text:
Morning Star (British newspaper)

The Morning Star is a left-wing British daily newspaper with a focus on social, political and trade union issues. Originally founded in 1930 as the Daily Worker by the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), ownership was transferred from the CPGB to an independent readers' co-operative, the People's Press Printing Society, in 1945 and later renamed the Morning Star in 1966. The paper describes its editorial stance as in line with Britain's Road to Socialism, the programme of the Communist Party of Britain.

The Daily Worker initially opposed the Second World War and its London edition was banned in Britain between 1941 and 1942. After the Soviet Union joined the Allies, the paper enthusiastically backed the war effort. During the Cold War, the paper provided a platform for critics of the US and its allies. This included whistleblowers who provided evidence that the British military were allowing their forces to collect severed heads during the Malayan Emergency, and exposing the mass graves of civilians killed by the South Korean government.

The paper prints contributions by writers from a variety of left-wing political perspectives. Contributors include Jeremy Corbyn, Virginia Woolf, Angela Davis, Billy Strachan, Len Johnson, Wilfred Burchett, Claudia Jones, Jean Ross, and Harry Pollitt. Correspondent Alan Winnington had his British passport revoked in 1954 for his reporting on massacres in the Korean War, and favourable representation of North Korean prisoner-of-war camps. Some non-political topics covered by the paper have included arts reviews, sports, gardening, book reviews, and cooking.

Early years
The Morning Star was founded in 1930 as the Daily Worker, the paper representing the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), and was immediately preceded by and grew out of the Weekly Worker (10 Feb 1923 - 21 Jan 1927) and Workers Life (28 Jan 1927 - 20 Dec 1929) newspapers. The first edition was produced on 1 January 1930 from the offices of the newspaper in Tabernacle Street, London, after a meeting the day before by nine British communists, including Willie Gallacher, Kay Beauchamp, Tom Wintringham, Walter Holmes, and Robert Page Arnot. In the first few decades of its existence, the Daily Worker contained cartoons for children. The Daily Worker's first issue contained a children's cartoon titled "Micky Mongrel the Class Conscious Cur", drawn by artist Gladys Keable, which would become a staple of the early paper. The paper's first editor was journalist William Rust, while the paper's assistant editor and manager was Tom Wintringham, and was printed at Wintringham's Unity Press. In January 1934, the Daily Worker offices moved to Cayton Street, off City Road. The first eight-page Daily Worker was produced on 1 October 1935.

Second World War
On 3 September 1939, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain spoke to the nation on the BBC, at which time he announced the formal declaration of war between Britain and Nazi Germany. Daily Worker editor J. R. Campbell, backed by his political ally, Party General Secretary Harry Pollitt, sought to portray the conflict against Hitler as a continuation of the anti-fascist fight. This contradicted the position of the Comintern in the aftermath of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (which became CPGB policy on 3 October) that the war was a struggle between rival imperialist powers, and Campbell was removed as editor as a result, being replaced by William Rust.

The paper accused the British government's policies of being "not to rescue Europe from fascism, but to impose British imperialist peace on Germany" before attacking the Soviet Union. The newspaper responded to the assassination of Leon Trotsky by a Soviet agent with an article on 23 August 1940, entitled "A Counter Revolutionary Gangster Passes", written by former editor Campbell.

The paper criticised Sir Walter Citrine after his meeting in Paris with French Labour Minister Charles Pomaret in December 1939. Time said of the events following the meeting, "Minister Pomaret clamped down on French labour with a set of drastic wage-&-hour decrees and Sir Walter Citrine agreed to a proposal by Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir John Simon that pay rises in Britain be stopped". Citrine sued the Daily Worker for libel after it accused him and his associates of "plotting with the French Citrines to bring millions of Anglo-French Trade Unionists behind the Anglo-French imperialist war machine"; the publisher pleaded the British press equivalent of "fair comment". Citrine alleged, in response to his lawyer's questioning, that the Daily Worker received £2,000 per month from "Moscow", and that Moscow directed the paper to print anti-war stories.

During this period, when the Soviet Union had a non-aggression pact with Germany, the Daily Worker ceased to attack Nazi Germany. On 21 January 1941, publication of the newspaper was suppressed by the Home Secretary in the wartime coalition, Herbert Morrison (a Labour Party MP). It had repeatedly ignored a July 1940 warning that its pacifist line contravened Defence Regulation 2D, which made it an offence to 'systematically to publish matter calculated to foment opposition to the prosecution of the war'. A Scottish edition of the Daily Worker was produced from its plant in Glasgow from 11 November 1940. On 16 April 1941, the Daily Worker offices at Cayton Street were totally destroyed by fire during the Blitz. The paper moved temporarily in 1942 to the former Caledonian Press offices in Swinton Street (whence the old Communist Party Sunday Worker, edited by William Paul and Tom Wintringham, had been published from 15 March 1925 until 1929). New offices were acquired in 1945, at a former brush-makers' warehouse at 75 Farringdon Road, for the sum of £48,000.

When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, the situation changed; British Communists became fervent supporters of the war. For the rest of the war, the paper was a strong supporter of the British war effort, and campaigned to organise a "Second Front" in Europe to assist the Soviet Union. The government's ban on the Daily Worker was lifted in September 1942, following a campaign supported by Hewlett Johnson, the Dean of Canterbury, and Professor J. B. S. Haldane. A "Lift the ban" conference at Central Hall, Westminster on 21 March 1942 was attended by over 2,000 delegates. A key part of the campaign was to secure Labour Party support (Herbert Morrison was a fierce opponent of the Daily Worker). On 26 May 1942, after a heated debate, the Labour Party carried a resolution declaring the government must lift the ban on the Daily Worker.

