 1945, when it was declared illegal and its leaders were arrested and convicted of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg Trials. The beliefs and practices of the Nazi Party gave rise to a significantly new political ideology, commonly known as "Nazism".
Party history
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Origins

Nazi Hoheitsadler: Eagle on swastika symbol
In the beginning of 1918, a party called the Freier Ausschuss für einen deutschen Arbeiterfrieden (Free Committee for a German Workers' Peace) was created in Bremen, Germany. (6) Anton Drexler, locksmith and poet, formed a branch of this league on March 7, 1918, in Munich. In 1919, Drexler, with Gottfried Feder, Dietrich Eckart and Karl Harrer, changed its name to the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (German Workers' Party, abbreviated DAP). This party was the formal forerunner of the NSDAP, and became one of many völkisch movements that existed in Germany after its defeat in World War I. In order to investigate the DAP, German army intelligence sent a young corporal, Adolf Hitler, to monitor party activities. However, he was impressed by what he saw, and he joined as Member Number 555, although Hitler later claimed to be "Party Member number 7" to make it look like he was a founder. He was, in actual fact, only the 55th member of the DAP but the party began its membership totals from 500 in order to appear larger. He was in fact the 7th member of the DAP's central committee. At this early stage, Hitler brought up the idea of renaming the party, and he proposed the name "Social Revolutionary Party" (4). However, Rudolf Jung insisted that the party should follow the pattern of Austria's Deutsche Nationalsozialistische Arbeiterpartei. As a consequence, the DAP was shortly renamed the NSDAP on February 24, 1920.
Other early members of the Nazi Party include Rudolf Buttmann, director general of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Bavarian State Library), and Hermann Esser, editor of the Völkischer Beobachter.
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Struggle for power
Adolf Hitler became Nazi Party chairman on July 28, 1921, and at once began a program where the Nazi Party became a radical and revolutionary organization. The Sturmabteilung (storm troopers) was founded under Hans Ulrich Klintzsch that same year and began a policy of expanding the Nazi Party by way of fear, intimidation, and violent attacks on other political parties.
In these early years, the Nazi Party was confined mainly to the city of Munich in Bavaria. Splinter Nazi groups did exist elsewhere in Germany; however, the programs and agendas were such that, even among the Nazis, such extra-Bavarian Nazi groups were considered separate from the main Nazi Party as a whole.
Disaster presented itself in 1923 when the Nazi Party attempted to seize control of the Bavarian government in the so-called "Beer Hall Putsch". The two-day revolution was crushed by Munich authorities, and several Nazis were killed in the process. Hitler and his top Nazi advisors were tried and convicted of treason. Sentences ranged from 12 to 18 months, with Hitler serving his term at Landsberg prison. Hitler's sentence was actually for five years but he ended up instead serving much less time, (only 9 months). During this period, from 1923 to 1925, the Nazi Party ceased to exist. However, Hitler spent the time writing Mein Kampf, detailing how he would accomplish a political comeback once he was released from prison.
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Reborn Nazi Party


Early leaders of the Nazi Party (left to right): Heinz Pernet, Friedrich Weber, Wilhelm Frick, Hermann Kriebel, Erich Ludendorff, Adolf Hitler, Wilhelm Brückner, Ernst Röhm, Robert Wagner
Upon Adolf Hitler's release from prison in 1925, the NSDAP was refounded, with Hitler taking Party membership number 1. That same year, the Schutzstaffel (SS) was founded. The evolution of the party, during this era, is an integral part of the decline of the Weimar State.
The second Nazi Party made use of anti-capitalist Gottfried Feder as economic theoretician. Rudolf Jung supplied the reborn Nazi Party with a ready-made ideology that he carried with him from Czechoslovakia. It was a 25-point program. Hitler added his ideas about foreign policy, and Julius Streicher added his more virulent anti-Semitic views.
Between 1925 and 1929, the Nazis competed poorly in elections. In the election of 1930, however, the Nazis (propelled by Germany's economic problems in the incipient Great Depression) increased their vote dramatically, becoming the second-largest party in the Reichstag. The NSDAP continued to improve its position in the years thereafter, despite a brief ban in 1932 of the SA (the party's private army). In the elections of 1932 the party reached a total of 13.75 million votes and so became the largest voting bloc in the Reichstag.
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Seizure of Power
After substantial coercion and the threat of a military coup, Hitler got himself appointed Chancellor of a coalition government by President Paul von Hindenburg in January 1933. His coalition partners were the right-wing Nationalists led by Alfred Hugenberg, the press baron, and his Vice-Chancellor was the ex-Centre Party politician and former Chancellor Franz von Papen.
On February 27, 1933, the Reichstag parliament building was set on fire. This Reichstag fire was promptly blamed on a Communist conspiracy, and used as an excuse by the Nazis to close the Communist Party of Germany's offices, ban its press and arrest its leaders. Furthermore, Hitler convinced the ageing and senile President von Hindenburg to sign the Reichstag Fire Decree, suspending most of the human rights provided for by the 1919 constitution of the Weimar Republic. A further decree enabled for preventative detention of all the Communist deputies, amongst many thousands of others.


Nazi leader Adolf Hitler at a parade.
Since the new government lacked a majority in parliament, Hitler held a Reichtstag election in March of 1933. The Nazis obtained 43.9%; with their right-wing Nationalist DNVP allies included, they controlled a simple parliamentary 51.8% majority coalition.
A decisive step on Hitler's way to becoming dictator was the so called "Enabling Act", which granted the cabinet - and in fact Hitler - legislative powers. However, since the Enabling Act allowed for deviations from the constitution, a two thirds majority was required. Hitler needed the votes of the Centre Party and after promising certain guarantees to the Centre's chairman Ludwig Kaas, the party voted in favour of the Enabling Act. The Centre Party's thirty-one votes added to the fragmented middle-class parties and the right-wing Nationalists (DNVP) and gave Hitler the right to rule by his own decree and to further suspend many civil liberties.
The Enabling Act, termed for four years, gave the government the power to enact laws without parliamentary approval, to enact foreign treaties abroad and even to make changes to the Constitution. The Social Democratic Party of Germany alone valiantly protested the Act from being passed. As the Reichstag met in the Kroll Opera House, patrolled and harangued by brown-shirted SA men, the Enabling Act passed and, as punishment for their dissent, the Social Democrats became the second party banned by the Nazis (on 22 June) following the move of their leadership to Prague.
After all parties were either banned or pressed into dissolving themselves, the Nazi government banned the formation of new parties on July 14, 1933, turning Germany into a one-party state. This was part of the Gleichschaltung. Hitler kept the Reichstag as a pulpit, while the Reichsrat, though never abolished, sank into oblivion. The legislative bodies of the German states soon followed in the same manner, with the German federal government taking over most state and local legislative powers.
Hitler also tried to incorporate the Churches into his new regime. On March 23, 1933 he had called them "most important factors" for the maintenance of German well-being. In regard to the Roman Catholic Church, he proposed the Reichskonkordat between Germany and the Holy See, that was signed in July. In regard to the Protestant Church, he used church elections to push the Nazi-inspired "German Christians" to power. This however provoked the internal opposition of the "Confessing Church".


