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Holden

Holden, formerly known as General Motors-Holden, was an Australian subsidiary company of General Motors. Founded in Adelaide, South Australia, it was an automobile manufacturer, importer, and exporter that sold cars under its own marque in Australia. In its last three years, it switched entirely to importing cars. It was headquartered in Port Melbourne, with major industrial operations in the states of South Australia and Victoria. The 164-year-old company ceased trading at the end of 2020.

Holden's primary products were its own models developed in-house, such as the Holden Commodore, Holden Caprice, and the Holden Ute. However, Holden had also offered badge-engineered models under sharing arrangements with Nissan, Suzuki, Toyota, Isuzu, and then GM subsidiaries Opel, Vauxhall Motors, and Chevrolet. The vehicle lineup had included models from GM Korea, GM Thailand, and GM North America. Holden had also distributed GM's German Opel marque in Australia in 2012 and 2013.

Holden was founded in 1856 as a saddlery manufacturer in South Australia. In 1898, it moved into the automotive field. It became a subsidiary of the United States–based General Motors (GM) in 1931, when the company was renamed General Motors-Holden's Ltd. It was renamed Holden Ltd in 1998 and adopted the name GM Holden Ltd in 2005.

Holden briefly owned assembly plants in New Zealand during the early 1990s. The plants had belonged to General Motors from 1926 until 1990 in an earlier and quite separate operation from GM's Holden operations in Australia. Holden's production became increasingly concentrated in South Australia and Victoria after the Second World War. However, Holden had factories in all the mainland states of Australia when GM took over in 1931, due to the combining of Holden and GM factories around the country under Holden management. In the postwar period, this decentralisation was slowly reduced and, by 1989, the consolidation of final assembly at Elizabeth, South Australia was largely completed, except for some operations that continued at Dandenong, Victoria until 1994. Engine manufacturing was consolidated at Fishermans Bend, Victoria, which was expanded to supply markets overseas.

Although Holden's involvement in exports had fluctuated from the 1950s, the declining sales of large sedan cars in Australia led the company to look to international markets to increase profitability. In 2013, Holden revealed it received A$2.17 billion in Federal Government assistance in the past 12 years, the amount was much larger than expected. Holden blamed a strong Australian currency, high manufacturing costs and a small domestic market among the reasons for exit of local manufacturing. This led to the announcement, on 11 December 2013, that Holden would cease vehicle and engine production by the end of 2017.

On 29 November 2016, engine production at the Fishermans Bend plant was shut down. On 20 October 2017, production of the last Holden designed Commodore ceased and the vehicle assembly plant at Elizabeth was shut down. Holden produced nearly 7.7 million vehicles. On 17 February 2020, General Motors announced that the Holden marque would be retired by 2021. On 30 October 2020, the GM Australia Design Studio at Fishermans Bend was shut down. Holden has been replaced by GM Specialty Vehicles (GMSV), which imports the Chevrolet Silverado and the Chevrolet Corvette. The parts supplier known as the Holden Trade Club was renamed GM Trade Parts. An extensive Holden service network continues to help maintain the many Holdens that remain in operation in Australia.

Early history
In 1852 James Alexander Holden emigrated to South Australia from Walsall, Staffordshire, U.K, and in 1856 established J. A. Holden & Co., a saddlery business in Adelaide. In 1879 J. A. Holden's eldest son Henry James (H. J.) Holden, became a partner and effectively managed the company. In 1885, German-born H. A. Frost joined the business as a junior partner and J. A. Holden & Co became Holden & Frost Ltd. Edward Holden, James' grandson, joined the firm in 1905 with an interest in automobiles. From there, the firm evolved through various partnerships, and in 1908, Holden & Frost moved into the business of minor repairs to car upholstery. The company began to re-body older chassis using motor bodies produced by F. T. Hack and Co from 1914. Holden & Frost mounted the body, and painted and trimmed it. The company began to produce complete motorcycle sidecar bodies after 1913. After 1917, wartime trade restrictions led the company to start full-scale production of vehicle body shells. H. J. Holden founded a new company in late 1917, and registered Holden's Motor Body Builders Ltd (HMBB) on 25 February 1919, specialising in car bodies and using the former F. T. Hack & Co facility at 400 King William Street in Adelaide before erecting a large four-storey factory on the site. By 1923, HMBB were producing 12,000 units per year. During this time, HMBB assembled bodies for Ford Motor Company of Australia until its Geelong plant was completed. From 1924, HMBB became the exclusive supplier of car bodies for GM in Australia, with manufacturing taking place at the new Holden Woodville Plant (which was actually in the adjacent suburb of Cheltenham ). These bodies were made to suit a number of chassis imported from manufacturers including Austin, Buick, Chevrolet, Cleveland, Dodge, Essex, Fiat, Hudson, Oakland, Oldsmobile, Overland, Reo, Studebaker, and Willys-Knight.

In 1926, General Motors (Australia) Limited was established with assembly plants at Newstead, Queensland; Marrickville, New South Wales; City Road, Melbourne, Victoria; Birkenhead, South Australia; and Cottesloe, Western Australia using bodies produced by HMBB and imported complete knock down chassis. In 1930 alone, the still independent Woodville plant built bodies for Austin, Chrysler, DeSoto, Morris, Hillman, Humber, Hupmobile, and Willys-Overland, as well as GM cars. The last of this line of business was the assembly of Hillman Minx sedans in 1948. The Great Depression led to a substantial downturn in production by Holden, from 34,000 units annually in 1930 to just 1,651 units one year later. In 1931, GM purchased HMBB and merged it with General Motors (Australia) Pty Ltd to form General Motors-Holden's Ltd (GM-H). Its acquisition of Holden allowed General Motors to inherit an Australian identity, which it used to cultivate nationalist appeal for the firm, largely through the use of public relations, a then novel form of business communication which was imported to Australia through the formation of General Motors (Australia) Limited. Throughout the 1920s, Holden also supplied 60 W-class tramcar bodies to the Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board, of which several examples have been preserved in both Australia and New Zealand.

1940s
Holden's second full-scale car factory, located in Fishermans Bend (Port Melbourne), was opened on 5 November 1936 by Prime Minister Joseph Lyons, with construction beginning in 1939 on a new plant in Pagewood, New South Wales. However, World War II delayed car production with efforts shifted to the construction of vehicle bodies, field guns, aircraft, and engines. Before the war ended, the Australian government took steps to encourage an Australian automotive industry. Both GM and Ford provided studies to the Australian government outlining the production of the first Australian-designed car. Ford's proposal was the government's first choice, but required substantial financial assistance. GM's study was ultimately chosen because of its low level of government intervention. After the war, Holden returned to producing vehicle bodies, this time for Buick, Chevrolet, Pontiac, and Vauxhall. The Oldsmobile Ace was also produced from 1946 to 1948.

From here, Holden continued to pursue the goal of producing an Australian car. This involved compromise with GM, as Holden's managing director, Laurence Hartnett, favoured development of a local design, while GM preferred to see an American design as the basis for "Australia's Own Car". In the end, the design was based on a previously rejected postwar Chevrolet proposal. The Holden was launched in 1948, creating long waiting lists extending through 1949 and beyond. The name "Holden" was chosen in honour of Sir Edward Holden, the company's first chairman and grandson of J. A. Holden. Other names considered were "GeM", "Austral", "Melba", "Woomerah", "Boomerang", "Emu", and "Canbra", a phonetic spelling of Canberra. Although officially designated "48–215", the car was marketed simply as the "Holden". The unofficial usage of the name "FX" originated within Holden, referring to the updated suspension on the 48–215 of 1953.

1950s
During the 1950s, Holden dominated the Australian car market. GM invested heavily in production capacity, which allowed the company to meet increased postwar demand for motor cars. Less expensive, four-cylinder cars did not offer Holdens the ability to deal with rugged rural areas. Holden 48–215 sedans were produced in parallel with the 50-2106 coupé utility from 1951; the latter was known colloquially as the "ute" and became ubiquitous in Australian rural areas as the workhorse of choice. Production of both the utility and sedan continued with minor changes until 1953, when they were replaced by the facelifted FJ model, introducing a third panel van body style. The FJ was the first major change to the Holden since its 1948 introduction. Over time, it gained iconic status and remains one of Australia's most recognisable automotive symbols. A new horizontally slatted grille dominated the front end of the FJ, which received various other trim and minor mechanical revisions. In 1954, Holden began exporting the FJ to New Zealand. Although little changed from the 48–215, marketing campaigns and price cuts kept FJ sales steady until a completely redesigned model was launched. At the 2005 Australian International Motor Show in Sydney, Holden paid homage to the FJ with the Efijy concept car. Commercial success underpinned the rise of Holden as a cultural icon, as the Holden car became synonymous with the 'Australian way of life', coming to symbolise the stability of post-war Australian capitalism.

Holden's next model, the FE, launched in 1956, offered in a new station wagon body style dubbed "Station Sedan" in the company's sales literature. In the same year, Holden commenced exports to Malaya, Thailand, and North Borneo. Strong sales continued in Australia, and Holden achieved a market share of more than 50% in 1958 with the revised FC model. This was the first Holden to be tested on the new Holden Proving Ground based in Lang Lang, Victoria. In 1957, Holden's export markets grew to 17 countries, with new additions including Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Fiji, Sudan, the East Africa region, and South Africa. Indonesian market cars were assembled locally by P.T. Udatin. The opening of the Dandenong, Melbourne, production facility in 1956 brought further jobs; by 1959, Holden employed 19,000 workers country-wide. In 1959, complete knock-down assembly began in South Africa and Indonesia.

1960s
In 1960, Holden introduced its third major new model, the FB. The car's style was inspired by 1950s Chevrolets, with tailfins and a wrap-around windscreen with "dog leg" A-pillars. By the time it was introduced, many considered the appearance dated. Much of the motoring industry at the time noted that the adopted style did not translate well to the more compact Holden. The FB became the first Holden that was adapted for left-hand drive markets, enhancing its export potential, and as such was exported to New Caledonia, New Hebrides, the Philippines, and Hawaii. In 1960, Ford unveiled the new Falcon in Australia, only months after its introduction in the United States. To Holden's advantage, the Falcon was not durable, particularly in the front suspension, making it ill-suited for Australian conditions. In response to the Falcon, Holden introduced the facelifted EK series in 1961; the new model featured two-tone paintwork and optional Hydramatic automatic transmission. A restyled EJ series came in 1962, debuting the new luxury oriented Premier model. The EH update came a year later, bringing the new Red motor, providing better performance than the previous Grey motor. The HD series of 1965 had the introduction of the Powerglide automatic transmission. At the same time, an "X2" performance option with a more powerful version of the 179 cuin six-cylinder engine was made available. In 1966, the HR was introduced, including changes in the form of new front and rear styling and higher-capacity engines. More significantly, the HR fitted standard front seat belts; Holden thus became the first Australian automaker to provide the safety device as standard equipment across all models. This coincided with the completion of the production plant in Acacia Ridge, Queensland. By 1963, Holden was exporting cars to Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, and the Caribbean.

