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Walter Taylor Bridge

The Walter Taylor Bridge is a heritage-listed suspension bridge crossing the Brisbane River between Indooroopilly and Chelmer in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is shared by motor traffic and pedestrians and is the only habitable bridge in the Southern Hemisphere. It was originally known as the Indooroopilly Toll Bridge.

Design
The bridge is a similar design to the Hercilio Luz Bridge in Florianópolis, Brazil, with the truss carrying the bridge being above the roadway and meeting the cables at non-uniform heights. This means that the suspension cables form the top chord of the truss, and this configuration is known as the Steinman (after its inventor) or Florianópolis type.

The bridge is unique among Brisbane bridges in that the two towers of the bridge house residential accommodation, which were occupied until mid 2010 when the last members of the original tollmaster's family moved out. The Chelmer side of the bridge is bounded by a council park. A pontoon adjacent to this park was washed away in the 2011 flood, and to date has not been replaced. The Walter Taylor Bridge is one of four bridges in close proximity to each other. The others are the Albert Bridge, Indooroopilly Railway Bridge, and the Jack Pesch Bridge.

History
The bridge was conceived, designed, built and funded by local visionary Walter Taylor, a contractor who lived in Graceville (adjacent to the suburb in Chelmer). Although there was a rail bridge to Indooroopilly and beyond to the northern suburbs of Brisbane, local residents were frustrated because there was no means by which cars could cross the river. Pedestrians had been able to cross the river on the 2 previous Albert Bridges from 1875 to 1893, and from 1895 until the opening of the Walter Taylor Bridge. Construction work began in 1930.

The bridge is a suspension bridge and its support cables are those that were used to hold up the incomplete halves of the Sydney Harbour Bridge during its construction. When the bridge opened it had the longest span of any suspension bridge in Australia.

The bridge was opened on 14 February 1936 by the Governor of Queensland, Sir Leslie Wilson, with the final cost (anchorage to anchorage) coming to £85,000. The bridge was operated by as a toll bridge until the 1960s, with a toll collection booth located at the Northern (Indooroopilly) end (see the video link below). During that time, the bridge was known as the "Indooroopilly Toll Bridge". It was operated by Indooroopilly Toll Bridge Limited, of which Taylor was a Director and Company Secretary, listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, and with offices in the Central Buildings, Graceville. In its first full year it made a profit of £2581.

After Walter Taylor's death in 1955, the bridge was renamed the Walter Taylor Bridge in his honour in 1956.

Heritage listing
The bridge was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register in 1992.

title: Walter Taylor Bridge


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Centenary Bridge

The Centenary Bridge is a motorway crossing of the Brisbane River. As it forms part of Brisbane's Centenary Motorway, it is used primarily by vehicular traffic, although it includes footpaths for pedestrian traffic. The bridge was used by 85,000 vehicles per day in 2023.

Built to service the new Centenary Suburbs of Jindalee, Mount Ommaney and Westlake, the original two lane bridge opened in 1964. It was financed by the developers of the suburbs, LJ Hooker.

The bridge was duplicated to two lanes each way as part of an upgrade of the Centenary Highway and Western Freeway south of Mount Cootha Road. The works were officially opened by Russell Hinze, Minister for Main Roads, on 27 March 1987.

During the 1974 floods, the bridge was badly damaged when a barge rammed into its upstream side. The barge blocked the flow of floodwaters under the bridge and there were fears that the bridge would collapse. The barge was deliberately holed using explosives and allowed to sink to reduce the floodwater pressure on the bridge. When the floodwater receded, the barge was refloated and beached downstream near Fig Tree Pocket to be cut up for scrap. The damage sustained by the bridge required its partial closure for repairs. For two years after the floods, the bridge was reduced to a single lane, with one way traffic controlled by traffic lights at each end of the bridge.

New Duplicate Bridge
A project to duplicate the Centenary Bridge to three lanes each way, at a cost of $298 million, was due to commence construction in 2023.

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

title: Centenary Bridge


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Merivale Bridge

The Merivale Bridge is a double track railway bridge crossing the Brisbane River. It crosses the Milton Reach of the river, located in between the Go Between Bridge and the William Jolly Bridge. Exclusively a railway crossing, it is located between the stations of South Brisbane and Roma Street, linking the northern and southern elements of the Queensland Rail City network. The Merivale Bridge is the only inner-city rail crossing in Brisbane. By 2016 it was expected to be over capacity, leading the Queensland Government to announce the Cross River Rail project.

The Merivale Bridge opened on 18 November 1978 by Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen. At the opening with 850 guests, the Premier, described the occasion as "the start of the second stage in the history of Queensland Railways".

It formed a more direct route into the city for Brisbane's southern system suburban trains than the existing route via Corinda. Since 1986 it also has carried the standard gauge line from New South Wales. It was designed by Cameron McNamara Pty Ltd (consulting engineers) and was fabricated and erected by Transfield.

The bridge has been recognised with a number of awards. In 1980 it was named the most outstanding engineering project from the Association of Consulting Engineers of Australia. Judges appreciated the combination of aesthetics and functionality. It also won the 1979 Steel Award.

History
It had taken almost a century to get Brisbane's north and south rail networks joined by a bridge over the Brisbane River. As far back as 1885, the then Engineer-in-Chief for the Southern Division Railways arranged for the trial rail survey being done in South Brisbane to be extended across the river to the main western line near Countess Street.

In 1889, he arranged to have levels taken for alternative routes to Roma Street tunnel via Herschel Street, and to Central station via a direct route between Turbot and Ann Streets. The Herschel Street route was recommended for adoption, and plans subsequently prepared. However the government decided not to proceed and requested an alternative survey, but that too was held over.

Worried at losing trade to central city businesses, the merchants of South Brisbane fought against the bridge. In 1913, the then Premier requested that plans for a direct route through Ann Street to Albert Square (now King George Square) be put in hand. In 1919, the matter was raised again, but after further pressure from antilobbyists, was once more allowed to lapse.

