120-591: The Waffen Grenadier Brigade of the SS Charlemagne ( German : Waffen-Grenadier-Brigade der SS "Charlemagne" ) was a Waffen-SS unit formed in September 1944 from French collaborationists , many of whom were already serving in various other German units. Named after the 9th-century Frankish emperor , the Charlemagne Brigade superseded two units of French volunteers already serving within
240-587: A cross-border region (centred on Carpathian Ruthenia ) inhabited by various nationalities and religious groups. The name of the region in the local languages is: Some historians speculated that the name had to do with a group of people of Thracian origin (i.e. Getae ) who during the Iron Age moved into the area after the Roman conquest of Dacia in 106 CE and may have formed the Lypytsia culture with
360-465: A de facto official language of Namibia after the end of German colonial rule alongside English and Afrikaans , and had de jure co-official status from 1984 until its independence from South Africa in 1990. However, the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols of apartheid and colonialism, and decided English would be the sole official language upon independence, stating that it
480-402: A second language , and 75–100 million as a foreign language . This would imply the existence of approximately 175–220 million German speakers worldwide. German sociolinguist Ulrich Ammon estimated a number of 289 million German foreign language speakers without clarifying the criteria by which he classified a speaker. As of 2012 , about 90 million people, or 16% of
600-612: A "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it. Cameroon was also a colony of the German Empire from the same period (1884 to 1916). However, German was replaced by French and English, the languages of the two successor colonial powers, after its loss in World War I . Nevertheless, since the 21st century, German has become
720-563: A brewery near Hermannplatz. Here fighting began, with Hitler Youth firing Panzerfausts at Soviet tanks belonging to advance guards near the Tempelhof Airport . Supported by Tiger II tanks and the 11th SS Panzer Battalion, men of Charlemagne took part in a counterattack on the morning of 26 April in Neukölln . The counterattack ran into an ambush by Soviet troops using a captured German Panther tank . The regiment lost half of
840-718: A construction battalion; the remainder, numbering about 350, had chosen to go to Berlin . On 23 April the Reich Chancellery in Berlin ordered Krukenberg to proceed to the capital with his men, who were reorganized as Assault Battalion ( Sturmbataillon ) Charlemagne. As the men assembled at the Marktplatz of Alt-Strelitz, a black Mercedes approached fast. As the car went past the column of men, Krukenberg and several other officers quickly stood at attention, recognising Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler , who had just come from
960-559: A greater need for regularity in written conventions. While the major changes of the MHG period were socio-cultural, High German was still undergoing significant linguistic changes in syntax, phonetics, and morphology as well (e.g. diphthongization of certain vowel sounds: hus (OHG & MHG "house") → haus (regionally in later MHG)→ Haus (NHG), and weakening of unstressed short vowels to schwa [ə]: taga (OHG "days")→ tage (MHG)). A great wealth of texts survives from
1080-458: A native tongue today, mostly descendants of German colonial settlers . The period of German colonialism in Namibia also led to the evolution of a Standard German-based pidgin language called " Namibian Black German ", which became a second language for parts of the indigenous population. Although it is nearly extinct today, some older Namibians still have some knowledge of it. German remained
1200-824: A part of the restored Republic of Poland , which absorbed the Lemko-Rusyn Republic . The local Ukrainian population declared the independence of Eastern Galicia as the short-lived West Ukrainian People's Republic . During the Polish-Soviet War , the Soviets tried to establish the puppet-state of the Galician SSR in East Galicia , but the territory was then conquered by the Poles. The 1921 Peace of Riga confirmed Galicia's status as part of
1320-764: A peace treaty with the Kingdom of Hungary and established diplomatic relations with the Byzantine Empire . In 1205, Roman turned against his Polish allies, leading to a conflict with Leszek the White and Konrad of Masovia . Roman was killed in the Battle of Zawichost (1205), and Galicia–Volhynia entered a period of rebellion and chaos, becoming an arena of rivalry between Poland and Hungary. King Andrew II of Hungary styled himself rex Galiciæ et Lodomeriæ , Latin for "king of Galicia and Vladimir [in-Volhynia]",
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#17327721127951440-696: A popular foreign language among pupils and students, with 300,000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010 and over 230,000 in 2020. Today Cameroon is one of the African countries outside Namibia with the highest number of people learning German. In the United States, German is the fifth most spoken language in terms of native and second language speakers after English, Spanish , French , and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined), with over 1 million total speakers. In
1560-728: A private meeting with Count Folke Bernadotte at the Swedish consulate in Lübeck to offer surrender terms to the Western Allies . The SS men were disappointed that Himmler did not stop and instead sped on past. The French SS troops arrived in Berlin on 24 April after a long detour to avoid advance columns of the Red Army. Although estimates vary, around 100 men remaining in the SS Division Charlemagne participated in
1680-483: A result, the surviving texts are written in highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant Latin influence, particularly in vocabulary. At this point monasteries, where most written works were produced, were dominated by Latin, and German saw only occasional use in official and ecclesiastical writing. While there is no complete agreement over the dates of the Middle High German (MHG) period, it
1800-565: A second group tried fighting its way back westward, but by 17 March all had been captured or killed in action. A third group commanded by Krukenberg survived. It was evacuated from the coast by the German Navy to Denmark and later sent to Neustrelitz for refitting. By early April 1945, Krukenberg commanded only about 700 men organized into a single infantry regiment with two battalions (Battalions 57 and 58) and one heavy support battalion without equipment. He released about 400 men to serve in
