Misplaced Pages

#962037

111-600: HASAG (also known as Hugo Schneider AG, or by its original name in German : Hugo Schneider Aktiengesellschaft Metallwarenfabrik ) was a German metal goods manufacturer founded in 1863. Based in Leipzig , it grew from a small business making lamps and other small metal products by hand into a large factory and publicly traded company that sold its wares in several countries. During the Second World War , Hasag became

222-465: 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

333-507: A death march . In April 1945, with the Allies nearing the city, Budin blew up the company's main building and office building in Leipzig. He is assumed to have blown up his family and himself along with them. The company's files were never found and are assumed to have been burned. Charles Kotkowsky, a Flößberg labor camp survivor, recalled his arrival there on December 28, 1944. His group

444-489: A kapo was found stealing bread. They slept in cold wooden barracks with straw mattresses or just on bare wood during a winter that was exceptionally cold. Another survivor, Stephen Casey (born István Katona), said there were bodies lying in the mud everywhere around the camp, sometimes for days where they fell. Conditions were so bad at Flößberg, that the commandant told the SS to make some improvements, not because of concern for

555-417: A red triangle was added to commemorate the political prisoners who died. In 1995, two plaques were added to include honor the memory of forced laborers and prisoners of war , as well. In unveiling the new memorial, the mayor of Colditz, Manfred Heinz, said that each generation must always remind the next of the past, that such events are never repeated. He also said that the memorial was not to be seen as just

666-402: 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

777-612: 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

888-649: A 1:1 rate for Reichsmarks but then discounted by the Reichsbank this created secret monetary expansion without formally renouncing the gold standard of the Reichsmark. With the annexation of the Federal State of Austria by Germany in 1938, the Reichsmark replaced the Austrian schilling . During the Second World War , Germany established fixed exchange rates between the Reichsmark and the currencies of

999-512: A Nazi arms-manufacturing conglomerate with dozens of factories across German-occupied Europe using slave labour on a massive scale. Tens of thousands of Jews from Poland, and other prisoners, died producing munition for Hasag. It began making armaments during the First World War , a decision that ultimately increased the company's profitability. The loss of military business after the war resulted in dropping sales. HASAG struggled during

1110-495: A Reichsmark. Made entirely of zinc , the 10 ℛ︁₰ is an emergency issue type, similar to the zinc 1 ℛ︁₰ and 5 ℛ︁₰ , and the aluminium 50 ℛ︁₰ coins from the same period. Nazi Germany had a number of mints. Each mint location had its own identifiable letter. It is therefore possible to identify exactly which mint produced what coin by noting the mint mark on the coin. Not all mints were authorized to produce coins every year. The mints were also only authorized to produce

1221-616: A failed attempt by the Reichskanzler Heinrich Brüning to reduce prices through use of 4 ℛ︁₰ pieces instead of 5 ℛ︁₰ coins. Known as the Brüningtaler or Armer Heinrich ('poor Heinrich'), they were demonetized the following year. See Brüningtaler (in German) . The quality of the Reichsmark coins decreased more and more towards the end of World War II and misprints happened more frequently. Since

SECTION 10

#1732797644963

1332-559: 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

1443-526: A labor subcamp next to every HASAG factory in Germany. At Birkenau , the mortality rate for an Außenkommando was officially calculated. It was three and a half months. There were 16,581 prisoners in these labor subcamps , including 10,557 women, both Jews and non-Jews and 4,025 Jewish men. The main factory in the Schönefeld quarter of Leipzig had 5,288 forced laborers, of whom, 5,067 were women. HASAG

1554-516: A large number of retailers , rather they sold in bulk directly to one customer, the Third Reich . By 1939, HASAG had become one of the biggest arms manufacturers in Germany, with 3,700 employees and annual sales of 22 million Reichsmark. Under Renner's leadership, HASAG remained one of the largest arms manufacturers in central Germany till the end of World War II . Initially, only "elite, especially reliable German workers" were allowed to work in