In 1950, the issue was raised in connection with proposals to electrify the Brisbane suburban network. Surveys and plans were finalised in 1954, and in 1955 the State Government announced its decision to proceed with the construction and initiated land resumptions. However, financial constraints again caused a deferment. This study was submitted to the Government in 1970. It recommended that the crossing should follow the route, as surveyed in 1890. The Queensland State Cabinet approved the bridge in October 1971. In 1975, a contract was let to Transfield for the construction of the bridge and the line into South Brisbane station. The first pile was driven on 21 August 1975. The bridge took a period of three years and three months to be built.

The Merivale Bridge opened on 18 November 1978 by Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen. At the opening with 850 guests, the Premier, described the occasion as "the start of the second stage in the history of Queensland Railways". The first train to use the train was Diesel electric locomotive no. 2422.

The bridge was named after Merivale Street in South Brisbane with which the bridge is aligned.

The bridge was refurbished in 2016.

State Library of Queensland holds John Christsen Merivale Bridge collection which contains 370 chronological photographs of the construction of the bridge, as well as documents and research papers relating to the bridge

title: Merivale Bridge


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Talk:Weights and measures

I've now made one uniform article, basically based on the material from NIST:

There is also a:

 * 1) Historical weights and measures, a listing of actual units and their values

-- Egil 11:33 Feb 17, 2003 (UTC)

A lot of this material appears to be duplicated in individual articles such as [Yard] - which direction is the material in the process of being moved? --Random|832 02:58, 7 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I added comments regarding metrology and the BIPM. I also added metrology as a see also reference. --David.c.h 03:46, 22 November 2005 (UTC)

title: Talk:Weights and measures


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Albert Bridge, Brisbane

Albert Bridge is a heritage-listed railway bridge of steel truss design crossing the Brisbane River between Indooroopilly and Chelmer in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Henry Charles Stanley and built from 1894 to 1895 by John McCormick & Son as a replacement for an earlier bridge lost to flooding in 1893. Both bridges were named in honour of the Prince of Wales, Prince Albert. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.

The Albert Bridge links Indooroopilly and Chelmer railway station. The structure consists of two steel spans supported by masonry abutments and a central concrete pier that is encased in an iron caisson. A footway was provided on the upstream side.

History
The first Albert Bridge on the site was completed in june 1876 and enabled the Main Line railway from Grandchester to Ipswich to be extended to reach Brisbane itself. In the early days of settlement, the Brisbane River at Indooroopilly provided an obstacle to the construction of a railway between Brisbane and the mining centre of Ipswich. At this time, a river boat service linked the two centres. The completion of the first Albert Bridge enabled the Ipswich railway line to open in 1875. The bridge facilitated the mass transportation of goods between Ipswich and Brisbane, which previously was only possible through shipping. The first bridge was destroyed in the 1893 flood. In the meantime, ferries were used to transport people and goods across the busy river. This, however, led to the capsize of the ferry Pearl disaster in 1896 with the loss of more than 40 lives.

The second and current Albert Bridge was built in 1895. It was designed by Henry Charles Stanley, Queensland's Chief Engineer of Railways from 1891 to 1901 and is considered his major work. He designed a "hogsback" steel truss bridge on masonry piers. In designing the bridge as two long spans with one central pier, he tried to minimise the obstruction to flood waters created by multiple piers, which had been the downfall of the first bridge.

Innovations in the design included the attachment of cross girders, protection against derailment, provision against strong wind gusts, and provision for free expansion under varying temperatures. The working drawings and specification were prepared by FL Keir of the Chief Engineer's office, and were completed by mid-1893. Keir was also the resident engineer on the site.

In August 1893 the contract was let to Brisbane contractors John McCormick & Son, with a price of. McCormick & Son also later won the contract for the ironwork on the second permanent Victoria Bridge, 1896–97. Expiry date for the Albert Bridge contract was set at 14 December 1894, but it was not opened to traffic until August 1895. A Scottish coal strike held up delivery of the rolled steel for eight months, and removal of the river bedrock for the central pier alone took four months.

A condition of the construction contract was that as much of the work as possible be done in Queensland. Messrs McCormick erected a workshop adjacent to the site at Indooroopilly, and imported machinery necessary for constructing the superstructure and the caisson for the central pier. Up to 240 persons were employed on site at any one time, and quarry workers provided freestone from Pearson's quarries at Helidon, the bluestone in the concrete from Jenkin's Bundamba quarry, and the granite for the bedstones and cutwater quoins from Mount Crosby. In 1895 the bridge was the largest in Australia of local manufacture.

The most difficult aspect of the work was the construction of the central pier and its foundation caisson. The latter weighed about 230 LT, rested 81 ft below high water mark, and was sunk 2 ft into the rock. The riverbed sand and gravel could be dredged, but divers extracted the rock manually.

The southern span was erected above what remained of the former bridge, and was extended to the centre pier. The old pylons were then removed.

The northern truss was floated into position. The shore end rested on two trolleys, and when the tide was at its highest, specially constructed staging on an old barque took the weight of the other end of the truss from temporary piles. Winches were then used to pull the hulk across the river toward the centre pier, to which the truss was attached.

The cores of the earlier bridge abutments were widened and heightened to take the new superstructure. Parapets were constructed after the trusses had been fixed in place, and were completed in November 1895.

When opened the bridge also catered for pedestrian traffic, until the construction of the nearby Walter Taylor Bridge in 1937.

The Albert Bridge remains one of Australia's largest truss bridges. At the time of its completion, as a metal truss bridge it was second only to the first Hawkesbury rail bridge (1889) in span length. The Albert Bridge is still Australia's third longest span metal truss bridge, after Brisbane's Story Bridge (1940) (Story Bridge) and the second Hawkesbury rail bridge (1945).