1920-476: A single province. The duchies of Auschwitz ( Oświęcim ) and Zator were small historical principalities west of Kraków , on the border with Prussian Silesia . Lodomeria , under the name Volhynia, remained under the rule of the Russian Empire – see Volhynian Governorate . In Roman times, the region was populated by various tribes of Celto-Germanic admixture, including Celtic -based tribes,
2040-657: A supplier of food products and raw materials to other Habsburg provinces. New taxes were instituted, investments were discouraged, and cities and towns were neglected. The result was significant poverty in Austrian Galicia . Galicia was the poorest province of Austro-Hungary, and according to Norman Davies , could be considered "the poorest province in Europe". Near Drohobych and Boryslav in Galicia, significant oil reserves were discovered and developed during
2160-648: A title that later was adopted in the House of Habsburg . In a compromise agreement made in 1214 between Hungary and Poland, the throne of Galicia–Volhynia was given to Andrew's son, Coloman of Lodomeria . In 1352, when the principality was divided between Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , the territory became subject to the Polish Crown . With the Union of Lublin in 1569, Poland and Lithuania merged to form
2280-486: A whole, the population in 1910 was estimated to be 45.4% Polish, 42.9% Ruthenian, 10.9% Jewish, and 0.8% German. This population was not evenly distributed. The Poles lived mainly in the west, with the Ruthenians predominant in the eastern region ("Ruthenia"). At the turn of the twentieth century, Poles constituted 88% of the whole population of Western Galicia and Jews 7.5%. The respective data for Eastern Galicia show
2400-548: Is a historical and geographic region spanning what is now southeastern Poland and western Ukraine , long part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . It covers much of the other historic regions of Red Ruthenia (centered on Lviv ) and Lesser Poland (centered on Kraków ). The name of the region derives from the medieval city of Halych , and was first mentioned in Hungarian historical chronicles in
2520-601: Is a recognized minority language in the following countries: In France, the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as " regional languages ", but the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1998 has not yet been ratified by the government. Namibia also was a colony of the German Empire, from 1884 to 1915. About 30,000 people still speak German as
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#17327721127952640-559: Is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects , with many varieties existing in Europe and other parts of the world. Some of these non-standard varieties have become recognized and protected by regional or national governments. Since 2004, heads of state of the German-speaking countries have met every year, and the Council for German Orthography has been the main international body regulating German orthography . German
2760-558: Is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages . The Germanic languages are traditionally subdivided into three branches: North Germanic , East Germanic , and West Germanic . The first of these branches survives in modern Danish , Swedish , Norwegian , Faroese , and Icelandic , all of which are descended from Old Norse . The East Germanic languages are now extinct, and Gothic
2880-478: Is called the "German Sprachraum ". German is the official language of the following countries: German is a co-official language of the following countries: Although expulsions and (forced) assimilation after the two World wars greatly diminished them, minority communities of mostly bilingual German native speakers exist in areas both adjacent to and detached from the Sprachraum. Within Europe, German
3000-430: Is complicated by the existence of several varieties whose status as separate "languages" or "dialects" is disputed for political and linguistic reasons, including quantitatively strong varieties like certain forms of Alemannic and Low German . With the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties, it is estimated that approximately 90–95 million people speak German as a first language , 10–25 million speak it as
3120-535: Is generally seen as ending when the 1346–53 Black Death decimated Europe's population. Modern High German begins with the Early New High German (ENHG) period, which Wilhelm Scherer dates 1350–1650, terminating with the end of the Thirty Years' War . This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and, increasingly, of literature in
3240-611: Is generally seen as lasting from 1050 to 1350. This was a period of significant expansion of the geographical territory occupied by Germanic tribes, and consequently of the number of German speakers. Whereas during the Old High German period the Germanic tribes extended only as far east as the Elbe and Saale rivers, the MHG period saw a number of these tribes expanding beyond this eastern boundary into Slavic territory (known as
3360-565: Is less closely related to languages based on Low Franconian dialects (e.g., Dutch and Afrikaans), Low German or Low Saxon dialects (spoken in northern Germany and southern Denmark ), neither of which underwent the High German consonant shift. As has been noted, the former of these dialect types is Istvaeonic and the latter Ingvaeonic, whereas the High German dialects are all Irminonic; the differences between these languages and standard German are therefore considerable. Also related to German are
3480-435: Is one of the major languages of the world . German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic language , after English, both as a first and as a second language . German is also widely taught as a foreign language , especially in continental Europe (where it is the third most taught foreign language after English and French), and in the United States. Overall, German is the fourth most commonly learned second language, and
3600-597: Is one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German-language daily in Africa. An estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa, mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the largest communities consists of the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German concentrated in and around Wartburg . The South African constitution identifies German as
3720-401: Is partly derived from Latin and Greek , along with fewer words borrowed from French and Modern English . English, however, is the main source of more recent loanwords . German is a pluricentric language ; the three standardized variants are German , Austrian , and Swiss Standard German . Standard German is sometimes called High German , which refers to its regional origin. German