The Nazi party's 1936 Nuremberg Rally was its largest.
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Consolidation of power
Between 1934 and 1939, the NSDAP began a series of measures to merge the NSDAP and the German government into one entity. It was also during this time that Nazi racial views were transferred to legal practice with Germany becoming an anti-Semitic and racialist state after the passing of the Nuremberg Laws in 1935.
Hitler’s first act to merge the Nazi party and German government was upon the death of President Paul von Hindenburg in August of 1934. Three hours before Hindenburg died, Hitler's government passed a law to take effect on Hindenburg's death which prescribed that the office of President would be merged with that of the Chancellor and that Hitler would henceforth be the Führer und Reichkanzler of Germany. By this action, Hitler made himself Head of State, Head of Government and Chairman of the Nazi party combined into one single office.
In the mid 1930s, the Nazi Party appointed and staffed nearly the entire German government with Nazi Party officials. In addition, the SS had by 1936 become the state police service controlling all aspects of law enforcement and political enforcement. By the time World War II began in 1939, there was virtually no distinction between the Nazi Party and the Government of Germany with the two being considered one and the same.
The original act which made Hitler dictator of Germany, the Enabling Act, was renewed in 1937 and then in 1941 for an indefinite term. Even as late as 1944, however, there were those in Germany who believed that the Nazis were simply a political party who were currently in power but could be voted out of office when and if the German people so chose. On paper, at least, Hitler’s dictatorship was not to last forever and some Germans saw the Enabling Act as temporary only until World War II was over at which time Germany would again become a democratic country with a Presidency and Chancellorship split into two separate offices once again (this is what in fact happened when Hitler killed himself in 1945). Most likely, however, had Germany triumphed in World War II Hitler would have become dictator for life.
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Post World War II Nazi Party
The Nazi Party ceased to exist in May 1945 when Law Number 2 of the Allied Control Council declared the Nazi party disbanded and the Nazi party, itself, illegal. Since then there have been several attempts to reorganize Nazi or pro-Nazi organizations in Germany. In 1949 the Socialist Reich Party was formed in West Germany after a split from the German Empire Party. SRP was banned in 1952 by the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany on the grounds of being threatening the BRD constitution.
The National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) was founded November 28, 1964 as a political party in West Germany. The NPD advocated a program nearly identical to old Nazi ideals and began combining various Neo-Nazi groups under its authority. This, in combination with a leadership of former Nazis from the Hitler era, became very alarming to the West German government and the allied occupation forces still technically in charge of Germany. Efforts were made in the 1960s to have the NPD declared a direct successor to the Nazi Party and disbanded under West German law, however the Party survived to a large enough extent that it still maintains a presence in German politics to this day.
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Nazi Party Structure
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1921 – 1923
When the Nazi party was first established in February 1920, it consisted of a leadership board based in Munich, Bavaria with a general membership of just under 2000. The NSDAP Leadership Board was democratically elected who, in turn, elected a Board Chairman. On July 29, 1921, Adolf Hitler was elected Chairman of the Nazi Party after previously having served as “Party Speaker” in the summer of 1920. The exact circumstances of Hitler having been elected as Chairman have been lost in history, but it is certainly one of the pivotal events in German politics. Hitler’s charisma no doubt played a part in his assumption of the Chairmanship as did promises to the leadership board that the Nazi Party would grow in numbers and achieve great power and prosperity.
Almost immediately, Hitler abandoned all democratic notions in the Nazi party. He declared himself the Führer of the Party and the leadership board became a permanent “inner circle”. Many top Nazis of the Second World War can trace their political beginnings to this point.
By the end of 1921, the Nazi Party had become more or less a paramilitary radical organization. All Nazi Party members wore paramilitary uniforms and the Sturmabteilung (SA) had been founded that same year based on the model of the old Freikorps. By 1923, the Nazi party and the SA stormtroopers were considered almost one and the same with the first Nazi paramilitary ranks, those being the ranks and insignia of the Sturmabteilung, in use.
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1925 – 1933
Following the abortive Beer Hall Putsch, and a two year period of the Nazi Party having been disbanded, the NSDAP was refounded under a more benign platform that the Party would only seek power through legal means and by use of the Weimar Republic democratic system. To accomplish this, it was necessary for the Nazi party to expand outside of Bavaria and in this way a new Nazi organizational system developed which would last until the Party’s collapse in 1945.
The NSDAP of 1925 was divided into two “classes”, those being the leadership corps of the Nazi Party, known as the Korps der politischen Leiter, and the general membership known as the Parteimitglieder. Gone were the days where all Nazis wore paramilitary uniforms with the average Nazi Party member indistinguishable from the general citizenry. For the first time, the Nazi Party also began to admit women.
The SA stormtroopers were refounded in 1925 as was another Nazi paramilitary group, the Schutzstaffel (SS). These organizations, and the many Nazi paramilitary groups that would follow, were considered “support groups” to the Nazi Party as a whole and all members of these groups had first to become regular Nazi Party members. It was also possible for a Nazi Party member to not join a paramilitary group but simple serve as a regular Nazi Mitglied. The Hitler Youth, with origins in 1921 was a Nazi youth corps group whose members were not actually Nazi party members, but were in training to be so.
The leadership of the NSDAP in the late 1920s began at the top with Adolf Hitler and extended to his inner circle from the early days of the Party. As the Nazis were now operating on a national level, The position of Reichsleiter (Reich Leader), was intended for the most senior of Nazis who were part of the inner circle.
The NSDAP also maintained the position of Gauleiter who was a Nazi headman in a particular region of Germany. A Gaue was roughly analogous to a province. There where thirty-four Gaue for Germany and an additional seven for Austria, the Sudetenland (in Czechslovakia), Danzig and the Saarland (then under French occupation). In 1932 the NSDAP spread to Switzerland; its branch was founded at Davos by Wilhelm Gustloff.
Beneath the Gauleiters were several junior Nazi political leaders with a variety of titles such as Kreisleiter (County Leader), Zellenleiter (Cell Leader) and Blockleiter (Block Leader). Such Nazi political officers wore paramilitary brown uniforms, the same as Hitler and his senior Nazi inner circle. In this way, the first Nazi Party ranks came into being.
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1933 – 1938


NSDAP Organizational Chart published in 1934
When Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, the Nazi Party suddenly found itself in control of a modern state government. Hitler and Nazi ideologists had foreseen that for Germany to become a dictatorship, the Nazi Party and the German government had to become one and the same. To accomplish this, measures were enacted to merge the German government with the Nazi Party. On the federal level, all German Ministries were staffed with Nazi officials who, in turn, appointed other Nazis to civil service positions within the government. A vast and complex Nazi party civil service system then developed which had, by 1935, completely taken over the German government. Such Nazi Party government officials held regular government postings, but also held ranks in the Nazi Party, wore paramilitary uniforms (a wide variety of which existed by this time) and reported to Adolf Hitler both as the Chancellor of Germany and the Führer of the Nazi Party.
On the state and local level, German town and city governments were allowed to continue as before but the Nazi Party political chain, extending upwards to the Gauleiters, existed side by side with the local government establishments.
Thus, a town could possibly have a non-Nazi Bürgermeister and town council, but such persons were merely “rubber stamps” for the local head Nazi leader.
In 1933, the paramilitary groups of the Nazi Party began merging with the German state, as well, the most notable of which was the SS which would eventually take over all law enforcement functions of Germany and also serve as a political police force. The German Labor Front was another state run Nazi Party organization along with several less known Nazi paramilitary groups.
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1938 – 1939
By 1938, there was virtually no distinction between the Nazi Party and the German government. Hitler, by this time, had merged the office of Chancellor and President into the new office of Führer und Reichkanzler of Germany and remained Führer of the Nazi Party. The swastika flag was now the official Flag of Germany and the German armed forces now wore Nazi insignia and swore personal allegiance to Hitler. In addition, nearly all Nazi Party paramilitary groups were sponsored and in some way connected to the German government.
When Austria was annexed by Germany in the Anschluss of 1938, the existing Austrian Nazi Party was quickly installed to replace the old Austrian government. By 1939, Austria had been completely incorporated into Germany with the leadership of Austria little more than a local Nazi administration taking orders from Berlin. When Czechoslovakia was added to German gains, the newly formed “Reich Protectorate” was a strict dictatorship which would eventually come under the control of the SS in the person of Reinhard Heydrich.
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1939 – 1945
During World War II, the Nazi Party continued as usual in the homeland of the “Greater German Reich” with the federal government staffed by Nazis and the local and state governments under the control of Nazi political leaders.
As Germany expanded its territory and began conquering other countries, the Nazi Party began establishing dictatorial regimes to replace the fallen governments, all of which were controlled by Nazi appointed puppet leaders with the exception of France which was run by a military government under the control of the Wehrmacht.
The General Government of Poland was the most ruthless of all the installed Nazi Party regimes with the “Reichkommisariats”, established in Russia, coming in a close second. Rule in these regions was based on ruthless terror with civilian reprisals and instant executions a common occurrence.
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Party composition
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General membership
The general membership of the Nazi Party, known as the Partei Mitglieder, mainly consisted of the urban and rural lower middle classes. Seven percent belonged to the upper class, seven percent were peasants, thirty five percent were industrial workers and fifty one percent were what can be described as middle class. The largest single occupational group was elementary school teachers. You were forced to join the Nazi Socialist party if you were in public service, or lose your job.
When the Nazi Party began in the 1920s, it averaged 2000 members. When the Nazi Party came to power in 1933, party membership had risen to 2.5 million. In 1945, when the Nazi Party was disbanded, official membership rolls listed a total of 8.5 million.
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Military membership
Nazi members with military ambitions were encouraged to join the Waffen SS, but a great number enlisted in the Wehrmacht and even more were drafted for service after World War II began. Early regulations required that all Wehrmacht members be non-political, and therefore any National Socialist member joining in the 1930s was required to resign from the Nazi Party.
This regulation was soon waived, however, and there is ample evidence that full Nazi Party members served in the Wehrmacht in particular after the outbreak of World War II. The Wehrmacht Reserves also saw a high number of senior Nazis enlisting, with such figures as Reinhard Heydrich and Fritz Todt joining the Luftwaffe, as well as Karl Hanke who served in the Army.
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Paramilitary groups
In addition to the NSDAP proper, several paramilitary groups existed which "supported" Nazi aims. All such members of these paramilitary organizations were required to become regular Nazi Party members first, and could then enlist in the group of their choice. A vast system of Nazi party paramilitary ranks developed for each of the various paramilitary groups.
The major Nazi Party paramilitary groups were as follows:
Schutzstaffel (SS): Protection Service
Sturmabteilung (SA): Storm Troopers
Nationalsozialistisches Fliegerkorps (NSFK): National Socialist Flyers Corps
Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrerkorps (NSKK): National Socialist Motor Corps
The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary group divided into an adult leadership corps and a general membership open to boys aged fourteen to eighteen.
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Party symbols
Nazi Flags: The Nazi party used a right-facing swastika as their symbol and the red and black colors were said to represent Blut und Boden (blood and soil). Black, white, and red were in fact the colors of the old North German Confederation flag (invented by Otto von Bismarck, based on the Prussian colors black and white). In 1871, with the foundation of the German Reich, the flag of the North German Confederation became the German Reichsflagge (Reich's flag). Black, white, and red became the colors of the nationalists through the following history (for example World War I and the Weimar Republic).
Swastika
The Roman Eagle
Nazi anthem: Horst Wessel Lied.
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Sayings, mottos and slogans
"Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!"
"Hail Victory" (common Nazi chant at rallies)
"Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer!"
"One people, one nation, one leader!".
"Deutschland, erwache!"
"Germany, Awake!" (Coined by Dietrich Eckart, this was the title to a popular Nazi song and put on many propaganda banners.) (5)
"Die Juden sind unser Unglück!"
"The Jews are our misfortune!"
"Lang lebe unser ruhmvoller Führer!"
"Long live our glorious leader!"
"Heute Deutschland, morgen die Welt!"
"Today Germany, tomorrow the world!"
"Die Deutschen immer vor dem Ausländer und den Juden!"
"The German always before the foreigner and Jew!"
"Sicher ist der Jude auch ein Mann, aber der Floh ist auch ein Tier"
"Certainly the Jew is also a man, but the flea is also an animal".
"Arbeit; Freiheit; Brot"
"Work; Freedom; Bread"