Holden began assembling the compact HA series Vauxhall Viva in 1964. This was superseded by the Holden Torana in 1967, a development of the Viva ending Vauxhall production in Australia. Holden offered the LC, a Torana with new styling, in 1969 with the availability of Holden's six-cylinder engine. In the development days, the six-cylinder Torana was reserved for motor racing, but research had shown a business case existed for such a model. The LC Torana was the first application of Holden's new three-speed Tri-Matic automatic transmission. This was the result of Holden's A$16.5 million transformation of the Woodville, South Australia, factory for its production. Holden's association with the manufacture of Chevrolets and Pontiacs ended in 1968, coinciding with the year of Holden's next major new model, the HK. This included Holden's first V8 engine, a Chevrolet engine imported from Canada. Models based on the HK series included an extended-length prestige model, the Brougham; and a two-door coupé, the Monaro. The mainstream Holden Special was rebranded the Kingswood, and the basic fleet model, the Standard, became the Belmont. On 3 March 1969, Alexander Rhea, managing director of General Motors-Holden's at the time, was joined by press photographers and the Federal Minister of Shipping and Transport, Ian Sinclair as the two men drove the two-millionth Holden, an HK Brougham, off the production line. This came just over half a decade since the one-millionth car, an EJ Premier sedan, rolled off the Dandenong line on 25 October 1962. Following the Chevrolet V8 fitted to the HK, the first Australian-designed and mass-produced V8, the Holden V8 engine debuted in the Hurricane concept of 1969 before fitment to facelifted HT model. This was available in two capacities: 253 and 308 cuin. Late in HT production, use of the new Tri-Matic automatic transmission, first seen in the LC Torana was phased in as Powerglide stock was exhausted, but Holden's official line was that the HG of 1971 was the first full-sized Holden to receive it.

Despite the arrival of serious competitors—namely, the Ford Falcon, Chrysler Valiant, and Japanese cars—in the 1960s, Holden's locally produced large six- and eight-cylinder cars remained Australia's top-selling vehicles. Sales were boosted by exporting the Kingswood sedan, station wagon, and utility body styles to Indonesia, Trinidad and Tobago, Pakistan, the Philippines, and South Africa in complete knock-down form.

1970s
Holden launched the new HQ series in 1971. At this time, the company was producing all of its passenger cars in Australia, and every model was of Australian design; however, by the end of the decade, Holden was producing cars based on overseas designs. The HQ was thoroughly re-engineered, featuring a perimeter frame and semi-monocoque (unibody) construction. Other firsts included an all-coil suspension and an extended wheelbase for station wagons, while the utilities and panel vans retained the traditional coil/leaf suspension configuration. The series included the new prestige Statesman brand, which also had a longer wheelbase, replacing the Brougham. The Statesman remains noteworthy because it was not marketed as a "Holden", but rather a "Statesman".

The HQ framework led to a new generation of two-door Monaros, and despite the introduction of the similar-sized competitors, the HQ range became the top-selling Holden of all time, with 485,650 units sold in three years; 14,558 units were exported and 72,290 CKD kits were constructed. The HQ series was facelifted in 1974 with the introduction of the HJ, heralding new front-panel styling and a revised rear fascia. This new bodywork was to remain, albeit with minor upgrades, through the HX and HZ series. Detuned engines adhering to government emission standards were brought in with the HX series, whilst the HZ brought considerably improved road handling and comfort with the introduction of radial-tuned suspension. As a result of GM's toying with the Wankel rotary engine, as used by Mazda of Japan, an export agreement was initiated in 1975. This involved Holden exporting with powertrains, HJ, and later, HX series Premiers as the Mazda Roadpacer AP. Mazda then fitted these cars with the 13B rotary engine and three-speed automatic transmission. Production ended in 1977, after just 840 units sold.

Development of the Torana continued in with the larger mid-sized LH series released in 1974, offered only as a four-door sedan. The LH Torana was one of the few cars worldwide engineered to accommodate four-, six-, and eight-cylinder engines. This trend continued until Holden introduced the Sunbird in 1976, essentially the four-cylinder Torana with a new name. Designated LX, both the Sunbird and Torana introduced a three-door hatchback variant. A final UC update appeared in 1978. During its production run, the Torana achieved legendary racing success in Australia, achieving victories at the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales.

In 1975, Holden introduced the compact Gemini, the Australian version of the "T-car", based on the Opel Kadett C. The Gemini was an overseas design developed jointly with Isuzu, GM's Japanese affiliate; and was powered by a 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine. Fast becoming a popular car, the Gemini rapidly attained sales leadership in its class, and the nameplate lived on until 1987. Holden's most popular car to date, the Commodore, was introduced in 1978 as the VB. The new family car was loosely based on the Opel Rekord E body shell, but with the front from the Opel Senator grafted to accommodate the larger Holden six-cylinder and V8 engines. Initially, the Commodore maintained Holden's sales leadership in Australia. However, some of the compromises resulting from the adoption of a design intended for another market hampered the car's acceptance. In particular, it was narrower than its predecessor and its Falcon rival, making it less comfortable for three rear-seat passengers. With the abandonment of left-hand drive markets, Holden exported almost 100,000 Commodores to markets such as New Zealand, Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Malta and Singapore.

During the 1970s, Holden ran an advertising jingle "Football, Meat Pies, Kangaroos, and Holden cars", a localised version of the "Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pies, and Chevrolet" jingle used by GM's Chevrolet division in the United States.

Holden discontinued the Torana in 1979 and the Sunbird in 1980. After the 1978 introduction of the Commodore, the Torana became the "in-between" car, surrounded by the smaller and more economical Gemini and the larger, more sophisticated Commodore. The closest successor to the Torana was the Camira, released in 1982 as Australia's version of GM's medium-sized "J-car".

1980s
The 1980s were challenging for Holden and the Australian automotive industry. The Australian Government tried to revive the industry with the Button car plan, which encouraged car makers to focus on producing fewer models at higher, more economical volumes, and to export cars. The decade opened with the shut-down of the Pagewood, New South Wales production plant and introduction of the light commercial Rodeo, sourced from Isuzu in Japan. The Rodeo was available in both two- and four-wheel drive chassis cab models with a choice of petrol and diesel powerplants. The range was updated in 1988 with the TF series, based on the Isuzu TF. Other cars sourced from Isuzu during the 1980s were the four-wheel drive Jackaroo (1981), the Shuttle (1982) van and the Piazza (1986) three-door sports hatchback. The second generation Holden Gemini from 1985 was also based on an Isuzu design, although, its manufacture was undertaken in Australia.

In 1981, the Fishermans Bend engine plant began production of the Family II - part of a global engine programme for GM's compact vehicles. The plant supplied the engine locally for the Camira model, and to export markets - primarily to GM's plants in Europe for installation in Opel/Vauxhall vehicles.

While GM Australia's commercial vehicle range had originally been mostly based on Bedford products, these had gradually been replaced by Isuzu products as the Bedford brand was being retired in Britain. This process began in the 1970s and by 1982 Holden's commercial vehicle arm no longer offered any Bedford products.

The new Holden WB commercial vehicles and the Statesman WB limousines were introduced in 1980. However, the designs, based on the HQ and updated HJ, HX and HZ models from the 1970s were less competitive than similar models in Ford's lineup. Thus, Holden abandoned those vehicle classes altogether in 1984. Sales of the Commodore also fell, with the effects of the 1979 energy crisis lessening, and for the first time the Commodore lost ground to the Ford Falcon. Sales in other segments also suffered when competition from Ford intensified, and other Australian manufacturers: Mitsubishi, Nissan and Toyota gained market share. When released in 1982, the Camira initially generated good sales, which later declined because buyers considered the 1.6-litre engine underpowered, and the car's build and ride quality below-average. The Camira lasted just seven years, and contributed to Holden's accumulated losses of over A$500 million by the mid-1980s.

In 1984, Holden introduced the VK Commodore, with significant styling changes from the previous VH. The Commodore was next updated in 1986 as the VL, which had new front and rear styling. Controversially, the VL was powered by the 3.0-litre Nissan RB30 six-cylinder engine and had a Nissan-built, electronically controlled four-speed automatic transmission. Holden even went to court in 1984 to stop local motoring magazine Wheels from reporting on the matter. The engine change was necessitated by the legal requirement that all new cars sold in Australia after 1986 had to consume unleaded petrol. Because it was unfeasible to convert the existing six-cylinder engine to run on unleaded fuel, the Nissan engine was chosen as the best engine available. However, changing currency exchange rates doubled the cost of the engine and transmission over the life of the VL. The decision to opt for a Japanese-made transmission led to the closure of the Woodville, South Australia assembly plant. Confident by the apparent sign of turnaround, GM paid off Holden's mounted losses of A$780 million on 19 December 1986. At GM headquarters' request, Holden was then reorganised and recapitalised, separating the engine and car manufacturing divisions in the process. This involved the splitting of Holden into Holden's Motor Company (HMC) and Holden's Engine Company (HEC). For the most part, car bodies were now manufactured at Elizabeth, South Australia, with engines as before, confined to the Fishermans Bend plant in Port Melbourne, Victoria. The engine manufacturing business was successful, building four-cylinder Family II engines for use in cars built overseas. The final phase of the Commodore's recovery strategy involved the 1988 VN, a significantly wider model powered by the American-designed, Australian-assembled 3.8-litre Buick V6 engine.

Holden began to sell the subcompact Suzuki Swift-based Barina in 1985. The Barina was launched concurrently with the Suzuki-sourced Holden Drover, followed by the Scurry later on in 1985. In the previous year, Nissan Pulsar hatchbacks were rebadged as the Holden Astra, as a result of a deal with Nissan. This arrangement ceased in 1989 when Holden entered a new alliance with Toyota, forming a new company: United Australian Automobile Industries (UAAI). UAAI resulted in Holden selling rebadged versions of Toyota's Corolla and Camry, as the Holden Nova and Apollo respectively, with Toyota re-branding the Commodore as the Lexcen.