The Daily Worker welcomed the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, editorialising "The employment of the new weapon on a substantial scale should expedite the surrender of Japan". The paper also applauded the bombing of Nagasaki, and called for the use of additional atomic bombs against the Japanese.

The People's Press Printing Society was formed just after the war in 1945. The society's purpose was to raise money for the paper under a co-operative ownership model, and it quickly attracted support from the labour movement. By January 1946 it had 10,000 individual members, as well as organisational membership from 186 trade union bodies and 17 other co-operatives. One month later, in February 1946, a large rally was organised at the Royal Albert Hall, the Daily Worker which was then owned by Keable Press Ltd on behalf of the Communist Party of Great Britain, was sold to the People's Press Printing Society for a single shilling.

Postwar
The Daily Worker reached its peak circulation after the war, although precise circulation figures are disputed – from 100,000 to 122,000 to 140,000 and even 500,000.

The Daily Worker campaigns against the colour bar in Britain inspired British middleweight champion boxer Len Johnson to join the Communist Party of Great Britain, and write a boxing column for the Daily Worker.

The Daily Worker was fully supportive of the show trials in Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria in the late 1940s, as well as the split with Tito and Yugoslavia in 1948. In 1950 Daily Worker foreign correspondent Alan Winnington published I Saw the Truth in Korea, which provided evidence of mass graves containing thousands of corpses belonging to civilians executed by South Korean government during the Korean War. The paper published alleged evidence of the America's use of biological weapons during the Korean War. In response to Winnington's Korea reporting, Clement Attlee's cabinet discussed having Winnington executed by charging him with treason. However, it was instead decided to make him stateless by refusing to renew his passport. Phillip Knightley described Winnington as one of the most trustworthy voices of the war.

In April 1952, the Daily Worker published photographs of a Royal Marine commando in the middle of a British military base posing with the severed human head believed to have belonged to a member of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA). The article also included eyewitness testimonies from British personnel in Malaya alleging that it was common for British troops to behead people. An Admiralty spokesman accused the photographs of being forgeries and a "communist trick", though Colonial Secretary Oliver Lyttelton later confirmed to Parliament that the images were genuine. Lyttleton noted the decapitations were conducted by Iban headhunters by the British. The Daily Worker then published several more photographs of MNLA guerrillas decapitated by Ibans, including photographs of an Iban wearing a Royal Marine beret while preparing a scalp above a basket of human limbs.

In 1956, the Daily Worker suppressed correspondent Peter Fryer's reports from the Hungarian revolution, which were favourable to the uprising. The paper denounced the attempted revolution as a "white terror", invoking the Horthy regime and earlier 1919–1921 period.

By the late 1950s the paper was down to just one sheet of four pages. The last edition of the Daily Worker was published on Saturday 23 April 1966. An editorial in that final issue declared:"'On Monday this newspaper takes its greatest step forward for many years. It will be larger, it will be better and it will have a new name.... During its 36 years of life our paper has stood for all that is best in British working-class and Socialist journalism. It has established a reputation for honesty, courage and integrity. It has defended trade unionists, tenants, pensioners. It has consistently stood for peace. It has always shown the need for Socialism. Let all Britain see the Morning Star, the inheritor of a great tradition and the herald of a greater future'."

In February every year between 1950 and 1954, the Daily Worker held a rally at Harringay Arena in Harringay, north London, attended by about 10,000 people. Guests were entertained by tableaux set to music. Paul Robeson also sent recorded messages which were played during the rallies.

History
The first edition of the Morning Star appeared on Monday, 25 April 1966. South African exile Sarah Carneson worked for the newspaper in the late 1960s.

Until 1974, the paper was subsidised by the Soviet government with direct cash contributions, and from 1974 onwards was indirectly supported by daily bulk orders from Moscow. Its chief executive from 1975 was Mary Rosser.

By the late 1970s, the paper and the CPGB were beginning to come into conflict with one another, as the Eurocommunist trend in the CPGB grew, while the Morning Star at the time retained a pro-Soviet stance and opposed Eurocommunism. An editorial in The Guardian, however, reported in 1977 that the paper was giving coverage to dissidents in Czechoslovakia and elsewhere in the Soviet bloc to the consternation of about a third of CPGB members who wanted a reversal to a strictly pro-Kremlin line. "The Morning Star is open for genuine debate about the future of the Left", it asserted. A demonstration outside the East German embassy against the imprisonment of reformist Communist Rudolf Bahro was organised by the Morning Star that year. Also in 1977, editor Tony Chater persuaded the Labour government to begin running advertisements in the newspaper, previously absent because of a lack of audited circulation figures.

In December 1981, when the Polish Solidarity trade union movement was suppressed and martial law declared, the paper criticised the executive committee of the party for condemning the acts of the (then-Communist) Polish government. In 1982, the Morning Star attacked the attitudes of Marxism Today, the party's monthly journal, which was controlled by the Eurocommunists.

The newspaper attracted some wider media attention in September 1981 when the BBC paid to place six advertisements for its Russian-language service in the Morning Star, which was one of the few English language newspapers that the USSR government allowed to be circulated in the country. Four of these advertisements were printed as agreed, but the last two of the six were not printed. A spokesman for the newspaper said that the advertising department had not properly consulted with other teams before making the agreement, and that the BBC's broadcasts were part of Cold War propaganda. The paper supported the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) during the miners' strike of 1984–1985, but the party had become critical of NUM leader Arthur Scargill's strategy towards the end of the strike.

