114-515: Aachen Town Hall ( German : Aachener Rathaus ) is a landmark of cultural significance located in the Altstadt of Aachen , Germany . It was built in the Gothic style in the first half of the 14th century. Aachen Town Hall was built in the first half of the 14th century under the leadership of the mayor Gerhard Chorus (1285 – 1367). The new hall also hosted the traditional coronation feast that
228-465: 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
342-402: 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
456-612: 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
570-549: A centre for the highest mental interests of the people, the likes of which no other capital would likely be able to exhibit." As originally built (see map below), the Neues Museum was nearly rectangular, with the long axis of the building (105 m or 344 ft) oriented north to south, parallel to Am Kupfergraben (the street to the west, across the River Spree), and a width of 40 meters (130 ft). The building
684-767: A fire in the Johann Peter Joseph Monheim Drug and Material Warehouse at 26 Antonius Street ( Antoniusstraße ), flames first spread when cinder from the roof landed on the Granus Tower and set it ablaze. Within four hours the roof and both towers of the City Hall were aflame, as were a large number of surrounding houses on the south side of the Market. Within City Hall, the Coronation Hall with its frescoes by Alfred Rethel , as well as
798-559: 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
912-469: A group of separatists who caused serious damage both to its interior and exterior. During the World War II , Aachen City Hall was heavily damaged by bombing raids, especially those occurring on 14 July 1943 and 11 April 1944. On 14 July 1943, the roof of the building and both towers burned, and afterwards the structure retained a distinctive shape due to the heat that twisted the steel skeletons inside
1026-458: 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
1140-618: A new entrance was constructed. In addition, the painter Alfred Rethel had the task to embellish the room with a large series of frescoes. Begun in 1847 and completed by his student in 1861, the frescoes eventually depicted legends from the life of Charlemagne. After the destruction of similar artwork at the Neues Museum in Berlin , this painting is one of the most important testimonies to the late romantic style in Germany. Starting from
1254-696: 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
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#17327756018171368-483: 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
1482-717: 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 the Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol . It is also an official language of Luxembourg , Belgium and
1596-601: 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
1710-612: 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
1824-558: 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
1938-478: 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
2052-430: 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
2166-712: Is considered as the major work of Friedrich August Stüler . After suffering damage in World War II and decay in East Germany , it was restored from 1999 to 2009 by David Chipperfield . Currently, the Neues Museum is home to the Egyptian Museum ( Ägyptisches Museum ), the Papyrussammlung [ de ] , the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte and parts of the Antikensammlung. As part of
2280-535: 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
2394-611: 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
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#17327756018172508-565: 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
2622-545: Is nearly perpendicular to the Altes Museum, with the Bodestraße between them. The bridge connecting the two museums (destroyed during World War II) was 6.9 m (23 ft) wide, 24.5 m (80 ft) long, and supported by three arches. The main stairway was located in the center of the building, which was the highest section (31 m or 102 ft tall). The three main wings surround two interior courtyards,
2736-435: 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
2850-597: 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
2964-401: 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
3078-525: 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
3192-644: Is the International Newspaper Museum which boasts a collection of over 200,000 newspapers from around the world in various languages. The second museum is dedicated to Charlemagne and his era – offering visitors a deep dive into life during this significant period in European history. 50°46′34″N 6°05′02″E / 50.77611°N 6.08389°E / 50.77611; 6.08389 German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] )
3306-530: Is the first monumental building of Prussia to consistently apply new techniques made possible by industrialization. As a further innovation, a steam engine was used for the first time in construction in Berlin. Among other things, it was used to ram pilings into the building ground. The soft, spongy soil around the River Spree means that buildings in the central area of Berlin require deep foundations. It
3420-578: 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
3534-485: 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
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3648-689: 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
3762-639: 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