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3840-525: Is the Sachsenspiegel , the first book of laws written in Middle Low German ( c. 1220 ). The abundance and especially the secular character of the literature of the MHG period demonstrate the beginnings of a standardized written form of German, as well as the desire of poets and authors to be understood by individuals on supra-dialectal terms. The Middle High German period
3960-578: Is the only language in this branch which survives in written texts. The West Germanic languages, however, have undergone extensive dialectal subdivision and are now represented in modern languages such as English, German, Dutch , Yiddish , Afrikaans , and others. Within the West Germanic language dialect continuum, the Benrath and Uerdingen lines (running through Düsseldorf - Benrath and Krefeld - Uerdingen , respectively) serve to distinguish
4080-485: Is understood in all areas where German is spoken. Approximate distribution of native German speakers (assuming a rounded total of 95 million) worldwide: As a result of the German diaspora , as well as the popularity of German taught as a foreign language , the geographical distribution of German speakers (or "Germanophones") spans all inhabited continents. However, an exact, global number of native German speakers
4200-689: The Ostsiedlung ). With the increasing wealth and geographic spread of the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the courts of nobles as the standard language of official proceedings and literature. A clear example of this is the mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache employed in the Hohenstaufen court in Swabia as a standardized supra-dialectal written language. While these efforts were still regionally bound, German began to be used in place of Latin for certain official purposes, leading to
4320-639: The Alamanni , Bavarian, and Thuringian groups, all belonging to the Elbe Germanic group ( Irminones ), which had settled in what is now southern-central Germany and Austria between the second and sixth centuries, during the great migration. In general, the surviving texts of Old High German (OHG) show a wide range of dialectal diversity with very little written uniformity. The early written tradition of OHG survived mostly through monasteries and scriptoria as local translations of Latin originals; as
4440-415: The Battle in Berlin . On 25 April, Krukenberg was appointed the commander of (Berlin) Defence Sector C which included SS Division Nordland , whose previous commander, Joachim Ziegler , was relieved of his command earlier the same day. Charlemagne was attached to Nordland whose two regiments had been decimated in the fighting. Both equaled roughly a battalion. The Frenchmen walked from West to East Berlin, to
4560-537: The Early Middle Ages . German is an inflected language , with four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative); three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular, plural). It has strong and weak verbs . The majority of its vocabulary derives from the ancient Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, while a smaller share
4680-480: The European Union 's population, spoke German as their mother tongue, making it the second most widely spoken language on the continent after Russian and the second biggest language in terms of overall speakers (after English), as well as the most spoken native language. The area in central Europe where the majority of the population speaks German as a first language and has German as a (co-)official language
4800-594: The German Army and Waffen-SS, namely the Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism and SS-Volunteer Sturmbrigade France ( SS-Freiwilligen Sturmbrigade "Frankreich" ). The division also included French recruits from other German military and paramilitary formations and Miliciens who had fled ahead of the Allied Liberation of France (June–November 1944). After training, the Charlemagne Brigade
4920-522: The German states . While these states were still part of the Holy Roman Empire , and far from any form of unification, the desire for a cohesive written language that would be understandable across the many German-speaking principalities and kingdoms was stronger than ever. As a spoken language German remained highly fractured throughout this period, with a vast number of often mutually incomprehensible regional dialects being spoken throughout
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5040-746: The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I , and the other being Meißner Deutsch , used in the Electorate of Saxony in the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg . Alongside these courtly written standards, the invention of the printing press led to the development of a number of printers' languages ( Druckersprachen ) aimed at making printed material readable and understandable across as many diverse dialects of German as possible. The greater ease of production and increased availability of written texts brought about increased standardisation in
5160-637: The Lugians , Cotini , Vandals and Goths (the Przeworsk and Púchov cultures). During the Migration Period , a variety of nomadic groups invaded the area. The East Slavic tribes White Croats and Tivertsi dominated the area since the 6th century until it was annexed to Kievan Rus' in the 10th century. In the 12th century, the Principality of Galicia was formed, which merged at
5280-659: The National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK), the Organisation Todt and the detested Milice security police who had fled ahead of the Allied forces. SS- Brigadeführer Gustav Krukenberg was appointed to command the division, while Edgar Puaud , who had commanded the LVF, was the nominal French commander. The two main infantry regiments were designated as the 57th and 58th Regiments. Members of
5400-666: The Old High German language in several Elder Futhark inscriptions from as early as the sixth century AD (such as the Pforzen buckle ), the Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans (written c. 765–775 ), a Latin-German glossary supplying over 3,000 Old High German words with their Latin equivalents. After the Abrogans , the first coherent works written in Old High German appear in