Meanwhile, in March 1984, the CPGB Executive Committee (EC) issued a seven-page document which was heavily critical of editor Tony Chater, in particular because he had refused to print an article which commemorated the sixtieth anniversary of the death of Lenin. The EC put forward candidates to challenge those loyal to Chater at the 1984 AGM of the PPPS and called for Chater's replacement. He was expelled from the CPGB in January 1985, along with the assistant editor, David Whitfield, reportedly because the attempts to remove him as editor had failed. A statement by the party's EC asserted that the paper was "being systematically used to attack and undermine congress policy, support factional activities in the party, and help sectarian minority groupings in their opposition to the party majority". In June 1985, however, AGMs of the PPPS held in Glasgow, Manchester and London voted by about 60 to 40% for candidates backed by the management committee of the Morning Star. Chater remained editor of the paper until 1995 when he retired. Control of the newspaper passed from the Eurocommunist leadership of the CPGB to the newly established pro-Soviet Communist Party of Britain (CPB).

On the day before the Berlin Wall began to be demolished in 1989, under a headline reading "GDR unveils reforms package", the newspaper commented that "The German Democratic Republic is awakening", and quoting material supplied by East Germany's ruling Socialist Unity Party: "A revolutionary people's movement has set in motion a process of serious upheaval ... The aim is dynamically to give socialism more democracy"

Soviet bulk orders ended abruptly in 1989 (the Communist Party of the Soviet Union had still been buying 6,000 copies every day), and the termination of this order, with only a week's notice, was the cause of "huge financial disruption".

In the 1990s, the publication's circulation fell to 7,000, following the end of the Soviet bulk sales. There were tensions between different CPB factions over control of the paper, and in particular over the successor of Tony Chater as editor. Chief Executive Mary Rosser favoured the news editor, Paul Corry (also her son-in-law); the staff and by the unions favoured Chater's deputy, John Haylett, who was installed in February 1995. In 1998 many of its workers – then earning £10,500 a year and with no raise for 11 years – went on strike. These strikes were provoked by the sacking by Rosser of Haylett for "gross misconduct". During the protest a breakaway from the Morning Star, the Workers' Morning Star was formed, and published by a small group of journalists who worked for the Morning Star at the same time. This paper was discontinued before the end of the decade. Haylett was eventually reinstated as editor and the protests stopped, as the circulation saw a moderate increase. "Our political relationship is still with the Communist Party of Britain", he said in 2005, pointing out that only about 10% of readers were members of the party, "but now we represent a broad movement".

Although the paper is normally published from Monday to Saturday, an issue of the Morning Star was published on 13 September 2015, its first ever Sunday edition, to cover the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Leader of the Labour Party.

In December 2016, the newspaper was criticised by Labour MPs led by John Woodcock ("one of the fiercest critics of British government inaction over aid to the region", according to The Huffington Post) for its description of the imminent fall of Aleppo to Syrian government forces in a front-page headline as a "liberation". Labour MP Tom Blenkinsop tweeted: "Hard left joining with far right in welcoming dictators "liberating" Aleppo. Absolute disgrace". Other Labour MPs joining in the criticism were Stephen Doughty, Angela Smith, Ian Austin, Mike Gapes, Jess Phillips, Toby Perkins and Wes Streeting. Conservative MP George Osborne and Guardian writer Owen Jones also attacked the paper's headline. However, the paper rejected the criticism,  stating that "from a purely technical point of view, when a sovereign government reclaims territory previously held by enemy forces, that's called "liberation" whether we like the outcome or not". Stop the War Coalition convener Lindsey German, and political commentator Peter Oborne defended the Star reporting of the issue, and questioned the dominant media narrative, respectively. Jeremy Corbyn said he "disagreed" with the headline, emphasising that he always advocated a ceasefire and "a political settlement in Syria". However, he refused to say he would never buy or read the paper again, saying; "Listen, I buy lots of newspapers. I frequently disagree profoundly with headlines, even in The Guardian, the Telegraph, the Mail, and so on. Does it mean I won't buy them, or read them? Of course not."

During the late 2010s the Morning Star played a key role in helping historians uncover facts about pioneering black civil rights activist Billy Strachan.

In June 2022, the paper published a statement by the Communist Party of Britain on the 'situation in Ukraine' that stated "the war between Russia and Ukraine is part of a wider conflict between capitalist powers, between Russia on one side and Ukraine and the expansionist NATO powers on the other." It went on to call NATO "an alliance of imperialist powers". It declared the Russian military actions unjustified and called for an immediate ceasefire, but opposed sanctions.

Editorial line and contents
The newspaper describes itself as "a reader-owned co-operative and unique as a lone socialist voice in a sea of corporate media". The paper attempts to speak to the working class a group its editor described in 2015 as around 80% to 90% of the British population who work for a wage rather than living off investments or assets. Successive annual general meetings of the People's Press Printing Society have agreed that the policy of the paper is founded on Britain's Road to Socialism, the programme of the Communist Party of Britain. A profile of the paper which was published in the centre-left New Statesman magazine in 2015 commented on its contents that:

"it covers industrial disputes, anti-austerity protests and international affairs in a brisk, populist tabloid style. Recently, it has earned praise for its coverage of women's sport and corruption in sport. Jeremy Corbyn, the candidate for the Labour Party leadership and Morning Star contributor, has called it 'the most precious and only voice we have in the daily media', and Frances O'Grady, the TUC general secretary, says it is 'essential reading for many union activists'."

On international issues, the paper was historically sympathetic to the Soviet Union and its allies during the Cold War. Commentators have suggested that it maintains a fairly anti-Western worldview into the 21st century. Its attitude to the wider world has been criticised by others on the British left with Paul Anderson former editor of the democratic socialist Tribune magazine commenting that "It runs articles extolling the virtues of single-party 'socialist' states on a regular basis – North Korea, Cuba, China, Vietnam. Its default position on just about everything happening in the world is that anything any western power supports – but particularly the United States – must be opposed, which has led to it cheering on Putin, Hamas, Assad and a lot of other real nasties." The paper is sympathetic to Irish republicanism categorising reporting about Northern Ireland as foreign.