The bridge was integral to the southwest railway system linking Brisbane with Ipswich, the Darling Downs, and southeast Queensland. With increased traffic it was supplemented with an adjacent upstream rail bridge in 1957, which together remained the only Brisbane River rail crossing prior to construction of the Merivale Bridge in 1978.

The Albert Bridge currently handles only passenger traffic.

A second unnamed railway bridge is located between the Albert Bridge and the Walter Taylor Bridge. This second crossing was constructed in 1957 as part of the quadruplication of the Ipswich railway line.

Description
The Albert Bridge spans the Brisbane River from Indooroopilly to Chelmer, at the junction of the Chelmer and Indooroopilly reaches.

It is a fully riveted structure consisting of two arched "hogsback" mild steel trusses supported on stone abutments either side, and on a central concrete pier. This pier is encased in an elliptical wrought- iron caisson to low water level, then built up with masonry to the truss bearings.

Each truss is 103.7 m long, 12.6 m high in the middle, 8.2 m wide, and weighs approximately 606 MT. Their design employs a double-intersection web system of diagonal members, based on the Linville system developed in the United States in the 1860s. They are strengthened by horizontal wind bracing at roadway level, and by elaborate overhead cross bracing.

The double railroad is carried by four longitudinal steel trough girders, with the sides of the troughs acting as guards against derailment. These are supported by massive cross-girders riveted to the underneath of the vertical struts and lower booms of the main trusses, at 5.2 m intervals. The decking consists of ironbark longitudinals bedded on bitumen and sand, and bolted to steel tee bars which connect the trough girders transversely.

A cantilevered wrought iron footway is carried on the upstream side of the bridge.

Heritage listing
The Albert Bridge was registered on the (now defunct) Register of the National Estate in 1988. It was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992 having satisfied the following criteria.

The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history.

Albert Bridge at Indooroopilly is significant as an early, large span metal truss bridge in Australia, and remains the country's third longest span metal truss bridge. At the time of construction, Albert Bridge was the largest bridge in Australia to be manufactured locally. Albert Bridge is significant for its contribution to the railway system linking the capital with southern and western Queensland, remaining for over six decades part of the only railway link across the Brisbane River.

The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places.

The bridge is highly intact, and provides important physical evidence of late 19th century railway bridge design and construction in Australia.

The place is important because of its aesthetic significance.

The bridge is important also for its landmark quality and aesthetic contribution to the riverscape along the Indooroopilly reach of the Brisbane River.

The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period.

It is important for its innovations in design and implementation, and remains a major example of the design skills of engineer HC Stanley, and of the work of Brisbane contractors John McCormick & Son.

The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history.

It is important for its innovations in design and implementation, and remains a major example of the design skills of engineer HC Stanley, and of the work of Brisbane contractors John McCormick & Son.

title: Albert Bridge, Brisbane


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Jozef Tiso

Jozef Gašpar Tiso (, ; 13 October 1887 – 18 April 1947) was a Slovak politician and Catholic priest who served as president of the First Slovak Republic, a client state of Nazi Germany during World War II, from 1939 to 1945. In 1947, after the war, he was executed for treason in Bratislava.

Born in 1887 to Slovak parents in Nagybiccse (today Bytča), then part of Hungary, Austria-Hungary, Tiso studied several languages during his school career, including Hebrew and German. He was introduced to priesthood from an early age, and helped combat local poverty and alcoholism in what is now Slovakia. He joined the Slovak People's Party (Slovenská ľudová strana) in 1918 and became party leader in 1938 following the death of Andrej Hlinka. On 14 March 1939, the Slovak Assembly in Bratislava unanimously adopted Law 1/1939 transforming the autonomous Slovak Republic (that was until then part of Czechoslovakia) into an independent country. Two days after Nazi Germany seized the remainder of the Czech Lands, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was proclaimed.

Jozef Tiso, who was already the prime minister of the autonomous Slovakia (under Czechoslovak laws), became the Slovak Republic's prime minister, and, in October 1939, he was elected its president.

Tiso collaborated with Germany in deportations of Jews, deporting many Slovak Jews to extermination and concentration camps in Germany and German-occupied Poland, while some Jews in Slovakia were murdered outright. Deportations were executed from 25 March 1942 until 20 October 1942. An anti-fascist partisan insurgency was waged, culminating in the Slovak National Uprising in summer 1944, which was suppressed by German military authorities, with many of its leaders executed. Consequently, on 30 September 1944, deportations of Jews were renewed, with additional 13,500 deported.

When the Soviet Red Army overran the last parts of western Slovakia in April 1945, Tiso fled to Austria and then Germany, where American troops arrested him and then had him extradited back to the restored Czechoslovakia, where he was convicted of high treason, betrayal of the national uprising and collaboration with the Nazis, and then executed by hanging in 1947 and buried in Bratislava. In 2008, his remains were buried in the canonical crypt of the Cathedral in Nitra, Slovakia.

Early life
Tiso was born in Bytča (then Nagybiccse) to Slovak parents, in Trencsén County, of the Kingdom of Hungary, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was raised in a religious family and studied at the local elementary school. Then, as a good student with a flair for languages, he studied at a lower grammar school in Žilina. The school had clearly Hungarian spirit, since all Slovak grammar schools were closed at the time of his study. Here, he began to use the Hungarian form of his name Tiszó József.

In 1902, he began to study at higher Piarist grammar school in Nitra. The Bishop of Nitra, Imre Bende, offered him a chance to study for the priesthood at the prestigious Pázmáneum in Vienna. Tiso, taught by several elite professors, became familiar with various philosophies and the newest papal encyclicals. He also extended his language skills. Along with already known Hungarian, German and Latin, he studied Hebrew, Aramaic dialects and Arabic. The school reports describe him mostly as an "excellent", "exemplary", and "pious" student. Enrolling in the University of Vienna in 1906, he was ordained a priest in 1910 and graduated as a Doctor of Theology in 1911.