Obergruppenführer

SA-Obergruppenführer insignia
Obergruppenführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was first created in 1932 as a rank of the SA. Translated as "Senior Group Leader", the rank of SA-Obergruppenführer was held by members of the Oberste SA-Führerung (Supreme SA Command) and also by veteran commanders of certain SA-Gruppen (SA Groups). The rank of Obergruppenführer was considered senior to the older title of Gruppenführer.
An SS-Obergruppenführer, in field grey uniform, circa 1944
As an SS rank, Obergruppenführer was created due to the growth and expansion of the SS under Heinrich Himmler. Himmler was one of the first SS officers appointed to the rank of SS-Obergruppenführer, and held the rank while simultaneously serving as the Reichsführer-SS. At the time Himmler held the rank of Obergruppenführer, Reichsführer was simply a title and not yet an actual rank.
In the early days of the SS, the rank of Obergruppenführer was occasionally used to make two SS leaders equal in seniority, so as to prevent a power struggle within the Nazi Party. Such was the case with Kurt Daluege, who commanded most of the SS in the Berlin region between 1930 and 1934. To avoid having the SS split into two separate entities, one based in Northern Germany and the other in Bavaria, Adolf Hitler promoted Daluege to the new rank of Obergruppenführer making him equal in rank to Himmler.
After the Night of the Long Knives, the SS and the SA became two completely separate organizations. The SA continued to use the rank of Obergruppenführer, but the title gained predominance mainly in the SS. With the Nazi Party in power, and the SS a state agency of Germany, SS-Obergruppenführer was considered the highest rank of the SS, with the exception of Himmler’s special rank of Reichsführer-SS. Within the Waffen-SS, the rank came to be considered the equivalent of a full General.
The rank would remain the highest SS-General rank until 1942, when the SS created the rank of SS-Oberstgruppenführer.
The rank of Obergruppenführer was held by some of the most notorious figures in the SS, with Reinhard Heydrich and Ernst Kaltenbrunner both claiming title to the rank. Karl Wolff was another holder of the rank and was the highest ranking SS officer who was taken alive by the Allies after the close of Second World War. SS-Obergruppenführer was also the standard rank for SS and Police Leaders as well as Division commanders of the Waffen-SS.

Reinhard Heydrich

Reinhard Heydrich as SS-Gruppenführer
Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich (March 7, 1904 – June 4, 1942) was an SS-Obergruppenführer, chief of the Reich Main Security Office, and Reich governor of Bohemia and Moravia. By Hitler he was considered his possible successor. He was nicknamed The Butcher of Prague, The Blond Beast and Der Henker (German for the hangman).
Heydrich was one of the architects of the Holocaust, chairing the 1942 Wannsee conference, which laid out the plans for the extermination of all European Jews. Heydrich was assassinated by Czechoslovakian soldiers (trained in England) during the Operation Anthropoid.

Early life
Heydrich was born in Halle an der Saale. His father and mother were both very heavily musically involved (his father was a composer), and Heydrich developed a passion for the violin, which was to continue throughout his life. Although Heydrich was a shy boy, he excelled physically and grew up to be handsome and fit. He was an impressive athlete, excelling in fencing and swimming.
Heydrich participated in the Freikorps Maerker in 1919. In 1922 he joined the navy; however, he was later dismissed when he had a brief liaison with a shipyard director's daughter and subsequently became engaged to a young woman, Lina von Osten. The daughter told her father of her anger over the incident, and he was subsequently charged with "conduct unbecoming to an officer and a gentleman". His behavior in court was apparently so disdainful that the court also rebuked him for insubordination. Heydrich was left with no career prospects. However, he remained engaged to von Osten, whom he married in 1931.
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Nazi Party and the SS


Heydrich seen wearing his Totenkopfring
In 1931, Himmler began to set up a counter-intelligence division of the SS. Acting on a friend's advice, he interviewed Heydrich, and after a twenty minute test whereby Heydrich had to outline plans for the new division, Himmler hired him on the spot. In doing so Himmler also effectively recruited Heydrich into the Nazi Party. He would later receive a Totenkopfring from Himmler, for his service.
At this time he was relatively insignificant within the Nazi intelligence apparatus. He and his staff spent their time building up a card-file system on all persons who were considered a threat to the Party, often including party officials themselves. Heydrich supported his family on a meagre salary and worked in a tiny office.
American journalist John Gunther, during his trip to Germany in 1934, while collecting research materials for his famed book "Inside Europe", showed considerable knowledge of Nazi intrigues and backgrounds when he said Himmler was actually only a bimbo compared to a man like Heydrich, who was far more cruel. At this time, the latter was regarded as an obscure and bureaucratic medium-ranked officer.
In July 1932 Heydrich's division took on the title of Sicherheitsdienst (SD). He then built up a mutually beneficial partnership with Himmler. Later he became the head of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA), of which the SD, the Gestapo and the Einsatzgruppen were parts.


