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Heinz von Foerster

Heinz von Foerster (von Förster; November 13, 1911 – October 2, 2002) was an Austrian-American scientist combining physics and philosophy, and widely attributed as the originator of second-order cybernetics. He was twice a Guggenheim fellow (1956–57 and 1963–64) and also was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1980. He is well known for his 1960 Doomsday equation formula published in Science predicting future population growth.

As a polymath, he wrote nearly two hundred professional papers, gaining renown in fields ranging from computer science and artificial intelligence to epistemology, and researched high-speed electronics and electro-optics switching devices as a physicist, and in biophysics, the study of memory and knowledge. He worked on cognition based on neurophysiology, mathematics, and philosophy and was called "one of the most consequential thinkers in the history of cybernetics". He came to the United States, and stayed after meeting with Warren Sturgis McCulloch, where he received funding from The Pentagon to establish the Biological Computer Laboratory, which built the first parallel computer, the Numa-Rete. Working with William Ross Ashby, one of the original Ratio Club members, and together with Warren McCulloch, Norbert Wiener, John von Neumann and Lawrence J. Fogel, Heinz von Foerster was an architect of cybernetics and one of the members of the Macy conferences, eventually becoming editor of its early proceedings alongside Hans-Lukas Teuber and Margaret Mead.

Biography
Von Foerster was born in 1911 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, as Heinz von Förster. His paternal grandfather was the Austrian architect Emil von Förster. His maternal grandmother was Marie Lang, an Austrian feminist, theosophist, and publisher. He studied physics at the Technical University of Vienna and at the University of Breslau, where in 1944 he received a PhD in physics. His relatives included Ludwig Wittgenstein, Erwin Lang and Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Ludwig Förster was his great-grandfather. His Jewish roots did not cause him much trouble while he worked in radar laboratories during the Nazi era, as "he hid his ancestry with the help of an employer who chose not to press him for documents on his family."

He moved to the US in 1949 and worked at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he was a professor of electrical engineering from 1951 to 1975. He was also professor of biophysics (1962–1975) and director of the Biological Computer Laboratory (1958–1975). Additionally, in 1956–57 and 1963–64, he was a Guggenheim Fellow and also President of the Wenner-Gren-Foundation for anthropological research from 1963 to 1965.

He knew well and was in conversation with John von Neumann, Norbert Wiener, Humberto Maturana, Francisco Varela, Gordon Pask, Gregory Bateson, Lawrence J. Fogel and Margaret Mead, among many others. He influenced generations of students as a teacher and an inclusive, enthusiastic collaborator.

He died on October 2, 2002, in Pescadero, California.

Work
Von Foerster was influenced by the Vienna Circle and Ludwig Wittgenstein. He worked in the field of cybernetics and is known as the inventor of second-order cybernetics. He made important contributions to constructivism. He is also known for his interest in computer music and magic.

The electron tube laboratory
In 1949, von Foerster started work at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign at the electron tube laboratory of the Electrical Engineering Department, where he succeeded Joseph Tykociński-Tykociner. With his students he developed many innovative devices, including ultra-high-frequency electronics

He also worked on mathematical models of population dynamics and in 1959 published a model now called the "von Foerster equation", which is derivable from the principles of constant aging and conservation of mass.

 * $$\frac{\partial n}{\partial t} + \frac{\partial n}{\partial a} = - m(a)n, $$

where: n = n(t,a), t stands for time and a for age. m(a) is the death in function of the population age; n(t,a) is the population density in function of age.

When m(a) = 0, we have:

 * $$\frac{\partial n}{\partial t} = - \frac{\partial n}{\partial a} $$

It relates that a population ages, and that fact is the only one that influences change in population density.

It is therefore a continuity equation; it can be solved using the method of characteristics. Another way is by similarity solution; and a third is a numerical approach such as finite differences.

The gross birth rate is given by the following boundary condition:

 * $$ n(t,0)= \int_0^\infty b (a)n(t,a) \, dt ,$$

The solution is only unique given the initial conditions

 * $$ n(0,a)= f(a), \, $$

which states that the initial population distribution must be given; then it will evolve according to the partial differential equation.

Biological Computer Laboratory
In 1958, he formed the Biological Computer Lab, studying similarities in cybernetic systems in biology and electronics.

Macy conferences
He was the youngest member of the core group of the Macy conferences on Cybernetics and editor of the five volumes of Cybernetics (1949–1953), a series of conference transcripts that represent important foundational conversations in the field. It was von Foerster who suggested that Wiener's coinage "Cybernetics" be applied to this conference series, which had previously been called "Circular Causal and Feedback Mechanisms in Biological and Social Systems".

Doomsday equation
A 1960 issue of Science magazine included an article by von Foerster and his colleagues P. M. Mora and L. W. Amiot proposing a formula representing a best fit to available historical data on world population; the authors then predicted future population growth on the basis of this formula. The formula gave 2.7 billion as the 1960 world population and predicted that population growth would become infinite by Friday, November 13, 2026 – von Foerster's 115th birthday anniversary – a prediction that earned it the name "the Doomsday Equation."

Based on population data obtained from various sources, von Foerster and his students concluded that world population growth over the centuries was faster than an exponential. In such a situation, doubling-time decreases over time. Von Foerster's tongue-in-cheek prediction of Doomsday on November 13, 2026, was based on an extrapolation into the future of doubling-time, with the finding that doubling-time would decrease to zero on that date.

Responders to his Doomsday prediction objected on the grounds of the finite human gestation time of 9 months, and the transparent fact that biological systems rarely persist in exponential growth for any substantial length of time. Those who knew von Foerster could see in his rejoinders an evident sense of humor.

Publications
Von Foerster authored more than 100 publications. Books, a selection:

 * 1949, Cybernetics: Transactions of the Sixth Conference, (editor), Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation: New York, 220 pp.
 * 2002, Understanding understanding, a volume of von Foerster's papers, published by Springer-Verlag, 2002.
 * 2010, with Monika Broecker: Part of the World. Fractals of Ethics – A Drama in Three Acts. Heinz von Foerster's most extensive biography. First published in German in 2002: with Monika Broecker. Teil der Welt. Fraktale einer Ethik – ein Drama in drei Akten.

Articles, a selection:
 * 1958, "Basic Concepts of Homeostasis." In: Homeostatic Mechanisms, Upton, New York, pp. 216–242, 1958.
 * 1960, "Doomsday: Friday, November 13, AD 2026," with P. M. Mora und L. W. Amiot, Science 132, pp. 1291–1295, 1960.
 * 1961, "A Predictive Model for Self-Organizing Systems," Part I: Cybernetica 3, pp. 258–300; Part II: Cybernetica 4, pp. 20–55, with Gordon Pask, 1961.
 * 1964, "Biological Computers," with W. Ross Ashby, In: Bioastronautics, K. E. Schaefer, Macmillan Co., New York, pp. 333– 360, 1964.
 * 1969, "What is Memory that it may have Hindsight and Foresight"
 * 1971, "Computing in the Semantic Domain"
 * 1971, "Technology. What Will It Mean to Librarians?"

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title: Heinz von Foerster


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Karlsruhe

Karlsruhe (, ,  ; South Franconian: Kallsruh) is the third-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. It is also a former capital of Baden, a historic region named after Hohenbaden Castle in the city of Baden-Baden. Located on the right bank of the Rhine (Upper Rhine) near the French border, between the Mannheim-Ludwigshafen conurbation to the north and Strasbourg to the south, Karlsruhe is Germany's legal center, being home to the Federal Constitutional Court, the Federal Court of Justice and the Public Prosecutor General.

Karlsruhe was the capital of the Margraviate of Baden-Durlach (Durlach: 1565–1718; Karlsruhe: 1718–1771), the Margraviate of Baden (1771–1803), the Electorate of Baden (1803–1806), the Grand Duchy of Baden (1806–1918), and the Republic of Baden (1918–1945). Its most remarkable building is Karlsruhe Palace, which was built in 1715. It contains the Baden State Museum, the large cultural, art and regional history museum of the Baden region of Baden-Württemberg. There are nine institutions of higher education in the city, most notably the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden Airport is the second-busiest airport in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart Airport, and the 17th-busiest airport in Germany.

Geography
Karlsruhe lies completely to the east of the Rhine, and almost completely on the Upper Rhine Plain. It contains the Turmberg in the east, and also lies on the borders of the Kraichgau leading to the Northern Black Forest.

The Rhine, one of the world's most important shipping routes, forms the western limits of the city, beyond which lie the towns of Maximiliansau and Wörth am Rhein in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The city centre is about 7.5 km from the river, as measured from the Marktplatz (Market Square). Two tributaries of the Rhine, the Alb and the Pfinz, flow through the city from the Kraichgau to eventually join the Rhine.

The city lies at an altitude between 100 and 322 m (near the communications tower in the suburb of Grünwettersbach). Its geographical coordinates are 49°N, 8.4°W; the 49th parallel runs through the city centre, which puts it at the same latitude as much of the Canada–United States border and the cities of Vancouver (Canada), Paris (France), Regensburg (Germany), and Hulunbuir (China). Its course is marked by a stone and painted line in the Stadtgarten (municipal park). The total area of the city is 173.46 km2, hence it is the 30th largest city in Germany measured by land area. The longest north–south distance is 16.8 km and 19.3 km in the east–west direction.

Karlsruhe is part of the urban area of Karlsruhe/Pforzheim, to which certain other towns in the district of Karlsruhe, such as Bruchsal, Ettlingen, Stutensee, and Rheinstetten, as well as the city of Pforzheim, belong.