His early ministry was spent as an assistant priest in three parishes in today's Slovakia. Tiso was interested in public affairs and performed extensive educational and social work. During his fight against poverty and alcoholism, he may also have adopted some stereotypical and simplified views on Slovak-Jewish relations. Such views were not unusual in the contemporary society, including among priests or other people with higher education. He blamed the Jewish tavern owners for the rising alcoholism and he was also a member of self-help association selling food and clothing cheaper than the local Jewish store. Tiso became a member of Nép párt (Catholic People's Party) and contributed to its Slovak journal Kresťan (Christian).

During the World War I, he served as a field curate of the 71st infantry regiment of the Austro-Hungarian Army recruited mostly from Slovak soldiers. The regiment suffered heavy losses in Galicia. Tiso got first-hand experience with horrors of war, but also with Germanisation and Russification of the local population. Tiso was inspired by a better organization of the Slovenian national movement. Tiso's military career was ended by a serious kidney illness and he was released from the military service. He did not return to his parish in Bánovce, but he was appointed as the Spiritual Director of the Nitra seminary by Bende's successor, Vilmos Batthyány. Tiso was also active at this time as a school teacher and journalist. He published his experiences from the war ("The Diary from the Northern Frontline"). In other articles written in a patriotic style, he emphasized the need for good military morale and discipline. However, this was nothing unusual, and it reflected a common style of the contemporary press, including a limited set of still printed Slovak newspapers. He also covered religious and educational topics, emphasizing a need for religious literature in Slovak.

Tiso did not belong to politicians active in the pre-war national movement and his pre-war national orientation has been frequently questioned. His political opponents tried to draw him as a Magyarone (Magyarized Slovak) while some Slovak nationalists sought for proofs of his early national orientation. Both views are largely simplified. Tiso carefully avoided national self-categorization language, his behaviour might be framed in a "national indifference" approach – a practice largely spread in Central Europe before 1918. His only criticism targeted the Jews. In some of his pre-1918 writings Tiso complained about the state hierarchy or the ruling Liberal party, but he never denounced the Magyarisation or the Magyar nationalism. At the same time, he was more focused on social and religious activities among the Slovaks without revealing his ethnic or national self-identification. Most importantly, Tiso publicly acted as a loyal subject of the Habsburg dynasty. Interestingly that his writings rather reveals that his identity was stronger linked to the entire monarchy of Austria-Hungary, than to the Kingdom of Hungary, whose citizen he formally was.

Collapse of Austria-Hungary
In the autumn of 1918, Tiso recognized that the Austro-Hungarian monarchy was unsustainable. He also understood that the historical Kingdom of Hungary could not be preserved anymore. Regardless of the formal Czechoslovak declaration of independence, the way to real control of Czechoslovak bodies over Slovakia was not straightforward. Also, it was still unclear to which state Nitra would belong after the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. In these conditions, he began to prepare his readers for the new state and political regime. On 8 December 1918, the Hungarian National Council in Nitra delegated him to negotiate with the Czechoslovak Army which was invited to "restore and maintain public order". Tiso was named secretary of new Slovak National Council and embraced politics as a career.

First Czechoslovak republic
In December 1918, Tiso became a member of the restored Slovak People's Party (Slovenská ľudová strana, so called "Ľudáks"). The party supported the idea of parliamentary democracy, defended interests of its Slovak Catholic voters and sought Slovak autonomy within the Czecho-Slovakia framework. Tiso, largely unknown before the coup, gradually strengthened his position in the party hierarchy. His elite education, high intelligence, energy, large working experiences with common people and his ability to speak in common terms made him a popular speaker and journalist of the party. In 1919, he founded a subsidiary of the party in Nitra and he organized a gymnastic organization, Orol (Eagle), the counterweight of a similar Czech/Czechoslovak organization Sokol. Tiso first ran for parliament in the 1920 Czechoslovak parliamentary election. Although the electoral results from his district were bright spots in what was otherwise a disappointing election for the Ľudáks, the party did not reward him with a legislative seat. Tiso, however, easily claimed one in the 1925 election, which also resulted in a breakthrough victory for the party. Until 1938, he was a fixture in the Czecho-Slovakian parliament in Prague.

In 1921 Tiso was appointed Monsignor by the Vatican, although this appointment lapsed with the later death of Pope Benedict XV. From 1921 to 1923, he served as the secretary to the new Slovak bishop of Nitra, Karol Kmeťko. During the same period, nationalist political agitation earned Tiso two convictions by the Czechoslovak courts for incitement, one of which resulted in a short incarceration. Displeased, Kmeťko dropped him as secretary in 1923, but retained him as a Professor of Theology. In 1924, Tiso left Nitra to become dean of Bánovce nad Bebravou. He remained the Dean of Bánovce for the rest of his political career, returning there regularly every weekend also as a Czechoslovak minister, and as later as president.

In the interwar period, Tiso was a moderate politician and his ability to reach compromises made him a respected mediator of the party. He used more radical rhetoric as a journalist, putting aside much of the anti-Jewish rhetoric of his earlier journalistic activities. He attacked his opponents and did not always control his emotions. However, he usually returned to rational arguments in official political negotiations. Tiso sharply criticized policies of the central government regarding Slovaks and Slovakia. While the party still operated within a democratic framework, Tiso's colleague and political rival Vojtech Tuka formed two internal movements to oppose the state or its regime – the first collaborating with Hungarian irredentism and the second led by pro-fascist Rodobrana. Tiso did not participate in these.