3876-466: The Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel described Chipperfield's work as "impressive and extraordinary" and the museum as "one of the most important museum buildings in European cultural history". However, Chipperfield's construction design has been a subject of debate by those who preferred a more traditional reconstruction of Friedrich August Stüler 's original 19th-century design. A group called
3990-537: 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
4104-417: 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
4218-676: The European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture . The museum houses the Egyptian museum and papyrus collection with its famous bust of Queen Nefertiti and other works of art from the time of the king Akhenaten . Portions of another major collection, artifacts from the Stone Age and later prehistoric eras from the Museum of Pre- and Early History, are on display. Thus the collections of two Berlin museums have returned to their place of origin. The museum becomes part of
4332-522: 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
4446-746: 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
4560-666: 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
4674-676: 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
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4788-550: 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
4902-476: The Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum . In 1945, the architect Otto Gruber and the engineer Richard Stumpf prepared a report on the structural integrity of the building. With the help of Professor Josef Pirlet, the dilapidated north façade was reinforced with steel and tension bars, and in 1946, the building’s roof was repaired by using makeshift sheets of zinc. After structural analysis was conducted and
5016-513: 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
5130-514: The War of Austrian Succession in 1748, the "Peace Hall" was set up but was not used because of a dispute between the envoys. As a compensation, the city obtained portraits of the envoys, which are present in the various spaces of the City Hall. Since the end of the imperial city era and the Napoleonic occupation of the area, the structural condition of the City Hall was neglected and the building
5244-509: The apse was removed, the courtyard covered with a glass roof, and a new floor at the same height as the ground floor was added. Thus several rooms and cabinets for the display of the Amarna collection were created. In the adjacent areas of the ground floor, suspended ceilings were added to produce modern, neutral display rooms by covering the original decorations. The museum was closed at the beginning of World War II in 1939. The destruction in
5358-530: The cornice and roof of the museum were completed. In 1845, iron constructions, the construction of flat vaulted ceilings and brick-lining of the connecting gallery to the Altes Museum were completed. An auxiliary railway transported building materials from the street just west across the River Spree , Am Kupfergraben , to the steam engine-driven elevator. On the individual floors of the museum, rails were also used to transport construction materials. In 1846,
5472-469: 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
5586-528: The spandrels . The work was accomplished by Karl Krauß. The restoration took 18 years to complete (finished in 1902) after the unveiling of the Rathaus took place with the presence of Kaiser Wilhelm II , Emperor of Germany, on 19 June 1902. Aachen’s city hall survived World War I without sustaining damage, but during the civil unrest in the Rhenish Republic period, the City Hall was stormed by
5700-570: The "Cube", was also planned to be completed in 2009. The "Cube", which cost about €60 million, was under a planning freeze, which Chipperfield saw as endangering progress on the Neues Museum, according to ZDF , the Second German Television channel. In view of the total cost of the Museum Island master plan, estimated to be €1.5 billion, the controversy over the €60 million for the "Cube" appeared disproportionate not only to
5814-695: The 19th century. With its new industrialized building procedures and its use of iron construction, the museum plays an important role in the history of technology . Since the classical and ornate interiors of the Glyptothek and of the Alte Pinakothek in Munich were destroyed in World War II, the partly destroyed interior of the Neues Museum ranks among the last remaining examples of interior museum layout of this period in Germany. Construction of
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#17327756018175928-401: The 2011 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture . Exhibits include the Egyptian and Prehistory and Early History collections, as it did before the war. The artifacts it houses include the iconic bust of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti . Both as a part of the Museum Island complex and as an individual building, the museum testifies to the neoclassical architecture of museums in
6042-406: The Chief Architect of Aachen, Johann Joseph Couven , led a fundamental baroque remodeling of the structure, especially of the front façade and entry steps. The gothic figures and muntin adorning the windows were removed, and even the interior was remodeled in the baroque style. Today, the sitting room and the "White Hall" both still convey this change in style. Characteristic of the time period,
6156-614: 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
6270-414: 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
6384-417: 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
6498-399: 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
6612-623: 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