5520-565: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , which lasted for 200 years until conquered and divided up by Russia, Prussia , and Austria in the 1772 partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . The south-eastern part of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was awarded to the Habsburg Empress Maria-Theresa , whose bureaucrats named it the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria , after one of the titles of
5640-788: The Red Army 's summer offensive , the LVF was attached to the 4th SS Police Regiment . The SS Volunteer Sturmbrigade France ( SS-Freiwilligen Sturmbrigade "Frankreich" ) was formed in July 1943 as the first French formation permitted within the Waffen-SS . It was led by SS- Obersturmbannführer Paul-Marie Gamory-Dubourdeau who had formerly served in the Foreign Legion . It attracted around 3,000 applicants in German-occupied France, many of whom were existing members of
5760-413: The Ruthenian Voivodeship . In 1526, after the death of Louis II of Hungary , the Habsburgs inherited the Hungarian claims to the titles of the Kingship of Galicia and Lodomeria, together with the Hungarian crown. In 1772 the Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa , Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary, used those historical claims to justify her participation in the First Partition of Poland . In fact,
5880-474: The Second Polish Republic . Although never accepted as legitimate by some Ukrainian nationalists , this was ratified by the Conference of Ambassadors on 14 March 1923 and internationally recognized on 15 May 1923. The Ukrainians of Eastern Galicia and the neighbouring province of Volhynia made up about 12% of the Polish Republic's population, and were its largest minority. As Polish government policies were discriminatory towards minorities, tensions between
6000-427: The Sprachraum in Europe. German is used in a wide variety of spheres throughout the country, especially in business, tourism, and public signage, as well as in education, churches (most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK) ), other cultural spheres such as music, and media (such as German language radio programs by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation ). The Allgemeine Zeitung
6120-422: The Standard German language in its written form, and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition. Punctuation and compound spelling (joined or isolated compounds) were not standardized in the process. The Deutsche Bühnensprache ( lit. ' German stage language ' ) by Theodor Siebs had established conventions for German pronunciation in theatres , three years earlier; however, this
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#17327721127956240-400: The Upper German dialects spoken in the southern German-speaking countries , such as Swiss German ( Alemannic dialects ) and the various Germanic dialects spoken in the French region of Grand Est , such as Alsatian (mainly Alemannic, but also Central–and Upper Franconian dialects) and Lorraine Franconian (Central Franconian). After these High German dialects, standard German
6360-473: The Venedi people who moved into the region at the end of La Tène period . The Lypytsia culture supposedly replaced the existing Thracian Hallstatt (see Thraco-Cimmerian ) and Vysotske cultures. A connection with Celtic peoples supposedly explains the relation of the name "Galicia" to many similar place names found across Europe and Asia Minor , such as ancient Gallia or Gaul (modern France, Belgium, and northern Italy), Galatia (in Asia Minor ),
6480-408: The pagan Germanic tradition. Of particular interest to scholars, however, has been the Hildebrandslied , a secular epic poem telling the tale of an estranged father and son unknowingly meeting each other in battle. Linguistically, this text is highly interesting due to the mixed use of Old Saxon and Old High German dialects in its composition. The written works of this period stem mainly from
6600-468: The "Polish Baku", the oil fields of Borysław and nearby Tustanowice accounted for over 90% of the national oil output of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. From 500 residents in the 1860s, Borysław had swollen to 12,000 by 1898. At the turn of the century, Galicia was ranked fourth in the world as an oil producer. This significant increase in oil production also caused a slump in oil prices. A very rapid decrease in oil production in Galicia occurred just before
6720-407: The Brigade Frankreich were disbanded in September 1944 in the aftermath of the Allied Liberation of France . Their soldiers were folded into a new unit created the same month called the Waffen Grenadier Brigade of the SS Charlemagne ( Waffen-Grenadier-Brigade der SS Charlemagne ). Joining them were French collaborators fleeing the Allied advance in the west, as well as Frenchmen from the German Navy ,
6840-614: The Empire. Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Prague (German: Prag ) and Budapest ( Buda , German: Ofen ), to name two examples, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain; others, like Pressburg ( Pozsony , now Bratislava), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and cities like Zagreb (German: Agram ) or Ljubljana (German: Laibach ), contained significant German minorities. In
6960-414: The Frisian languages— North Frisian (spoken in Nordfriesland ), Saterland Frisian (spoken in Saterland ), and West Frisian (spoken in Friesland )—as well as the Anglic languages of English and Scots. These Anglo-Frisian dialects did not take part in the High German consonant shift, and the Anglic languages also adopted much vocabulary from both Old Norse and the Norman language . The history of
7080-508: The Galician-Karpathian Petroleum Company ( German : Galizisch-Karpathische Petroleum Aktien-Gesellschaft ), headquartered in Vienna, with McGarvey as the chief administrator and Bergheim as a field engineer, and built a huge refinery at Maryampole near Gorlice , south of Tarnow. Considered the biggest, most efficient enterprise in Austro-Hungary, Maryampole was built in six months and employed 1,000 men. Subsequently, investors from Britain, Belgium, and Germany established companies to develop
7200-417: The German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period , which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon . This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants ( b , d , g , and p , t , k , respectively). The primary effects of the shift were the following below. While there is written evidence of
7320-399: The German states; the invention of the printing press c. 1440 and the publication of Luther's vernacular translation of the Bible in 1534, however, had an immense effect on standardizing German as a supra-dialectal written language. The ENHG period saw the rise of several important cross-regional forms of chancery German, one being gemeine tiutsch , used in the court of