The city was planned with the palace tower (Schloss) at the center and 32 streets radiating out from it like the spokes of a wheel, or the ribs of a folding fan, so that one nickname for Karlsruhe in German is the "fan city" (Fächerstadt). Almost all of these streets survive to this day. Because of this city layout, in metric geometry, Karlsruhe metric refers to a measure of distance that assumes travel is only possible along radial streets and along circular avenues around the centre.

The city centre is the oldest part of town and lies south of the palace in the quadrant defined by nine of the radial streets. The central part of the palace runs east–west, with two wings, each at a 45° angle, directed southeast and southwest (i.e., parallel with the streets marking the boundaries of the quadrant defining the city center).

The market square lies on the street running south from the palace to Ettlingen. The market square has the town hall (Rathaus) to the west, the main Lutheran church (Evangelische Stadtkirche) to the east, and the tomb of Margrave Charles III William in a pyramid in the buildings, resulting in Karlsruhe being one of only three large cities in Germany where buildings are laid out in the neoclassical style.

The area north of the palace is a park and forest. Originally the area to the east of the palace consisted of gardens and forests, some of which remain, but the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (founded in 1825), Wildparkstadion football stadium, and residential areas have been built there. The area west of the palace is now mostly residential.

Climate
Karlsruhe experiences an oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb) and its winter climate is milder, compared to most other German cities, except for the Rhine-Ruhr area. Summers are hot with several days between 35 °C (95 °F) and 40 °C (104 °F) maximum temperature. With an average of more than 2,000 sunshine hours a year, it is also one of the sunniest cities in Germany, like the Rhine-Palatinate area.

Precipitation occurs mainly during the winter, while in summer it is concentrated on single evening thunderstorms. In 2008, the weather station in Karlsruhe, which had been in operation since 1876, was closed; it was replaced by a weather station in Rheinstetten, south of Karlsruhe.

Districts
Karlsruhe is divided into 27 districts.

History
According to legend, the name Karlsruhe, which translates as "Charles' repose" or "Charles' peace", was given to the new city after a hunting trip when Margrave Charles III William of Baden-Durlach woke from a dream in which he dreamt of founding his new city. A variation of this story claims that he built the new palace to find peace from his wife.

Charles William founded the city on June 17, 1715, after a dispute with the citizens of his previous capital, Durlach. The founding of the city is closely linked to the construction of the palace. Karlsruhe became the capital of Baden-Durlach, and, in 1771, of the united Baden until 1945. Built in 1822, the Ständehaus was the first parliament building in a German state. In the aftermath of the democratic revolution of 1848, a republican government was elected there.

Karlsruhe was visited by Thomas Jefferson during his time as the American envoy to France; when Pierre Charles L'Enfant was planning the layout of Washington, D.C., Jefferson passed to him maps of 12 European towns to consult, one of which was a sketch he had made of Karlsruhe during his visit.

In 1860, the first-ever international professional convention of chemists, the Karlsruhe Congress, was held in the city.

In 1907 the town was site of the Hau Riot where large crowds caused disturbance during the trial of murderer Carl Hau.

On Kristallnacht in 1938, the Adass Jeshurun synagogue was burned to the ground, and the city's Jews were later sent to the Dachau concentration camp, Gurs concentration camp, Theresienstadt, and Auschwitz during the Holocaust, with 1,421 of Karlsruhe's Jews being killed. During World War II, it was the location of a forced labour camp for men, and a subcamp of the Auschwitz concentration camp, whose prisoners were mainly Poles and Russians.

Much of the central area, including the palace, was reduced to rubble by Allied bombing during World War II, but was rebuilt after the war. Located in the American zone of the postwar Allied occupation, Karlsruhe was home to an American military base, established in 1945. After the war, the city was part of West Germany until 1990. In 1995, the bases closed, and their facilities were turned over to the city of Karlsruhe.

Population
Karlsruhe has a population of about 310,000 and is the 3rd largest city in Baden-Württemberg. Karlsruhe, which was founded by Charles III William, became a major city in the 19th century. Karlsruhe became in the 1950s a significant city where the population started to grow. It gained a large popularity of many students due to the university of technology and media arts. Karlsruhe reached population of 200,000 in 1950 and 300,000 in 2014.

Main sights
The Stadtgarten is a recreational area near the main railway station (Hauptbahnhof) and was rebuilt for the 1967 Federal Garden Show (Bundesgartenschau). It is also the site of the Karlsruhe Zoo.

The Durlacher Turmberg has a lookout tower (hence its name). It is a former keep dating back to the 13th century.

The city has two botanical gardens: the municipal Botanischer Garten Karlsruhe, which forms part of the Palace complex, and the Botanischer Garten der Universität Karlsruhe, which is maintained by the university.

The Marktplatz has a stone pyramid marking the grave of the city's founder. Built in 1825, it is the emblem of Karlsruhe. The city is nicknamed the "fan city" (die Fächerstadt) because of its design layout, with straight streets radiating fan-like from the Palace.

The Karlsruhe Palace (Schloss) is an interesting piece of architecture; the adjacent Schlossgarten includes the Botanical Garden with a palm, cactus and orchid house, and walking paths through the woods to the north.

The so-called Kleine Kirche (Little Church), built between 1773 and 1776, is the oldest church of Karlsruhe's city centre.

The architect Friedrich Weinbrenner designed many of the city's most important sights. Another sight is the Rondellplatz with its 'Constitution Building Columns' (1826). It is dedicated to Baden's first constitution in 1818, which was one of the most liberal of its time. The Münze (mint), erected in 1826/27, was also built by Weinbrenner.

The St. Stephan parish church is one of the masterpieces of neoclassical church architecture in. Weinbrenner, who built this church between 1808 and 1814, orientated it to the Pantheon, Rome.

The neo-Gothic Grand Ducal Burial Chapel, built between 1889 and 1896, is a mausoleum rather than a church, and is located in the middle of the forest.

The main cemetery of Karlsruhe is the oldest park-like cemetery in Germany. The crematorium was the first to be built in the style of a church.

Karlsruhe is also home to a natural history museum (the State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe), an opera house (the Baden State Theatre), as well as a number of independent theatres and art galleries. The State Art Gallery, built in 1846 by Heinrich Hübsch, displays paintings and sculptures from six centuries, particularly from France, Germany and Holland. Karlsruhe's newly renovated art museum is one of the most important art museums in Baden-Württemberg. Further cultural attractions are scattered throughout Karlsruhe's various incorporated suburbs. Established in 1924, the Scheffel Association is the largest literary society in Germany. Today the Prinz-Max-Palais, built between 1881 and 1884 in neoclassical style, houses the organisation and includes its museum. Due to population growth in the late 19th century, Karlsruhe developed several suburban areas (Vorstadt) in the Gründerzeit and especially art nouveau styles of architecture, with many preserved examples.

Karlsruhe is also home to the Majolika-Manufaktur, the only art-ceramics pottery studio in Germany. Founded in 1901, it is located in the Schlossgarten. A 'blue streak' (Blauer Strahl) consisting of 1,645 ceramic tiles, connects the studio with the Palace. It is the world's largest ceramic artwork.

Another tourist attraction is the Centre for Art and Media (Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, or ZKM), which is located in a converted ammunition factory.

Justice
Karlsruhe is the seat of the German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) and the highest Court of Appeals in civil and criminal cases, the Bundesgerichtshof. The courts came to Karlsruhe after World War II, when the provinces of Baden and Württemberg were merged. Stuttgart, capital of Württemberg, became the capital of the new province (Württemberg-Baden in 1945 and Baden-Württemberg in 1952). In compensation for the state authorities relocated to Stuttgart, Karlsruhe applied to become the seat of the high court.

Public health
There are four hospitals: The Karlsruhe Municipal Hospital provides the maximum level of medical services, the St. Vincentius-Kliniken and the Diakonissen krankenhaus, connected to the Catholic and Protestant churches, respectively, offer central services, and the private Paracelsus-Klinik basic medical care, according to state hospital demand planning.

Economy
Germany's largest oil refinery is located in Karlsruhe, at the western edge of the city, directly on the river Rhine. The Technologieregion Karlsruhe is a loose confederation of the region's cities in order to promote high tech industries; today, about 20% of the region's jobs are in research and development. EnBW, one of Germany's biggest electric utility companies, with a revenue of 19.2 billion € in 2012, is headquartered in the city.

Internet activities
Due to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology providing services until the late 1990, Karlsruhe became known as the internet capital of Germany. The DENIC, Germany's network information centre, has since moved to Frankfurt, though, where DE-CIX is located.

Two major internet service providers, WEB.DE and schlund+partner/1&1, now both owned by United Internet AG, are located at Karlsruhe.

The library of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology developed the Karlsruher Virtueller Katalog, the first internet site that allowed researchers worldwide (for free) to search multiple library catalogues worldwide.

In the year 2000 the regional online "newspaper" ka-news.de was created. As a daily newspaper, it not only provides the news, but also informs readers about upcoming events in Karlsruhe and surrounding areas.

In addition to established companies, Karlsruhe has a vivid and spreading startup community with well-known startups. Together, the local high tech industry is responsible for over 22.000 jobs.