In the late 1920s, Tiso became one of the party's leaders. When the president of the party Andrej Hlinka traveled in 1926 to the 28th International Eucharistic Congress in Chicago, he delegated Tiso to represent him in the presidium of the party. In his absence, Tiso led complicated negotiations about an entry of HSĽS into the government. He was successful and thus strengthened his position. In January 1927, he became the Czechoslovak Minister of Health and Physical Education. Since HSĽS previously operated as an opposition party and was not able to fulfill all of its promises, the participation in the government led to the loss of credibility. Tiso again proved his speaker skills and supported the decision to participate in the government. As a minister, Tiso successfully realized several important health service projects in Slovakia. Surprisingly, he refused the government ministry flat, staying in one of Prague monasteries. In October 1929, HSĽS left the government after the Tuka affair. Tiso was more inclined than Hlinka to find compromises with other parties to form alliances, but for a decade after 1929 his initiatives were not successful. In 1930, he became the official vice-president of the party and seemed destined to succeed Hlinka. He spent the 1930s competing for Hlinka's mantle with party radicals, most notably the rightist Karol Sidor – Tuka was in prison for much of this period for treason.

In 1930, Tiso published The Ideology of the Hlinka's Slovak People's Party explaining his views on the Czech-Slovak relationship. Notably, he claimed sovereignty of the Slovak nation over the territory of Slovakia and indirectly suggested the right of Slovaks also to adopt different solutions for things from the Czechoslovak government in Prague. He repeated the same idea in his parliamentary speeches.

By the middle 1930s, Tiso's views shifted toward authoritarian and totalitarian ideas. He repeatedly declared that HSĽS was the only party representing the Slovaks and the only party which spoke for the Slovak nation. These claims played a significant role in the later end of the democratic regime. "One nation, one party, one leader", Tiso declared at the party congress held in 1936. The party should cover all aspects of the life.

In 1938, with increasing pressure from Nazi Germany and Hungary, the representatives of HSĽS questioned neighboring states on their views for the future of Slovakia. In May 1938, Tiso held secret negotiations with the Hungarian Foreign Minister Affairs Kálmán Kánya during a eucharistic congress in Budapest. He declared that Slovakia might be prepared to rejoin Hungary as an autonomous federal state should Czechoslovakia cease to exist. However, the meeting did not go well. Tiso was disappointed by Kánya's attitude and alleged Hungarian historical claims on Slovakia and felt Kánya's behaviour was lofty and arrogant. He concluded that Hungary was not seriously interested in a common agreement and was focused more on the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, as was Germany. Therefore, well aware of the weak economic position of Slovakia, the lack of qualified people and an unstable international situation, he felt he was stuck with Czechoslovakia for the time being. When Hlinka died in August 1938, Tiso quickly consolidated control of the Ľudák party. Tiso was an official speaker from the party at Hlinka's funeral where he urged national unity and loyalty to the Czechoslovak republic. He, however, continued negotiations with the central government in Prague, explained the goals of potential autonomy and refused a military solution of the Czechoslovak-German crisis.

Autonomous Slovak Region
In October 1938, following the Munich Agreement, Germany annexed and occupied the Sudetenland, the main German-speaking parts of Czecho-Slovakia. On 6 October 1938, HSĽS took advantage of the weakening of central government and declared autonomy for Slovakia (some other parties in Slovakia supported this). The next day, he became Prime Minister of the Slovak Autonomous Region.

One of his first tasks was to lead the Czechoslovak delegation during negotiations with Hungary in Komárno preceding the First Vienna Award. Prime Minister Tiso, who had never led a delegation in similar international negotiations, found himself in a difficult position. The central government of the Second Czechoslovak Republic (under the pressure of terrorist actions sponsored by the Hungarian government and after serious changes of the international situation) accepted negotiations before being completely ready, and the government also found itself overloaded while trying to stabilize the situation with Germany. Tiso opposed the proposals of the Hungarian delegation but acted as a flexible and patient negotiator. When the Hungarian delegation refused further discussion, Tiso sought the help of Germany. This had already been promised by German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, if necessary. Later, Tiso was shocked by the First Vienna Award, so much so that he initially refused to sign the protocol. In a radio speech to the citizens, Tiso did not mention Ribbentrop's promise, but blamed the Prague government and its "policies of the past twenty years".

"The Slovak government guarantees all citizens adequate assistance and protection."

- Jozef Tiso

The day before the award, police arrested several Jews at a demonstration of the Hungarian Youth Organization calling for the cession of Komárno to Hungary. Their participation was then used in propaganda blaming the Jews for the result (Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy obviously did not carry out "the wish of the Jewry" but followed their own interests). On 3 November 1938, Tiso met with Jozef Faláth (the head of the "central office for the Jewish question" who had already contacts to Nazi Party politicians in Vienna) and Jozef Kirschbaum. Tiso, who was otherwise a relatively pragmatic politician, adopted an unusually firm solution. On 4 November 1938 he ordered the deportation of Jews "without property", and later those without citizenship, to the territory now annexed by Hungary. His government then deported more than 7,500 people including elderly people, pregnant women, and at least 570 children under age 15 to no man's land in rainy autumn weather. On 7 November, he cancelled the action.

As a prime minister and minister of the interior of the autonomous government, Tiso had extensive powers. In October–December 1938, his government did not share power with any other Slovak public body, because the autonomous parliament was elected only thereafter. During this period, HSĽS forbade activities of all political parties except those that agreed to join the governing coalition "voluntarily" and two parties representing minority populations, the "German Party" and the "Unified Hungarian Party". HSĽS then organized rigged parliamentary elections. Even before the official announcement of the elections, Tiso told the German newspaper Völkischer Beobachter that there would be only one united ballot and Jews could not be elected. The deportations and some other actions of Tiso's autonomous government were against the Czechoslovak Constitution of 1920.

Slovak secession
In February 1939, Tiso entered into negotiations with Germany for a fully independent Slovakia, separated from Czechoslovakia. He held direct meetings with the German representative Arthur Seyss-Inquart, in which Tiso initially expressed doubts as to whether an independent Slovakia would be a viable entity. Czech military units subsequently occupied Slovakia and forced Tiso out of office on 9 March. However the Ruthenians, also resentful of the inclusion of their lands in Czechoslovakia, and the oppressions of the Prague government, now also sought autonomy.