1665-488: A lower mortality rate. In 1944, Reichs Minister for Armaments and Munitions Albert Speer gave HASAG special authority under the title "Hochlauf (run-up, production boost) Panzerfaust ", making the company the weapon's sole producer in Germany. This enabled HASAG to expand further. At one labor camp, HASAG Werk Schlieben, also called Schlieben-Berga concentration camp, 1.5 million Panzerfaust "Gretchen" guns per month were filled with explosives. The average life expectancy of

1776-515: A minimum. 51°21′09″N 12°25′59″E  /  51.352635°N 12.433047°E  / 51.352635; 12.433047 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

1887-458: 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

1998-696: 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

2109-597: A prisoner sent to work there was two months. In the early hours of October 12, 1944, an explosion occurred that killed 96 prison laborers. The cause of the explosion was never determined, whether it was sabotage, accident or a bomb. With the Soviet offensive in 1945 , the situation in Poland became more dangerous for HASAG's factories. Operations were moved to Germany, establishing a number of smaller operations in different towns around Leipzig with good rail and road connections to

2220-532: A reminder of the forced laborers of the past, rather as a rejection of extremism , as well. The Flößberg labor camp was razed after the war. Today, there is a gate marking the spot, though a local group is trying to raise money to erect a more extensive memorial. There is a prisoner cemetery with 38 prisoner graves on the grounds of the former camp, which the state of Saxony regional administration in Chemnitz had suggested should be moved to Borna . The proposal

2331-483: 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

SECTION 20

#1732797644963

2442-404: A set number of coins with some mints allocated a greater production than others. Some of the coins with particular mint marks are therefore scarcer than others. With the silver 2 ℛ︁ℳ︁ and 5 ℛ︁ℳ︁ coins, the mint mark is found under the date on the left side of the coin. On the smaller denomination Reichspfennig coins, the mint mark is found on the bottom center of

2553-601: 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

2664-612: 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

2775-558: 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

2886-478: 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

2997-430: 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

3108-535: 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

3219-611: 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

3330-565: 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

3441-435: 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

HASAG - Misplaced Pages Continue

3552-597: 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

3663-401: 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

3774-525: 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

3885-578: 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

3996-433: 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

4107-689: 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

4218-488: The Deutsche Rentenbank , owning industrial and agricultural real estate assets. The Reichsmark was put on the gold standard at the rate previously used by the German mark , with the U.S. dollar worth 4.20 ℛ︁ℳ︁. During this period a number of shell companies were created and authorized to issue bonds outside the Reichsmark in order to finance state projects. Nominally exchangeable at

4329-685: The Reichswehr and again received contracts for ammunition production, having been classified as a military supplier. Production began in autumn 1934. Dresdner Bank and the Allgemeine Deutsche Credit-Anstalt financed the development of the company into an arms manufacturer and the old products became a sideline. In 1935, Budin was promoted to general manager; the main plant in Leipzig was expanded and new factories were built. The military contracts were very lucrative because they did not have to arrange distribution to

4440-639: 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

4551-568: 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

HASAG - Misplaced Pages Continue

4662-537: 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

4773-480: 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

4884-671: 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 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 ),

4995-522: 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

5106-746: 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

5217-666: 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

5328-676: 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

5439-550: 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

5550-928: The U.S. Treasury Department authorized the air transfer of these to the USSR. Using a printing plant in occupied Leipzig , the Soviet authorities printed large runs of occupation marks to fill Soviet coffers with dollars causing inflation and financial instability. An investigation by the United States Congress (Occupation Currency Transactions Hearings before the Committee on Appropriations, Armed Services and Banking and Currency, U.S. Senate , 1947) found that about $ 380,000,000 "more currency than there were appropriations for" had been circulated. In 1947 Rhineland-Palatinate issued 5₰ and 10₰ notes with Geldschein on them. Coins and banknotes for circulation in

5661-513: 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

SECTION 50

#1732797644963

5772-539: The occupied and allied countries , often set so as to give economic benefits to German soldiers and civilian contractors, who were paid their wages in local currency. The rates were as follows: After the Second World War , the Reichsmark continued to circulate in Germany, but with new banknotes ( Allied Occupation Marks ) printed in the US and in the Soviet Zone , as well as with coins (without swastikas ). Inflation in