On its masthead, the paper states that it supports peace and socialism, and it is also Eurosceptic. The Morning Star and The Spectator were the only publications to campaign for an Exit vote in the 1975 referendum. Tony Benn (described as "the de facto leader of the "Out" campaign" ) campaigned alongside the paper. Over thirty years later the Morning Star supported the No2EU platform in the 2009 European Parliament election. The paper was also supportive of Britain's vote in 2016 to leave the EU, saying that "Anybody who supports the election of a Corbyn government with a mandate to end austerity, extend public ownership, redistribute wealth and restructure our economy in the interests of working people needs to explain how this agenda can be implemented in the framework of an EU that bans so much of it" but criticised the referendum campaign as being headed by "reactionary zealots" such as Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove.

The paper advocates a vote for the Labour Party in most seats, except for the handful in which the Communist Party of Britain has a candidate. During Jeremy Corbyn's term as Labour leader, the Communist Party of Britain did not stand any candidates against Labour in the 2017 or 2019 general elections, and the Morning Star became wholly pro-Labour in this period. The paper has also received contributions from representatives of the Green movement, religious organisations as well as Scottish and Welsh nationalists.

Contributors and staff
In the first years of the twenty-first century, the paper has carried contributions from Uri Avnery, John Pilger, Green activist Derek Wall, ex-Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, Labour Members of Parliament (MPs) Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, Green MP Caroline Lucas, former MP George Galloway (Respect), the cartoonist Martin Rowson, and many trade union general secretaries. Features are contributed by writers from a range of socialist, social democratic, green and religious perspectives. Despite this, according to then editor John Haylett in 2005: "things that happened in the Soviet Union 70 years ago are still being used as a stick to beat the Morning Star."

On 1 January 2009, Bill Benfield took over as editor of the Morning Star. John Haylett, who had been editor since 1995, took up the post of political editor. Benfield had previously been deputy editor and head of production, but experienced ill health.

In May 2012, Richard Bagley became editor of the Morning Star, having already worked at the paper in various positions since 2001. In July 2014, he stepped down as editor, with Ben Chacko becoming acting editor, a position in which Chacko was confirmed in May 2015. The newspaper "is the most precious and only voice we have in the daily media", said (then backbencher Labour MP) Jeremy Corbyn at the time of Chacko's formal appointment in May 2015. "I look forward to working with Ben in promoting socialism and progress".

Finances and circulation
The Morning Star carries little commercial advertising, with low advertising rates, and the cover price does not pay for print and distribution. Consequently, the paper has always been dependent on donations from activists, readers, and trade unions. The paper relies on its "Star Fund" appeal (monthly target £18,000). In its past, the paper received a subsidy from the Soviet Union in the form of bulk orders. In 1981, its circulation was about 36,000, down from the Daily Worker's post-war peak.

In March 2005, BBC News Magazine reported the Morning Star's circulation as between 13,000 and 14,000, quoting Haylett's comment "perhaps only one in 10 of these readers would label themselves as Communists". The circulation was thought to be around 10,000 when Ben Chacko took over as editor in mid-2015.

The Morning Star has also taken a much higher profile at trade union gatherings and within the UK trade union movement, particularly with unions such as Unite, GMB, UCATT, FBU, Community, CWU, NUM, Durham Miners, Prison Officers and RMT. Since 2008, the Morning Star has hired exhibition space at the Trades Union Congress, with sponsored copies being handed out to delegates at the TUC, Labour Party Conference, at union conferences and high-profile events such as the Tolpuddle Martyrs' Festival and the Durham Miners Gala. The newspaper is also available at independent newsagents and shops such as RS McColl, in local supermarkets such as Budgens, at railway stations and on motorway service areas. In addition, it is stocked by the Co-op Food chain of stores.

During the early morning of 28 July 2008, the offices of the newspaper were damaged by fire, and the edition of 29 July took a reduced form. A similar incident occurred on 20 October 2014 when a fire broke out near the offices and a small number of staff had to relocate to the sports editor's house in order to finish the paper.

On 1 June 2009, the Morning Star was re-launched. The re-launch included a 16-page edition during the week, and a 24-page weekend edition priced at £1.20 after a rise in its prices in September 2014. This rose to 1.50 in 2020 There is no Sunday edition of the newspaper. There was also an expanded use of colour pictures and graphics, plus a redesign and a modern layout of the pages. The Morning Star also redesigned its website. In addition, a number of new and experienced journalists were engaged and the positions of full-time Industrial Correspondent and Lobby Correspondent in the House of Commons were reintroduced.

In November 2011, the Morning Star launched an urgent appeal to raise £75,000 in order to address a number of funding issues which meant the paper might have gone under by the end of the year.

On Monday 18 June 2012, the Morning Star moved to printing at two Trinity Mirror print sites in Watford and Oldham, which improved distribution of the Morning Star to all parts of the country, particularly Scotland.

In November 2021, The Canary revealed that the UK Foreign Office had tried, unsuccessfully, to discover the source of the Morning Star's funding during the 1970s. A report by the Information Research Department stated: "While watertight evidence is no doubt lacking, it might be possible for a skilled propagandist to present a convincing case which the CPGB [Communist Party of Great Britain] would find extremely difficult to refute. The project would require some detailed research which IRD could no doubt undertake in conjunction with the Security Service". Commenting on these revelations, Ben Chacko, the editor of the Morning Star, told The Canary:

"Given what we know of the secret state's extensive surveillance and sabotage of entirely legal protest movements and trade unions, it is no surprise that British spooks also wanted to undermine the Morning Star.

Trying to discredit the newspaper with claims it must have had access to secret foreign funding run up against the fact that the Morning Star was not just the most authoritative source on industrial relations in the British press – prime ministers from Winston Churchill to Margaret Thatcher made sure to obtain their copy – but a daily newspaper whose integrity and professionalism was respected by other journalists, as the spooks evidently found to their dismay!