1990s
The company changed throughout the 1990s, increasing its Australian market share from 21 percent in 1991 to 28.2 percent in 1999. Besides manufacturing Australia's best selling car, which was exported in significant numbers, Holden continued to export many locally produced engines to power cars made elsewhere. In this decade, Holden adopted a strategy of importing cars it needed to offer a full range of competitive vehicles. During 1998, General Motors-Holden's Ltd name was shortened to "Holden Ltd".

On 26 April 1990, GM's New Zealand subsidiary Holden New Zealand announced that production at the assembly plant based in Trentham would be phased out and vehicles would be imported duty-free—this came after the 1984 closure of the Petone assembly line due to low output volumes. During the 1990s, Holden, other Australian automakers and trade unions pressured the Australian Government to halt the lowering of car import tariffs. By 1997, the federal government had already cut tariffs to 22.5 percent, from 57.5 percent ten years earlier; by 2000, a plan was formulated to reduce the tariffs to 15 percent. Holden was critical, saying that Australia's population was not large enough, and that the changes could tarnish the local industry. Holden reintroduced its defunct Statesman title in 1990—this time under the Holden marque, as the Statesman and Caprice. For 1991, Holden updated the Statesman and Caprice with a range of improvements, including the introduction of four-wheel anti-lock brakes (ABS); although, a rear-wheel system had been standard on the Statesman Caprice from March 1976. ABS was added to the short-wheelbase Commodore range in 1992. Another returning variant was the full-size utility, and on this occasion it was based on the Commodore. The VN Commodore received a major facelift in 1993 with the VR—compared to the VN, approximately 80 percent of the car model was new. Exterior changes resulted in a smoother overall body and a "twin-kidney" grille—a Commodore styling trait that remained until the 2002 VY model and, as of 2013, remains a permanent staple on HSV variants.

Holden introduced the all-new VT Commodore in 1997, the outcome of a A$600 million development programme that spanned more than five years. The new model featured a rounded exterior body shell, improved handling and many firsts for an Australian-built car. Also, a stronger body structure increased crash safety. The locally produced Buick-sourced V6 engine powered the Commodore range, as did the 5.0-litre Holden V8 engine, and was replaced in 1999 by the 5.7-litre LS unit.

The UAAI badge-engineered cars first introduced in 1989 sold in far fewer numbers than anticipated, but the Holden Commodore, Toyota Camry, and Corolla were all successful when sold under their original nameplates. The first generation Nova and the donor Corolla were produced at Holden's Dandenong, Victoria facility until 1994. UAAI was dissolved in 1996, and Holden returned to selling only GM products. The Holden Astra and Vectra, both designed by Opel in Germany, replaced the Toyota-sourced Holden Nova and Apollo. This came after the 1994 introduction of the Opel Corsa replacing the already available Suzuki Swift as the source for the Holden Barina. Sales of the full-size Holden Suburban SUV sourced from Chevrolet commenced in 1998—lasting until 2001. Also in 1998, local assembly of the Vectra began at Elizabeth, South Australia. These cars were exported to Japan and Southeast Asia with Opel badges. However, the Vectra did not achieve sufficient sales in Australia to justify local assembly, and reverted to being fully imported in 2000.

2000s
In the 1990s, Holden's share of the Australian market surged and peaked at 27.5 percent in 2000 before declining to 15.2 percent in 2006. From March 2003, Holden no longer held the number one sales position in Australia, losing ground to Toyota. Commodore sales had peaked in 1998 at 94 642 vehicles and were relatively stable up to 2004 before going into a steady decline. Total Holden sales peaked in 2002 at 178 392 vehicles and were stable up to 2005 before declining for the rest of the decade and the next.

This downturn affected Holden's profits; the company recorded a combined gain of A$842.9 million from 2002 to 2004, and a combined loss of A$290 million from 2005 to 2006. Factors contributing to the loss included the development of an all-new model, the strong Australian dollar and the cost of reducing the workforce at the Elizabeth plant, including the loss of 1,400 jobs after the closure of the third-shift assembly line in 2005, after two years in operation. Holden fared better in 2007, posting an A$6 million loss. This was followed by an A$70.2 million loss in the 2008, an A$210.6 million loss in 2009, and a profit of A$112 million in 2010. On 18 May 2005, "Holden Ltd" became "GM Holden Ltd", coinciding with the resettling to the new Holden headquarters on 191 Salmon Street, Port Melbourne, Victoria.

Holden caused controversy in 2005 with their Holden Employee Pricing television advertisement, which ran from October to December 2005. The campaign publicised, "for the first time ever, all Australians can enjoy the financial benefit of Holden Employee Pricing". However, this did not include a discounted dealer delivery fee and savings on factory fitted options and accessories that employees received. At the same time, employees were given a further discount of 25 to 29 percent on selected models.

Holden revived the Monaro coupe in 2001. Based on the Commodore VX architecture, the coupe attracted worldwide attention after being shown as a concept car at Australian auto shows. The VX Commodore received its first major update in 2002 with the VY series. A mildly facelifted VZ model launched in 2004, introducing the High Feature engine. This was built at the Fishermans Bend facility completed in 2003, with a maximum output of 900 engines per day. This has reportedly added A$5.2 billion to the Australian economy; exports account for about A$450 million alone. After the VZ, the High Feature engine powered the all-new Holden Commodore (VE). In contrast to previous models, the VE no longer used an Opel-sourced platform adapted both mechanically and in size, but was based on the Holden developed GM Zeta platform, that was earmarked to become a "Global RWD Architecture", until plans were cancelled due to the 2007/08 global financial crisis.

Throughout the 1990s, Opel had also been the source of many Holden models. To increase profitability, Holden looked to the South Korean Daewoo brand for replacements after acquiring a 44.6 percent stake—worth US$251 million—in the company in 2002 as a representative of GM. This was increased to 50.9 percent in 2005, but when GM further increased its stake to 70.1 percent around the time of its 2009 Chapter 11 reorganisation, Holden's interest was relinquished and transferred to another (undisclosed) part of GM.

The commencement of the Holden-branded Daewoo models began with the 2005 Holden Barina, which based on the Daewoo Kalos, replaced the Opel Corsa as the source of the Barina. In the same year, the Viva, based on the Daewoo Lacetti, replaced the entry-level Holden Astra Classic, although the new-generation Astra introduced in 2004 continued on. The Captiva crossover SUV came next in 2006. After discontinuing the Frontera and Jackaroo models in 2003, Holden was only left with one all-wheel drive model: the Adventra, a Commodore-based station wagon. The fourth model to be replaced with a South Korean alternative was the Vectra by the mid-size Epica in 2007. As a result of the split between GM and Isuzu, Holden lost the rights to use the "Rodeo" nameplate. Consequently, the Holden Rodeo was facelifted and relaunched as the Colorado in 2008.

Following Holden's successful application for a A$149 million government grant to build a localised version of the Chevrolet Cruze in Australia from 2011, Holden in 2009 announced that it would initially import the small car unchanged from South Korea as the Holden Cruze. Following the government grant announcement, Kevin Rudd, Australia's Prime Minister at the time, stated that production would support 600 new jobs at the Elizabeth facility; however, this failed to take into account Holden's previous announcement, whereby 600 jobs would be shed when production of the Family II engine ceased in late 2009.

2010s
In March 2012, Holden was given a $270 million lifeline by the Australian Federal Government (Labor Party of Australia) along with the South Australian and Victorian state governments. In return, Holden planned to inject over $1 billion into car manufacturing in Australia. They estimated the new investment package would return around $4 billion to the Australian economy and see GM Holden continue making cars in Australia until at least 2022.

In mid-2013, Holden sought a further A$265 million, in addition to the A$275 million that was already committed by the governments of Canberra, South Australia and Victoria, to remain viable as a car manufacturer in Australia. A source close to Holden informed the Australian news publication that the car company is losing money on every vehicle that it produces and consequently initiated negotiations to reduce employee wages by up to A$200 per week to cut costs, following the announcement of 400 job cuts and an assembly line reduction of 65 (400 to 335) cars per day. From 2001 to 2012, Holden received over A$150 million a year in subsidy from Australian government. The subsidy from 2007 was more than Holden's capital investment of the same period. From 2004, Holden was only able to make a profit in 2010 and 2011.

Industry Minister Kim Carr confirmed on 10 July 2013 that talks had been scheduled between the Australian government and Holden. On 13 August 2013, 1,700 employees at the Elizabeth plant in South Australia voted to accept a three-year wage freeze to decrease the chances of the production line's closure in 2016. Holden's ultimate survival, though, depended on continued negotiations with the Federal Government—to secure funding for the period from 2016 to 2022—and the final decision of the global headquarters in Detroit, US.

Following an unsuccessful attempt to secure the extra funding required from the new Liberal/National coalition government, on 11 December 2013, General Motors announced that Holden would cease engine and vehicle manufacturing operations in Australia by the end of 2017. As a result, 2,900 jobs would be lost over four years. Beyond 2017 Holden's Australian presence would consist of a national sales company, a parts distribution centre and a global design studio.

In May 2014, GM reversed their decision to abandon the Lang Lang Proving Ground and decided to keep it as part of their engineering capability in Australia.

In 2015, Holden again began selling a range of Opel-derived cars comprising the Astra VXR and Insignia VXR (both based on the OPC models sold by Vauxhall) and Cascada. Later that year, Holden also announced plans to sell the European Astra and the South Korean Cruze alongside each other from 2017.

In December 2015, Belgian entrepreneur Guido Dumarey commenced negotiations to buy the Commodore manufacturing plant in Elizabeth, with a view to continue producing a rebadged Zeta-based premium range of rear and all-wheel drive vehicles for local and export sales. The proposal was met with doubt in South Australia, and it later came to nothing. On 20 October 2017, Holden ceased manufacturing vehicles in Australia with the closure of the Elizabeth plant. Afterwards, Holden became an importer of rebadged cars from various GM subsidiaries located in the United States, Canada, Germany, Thailand, and South Korea.

2020s
On 17 February 2020, General Motors announced that the Holden brand would be retired by 2021, after GM stated it would no longer make right-hand drive vehicles globally, leaving the Australia and New Zealand market altogether. Holden produced nearly 7.7 million vehicles.