5883-469: 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

5994-550: The Łódź Ghetto . Special issues of Reichsmark currency were issued for use by the Wehrmacht from 1942 to 1944. The first issue was denominated in 1 ℛ︁₰, 5 ℛ︁₰, 10 ℛ︁₰, and 50 ℛ︁₰ and 1 ℛ︁ℳ︁, but was valued at 1 military Reichspfennig = 10 civilian Reichspfennig. This series was printed on only one side. The second issue notes of 1 ℛ︁ℳ︁, 5 ℛ︁ℳ︁, 10 ℛ︁ℳ︁, and 50 ℛ︁ℳ︁ were equal in value to

6105-633: The 1920s in the Weimar Republic . As the Nazi Party grew in influence and eventually came to power in 1933, growing militarism led to the company's return to small arms production under the new SS leadership. Following the invasion of Poland at the onset of World War II the company expanded to accommodate thousands of NS-Zwangsarbeiters from concentration camps and ghettos. It was the third largest user of forced labor in Europe, with armaments factories in Germany and Poland. Though HASAG

6216-413: The 4 ℛ︁₰ coin was only slightly larger than the 1 ℳ︁ coin and the imperial eagle looked similar, an attempt was made to pass it off as a 1-reichsmark coin by silvering the 4 ℛ︁₰ coin. The zinc 10 Reichspfennig coin was minted by Nazi Germany between 1940 and 1945 during World War II, replacing the aluminium-bronze version, which had a distinct golden colour. It is worth 1 ⁄ 10 or .10 of

6327-723: 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

6438-748: 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

6549-417: 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

6660-399: 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

6771-623: 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

SECTION 60

#1732797644963

6882-547: 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

6993-408: 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

7104-444: The Soviet Occupation Zone (colloquially also "Ostmark", since 1968 officially " Mark der DDR "). The 1948 currency reform under the direction of Ludwig Erhard is considered the beginning of the West German economic recovery ; however, the secret plan to introduce the Deutsche Mark in the Trizone was formulated by economist Edward A. Tenenbaum of the US military government , and was executed abruptly on 21 June 1948. Three days later,

7215-419: The arms industry, but with the outbreak of World War II in 1939 and many men entering the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe , workers became harder to find. An agreement was reached between the arms inspector and Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger , the SS-Obergruppenführer of the General Government , allowing Jews to be used as workers. During the war, HASAG had factories in eight German cities and three Polish ones. Most of

7326-445: The business. In 1899, with the involvement of the Darmstädter Bank and other banks, the firm was established as an aktiengesellschaft , manufacturing metal goods under the name "Hugo Schneider AG (Hasag)". Schneider's sons retained 63 percent of the company, but bankers now sat on the board controlling the company. A venture involving other banks resulted in the opening of a factory in Warsaw , Poland. In 1902, in addition to lamps,

7437-1142: The coin. The first Reichsmark banknotes were introduced by the Reichsbank and state banks such as those of Bavaria , Saxony and Baden . The first Reichsbank issue of 1924 came in denominations of 10 ℛ︁ℳ︁, 20 ℛ︁ℳ︁, 50 ℛ︁ℳ︁, 100 ℛ︁ℳ︁, and 1,000 ℛ︁ℳ︁. This was followed by a second issue in the same denominations, dated between 1929 and 1936. The second issue commemorated persons who made contributions to German agriculture, industry, economy, science, and architecture: 10 ℛ︁ℳ︁ issued in 1929 commemorated agronomist Albrecht Thaer ; 20 ℛ︁ℳ︁ issued in 1929 commemorated engineer, inventor, and industrialist Werner von Siemens ; 50 ℛ︁ℳ︁ issued in 1933 commemorated Prussian politician and banker David Hansemann ; 100 ℛ︁ℳ︁ issued in 1935 commemorated chemist and "father of fertilizer industry" Justus von Liebig ; 1,000 ℛ︁ℳ︁ issued in 1936 commemorated Prussian architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel . A newer version of 20 ℛ︁ℳ︁ note