Heinrich Himmler, and Heydrich
Upon the establishment of the Third Reich, Heydrich helped Adolf Hitler 'dig up dirt' on many political opponents, keeping an impressive filing system listing individuals and organizations opposing the party and the regime. He is believed to be the creator of the forged documents of Russian correspondence with the German high command that sparked the Great Purge. He was also instrumental in establishing the false 'attack' by Poland on German national radio at Gleiwitz, which was to be the beginning of World War II.
Heydrich also served briefly in the war as a Luftwaffe pilot and won several decorations for bravery: Iron Cross 1st and 2nd Class, the Front-Line Combat Badge, and the Wound Badge. His flying career came to an abrupt end when he was shot down by Russian AA fire in late 1941, and he had to swim across a river to safety. This was too much for Himmler and he was grounded.
Heydrich was one of the main architects of the Holocaust during the first years of World War II and chaired the Wannsee Conference, at which plans for the deportation of the Jews to extermination camps were discussed.
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Assassination in Prague
For detailed information about the assassination see main article Operation Anthropoid.
On September 27, 1941 Heydrich was appointed acting Reichsprotektor ('Imperial Protector', the nazi representative) in the Czech puppet-state called the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. He replaced Konstantin von Neurath whom Hitler considered insufficiently harsh (but who remained titulary protector till 20 August 1943).
While virtual military governor of Bohemia and Moravia, exercising real executive power above the Czech President and Prime Minister, Heydrich often drove alone in a car with an open roof — a show of confidence in the occupation forces and the effectiveness of their repressive measures against the local population (See Czech resistance to Nazi occupation).
Jan Kubiš and Jozef Gabčík were Czechoslovakian partisans who had fled the country earlier in 1941. After receiving training from the British they parachuted back into the region that December and on May 27, 1942 ambushed Heydrich while he rode in his open car. Gabčík drew a concealed British made Sten sub-maching gun but it failed to fire. Reinhards car stopped and Reinhard rose and drew a pistol. Before he was able to fire, Kubiš threw a grenade near the car which wounded Heydrich. Some speculate that if Heydrich had not stood up, the fragments would not have wounded him so extensively.
Despite Himmler sending his best doctors, Heydrich died in agony in a Prague hospital at the age of 38. Although the exact cause of death has not been definitively established, the autopsy states that Heydrich's death was most likely septicemia caused by bacteria and toxins from grenade splinters. A highly elaborate funeral was staged for him in Berlin, with Hitler attending (and placing on Heydrich's funeral pillow his decorations, the highest grade of the German Order and the Blood Order Medal). Hitler himself perhaps best encapsulated Heydrich's general attitude in his acknowledgment that Heydrich was partly to blame for his own death through arrogance and a blasé attitude:
"Since it is opportunity which makes not only the thief but also the assassin, such heroic gestures as driving in an open, unarmoured vehicle or walking about the streets unguarded are just damned stupidity, which serves the Fatherland not one whit. That a man as irreplaceable as Heydrich should expose himself to unnecessary danger, I can only condemn as stupid and idiotic."
Lina Heydrich later stated that she believed Heydrich had expected an early death, saying that she saw his frequent unnecessary risk-taking (such as his valiant adventures in his Luftwaffe Me 109) as an attempt to ensure that, should he die, his would be a dramatic death.
The Nazi retaliation was savage and a brutal warning against further armed resistance. On June 10 all males over the age of 16 in the village of Lidice, 22 km north-west of Prague and another village Ležáky, were murdered a day after the town was burned. It has been reported that over 15,000 Czechs were killed in reprisals.
Heydrich's eventual replacements were Ernst Kaltenbrunner as the chief of RSHA and Karl Hermann Frank 27 - 28 May 1942 and Kurt Daluege as 28 May 1942 - 14 October 1943 the new acting Reichsprotektors.
After Heydrich's death, the first three "trial" death camps were constructed and put into operation at Treblinka, Sobibór, and Belzec. The project was named Operation Reinhard in Heydrich's honor.
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Claims of Jewish ancestry
Since Heydrich's death, historical evidence has come to light that Heydrich may very well have had a Jewish grandparent and that this fact was known to high Nazi leaders including Hitler and Himmler. Under the Nuremberg Laws, Heydrich would have been classified as "a person of mixed Jewish blood in the second degree", meaning he had one pure German and one half Jewish parent. Heydrich would not have been subject to anti-Semitic laws, but would have been expelled from the SS as being non-Aryan.
The most compelling evidence of Heydrich's Jewish ancestry is the testimony of Walter Schellenberg who stated, in the 1950s, that Heinrich Himmler had held a private meeting with Heydrich in 1935, after learning that one of Heydrich's relatives had held the surname of "Süss", a common Jewish name. According to Schellenberg, Heydrich admitted that one of his grandparents was Jewish and Himmler had reportedly informed Hitler. Hitler, however, stated Heydrich was a special case since "his Aryan blood far suppressed his Jewish heritage". Shortly thereafter, Gestapo personnel were dispatched to Halle, where Heydrich had been born, to erase certain records of Heydrich's past. Rumours arose that this included the destruction of tombstones, but this is unconfirmed.
It was not long before other Nazis had heard insinuations that Heydrich might have had a Jewish relative in his background. Dr. Achim Gercke, the Nazi Party's leading genealogist, was commissioned by Gregor Strasser after a Nazi official, Rudolf Jordan, revealed the grandfather to Party Headquarters in 1932. Gercke claimed research that not only was the Süss in question, a locksmith, not even a Jew, but that he wasn't even Heydrich's genetic grandfather, whose name was Reinhold Heydrich. Also of note is that the investigation was concluded in the summer of 1932, rather than 1935.
The accuracy of both Schellenberg's and Gercke's testimonies are today still debated among historians. Some works on Heydrich have thus far dispelled the story as a rumour. The assertion is also routinely denied by neo-Nazis. However, it is widely accepted that Heydrich did believe the claims at least enough to try and make up for it by even greater devotion to the Nazi cause.

The Second World War

Nazi governor of Poland Hans Frank (right) hosts head of SS Heinrich Himmler during a visit to Krakow
Before the invasion of Russia in 1941, Himmler began preparing his SS for a war of extermination against the forces of "Judeo-Bolshevism". Himmler, always glad to make parallels between Nazi Germany and the Middle Ages, compared the invasion to the Crusades. Himmler collected volunteers from all over Europe, including Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, Dutch, Belgians, French, Spaniards, and, after the invasion, Ukrainians, Latvians, Lithuanians, and Estonians. Himmler attracted the non-Germanic volunteers by declaring a pan-European crusade to defend the traditional values of Old Europe from the "Godless Bolshevik Hordes".
In 1944, Himmler was granted still further power as the result of a bitter rivalry between the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and the Abwehr, the intelligence arm of the Wehrmacht.
The involvement in the July 20, 1944, plot against Hitler of many of the Abwehr leaders, including its head, Admiral Canaris, prompted Hitler to disband the Abwehr and make the SD the sole intelligence service of the Third Reich. This increased Himmler's already considerable personal power.
In late 1944, Himmler became commander of army group Oberrhein (Upper Rhine), which was fighting the oncoming United States 7th Army and French 1st Army in the Alsace region on the west bank of the Rhine. Himmler held this post until early 1945 when he was switched to command an army group facing the Red Army to the East. As Himmler had no practical military experience as a field commander, he was quickly relieved of his field commands and appointed Commander of the Home Army. At the same time, he was appointed as the German Interior Minister and was considered by many to be a candidate to succeed Hitler as the Führer of Germany. However, it became known after the war that Hitler never really considered Himmler as a successor even before his betrayal, believing that the authority that was his as head of the SS had caused him to be so hated that he would be rejected by the Party.
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Peace negotiations, capture and death


Heinrich Himmler in 1945
By 1945, Himmler's Waffen-SS numbered 800,000 members, with the Allgemeine-SS (at least on paper) hosting a membership of nearly two million. However, by the spring of 1945 Himmler had lost faith in German victory, probably partially due to his discussions with his masseur Felix Kersten and Walter Schellenberg2. He came to the realization that if the Nazi regime was to have any chance of survival, it would need to seek peace with Britain and the United States. Toward this end, he contacted Count Folke Bernadotte of Sweden at Lübeck, near the Danish border, and began negotiations to surrender in the West. Himmler hoped the British and Americans would fight their Russian allies with the remains of the Wehrmacht. When Hitler discovered this, Himmler was declared a traitor and stripped of all his titles and ranks the day before Hitler committed suicide. At the time of Himmler's denunciation, he held the positions of Reich Leader-SS, Chief of the German Police, Reich Commissioner of German Nationhood, Reich Minister of the Interior, Supreme Commander of the Volkssturm, and Supreme Commander of the Home Army.
Unfortunately for Himmler, his negotiations with Count Bernadotte failed. Since he could not return to Berlin, he joined Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, who by then was commanding all German forces in the West, in nearby Plön. Somehow, Hitler's orders concerning him never reached Dönitz. After Hitler's death, Himmler joined the short-lived Flensburg government headed by Dönitz but was dismissed on May 6, 1945 by its leader in a move he hoped would gain him favour with the Allies.
Himmler next turned to the Americans as a defector, contacting the headquarters of Dwight Eisenhower and proclaiming he would surrender all of Germany to the Allies if he was spared from prosecution as a Nazi leader. In an example of Himmler's mental state at this point, he sent a personal application to General Eisenhower stating he wished to apply for the position of "Minister of Police" in the post-war government of Germany. He also reportedly mused on how to handle his first meeting with the SHAEF commander and whether to give the Nazi salute or shake hands with him. Eisenhower refused to have anything to do with Himmler and he was subsequently declared a major war criminal.


The dead self-poisoned Himmler after capture by Allied troops, 1945
Unwanted by his former colleagues and hunted by the Allies, Himmler wandered for several days around Flensburg near the Danish border, capital of the Dönitz government. Attempting to evade arrest, Himmler disguised himself as a member of the Gendarmerie in the hope that he could return to Bavaria. He had equipped himself with a full set of false documents, but someone whose papers were wholly in order was so unusual that it aroused the suspicions of a British Army unit in Bremen, Germany and he was arrested on May 22nd. In captivity he was soon recognized. Himmler was scheduled to stand trial with other German leaders as a major war criminal at Nuremberg, but committed suicide in Lüneburg by swallowing a potassium cyanide capsule before interrogation could begin. His last words were, "I am Heinrich Himmler!"
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Conspiracy theories
There would be later claims that the man who committed suicide in Bremen was not Himmler but a double. Statements allegedly attributed to ODESSA were said to have asserted Himmler escaped to the tiny and rustic farming village of Strones in the Waldviertel, a hilly forested area in the northwest part of Lower Austria just north of Vienna, birthplace of Alois Hitler, where he was running a reborn SS in exile.
A recently-published book by American author Joseph Bellinger, Himmler's Death, offers another "conspiracy theory" alternative to Himmler's death, stating that Heinrich Himmler was assassinated by his British interrogators in May 1945 along with other high-ranking officers of the SS and Werewolf Resistance Organization. Bellinger's book was first published in Germany by Arndt Verlag, Kiel. A similar book, Himmler's Secret War, by Martin Allen makes similar claims: it is apparently based on forged documents smuggled into the (British) National Archives (link to news report).
Most historians discount these claims.
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Historical view
Feared by many, but respected by some of his colleagues3, several historians have argued Himmler was made more by those who worked under him than by his own designs, although others note how he visited the concentration camps much more frequently than his job would have required, urging the SS men to increase atrocities and personally witnessing many mass shootings unlike Hitler, who is not known to have ever visited one of the camps.
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Surviving family
He was survived by his wife Marga and natural daughter Gudrun (Burwitz) (b. 1929), who still resides in Germany and by his illegitimate son Helge (b.1942) and daughter Nanette Doreathea (b.1944) from a relationship with his personal assistant Hedwig Potthast. Catharine Himmler, a second niece of Heinrich Himmler, is married to an Israeli, the son of Holocaust survivors who survived the Warsaw Ghetto [1].