Vehicles

 * Holden-designed models
 * Holden Standard (1948–1968)
 * Holden Utility (1948–2017)
 * Holden 48-125-FJ (1948–1956)
 * Holden Panel Van (1953–1969)
 * Holden FE-FC (1956–1960)
 * Holden FB-EK (1960–1962)
 * Holden Premier (1962–1968)
 * Holden Special (1953–1968)
 * Holden Brougham (1968–1971)
 * Holden Sandman (1974–1980)
 * Holden Camira (1982–1989)
 * Holden Statesman/Caprice (1990–2017)
 * Holden Commodore/Berlina/Calais (1978–2017)
 * Holden Belmont/Kingswood/Premier (1968–1984)
 * Holden Monaro (1968–1977; 2001–2005)
 * Holden Sunbird/Torana (1967–1980)
 * Holden Sunbird/Torana (1967–1980)
 * Statesman (1971–1984)

 * Chevrolet-based models
 * Holden Astra Sedan (2017–2019)
 * Holden Barina (2011–2018)
 * Holden Colorado (2008–2020)
 * Holden Colorado 7/Trailblazer (2012–2020)
 * Holden Cruze (2009–2016)
 * Holden Malibu (2013–2016)
 * Holden Spark (2009–2020)
 * Holden Suburban (1998–2001)
 * Holden Trax (2013–2020)
 * Holden Volt (2012–2015)
 * Holden Equinox (2018–2020)

 * Daewoo-based models
 * Holden Barina (2005–2011)
 * Holden Captiva (2006–2018)
 * Holden Epica (2007–2011)
 * Holden Viva (2005–2009)

 * GMC-based models
 * Holden Acadia (2018–2020)

 * Isuzu-based models
 * Holden Camira (1984–1987), only in New Zealand
 * Holden Frontera (1995–2004)
 * Holden Gemini (1975–1986)
 * Holden Jackaroo/Monterey (1981–2002)
 * Holden Piazza (1986–1988)
 * Holden Rodeo (1981–2008)
 * Holden Shuttle (1982–1990)

 * Nissan-based models
 * Holden Astra (1984–1989)

 * Opel/Vauxhall-based models
 * Holden Astra (1996–2009, 2015–2020)
 * Holden Barina (1994–2005)
 * Holden Calibra (1991–1998)
 * Holden Cascada (2015–2017)
 * Holden Combo (1996–2012)
 * Holden Commodore (2018–2020)
 * Holden Insignia (2015–2017)
 * Holden Tigra (2005–2007)
 * Holden Vectra (1997–2006)
 * Holden Zafira (2001–2005)

 * Suzuki-based models
 * Holden Barina (1985–1994)
 * Holden Cruze (2002–2006)
 * Holden Drover
 * Holden Scurry

 * Toyota-based models
 * Holden Apollo (1989–1996)
 * Holden Nova (1989–1996)

Driveline components

 * Inline-4 engines
 * Holden Starfire motor (1978–1986)
 * GM Family II engine (for Opel) (1981–2009)

 * Inline-6 engines
 * Holden straight-six motor (1948–1986)

 * V6 engines
 * Holden 3800 (1988–2006)
 * Holden AlloyTec (2004–2016)

 * V8 engines
 * Holden V8 engine (1968–2000)

 * Transmissions
 * Holden TriMatic (1970–1988)
 * Holden manual transmission (1948–1986)

 * Differentials
 * Holden Banjo differential (1948–1984)
 * Holden Salisbury differential (1968–1988)

Corporate affairs and identity
Holden's logo, of a lion holding a stone, was introduced in 1928. Holden's Motor Body Builders appointed Rayner Hoff to design the emblem, which refers to a fable in which observations of lions rolling stones led to the invention of the wheel. With the 1948 launch of the 48–215, Holden revised its logo. It commissioned another redesign in 1972 to better represent the company. The emblem was reworked once more in 1995.

In 1987, Holden established Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) in partnership with Tom Walkinshaw, who primarily manufactured modified, high-performance Commodore variants. To further reinforce the brand, HSV introduced the HSV Dealer Team into the V8 Supercar fold in 2005 under the naming rights of Toll HSV Dealer Team.

In 2010, Holden sold vehicles across Australia through the Holden Dealer Network (310 authorised stores and 12 service centres), which employed more than 13,500 people. On 8 May 2015, Jeff Rolfs, Holden's CFO, became interim chairman and managing director. Holden announced on 6 February 2015 that Mark Bernhard would return to Holden as chairman and managing director, the first Australian to hold the post in 25 years.

Exports
Holden began to export vehicles in 1954, sending the FJ to New Zealand. Exports to New Zealand continued, but to broaden their export potential, Holden began to cater their Commodore, Monaro and Statesman/Caprice models for both right- and left-hand drive markets. The Middle East was Holden's largest export market, with the Commodore sold as the Chevrolet Lumina from 1998, and the Statesman from 1999 as the Chevrolet Caprice. Commodores were also sold as the Chevrolet Lumina in Brunei, Fiji and South Africa, and as the Chevrolet Omega in Brazil. Pontiac in North America also imported Commodore sedans from 2008 through to 2009 as the G8. The G8's cessation was a consequence of GM's Chapter 11 bankruptcy resulting in the demise of the Pontiac brand.

Sales of the Monaro began in 2003 to the Middle East as the Chevrolet Lumina Coupe. Later that year a modified version of the Monaro began selling in the United States (but not in Canada) as the Pontiac GTO, and under the Monaro name through Vauxhall dealerships in the United Kingdom. This arrangement continued through to 2006 when the car was discontinued. The long-wheelbase Statesman sales in the Chinese market as the Buick Royaum began in 2005, before being replaced in 2007 by the Statesman-based Buick Park Avenue. Statesman/Caprice exports to South Korea also began in 2005. These Korean models were sold as the Daewoo Statesman, and later as the Daewoo Veritas from 2008. Holden's move into international markets proved profitable; export revenue increased from A$973 million in 1999 to just under $1.3 billion in 2006.

From 2011, the WM Caprice was exported to North America as the Chevrolet Caprice PPV, a version of the Caprice built exclusively for law enforcement in North America and sold only to police. From 2007, the HSV-based Commodore was exported to the United Kingdom as the Vauxhall VXR8.

In 2013, Chevrolet announced that exports of the Commodore would resume to North America in the form of the VF Commodore as the Chevrolet SS sedan for the 2014 model year. The Chevrolet SS Sedan was also imported to the United States (but again, not to Canada) for 2015 with only minor changes, notably the addition of Magnetic Ride Control suspension and a Tremec TR-6060 manual transmission. For the 2016 model year the SS sedan received a facelift based on the VF Series II Commodore unveiled in September 2015. In 2017, production of Holden's last two American exports, the SS and the Caprice PPV was discontinued.

Leadership

 * Edward Holden (1917–1934)
 * Laurence Hartnett (1934–1946)
 * Harold E. Bettle (1946–1953)
 * Earl C. Daum (1953–1959)
 * Harlow C. Gage (1959–1962)
 * David L. Heglund (1962–1966)
 * Max C. Wilson (1966–1968)
 * Alexander D. Rhea (1968–1970)
 * A. C. "Bill" Gibbs (1970–1973)
 * Damon Martin (1973–1976)
 * Charles S. "Chuck" Chapman (1976–1987)
 * John G. Bagshaw (1987–1990)
 * William J. Hamel (1990–1997)
 * James R. Wiemels (1997–1999)
 * Peter Hanenberger (1999–2003)
 * Denny Mooney (2003–2007)
 * Chris Gubbey (2007–2008)
 * Mark Reuss (2008–2009)
 * Alan Batey (2009–2010)
 * Michael Devereux (2010–2014)
 * Gerry Dorizas (2014–2014)
 * Jeff Rolfs (Interim chairman and managing director) (2014–2015)
 * Mark Bernhard (2015–2018)
 * Dave Buttner (2018–2019)
 * Kristian Aquilina (2019–2020) [Acting Chairman and Managing Director]

Sales
Whilst previously holding the number one position in Australian vehicle sales, Holden has sold progressively fewer cars during most of the 21st century, in part due to a large drop in Commodore sales.

Motorsport
Holden has been involved with factory backed teams in Australian touring car racing since 1968. The main factory-backed teams have been the Holden Dealer Team (1969–1987), the Holden Racing Team (1990–2016) and Triple Eight Race Engineering (2017–2020). Holden won the Bathurst 1000 30 times, more than any other manufacturer, and has won the Australian Touring Car and Supercars Championship title 21 times. Brad Jones Racing, Team 18, Erebus Motorsport, Matt Stone Racing, Tekno Autosports and Walkinshaw Andretti United also run Holden Commodores in the series.

title: Holden


text:
Talk:History of computers

I think the page should start with the mechanical calculators of Schickard, Blaise Pascal and Gottfried Leibniz.

Also, Zuse's and Alan Turing's work is missing.

Anybody know more about the eighteenth century polynomial solver that's mentioned in the difference engine section?

- If Univac was a 1000 times faster - what were its competitors?

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:History of computers


text:
Hank Greenberg

Henry Benjamin Greenberg (January 1, 1911 – September 4, 1986), nicknamed "Hammerin' Hank", "Hankus Pankus", and "the Hebrew Hammer", was an American professional baseball player and team executive. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB), primarily for the Detroit Tigers as a first baseman in the 1930s and 1940s. A member of the Baseball Hall of Fame and a two-time Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award winner, he was one of the premier power hitters of his generation and is widely considered one of the greatest sluggers in baseball history.

Greenberg played the first twelve of his 13 major league seasons for Detroit; with the Tigers, he was an All-Star for four seasons and was named the American League (AL) Most Valuable Player in 1935 and 1940. He had a batting average over .300 in eight seasons, and won two World Series championships with the Tigers ( and ). He was the AL home run leader four times and his 58 home runs for the Tigers in 1938 equaled Jimmie Foxx's 1932 mark for the most in one season by anyone other than Babe Ruth, and tied Foxx for the most home runs between Ruth's record 60 in 1927 and Roger Maris' record 61 in 1961. Greenberg was the first major league player to hit 25 or more home runs in a season in each league, and remains the AL record-holder for most runs batted in in a single season by a right-handed batter.

When the United States joined World War II, Greenberg was the first major leaguer to join the armed forces; he spent 47 months in military service, more than any other major league player, all of which took place during what would have been prime years in his major league career. Like many players who served in WWII, his career statistics suffered because of the war and would have certainly been higher had he not served in the armed services during wartime. In 1947, Greenberg signed a contract for a record $85,000 salary before being sold to the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he played his final MLB season that year. After retiring from playing, Greenberg continued to work in baseball as a team executive for the Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox.