Tiso's Catholic-conservative feelings initially inhibited him from what appeared to be revolutionary moves. However, within a few days Hitler invited Tiso to Berlin, and offered assistance for Slovak nationhood. Hitler suggested that Slovakia should declare independence under German protection (i.e.: Protectorate status), and that if not Hungary might annex the remaining territory of Slovakia. Without making an agreement, Tiso now requested the Czecho-Slovak President to call a meeting of the Slovak Diet for 14 March. During that session Tiso made a speech informing the Diet of his conversation with Hitler, confirming that he reserved any move for an independence decision to come from the Slovak Diet. On the initiative of the President of the assembly, Martin Sokol (himself previously a strong proponent of the Czecho-Slovak state with guaranteed autonomy for Slovakia), endorsed a declaration of independence. On 15 March, Germany occupied the remaining rump of Czechoslovakia after Hitler coerced a sick Czech President Emil Hácha into acquiescing.

Slovakia became the Slovak Republic, an independent state (under German protection) which was formally recognised by the Soviet Union and Germany, with de facto recognition by the United Kingdom and France (but not by the United States who were largely responsible, in 1919, for the new artificial state of Czechoslovakia). Czech émigrés and the United States considered Slovakia a puppet state of Germany. After the later recognition of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile by Great Britain, the British Foreign Office notified the Czech Foreign Ministry that Britain did not recognise any territorial claims of Czechoslovakia, nor could they commit to any fixed boundaries for the state, nor recognise the legal continuation of Czechoslovakia.

Tiso was initially Prime Minister from 14 March 1939 until 26 October 1939. Tiso not only supported Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland in September 1939 but contributed Slovak troops, which the Germans rewarded by allowing Slovakia to annex 300 square miles of Polish territory. On 1 October 1939, Tiso officially became President of the Slovak People's Party. On 26 October, he became President of the Slovak Republic, and appointed Tuka as Prime Minister. After 1942, President Tiso was also styled Vodca ("Leader"), an imitation of German Führer.

Anti-semitism and deportation of Jews
At the Salzburg Conference on 28 July 1940, an agreement was reached to establish a National Socialist regime in Slovakia. Tuka attended the conference, as did Hitler, Tiso, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Alexander Mach (head of the Hlinka Guards), and Franz Karmasin, head of the local Carpathian German minority. As a result of the conference, two state agencies were created to deal with "Jewish affairs". The "Salzburg Summit" resulted in closer collaboration with Germany, and in Tuka and other political leaders increasing their powers at the expense of Tiso's original concept of a Catholic corporate state. The agreement called for dual command by the Slovak People's Party and the Hlinka Guard (HSĽS), and also an acceleration in Slovakia's anti-Jewish policies. The Nazi government appointed Sturmabteilung leader Manfred von Killinger as the German representative in Slovakia. Tiso however accepted these changes in subsequent conversation with Hitler. SS Officer Dieter Wisliceny was dispatched to Slovakia to act as an "adviser" on Jewish issues. The Party under Tiso and Tuka's leadership aligned itself with Nazi policy by implementing anti-semitic legislation in Slovakia. The main act was the Jewish Code, under which Jews in Slovakia could not own any real estate or luxury goods, were excluded from public office and free occupations, could not participate in sport or cultural events, were excluded from secondary schools and universities, and were required to wear the Star of David in public. Tiso himself had anti-semitic views (as his earlier journalism made clear) which were widespread in Slovakia.

Although there are dissenting opinions by modern politicians on his role in the Jewish deportations from Slovakia, it is clear that, in line with German policy and "suggestions" as well as his earlier anti-semitism, he encouraged these actions, despite condemnation of the deportations from some Slovak bishops. In February 1942, Slovakia became the first Nazi ally to agree to deportations. The Nazis had asked for 20,000 young able-bodied Jews for labour duties. Tiso had hoped that compliance would aid in the return of 120,000 Slovak workers from Germany. In August 1942, after the majority of Slovak Jews had been sent to German-occupied Poland and it became clear that the deportees were being systematically murdered, Tiso gave a speech in Holič in which he called for Slovaks to "cast off your parasite [the Jews]" and justified continuing deportations of Jews from Slovakia. On 30 August, Hitler commented "It is interesting how this little Catholic priest Tiso is sending us the Jews!". Vatican undersecretary Domenico Tardini complained: "Everyone understands that the Holy See cannot stop Hitler. But who can understand that it does not know how to rein in a priest?"

Later in 1942, amid Vatican protests as news of the fate of the deportees filtered back, and the German advance into the Soviet Union was halted, Slovakia then became the first of Hitler's puppet states to shut down the deportations. Mazower wrote: "When the Vatican protested, the government responded with defiance: 'There is no foreign intervention which would stop us on the road to the liberation of Slovakia from Jewry', insisted President Tiso". Distressing scenes at railway yards of deportees being beaten by Hlinka guards had brought protests, including from leading churchmen such as Bishop Pavol Jantausch. The Vatican called in the Slovak ambassador twice to enquire as to what was happening in Slovakia. According to British historian Richard Evans, these interventions "caused Tiso, who after all was still a priest in holy orders, to have second thoughts about the programme". Giuseppe Burzio and others reported to Tiso that the Germans were murdering the deported Jews. Tiso hesitated and then refused to deport Slovakia's 24,000 remaining Jews. According to Mazower, "Church pressure and public anger resulted in perhaps 20,000 Jews being granted exemptions, effectively bringing the deportations there to an end".