Mayor
The current mayor of Karlsruhe is Frank Mentrup of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) since 2013. The most recent mayoral election was held on 6 December 2020, and the results were as follows:

! colspan=2| Candidate ! Party ! Votes ! % ! colspan=3| Valid votes ! 95,261 ! 99.6 ! colspan=3| Invalid votes ! 430 ! 0.4 ! colspan=3| Total ! 95,961 ! 100.0 ! colspan=3| Electorate/voter turnout ! 231,335 ! 41.4
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Frank Mentrup
 * align=left| SPD/Green
 * 50,064
 * 52.6
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Sven Weigt
 * align=left| CDU/FDP
 * 24,158
 * 25.4
 * align=left| Petra Lorenz
 * align=left| Free Voters/For Karlsruhe
 * 8,303
 * 8.7
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Paul Schmidt
 * align=left| Alternative for Germany
 * 3,914
 * 4.1
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Vanessa Schulz
 * align=left| Die PARTEI
 * 2,660
 * 2.8
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Marc Nehlig
 * align=left| Independent
 * 6,065
 * 6.4
 * colspan=3 align=left| Other
 * 97
 * 0.1
 * align=left| Marc Nehlig
 * align=left| Independent
 * 6,065
 * 6.4
 * colspan=3 align=left| Other
 * 97
 * 0.1
 * 0.1
 * colspan=5| Source: City of Karlsruhe
 * }
 * }

List of mayors
After the castle was founded in 1715, there was also a settlement in which a mayor was appointed from 1718. From 1812 the mayors received the title of Lord Mayor.

In addition to the Lord Mayor, there are five other mayors.

Mayor for:

 * Human Resources, Elections and Statistics, Citizen Service and Security, Culture
 * Youth and social affairs, schools, sports, pools
 * Finance, economy and work, city marketing, congresses, exhibitions and events, tourism, supply and ports, real estate and market affairs
 * Environment and climate protection, health, cemetery office, waste management, forestry, fire and disaster control
 * Planning, building, real estate management, people's apartment and zoo

City council
The Karlsruhe city council governs the city alongside the Mayor. The most recent city council election was held on 26 May 2019, and the results were as follows:

! colspan=2| Party ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- ! colspan=2| Total ! 137,805 ! 100.0 ! ! 48 ! ±0 ! colspan=2| Electorate/voter turnout ! 234,850 ! 58.7 ! 13.5 ! !
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne)
 * 1,802,237
 * 30.0
 * 10.2
 * 15
 * 6
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Christian Democratic Union (CDU)
 * 1,122,013
 * 18.7
 * 8.0
 * 9
 * 4
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Social Democratic Party (SPD)
 * 856,649
 * 14.3
 * 7.6
 * 7
 * 3
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Free Democratic Party (FDP)
 * 436,671
 * 7.3
 * 1.2
 * 4
 * 1
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Alternative for Germany (AfD)
 * 427,155
 * 7.1
 * 1.5
 * 3
 * ±0
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| The Left (Die Linke)
 * 420,361
 * 7.0
 * 1.9
 * 3
 * 1
 * align=left| Karlsruher List (KAL)
 * 301,826
 * 5.0
 * 0.8
 * 2
 * ±0
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Die PARTEI (PARTEI)
 * 274,628
 * 4.6
 * 3.5
 * 2
 * 1
 * bgcolor=|
 * align=left| Free Voters Baden-Württemberg (FW)
 * 193,764
 * 3.2
 * 0.5
 * 2
 * 1
 * align=left| For Karlsruhe (FÜR)
 * 163,214
 * 2.7
 * 0.5
 * 1
 * 1
 * 3.2
 * 0.5
 * 2
 * 1
 * align=left| For Karlsruhe (FÜR)
 * 163,214
 * 2.7
 * 0.5
 * 1
 * 1
 * 1
 * 1
 * colspan=7| Source: City of Karlsruhe
 * }
 * }

Railway
The Verkehrsbetriebe Karlsruhe (VBK) operates the city's urban public transport network, comprising seven tram routes and a network of bus routes. All city areas can be reached round the clock by tram and a night bus system. The Turmbergbahn funicular railway, to the east of the city centre, is also operated by the VBK. Similar to a premetro tramlines operating in the city centre use two tramway tunnels that were completed on 11 December 2021. The VBK is also a partner, with the Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft and Deutsche Bahn, in the operation of the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn, the rail system that serves a larger area around the city. This system makes it possible to reach other towns in the region, like Ettlingen, Wörth am Rhein, Pforzheim, Bad Wildbad, Bretten, Bruchsal, Heilbronn, Baden-Baden, and even Freudenstadt in the Black Forest right from the city centre. The Stadtbahn is known for pioneering the concept of operating trams on train tracks, to achieve a more effective and attractive public transport system.

Karlsruhe is connected via road and rail, with Autobahn and Intercity Express connections going to Frankfurt, Stuttgart/Munich and Freiburg/Basel from Karlsruhe Hauptbahnhof. Since June 2007 it has been connected to the TGV network, reducing travel time to Paris to three hours (previously it had taken five hours).

The Rhine Valley Railway is also an important freight line. Freight trains can bypass Karlsuhe Hauptbahnhof via the Karlsruhe freight bypass railway.

Shipping
Two ports on the Rhine provide transport capacity on cargo ships, especially for petroleum products.

Airport
The nearest airport is part of the Baden Airpark (officially Flughafen Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden) about 45 km southwest of Karlsruhe, with regular connections to airports in Germany and Europe in general. Frankfurt International Airport can be reached in about an hour and a half by car (one hour by Intercity Express); Stuttgart Airport can be reached in about one hour (about an hour and a half by train and S-Bahn).

Streets
Karlsruhe is at the Bundesautobahn 5 and the Bundesstraße 10. In the city there is a good bike lane infrastructure.

Two interesting facts in transportation history are that both Karl Drais, the inventor of the bicycle, as well as Karl Benz, the inventor of the automobile were born in Karlsruhe. Benz was born in Mühlburg, which later became a borough of Karlsruhe (in 1886). Benz also studied at the Karlsruhe University. Benz's wife Bertha took the world's first long distance-drive with an automobile from Mannheim to Karlsruhe-Grötzingen and Pforzheim (see Bertha Benz Memorial Route). Their professional lives led both men to the neighboring city of Mannheim, where they first applied their most famous inventions.

Jewish community
Jews settled in Karlsruhe soon after its founding. They were attracted by the numerous privileges granted by its founder to settlers, without discrimination as to creed. Official documents attest the presence of several Jewish families at Karlsruhe in 1717. A year later the city council addressed to the margrave a report in which a question was raised as to the proportion of municipal charges to be borne by the newly arrived Jews, who in that year formed an organized congregation, with Rabbi Nathan Uri Kohen of Metz at its head. A document dated 1726 gives the names of twenty-four Jews who had taken part in an election of municipal officers.

As the city grew, permission to settle there became less easily obtained by Jews, and the community developed more slowly. A 1752 Jewry ordinance stated Jews were forbidden to leave the city on Sundays and Christian holidays, or to go out of their houses during church services, but they were exempted from service by court summonses on Sabbaths. They could sell wine only in inns owned by Jews and graze their cattle, not on the commons, but on the wayside only. Nethanael Weill was a rabbi in Karlsruhe from 1750 until his death.

In 1783, by a decree issued by Margrave Charles Frederick of Baden, the Jews ceased to be serfs, and consequently could settle wherever they pleased. The same decree freed them from the Todfall tax, paid to the clergy for each Jewish burial. In commemoration of these changes special prayers were prepared by the acting rabbi Jedidiah Tiah Weill, who, succeeding his father in 1770, held the office until 1805.

In 1808 the new constitution of what at that time, during the Napoleonic era, had become the Grand Duchy of Baden granted Jews citizenship status; a subsequent edict, in 1809, constitutionally acknowledged Jews as a religious group. The latter edict provided for a hierarchical organization of the Jewish communities of Baden, under the umbrella of a central council of Baden Jewry (Oberrat der Israeliten Badens), with its seat in Karlsruhe, and the appointment of a chief rabbi of Karlsruhe, as the spiritual head of the Jews in all of Baden. The first chief rabbi of Karlsruhe and Baden was Rabbi Asher Loew, who served from 1809 until his death in 1837.

Complete emancipation was given in 1862, Jews were elected to city council and Baden parliament, and from 1890 were appointed judges. Jews were persecuted in the 'Hep-Hep' riots that occurred in 1819; and anti-Jewish demonstrations were held in 1843, 1848, and the 1880s. The well-known German-Israeli artist Leo Kahn studied in Karlsruhe before leaving for France and Israel in the 1920s and 1930s.

Today, there are about 900 members in the Jewish community, many of whom are recent immigrants from Russia, and an orthodox rabbi.

Karlsruhe has memorialized its Jewish community and notable pre-war synagogues with a memorial park.

Karlsruhe and the Shoah
On 28 October 1938, all Jewish men of Polish extraction were expelled to the Polish border, their families joining them later and most ultimately perishing in the ghettoes and concentration camps. On Kristallnacht (9–10 November 1938), the Adass Jeshurun synagogue was burned to the ground, the main synagogue was damaged, and Jewish men were taken to the Dachau concentration camp after being beaten and tormented. Deportations commenced on 22 October 1940, when 893 Jews were loaded onto trains for the three-day journey to the Gurs concentration camp in France. Another 387 were deported in from 1942 to 1945 to lzbica in the Lublin district (Poland), Theresienstadt, and Auschwitz. Of the 1,280 Jews deported directly from Karlsruhe, 1,175 perished. Another 138 perished after deportation from other German cities or occupied Europe. In all, 1,421 of Karlsruhe's Jews died during the Shoah. A new community was formed after the war by surviving former residents, with a new synagogue erected in 1971. It numbered 359 in 1980.