Greenberg was the first Jewish superstar in American team sports. He attracted national attention in 1934 in the middle of a pennant race when he grappled with the decision of whether or not to play baseball on the Jewish High Holy Days; after consultation with his rabbi, he decided to play on Rosh Hashanah, but refused to play on Yom Kippur, instead spending the day at the synagogue. Having endured his share of antisemitic abuse in his career, Greenberg was one of the few opposing players to publicly welcome African-American player Jackie Robinson to the major leagues in 1947.

Early life
Greenberg was born on January 1, 1911, in Greenwich Village, New York City, to Romanian Jewish immigrant parents from Bucharest, Sarah (née Schwartz) (1881–1951) and David Greenberg (1883–1969). He was the third of four children and had two brothers, Ben (1906–1994) and Joe (1915–2001), and a sister, Lillian (1907–1989). His parents had originally wanted to name him "Hyman"; however, the name on his birth certificate was erroneously listed as "Henry".

The family owned a successful cloth-shrinking plant in New York. Eventually, they moved from Greenwich Village to the Bronx where Greenberg attended James Monroe High School. There, Greenberg was an outstanding all-around athlete and was bestowed with the long-standing nickname of "Bruggy" by his basketball coach. His preferred sport was baseball, and his preferred position was first base. However, his best sport was basketball and he helped the high school basketball team win the city championship. Greenberg also excelled at soccer and track and field.

In 1929, the 18-year-old 6ft 4in Greenberg was recruited by the New York Yankees, who already had Lou Gehrig at first base. As first base was already taken on the Yankee team, Greenberg turned down the Yankees' offer and instead attended New York University on an athletic scholarship; there, he was a member of Sigma Alpha Mu. During this time, he also had a tryout with the New York Giants; Giants manager John McGraw, however, was not impressed by the first baseman. Hence, after his freshman year ended, Greenberg signed with the Detroit Tigers for $9,000 ($0 today).

Minor leagues
Greenberg played minor league baseball for three years. He played 17 games in 1930 for the Hartford Senators of the Eastern League before playing the remainder of the year with the Raleigh Capitals of the Piedmont League, hitting .314 with 19 home runs. In 1931, he played for the Evansville Hubs in the Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League, hitting .318 with 15 home runs and 85 runs batted in. In 1932, the Beaumont Exporters in the Texas League, he hit 39 homers with 131 RBIs, winning the league's Most Valuable Player award, and leading Beaumont to the Texas League title.

Early years
On September 14, 1930, Greenberg made his major league debut as a pinch hitter against the New York Yankees. It was the only game he appeared in that year but, as a result, made him the youngest player (19) to appear in the major leagues in 1930. It was another three years before he rejoined the majors. In 1933, for the Tigers, Greenberg hit .301 with 87 runs batted in. At the same time, he was third in the league in strikeouts (78).

In 1934, his second season in the majors, Greenberg hit .339 and helped the Tigers reach their first World Series in 25 years. He led the league in doubles, with 63 (the fourth-highest all-time in a single season), and extra-base hits (96). Additionally, he was third in the AL in slugging percentage (.600) – behind Jimmie Foxx and Lou Gehrig, but ahead of Babe Ruth – and in RBIs (139), sixth in batting average (.339), seventh in home runs (26), and ninth in on-base percentage (.404).

Late in the 1934 season, he announced that he would not play on September 10, which was Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, or on September 19, the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. Detroit fans grumbled at the decision, however, with one reportedly saying, "Rosh Hashanah comes every year but the Tigers haven't won the pennant since 1909." As a result, Greenberg did considerable soul-searching, and discussed the matter with his rabbi and his father; finally he relented and agreed to play on Rosh Hashanah, but stuck with his decision not to play on Yom Kippur. Dramatically, Greenberg hit two home runs in a 2–1 Tigers victory over the Red Sox on Rosh Hashanah. The next day, the Detroit Free Press ran the Hebrew lettering for "Happy New Year" across its front page.

Columnist and poet Edgar A. Guest expressed the general opinion in a poem titled "Came Yom Kippur: Speaking of Greenberg", in which he used the Irish (and thus Catholic) names Murphy and Mulroney. The poem, published in the Detroit Free Press, ends with the lines:

We shall miss him on the infield and shall miss him at the bat. But he's true to his religion – and I honor him for that!

The Detroit press was not so kind regarding the Yom Kippur decision, nor were many fans, but Greenberg in his autobiography recalled that he received a standing ovation from congregants at Congregation Shaarey Zedek when he arrived. With Greenberg absent from the lineup, the Tigers lost to the New York Yankees 5–2. They went on to face the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1934 World Series, losing in seven games against the "Gashouse Gang".

In 1935, Greenberg led the league in RBIs (168), total bases (389), and extra base hits (98), tied Foxx for the AL title in home runs (36), was 2nd in the league in doubles (46), slugging percentage (.628), was 3rd in the league in triples (16), and in runs scored (121), 6th in on-base percentage (.411) and walks (87), and was 7th in batting average (.328). He was unanimously voted as the Most Valuable Player in the American League. By the All-Star break that season, Greenberg had hit 25 home runs and set an MLB record (still standing) of 103 RBIs, but was not selected to the AL All-Star roster; one reason was that AL manager Mickey Cochrane had put himself on the All-Star roster despite eventually not playing in the game.

That season, Greenberg led the Tigers to another pennant. However, during Game 2, he sprained his wrist and was sidelined for the remainder of the series as the Tigers won their first World Series title.

In April 1936, Greenberg re-injured his wrist in a collision with Jake Powell of the Washington Senators and did not play the remainder of the season. He finished the season with 16 hits, 1 home run, and 15 RBIs in 12 games.

In 1937, Greenberg recovered from his injury and was voted to the AL All-Star roster, but did not play. On September 19, 1937, he hit the first home run into the center-field bleachers at Yankee Stadium. He led the AL by driving in 184 runs (third all-time, behind Hack Wilson in 1930 and Lou Gehrig in 1931), and in extra-base hits (103), while batting .337 with 200 hits. He was second in the league in home runs (40), doubles (49), total bases (397), slugging percentage (.668), and walks (102), third in on-base percentage (.436), and seventh in batting average (.337). Greenberg came in third in the vote for MVP, behind teammate Charlie Gehringer and Joe DiMaggio.

A prodigious home run hitter, Greenberg narrowly missed breaking Babe Ruth's single-season home run record in 1938, when he hit 58 home runs, leading the league for the second time. That year, he had 11 games with multiple home runs, a new major league record. Greenberg matched what was then the single-season home run record by a right-handed batter, (Jimmie Foxx, 1932); the mark stood for 66 years until it was broken by Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire in 1998. Greenberg also had a 59th home run washed away in a rainout. It has been long speculated that Greenberg was intentionally walked late in the season to prevent him from breaking Ruth's record, but Greenberg dismissed this speculation, calling it "crazy stories". Howard Megdal has calculated that in September 1938, Greenberg was walked in over 20% of his plate appearances, above his average for the season. Baseball historian Ron Kaplan, while not dismissing antisemitism's role in Greenberg's decreased home run rate, states that there was nothing different in the way Greenberg was pitched to in the final days of the 1938 season.

Greenberg was again voted to the AL All-Star roster in 1938, but because he was not named to the 1935 AL All-Star roster and was benched in the 1937 game, he declined to accept a starting position on the 1938 AL team and did not play (the NL won 4–1). He led the league in runs scored (144) and at-bats per home run (9.6), tied for the AL lead in walks (119), was second in RBIs (146), slugging percentage (.683), and total bases (380), and third in OBP (.438) and set a still-standing major league record of 39 homers in his home park, the newly re-configured Briggs Stadium. He also set a major-league record with 11 multiple-home run games and came in third in the vote for MVP, behind Jimmie Foxx and Bill Dickey.

In 1939, Greenberg was voted to the AL All-Star roster for the third year in a row and was a starter at first base, and singled and walked in four at-bats (AL won 3–1). He finished second in the AL in home runs (33) and strikeouts (95), third in doubles (42) and slugging percentage (.622), fourth in RBIs (112), sixth in walks (91), and ninth in on-base percentage (.420).

After the 1939 season ended, Greenberg was asked by general manager Jack Zeller to take a salary cut of $5,000 ($0 today) as a result of his off-year in power and run production. He was asked to move from first base to left field to accommodate Rudy York, who was one of the best young hitters of his generation; York was tried at catcher, third baseman, and outfielder and proved to be a defensive liability at each position. Greenberg in turn, demanded a $10,000 bonus if he mastered left field, insisting he was the one taking the risk in learning a new position. Greenberg received his bonus at the end of spring training.

In 1940, Greenberg switched from playing the first base position to the left field position. For the fourth consecutive time, he was voted by the season's American All-Star team manager Joe McCarthy to the AL All-Star team. In the bottom of the sixth inning, Greenberg and Lou Finney were sent into the game to replace right fielder Charlie Keller and left fielder Ted Williams, with Greenberg playing in left field and Finney in right field. Greenberg batted twice in the game and fouled out to the catcher twice. The NL won the game 4–0, the first All-Star Game shutout.

That season, Greenberg led the AL in home runs for the third time in six years with 41; in RBIs (150), doubles (50), total bases (384), extra-base hits (99), at-bats per home run (14.0), and slugging percentage (.670; 44 points ahead of Joe DiMaggio). Greenberg finished second in the league to Williams in runs scored (129) and OBP (.433), all while batting .340 (fifth-best in the AL). He also led the Tigers to the AL pennant, and won his second AL MVP award, becoming the first player in major-league history to win an MVP award at two different playing positions. However, the Tigers subsequently lost the 1940 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds in seven games.

Greenberg admitted in his autobiography after his career ended that he had taken part in sign stealing in September 1940 season, which was inspired by teammates Tommy Bridges and Pinky Higgins, who noticed that the new rifle they used for their hunt had a telescopic lens that could read signs when in the stands in the outfield. He also said that sign stealing was going on in the 1948 Cleveland Indians and the 1959 Chicago White Sox teams.

World War II service

On October 16, 1940, Greenberg became the first American League player to register for the nation's first peacetime draft. In the spring of 1941, the Detroit draft board initially classified Greenberg as 4F for "flat feet" after his first physical for military service, and he was recommended for light duty. The rumors that he had bribed the board, and concern that he would be likened to Jack Dempsey (who had received negative publicity for failure to serve in World War I), led Greenberg to request to be reexamined. On April 18, he was found fit for regular military service and was reclassified.