When in 1943 rumours of further deportations emerged, the Papal Nuncio in Istanbul, Msgr. Angelo Roncalli (later Pope John XXIII) and Burzio helped galvanize the Holy See into intervening in vigorous terms. On 7 April 1943, Burzio challenged Tuka over the rumours of extermination of Slovak Jews. The Vatican then condemned the renewal of the deportations on 5 May and the Slovakian episcopate issued a pastoral letter condemning totalitarianism and antisemitism on 8 May 1943. According to Evans, Tuka was "forced to backtrack by public protests, especially from the Church, which by this time had been convinced of the fate that awaited the deportees. Pressure from the Germans, including a direct confrontation between Hitler and Tiso on 22 April 1943, remained without effect."

In August 1944, the Slovak National Uprising broke out against the Tiso government. German troops were sent to quell this and with them came Einsatzgruppe H and security police charged with rounding up or murdering Slovakia's remaining Jews. During the German occupation, another 13,500 Jews were deported, most of them to Auschwitz, and 5,000 imprisoned. Some were murdered in Slovakia itself, in particular at Kremnička and Nemecká.

Tiso remained in office during the German army's occupation, but his presidency was relegated to a mostly titular role as Slovakia lost whatever de facto independence it had. Burzio begged Tiso directly to at least spare Catholics of Jewish ancestry from deportation and delivered an admonition from the Pope: "the injustice wrought by his government is harmful to the prestige of his country and enemies will exploit it to discredit clergy and the Church the world over".

By the end of the Holocaust, more than two-thirds of the Jews living in Slovakia had been murdered.

Conviction and execution
Tiso lost all remnants of power when the Soviet Red Army conquered the last parts of western Slovakia in April 1945. He fled first to Austria, then to a Capuchin monastery in Altötting, Bavaria. In June 1945, he was arrested by the Americans and extradited to the reconstituted Czechoslovakia to stand trial in October 1945. On 15 April 1947, the Czechoslovak National Court (Národný súd) found him guilty of many of the allegations against him, and sentenced him to death for "state treason, betrayal of the antifascist partisan insurrection and collaboration with Nazism".

The court concluded that Tiso's government had been responsible for the break-up of the Czechoslovak Republic; and found Tiso guilty of:

 * administering a more radical "solution" of the Jewish question
 * establishing a totalitarian fascist regime under the slogan "One God, one nation, one organisation" by founding the fascist organisations HSĽS (Hlinka's Slovak People's Party), Hlinkova garda (Hlinka Guard), and Hlinkova mládež (Hlinka Youth), the last two with compulsory membership
 * destroying democracy
 * awarding Karl Hermann Frank the Grand Cross following Frank's involvement in Czech students' murders and the Lidice massacre
 * allowing the military occupation of the western part of Slovakia by the Wehrmacht, which seized state military assets valued 2 billion Ks and transported them to Nazi Germany
 * persecuting and terrorizing the regime's 3,000 opponents, who were imprisoned, tortured, and, for some, slaughtered in the Ilava concentration camp
 * expropriating the assets of the Czechs and the Jews by the Hlinka Guard
 * damaging the state finances in the amount of 8.6 billions Ks due to clearing for Nazi Germany, another 3–4 billion Ks by supplying the Wehrmacht, and 7 billion Ks by secretly supplying the German occupational forces
 * inciting of hatred against the Jews, excluding them from public life and economy, and restricting their personal freedom
 * approving the Jewish Code, under which Jews in Slovakia were deprived of human rights, and were deported to the Sereď concentration camp and Nováky concentration camp, while Tiso sold some Jews under exceptions to the Code
 * approving deportation of 57,837 Jews to German concentration camps in 1942 who were subsequently murdered, and paying for it with 100 million Ks to Nazi Germany
 * delivering POWs to the German occupation forces knowing they would be murdered
 * allowing the Gestapo and Sicherheitsdienst to imprison, torture, and abduct people, including Slovaks, before the Slovak National Uprising
 * ordering the Hlinka Guard and other fascist organisations to help the German occupational forces catch, imprison, torture, and slaughter 4,316 people suspected of involvement in the Uprising and abduct 30,000 people to German concentration camps
 * tolerating destruction of numerous villages (e.g. Kľak or Nemecká) by German occupational forces (e.g. Edelweiss (anti-partisan unit)) and the Hlinka Guard
 * mobilising for German occupation forces
 * allowing German occupational forces to abduct Slovaks for forced labour in Nazi Germany
 * ordering civilians to take part in military fortification work for German occupational forces
 * approving an eastern part of Slovakia to be declared operational territory of German forces and subjecting the Slovak Army to the German military leadership
 * and many other crimes

Tiso was sentenced to death, to deprivation of his civil rights, and to confiscation of all of his property. Tiso appealed to the Czechoslovak president Edvard Beneš and expected a reprieve; his prosecutor had recommended clemency. However, no reprieve was forthcoming. Wearing his clerical outfit, Tiso was hanged in Bratislava on 18 April 1947. The Czechoslovak government buried him secretly to avoid having his grave become a shrine, but far-right followers of Tiso soon identified the grave in the St Martin cemetery in Bratislava as his. Decades later, after a DNA test in April 2008 that confirmed it, the body of Tiso was exhumed and buried in St Emmeram's Cathedral in Nitra, in accordance with canon law.

Legacy
Under communism, Tiso was formulaically denounced as a clerical Fascist. With the fall of communism in 1989, and the subsequent independence of Slovakia, heated debate began again on his role. James Mace Ward writes in Tiso's biography Priest, Politician, Collaborator (2013): "At its worst, [the debate] was fuel for an ultranationalist attempt to reconstruct Slovak society, helping to destabilize Czechoslovakia. At its best, the debate inspired a thoughtful reassessment of Tiso and encouraged Slovaks to grapple with the legacy of collaboration."