Heinrich Himmler

Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (help·info) (October 7, 1900 – May 23, 1945) was the commander of the German Schutzstaffel (SS) and one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany. As Reichsführer-SS, he controlled the SS and the Gestapo. He also became a leading organizer of the Holocaust. As founder and officer-in-charge of the Nazi concentration camps and the Einsatzgruppen death squads, Himmler was responsible for implementing the industrial scale murder of between six and twelve million people. Among the victims were Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, Communists and Slavs.

Early life


A young Heinrich Himmler
Himmler was born near Munich, Bavaria, Germany, into a middle-class family with connections to royalty. He was the son of a Bavarian schoolmaster, Gebhardt Himmler, who was able to woo the crown prince of Bavaria into becoming young Heinrich's godfather. Himmler attended Landshut High School, which upon leaving, he was appointed an Officer Cadet in 1918 and joined the 11th Bavarian Regiment for service in World War I. Shortly before he was due for commissioning as an officer the war ended, and he was discharged from the military without seeing combat.
In 1919, a year after World War I had ended, Himmler began studying agronomy at the Technische Hochschule in Munich. During his time as a student, he was an active member of several student clubs1. At the same time, he became active in the Freikorps, private armies of right-wing, ex-German Army men resentful of Germany's loss of the First World War. Himmler joined the Reichkriegsflagge (Imperial War Flag) and, in 1923, applied to join the Nazi Party, which were recruiting Freikorps members as potential members of the new Nazi stormtrooper units known as the Sturmabteilung.
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Early Nazi Party activity


Himmler (third from left, holding a flag) during the Beer Hall Putsch 1923
In 1923 Himmler was a Feldwebel (Sergeant) in the Reichkriegsflagge, carrying the Imperial German Battle Ensign in the so-called Beer Hall Putsch, the Nazi Party's failed attempt at a revolution in overthrowing the government of Bavaria.
Between 1923 and 1925, with the Nazi party seemingly a failed cause, Himmler devoted himself to other interests, putting his agricultural diploma to work by becoming a poultry farmer. His time as a chicken farmer was unsuccessful, however, and he returned to the Nazi Party in late 1926. In 1927 he married Margaret Boden.
The Nazi Party quickly put Himmler to work as the Vice District Leader and Deputy Gauleiter of Upper-Bavaria and also as secretary to Oberste SA-Führer Franz Pfeffer von Salomon. Himmler was subsequently commissioned as an SA-Sturmführer in 1926, and later that year he was appointed an Oberführer, becoming SS-Gauführer (District Leader) in a small SA sub-unit known as the Schutzstaffel or SS. In 1927, Himmler became the vice commander of the SS when he accepted the assignment as Deputy Reichsführer-SS.
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Rise in the SS


Heinrich Himmler as an SA-Oberführer and Reichsführer-SS
Between 1927 and 1929, Himmler devoted himself increasingly to his duties as Deputy Reichsführer-SS. Upon the resignation of SS Commander Erhard Heiden, Himmler was appointed as the new Reichsführer-SS in January 1929. At the time Himmler was appointed to lead the SS, it numbered only 280 members and was considered a mere battalion of the much larger SA. Himmler himself was considered only an SA-Oberführer, but after 1929 he simply referred to himself as the "Reichsführer-SS".
By 1933, when the Nazi Party rose to power in Germany, Himmler's SS numbered 52,000 members, and the organization had developed strict membership requirements ensuring all members were of Adolf Hitler's "Aryan Herrenvolk" ("Aryan master race"). Now a Gruppenführer in the SA, Himmler next began a massive effort to separate the SS from SA control; he introduced black SS uniforms to replace the SA brown shirts in the fall of 1933. Shortly thereafter, he was promoted to SS-Obergruppenführer und Reichsführer-SS and became an equal to the senior SA commanders, who by this time loathed the SS and the power it held.


Heinrich Himmler in 1933, wearing the new black uniform of the SS
Himmler and another of Hitler's right hand men, Hermann Göring, agreed that the SA and its leader Ernst Röhm were beginning to pose a real threat to the German Army and the Nazi leadership of Germany. Röhm had strong socialist views and believed that, although Hitler had successfully gained power in Germany, the "real" revolution had not yet begun, leaving some Nazi leaders believing Röhm was intent on using the SA to administer a coup.
With some persuasion from Himmler and Göring, Hitler began to feel threatened by this prospect and agreed that Röhm had to die. He delegated the task of Röhm's demise to Himmler and Göring who, along with Reinhard Heydrich, Kurt Daluege and Walter Schellenberg, carried out the execution of Röhm and numerous other senior SA officials on June 30, 1934, in what became known as "The Night of the Long Knives". The next day Himmler's title of Reichsführer-SS became a rank to which he was appointed and the SS became an independent organization of the Nazi Party.
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Consolidation of power
In 1936 Himmler gained further authority as the SS absorbed all of Germany's local law enforcement agencies into the new Ordnungspolizei, considered a headquarters branch of the SS. Germany's secret police forces were also under Himmler's authority in the form of the Sicherheitspolizei, which would in 1939 expand into the much larger Reichsicherheitshauptamt. The SS was also developing its military branch, known as the SS-Verfügungstruppe, which would later become known as the Waffen-SS.
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Himmler and the Holocaust


SS Chief Heinrich Himmler (front right, facing prisoner) on a personal visit to the Dachau concentration camp in 1936
After the Night of the Long Knives, the SS-Totenkopfverbände was given the task of organizing and administering Germany's regime of concentration camps and, after 1941, the extermination camps in occupied Poland. The SS, through its intelligence arm the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), was charged with finding Jews, Roma, priests, homosexuals, communists and those persons of any other cultural, racial, political or religious affiliation deemed by the Nazis to be either Untermenschen (sub-human) or in opposition to the regime, and placing them in concentration camps. Himmler opened the first of these camps near Dachau (see picture) on March 22nd, 1933. He became one of the main architects of the Holocaust, using elements of mysticism and a fanatical belief in the racist Nazi ideology to justify the mass murder and genocide of millions of victims.
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Poznań speech
On 4 October 1943, Himmler referred explicitly to the extermination of the Jewish people during a secret SS meeting in the Polish city of Poznań (named Posen by the Germans). The following are excerpts from a transcription of an audio recording that exists of the speech:
I also want to mention a very difficult subject before you here, completely openly.
It should be discussed amongst us, and yet, nevertheless, we will never speak about it in public....
I am talking about the “Jewish evacuation”: the extermination of the Jewish people.
It is one of those things that is easily said. "The Jewish people is being exterminated,” every Party
member will tell you, 'perfectly clear, it's part of our plans, we're eliminating the Jews, exterminating
them, ha!, a small matter.…