This is a cautionary tale about the state's willingness to play dirty to discredit critical media. It is absolutely relevant today, given the calls we hear from both main parties in Parliament for tighter censorship, bans on foreign-owned media like China Central Television or Russia Today, and for state regulation of so-called 'fake news' that conveniently ignores the barrage of fake news pumped out by Establishment media day in, day out.

We must acknowledge the importance of defending free speech and the right to 'publish and be damned!' as our government connives at efforts to intimidate and jail journalists such as Julian Assange."

Online version
An online version of the paper was launched on 1 April 2004. Initially only some parts of the site were free, including a PDF of the paper's front page, the editorial "Star Comment" and all the articles from the culture and sports pages, while features and the current affairs were subscription-only. On 1 January 2009 this policy was changed, and all content was made freely available online. In April 2012, the paper launched a daily e-edition of the full newspaper, which readers can subscribe to for a charge. As of 2020, the number of articles non-subscribers can read for free is limited.

Editors
As the Daily Worker:
 * 1930: William Rust
 * 1933: Jimmy Shields
 * 1935: Idris Cox
 * 1936: Rajani Palme Dutt
 * 1938: Dave Springhall
 * 1939: John Ross Campbell
 * 1939: William Rust
 * 1949: John Ross Campbell
 * 1959: George Matthews

Chairs of the editorial board have included Hewlett Johnson (clergyman known as 'the Red Dean' of Canterbury), although he was not a member of the CPGB.

As the Morning Star:
 * 1966: George Matthews
 * 1974: Tony Chater
 * 1995: John Haylett
 * 2009: Bill Benfield
 * 2012: Richard Bagley
 * 2014: Ben Chacko

title: Morning Star (British newspaper)


text:
Wikipedia talk:What is a wiki for

Deletable?
This seems to just duplicate WikiWiki and our responses to our critics. I think it's deletable. Martin 11:59 18 Jun 2003 (UTC)

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

title: Wikipedia talk:What is a wiki for


text:
Reutlingen (district)

Reutlingen, nicknamed "The Gate to the Swabian Alb" ("Das Tor zur Schwäbischen Alb"), is a Landkreis (district) in the middle of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The former free imperial city (until 1802) reached the limit of 100,000 residents in 1989. It is the ninth-largest city in Baden-Württemberg. Reutlingen district's neighboring districts are (from north clockwise) Esslingen, Göppingen, Alb-Donau, Biberach, Sigmaringen, Zollernalbkreis, Tübingen and Böblingen.

History
The district dates back to the Oberamt Reutlingen, which was created in 1803 when the previously free imperial city Reutlingen became part of Württemberg. In 1934, it was converted into the district, in 1938 the district Urach was dissolved and split between the districts Reutlingen and Münsingen. In 1973 the district Münsingen was dissolved, and most part was merged into the district Reutlingen. A few municipalities from the districts Tübingen, Saulgau, Sigmaringen and Nürtingen were also added.

Geography
The district is largely located in the Swabian Alb (Schwäbische Alb).

Transport
The district has no national (A) motorway (German: Autobahn) but has large Federal/National roads (German: Bundesstraßen):
 * B 27, Stuttgart - Tübingen
 * B 28, Tübingen - Ulm
 * B 312, starting at A 8 exit 53b (Plieningen), Stuttgart Airport - A 7 exit 127 (Berkheim), ending near Memmingen, part of the dismissed A 85
 * B 313, Plochingen - Sigmaringen
 * B 464, distributor road from Reutlingen to B 27, only driving direction Stuttgart in district
 * B 465, starting at A 8 exit 57 (Kirchheim unter Teck) - ending at Leutkirch im Allgäu

Partnerships
The district had a friendship with the Czech district Chrudim. In 2002, the Czech districts were reformed and the region Pardubice became the successor of the district Chrudim.

The district also has a friendship with the Italian Province of Parma, as well as the district Sächsische Schweiz (now part of Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge) in Saxony.

Coat of arms
The coat of arms is the coat of arms of the Counts of Achalm, who ruled the largest part of the district until the 11th century. Even though these counts never used arms by themselves, the Zwiefalten Abbey appointed them these arms.

Cities and towns
Towns
 * 1) Bad Urach
 * 2) Hayingen
 * 3) Metzingen
 * 4) Münsingen
 * 5) Pfullingen
 * 6) Reutlingen
 * 7) Trochtelfingen

Administrative collectivities
 * 1) Engstingen
 * 2) Metzingen
 * 3) Münsingen
 * 4) Pliezhausen
 * 5) Bad Urach
 * 6) Zwiefalten-Hayingen

Municipalities • # Dettingen an der Erms

• # Engstingen

• # Eningen

• # Gomadingen

• # Grabenstetten

• # Grafenberg

• # Hohenstein

• # Hülben

• # Lichtenstein

• # Mehrstetten

• # Pfronstetten

• # Pliezhausen

• # Riederich

• # Römerstein

• # Sonnenbühl

• # St. Johann

• # Walddorfhäslach

• # Wannweil

• # Zwiefalten

title: Reutlingen (district)


text:
Román Baldorioty de Castro

Román Baldorioty de Castro (23 February 1822 – 30 September 1889) was Puerto Rican  abolitionist and spokesman for the island's right to self-determination. In 1870, he was elected as a deputy in the Cortes Generales, the Spanish parliament, where he promoted abolition of slavery. In 1887, Baldorioty de Castro was the founder of the Partido Autonomista (Autonomist Party), also known as "Partido Autonomista Puro" (Pure Autonomous Party), "Partido Histórico" (Historic Party), and "Partido Ortodoxo" (Orthodox Party).