Notable people

 * Dennis Aogo (born 1987), football defender
 * Christa Bauch, female bodybuilder
 * George Bayer, pioneer in the US state of Missouri
 * Walther Bensemann, one of the founders of the first southern German soccer club Karlsruher FV and later one of the founders of DFB and the founder of Kicker, Germany's leading soccer magazine
 * Karl Benz (1844–1929), mechanical engineer and inventor of the first automobile as well as the founder of Benz & Co., Daimler-Benz, and Mercedes-Benz (now part of Daimler AG). He was born in the Karlsruhe borough of Mühlburg and educated at Karlsruhe Grammar School, the Lyceum, and Poly-Technical University
 * Oliver Bierhoff (born 1968), retired football striker and former national team captain for the Germany and Italian Serie A clubs Udinese, A.C. Milan and Chievo
 * Hermann Billing, Art Nouveau architect, was born and lived in Karlsruhe, where he built his first famous works
 * Siegfried Buback (1920–1977), then-Attorney General of West Germany who fell victim to terrorists of the Rote Armee Fraktion in April 1977 in Karlsruhe
 * Berthold von Deimling (1853–1944), Prussian general
 * Sina Deinert, a member of Now United
 * Andi Deris (born 1964), musician and songwriter, lead singer of the power metal band Helloween
 * Karl Drais (1785–1851), inventor of the two-wheeler principle (dandy horse) basic to bicycle and motorcycle, key typewriter, and earliest stenograph, was born and died in Karlsruhe
 * Theodor von Dusch (1824–1890), physician remembered for experiments involving cotton-wool filters for bacteria
 * Ludwig Eichrodt, writer
 * Karl Elzer, stage and film actor
 * Erik H. Erikson (1902–1994), children's psychoanalyst and theoretical pioneer in the field of study of identity building, spent his childhood and school time (Bismarck-Gymnasium) in Karlsruhe.
 * Anna Ettlinger (1841–1934), writer and poet
 * Harry L. Ettlinger, US Army private who assisted the MFAA in the recovery of art looted by the Nazis. He was the last Jewish boy to celebrate his bar mitzvah in Karlsruhe's Kronenstrasse Synagogue, on September 24, 1938.
 * Clara Mathilda Faisst (1872–1948), pianist and composer
 * Eugen Fischer (1874–1967), physician who influenced Nazi racial hygiene
 * S. H. Foulkes (1898-1976), psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, founder of group analysis.
 * Hans Frank (1900–1946), Obergruppenführer SA, Gauleiter and governor-general of Nazi-occupied Poland; hanged at Nuremberg for his war crimes during World War II
 * Reinhold Frank (1896–1945), lawyer who worked for the resistance in Nazi Germany, ran a law practice in Karlsruhe; in his honour the street in Karlsruhe where the lawyer's chambers were founded bears his name
 * Gottfried Fuchs (1889–1972), was born in Karlsruhe and holds the record of ten goals in one single international soccer match for the German national team
 * Moon Ga-young (born 1996), South Korean actress and model, born in Karlsruhe
 * Karoline von Günderrode, poet, was born in Karlsruhe (1780–1806)
 * Dieter Haack (born 1934), politician
 * Regina Halmich (born 1976), retired female boxing flyweight world champion
 * Johann Peter Hebel, writer and poet, lived in Karlsruhe for most of his life
 * Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, discovered electromagnetic waves at the University of Karlsruhe in the late 1880s. A lecture room named after Hertz lies close to the very spot where the discovery was made.
 * Julius Hirsch (1892–1945), Olympian soccer player and first Jewish member of the national team, two-time Germany team champion, awarded the Iron Cross during World War I, murdered in Auschwitz concentration camp
 * Friedrich Hund, physicist of the pioneering generation of quantum mechanics (see Hund's rules); was born here
 * Vincenzo Italiano (born 1977), Italian football manager currently managing Fiorentina
 * Oliver Kahn (born 1969), retired goalkeeper of Karlsruher SC, Bayern Munich and Germany
 * Hedwig Kettler (1851–1937), founded the first German Mädchengymnasium (girls' high school), located in Karlsruhe* Sebastian Koch (born 1962), actor
 * Sead Kolašinac (born 1993), Bosnian footballer who plays as a left back for Atalanta BC
 * Nora Krug (born 1977), German-American writer
 * Gustav Landauer (1870–1919), theorist of anarchism in Germany, was born in Karlsruhe
 * Bernd Längin (1941–2008), journalist and author
 * Willibald von Langermann und Erlencamp (1892–1942), general
 * Kolja Lessing (born 1961), German violinist, pianist, composer and academic teacher
 * Renate Lingor (born 1975), former national football player
 * Pietro Lombardi (born 1992), singer
 * Markus Lüpertz worked and lives in Karlsruhe; he created the Narrenbrunnen (Fool's Fountain) in the city center
 * Dennis Marschall (born 1996), racing driver
 * Klaus-Robert Müller (born 1964), computer scientist and physicist, a pioneer of machine learning
 * Dirk Jens Nonnenmacher (born 1963), CEO and bank chairman
 * Wolfgang Rihm, composer, is a resident of Karlsruhe.
 * Joseph Viktor von Scheffel, poet and novelist, was born in Karlsruhe n 1886
 * Mehmet Scholl (born 1970), retired footballer for Karlsruher SC, later Bayern Munich and the German national team
 * Peter Sloterdijk (born 1947), German philosopher.
 * Susanne Stichler (born 1969), journalist and television presenter
 * Rahel Straus (1880–1963), German-Jewish medical doctor and feminist
 * Muhammed Suiçmez (born 1975), Turkish guitarist and composer for German technical death metal band Necrophagist
 * Johann Gottfried Tulla (1770–1828), instrumental in stabilizing and straightening the course of the southern Rhine; a co-founder of the Karlsruhe University (1825)
 * Victoria of Baden (1862–1930), born in Karlsruhe, queen consort of Sweden by her marriage to King Gustaf V of Sweden
 * Friedrich Weinbrenner (1766–1826), architect of neoclassicism; his tomb is situated in the main Protestant church in Karlsruhe.
 * Thomas Ernst Josef Wiedemann (1950–2001), German-British historian, born in Karlsruhe
 * Richard Willstätter, recipient of 1915 Nobel Prize for Chemistry

Education

 * Bismarck-Gymnasium Karlsruhe

Karlsruhe is a renowned research and study centre, with one of Germany's finest institutions of higher education.

Technology, engineering, and business
The Karlsruhe University (Universität Karlsruhe-TH), the oldest technical university in Germany, is home to the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (Karlsruhe Research Center), where engineering and scientific research is performed in the areas of health, earth, and environmental sciences. The Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences (Hochschule Karlsruhe-HS) is the largest university of technology in the state of Baden-Württemberg, offering both professional and academic education in engineering sciences and business. In 2009, the University of Karlsruhe joined the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe to form the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

The arts
The Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe is one of the smallest universities in Germany, with average 300 students. The Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (HfG) was founded to the same time as its sister institution, the Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie). The HfG teaching and research focuses on new media and media art. The Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe is a music conservatory that offers degrees in composition, music performance, education, and radio journalism. Since 1989 it has been located in the Gottesaue Palace.

International education
The Karlshochschule International University (formerly known as Merkur Internationale Fachhochschule) was founded in 2004. As a foundation-owned, state-approved management school, Karlshochschule offers undergraduate education in both German and English, focusing on international and intercultural management, as well as service- and culture-related industries. Furthermore, an international consecutive Master of Arts in leadership studies is offered in English.

European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT)
Karlsruhe hosts one of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology's Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) focusing on sustainable energy. Other co‑centres are based in Grenoble, France (CC Alps Valleys); Eindhoven, the Netherlands, and Leuven, Belgium (CC Benelux); Barcelona, Spain (CC Iberia); Kraków, Poland (CC PolandPlus); and Stockholm, Sweden (CC Sweden).

University of Education
The Karlsruhe University of Education was founded in 1962. It is specialized in educational processes. The university has about 3700 students and 180 full-time researchers and lecturers. It offers a wide range of educational studies, like teaching profession for primary and secondary schools (both optional with a European Teaching Certificate profile), Bachelor programs that specializes in Early Childhood Education and in Health and Leisure Education, Master programs in Educational Science, Intercultural Education, Migration and Multilingualism. Furthermore, the University of Education Karlsruhe offers a Master program for Biodiversity and Environmental Education.

Culture

In 1999 the ZKM (Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Centre for Art and Media) was opened. Linking new media theory and practice, the ZKM is located in a former weapons factory. Among the institutes related to the ZKM are the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung (State University of Design), whose president is philosopher Peter Sloterdijk and the Museum for Contemporary Art.

Twin towns – sister cities
Karlsruhe is twinned with:
 * 🇫🇷 Nancy, France (1955)
 * 🏴 Nottingham, England, United Kingdom (1969)
 * 🇩🇪 Halle, Germany (1987)
 * 🇷🇺 Krasnodar, Russia (1997)
 * 🇷🇴 Timișoara, Romania (1997)
 * 🇺🇦 Vinnytsia, Ukraine (2022)

Partnerships
Karlsruhe also cooperates with:
 * 🇫🇮 Oulu, Finland

Legacy

 * The Ukrainian village Stepove near the city of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine was established by German colonists as Karlsruhe.
 * The element Protactinium was discovered here in 1913

Events
Every year in July there is a large open-air festival lasting three days called simply Das Fest ("The Festival").

The Baden State Theatre has sponsored the Händel Festival since 1978.

The city hosted the 23rd and 31st European Juggling Conventions (EJC) in 2000 and 2008.