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#17327721127957440-623: The Germanic dialects that were affected by the High German consonant shift (south of Benrath) from those that were not (north of Uerdingen). The various regional dialects spoken south of these lines are grouped as High German dialects, while those spoken to the north comprise the Low German and Low Franconian dialects. As members of the West Germanic language family, High German, Low German, and Low Franconian have been proposed to be further distinguished historically as Irminonic , Ingvaeonic , and Istvaeonic , respectively. This classification indicates their historical descent from dialects spoken by
7560-429: The Halensee bridge held up Soviet forces for 48 hours. The Soviet advance into Berlin followed a pattern of massive shelling followed by assaults using house-clearing battle groups of about 80 men in each, with tank escorts and close artillery support. On 27 April, the remnants of Nordland were pushed back into the central government district (Zitadelle sector) in Defence Sector Z. There, Krukenberg's Nordland headquarters
7680-455: The Hungarians from Halych-Volhynia by 1221, Hungarian kings continued to add Galicia et Lodomeria to their official titles. In 1349, in the course of the Galicia–Volhynia Wars , King Casimir III the Great of Poland conquered the major part of Galicia and put an end to the independence of this territory. Upon the conquest Casimir adopted the following title: Casimir by the grace of God king of Poland and Rus (Ruthenia), lord and heir of
7800-486: The Iberian Peninsula's Galicia , and Romanian Galați . Some other scholars assert that the name Halych has Slavic origins – from halytsa , meaning "a naked (unwooded) hill", or from halka which means " jackdaw ". (The jackdaw featured as a charge in the city's coat of arms and later also in the coat of arms of Galicia-Lodomeria. The name, however, predates the coat of arms, which may represent canting or simply folk etymology ). Although Ruthenians drove out
7920-547: The Irminones (also known as the Elbe group), Ingvaeones (or North Sea Germanic group), and Istvaeones (or Weser–Rhine group). Standard German is based on a combination of Thuringian - Upper Saxon and Upper Franconian dialects, which are Central German and Upper German dialects belonging to the High German dialect group. German is therefore closely related to the other languages based on High German dialects, such as Luxembourgish (based on Central Franconian dialects ) and Yiddish . Also closely related to Standard German are
8040-409: The Iron Cross to Fenet on 29 April 1945. By 30 April, the last defenders in the area of the bunker complex were mainly made up of Frenchmen of the SS Division Charlemagne, others being Waffen-SS men from the SS Division Leibstandarte , SS Division Nordland , Latvian SS and Spanish SS from the Blue Legion . A group of French SS remained in the area of the bunker until the early morning of 2 May. By
8160-757: The Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol . It is also an official language of Luxembourg , Belgium and the Italian autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , as well as a recognized national language in Namibia . There are also notable German-speaking communities in France ( Alsace ), the Czech Republic ( North Bohemia ), Poland ( Upper Silesia ), Slovakia ( Košice Region , Spiš , and Hauerland ), Denmark ( North Schleswig ), Romania and Hungary ( Sopron ). Overseas, sizeable communities of German-speakers are found in Brazil ( Blumenau and Pomerode ), South Africa ( Kroondal ), Namibia , among others, some communities have decidedly Austrian German or Swiss German characters (e.g. Pozuzo , Peru). German
8280-402: The LVF were the nucleus of the former and Sturmbrigade formed the core of the latter. The LVF also manned the artillery battalion, the headquarters company and the engineer company. In February 1945, the unit was officially upgraded to a division and renamed to SS Division Charlemagne. At this time it had a strength of 7,340 men; 1,200 men from the LVF, 1,000 from the Sturmbrigade , 2,500 from
8400-408: The MHG period. Significantly, these texts include a number of impressive secular works, such as the Nibelungenlied , an epic poem telling the story of the dragon -slayer Siegfried ( c. thirteenth century ), and the Iwein , an Arthurian verse poem by Hartmann von Aue ( c. 1203 ), lyric poems , and courtly romances such as Parzival and Tristan . Also noteworthy
8520-399: The Milice, 2,000 from the NSKK and 640 were former Kriegsmarine and naval police. The division was sent to fight the Red Army in Poland, but on 25 February it was attacked at Hammerstein (present-day Czarne ) in Pomerania , by troops of the Soviet 1st Belorussian Front . The Soviet forces split the French force into three pockets. One group with Puaud was destroyed by Soviet artillery and
8640-525: The Polish government and the Ukrainian population grew, eventually giving rise to the militant underground Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists . In 1773, Galicia had about 2.6 million inhabitants in 280 cities and market towns and approximately 5,500 villages. There were nearly 19,000 noble families, with 95,000 members (about 3% of the population). The serfs accounted for 1.86 million, more than 70% of
8760-507: The Polish sphere, resulting in stagnation of economic life and decline of Galician towns. Lviv lost its status as a significant trade center. After a short period of limited investments, the Austrian government started the fiscal exploitation of Galicia and drained the region of manpower through conscription to the imperial army. The Austrians decided that Galicia should not develop industrially but remain an agricultural area that would serve as
8880-816: The Red Army started a full-scale offensive into the central sector. Charlemagne was in the center of the battle zone around the Reich Chancellery. French SS man Eugène Vaulot , who had destroyed two tanks in Neukölln, claimed to have destroyed six more near the Führerbunker . He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross by Krukenberg on 29 April. Vaulot was killed three days later by a Red Army sniper. Second Lieutenant Roger Albert-Brunet destroyed four Soviet tanks by Panzerfaust on 29 April 1945. He
9000-544: The Red Army. Krukenberg made it to Dahlem where he hid out in an apartment for a week before surrendering to Red Army troops. Having escaped out of Berlin, Fenet with a small remainder of his unit surrendered to British forces at Bad Kleinen and Wismar. Some of the Frenchmen, such as Fenet, were turned over to the Soviet Army. Twelve of those turned over to French authorities by the U.S. Army were summarily executed on