Members of the far-right in admiration of Tiso created a memorial grave in Martin cemetery in October of 2008 to commemorate Tiso. It has since been used as an occasional gathering place for many far-right groups, including the People's Party Our Slovakia. Ultranationalist propaganda proclaims Tiso as a "martyr" who "sacrificed his life for his belief and nation", and so tries to paint him as an innocent victim of communism and a saint.

title: Jozef Tiso


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Gusev, Kaliningrad Oblast

Gusev (Гу́сев; Gumbinnen; Gumbinė; Gąbin) is a town and the administrative center of Gusevsky District of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Pissa and Krasnaya Rivers, near the border with Poland and Lithuania, east of Chernyakhovsk. Population:

History
The settlement of Gumbinnen (from Gumbinė: pumpkin) in the Duchy of Prussia, a vassal duchy of the Kingdom of Poland, was first mentioned in a 1580 deed. A Protestant parish was established in Gumbinnen at the behest of the Hohenzollern thanks to Duke Albert of Prussia about 1545 and the first church was erected in 1582. It became part of Brandenburg-Prussia in 1618, remaining a fief of Poland.

From the 18th century, it was part of the Kingdom of Prussia. Between 1709 and 1711 the area was devastated by the Great Northern War plague outbreak and had to be redeveloped under the rule of the "Soldier King" Frederick William I of Prussia, who granted Gumbinnen town privileges in 1724 and from 1732 resettled the area with Salzburg Protestants, refugees from Salzburg, who had been expelled by Prince-Archbishop Count Leopold Anton von Firmian. The first filial church of the Salzburg Protestants was erected between 1752 and 1752, and was rebuilt in 1840 in a Neoclassical style according to plans designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. The church was restored in 1995 by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Central Asia.

From 1815, Gumbinnen was the capital of Regierungsbezirk Gumbinnen, an administrative district of the Province of East Prussia, and became part of the German Empire upon the unification of Germany in 1871. In 1860 the Prussian State railway line from Königsberg to Stallupönen (now Nesterov) was built and the route passed through Gumbinnen, causing the town to grow in economic importance in the region. By the end of the 19th century, Gumbinnen had a foundry, a machine shop, a furniture factory, a clothing mill, two sawmills, several brickworks, and a dairy.

During World War I the town was the site of the Battle of Gumbinnen, a major battle on the Eastern Front. The battle took place nearby in the opening days of the war in August 1914, and Gumbinnen was subsequently occupied by the Russian Army for several months. After the war, a power plant, the Ostpreußenwerk, was built in Gumbinnen and powered much of East Prussia. At the beginning of the Nazi era, Gumbinnen was designated a military sub-region of the Königsberg military area. Near the end of World War II, in 1944, the first of Gumbinnen's 24,000 residents began to flee from the advancing Red Army, and a Soviet air attack on October 16, 1944, caused heavy damage to the inner town area. On October 22, 1944, the town was taken by Soviet forces, who engaged in numerous vengeful atrocities against the civilian population before the Wehrmacht retook the town two days later. Although the German forces retook Gumbinnen and managed in late October to stabilize the battle line east of the town, it was quickly re-conquered by the Red Army during the great Soviet East Prussia offensive on 21 January 1945. During the Evacuation of East Prussia, the surviving German residents fled or were expelled.

Following the end of the war, under border changes promulgated at the Potsdam Conference in 1945, the northern part of the former province of East Prussia became a part of the Soviet Union, including Gumbinnen. The town was renamed Gusev, in honour of a Red Army captain, Sergei Ivanovich Gusev, who was killed in action near Gumbinnen in January 1945, and was posthumously given the award of Hero of the Soviet Union on April 19, 1945.

Administrative and municipal status
Within the framework of administrative divisions, Gusev serves as the administrative center of Gusevsky District. As an administrative division, it is incorporated within Gusevsky District as the town of district significance of Gusev.

Within the framework of municipal divisions, since June 10, 2013, the territories of the town of district significance of Gusev and of four rural okrugs of Gusevsky District are incorporated as Gusevsky Urban Okrug. Before that, the town of district significance was incorporated within Gusevsky Municipal District as Gusevskoye Urban Settlement.

Transportation
Gusev lies on the double-track, broad-gauge rail line connecting the Kaliningrad Oblast exclave through Lithuania and Belarus with the main contiguous territory of Russia.

The Yantar Special Economic Zone
In the 1990s the Yantar Special Economic Zone was established in Kaliningrad Oblast. Some of projects in the zone are located in Gusev, such as NPO CTS.

Notable people

 * Kristijonas Donelaitis (1714–1780) a Prussian Lithuanian Lutheran pastor and poet
 * Christian Daniel Rauch (1777–1857), German sculptor
 * Otto von Corvin (1812–1886), German writer
 * Gustav Albert Peter (1853–1937) a German botanist.
 * Richard Friese (1854–1918) German animal and landscape painter
 * Konrad Grallert von Cebrów (1865–1942), divisional commander in the Austro-Hungarian Army
 * Gotthard Heinrici (1886–1971), German general
 * Bruno Bieler (1888–1966), German general
 * Max Liedtke (1894-1955), German army officer, one of the Righteous Among the Nations
 * Werner Dankwort (1895–1986), German diplomat
 * Winfried Mahraun (1907–1973) German diver who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics
 * Wilhelm Schöning (1908–1987) Oberstleutnant, commander of the 66th Panzergrenadier Regiment
 * Karin Krebs (born 1943), German athlete
 * Oleg Gazmanov (born 1951), Russian pop-singer, composer and poet
 * Nikolay Tsukanov (born 1965) a Russian politician, psychologist, businessman, electrical welder and former governor of Kaliningrad Oblast
 * Vladimir Vdovichenkov (born 1971), Russian actor

Twin towns and sister cities
Former twin towns:

Gusev had been twinned with:
 * 🇱🇹 Kazlų Rūda, Lithuania
 * 🇵🇱 Gołdap, Poland
 * 🇵🇱 Pabianice, Poland

In March 2022, the Polish cities of Pabianice and Gołdap ended their partnership with Gusev as a response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

title: Gusev, Kaliningrad Oblast