In July the African Summer Festival is held in the city's Nordstadt. Markets, drumming workshops, exhibitions, a varied children's programme, and musical performances take place during the three days festival.

In the past Karlsruhe has been the host of LinuxTag (the biggest Linux event in Europe) and until 2006 hosted the annual Linux Audio Conference.

Visitors and locals watched the total solar eclipse at noon on August 11, 1999. The city was not only located within the eclipse path but was one of the few within Germany not plagued by bad weather.

Sport

 * Football: Karlsruher SC (KSC), DFB (2. Liga)

Karlsruhe co-hosted the FIBA EuroBasket 1985.
 * Basketball: PS Karlsruhe Lions, 2024 champion of the ProA (second division)

 * Volleyball: SVK Beiertheim, second German division

 * Tennis: TC Rueppurr (TCR), [Tennis-Bundesliga] (women's first division)

 * Lacrosse: KIT SC Karlsruhe Storm, 1. Bundesliga Süd

 * Baseball, softball: Karlsruhe Cougars, Regional League South-East (men's baseball), 1st Bundesliga South (women's softball I) and State League South (women's softball II)

 * American football: Badener Greifs, currently competing in the Regional League Central but formerly a member of the German Football League's 1st Bundesliga, lost to the Berlin Adler in the 1987 German Bowl (see also: German Football League)

title: Karlsruhe


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Norfolk Windmills Trust

The Norfolk Windmills Trust is a charity based in Norfolk, England, which restores and cares for windmills in that county.

Mills in its care (but not necessarily owned) include those at:
 * Ashtree Farm Mill
 * Berney Arms (English Heritage - pictured)
 * Billingford
 * Clayrack
 * Cley next the Sea
 * Denver Windmill
 * Dereham
 * Garboldisham
 * Great Bircham
 * Gunton Park Sawmill
 * Hobb's Mill
 * Horsey (NT)
 * Letheringsett Watermill
 * Little Cressingham
 * Old Buckenham
 * Paston (privately owned)
 * Starston
 * Stracey Arms
 * Sutton
 * Wicklewood

title: Norfolk Windmills Trust


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Charles Whitman

Charles Joseph Whitman (June 24, 1941 – August 1, 1966) was an American mass murderer and Marine veteran who became known as the "Texas Tower Sniper". On August 1, 1966, Whitman used knives to kill his mother and his wife in their respective homes, then went to the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) with multiple firearms and began indiscriminately shooting at people. He fatally shot three people inside UT Austin's Main Building, then accessed the 28th-floor observation deck on the building's clock tower. There, he fired at random people for 96 minutes, killing an additional eleven people and wounding 31 others before he was shot dead by Austin Texas law enforcement. Whitman killed a total of seventeen people; the 17th victim died 35 years later from injuries sustained in the attack.

Early life and education
Charles Whitman was born on June 24, 1941, in Lake Worth, Florida, the eldest of three sons born to Margaret E. ( Hodges) and Charles Adolphus Whitman Jr. Whitman's father was raised in an orphanage in Savannah, Georgia, and described himself as a self-made man. His wife, Margaret, was 17 years old at the time they wed. The marriage of Whitman's parents was marred by domestic violence; Whitman's father was an admitted authoritarian who provided for his family but demanded near perfection from all of them. He was known to be physically and emotionally abusive towards his wife and children. As a boy, Whitman was described as a polite child who seldom lost his temper. He was extremely intelligent—an examination at the age of six revealed his IQ to be 139. Whitman's academic achievements were encouraged by his parents, and any indication of failure or a lethargic attitude were met with discipline—often physical—from his father.

Margaret was a devout Roman Catholic who raised her sons in the same denomination. The Whitman brothers regularly attended Mass with their mother, and all three brothers served as altar boys at the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in Lake Worth.

Whitman's father was a firearms collector and enthusiast, who taught each of his young sons to shoot, clean, and maintain weapons. He regularly took them on hunting trips, and Charles became an avid hunter and accomplished marksman. His father said of him: "Charlie could plug the eye out of a squirrel by the time he was sixteen."

Whitman joined the Boy Scouts of America at age 11. He became an Eagle Scout at twelve years three months, reportedly the youngest of any Eagle Scout up to that time. Whitman also became an accomplished pianist at the age of 12. At around the same time, he began an extensive newspaper route.

High school
In September 1955, Whitman entered St. Ann's High School in West Palm Beach, where he was regarded as a moderately popular student. By the next month, he had saved enough money from his newspaper route to purchase a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, which he used on his route.

Without telling his father beforehand, Whitman enlisted in the United States Marine Corps one month after his June 1959 graduation from high school, where he had graduated seventh in a class of 72 students. Whitman told a family friend that the catalyst for his enlistment was an incident a month earlier, in which his father had beaten him and thrown him into the family swimming pool because Whitman had come home drunk. Whitman left home on July 6, having been assigned an eighteen-month tour of duty with the Marines at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. As Whitman traveled toward Parris Island, his father, who still had not known of Whitman's enlistment, learned of his action and telephoned a branch of the federal government trying to have his son's enlistment canceled.

U.S. Marine and college student
During Whitman's initial eighteen-month service in 1959 and 1960, he earned a sharpshooter's badge and the Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal. He achieved 215 of 250 possible points on marksmanship tests, doing well when shooting rapidly over long distances as well as at moving targets. After completing his assignment, Whitman applied for a scholarship to the Naval Enlisted Science and Education Program (NESEP), an initiative designed to send enlisted personnel to college to train as engineers, and after graduation, be commissioned as officers. Whitman earned high scores on the required examination, and the selection committee approved his enrollment at a preparatory school in Maryland, where he completed courses in mathematics and physics before being approved to transfer to the University of Texas at Austin to study mechanical engineering.

University life
In September 1961, Whitman entered the mechanical engineering program at UT Austin. He was initially a poor student. His hobbies included karate, scuba diving, gambling, and hunting. Shortly after his enrollment, Whitman and two friends were observed poaching a deer, with a passerby recording his license plate number and reporting them to the police. The trio were butchering the deer in the shower at Whitman's dormitory when they were arrested. Whitman was fined $100 ($ in ) for the offense.

Whitman earned a reputation as a practical joker in his years as an engineering student, but his friends also noted he made some morbid and chilling statements. In 1962, he remarked to a fellow student, "A person could stand off an army from atop of [the Main Building's clock tower] before they got him."

Marriage
In February 1962, 20-year-old Whitman met Kathleen Frances Leissner, an education major three years his junior. Leissner was Whitman's first serious girlfriend; he briefly dated actress Deanna Dunagan just prior to beginning his relationship with Leissner. They courted for five months before announcing their engagement on July 19.

On August 17, 1962, Whitman and Leissner were married in a Catholic ceremony held in Leissner's hometown of Needville, Texas. The couple chose the 22nd wedding anniversary of Whitman's parents as the date for their wedding. Whitman's family drove from Florida to attend the event, and his younger brother Patrick served as best man. Father Leduc, a Whitman family friend, presided over the ceremony. Leissner's family and friends approved of her choice of husband, describing Whitman as a "handsome young man" who was both intelligent and aspirational.

Although Whitman's grades improved somewhat during his second and third semesters, the Marines considered them insufficient for continuation of his scholarship. He was ordered to active duty in February 1963 and went to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, for the remainder of his five-year enlistment.

Camp Lejeune
Whitman apparently resented his college studies being ended, although he was automatically promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal. At Camp Lejeune, he was hospitalized for four days after single-handedly freeing another Marine by lifting a Jeep which had rolled over an embankment.

Despite his reputation as an exemplary Marine, Whitman continued to gamble. In November 1963, he was court-martialed for gambling, usury, possession of a personal firearm on base, and threatening another Marine over a $30 loan ($ in ) for which he had demanded $15 in interest. Sentenced to thirty days of confinement and ninety days of hard labor, he was demoted from lance corporal (E-3) to private (E-1).

Documented stressors
While awaiting his court-martial in 1963, Whitman began to write a diary titled Daily Record of C. J. Whitman. In it, he wrote about his daily life in the Marine Corps and his interactions with his wife and other family members. He also wrote about his upcoming court-martial and contempt for the Marine Corps, criticizing them for inefficiencies. In his writings about Leissner, Whitman often praised her and expressed his longing to be with her. He also wrote about his efforts and plans to free himself from financial dependence on his father.

In December 1964, Whitman was honorably discharged from the Marines. He returned to UT Austin, enrolling in the architectural engineering program. To support his wife and himself, he worked as a bill collector for the Standard Finance Company. Later, he worked as a bank teller at the Austin National Bank. In January 1965, Whitman took a temporary job with Central Freight Lines as a traffic surveyor for the Texas Highway Department, while his wife worked as a biology teacher at Lanier High School. He was also a volunteer scout leader with Austin Scout Troop 5.

Friends later said that Whitman had told them that he struck his wife on three occasions. They said that Whitman despised himself for this and confessed to being "mortally afraid of being like his father." In his journal, Whitman lamented his actions and resolved to be a good husband and not abusive as his father had been.

Separation of Whitman's parents
In May 1966, Whitman's mother announced her decision to divorce her husband because of his continued physical abuse. Whitman drove to Florida to help his mother move to Austin. He was reportedly so afraid that his father would resort to violence against his mother as she prepared to leave that he summoned a local policeman to remain outside the house while she packed her belongings. Whitman's youngest brother, John, also left Lake Worth and moved to Austin with his mother. Patrick Whitman, the middle son, remained in Florida and worked in his father's plumbing supply business.