6726-412: The Granus Tower and masonry from that era were incorporated into the south side of the building.[1] The structure was completed in 1349, and while the town hall served as the administrative center of the city, part of the city’s munitions and weaponry was housed in the Granus Tower, which also served as a prison for some time. Since 1380, the entrance of "Emperor's stairs" (Kaisertreppe), which connected
6840-400: The Greek courtyard and the Egyptian courtyard. The northern Egyptian courtyard was covered with a glass ceiling from the beginning, but the southern Greek courtyard was first covered with a glass ceiling between 1919 and 1923. The James Simon Gallery , located on Museum Island, provides access to an area near the Neues Museum that was previously inaccessible. The architectural dialogue between
6954-547: 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
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#17327756018177068-644: 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
7182-408: 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
7296-468: The Middle Ages and modern times. The Ethnology Museum ( Völkerkundemuseum ), founded in 1873, moved to its own building in 1886 on Königgrätzer Straße (today Stresemannstraße; this building was destroyed in World War II). Connected with this were the removal of the Ethnographic collection, the collection of the patriotic antiquities, and part of the "art chamber" collection. The newly founded Museum of Arts and Crafts ( Kunstgewerbemuseum ) took possession of
7410-464: The Museum Island complex, the museum was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1999 because of its outstanding architecture and testimony to the evolution of museums as a cultural phenomenon. The Neues Museum was the second museum to be built on Museum Island and was intended as an extension to house collections which could not be accommodated in the Altes Museum. Among these were collections of plaster casts , ancient Egyptian artifacts,
7524-414: The Neues Museum began on 19 June 1841, under the auspices of a committee established by Frederick William IV , which included the curator of the Royal Museums, Ignaz von Olfers, as well as Friedrich August Stüler. The king, with his cabinet, had already ordered that the construction project be assigned to Stüler on 8 March 1841. The poor quality of the ground at the building site became apparent quickly, when
7638-410: The Society of Ancient Berlin requested UNESCO in 2008 to put the Museum Island on the list of World Heritage Sites that are at danger of losing their status, seeing Chipperfield's architectural concept involving complete reconstructions as a form of cultural destruction. By contrast, the design was acknowledged in 2011 when David Chipperfield Architects in collaboration with Julian Harrap were awarded
7752-436: The archaeological promenade: an underground passageway connecting all the buildings on the Museum Island, with the exception of the Alte Nationalgalerie . This includes the Neues Museum as an important part of the historical architectural context of the Museum Island. The building has been said to represent a lasting monument in stone for its first architect, Friedrich August Stüler, who wished that "the whole building should form
7866-426: The architect. A March 2006 report on ZDF commented, "if the planning freeze is not lifted by the end of the year, the "Cube" cannot be completed in time. After the consolidation of the foundations and walls, the Neues building was reconstructed. This work was done within the framework of the Masterplan for Berlin's Museum Island, with a cost of approximately €295 million for the Neues Museum. The northwest wing and
7980-469: The building and its towers. The restoration of the inner rooms was performed under the leadership of Joseph Laurent. In 1895, the sculptures depicting the Knight Gerhard Chorus and Johann von Punt (Aachen's mayor from 1372 to 1385) were reinstalled in the bay windows on the back side of City Hall while the eight shields depicting the coat of arms of medieval nobility (Margarten, Berensberg, Roide, Hasselholz, Surse, Wilde, Joh Chorus, and Zevel) were remade in
8094-475: The building were lost. For instance, the last remnants of the Egyptian courtyard were eliminated. In 1997, planning for the reconstruction project was resumed and English architect David Chipperfield was officially appointed for the project. Sections and fragments of the building were taken out and put in storage. In June 2003 the Federal Government Commissioner for Cultural and Media Affairs [ de ] , Christina Weiss [ de ] , said on
8208-421: The building's first floor, was spared. In the time immediately following the fire, its roof and towers were kept erect through makeshift structures of support. On 1 November 1884, the city of Aachen started a contest among German architects for the purpose of rebuilding the City Hall. Out the 13 submitted draft designs, the first prize went to Aachen architect Georg Frentzen, who in 1891 was commissioned to rebuild
8322-761: The copy of the Vienna Coronation Gospels , the Sabre of Charlemagne , the Imperial Crown of Otto I , and the Imperial Orb . Since 2009, Aachen City Hall has been a part of the Route Charlemagne , a tour program by which historical sights of Aachen are presented to visitors. At the city hall, a museum exhibition explains the history and art of the building and gives a sense of the historical coronation banquets that took place in
8436-535: 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
8550-456: 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
8664-519: 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
8778-465: The foreground reinforced, the replacement of the north façade took place (since almost all of the arches there were broken). The arches on the ground floor were again closed for repairs in 1950, and the reconstruction of the Emperor Hall was largely completed by 1953, with the configuration of the room following in the next few years. The question of how the tower caps should be rebuilt remained at
