Portrait: Erasmus of Rotterdam, Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, social critic, teacher, and theologian

28 December 2016 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: European Union, Portrait Reading Time:  15 minutes

Erasmus statue in Rotterdam © Frank Versteegen/cc-by-sa-3.0

Erasmus statue in Rotterdam © Frank Versteegen/cc-by-sa-3.0

Erasmus of Rotterdam was a Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, social critic, teacher, and theologian. Erasmus was a classical scholar and wrote in a pure Latin style. Among humanists he enjoyed the sobriquet “Prince of the Humanists”, and has been called “the crowning glory of the Christian humanists”. Using humanist techniques for working on texts, he prepared important new Latin and Greek editions of the New Testament, which raised questions that would be influential in the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation. He also wrote On Free Will, The Praise of Folly, Handbook of a Christian Knight, On Civility in Children, Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style, Julius Exclusus, and many other works. The popularity of his books is reflected in the number of editions and translations that have appeared since the sixteenth century. Ten columns of the catalogue of the British Library are taken up with the enumeration of the works and their subsequent reprints.   read more…

Portrait: Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist, pacifist, socialist and Zionist

21 November 2016 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Portrait Reading Time:  16 minutes

Albert Einstein in New York, during his first visit to the US in 1921 © Life magazine

Albert Einstein in New York, during his first visit to the US in 1921 © Life magazine

Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist. He developed the general theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics (alongside quantum mechanics). Einstein’s work is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science. Einstein is best known in popular culture for his mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc² (which has been dubbed “the world’s most famous equation”). He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for his “services to theoretical physics”, in particular his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect, a pivotal step in the evolution of quantum theory. Near the beginning of his career, Einstein thought that Newtonian mechanics was no longer enough to reconcile the laws of classical mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field. This led to the development of his special theory of relativity. He realized, however, that the principle of relativity could also be extended to gravitational fields, and with his subsequent theory of gravitation in 1916, he published a paper on general relativity. He continued to deal with problems of statistical mechanics and quantum theory, which led to his explanations of particle theory and the motion of molecules. He also investigated the thermal properties of light which laid the foundation of the photon theory of light. In 1917, Einstein applied the general theory of relativity to model the large-scale structure of the universe.   read more…

Portrait: Johann Jacob Schweppe

26 October 2016 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Portrait Reading Time:  5 minutes

Madrid - Gran Via - Schweppes neon sign © flickr.com - Tomás Fano/cc-by-sa-2.0

Madrid – Gran Via – Schweppes neon sign © flickr.com – Tomás Fano/cc-by-sa-2.0

Johann Jacob Schweppe (March 16, 1740 – November 18, 1821) was a German-born naturalised Swiss watchmaker and amateur scientist who developed the first practical process to manufacture carbonated mineral water, based on a process discovered by Joseph Priestley in 1770.   read more…

Portrait: Rothschild family

28 September 2016 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Portrait Reading Time:  17 minutes

Coat of arms of the Rothschild family

Coat of arms of the Rothschild family

The Rothschild family is a wealthy family descending from Mayer Amschel Rothschild, a court Jew to the German Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel, in the Free City of Frankfurt, who established his banking business in the 1760s in Judengasse. Unlike most previous court Jews, Rothschild managed to bequeath his wealth and established an international banking family through his five sons, who established themselves in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Vienna, and Naples. During the 19th century, the Rothschild family possessed the largest private fortune in the world, as well as the largest private fortune in modern world history. The family’s wealth was divided among various descendants. Today, Rothschild business encompass a diverse range of fields, including financial services, real estate, mining, energy, mixed farming, wine and charities. The name of Rothschild became synonymous with extravagance and great wealth; and, the family was renowned for its art collecting, for its palaces, as well as for its philanthropy. By the end of the century, the family owned, or had built, at the lowest estimates, over 41 palaces (Le Goût Rothschild), of a scale and luxury perhaps unparalleled even by the richest royal families. The British Chancellor of the Exchequer Lloyd George claimed, in 1909, that Lord Nathan Rothschild was the most powerful man in Britain.   read more…

Portrait: Henry John Heinz

19 August 2016 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Portrait Reading Time:  9 minutes

Hard Rock Cafe Paris © flickr.com - Flavio Ensiki/cc-by-2.0

Hard Rock Cafe Paris © flickr.com – Flavio Ensiki/cc-by-2.0

Henry John Heinz was an American businessman who founded the H. J. Heinz Company. Heinz Field, which is the home of the Pittsburgh Steelers NFL team, is named in his honor. Heinz was born October 11, 1844 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of John Henry Heinz (1811–1891), of Kallstadt, Kingdom of Bavaria, Germany, and Anna Margaretha Schmidt (1822–1899), of Haunetal-Kruspis in Hesse. His father emigrated to America in 1840, his mother in 1843. They were married December 4, 1843 in Birmingham, Pennsylvania on the south side of Pittsburgh, where they first met. Heinz was married to Sarah Sloan Young Heinz, a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian, on September 3, 1869 and had four children that survived to adulthood. Heinz died at his home May 14, 1919 after contracting pneumonia. His funeral was at East Liberty Presbyterian Church and he was buried at Homewood Cemetery in Pittsburgh, in the Heinz Family Mausoleum. A bronze statue of Heinz by Emil Fuchs was dedicated on October 11, 1924 at the Heinz Company building in Pittsburgh.   read more…

Portrait: Steinway & Sons, manufacturer of grand pianos and pianos

29 July 2016 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Hamburg, New York City, Portrait Reading Time:  14 minutes

© Steinway & Sons

© Steinway & Sons

Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway, is an American and German piano company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan, New York City, by German immigrant Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company’s growth led to the opening of a factory in Queens, New York City, and a factory in Hamburg, Germany. The factory in Queens supplies the Americas and the factory in Hamburg supplies the rest of the world. Steinway has been described as a prominent piano company, known for making pianos of high quality and for inventions within the area of piano development. Steinway has been granted 126 patents in piano making; the first in 1857. The company’s share of the high-end grand piano market consistently exceeds 80 percent. The company’s dominant position in the high-end piano market has been criticized, with some musicians and writers arguing that it has blocked innovation and led to a homogenization of the sound favored by pianists.   read more…

Portrait: The Astor family

27 June 2016 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Portrait Reading Time:  11 minutes

John Jacob Astor by Gilbert Stuart

John Jacob Astor by Gilbert Stuart

The Astor family is a family known for its prominence in business, society, and politics in the United States and the United Kingdom during the 19th and 20th centuries. The Astor family is of German origin, appearing in North America during the eighteenth century with John Jacob Astor.   read more…

Portrait: 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare

1 June 2016 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Portrait Reading Time:  8 minutes

William Shakespeare by John Taylor

William Shakespeare by John Taylor

William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England’s national poet, and the “Bard of Avon”. His extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.   read more…

Portrait: The Rockefeller family

27 May 2016 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Portrait Reading Time:  11 minutes

John D. Rockefeller in 1885

John D. Rockefeller in 1885

The Rockefeller family is an American industrial, political, and banking family that made one of the world’s largest fortunes in the oil business during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with John D. Rockefeller and his brother William Rockefeller primarily through Standard Oil. Their economic rise coincides with the so-called Gilded Age. The family is also known for its long association with and control of Chase Manhattan Bank. They are considered to be one of the most powerful families, if not the most powerful family, in the history of the United States. The first documented ancestor of the Rockefeller’s is Goddard Rockenfeller from Neuwied, Germany. His grandson Johann Peter and grandgrandson Johann Thiel migrated with their families from New Jersey and New York City, where they called themselves Rockefeller.   read more…

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