In Austin, Whitman's mother took a job in a cafeteria and moved into her own apartment, though she remained in close contact with him. Whitman's father later said he had spent more than $1,000 ($ in ) on long-distance phone calls to both his wife and his son, begging his wife to return and asking his son to convince her to come back. During this stressful time, Whitman was abusing amphetamines and began experiencing severe headaches, which he described as being "tremendous".

Events leading to the shooting
On the day before the shootings, Whitman bought a pair of binoculars and a knife from a hardware store, and some Spam from a 7-Eleven convenience store. He picked up his wife from her summer job as a telephone operator before he met his mother for lunch at the Wyatt Cafeteria, which was close to the UT Austin campus.

At about 4:00 p.m. the same day, Whitman and his wife visited their close friends John and Frances Morgan. They left the Morgans' apartment at 5:50 p.m. so Kathy could get to her 6:00–10:00 p.m. shift.

At 6:45 p.m., Whitman began typing his suicide note, a portion of which read: "I don't quite understand what it is that compels me to type this letter. Perhaps it is to leave some vague reason for the actions I have recently performed. I don't really understand myself these days. I am supposed to be an average reasonable and intelligent young man. However, lately (I cannot recall when it started) I have been a victim of many unusual and irrational thoughts. These thoughts constantly recur, and it requires a tremendous mental effort to concentrate on useful and progressive tasks."

In his note, Whitman went on to request an autopsy be performed on his remains after he was dead to determine if there had been a biological cause for his actions and for his continuing and increasingly intense headaches. He also wrote that he had decided to kill both his mother and wife. Expressing uncertainty about his reasons, he nonetheless stated he did not believe his mother had "ever enjoyed life as she is entitled to", and that his wife had "been as fine a wife to me as any man could ever hope to have". Whitman further explained that he wanted to relieve both his wife and mother of the suffering of this world, and to save them the embarrassment of his actions. He did not mention planning the attack at the university.

Just after midnight on August 1, Whitman drove to his mother's apartment at 1212 Guadalupe Street. After killing his mother, he placed her body on her bed and covered it with sheets. How he murdered his mother is disputed, but officials believed he rendered her unconscious before stabbing her in the heart.

He left a handwritten note beside her body, which read in part:

"To Whom It May Concern: I have just taken my mother's life. I am very upset over having done it. However, I feel that if there is a heaven she is definitely there now [...] I am truly sorry [...] Let there be no doubt in your mind that I loved this woman with all my heart."

Whitman then returned to his home at 906 Jewell Street, where he killed his wife by stabbing her five times in the chest as she slept. He covered her body with sheets, then resumed the typewritten note he had begun the previous evening. Using a ballpoint pen, he wrote at the side of the page: "Friends interrupted. 8-1-66 Mon. 3:00 A.M. BOTH DEAD."

Whitman continued the note, finishing it by pen: "I imagine it appears that I brutally killed both of my loved ones. I was only trying to do a quick thorough job [...] If my life insurance policy is valid please pay off my debts [...] donate the rest anonymously to a mental health foundation. Maybe research can prevent further tragedies of this type [...] Give our dog to my in-laws. Tell them Kathy loved 'Schocie' very much [...] If you can find in yourselves to grant my last wish, cremate me after the autopsy."

Whitman also left instructions in the rented house requesting that two rolls of camera film be developed and wrote personal notes to each of his brothers. He last wrote on an envelope labeled "Thoughts for the Day", in which he stored a collection of written admonitions. He added on the outside of the envelope: "8-1-66. I never could quite make it. These thoughts are too much for me."

At 5:45 a.m. on August 1, 1966, Whitman phoned his wife's supervisor at Bell System to explain that Kathy was ill and unable to work that day. He made a similar phone call to his mother's workplace five hours later.

Whitman's final journal entries were written in the past tense, suggesting that he had already killed his wife and mother.

University of Texas Tower shooting
At approximately 11:35 a.m., Whitman arrived on the UT Austin campus. He falsely identified himself as a research assistant and told a security guard he was there to deliver equipment. He then climbed to the 28th floor of the Main Building's clock tower, killing three people within the tower, and opened fire from the observation deck with a hunting rifle and other weapons.

Whitman killed 15 people and wounded 31 in the 96 minutes before he was shot and killed. Patrolman Houston McCoy and Ramiro Martinez of the Austin Police Department had raced to the top of the tower and a combination of shots from both men killed Whitman.

Medical history
Investigating officers found that Whitman had visited several UT Austin physicians in the year before the shootings; they prescribed various medications for him. Whitman had seen a minimum of five doctors between the fall and winter of 1965 before he visited a psychiatrist from whom he received no prescription. At some other time he was prescribed Valium by Jan Cochrum, who recommended he visit the campus psychiatrist.

Whitman met with Maurice Dean Heatly, the staff psychiatrist at the University of Texas Health Center, on March 29, 1966. He referred to his visit with Heatly in his final suicide note, writing: "I talked with a Doctor once for about two hours and tried to convey to him my fears that I felt come [sic] overwhelming violent impulses. After one visit, I never saw the Doctor again, and since then have been fighting my mental turmoil alone, and seemingly to no avail."

Heatly's notes on the visit said, "This massive, muscular youth seemed to be oozing with hostility [...] that something seemed to be happening to him and that he didn't seem to be himself." "He readily admits having overwhelming periods of hostility with a very minimum of provocation. Repeated inquiries attempting to analyze his exact experiences were not too successful with the exception of his vivid reference to 'thinking about going up on the tower with a deer rifle and start shooting people.

Autopsy
Although Charles Whitman had been prescribed drugs and was in possession of Dexedrine at the time of his death, the toxicology examination was delayed because his corpse was embalmed on August 1, after it was delivered to the Cook Funeral Home in Austin; however, the autopsy that Whitman had requested in his suicide notes was authorized by his father.

On August 2, Dr. Coleman de Chenar, a neuropathologist at Austin State Hospital, realized the autopsy at the funeral home; Whitman's urine and blood were tested for amphetamines and other drugs. During the autopsy, Dr. Chenar reported that he discovered a pecan-sized brain tumor, above the red nucleus, in the white matter below the gray center thalamus, which he identified as an astrocytoma with slight necrosis.

Connally Commission
John Connally, then governor of Texas, commissioned a task force to examine the autopsy findings and material related to Whitman's actions and motives. The commission was composed of neurosurgeons, psychiatrists, pathologists, and psychologists, and included the University of Texas Health Center Directors, John White and Maurice Heatly. The commission's toxicology tests revealed nothing significant. They examined Chenar's paraffin blocks of the brain tumor, stained specimens of it and Whitman's other brain tissue, in addition to the remainder of the autopsy specimens available.

Following a three-hour hearing on August 5, the commission concluded that Chenar's diagnosis of astrocytoma with a small amount of necrosis had been in error. The panel instead found that the tumor had features of a glioblastoma multiforme, with widespread areas of necrosis, palisading of cells, and a "remarkable vascular component" described as having "the nature of a small congenital vascular malformation". Psychiatric contributors to the report concluded that "the relationship between the brain tumor and [...] Whitman's actions [...] cannot be established with clarity. However, the [...] tumor conceivably could have contributed to his inability to control his emotions and actions". The neurologists and neuropathologists were more circumspect, concluding that, "[t]he application of existing knowledge of organic brain function does not enable us to explain the actions of Whitman on August first."

Forensic investigators have theorized that the tumor pressed against Whitman's amygdala, a part of the brain related to anxiety and fight-or-flight responses among numerous other functions.

Funeral
A joint Catholic funeral service for Whitman and his mother was held in Lake Worth, Florida, on August 5, 1966. They were buried in Florida's Hillcrest Memorial Park. Since he was a military veteran, Whitman was buried with military honors; his casket was draped with the American flag.

title: Charles Whitman


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Rogernomics

Rogernomics (a portmanteau of Roger and economics) were the neoliberal economic reforms promoted by Roger Douglas, the Minister of Finance between 1984 and 1988 in the Fourth Labour Government of New Zealand. Rogernomics featured market-led restructuring and deregulation and the control of inflation through tight monetary policy, accompanied by a floating exchange-rate and reductions in the fiscal deficit.

During the early 1980s, Douglas transitioned from a traditional Labour politician advocating for economic interventionism to a proponent of neoliberal economics. After the Labour Party won government in 1984, Douglas and his associates implemented major policies including a 20% devaluation of the dollar, corporatisation of state-owned business, removal of subsidies to industries (particularly agricultural subsidies), reduction of tariff protection, and a significant overhaul of the tax system. Tax cuts were implemented, and a Goods and Services Tax (initially set at 10%) was introduced.

Rogernomics represented a sharp departure from the post-war political consensus that emphasised heavy interventionism, protectionism, and full employment. Instead, it embraced principles of small government, balanced budgets, and free market policies influenced by the Chicago school of economics. Douglas' adoption of policies more usually associated with the political right (or New Right), and their implementation by the Fourth Labour Government, became the subject of lasting controversy. While proponents argued that Rogernomics brought about positive changes such as single-digit inflation and reduced tax rates, critics highlighted social challenges, including rising poverty and unemployment. The legacy of Rogernomics continues to shape discussions on economic policy in New Zealand.

Etymology
In February 1985, journalists at the New Zealand Listener coined the term Rogernomics as a portmanteau of Roger and economics. It echoes "Reaganomics", similar neoliberal economic policies promoted by United States President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

Douglas and the development of economic policy, 1969–1983

Douglas became a Labour member of Parliament at the 1969 general election. He showed his interest in economic policy in his maiden speech, in which he argued against foreign investment in the domestic economy. His case for external protection of the domestic economy and government involvement in investment was characteristic of the Labour Party of the time. From 1972 to 1975, Douglas was a junior minister in the Third Labour Government, where he won a reputation for his capacity for innovation. This government followed a broadly Keynesian approach to economic management.