On May 7, 1941, he was inducted into the U.S. Army after playing left field in 19 games, and reported to Fort Custer at Battle Creek, Michigan. His salary was cut from $55,000 ($0 today) a year to $21 ($0 today) a month. In November, while serving as an anti-tank gunner, he was promoted to sergeant, but was honorably discharged on December 5 (the United States Congress released men aged 28 years and older from service), two days before Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the United States officially joining the war effort, Greenberg re-enlisted as a sergeant on February 1, 1942, and volunteered for service in the Army Air Forces, becoming the first major league player to do so. He graduated from Officer Candidate School and was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the Air Corps (the new "Air Force" service retained the old name for its own logistics and training elements) and was assigned to the Physical Education Program.

In February 1944, he was sent to the U.S. Army Special Services school. Promoted to captain, he requested overseas duty later that year and served in the China-Burma-India Theater for over six months, scouting locations for B-29 bomber bases and was a physical training officer with the 58th Bomber Wing. He was a Special Services officer of the 20th Bomber Command, 20th Air Force in China when it began bombing Japan on June 15. He was ordered to New York, and in late 1944, to Richmond, Virginia. Greenberg served 47 months, the longest of any major league player.

Return to baseball
Greenberg remained in military uniform until he was placed on the military inactive list and discharged from the U.S. Army on June 14, 1945. He was the first major league player to return to the majors after the war. In his first game back on July 1, he hit a home run. The 1945 All-Star Game, scheduled for July 10, had been officially cancelled on April 24 and Major League Baseball did not name All-Stars that season due to strict travel restrictions in place during the last days of the war. In place of the All-Star Game, seven interleague games were played on July 9 and 10 to benefit the American Red Cross and the War Relief fund. An Associated Press All-Star roster was named for the AL and NL by a group of their sportswriters that included Greenberg as one of the All-Stars.

Greenberg, who played left field in 72 games and batted .311 in 1945, helped lead the Tigers to a come-from-behind American League pennant, clinching it with a dramatic grand slam home run in the ninth inning on the final day of the season against the St. Louis Browns, avoiding a one-game playoff against the now-second-place Washington Senators. The Tigers went on to beat the Cubs in the 1945 World Series in seven games. Greenberg hit two of the only three home runs hit in that World Series, with Phil Cavarretta hitting one for the Cubs in Game 1. Greenberg homered in Game 2, where he batted in three runs in a 4–1 Tigers win, and hit a two-run homer in in the eighth inning of Game 6 that tied the score 8–8; the Cubs went on to win that game with a run in the bottom of the 12th.

In 1946, he returned to peak form and playing at first base. He led the AL in home runs (44) and RBIs (127), both for the fourth time. He was second in slugging percentage (.604) and total bases (316) behind Ted Williams.

In 1947, Greenberg and the Tigers had a lengthy salary dispute. When Greenberg decided to retire rather than play for less, Detroit sold his contract to the Pittsburgh Pirates. To persuade him not to retire, Pittsburgh made Greenberg the first baseball player to make $100,000 in a season as pure salary. Team co-owner Bing Crosby recorded a song, "Goodbye, Mr. Ball, Goodbye" with Groucho Marx and Greenberg to celebrate Greenberg's arrival. The Pirates also reduced the size of Forbes Field's cavernous left field, renaming the section "Greenberg Gardens" to accommodate Greenberg's pull-hitting style.

Greenberg played first base for the Pirates in 1947 and his time there coincided with the arrival of Jackie Robinson in the Major Leagues. He was one of the few opposing players to publicly welcome Robinson to the majors at a time when most opposing players were openly hostile. Greenberg himself had faced hostilities from opposing players and spectators who often shouted antisemitic slurs at him during games and, hence, knew what Robinson was going through. During a game against the Brooklyn Dodgers, he collided with Robinson while covering first base. Afterwards, Greenberg asked if Robinson was alright and encouraged him to "Stick in there. You’re doing fine. Keep your chin up." Robinson later praised Greenberg, saying, "Class tells. It sticks out all over Mr. Greenberg."

That year he also had a chance to mentor a young future Hall-of-Famer, the 24-year-old Ralph Kiner. Greenberg was impressed by the rookie, later saying of him, "Ralph had a natural home run swing. All he needed was somebody to teach him the value of hard work and self-discipline. Early in the morning on off-days, every chance we got, we worked on hitting." Kiner hit 51 home runs that year to lead the National League and ended his career with 369 home runs, eventually being elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

In his final season of 1947, Greenberg tied for the league lead in walks with 104, with a .408 on-base percentage and finished eighth in the league in home runs and tenth in slugging percentage. Greenberg became the first major league player to hit 25 or more home runs in a season in each league. Despite still being productive, Greenberg decided to retire as a player to take a front-office post with the Cleveland Indians. No player had ever retired after a final season in which they hit so many home runs. Since then, only Ted Williams (1960; 29), Dave Kingman (1986; 35), Mark McGwire (2001; 29), Barry Bonds (2007; 28) and David Ortiz (2016; 38) have hit as many or more homers in their final season.

Career overall
It is speculated that, had it not been for his service in World War II, Greenberg would likely have approached 500 home runs and 1,800 RBIs; he missed all but 19 games of the 1941 season, the three full seasons that followed, and most of 1945 to World War II military service.

Starring as a first baseman and left fielder with the Tigers (1930, 1933–46) and doing duty only briefly with the Pirates (1947), Greenberg played nine full seasons. He compiled 331 home runs, 1,046 runs and 1,276 RBIs in 1,394 games. Greenberg was also an excellent contact hitter, earning a lifetime batting average of .313. During his career, he was named to the All-Star Team four times, and won the AL Most Valuable Player Award twice, in 1935 and 1940.

As a fielder, the 6ft 4in Greenberg was awkward and unsure of himself early in his career, but mastered first base through countless hours of practice. Over the course of his career he demonstrated a higher-than-average fielding percentage and range at first base. When asked by the Tigers' front office to move to left field in 1940 to make room for Rudy York, he worked tirelessly to master that position as well, reducing his errors in the outfield from 15 in 1940 to 0 in 1945.

Antisemitism
During his career, Greenberg faced a number of incidents of antisemitism, including having players stare at him because they had never before seen a Jew and having racial slurs thrown at him by both spectators and opposing players. Greenberg sometimes retaliated against the racial attacks, once going into the Chicago White Sox clubhouse and challenging manager Jimmy Dykes to a fight. On another occasion he called out the entire Yankees team, daring the perpetrator to reveal himself.

In the 1935 World Series, umpire George Moriarty warned three Chicago Cubs players to stop yelling antisemitic slurs at Greenberg and eventually cleared the players from the Cubs bench. Moriarty was disciplined for this action by then-commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis.

Greenberg initially resented being singled out as a Jewish ballplayer and, unlike his parents, was not a particularly observant Jew. However, he later accepted his place in baseball, saying:

"When I was playing, I used to resent being singled out as a Jewish ballplayer. I wanted to be known as a great ballplayer, period. I'm not sure why or when I changed, because I'm still not a particularly religious person. Lately, though, I find myself wanting to be remembered not only as a great ballplayer, but even more as a great Jewish ballplayer."

At 6ft 4in and towering above his contemporaries, he disproved the commonly held stereotype that Jews were not athletic and did not belong in sports. His decision to not play on Yom Kippur at a time of rampant antisemitism in the United States, and around the world, was significant and made him a hero in the American Jewish community. Sandy Koufax, who did not play in Game 1 of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur, has often pointed out that his decision to not play was not unprecedented: "Hank Greenberg did it first."

Management and ownership
After the 1947 season, Greenberg retired as a player, and Cleveland Indians owner Bill Veeck hired him as the Indians' farm director. When Veeck was forced to sell the Indians due to a divorce settlement, new owner Ellis Ryan retained Greenberg, promoting him to general manager.

During his tenure, he sponsored more African American players than any other major league executive. Greenberg's contributions to the Cleveland farm system led to the team's successes throughout the 1950s, although Bill James once wrote that the Indians' late 1950s collapse should also be attributed to him. In 1949, Larry Doby also recommended Greenberg scout three players Doby used to play with in the Negro leagues: Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, and Willie Mays. The next offseason Doby asked what Indians' scouts said about his recommendations. Greenberg replied: "Our guys checked 'em out and their reports were not good. They said that Aaron has a hitch in his swing and will never hit good pitching. Banks is too slow and didn't have enough range [at shortstop], and Mays can't hit a curveball."

While Ryan had initially been content to leave baseball matters to Greenberg, he tried to seize greater control after the 1952 season, when the Indians suffered a drop in attendance despite coming within two games of the pennant. The Indians board sided with Greenberg, prompting Ryan to sell out to a group headed by Myron H. Wilson, who voiced full confidence in Greenberg. Under Wilson, Greenberg's role as operating head of the franchise was cemented to the point that he represented the Indians at owners meetings alongside vice president and board member George Medinger. During this time, he and Pirates owner John W. Galbreath helped negotiate an amended player pension plan in which the players got 60% of television revenues from the All-Star Game and World Series.

In 1953, he was partly responsible for an important change to baseball's waivers rule. In previous seasons, once a player passed through waivers in his team's league (AL or NL), any team from the other league could acquire him, a detail the Yankees used to often outbid other AL teams for NL players. Greenberg successfully campaigned for a new rule that, after June 15, required players to pass through waivers in both leagues before teams in the other league could attempt to obtain them.

Greenberg's influence grew even more in 1956 when he joined a syndicate headed by Bill Daley that bought the Indians from Wilson. Although Greenberg had been operating head of the franchise since 1950, this was the first time that he had been a part-owner. However, in 1957, he was forced to resign as general manager, as he put it, "in order to satisfy a hostile press." He remained a part-owner, however, and in 1958 tried to buy out Daley and become principal owner. He intended to serve as his own general manager if successful. However, Daley and several other directors bought him out.

In 1959, Greenberg and Veeck teamed up for a second time when they led a syndicate that purchased the Chicago White Sox; Veeck served as team president with Greenberg as vice president and general manager. During Veeck and Greenberg's first season, the White Sox won their first AL pennant since 1919. Veeck would sell his shares in the White Sox in 1961, and Greenberg stepped down as general manager on August 26 of that season.