8892-692: The group agreed on a design proposed by the conservation-restoration expert Leo Hugot, who insisted on the historical image of the towers. The tower caps were finally finished in 1978. Nowadays, the replicas of the Imperial Regalia from the Viennese Imperial Treasury are located in the city hall. The replicas were made around 1915 by order of Emperor Wilhelm II for an exhibition to commemorate 31 coronations that took place in Aachen between 813 and 1531. The replicas include
9006-447: The heart of a controversial discussion. In 1966 Professor Wilhelm K. Fischer, who greatly contributed to the reconstruction of Aachen, wrote a draft for the towers’ design. The students from RWTH Aachen University also took part in the debate, submitting 24 designs for consideration. In 1968 eight additional expert designs were submitted to a working group whose mission was to rebuild the towers and, after discussing several modern samples,
9120-435: 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,
9234-481: 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
9348-574: The largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina , and Espírito Santo . Neues Museum The Neues Museum (New Museum) is a listed building on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin , Germany. Built from 1843 to 1855 by order of King Frederick William IV of Prussia in Neoclassical and Renaissance Revival styles , it
9462-524: The largest statues) to the Berlin University , where it was destroyed to a large extent during World War II. In the halls of the first floor, the vase collection of the antique museum, as well as the papyrus collection of the Egyptian museum were installed. Changes in the ground floor, from 1919 to 1923, led for the first time to substantial changes in the original building. In the Greek courtyard,
9576-517: The main guard station. The medieval artwork was then replaced by Gottfried Götting with a replica in 1879. Before World War II , it was then transferred to the local museum ( Heimatmuseum ) in Aachen and disappeared during the war time. During the Great Fire of Aachen in 1656, portions of the roof and towers burned. The destroyed elements were then replaced in a baroque style. From 1727 to 1732
9690-402: 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
9804-653: 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
9918-664: The occasion of the ceremony for the commencement of reconstruction of the museum that the master plan had "nearly squared the circle: to emphasize the buildings as a historical inheritance, to logically direct the flow of the host of visitors, and to make ready... a modern infrastructure." In January 2006, Chipperfield handed over his completed Museum of Modern Literature to the German Literature Archive in Marbach am Neckar ( Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach ). A new reception building for visitors to Museum Island,
10032-471: The past. Among the replicas, the tourists can also discover the portrait of Napoleon from 1807 by Louis-André-Gabriel Bouchet and one of his wife Joséphine from 1805 by Robert Lefèvre . The city hall is still the residence of the mayor of Aachen and of the city council. The annual Charlemagne Prize is awarded in the City Hall of Aachen. Besides serving administrative purposes over the centuries, today’s Aachen City Hall also houses two museums. The first
10146-423: The plaster casts of Greek and Roman sculptures from antiquity and Byzantine , Romanesque , Gothic , Renaissance and Classic art works occupied the first floor. The collection of etchings and engravings and the so-called art chamber ( Kunstkammer ), a collection of architectural models, furniture, clay, pottery and glass containers, and church articles shared the second floor, along with smaller works of art from
10260-599: The post-war period, the ruin of the Neues Museum in the Soviet-occupied part of the city was left decaying for a long period of time. Other museums on Museum Island used the least damaged areas of the building for storage. Reconstruction work was started in 1986 by the East German government, but it was halted after the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification . In the process historical parts of
10374-525: The prehistoric and early historic collections ( Museum der vaterländischen Altertümer ), the ethnographic collection, and the collection of prints and drawings ( Kupferstichkabinett ). It is thus the "original source" of the collections in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin and the Ethnological Museum of Berlin . Moreover, the Neues Museum is an important monument in the history of construction and technology. With its various iron constructions, it
10488-462: 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
10602-503: The pumps that drained the building site, the elevators, and the mortar mixing machines. The newsletter of the Berlin Architecture Association reported on the building site and the new technical devices. On 6 April 1843 when the ceremony of laying the cornerstone took place, the foundations, including the cellars , were already built. Construction of the walls was completed at the end of 1843, so that by 1844,
10716-471: The remaining nearly 7,000 objects of the "art chamber" in 1875, and also moved to its own building, the Martin Gropius Bau , in 1881. The areas thus freed in the ground floor housed the Egyptian collection again, while the areas in the first floor were occupied by the collection of etchings and engravings. From 1883 to 1887, an additional mezzanine level, which is not visible from the exterior,