As a minister, Douglas was innovative in the context of the public sector. As Broadcasting Minister he devised an administrative structure in which two publicly owned television channels competed against each other. He was among the government’s leading advocates of compulsory saving for retirement, which he saw not only as a supplement to public provision for retirement but as a source of funding for public investment in economic development. The superannuation scheme he helped design became law in 1974, but was disestablished by Robert Muldoon almost as soon as the National Party won the 1975 election.

Douglas maintained his interest in economic issues in opposition. He framed his chief concern as the deep-seated problems in the structure of the economy that had contributed to deteriorating economic performance, and a standard of living that was slipping in comparison to that of other developed countries. In 1980, he described New Zealand as a country living on borrowed money, unable – in spite of the record efforts of its exporters – to pay its own way in the world.

From a neoliberal point of view which promotes small government, balanced budgets and inflation targeting, the economic policy of successive governments had left the domestic economy sheltered and unresponsive to consumers; inflation, which was more than ten per cent a year throughout the 1970s, was high by the standards of the country's major trading partners; and there was a persistent fiscal deficit. It was thought a large part of the economy was controlled by regulation, some arbitrary or inconsistent. The post-war political consensus had produced stability but Douglas viewed this as being at the cost of innovation. Both major political parties maintained the high levels of protection introduced by the First Labour Government from 1936 onwards, and since 1945 both parties had aimed at maintaining full employment. However, beneficiaries of the regulated economy had flourished in both public and private sectors.

Douglas argued that only radical action would improve the economic outlook. In 1980, he published an "Alternative Budget" that attacked what Douglas called the Muldoon government's "tinkering" with the economy. He wrote that twenty years of pandering to entrenched interests had dampened productive investment. The Labour leadership saw his proposals and their unauthorised publication as unfavourable comment on Labour policy. The Labour leader Bill Rowling publicly rebuked Douglas. Douglas then published his thinking in the form of a book. Alongside far-reaching proposals for reform of taxation and government spending, it advocated a twenty per cent devaluation of the dollar to increase the competitiveness of exports. Although radical, it took an eclectic approach and did not hint at the abandonment of Labour's Keynesian policy framework.

Douglas became increasingly frustrated by what he saw as the Labour Party's reluctance to deal with fundamental issues of economic policy. He claimed in 1981 that Labour had an image as a party that would promise the public anything to be elected. He argued that the party should agree on its economic policy before it agreed on anything else, and allow economic reality to play a part in its decision-making. Unable to convince Rowling of the merit of his case, a disillusioned Douglas decided to stand down from parliament at the 1981 election. One of those who persuaded him to stay was Labour’s deputy leader David Lange, who offered to make Douglas minister of finance if Lange was prime minister after the 1984 election.

Events after the 1981 election
After Labour's narrow loss in the 1981 election, Douglas found a growing audience in the parliamentary party for his view that Labour's established approach to economic policy was deficient. His colleague Mike Moore claimed that there was a public perception that Labour policy sought "to reward the lazy and defend bludgers". Douglas's case for a radical approach was strengthened by the belief among many of his parliamentary colleagues that the economy's deep-seated problems could only be solved by extensive restructuring. It was understood that some restructuring must follow the Closer Economic Relations agreement with Australia, which took effect in 1981 and reduced barriers to trade between Australia and New Zealand. At the same time, many economists were arguing for the greater use of competition as a tool of policy, and expressing concern about excessive or inappropriate regulation of the economy. In 1983, Lange succeeded Rowling as Labour leader. He gave Douglas responsibility for economic policy and made it clear that economic policy would determine other policy.

Although Douglas was innovative in his approach, and his open disregard for Rowling had earned him a reputation as a maverick, he remained within the mainstream of economic thinking in the parliamentary Labour Party. He argued in 1982 that the government should actively support small business, and intervene to stop the aggregation of assets by big business. In his view, the government should use the tax system to encourage productive investment and discourage speculative investment. Until the end of 1983, Douglas saw exchange rate, tax and protection policies as means of actively shaping the business environment. In August 1982 he supported a contributory superannuation scheme as a means of funding industrial development and in February 1983 he wrote a paper called "Picking Winners for Investment" which proposed the establishment of local consultative groups to guide regional development. In a paper dated May 1983, Douglas argued that an unregulated market led to unhealthy concentrations of market power.

A new direction, 1983–1984
At the end of 1983 there was a marked change in Douglas's thinking. He prepared a caucus paper called the "Economic Policy Package" which called for a market-led restructuring of the economy. The key proposal was a 20 per cent devaluation of the dollar, to be followed by the removal of subsidies to industry, border protection and export incentives. The paper doubted the value of "picking winners" and saw only a limited place for government funding of economic development. His colleague Stan Rodger described the paper as a "quite unacceptable leap to the right". It immediately polarised opinion in the Labour Party.

Douglas characterised the policy package as restrained and responsible, and an appropriate response to the country's economic difficulties. He acknowledged the contribution to the package of Doug Andrew, a Treasury officer on secondment to the parliamentary opposition, among others. W H Oliver noted the close alignment of the package and Economic Management, Treasury's 1984 briefing to the incoming government. His assessment was that Douglas was predisposed towards the Treasury view because its implementation required decisive action and because greater reliance on the market solved what Douglas saw as the problem of interest-group participation in policy-making.

Division in Labour over economic policy crystallised when a competing proposal was submitted to the Labour Party's Policy Council. Its proponents included Rowling and others who had resisted his replacement as leader. It argued for a Keynesian use of monetary and fiscal policy. It was sceptical about the ability of the private sector to promote economic development. Economic restructuring was to be led by the government, which would act within a consultative framework. In this way, the social costs of restructuring would be avoided.

There was stalemate in the Policy Council. As the 1984 election drew closer, Labour's deputy leader Geoffrey Palmer drafted a compromise that contained elements of both proposals. The Palmer paper was broadly worded, and it made no mention of devaluation. It anticipated some form of understanding between government and unions about wage restraint. It allowed for extensive consultation about economic policy and stated that necessary structural change would be gradual and agreed. When Muldoon unexpectedly called an early general election, the Labour Party adopted Palmer's paper as its economic policy. Lange said that Labour went into the election with an unfinished argument doing duty as its economic policy.

Minister of Finance, 1984–1988
In 1984, Roger Douglas was made Minister of Finance, with two associate ministers of finance, David Caygill and Richard Prebble. They became known as the "Treasury Troika" or the "Troika", and became the most powerful group in Cabinet. Douglas was the strategist, Prebble the tactician, while Caygill mastered the details. With Caygill the "nice cop" and Prebble the "nasty cop", Douglas could sometimes appear as steering a considered middle course. Later Trevor de Cleene was made undersecretary to Douglas, with special responsibility for Inland Revenue.

The key element of Douglas's economic thinking was implemented after Labour won the 1984 election but before it was formally sworn into office. This was the 20 per cent devaluation of the New Zealand dollar. The announcement of the snap election immediately provoked selling of the dollar by dealers who anticipated that a change of government would lead to a substantial devaluation. The result was a currency crisis that became a matter of public knowledge two days after the general election. Muldoon refused to accept official advice that devaluation was the only way to stop the currency crisis and provoked a brief constitutional crisis when he initially refused to implement the incoming government’s instruction that he devalue. Both crises were soon settled when accepted that he had no choice but to devalue after Muldoon's National Party colleagues threatened to approach the Governor General to dismiss him. Although devaluation was a contentious issue in the Labour Party and was not part of Labour's election policy, the decisiveness with which the incoming government acted won it popular acclaim and enhanced Douglas's standing in the new cabinet.

The reformers argued that the speed with which the reforms were made was due to the fact that New Zealand had not adjusted to Britain's abandonment of the empire, and had to move quickly to "catch up" with the rest of the world. Douglas claimed in his 1993 book Unfinished Business that speed was a key strategy for achieving radical economic change: "Define your objectives clearly, and move towards them in quantum leaps, otherwise the interest groups will have time to mobilise and drag you down". Political commentator Bruce Jesson argued that Douglas acted fast to achieve a complete economic revolution within one parliamentary term, in case he did not get a second chance. The reforms can be summarised as the dismantling of the Australasian orthodoxy of state development that had existed for the previous 90 years, and its replacement by the Anglo-American neo-classical model based on the monetarist policies of Milton Friedman and the Chicago School. The financial market was deregulated and controls on foreign exchange removed. Subsidies to many industries, notably agriculture, were removed or significantly reduced, as was tariff protection. The top marginal tax rate was halved over a number of years from 66% to 33%, and the standard rate was reduced from 42% in 1978 to 28% in 1988. To compensate, the variable sales taxes that had been in effect until then were replaced by a single Goods and Services Tax, initially set at 10%, later 12.5% (and eventually in 2011, 15%), and a surtax on superannuation, which had been made universal from age 60 by the previous government.