After the 1960 season, the American League announced plans to put a team in Los Angeles. Greenberg immediately became the favorite to become the new team's first owner and persuaded Veeck to join him as his partner. However, when Los Angeles Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley got wind of these developments, he threatened to scuttle the whole deal by invoking his exclusive rights to operate a major league team in southern California. In truth, O'Malley wanted no part of competing against an expansion team owned by a master promoter such as Veeck, even if he was only a minority partner. Greenberg wouldn't budge and pulled out of the running for what became the Los Angeles Angels. Greenberg later became a successful investment banker, briefly returning to baseball as a minority partner with Veeck when the latter repurchased the White Sox in 1975.

In 1970, when St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Curt Flood challenged Major League Baseball’s reserve clause, Greenberg was amongst the few baseball players to openly support him, and testified on his behalf.

Personal life
While he grew up in an Orthodox Jewish household, Greenberg himself was not an observant Jew and later raised his children in a secular household.

In 1946, Greenberg married Caral Gimbel, daughter of Bernard Gimbel of the Gimbels department store family. The couple had three children: sons Glenn and Stephen, and daughter Alva. The marriage was not a happy one, however, and they eventually divorced in 1958. In 1966, Greenberg married actress Mary Jo Tarola, who appeared on-screen under the stage name "Linda Douglas", and remained with her until his death. They had no children.

Greenberg died of metastatic kidney cancer in Beverly Hills, California, on September 4, 1986. His remains were entombed at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery, in Culver City, California.

His son, Stephen played baseball at Yale University. He was drafted by and played five years in the Washington Senators/Texas Rangers organization. He later served as deputy commissioner of Major League Baseball, having been offered the job by MLB Commissioner Bart Giamatti just before the latter's death in 1989. In 1995, Stephen co-founded Classic Sports Network with Brian Bedol, which was later purchased by ESPN and became ESPN Classic. He also was the chairman of College Sports Television (CSTV), the first cable network devoted exclusively to college sports.

Honors
Greenberg was elected to National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1956 on his eighth ballot, garnering 85% of the votes. He was the first Jewish player elected to the Hall of Fame.

On June 12, 1983, the Detroit Tigers retired Greenberg's number 5 during "Greenberg-Gehringer Day" at Tiger Stadium, along with former teammate Charlie Gehringer's number 2. Both Greenberg and Gehringer attended the ceremony. In 1999, he was ranked No. 37 by The Sporting News on its list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players", and was a nominee for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team the same year. In 2020, Greenberg was ranked by The Athletic at No. 67 on its "Baseball 100" list, complied by sportswriter Joe Posnanski.

Greenberg was elected to the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 1958. Additionally, he was elected to the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1979, and to the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.

In 2013, the Bob Feller Act of Valor Award honored Greenberg as one of 37 Baseball Hall of Fame members for his service in the United States Army Air Force during World War II.

In 2006, Greenberg was featured on a United States postage stamp. The stamp is one of a block of four honoring "baseball sluggers", the others being Mickey Mantle, Mel Ott, and Roy Campanella.

In 1998, Greenberg was the subject of a documentary which was directed and written by Aviva Kempner entitled The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg. In 2010, he was again one of the main subjects of the film Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story, alongside Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The film was directed by Peter Miller and written by Ira Berkow.

In May 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a house resolution which recognized the contributions of Jewish Americans in wake of rising antisemitism in the country. Greenberg, along with Koufax, were one of a handful of people who was singled out in the resolution by name.

title: Hank Greenberg


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Heinrich Schliemann

Johann Ludwig Heinrich Julius Schliemann (6 January 1822 – 26 December 1890) was a German businessman and an influential amateur archaeologist. He was an advocate of the historicity of places mentioned in the works of Homer and an archaeological excavator of Hisarlik, now presumed to be the site of Troy, along with the Mycenaean sites Mycenae and Tiryns. His work lent weight to the idea that Homer's Iliad reflects historical events. Schliemann's excavation of nine levels of archaeological remains has been criticized as destructive of significant historical artifacts, including the level that is believed to be the historical Troy.

Early life and education
Schliemann was born January 6, 1822, in Neubukow, Mecklenburg-Schwerin (part of the German Confederation) to Luise Therese Sophie Schliemann and Ernst Schliemann, a Lutheran minister. He was the fifth of nine children. The family moved to Ankershagen in summer 1823. Their second home houses the Heinrich Schliemann Museum today.

Heinrich's father was a poor pastor. His mother died in 1831, when Heinrich was nine years old, and his father sent Heinrich to live with his uncle Friedrich Schliemann, also a pastor. When he was eleven years old, his father paid for his enrollment in the Gymnasium (grammar school) at Neustrelitz, but he had to leave it after three months. Heinrich's interest in history was initially encouraged by his father, who had schooled him in the tales of the Iliad and the Odyssey and had given him a copy of Ludwig Jerrer's Illustrated History of the World for Christmas in 1829. Schliemann claimed that at the age of 7 he had declared he would one day excavate the city of Troy.

Heinrich had to transfer to the Realschule (vocational school) after his father was accused of embezzling church funds and made his exams in 1836. His family's poverty made a university education impossible. In his archaeological career, there was often a division between Schliemann and the educated professionals.

At age 14, after leaving Realschule, Heinrich became an apprentice at Herr Holtz's grocery in Fürstenberg. He later told that his passion for Homer was born when he heard a drunken miller reciting it at the grocer's. He laboured for five years, until he was forced to leave because he hurt his chest, lifting a heavy barrel and coughing up blood. In 1841, Schliemann moved to Hamburg and became a cabin boy on the Dorothea, a brig bound for Venezuela. After twelve days at sea, the ship foundered in a gale. The survivors washed up on the shores of the Netherlands. Schliemann became a messenger, office attendant, and later, a bookkeeper in Amsterdam.

Career

On March 1, 1844, 22-year-old Schliemann took a position with B. H. Schröder & Co., an import/export firm. In 1846, the firm sent him as a General Agent to St. Petersburg.

In time, Schliemann represented a number of companies. He learned Russian and Greek, employing a system that he used his entire life to learn languages; Schliemann claimed that it took him six weeks to learn a language and wrote his diary in the language of whatever country he happened to be in. By the end of his life, he could converse in English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Swedish, Polish, Greek, Latin, and Arabic, besides his native German.

Schliemann's ability with languages was an important part of his career as a businessman in the importing trade. In 1850, he learned of the death of his brother, Ludwig, who had become wealthy as a speculator in the California gold fields.

Schliemann went to California in early 1851 and started a bank in Sacramento buying and reselling over a million dollars' worth of gold dust in just six months. When the local Rothschild agent complained about short-weight consignments, he left California, pretending it was because of illness. While he was there, California became the 31st state in September 1850, and Schliemann acquired United States citizenship. Schliemann propounded this story in his autobiography of 1881, though he clearly was in St Petersburg that day, and "in actual fact, ...obtained his American citizenship only in 1869."

According to his memoirs, before arriving in California he dined in Washington, D.C., with President Millard Fillmore and his family, but W. Calder III says that Schliemann didn't attend but simply read about a similar gathering in the papers.

Schliemann also published what he said was an eyewitness account of the San Francisco Fire of 1851, which he said was in June although it took place in May. At the time he was in Sacramento and used the report of the fire in the Sacramento Daily Journal to write his report.

On April 7, 1852, he sold his business and returned to Russia. There he attempted to live the life of a gentleman, which brought him into contact with Ekaterina Petrovna Lyschin (1826–1896), the niece of one of his wealthy friends, whom he married on October 12, 1852.[https://greekreporter.com/2023/09/21/heinrich-schliemann-discoverer-troy/#:~:text=By%201858%2C%20Schliemann%20was%2036,at%20the%20Sorbonne%20in%201866. https://greekreporter.com/2023/09/21/heinrich-schliemann-discoverer-troy/#:~:text=By%201858%2C%20Schliemann%20was%2036,at%20the%20Sorbonne%20in%201866.] Schliemann next made a good profit trading in indigo dye.

By 1858, Schliemann was 36 years old and wealthy enough to retire. In his memoirs, he claimed that he wished to dedicate himself to the pursuit of Troy.

Amateur archaeologist

Heinrich Schliemann was an amateur archaeologist. He was obsessed with the stories of Homer and ancient Mediterranean civilizations. He dedicated the second part of his life to unveiling the actual physical remains of the cities of Homer's epic tales. Many refer to him as the "father of pre-Hellenistic archaeology".

In 1868, Schliemann visited sites in the Greek world, published his second book Ithaka, der Peloponnesus und Troja in which he described ancient sites in Greece and the Ottoman Empire and asserted that Hissarlik was the site of Troy. He submitted this book as a dissertation to the University of Rostock. In 1869, he was awarded a PhD in absentia from the university for that submission. David Traill wrote that the examiners gave him his PhD on the basis of his topographical analyses of Ithaca, which were in part simply translations of another author's work or drawn from poetic descriptions by the same author.

Schliemann was a honorary member of the Society of Antiquaries of London and elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1880.

Troy and Mycenae

Schliemann's first interest of a classical nature seems to have been the location of Troy. At the time he began excavating in Turkey, the site commonly believed to be Troy was at Pınarbaşı, a hilltop at the south end of the Trojan Plain. The site had been previously excavated by English amateur archaeologist and local expert Frank Calvert. Schliemann performed soundings at Pınarbaşı but was disappointed by his findings. It was Calvert who identified Hissarlik as Troy and suggested Schliemann dig there on land owned by Calvert's family.

Schliemann was at first skeptical about the identification of Hissarlik with Troy but was persuaded by Calvert. In 1870, Schliemann began digging a trench at Hissarlik, and by 1873 had discovered nine buried cities.

Schliemann found pure copper and metal molds as well as a lot of other metal tools, cutlery, shields, and vases which were found at around 28 to $29 1/2$ feet deep at the site.

The day before digging was to stop on 15 June 1873, was the day he discovered gold, which he took to be Priam's Treasure trove. Recent research has confirmed several settlements on the site spanning 3,600 years. The layer that Schliemann referred to as "the Burnt City" and believed to be Troy is now thought to be from 3,000 to 2,000 BCE, too early to be the location of the Trojan War as Homer describes it.

He later wrote that he had seen the gold glinting in the dirt and dismissed the workmen so that he and Sophia could excavate it themselves; they removed it in her shawl. However, Schliemann's oft-repeated story of the treasure's being carried by Sophia in her shawl was untrue. Schliemann later admitted fabricating it; at the time of the discovery Sophia was in fact with her family in Athens, following the death of her father.