9120-627: The Vichy regime itself, the German authorities remained skeptical of incorporating French soldiers and limited the unit's size significantly. Furthermore, it only succeeded in including 5,800 recruits between 1941 and its disbandment in 1944. It was also kept at arm's length by the Vichy regime. The LVF participated in the Battle of Moscow in November–December 1941 but suffered heavy casualties and performed poorly in combat. For most of its existence, it
9240-548: The available troops in Neukölln on the first day. It later defended Neukölln's Town Hall. Given that Neukölln was heavily penetrated by Soviet combat groups, Krukenberg prepared fallback positions for Sector C defenders around Hermannplatz. He moved his headquarters into the opera house. As SS Division Nordland withdrew towards Hermannplatz, the French under Hauptsturmführer Henri Joseph Fenet and some attached Hitler Youth destroyed fourteen Soviet tanks; one machine gun position by
9360-611: The collaborationist paramilitary Milice or university students. The official requirements were that the recruit had to be "free of Jewish blood" and between 20 and 25 years old. The approximately 1,600 men of the Sturmbrigade were attached to the 18th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Horst Wessel and sent to Galicia on the Eastern Front. In heavy fighting against the Red Army , 7 officers and 130 men were killed, while 8 officers and 661 men were wounded. The LVF and
9480-482: The development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area. With Luther's rendering of the Bible in the vernacular, German asserted itself against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly, literary, and now ecclesiastical subject-matter. His Bible was ubiquitous in the German states: nearly every household possessed a copy. Nevertheless, even with
9600-456: The dialect so as to make the work as natural and accessible to German speakers as possible. Copies of Luther's Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region, translating words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Luther said the following concerning his translation method: One who would talk German does not ask the Latin how he shall do it; he must ask the mother in
9720-519: The eastern provinces of Banat , Bukovina , and Transylvania (German: Banat, Buchenland, Siebenbürgen ), German was the predominant language not only in the larger towns—like Temeschburg ( Timișoara ), Hermannstadt ( Sibiu ), and Kronstadt ( Brașov )—but also in many smaller localities in the surrounding areas. In 1901, the Second Orthographic Conference ended with a (nearly) complete standardization of
9840-588: The end of the century with neighbouring Volhynia into the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia . Galicia and Volhynia had originally been two separate Rurikid principalities, assigned on a rotating basis to younger members of the Kievan dynasty. The line of Prince Roman the Great of Volodymyr had held the Principality of Volhynia, while the line of Yaroslav Osmomysl held the Principality of Galicia. Galicia–Volhynia
9960-582: The evening of 30 April, the French SS men serving under Fenet had destroyed another 21 Soviet tanks and used up a large number of the Panzerfaust reserves from the Reich Chancellery. On the night of 1 May, Krukenberg told the men that were left to split up into small groups and attempt to break-out. Reduced to approximately thirty troops, most French SS men surrendered near the Potsdamer rail station to
10080-676: The fact that Austria's claim derived from the historical Hungarian crown, "Galicia and Lodomeria" were not officially assigned to Hungary, and after the Ausgleich of 1867, the territory found itself in Cisleithania , or the Austrian-administered part of Austria-Hungary . The full official name of the new Austrian territory was the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria with the Duchies of Auschwitz and Zator . After
10200-404: The following numbers: Ruthenians 64.5%, Poles 22.0%, Jews 12%. Of the 44 administrative divisions of Austrian eastern Galicia, Lviv ( Polish : Lwów , German : Lemberg ) was the only one in which Poles made up a majority of the population. Anthropologist Marianna Dushar has argued that this diversity led to a development of a distinctive food culture in the region. The Polish language
10320-661: The forces of the Russian Empire and the Central Powers , on the Eastern Front of World War I . The Russian forces overran most of the region in 1914 after defeating the Austro-Hungarian army in a chaotic frontier battle in the opening months of the war. They were in turn pushed out in the spring and summer of 1915 by a combined German/Austro-Hungarian offensive. In 1918, Western Galicia became
10440-435: The home, the children on the streets, the common man in the market-place and note carefully how they talk, then translate accordingly. They will then understand what is said to them because it is German. When Christ says ' ex abundantia cordis os loquitur ,' I would translate, if I followed the papists, aus dem Überflusz des Herzens redet der Mund . But tell me is this talking German? What German understands such stuff? No,
10560-619: The incorporation of the Free City of Kraków in 1846, it was extended to Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, and the Grand Duchy of Kraków with the Duchies of Auschwitz and Zator ( German : Königreich Galizien und Lodomerien mit dem Großherzogtum Krakau und den Herzogtümern Auschwitz und Zator ). Each of those entities was formally separate; they were listed as such in the Austrian emperor's titles , each had its distinct coat-of-arms and flag. For administrative purposes, however, they formed
10680-481: The influence of Luther's Bible as an unofficial written standard, a widely accepted standard for written German did not appear until the middle of the eighteenth century. German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire , which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe . Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of
10800-546: The land of Kraków, Sandomierz, Sieradz, Łęczyca, Kuyavia, Pomerania (Pomerelia). Latin : Kazimirus, Dei gratia rex Polonie et Rusie, nec non-Cracovie, Sandomirie, Siradie, Lancicie, Cuiavie, et Pomeranieque Terrarum et Ducatuum Dominus et Heres . Under the Jagiellonian dynasty (Kings of Poland from 1386 to 1572), the Kingdom of Poland revived and reconstituted its territories. In place of historic Galicia there appeared