7548-500: The company began making gas lamps , the production of which soon increased with the growing use of gas lighting. Schneider took over his partner's share of the business in 1871 and by 1880, the firm had grown from a simple factory to an industrial plant, with 200 employees. It soon grew to over 300 employees and began exporting not just to other European countries, but also to South America, Asia and Australia. Schneider died on June 1, 1888, and his son, Johnannes Schneider-Dörfel took over

7659-412: The company began making portable stoves for heating and cooking, bicycle headlights and brass sheeting and wire. The company grew to 1200 employees and the value of the stock increased several times. By 1913, the company was a major producer of all types of petroleum and gas lamps. The outbreak of World War I briefly interrupted the success of the business, as HASAG lost important foreign markets, but this

7770-400: The currency of the occupied countries. The coins were originally planned in great numbers of 100 million and 250 million each of the 5 ℛ︁₰ and 10 ℛ︁₰ coins respectively. The first embossing order, which was issued in April 1940, was about 40 million × 5 ℛ︁₰ and 100 million × 10 ℛ︁₰. The total amount was divided between each of the seven German mints after the embossing key of 1939. The contract

7881-430: 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

7992-456: 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

8103-519: 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

8214-461: The factory in a fifteen-minute bombing raid, after which it rained, filling bomb craters with muddy water. No barracks were hit, which infuriated the SS, who took it out on the prisoners. A few days later, a transport arrived with Hungarian prisoners, who died soon after from the cold, the starvation and the beatings. Kotkowsky said that "prisoners were always disappearing" and more would simply be brought from other slave labor camps. Within Leipzig and

8325-627: The final months of the war had reduced the value of the Reichsmark from 2.50 ℛ︁ℳ︁ = $ 1US to 10 ℛ︁ℳ︁ = $ 1US and a barter economy had emerged due to the rapid depreciation. The Reichsmark was replaced by the Deutsche Mark at a rate of 10:1 (1:1 for cash and current accounts) in June 1948 in the Trizone and later in the same year by the East German mark in

8436-468: The front. After the war, the company returned to the manufacture of goods it had produced before the war and added production of vacuum flasks to replace the production of shell casings. Sales dropped to pre-war levels. The worldwide economic crisis and the situation in Germany affected HASAG as well, as workers continually found their remuneration to be inadequate. By 1930, HASAG had 1,000 employees and annual sales of 5 million Reichsmarks , but this

8547-435: 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,

8658-481: 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

8769-460: The largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina , and Espírito Santo . Reichsmark The Reichsmark was introduced in 1924 as a permanent replacement for the Papiermark . This was necessary due to the 1920s German inflation which had reached its peak in 1923. The exchange rate between

8880-910: The main factory in Leipzig. Labor camps were set up in Colditz , Delitzsch , Flößberg (in Frohburg ), Grimma , Golzern and Borsdorf . Exact figures for the number of prison laborers are unknown, however, there were at least 718 prisoners, primarily Hungarian and Polish Jews at the labor camp in Colditz. The factory in Flößberg had at least 1,902 prisoners from Buchenwald and probably from Gross-Rosen concentration camp , as well. As at Colditz, Flößberg's slave laborers were primarily Hungarian and Polish Jews, but one-quarter to one-fifth were political prisoners from various countries in Europe. In 1945, thousands of prisoners were taken out of HASAG factories in

8991-507: 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

9102-638: The new currency also replaced the Reichsmark in the three Western sectors of Berlin . In November 1945, the Reichsmark was superseded by the Second Austrian schilling in Austria. In 1947, the Saar mark , later replaced with the Saar franc , was introduced in the Saar . In 1924, coins were introduced in denominations of 1 ℛ︁₰ , 2 ℛ︁₰, 5 ℛ︁₰ , 10 ℛ︁₰, and 50 ℛ︁₰ , and 1 ℳ︁ and 3 ℳ︁. 4   Reichspfennig coins were issued in 1932 as part of

9213-653: 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

9324-482: The occupied territories during the war were issued by the Reichskreditkassen . Holed, zinc coins in 5 ℛ︁₰ and 10 ℛ︁₰ denominations were struck in 1940 and 1941. Banknotes were issued between 1939 and 1945 in denominations of 50 ℛ︁₰, 1 ℛ︁ℳ︁, 2 ℛ︁ℳ︁, 5 ℛ︁ℳ︁, 20 ℛ︁ℳ︁, and 50 ℛ︁ℳ︁. These served as legal tender alongside