Early years
Baldorioty de Castro was born in Guaynabo to a poor family. His family moved to San Juan when he was young, where he received his primary education as a student of the noted educator, Rafael Cordero. After completing his elementary education, he enrolled in El Seminario Conciliar de Idelfonso, which at that time was the most organized institution in Puerto Rico. He spent most of his adolescent years studying, and finished with one of the best averages in his class.

Baldorioty de Castro was granted a scholarship, which he used for further study in Spain. He collected the money necessary to travel and departed to Spain in the company of three fellow Puerto Ricans, two students and a professor. Before establishing a permanent residence in Madrid, the group traveled to several Spanish provinces, where they visited some of the country's tourist sites. Among the places visited were locations in Cordoba, Seville, Andújar and Bailén where they met Alberto Lista, an educator from Spain.

The three other students (who traveled with Baldorioty de Castro) contracted smallpox shortly after beginning their academic studies in the Central University of Madrid. Baldorioty de Castro cared for them, but two of the youths died from complications of the disease. Baldorioty de Castro was offered a chance to return to Puerto Rico but he declined. He continued his studies along with the only survivor and graduated with a degree in physics and mathematical sciences from the university. Dr. José Gualberto Padilla together with Román Baldorioty de Castro, founded the Puerto Rican chapter of the Sociedad Económica de los Amigos del País and called it "La Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País en Puerto Rico" (the Economic Friends of Puerto Rico). In 1847 the Sociedad de Amigos del País de Puerto Rico named Baldorioty de Castro the organization's correspondent in Spain. On 21 March 1851 he was granted permission to transfer to France to continue his studies. Baldorioty de Castro moved to Paris, where he attended the Central School of Arts.

Political and professional careers

In 1853, after seven years of study, Baldorioty de Castro returned to Puerto Rico and married Isabel Matilde Díaz y Ruiz, the granddaughter of Lieutenant Francisco Díaz, hero of the Battle of San Juan of 1797. Upon his return, he noticed that there was political tension, because of the differences between the governor in office and the political and educational groups in Puerto Rico.

Baldorioty de Castro began promoting the restructuring of the social, political and educational establishments. These contributions led Fernando Norzagaray, the colony's incumbent governor to offer him the position of mayor of one of the island's municipalities (towns). Baldorioty de Castro declined the offer, based on his ideals. At the time, the government displayed no interest in promoting education among the Criollos of the island. Two years earlier, the governor had imposed the Reglamento del Jornalero, which promoted a more ample labor base by reducing the amount of unemployed citizens. However, this measure was criticized for its elements that were used to increase the wealth of employers. As a consequence, the merits of said law were reconsidered and a group led by Baldorioty de Castro was selected to decide its validity. In 1853, he became a member of the Liberal Reform Party of Puerto Rico.

Educator
Besides politics, Baldorioty de Castro also loved teaching. He taught Botany and Maritime Sciences at the School of Commerce, Agriculture and Maritime Studies in San Juan. In January 1854, the Councilor Seminary selected Baldorioty de Castro as its botany professor. On November of that year, Puerto Rico's Commerce and Foment Joint selected him to work as a professor in a Nautical School, where he taught Maritime Studies.

The colonial government discovered that there was fertile terrain in the islands of Mona and Monito in 1856. After the discovery, they selected Baldorioty de Castro as the supervisor of a series of experiments to determine the terrain's components.

In 1857, the cattle industry in Puerto Rico began having difficulties, when the number of animals diminished significantly. To resolve this problem, the island's Economic Society formed a commission composed of Baldorioty de Castro, José Julián Acosta and Juan Hernández Arbizu.

Baldorioty de Castro proposed that geometry classes be included in the curriculum of elementary schools in Puerto Rico, which was accepted by the pertinent authority. On 2 January 1858, the Economic Society unanimously named him the Secretary of the Studies Commission. On 4 June 1860, the organization named him spokesman of a commission to promote conservation of the island's natural resources. Later that year, Baldorioty de Castro represented Puerto Rico as a delegate in the Spanish Parliament, serving for five years until 1865. On 17 September 1864, he was certified as an applied mechanics professor and worked for a salary of thirty-five dollars a month.

Spanish parliament
While working in the Spanish Parliament, he made the most of his position and encouraged the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico and Cuba, and drafting a constitution to guarantee Puerto Ricans more political rights. On 4 November 1866, he was named Puerto Rico's representative to Paris' 1867 Universal Exposition. He served as a critic and subsequently wrote a review titled ''Exposición Universal de París en 1867. Memoria presentada a la Comisión Provincial de Puerto Rico''. After completing his participation in Paris, Baldorioty de Castro returned to Puerto Rico.

There were rising tensions between groups that supported the abolition of slavery in the island and the Spanish colonial government. This led to protests and demands by the local Criollo population and influenced several revolutionaries, which led to the Grito de Lares. Baldorioty de Castro did not promote the armed revolution; instead he chose to debate the several conflicts and issues on diplomatic venues. After the revolution attempts, a new superior provisional government was established in the island. This government promoted a union between the conflicting parties in order to establish reforms in the government's structure. In line with the proposed solution, Baldorioty de Castro proposed a conciliation of these groups, but the efforts to unify the opposing views was unsuccessful. After this, he traveled to Madrid, under political pressure, and presented the island's status situation to the respective authorities.

He began writing several documents that strongly criticized the colonial government and wrote a report listing the elements that he felt were being used by the administration that were affecting the island's social and economic aspects. In January 1867, Baldorioty de Castro received a communication from Puerto Rico's Superior Instruction Juncture, notifying him that he was selected as a member of the Test Commission, where he was in charge of monitoring tests being issued in physics and the natural sciences.