Immediate results
New Zealand's leap into the neoliberal global economy exposed both businesses and the wider workforce to the unregulated practices of private capital – this led to a decade of insignificant (and sometimes negative) growth with the "economic miracle" being experienced by only a relatively small proportion of the population. With no restrictions on overseas money coming into the country the focus in the economy shifted from the productive sector to finance. Finance capital outstripped industrial capital and redundancies occurred in manufacturing industry; approximately 76,000 manufacturing jobs were lost between 1987 and 1992. The new state-owned enterprises created from 1 April 1987 began to shed thousands of jobs adding to unemployment: Electricity Corporation 3,000; Coal Corporation 4,000; Forestry Corporation 5,000; New Zealand Post 8,000. The newly unfettered business environment created by the deregulation of the financial sector, David Grant writes, left New Zealanders "easy targets for speculators and their agents", exacerbating the effects of the October 1987 stock market crash.

During wage bargaining in 1986 and 1987, employers started to bargain harder. Lock-outs were not uncommon; the most spectacular occurred at a pulp and paper mill owned by Fletcher Challenge and led to changes to work practices and a no-strike commitment from the union. Later settlements drew further concessions from unions, including below-inflation wage increases, and an effective real wage cut. There was a structural change in the economy from industry to services, which, along with the arrival of trans-Tasman retail chains and an increasingly cosmopolitan hospitality industry, led to a new ‘café culture’ enjoyed by more affluent New Zealanders. Some argue that for the rest of the population, Rogernomics failed to deliver the higher standard of living promised by its advocates.

Over 15 years, New Zealand's economy and social capital faced serious problems: the proliferation of food banks increased dramatically to an estimated 365 in 1994; the number of New Zealanders estimated to be living in poverty grew by at least 35% between 1989 and 1992 while child poverty doubled from 14% in 1982 to 29% in 1994. Those on low incomes failed to return to the 1984 standard of living until 1996; the lowest 30% did not recover their own 1980s living standards for twenty years. The health of the New Zealand population was also especially hard-hit, leading to a significant deterioration in health standards among working and middle-class people. In addition, many of the promised economic benefits of the experiment never materialised. Between 1985 and 1992, New Zealand's economy grew by 4.7% during the same period in which the average OECD nation grew by 28.2%. From 1984 to 1993 inflation averaged 9% per year and New Zealand's credit rating dropped twice. Between 1986 and 1992, the unemployment rate rose from 3.6% to 11%.

Rogernomics, however, has been credited with a number of other positive impacts on the New Zealand economy: inflation, which had reached a high of 17.15% in 1980, has been in single digits every year since the end of Douglas' tenure as finance minister; and income tax rates were halved, while gross national income per capita almost doubled, from $6,950 USD in 1984 to $13,640 USD in 1990. Other supporters of Rogernomics have argued that many statistics don't take into account the improvements in consumer goods it brought, transforming New Zealand from a country where permits were needed to buy overseas magazines, and where prices were high and choice was limited, into a country with a range of consumer goods available similar to those enjoyed by other western democracies. Douglas himself has claimed that the unwillingness of subsequent governments to alter any of his reforms is a testament to their quality.

Legacy
The policies of Ruth Richardson, sometimes called "Ruthanasia", were a continuation of Rogernomics. Richardson served as Finance Minister in the National Party government from 1990 to 1993. Beginning with the Mother of all Budgets, the National Government expanded these policies by drastically cutting spending, deregulating labour markets, and further asset sales.

In 1990 David Lange said of the Government: "'It is there to be the securer of its citizen[s'] welfare. Where the market works well, it should be given its head. Where the market results in manifest inequity, or poor economic performance, the Government must get involved.'"

After Rogernomics, the New Zealand Labour Party was paralysed by infighting for much of their time in opposition, initially led by Mike Moore as leader of the Opposition (1990–1993). Moore was then followed by Helen Clark, whose first term as leader of the Opposition was undermined by those who opposed her leadership. Some later left to form their own political parties ACT, the Alliance, and United (later United Future). Clark for her part survived these internal leadership scuffles and Labour stabilised under her leadership during the third and final term of the Jim Bolger and Jenny Shipley ministries. Much like Tony Blair in the United Kingdom, Clark assumed a compromise solution to social exclusion and poverty, combining advocacy of the open economy and of free trade with greater emphasis on fighting the consequences of neoliberal policies. Labour became loosely aligned with the Third Way between 1999 and 2008.

The ACT Party, co-founded by Roger Douglas in 1993 to participate in the 1996 MMP election, is the heir to Rogernomics and continues to advance free-market policies. In 1990s New Zealand, advocates of radical economic policies were often branded as "rogergnomes" by their opponents, linking their views to Douglas's and to the supposed baleful influence of international bankers, characterised as the "Gnomes of Zurich".

A 2015 Treasury report said that inequality in New Zealand increased in the 1980s and 1990s but has been stable for the last 20 years. However, another 2015 article reported that New Zealand's rate of rise of inequality had been the highest in the OECD, and that New Zealand's inequality had previously been low by OECD standards.

title: Rogernomics


text:
Fatwah

Fatwah may mean:
 * Fatwa, a legal pronouncement in Islam
 * Fatuha, a block in Patna, Bihar state, India
 * Fatwa (film), a 2006 American drama/thriller film starring Lauren Holly

title: Fatwah


text:
Leopold Vietoris

Leopold Vietoris (4 June 1891 – 9 April 2002) was an Austrian mathematician, World War I veteran and supercentenarian. He was born in Radkersburg and died in Innsbruck.

He was known for his contributions to topology—notably the Mayer–Vietoris sequence—and other fields of mathematics, his interest in mathematical history, and for being a keen alpinist.

Biography
Vietoris studied mathematics and geometry at the Vienna University of Technology. He was drafted in 1914 in World War I and was wounded in September that same year. On 4 November 1918, one week before the Armistice of Villa Giusti, he became an Italian prisoner of war. After returning to Austria, he attended the University of Vienna, where he earned his PhD in 1920, with a thesis written under the supervision of Gustav von Escherich and Wilhelm Wirtinger.

In autumn 1928 he married his first wife Klara Riccabona, who later died while giving birth to their sixth daughter. In 1936 he married Klara's sister, Maria Riccabona.

Vietoris was survived by his six daughters, 17 grandchildren, and 30 great-grandchildren.

He lends his name to a few mathematical concepts:
 * Vietoris topology (see topological space)
 * Vietoris homology (see homology theory)
 * Mayer–Vietoris sequence
 * Vietoris–Begle mapping theorem
 * Vietoris–Rips complex

Vietoris remained scientifically active in his later years, even writing one paper on trigonometric sums at the age of 103.

Vietoris lived to be 110 years and 309 days old, and became the oldest verified Austrian man ever.

Decorations and awards

 * Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (1973)
 * Grand Gold Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria (1981)
 * Honorary member of the German Mathematical Society (1992)

title: Leopold Vietoris


text: File:Cover of Lydias Concerto per Theremin live CD.jpg


text:
Concerto per Theremin. Live in Italy

'Concerto per Theremin. Live in Italy' is Lydia Kavina's second album. It was recorded in Italy in 1998 and released on CD by Teleura in 2000.

Theremin & Lydia Kavina
Invented in 1919 in Russia by Lev Sergeivitch Termen, the Theremin was not only the first electronic musical instrument, but also the first (and still the only) instrument played without touching it by moving the hands in the space between two antennas, one of which controls intonation and the other the volume.

Lydia Kavina is universally recognised as being the greatest virtuoso of the Theremin in the world. The niece of one of Lev Termen's first-degree cousins, Kavina began studying the Theremin under the direction of Termen himself when she was nine years old. Five years later, she was ready to give her first Theremin concert, which marked the beginning of a musical career that has so far led to more than 500 theatre, radio and television performances throughout the world.

In addition to giving concerts, Kavina is a composer of music for the Theremin (three of her works can be heard on this disc) and teaches the instrument in Russia, the United States and Western Europe.

Together with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, she participated in creating the sound track of the Oscar-winning film Ed Wood.

In 1999 has been published Lydia's first disc entitled "Music from the Ether".

(Liner notes by Valerio Saggini)

Track listing
Author: Claude Debussy Performed by: Lydia Kavina, Mauro Cavalieri D'Oro Author: Sergej Rachmaninov Performed by: Lydia Kavina, Mauro Cavalieri D'Oro Author: Sergej Rachmaninov Performed by: Lydia Kavina, Mauro Cavalieri D'Oro Author: Jerome Kern Performed by: Lydia Kavina, Mauro Cavalieri D'Oro Author: Alexander Alabiev Performed by: Lydia Kavina, Mauro Cavalieri D'Oro Author: Johann Sebastian Bach Performed by: Lydia Kavina, Columbus Orchestra Author: Antonin Dvorâk Performed by: Lydia Kavina, Columbus Orchestra Author: George Gershwin Performed by: Lydia Kavina, Columbus Orchestra Author: Charles Paul Performed by: Lydia Kavina, Mauro Cavalieri D'Oro Author: Charles Paul Performed by: Lydia Kavina, Mauro Cavalieri D'Oro Author: Lydia Kavina Performed by: Lydia Kavina, Columbus Orchestra Author: Lydia Kavina Performed by: Lydia Kavina, Columbus Orchestra Author: Lydia Kavina Performed by: Lydia Kavina
 * 1) Claire de Lune (4:14)
 * 1) The River (2:05)
 * 1) Vocalise (3:12)
 * 1) Smoke gets in your eyes (1:58)
 * 1) The Nightingale (2:52)
 * 1) Air on a G String (3:05)
 * 1) Humoresque (2:47)
 * 1) Summertime (2:49)
 * 1) Palestinian Song (2:25)
 * 1) Hora (2:39)
 * 1) The Mirror (3:59)
 * 1) Transformations (3:47)
 * 1) Swampmusic (5:14)

title: Concerto per Theremin. Live in Italy