David Irving

David Irving, 2003
David John Cawdell Irving (born March 24, 1938) is a controversial British World War II historical researcher and author, whose numerous books are widely considered influential, discredited, or both. He has been accused of revisionism by denying the Holocaust.
From the late 1960s to the mid-1980s, Irving's prominence arose from his writings such as Apocalypse 1945: The Destruction of Dresden and Hitler's War. When Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt counted Irving among those who deny the Holocaust, Irving sued Lipstadt for libel. Irving lost the highly publicised trial. [1] The judge upheld Lipstadt's claims about Irving "that he is an active Holocaust denier; that he is anti-Semitic and racist".
Irving's continued disagreement with mainstream historical accounts of the Second World War, of Adolf Hitler, and of the Holocaust has earned him iconic status among neo-Nazis and other Holocaust deniers. His books and speeches have led to his being barred from entering Germany and Austria, where it is a crime to claim publicly that the Holocaust, or aspects of it, never occurred. Relatedly, he has also been barred from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. As a result of his stance on the Holocaust and from the outcome of his libel case, Irving has lost much, if not all, credibility as a historian. [2] [3]
On 20 February 2006, Irving was sentenced to three years' imprisonment in Austria for re-entering the country after being banned for denying the Holocaust.
arly life
Irving was born in Essex, England. His father John James Cawdell Irving was a commander in the Royal Navy, his mother Beryl an illustrator. During the Second World War, his father was an officer aboard the light cruiser HMS Edinburgh. On 2 May 1942, while escorting Convoy QP-11 in the Barents Sea, the ship was sunk by the German U-456. Irving's father survived, but after the incident cut off all ties with his wife and their children.
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Student years
Irving first gained notoriety as a student at Imperial College London, where he attempted to study physics. He wrote for the student newspaper Phoenix and in 1959 served as editor of the London University Carnival Committee's journal, Carnival Times. His editorialship here stirred criticism, though Irving deflects such criticism by characterizing the Carnival Times as "satirical". In one editorial, he suggested the Jewish-owned media were against the formation of the European Union, and referred to Adolf Hitler as "Herr Hitler". According to the Anti-Defamation League, Irving also supported apartheid in South Africa, racist cartoons, and gave an appreciative view of Nazi Germany [4]. Covering the controversy, the 1 May 1959 edition of the Daily Mail, quoted Irving as saying, "You can call me a mild fascist if you like". Though Irving admits having had at the time membership in a conservative student group, he has denounced that article as libellous and "handiwork of an imaginative Daily Mail journalist". [5]
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The Destruction of Dresden
Irving's scholastic and financial difficulties led him to Germany, where he worked as a steelworker in a Thyssen steel works in the Ruhr area and first learned German. He then moved to Spain, where he worked as a clerk at an airbase. In 1962, he wrote a series of thirty-seven articles on the Allied bombing campaign, Wie Deutschlands Städte starben (How Germany's Cities Died), for the right-wing German journal Neue Illustrierte. These served as the basis of his first book The Destruction of Dresden, published in 1963. In it, Irving examined the Allied bombing of Dresden in February 1945. By the 1960s, a debate about the morality of the carpet bombing of German cities and civilian population had already begun, especially in the United Kingdom. There was consequently considerable interest in Irving's book, which was illustrated with graphic pictures. The book subsequently became an international bestseller.
In the first edition of the book, Irving's estimates for deaths in Dresden were between 100,000 and 250,000 - nearly an order of magnitude higher than previous numbers. These figures became authoritative and widely accepted in many standard references and encyclopedias. Over the next three decades, later editions of the book gradually modified that figure downwards to a range of 50,000 to 100,000. Forty years later, during the hearing of Irving's libel suit against Deborah Lipstadt, these figures were publicly discredited. Today, the Dresden bombing casualty figures are estimated as most likely in the range of 25,000 to 35,000 dead, and probably toward the lower end of that range.
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Historian
After the success of the Dresden book, Irving continued writing, including some works of revisionist history. In 1964, he wrote The Mare's Nest, an account of the German secret weapons projects and the Allied intelligence countermeasures against it, translated the Memoirs of Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel in 1965, and in 1967 published Accident: The Death of General Sikorski, in which he suggests Churchill had a hand in the death of Polish government in exile leader Władysław Sikorski. Also in 1967, he published two more works: The Virus House, an account of the German nuclear energy project, and The Destruction of Convoy PQ-17, in which he blamed the British convoy commander Captain Jack Broome for the catastrophic losses of the Convoy PQ-17. Amid much publicity, Broome sued Irving for libel in October 1968, and in February 1970, after seventeen days of deliberation before London's High Court, Broome won. Irving was forced to pay £40,000 in damages, and the book was withdrawn from circulation.


Irving with Hitler's armaments minister Albert Speer in the late 1970s
After PQ-17, Irving shifted to writing biographies. As a result of Irving's success with Dresden, but prior to the conclusion of the Broome trial, members of Germany's extreme right wing assisted him in contacting surviving members of Hitler's inner circle. Many aging former mid- and high-ranked Nazis saw a potential friend in Irving and donated diaries and other material. In 1972, he translated the memoirs of General Reinhard Gehlen, and in 1973 published The Rise and Fall of the Luftwaffe, a biography of Air Marshall Erhard Milch. He spent the remainder of the 1970s working on Hitler's War and the War Path, his two-part biography of Adolf Hitler, The Trail of the Fox, a biography of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, and a series in the Sunday Express describing the Royal Air Force's famous Dam Busters raid.
Although Irving's works were generally ignored by academics, and often criticised as inaccurate when reviewed by specialists, his command of language and a wealth of entertaining anecdotes led generalists to write favourable reviews in the popular press, and many of his works sold well. He was particularly noted for his mastery of the voluminous and scattered German war records. The raw biographical material he received from Hitler's inner circle bolstered Irving's claim as an authentic historian. As a result, throughout the 1970s, the popular perception of Irving as a mainstream British historian went unchallenged.

Marianne

Marianne is a symbol of the French Republic. She is an allegorical figure of liberty and the Republic and first appeared at the time of the French Revolution. The earliest representations of Marianne are of a woman wearing a Phrygian cap. The origins of the name Marianne are unknown, but Marie-Anne was a very common first name in the 18th century. Anti-revolutionaries of the time derisively called her La Gueuse (the Commoner).
It is believed that revolutionaries from the South of France adopted the Phrygian cap as it symbolised liberty, having been worn by freed slaves in both Greece and Rome. Mediterranean seamen and convicts manning the galleys also wore a similar type of cap.
Under the Third Republic, statues, and especially busts, of Marianne began to proliferate, particularly in town halls. She was represented in several different manners, depending on whether the aim was to emphasise her revolutionary nature or her "wisdom." Over time, the Phrygian cap was felt to be too seditious, and was replaced by a diadem or a crown. In recent times, famous French actresses are given the title of Marianne. Recent ones are Sophie Marceau, and Laetitia Casta. She also features on everyday articles such as postage stamps and coins.

The Chambord castle

The borders of modern France are roughly the same as those of ancient Gaul, which was inhabited by Celtic Gauls. Gaul was conquered for Rome by Julius Caesar in the 1st century BC, and the Gauls eventually adopted Roman speech (Latin, which evolved into the French language) and Roman culture. Christianity took root in the 2nd century and 3rd century AD, and became so firmly established by the fourth and fifth centuries that St. Jerome wrote that Gaul was the only region “free from heresy”. In the Middle Ages, the French would adopt this as a justification for calling themselves “the Most-Christian Kingdom of France.”
In the 4th century AD, Gaul's eastern frontier along the Rhine was overrun by Germanic tribes, principally the Franks, from whom the ancient name of "Francie" was derived. The modern name "France" derives from the name of the feudal domain of the Capetian Kings of France around Paris. Existence as a separate entity began with the Treaty of Verdun (843), with the division of Charlemagne's Carolingian empire into East Francia, Middle Francia and Western Francia. Western Francia approximated the area occupied by modern France.
The Carolingians ruled France until 987, when Hugh Capet, Duke of France and Count of Paris, was crowned King of France. His descendants, the Capetian, Valois and Bourbon dynasties progressively unified the country through a series of wars and dynastic inheritance. The monarchy reached its height during the 17th century and the reign of Louis XIV. At this time France possessed the largest population in Europe (see Demographics of France) and had tremendous influence over European politics, economy, and culture. Towards the end of this era, France played a major role in the American Revolution by providing capital and some military assets to the anti-British rebels.

Monarchy to Modern France

The monarchy ruled France until the French Revolution, in 1789. King Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette, were killed, along with thousands of other French citizens. After a series of short-lived governmental schemes, Napoleon Bonaparte seized control of the Republic in 1799, making himself First Consul, and later Emperor of what is now known as the First French Empire (1804–1814). In the course of several wars, his armies conquered most of continental Europe, with members of the Bonaparte family being appointed as monarchs of newly established kingdoms.
Following Napoleon's final defeat, in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo, the French monarchy was re-established. In 1830, a civil uprising established the constitutional July Monarchy, which lasted until 1848. The short-lived Second Republic ended in 1852 when Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte proclaimed the Second French Empire. Louis-Napoléon was unseated following defeat in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 to be replaced by the Third Republic.
Eugène Delacroix - La Liberté guidant le peuple ("Liberty leading the People"), a symbol of the French Revolution of 1830
France had colonial possessions, in various forms, since the beginning of the 17th century until the 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, its global colonial empire was the second largest in the world behind the British Empire. At its peak, between 1919 and 1939, the second French colonial empire extended over 12,347,000 square kilometres (4,767,000 sq. mi) of land. Including metropolitan France, the total area of land under French sovereignty reached 12,898,000 square kilometres (4,980,000 sq. mi) in the 1920s and 1930s, which is 8.6% of the world's land area.
Though ultimately a victor in World War I, France had suffered enormous losses both human and material that weakened it for the decades to come. The 1930s were marked by a variety of social reforms introduced by the Popular Front government.
During World War II, after a short but grievous and violent battle, France's political leadership chose to surrender to Germany in 1940. The policy of collaboration with the enemy, a move that some disagreed with, led to the formation of the Free French Forces outside of France and of the French Resistance inside. France was liberated by the Allies in 1944.
The French Fourth Republic was established after World War II, and struggled to maintain its economic and political status as a dominant nation state. France attempted to hold on to its colonial empire, but soon ran into trouble. The half-hearted 1946 attempt at regaining control of French Indochina resulted in the First Indochina War, which finally ended with its 1954 defeat and withdrawal. Only months later, France faced a new, even harsher conflict in its oldest major colony, Algeria.
The debate over whether or not to keep control of Algeria, then home to over 1 million European settlers, wracked the country and nearly led to civil war. In 1958, the weak and unstable Fourth Republic gave way to the Fifth Republic, with a greatly strengthened presidency; in this role, Charles de Gaulle managed to keep the country together while taking steps to end the war. The Algerian War of Independence was concluded with peace negotiations in 1962 that led to Algerian independence.
In recent decades, France's reconciliation and cooperation with Germany have proved central to the political and economic integration of the evolving European Union, including the introduction of the euro in January 1999. France has been at the forefront of the European Union member states seeking to exploit the momentum of monetary union to create a more unified and capable European Union political, defence and security apparatus. However the French electorate voted against ratification of the European Constitutional Treaty in May 2005.