10830-400: The respective areas were completed, the installation of the collection began, until the museum was finally opened in 1855 to the public, although work on parts of the interior decoration, in particular the wall frescos in the stairway, continued until 1866. When the Neues Museum opened, there were the Egyptian, patriotic and ethnographic collections in the ground floor, while the collections of
10944-404: The south-east façade, which were completely destroyed in the war, have been reconstructed according to Chipperfield's plan, in a manner close to their original layout in the museum building. In March 2009, the museum briefly reopened to the public with its empty building; artifacts had not been installed at that time. On 16 October 2009, the museum officially reopened. At the reopening ceremony,
11058-546: 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,
11172-631: The subterranean levels to the Coronation Hall, was adorned by the limestone relief of the Three Kings and a depiction of the Adoration of the Magi . Four limestone blocks formed the relief, with one serving for each king, and the last depicting Mary and Jesus . In 1798, during the French period , the relief was partially destroyed, and the remaining pieces were left as they were above the entrance to
11286-500: 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
11400-430: The tower caps. The Coronation Hall was also heavily damaged and the north facing wall was moved in places up to 30 centimeters vertically. The imminent threat of collapse was staved off through the use of emergency beams that held the structure in place. Because of rain penetrating the interior of the building as well its frescoes were severely affected. Five of the eight frescoes were removed by Franz Stiewi and stored at
11514-591: The two buildings is now evident, representing the culmination of a process that began when the Neues Museum reopened in 2009. The contemporary architectural plan for the James Simon Galerie was also designed by David Chipperfield. 1) Greek Courtyard 2) Egyptian Courtyard 3) Main Vestibule 4) Patriotic Room 5) South Vestibule 6) Vaulted Room 7) Ethnographic Room 8) Room behind
11628-407: The war followed these internal destructions of the original museum layout. In the bombardments on 23 November 1943, the central stairway and its frescos were burned, along with other great treasures of human history. In February 1945, Allied bombs destroyed the northwest wing as well as the connection to the Altes Museum and damaged the southwest wing as well as the south-east façade ( risalit ). In
11742-462: The wood paneling of the White Hall is in the style of Aachen- Liège baroque master Jacques de Reux, while the wall painting comes from master painter Johann Chrysant Bollenrath. This hall was originally for a panel of jurists who controlled the quality of cloth produced in Aachen, but the space would later serve as the main office for the mayor of Aachen. At the treaty signing ceremony that ended
11856-426: The workers began work on the building's façade, apart from the sculptures in the pediments , and also started cleaning the interiors, building the marble stairway steps and began work on the flooring. This work had progressed well in 1847 and the costly interior fittings could begin. The March revolution of 1848 led to delays in the construction work, which was however not completely interrupted at any time. As soon as
11970-401: The workers discovered deposits of diatomaceous earth just below the surface. Therefore, a pile structure was necessary under the whole building, consisting of 2344 wooden foundation piles between 6.9 and 18.2 meters (23 and 60 ft) long. To ram the piles in, a 5-horsepower (3.7 kW) steam engine was used, whose power could be increased if necessary to 10 hp (7.5 kW). It drove
12084-555: 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
12198-600: 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
12312-429: 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
12426-399: Was added to the Neues Museum. The collection of plaster casts, a centerpiece of collections at the time of the construction, grew during the course of the 19th century to become one of the most extensive and most comprehensive cast collections. However, because of a change in curatorial priorities in favour of original works of art, it was handed over between 1916 and 1920 (with the exception of
12540-547: 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
12654-524: Was built between 1843 and 1855 according to plans by Friedrich August Stüler , a student of Karl Friedrich Schinkel . The museum was closed at the beginning of World War II in 1939, and was heavily damaged during the bombing of Berlin . The rebuilding was overseen by the English architect David Chipperfield . The museum officially reopened in October 2009 and received a 2010 RIBA European Award and
12768-492: 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
12882-525: Was part of the coronation ceremony of the Holy Roman Empire . Before that, the coronation was held at the nearby mid-13th century Grashaus which is one of the city’s oldest still-standing buildings nowadays. Construction began in 1330 on top of the foundation walls of the Aula Regia , part of the derelict Palace of Aachen , built during the Carolingian dynasty. Dating from the time of Charlemagne ,
12996-401: Was seen to be falling apart by 1840. Under the guidance and patronage of the 19th century Chief Architect Friedrich Joseph Ark, the building was rebuilt in a neogothic style preserving its original Gothic elements. The side of the City Hall that faced the Market was adorned with statues of 50 kings, as well as symbols of art, science, and Christianity. The Coronation Hall was also restored and
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