In 1870, he was named deputy to the Spanish Parliament, after the governor in office had revoked his accreditation as an educator. There he continued to speak about his cause. Baldorioty de Castro became known as "The Father of Puerto Rican Autonomy". On 19 November 1872, Ramon Baldorioty de Castro together with Luis Padial, Julio Vizcarrondo and the Spanish Minister of Overseas Affairs, Segismundo Moret, presented a proposal for the abolition of slavery. On 22 March 1873, the Spanish Government approved the proposal, which became known as the Moret Law.

Later years

Baldorioty de Castro returned to Puerto Rico in 1873 and went to live in the City of Ponce. There, he founded the newspaper El Derecho (The Law). He was also the founder of a weekly paper called La Crónica, in which he expressed his ideas on autonomy for the island.

In 1887, Baldorioty de Castro co-founded, along with José de Diego, the Autonomist Party of Puerto Rico. He named a young and upcoming politician, Antonio R. Barceló, the position of party Secretary. The Autonomist Party of Puerto Rico became one of Puerto Rico's first political parties. Its credo was that Puerto Rico should pick its own government and should have a representative in the Spanish Parliament.

The Spanish government, however, considered Baldorioty de Castro a dangerous person and a dissenter and had him jailed in Fort San Felipe del Morro in San Juan. Although he was not in jail for long and was soon released, his health suffered greatly during this imprisonment. Román Baldorioty de Castro died in Ponce on 30 September 1889. He is buried in Ponce's Cementerio Viejo cemetery which was renamed "Panteón Nacional Román Baldorioty de Castro".

Legacy
The cities of Bayamón, Juana Díaz, San Germán and San Juan have honored the memory of Baldorioty de Castro by naming plazas after him. Puerto Rico Highway 26, called the Román Baldorioty de Castro Expressway, is the main highway to the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport. In Puerto Rico's capital city, where the Baldorioty de Castro Expressway meets the Condado Lagoon in the Miramar neighborhood of Santurce, an obelisk was constructed in the center of the city park surrounding the lagoon. The obelisk is in honor of Baldorioty de Castro. A bronze statue of Baldority de Castro stands at the base of the statue as a gift of the people of Puerto Rico. There are schools named after him in other areas of Puerto Rico. The province of Azua de Compostela, Dominican Republic, honored him by naming one of the capital city's secondary education institutions after him: Liceo de Estudios Secundarios Román Baldorioty de Castro.

title: Román Baldorioty de Castro


text:
Municipalities of the Philippines

A municipality (bayan / munisipalidad / munisipyo / puweblo; bayan; banwa; lungsod; baley; balen / balayan; banwaan; bungto; ili) is a local government unit (LGU) in the Philippines. It is distinct from city, which is a different category of local government unit. Provinces of the Philippines are divided into cities and municipalities, which in turn, are divided into barangays (formerly barrios) – villages. , there are 1,493 municipalities across the country.

A municipality is the official term for, and the official local equivalent of, a town, the latter being its archaic term and in all of its literal local translations including Filipino. Both terms are interchangeable.

A municipal district is a now-defunct local government unit; previously certain areas were created first as municipal districts before they were converted into municipalities.Their central “barangay” is called “poblacion or bayan”.

History
The era of the formation of municipalities in the Philippines started during the Spanish rule, in which the colonial government founded hundreds of towns and villages across the archipelago modeled after towns and villages in Spain. They were then grouped together along with a centralized town center called cabecera or poblacion where the ayuntamiento, or town hall, was located; the poblacion served as the nucleus of each municipality. Only the communities that were permanently settled under the reduccion system, and have fully Christianized, are allowed to form municipalities, while others that have not yet been fully converted are to be subdued until conditions permitted for them to be incorporated as municipalities. As time passed, municipalities were created out of already existing ones, leading to them becoming smaller in area over time. Each municipality was governed by a capitan, usually a member of native principalia of the town, who have the task of remitting revenues to the central government in Manila. Ever since its inception to the present day, the term "municipality" holds the same definition as "town" when the first towns grew in size under the Spanish pueblo system (pueblo meaning "town" in Spanish language) to be granted municipal charters, hence the current official term for such type of settlements.

During the American administration, the municipal system put in place by the preceding Spanish authorities was preserved and at the same time reformed with greater inclusiveness among all Filipinos. Municipal districts, which were in essence unincorporated areas presided over by local tribal chiefs set up by American authorities, were created for the first time in 1914. More municipalities were created during this time, especially in Mindanao where there was a massive influx of settlers from the Luzon and the Visayas. After a while the independent Republic of the Philippines was declared in 1946, all municipal districts were dissolved and were absorbed into or broken into municipalities. The latest guidelines in the creation of new municipalities were introduced in 1991 with the issuance of the Local Government Code.

Responsibilities and powers
Municipalities have some autonomy from the National Government of the Republic of the Philippines under the Local Government Code of 1991. They have been granted corporate personality enabling them to enact local policies and laws, enforce them, and govern their jurisdictions. They can enter into contracts and other transactions through their elected and appointed officials and can tax. They are tasked with enforcing all laws, whether local or national. The National Government assists and supervises the local government to make sure that they do not violate national law. Local Governments have their own executive and legislative branches and the checks and balances between these two major branches, along with their separation, are more pronounced than that of the national government. The Judicial Branch of the Republic of the Philippines also caters to the needs of local government units. Local governments, such as a municipalities, do not have their own judicial branch: their judiciary is the same as that of the national government.

Organization
According to Chapter II, Title II, Book III of Republic Act 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991, a municipality shall mainly have a mayor (alkalde), a vice mayor (ikalawang alkalde/bise alkalde) and members (kagawad) of the legislative branch Sangguniang Bayan alongside a secretary to the said legislature.