France

France (IPA: [fʁɑ̃s] in French), officially the French Republic (French: République française, IPA: [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in Western Europe and which also comprises various overseas islands and territories located in other continents.[1] Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. French people often refer to Metropolitan France as L'Hexagone (The "Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory.
France is bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, Andorra, and Spain. In some of its overseas departments, France also shares land borders with Brazil, Suriname, and the Netherlands Antilles. France is also linked to the United Kingdom via the Channel Tunnel, which passes underneath the English Channel (La Manche in French).
The French Republic is a democracy which is organised as a unitary semi-presidential republic. It is a developed country with the sixth-largest economy in the world.[2] Its main ideals are expressed in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. France is one of the founding members of the European Union, and has the largest land area of all members. France is also a founding member of the United Nations, and a member of La Francophonie, the G8, and the Latin Union. It is one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council wielding veto power, and it is also one of eight acknowledged nuclear powers. France is the most popular international tourist destination in the world, receiving over 75 million foreign tourists annually, followed by Spain (53 million), the U.S.A. (46 million) and China (41 million).[3] The name France originates from the Franks, a Germanic tribe that occupied the region after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. More precisely, the region around Paris, called Île-de-France, was the original French royal demesne.

While the main territory of France (metropolitan France; French: la Métropole, France métropolitaine or informally l'hexagone) is located in Western Europe, France is also comprised of a number of territories in North America, the Caribbean, South America, the southern Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and Antarctica (sovereignty claims in Antarctica are governed by the Antarctic Treaty System). These territories have varying forms of government ranging from overseas département to "overseas country".
Metropolitan France possesses a wide variety of landscapes, from coastal plains in the north and west to mountain ranges in the south-east (the Alps) and the south-west (the Pyrenees). The highest point in western Europe is situated in the French Alps: Mont Blanc at 4,810 metres (15,781 ft) above sea-level. There are several other elevated regions such as the Massif Central, the Jura, the Vosges, and the Ardennes which are quite rocky and forested. France also has extensive river systems such as the Loire, the Rhône, the Garonne and the Seine.
At 674,843 square kilometres (260,558 sq mi), France is the world's 40th-largest country (after Myanmar). Metropolitan France, with 551,695 square kilometres (213,010 sq mi), is somewhat larger than Yemen and Thailand, and somewhat smaller than Kenya and the US state of Texas.
Due to its overseas departments and territories scattered on all oceans of the planet, France possesses the second-largest Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the world, covering 11,035,000 square kilometres (4,260,000 sq mi), just behind the EEZ of the United States (11,351,000 km² / 4,383,000 sq mi), but ahead of the EEZ of Australia (8,232,000 km² / 3,178,000 sq mi).[4] The EEZ of France covers approximately 8% of the total surface of all the EEZs of the world, whereas the land area of the French Republic is only 0.45% of the total land area on Earth

Fox Broadcasting Company

The Fox Broadcasting Company, usually referred to as just FOX (the company itself prefers the capitalized version FOX), is a television network in the United States. It is owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Since its launch on October 9, 1986, Fox has grown from an upstart "netlet" to the highest-rated broadcast network among young adults.
The Fox name has been used on other entertainment channels internationally that are affiliated with News Corp., including in Australia (FOX8), Japan, Italy, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Portugal, South America, and Turkey although these do not necessarily air the same programming as the U.S. network. Most viewers in Canada have access to at least one affiliate of the U.S. network.
The network is named after sister company 20th Century Fox, and indirectly for producer William Fox, who founded one of the movie studio's predecessors.

The groundwork for the launch of the Fox network began in March 1985 with News Corporation's $250 million purchase of 50% of TCF Holdings, the parent company of the 20th Century Fox movie studio. Six months later, in September, Murdoch agreed to pay $325 million to acquire the rest of the studio. In May 1985, News Corp agreed to pay $1.55 billion to acquire independent television stations in six major U.S. media markets from John Kluge's company, Metromedia: KTTV in Los Angeles, WFLD in Chicago, KRLD in Dallas (which was renamed KDAF), KRIV in Houston, WNEW in New York (which was renamed WNYW) and WTTG in Washington, D.C. These first six stations, broadcasting to 22 percent of the nation's households, became known as the Fox Television Stations Group. Except for KDAF (which was sold to Tribune in 1995 and joined The WB after Fox affiliated with, then later bought VHF station KDFW), all of these stations are still part of Fox today. Clarke Ingram, who maintains a memorial website to the failed DuMont Television Network, has suggested that Fox is a revival of DuMont, since Metromedia was a successor to the DuMont corporation and the Metromedia TV stations formed the nucleus of the Fox network.[1] Indeed, WNYW (then known as WABD) and WTTG were the key stations in the DuMont network.
In October 1985, Murdoch announced his intentions to form an independent television system which would compete with the three major U.S. television networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC). He planned to use the combination of the Fox studios and the former Metromedia stations both to produce programming and distribute it. Organizational plans for the network were held off until the Metromedia acquisitions cleared regulatory hurdles in March 1986. In January 1986, Murdoch said of his planned network, "We at Fox at the moment are deeply involved in working to put shape and form on original programs. These will be shows with no outer limits. The only rules that we will enforce on these programs is they must have taste, they must be engaging, they must be entertaining and they must be original."
On May 6, 1986, Murdoch, along with newly-hired Fox CEO and chairman Barry Diller and comedian Joan Rivers, announced plans for "FBC" or the "Fox Broadcasting Company", with WNYW in New York as the flagship station, to be launched with a daily late-night talk show program, The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers. When Fox was launched on October 9, 1986, it was broadcast to 96 stations reaching more than 80 percent of the nation's households. Fox had lined up 90 former independent stations as affiliates in addition to its original six seed stations. By contrast, ABC, CBS and NBC each had between 210 and 215 affiliates reaching more than 97 percent of the nation's households. Despite broadcasting only one show, the network was busy producing new programs with plans to gradually add prime-time programming one night at a time.
Rivers would be gone from the show in 1987, with various guest hosts taking over for a few years afterward; one notable face was Arsenio Hall, who would later front his own late-night talk show to great success, albeit not on Fox.
[edit] 1980s
From the beginning, Fox portrayed itself as a somewhat edgy, irreverent, youth-oriented network compared to its rivals. Its first prime-time shows, which debuted on Sunday nights beginning April 5, 1987, were a comedy about a dysfunctional family (Married... with Children) and a variety series (The Tracey Ullman Show). The former would become a major hit for the network, airing for 11 seasons, while the latter would spawn the longest-running sitcom and animated series in U.S. history: The Simpsons, spun off in 1989 and set to air until at least 2008. Another early success was 21 Jump Street, an hour-long police drama. The original Sunday lineup[2] also included the sitcoms Duet and Mr. President[3].
Fox debuted its Saturday night programming over four weeks beginning July 11, 1987, with several shows now long forgotten: Werewolf, Women in Prison[4], The New Adventures of Beans Baxter and Second Chance[5].
The next two years saw the introduction of America's Most Wanted, profiling true crimes in hopes of capturing the criminals, and Cops, a reality show documenting the day-to-day activities of police officers. The two shows are among the network's longest-running and are credited with bringing reality television to the mainstream. In August 1988, America's Most Wanted was Fox's first show to break into the top 50 shows of the week according to the Nielsen ratings. As of 2007, both AMW and Cops were still in active production and are among prime-time TV's longest-running television shows.
Fox would expand to seven nights a week of programming by 1993.
Fox survived where DuMont and other previous attempts to start a fourth network failed in part because Fox programmed just under the number of hours to be legally considered a network by the FCC. This allowed Fox to make money in ways forbidden to the established networks, since during its first years it was considered to be merely a large group of stations. By comparison, DuMont was hampered by numerous regulatory roadblocks, most notably a ban on acquiring more stations since its minority owner, Paramount Pictures owned two television stations. Combined with DuMont's three television stations, this put DuMont at the legal limit at the time. Also, Murdoch was more than willing to open his wallet to get and keep programming and talent. DuMont, in contrast, operated on a shoestring budget and was unable to keep the programs and stars it had. Most of the other startup networks followed this model as well.
[edit] 1990s
Despite a few successful shows, the network did not have a significant market share until the mid-1990s when News Corp. bought more TV station groups. The first was New World Communications, which had signed an affiliation deal with Fox in 1994 (see below). Later, in 2000, Fox bought several stations owned by Chris-Craft Industries and its subsidiaries BHC Communications and United Television (most of these were UPN affiliates, although one later converted to Fox). This made Fox one of the largest owners of television stations in the United States. Though Fox was growing rapidly as a network, and had established itself as a presence, it was still not considered a major competitor to the big three broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC).
This would all change when Fox would lure the National Football League away from CBS in 1993. They signed a huge contract to broadcast the NFC, which included luring Pat Summerall and John Madden from CBS as well. At first many were skeptical of this whole move, but the first year was a rousing success, and Fox was officially on the map for good. (See below)
The early and mid-1990s saw the launch of several soap-opera dramas aimed at younger audiences that became quick hits: Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, and Party of Five. September 1993 saw the heavy promotion and debut of a short-lived Western with science-fiction elements, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. However, it was the Friday night show that debuted immediately following it, The X-Files, which would find long-lasting success, and would be Fox's first series to crack Nielsen's year-end Top 25.
The sketch-comedy series In Living Color created many memorable characters (and launched the careers of future movie superstars Jim Carrey, Damon Wayans, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Jamie Foxx and "Fly Girl" dancer Jennifer Lopez). Another sketch-comedy series, MADtv became a solid competitor to NBC's Saturday Night Live.
Notable shows that debuted in the late 1990s include the quirky dramedy Ally McBeal and traditional sitcom That '70s Show, Fox's second-longest-running live-action sitcom.
Building around its flagship The Simpsons, Fox has been relatively successful with animated shows. Family Guy was cancelled in 2002, but the network commissioned new episodes that began in 2005 due to strong DVD sales and highly rated cable reruns. Less successful efforts included The Critic, which originally aired on ABC, and The PJ's, which later aired on The WB.
Around 1996, Fox was exploring plans to merge with The WB. A former Fox chairman at the time noted in a Broadcasting and Cable interview after the CW merger was announced: "Well, we tried to merge with The WB, too, but we couldn't because, at that time, UPN was [half] owned by Chris-Craft and there was no way. We even talked about, 'You get one market, we get another,' but we just couldn't work it out."