9435-602: The old Papiermark and the Reichsmark was 1 ℛ︁ℳ︁ = 10   ℳ︁ (one trillion in American English and French, one billion in German and other European languages and British English of the time; see long and short scale ). To stabilize the economy and to smooth the transition, the Papiermark was not directly replaced by the Reichsmark, but by the Rentenmark , an interim currency backed by

9546-505: The one-time labor camp are given and a number of former prisoners have returned for a visit, even from abroad. There is a memorial plaque at the site and there are plans for a monument. A new memorial for the 72 Polish and Hungarian Jews who perished at the HASAG Colditz labor camp was unveiled at the Colditz cemetery on March 30, 2007. An earlier memorial to the "Victims of Fascism" was unveiled in 1948 and renovated in 1975, when

9657-449: The prisoners' welfare, but because missile production and therefore the war effort would be negatively affected. One of Kotkowsky's friends found the conditions so unbearable, he took the opportunity to be returned to Buchenwald with a transport of prisoners too sick to work, betting his chances of survival against the odds. One night, after the factory had been built and gunpowder brought in to begin making weapons, British bombers destroyed

9768-462: 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

9879-483: The publicly owned industrial enterprises in the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany). The company MEWA (VEB Metallwaren Leipzig) produced a high-powered lantern according to a HASAG design. The VEB Leuchtenbau Leipzig owned the trademarked name "HASAG", and extended it in 1963. The brand was discontinued in 1974. The former HASAG Werk Schlieben, also called Schlieben-Berga concentration camp , has an organization devoted to protecting its memory. Tours of

9990-546: 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,

10101-413: The surrounding towns, more people died at Flößberg than at any other Nazi concentration camp or as a result of Nazi ideology. In March, the SS decided to give the camp and the prisoners a "spring cleaning". There were no baths to take care of millions of lice, so we had to undress and stand naked waiting at a wall. After freezing for half an hour, they unleashed several fire hoses on us and not everyone

10212-500: 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

10323-437: The way. American forces arrived in the village of Flößberg on April 14, 1945. After the war, the main factory in Leipzig began to produce cooking pots, milk canisters, lamps and other items until 1947, when the machinery and equipment was dismantled and seized by the Soviet occupation force as war reparations . Most of the buildings were demolished. After 1949, HASAG's civilian patents were used by Volkseigener Betrieben ,

10434-674: The workers were either forced laborers, primarily from eastern Europe, or prisoners from concentration camps. The forced laborers lived under heavy police surveillance in barracks near the factories. In 1942 and 1943, such labor camps were set up near all six of the factories in Poland. Few workers were there voluntarily and most of those were Germans in managerial positions. At the beginning of 1942, HASAG had 13,850 employees. They began bringing in Polish forced laborers in spring 1944, and in 1945, had eight Außen kommandos , first from Ravensbrück concentration camp and then from Buchenwald, setting up

10545-555: 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

10656-600: 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

10767-429: 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

10878-430: Was a drop from previous levels. In October 1931, the company reported that sales were down nearly 15 percent and the company's value had dropped by nearly 30 percent. The board sought changes in company management and on October 1, 1931, Paul Budin was brought in. Budin, an SS - Sturmbannführer and Nazi Party member, was appointed manager of HASAG in 1932. One of his deputies was Dr. Georg Mumme, an SA - Sturmführer . As

10989-536: Was able to use women to replace male workers because of automation and their machinery, also the company produced small and medium-sized arms. The company preferred to employ and exploit the prisoner labor available from numerous Nazi labor camps and maintained by the SS, and became the third largest user of forced laborers in Germany. HASAG employed more women than men because the SS charged less for women. They worked more quickly than men and were more adaptable; they also had

11100-519: Was able to withstand that. Each thrust of water in the cold weather knocked us against the wall. There was no way out. How we survived that ordeal was beyond my understanding. With Allied forces nearing and more and more German troops seen in retreat, the SS evacuated Flößberg labor camp on April 13, 1945. They were packed into cattle cars without food and taken on a circuitous route through Czechoslovakia to Mauthausen concentration camp , where they arrived about two weeks later. Many prisoners died along