Schliemann smuggled the treasure out of the Ottoman Empire into Greece. The Ottoman Empire sued Schliemann in a Greek court, and Schliemann was forced to pay a 10,000 gold franc indemnity. Schliemann ended up sending 50,000 gold francs to the Constantinople Imperial Museum, and got the permission for further excavations at Hissarlik. In 1874 Schliemann published Troy and Its Remains. Schliemann at first offered his collections, which included Priam's Gold, to the Greek government, then the French, and finally the Russians. In 1881, his collections ended up in Berlin, housed first in the Ethnographic Museum, and then the Museum for Pre- and Early History, until the start of WWII. In 1939, all exhibits were packed and stored in the museum basement, then moved to the Prussian State Bank vault in January 1941. In 1941, the treasure was moved to the Flakturm located at the Berlin Zoological Garden, called the Zoo Tower. Dr. Wilhelm Unverzagt protected the three crates containing the Trojan gold when the Battle for Berlin commenced, right up until SMERSH forces took control of the tower on 1 May. On 26 May 1945, Soviet forces, led by Lt. Gen. Nikolai Antipenko, Andre Konstantinov, deputy head of the Arts Committee, Viktor Lazarev, and Serafim Druzhinin, took the three crates away on trucks. The crates were then flown to Moscow on 30 June 1945, and taken to the Pushkin Museum ten days later. In 1994, the museum admitted the collection was in their possession.

In 1876, he began digging at Mycenae, under the supervision of Panagiotis Stamatakis, a Greek archaeologist attached to the excavation as a condition of Schliemann's permit. There, he discovered the Shaft Graves, with their skeletons and more regal gold, including the so-called Mask of Agamemnon. These findings were published in Mycenae in 1878.

Although he had received permission in 1876 to continue excavation, Schliemann did not reopen the dig site at Troy until 1878–1879, after another excavation in Ithaca designed to locate a site mentioned in the Odyssey. Emile Burnouf and Rudolf Virchow joined him there in 1879.

In 1880 Schliemann began excavation of the Treasury of Minyas at Orchomenus (Boeotia).

From 1882 to 1883 Schliemann made a sixth excavation at Troy, in 1884 an excavation of Tiryns with Wilhelm Dörpfeld, and from 1889 to 1890 a seventh and eighth excavation at Troy, also with Dörpfeld.

Personal life
After learning that his childhood sweetheart Minna had married, Schliemann married Ekaterina Petrovna Lyschin (1826–1896) on October 12, 1852. She was the niece of one of his wealthy friends in St Petersburg and they had three children; a son, Sergey (1855–1941), and two daughters, Natalya (1859–1869) and Nadezhda (1861–1935). As a consequence of his many travels, Schliemann was often separated from his wife and children. He spent a month studying at the Sorbonne in 1866, while moving his assets from St. Petersburg to Paris to invest in real estate. He asked his wife to join him, but she refused.

Schliemann threatened to divorce Ekaterina twice before doing so. In 1869, he bought property and settled in Indianapolis for about three months to take advantage of Indiana's liberal divorce laws, although he obtained the divorce by lying about his residency in the U.S. and his intention to remain in the state. He moved to Athens as soon as an Indiana court granted him the divorce and married again two months later.

A former teacher and Athenian friend, Theokletos Vimpos, the Archbishop of Mantineia and Kynouria, helped Schliemann find someone "enthusiastic about Homer and about a rebirth of my beloved Greece...with a Greek name and a soul impassioned for learning." The archbishop suggested the 17 years old Sophia Engastromenos, daughter of his cousin. They were married by the archbishop on 23 September 1869. They later had two children, Andromache and Agamemnon Schliemann.

Death

On August 1, 1890, Schliemann returned reluctantly to Athens, and in November travelled to Halle, where his chronic ear infection was operated upon, on November 13. The doctors deemed the operation a success, but his inner ear became painfully inflamed. Ignoring his doctors' advice, he left the hospital and travelled to Leipzig, Berlin and Paris. From the last, he planned to return to Athens in time for Christmas, but his ear condition became even worse. Too sick to make the boat ride from Naples to Greece, Schliemann remained in Naples but managed to make a journey to the ruins of Pompeii. On Christmas Day 1890, he collapsed into a coma; he died in a Naples hotel room the following day; the cause of death was cholesteatoma.

His corpse was then transported by friends to the First Cemetery in Athens. It was interred in a mausoleum shaped like a temple erected in ancient Greek style, designed by Ernst Ziller in the form of an amphiprostyle temple on top of a tall base. The frieze circling the outside of the mausoleum shows Schliemann conducting the excavations at Mycenae and other sites.

Legacy and criticism

Schliemann's magnificent residence in the city centre of Athens, the Iliou Melathron (Ιλίου Μέλαθρον, "Palace of Ilium") houses today the Numismatic Museum of Athens.

Along with Arthur Evans, Schliemann was a pioneer in the study of the Aegean civilization in the Bronze Age. The two men knew of each other, Evans having visited Schliemann's sites. Schliemann had planned to excavate at Knossos but died before fulfilling that dream. Evans bought the site and stepped in to take charge of the project, which was then still in its infancy.

Further excavation of the Troy site by others indicated that the level Schliemann named the Troy of the Iliad was inaccurate, although they retain the names given by Schliemann. In a 1998 article for The Classical World, D.F. Easton wrote that Schliemann "was not very good at separating fact from interpretation" and claimed that, "Even in 1872 Frank Calvert could see from the pottery that Troy II had to be hundreds of years too early to be the Troy of the Trojan War, a point finally proven by the discovery of Mycenaean pottery in Troy VI in 1890." "King Priam's Treasure" was found in the Troy II level, that of the Early Bronze Age, long before Priam's city of Troy VI or Troy VIIa in the prosperous and elaborate Mycenaean Age. Moreover, the finds were unique. The elaborate gold artifacts do not appear to belong to the Early Bronze Age.

His excavations were condemned by later archaeologists as having destroyed the main layers of the real Troy. Kenneth W. Harl, in the Teaching Company's Great Ancient Civilizations of Asia Minor lecture series, sarcastically claimed that Schliemann's excavations were carried out with such rough methods that he did to Troy what the Greeks could not do in their times, destroying and levelling down the entire city walls to the ground.

In 1972, Professor William Calder of the University of Colorado, speaking at a commemoration of Schliemann's birthday, claimed that he had uncovered several possible problems in Schliemann's work. Other investigators followed, such as Professor David Traill of the University of California.

A 2004 article of the National Geographic Society called into question Schliemann's qualifications, his motives, and his methods: "In northwestern Turkey, Heinrich Schliemann excavated the site believed to be Troy in 1870. Schliemann was a German adventurer and con-man who took sole credit for the discovery, even though he was digging at the site, called Hisarlik, at the behest of British archaeologist Frank Calvert. [...] Eager to find the legendary treasures of Troy, Schliemann blasted his way down to the second city, where he found what he believed were the jewels that once belonged to Helen. As it turns out, the jewels were a thousand years older than the time described in Homer's epic."

A 2005 article presented similar criticisms, when reporting on a speech by University of Pennsylvania scholar C. Brian Rose: "German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann was the first to explore the Mound of Troy in the 1870s. Unfortunately, he had had no formal education in archaeology, and dug an enormous trench 'which we still call the Schliemann Trench,' according to Rose, because in the process Schliemann 'destroyed a phenomenal amount of material.' [...] Only much later in his career would he accept the fact that the treasure had been found at a layer one thousand years removed from the battle between the Greeks and Trojans, and thus that it could not have been the treasure of King Priam. Schliemann may not have discovered the truth, but the publicity stunt worked, making Schliemann and the site famous and igniting the field of Homeric studies in the late 19th century. During this period he was criticized and ridiculed of claims to fathering an offspring with a local Assyrian Girl sparking infidelity and adultery which Schliemann did not confirm or deny. '"

Schliemann's methods have been described as "savage and brutal. He plowed through layers of soil and everything in them without proper record keeping—no mapping of finds, few descriptions of discoveries." His rough excavation, conclusory interpretation and appropriation of artifacts were criticised by contemporary antiquarians, among them Spyridon Comnos and Stephen Salisbury III. The fame of his discoveries overshadowed such criticism through most of the twentieth century, such that Carl Blegen excused his recklessness: "Although there were some regrettable blunders, those criticisms are largely colored by a comparison with modern techniques of digging; but it is only fair to remember that before 1876 very few persons, if anyone, yet really knew how excavations should properly be conducted. There was no science of archaeological investigation, and there was probably no other digger who was better than Schliemann in actual field work."

In 1874, Schliemann also initiated and sponsored the removal of medieval edifices from the Acropolis of Athens, including the great Frankish Tower. Despite considerable opposition, including from King George I of Greece, Schliemann saw the project through. The eminent historian of Frankish Greece William Miller later denounced this as "an act of vandalism unworthy of any people imbued with a sense of the continuity of history", and "pedantic barbarism".

In his excavations at Troy, Schliemann found many swastikas adorned on pottery and consulted with Aryan nationalist Émile-Louis Burnouf to identify the symbol. Claiming that the symbol was connected with the Aryans, Burnouf adopted and popularised the swastika as a symbol of Aryan nationalism.

Publications

 * La Chine et le Japon au temps présent (1867)
 * Ithaka, der Peloponnesus und Troja (1868) (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-1-108-01682-7)
 * Trojanische Altertümer: Bericht über die Ausgrabungen in Troja (1874) (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-1-108-01703-9)
 * Troja und seine Ruinen (1875). Translated into English as Troy and its Remains (1875) (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-1-108-01717-6)
 * Mykena (1878). Translated into English as Mycenae: A Narrative of Researches and Discoveries at Mycenae and Tiryns (1878) (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-1-108-01692-6)
 * Ilios, City and Country of the Trojans (1880) (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-1-108-01679-7)
 * Orchomenos: Bericht über meine Ausgrabungen in Böotischen Orchomenos (1881) (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-1-108-01718-3)
 * Tiryns: Der prähistorische Palast der Könige von Tiryns (1885) (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-1-108-01720-6). Translated into English Tiryns: The Prehistoric Palace of the Kings of Tiryns (1885)
 * Bericht über de Ausgrabungen in Troja im Jahre 1890 (1891) (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-1-108-01719-0).
 * Heinrich Schliemann; Sophia Schliemann (ed.): Heinrich Schliemann's Autobiography. Leipzig, 1892. (Online version in German)

title: Heinrich Schliemann