Four Asian Tigers

The term Four Asian Tigers or East Asian Tigers refers to the economies of Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea. They are also known as Asia's Four Little Dragons. These countries and territories were noted for maintaining high growth rates and rapid industrialization between the early 1960s and 1990s. In the early 21st century, with the original four Tigers at fully developed status, attention has increasingly shifted to other Asian economies which are experiencing rapid economic transformation at the present time.
The four Tigers share a range of characteristics with other Asian economies, such as China and Japan, and pioneered what has come to be seen as a particularly "Asian" approach to economic development. Key differences include initial levels of education and physical access to world markets (in terms of transport infrastructure and access to coasts and navigable rivers, which are essential for cheap shipping).

Characteristics of the Tiger economies
The Four Asian Tigers pursued an export-driven model of economic development; these countries and territories focused on developing goods for export to highly-industrialized nations. Domestic consumption was discouraged through government policies such as high tariffs. The Four Asian Tigers singled out education as a means of improving productivity; these nations focused on improving the education system at all levels; heavy emphasis was placed on ensuring that all children attended elementary education and compulsory high school education. Money was also spent on improving the college and university system.
Since the Four Asian Tigers were relatively poor during the 1960s, these nations had an abundance of cheap labor. Coupled with educational reform, they were able to leverage this combination into a cheap, yet productive workforce. The Four Asian Tigers committed to egalitarianism in the form of land reform, to promote property rights and to ensure that agricultural workers would not become disgruntled. Also, policies of agricultural subsidies and tariffs on agricultural products were implemented as well.
The common characteristics of the Four Asian Tigers are:
Focused on exports to richer industrialized nations
Trade surplus with aforementioned countries
Sustained rate of double-digit growth for decades
Non-democratic and relatively authoritarian political systems during the early years
High level of U.S. treasury bond holdings
High savings rate
The ranks of GDP (by nominal) List of countries by GDP (nominal) of South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore are 12th, 21st, 36th, and 44th as in order.
A high degree of what is referred to as economic freedom. Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea are 1st, 2nd, 26th, and 36th respectively on the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom published in 2007.
[edit] Role of traditional philosophies
Economic success in Japan, followed by the Four Asian Tigers, has been attributed to the existence of harmonious labor-management relations.( cf. W. Dean Kinzley, "Industrial Harmony in Modern Japan. The Invention of a Tradition", Routledge, London & New York, 1991). “Industrial Harmony” is this unique “Culture of harmony” that was consciously invented and developed over the last century in Japan. A semi-bureaucratic organization called the “Kyochokai” (The Co-operation and Harmony Society) was established in 1819 to meet the needs of an emerging industrial society. The “Kyochokai” took the lead in trying to define the values which would be suitable for a new Japanese-style industrial society, at the time of great social troubles in industrial Europe. The resulting "invented" tradition has played an important role in the evolution and character of Japanese economic values and behavior of social peace for economic development.[1]
Japanese experience appears to challenge unilinear theories of modernization, and to suggest that Japan’s uniqueness lies in the creation of its own kind of modernity, sharply divergent from that to be found in Western countries, and based paradoxically upon a reaffirmation of ancient Confucian values and native Japanese traditions of harmony, self-sacrifice and non-individualistic group striving in pursuit of a common cause. Japan’s emphasis on long-term growth, scrupulous market evaluation, and process engineering are all well regarded as important components of its economic development.
This is the foundation ("Grund" as it used to be) of "Asian political economy".
[edit] Criticism of the export-driven trade model
The Four Asian Tigers were strongly affected by the 1997 Asian financial crisis, which impacted each Tiger to varying degrees. While Taiwan was not as strongly affected, South Korea was badly battered by the crisis. However, South Korea rose up to become the 9th largest economy in the world (2007 standard) and Taiwan stayed as the 16th largest economy in the world. Because of the focus on export-driven growth, many of the Tigers became caught up in a game of currency devaluation. The current criticism of the Four Asian Tigers is that these economies focus exclusively on export-demand, at the cost of import-demand. Thus, these economies are heavily reliant on the economic health of their targeted export nations. In addition, these nations have met difficulties after they lost their initial competitive edge, cheap productive labour. India and China have now emerged as fast-growing economies based on cheap labour, largely replacing the Tigers.
Some economies were becoming overheated, stock prices were overvalued, property prices were sky-high and investors were jittery and nervous. Because of the structural weaknesses in the regulatory framework, once capital flight began, the stock market nosedived and the major Asian currencies depreciated significantly. This caused social unrest, political instability, regime change and financial bailing out by the International Monetary Fund. This also gave impetus to some Asian governments to impose capital controls to restrict currency outflows and maintain monetary and financial stability. Taiwan created legislation requiring all outgoing capital transfers to be declared. However, there were no direct restrictions.
Since the crisis most of the Tiger economies have become financially stable with resilient institutions and companies and regulatory frameworks in place to prevent another crisis. This has also shown many Asian governments that the easy and predictable prosperity of export-led growth and cheap labour costs won't last forever. To better compete with the emerging manufacturing giants like China and India, they will have to create new industries, move up the value-add chain and create stronger service sectors in their economies.

Forbes Global 2000

The Forbes Global 2000 - is an annual ranking of the top 2000 public companies in the world by Forbes magazine. The ranking is based on a mix of four metrics: Sales, Profit, Assets and Market value. The list is published since 2003.
The Forbes Global 2000 is a useful indicator of which are the leading public companies in the world, but it is only an interpretation, as only public companies are listed. The results are not definitive; any change to the criteria would produce a different list.

Exclusions and inconsistencies
As the list is published early in the calendar year, Forbes has to use out of date information for the many non U.S companies which have year ends early in the calendar year, including Japanese companies, which all have 31 March year ends. No adjustments are made to reflect different accounting practices in different countries, which leads to some major anomalies. For example Vodafone is ranked 377 in the 2005 list due to losses created by huge writedowns of purchased goodwill, but if amortisation of purchased goodwill were not charged against statutory profits in the UK, it would be in the top 20. It should also be noted that wholly state-owned corporations are excluded because no market valuation exists and in some cases accounts are not publicly available either. Some of these state companies would rank highly if they were eligible, for example the national oil companies of some of the OPEC countries.