10920-524: The largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina , and Espírito Santo . Galicia (Central Europe) Galicia ( / ɡ ə ˈ l ɪ ʃ ( i ) ə / gə- LISH -(ee-)ə ; Polish : Galicja , IPA: [ɡaˈlit͡sja] ; Ukrainian : Галичина , romanized : Halychyna , IPA: [ɦɐlɪtʃɪˈnɑ] ; Yiddish : גאַליציע , romanized : Galitsye ; see below )
11040-721: The mid 19th and early 20th centuries. The first European attempt to drill for oil was in Bóbrka in western Galicia in 1854. By 1867, a well at Kleczany, in Western Galicia, was drilled using steam to about 200 meters. On 31 December 1872, a railway line linking Borysław (now Boryslav) with the nearby city of Drohobycz (now Drohobych) was opened. British engineer John Simeon Bergheim and Canadian William Henry McGarvey came to Galicia in 1882. In 1883, their company bored holes of 700 to 1,000 meters and found large oil deposits. In 1885, they renamed their oil developing enterprise
11160-591: The modern regions of western Ukraine : the Lviv , Ternopil , and Ivano-Frankivsk oblasts near Halych. In the 18th century, territories that later became part of the modern Polish regions of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship , Subcarpathian Voivodeship , and Silesian Voivodeship were added to Galicia after the collapse of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . Eastern Galicia became contested ground between Poland and Ruthenia in medieval times and
11280-402: The mother in the home and the plain man would say, Wesz das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund über . Luther's translation of the Bible into High German was also decisive for the German language and its evolution from Early New High German to modern Standard German. The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in early modern Germany , and promoted
11400-653: The ninth century, chief among them being the Muspilli , Merseburg charms , and Hildebrandslied , and other religious texts (the Georgslied , Ludwigslied , Evangelienbuch , and translated hymns and prayers). The Muspilli is a Christian poem written in a Bavarian dialect offering an account of the soul after the Last Judgment , and the Merseburg charms are transcriptions of spells and charms from
11520-696: The oil and natural gas industries in Galicia. This influx of capital caused the number of petroleum enterprises to shrink from 900 to 484 by 1884, and to 285 companies manned by 3,700 workers by 1890. However, the number of oil refineries increased from thirty-one in 1880 to fifty-four in 1904. By 1904, there were thirty boreholes in Borysław of over 1,000 meters. Production increased by 50% between 1905 and 1906 and then trebled between 1906 and 1909 because of unexpected discoveries of vast oil reserves of which many were gushers. By 1909, production reached its peak at 2,076,000 tons or 4% of worldwide production. Often called
11640-439: The orders of General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque . Fenet was allowed to be treated for his foot wound at hospital. He was then returned to a Soviet POW camp and a short time later released. Most of the rest who made it to France were apprehended and sent to Allied prisons and camps. Fenet was arrested upon his return to France. In 1949, Fenet was convicted of being a collaborator and sentenced to 20 years of forced labour, but
11760-467: The population. A small number were full-time farmers, but by far the overwhelming number (84%) had only smallholdings or no possessions. Galicia had arguably the most ethnically diverse population of all the countries in the Austrian monarchy, consisting mainly of Poles and " Ruthenians "; the peoples known later as Ukrainians and Rusyns , as well as ethnic Jews , Germans , Armenians , Czechs , Slovaks , Hungarians , Roma and others. In Galicia as
11880-572: The princes of Hungary, although its borders coincided but roughly with those of the former medieval principality. Known informally as Galicia, it became the largest, most populous, and northernmost province of the Austrian Empire . After 1867 it was part of the Austrian half of Austria-Hungary , until the dissolution of the monarchy at the end of World War I in 1918. During the First World War , Galicia saw heavy fighting between
12000-462: The pronunciation of the ending -ig as [ɪk] instead of [ɪç]. In Northern Germany, High German was a foreign language to most inhabitants, whose native dialects were subsets of Low German. It was usually encountered only in writing or formal speech; in fact, most of High German was a written language, not identical to any spoken dialect, throughout the German-speaking area until well into the 19th century. However, wider standardization of pronunciation
12120-546: The states of North Dakota and South Dakota , German is the most common language spoken at home after English. As a legacy of significant German immigration to the country , German geographical names can be found throughout the Midwest region , such as New Ulm and Bismarck (North Dakota's state capital), plus many other regions. A number of German varieties have developed in the country and are still spoken today, such as Pennsylvania Dutch and Texas German . In Brazil,
12240-509: The territories acquired by Austria did not correspond exactly to those of former Halych-Volhynia – the Russian Empire took control of Volhynia to the north-east, including the city of Volodymyr-Volynskyi ( Włodzimierz Wołyński ) – after which Lodomeria was named. On the other hand, much of Lesser Poland – Nowy Sącz and Przemyśl (1772–1918), Zamość (1772–1809), Lublin (1795–1809), and Kraków (1846–1918) – became part of Austrian Galicia . Moreover, despite
12360-500: The third most commonly learned second language in the United States in K-12 education. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second most commonly used language in science and the third most widely used language on websites . The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in
12480-782: The unit participated in the Battle in Berlin in April–May 1945 and were among the last Axis forces to surrender. The Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism ( Légion des Volontaires Français contre le Bolchévisme , or LVF) was a unit of the German Army ( Wehrmacht ) formed shortly after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 by a coalition of small far-right political factions within Vichy France . Although its supporters were more explicitly supportive of Nazi ideology and close collaboration with Nazi Germany than