11211-547: 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

11322-435: Was brought in to build an arms factory in the forest. They had to clear the woods and lay railway tracks. The conditions were deplorable. Aside from the gnawing hunger, there were no sanitary facilities or running water for the prisoners, so they could not wash themselves or their clothing and it rained often, making the camp very muddy. Many inmates used their morning ersatz coffee to wash themselves; since it tasted so bad, it

11433-710: Was common in the Nazi armaments industry, nearly all of the deputies and directors were in the SS, the Gestapo or the SA, most notably Wilhelm Renner, father of Hannelore Kohl , who later became the head of the military business and helped develop the Panzerfaust . In 1934, with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in control of the government and a growing militarization in Germany , HASAG undertook intensive negotiations with

11544-529: Was dismantled after the war, the trademark remained in use until 1974. The company was founded in September 1863 as Häckel und Schneider in Paunsdorf, near Leipzig, with 20 employees who made lamps by hand. Hugo Schneider was a 27-year-old Silesian salesman; his partner, Ernst Häckel, was a plumber , who had started the business making lamps, tinware and painted wares in 1854. Over the next few years,

11655-492: 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

11766-894: Was introduced in 1939, using a design taken from an unissued Austrian S 100 banknote type. 5 ℛ︁ℳ︁ notes were issued in 1942. Throughout this period, the Rentenbank also issued banknotes denominated in Rentenmark, mostly in RM 1 and RM 2 denominations. In preparation for the occupation of Germany, the United States issued occupation banknotes dated 1944, printed by the Forbes Lithograph Printing Company of Boston. These were printed in similar colours with different sizes for groups of denominations. Notes were issued for 1 ⁄ 2  ℳ︁, 1 ℳ︁, 5 ℳ︁, 10 ℳ︁, 20 ℳ︁, 50 ℳ︁, 100 ℳ︁, and 1,000 ℳ︁. The issuer

11877-410: Was not worth drinking. Following their breakfast of thin coffee, prisoners were forced to perform 12 hours of physically hard labor under the supervision of capricious guards, who vengefully beat them with sticks and screamed at them. Finally, in the evening, came a bowl of thin soup with a small piece of bread. Kotkowsky called the hunger "incomprehensible" and said food was so sparingly distributed, even

11988-475: Was opposed by Jewish and other groups and the regional administration backed off in November 2010. Now there are plans to fix up the graveyard and improve other parts of the site. The precise number of people forced to work at HASAG factories is unclear because many records were destroyed in the war. The numbers below represent a tally of those known to have worked or perished at the factories below and represent

12099-453: Was soon supplanted by the production of small arms. HASAG's 1914 annual report included the news that in September, the company had, after making some adjustments to its operation, succeeded in obtaining large orders for military supplies, which allowed the company to return to "normal sales revenues". In fact, the company's net profit tripled over its previous non-military sales. The company made rounds and other military items in heavy use on

12210-784: Was stopped in August 1940 as the Wehrmacht, which had requested the coins for Belgium and France, had no more need of it. When the embossing stopped, only Berlin ("A") and Munich ("D") produced significant quantities, but they still came to only a small extent of original production plans. The majority were melted down due to the limited supply of metal and thus, most mint marks are now quite rare (except for 1940 5 A and D, and 1940 10 A). Various special issues of Reichsmark currency were issued for use in concentration and prisoner of war (POW) camps ( Stalag ). None were legal tender in Germany itself. From 1942 to 1943 tokens were struck for use within

12321-659: Was the Alliierte Militärbehörde ('Allied military authorities') with In Umlauf gesetzt in Deutschland ('in legal circulation in Germany') printed on the obverse. These notes were convertible to US dollars at a rate of 10:1. Seeing an opportunity to procure foreign hard currency, the Soviet Union demanded copies of the engraving plates, ink, and associated equipment in early 1944, and on 14 April 1944 Henry Morgenthau and Harry Dexter White of

#962037