12600-701: The widespread multilingualism blurred ethnic divisions. Religiously, Galicia is predominantly Catholic, and Catholicism is practiced in two rites. Poles are Roman Catholic , while Ukrainians belong to the Greek Catholic Church . Other Christians belong to one of the Ukrainian Orthodox Churches . Until the Holocaust , Judaism was widespread, and Galicia was the center of Hasidism . The new state borders cut Galicia off from many of its traditional trade routes and markets of
12720-555: The world being published in German. German is most closely related to other West Germanic languages, namely Afrikaans , Dutch , English , the Frisian languages , and Scots . It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group , such as Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish . Modern German gradually developed from Old High German , which in turn developed from Proto-Germanic during
12840-600: The written form of German. One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible into High German (the New Testament was published in 1522; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534). Luther based his translation primarily on the Meißner Deutsch of Saxony , spending much time among the population of Saxony researching
12960-486: The year 1206 as Galiciæ . The eastern part of the region was controlled by the medieval Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia before it was annexed by the Kingdom of Poland in 1352 and became part of the Ruthenian Voivodeship . During the partitions of Poland , it was incorporated into a crown land of the Austrian Empire – the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria . The nucleus of historic Galicia lies within
13080-429: Was a "neutral" language as there were virtually no English native speakers in Namibia at that time. German, Afrikaans, and several indigenous languages thus became "national languages" by law, identifying them as elements of the cultural heritage of the nation and ensuring that the state acknowledged and supported their presence in the country. Today, Namibia is considered to be the only German-speaking country outside of
13200-591: Was a carriage in the Stadtmitte U-Bahn station . Fighting was very heavy and by 28 April 108 Soviet tanks had been destroyed in the southeast of Berlin within the S-Bahn . The French squads under Fenet's command accounted for "about half" of the tanks. Fenet and his battalion were given the area of Neukölln , Belle Alliance Platz , Wilhelmstrasse and the Friedrichstrasse to defend. On 28 April,
13320-547: Was an artificial standard that did not correspond to any traditional spoken dialect. Rather, it was based on the pronunciation of German in Northern Germany, although it was subsequently regarded often as a general prescriptive norm, despite differing pronunciation traditions especially in the Upper-German-speaking regions that still characterise the dialect of the area today – especially
13440-541: Was awarded the Iron Cross 1st class by Krukenberg. During the fighting, Fenet was wounded in the foot. The Soviets forces drove what was left of the battalion back to the vicinity of the Reich Aviation Ministry in the central government district under the command of SS- Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke . For the combat actions of the battalion during the Battle in Berlin , Mohnke awarded the Knight's Cross of
13560-540: Was confined to so-called "bandit-fighting" operations ( Bandenbekämpfung ) behind the front line in German-occupied Byelorussia and Ukraine. The Tricolour Legion ( Légion Tricolore ) formed in France with Vichy support was later also absorbed into the LVF. In early 1944, the unit again took part in rear-security operations. In June 1944, following the collapse of Army Group Centre 's front during
13680-484: Was created following the death in 1198 or 1199 (and without a recognised heir in the paternal line) of the last Prince of Galicia, Vladimir II Yaroslavich ; Roman acquired the Principality of Galicia and united his lands into one state. Roman's successors would mostly use Halych (Galicia) as the designation of their combined kingdom. In Roman's time Galicia–Volhynia's principal cities were Halych and Volodymyr. In 1204, Roman captured Kyiv in alliance with Poland , signed
13800-492: Was established on the basis of public speaking in theatres and the media during the 20th century and documented in pronouncing dictionaries. Official revisions of some of the rules from 1901 were not issued until the controversial German orthography reform of 1996 was made the official standard by governments of all German-speaking countries. Media and written works are now almost all produced in Standard German which
13920-486: Was fought over by Austria-Hungary and Russia during World War I and also Poland and Ukraine in the 20th century. In the 10th century, several cities were founded there, such as Volodymyr and Jaroslaw , whose names mark their connections with the Grand Princes of Kiev . There is considerable overlap between Galicia and Podolia (to the east) as well as between Galicia and south-west Ruthenia , especially in
14040-618: Was reclassified as a division as the 33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Charlemagne (1st French) ( 33. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS "Charlemagne" (französische Nr. 1) ). It had 7,340 men at the time of its deployment to the Eastern Front in February 1945. It fought against Soviet forces in Pomerania where it was almost annihilated during the East Pomeranian Offensive within a month. Around 100 members of
14160-628: Was released from prison in 1959. German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family , mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe . It is the most spoken native language within the European Union . It is the most widely spoken and official (or co-official) language in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , Liechtenstein , and
14280-473: Was the most diverse part of the region, and one of the most diverse areas in Europe at the time. The Galician Jews immigrated in the Middle Ages from Germany. German-speaking people were more commonly referred to by the region of Germany where they originated (such as Saxony or Swabia ). For those who spoke different native languages, e.g. Poles and Ruthenians, identification was less problematic, and
14400-410: Was the most spoken language in Galicia as a whole, although the eastern part of the region was predominantly Ruthenian-speaking. According to the 1910 census, 58.6% of Galicia spoke Polish as its mother tongue, compared to 40.2% who spoke a Ruthenian language. The number of Polish-speakers may have been inflated because Jews were not given the option of listing Yiddish as their language. Eastern Galicia
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