The following positions are also required for all municipalities across the Philippines:

 * Treasurer
 * Assessor
 * Accountant
 * Budget Officer
 * Planning and Development Coordinator
 * Engineer/Building Official
 * Health Officer
 * Civil Registrar
 * Municipal Disaster Risks Reduction and Management Officer

Depending on the need to do so, the municipal mayor may also appoint the following municipal positions:

 * Administrator
 * Legal Officer
 * Agriculturist
 * Architect
 * Information Officer
 * Tourism Officer
 * Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Officer
 * Municipal Social Welfare and Development Officer

Duties and functions
As mentioned in Title II, Book III of Republic Act 7160, the municipal mayor is the chief executive officer of the municipal government and shall determine guidelines on local policies and direct formulation of development plans. These responsibilities shall be under approval of the Sangguniang Bayan.

The vice mayor (bise-alkalde) shall sign all warrants drawn on the municipal treasury. Being presiding officer of the Sangguniang Bayan (English: Municipal Council), he can as well appoint members of the municipal legislature except its twelve (12) regular members or kagawad who are also elected every local election alongside the municipal mayor and vice mayor. In circumstances where the mayor permanently or temporarily vacates the position, he shall assume executive duties and functions.

While vice mayor presides over the legislature, he cannot vote unless the necessity of tie-breaking arises. Laws or ordinances proposed by the Sangguniang Bayan, however, may be approved or vetoed by the mayor. If approved, they become local ordinances. If the mayor neither vetoes nor approves the proposal of the Sangguniang Bayan for ten (10) days from the time of receipt, the proposal becomes law as if it had been signed. If vetoed, the draft is sent back to the Sangguniang Bayan. The latter may override the mayor by a vote of at least two-thirds (2/3) of all its members, in which case, the proposal becomes law.

A municipality, upon reaching certain requirements (such as minimum population size, and minimum annual revenue) may opt to become a city. First, a bill must be passed in Congress, then signed into law by the President and then the residents would vote in the resulting plebiscite to accept or reject cityhood. One benefit in being a city is that the city government gets more budget, but taxes are much higher than in municipalities.

Income classification
Republic Act (RA) No. 11964, otherwise known as the “Automatic Income Classification of Local Government Units Act” was signed by the Philippine President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on October 26, 2023. The law classifies municipalities into five (5) classes according to their income ranges, based on the average annual regular income for three fiscal years preceding a general income reclassification. The classification are as follows:

title: Municipalities of the Philippines


text:
Elijah Blue Allman

Elijah Blue Allman (born July 10, 1976), known professionally as P. Exeter Blue I (Phillips Exeter Blue), is an American musician, and the son of singer Cher and her second husband, Gregg Allman; he is the half-brother of Chaz Bono, Delilah Allman, Michael Allman, Layla Allman, and Devon Allman. He is the lead vocalist, guitarist and lyricist of the industrial metal band Deadsy.

Career
Allman is the singer and guitarist for the rock band Deadsy which, prior to its hiatus in April 2007, consisted of Alec Püre on drums, Dr. Nner on synthesizer, Carlton Megalodon on Ztar, and Jens Funke on bass. Deadsy released two albums: 2002's Commencement, and Phantasmagore, which came out on August 22, 2006. Many of the themes used by Allman in Deadsy have been heavily influenced by the 1955 film This Island Earth.

He was given his first guitar by Kiss bassist Gene Simmons, and at age 13 he went on tour as a guitarist with Cher; he appears as a guitarist in the music video for her song "If I Could Turn Back Time". In 1994, he auditioned for the spot of guitarist for Nine Inch Nails, but ended up losing the spot to Robin Finck.

He has worked with Thirty Seconds to Mars for the band's self-titled debut album. and has also provided guest vocals on a variety of songs for other bands including Orgy, Coal Chamber and Sugar Ray.

Personal life
Allman attended the Hyde School in Bath, Maine, graduating in 1994.

Allman has dated Bijou Phillips, Heather Graham, Kate Hudson, and Paris Hilton.

Through his mother Cher, Allman is of Armenian, Irish, English, and German ancestry.

On December 1, 2013, he married Marieangela King, "Queenie", an English singer, of the band KING and sister of Jazzy and Ruby King from the British pop duo Blonde Electra. The couple broke up on April 20, 2020, and Allman filed for divorce the following year. The divorce has been dismissed and the couple remain together.

In 2014, Allman admitted that he began taking drugs at age 11 and battled heroin addiction for years, but claimed that he has been sober since 2008.

In 2023, Allman's wife, Marieangela King, alleged in a court filing that, on his mother's orders, Allman had been kidnapped from a hotel room where they had been trying to "work out their marriage" on their anniversary in November 2022. King said that she did not know where he was and had no way to contact him.

In 2023, Allman's mother, Cher, filed for a conservatorship over Allman due to his ongoing substance abuse issues. Prior to the hearing on January 5, 2024, Allman withdrew his divorce filing and retained attorneys to contest the conservatorship. He attended the hearing with his attorneys and successfully argued to postpone the hearing due to Cher's attorneys’ failure to provide proper notice. Cher's motion for the temporary conservatorship was denied on January 30, 2024.

Discography
With Deadsy
 * Demo (1995)
 * Deadsy (1996)
 * Commencement (1999, unreleased version)
 * Commencement (2002)
 * Phantasmagore (2006)
 * Subterfugue (TBA)

With Elijah Blue and the Trapezoids

Since starting Elijah Blue and the Trapezoids, Allman has released a few demos on his Myspace, but no news of an album have surfaced since 2008.
 * "Haunted" (4:00)
 * "White Knuckle Angel Face" (3:40)
 * "Long Way Down" (3:21)

As featured musician
 * Orgy – Candyass (1998, additional vocals and keyboards on "Revival")
 * with Cher – "Crimson & Clover" (1999)
 * Sugar Ray – 14:59 (1999, additional vocals on "Personal Space Invader")
 * Coal Chamber – Chamber Music (1999, additional vocals and keyboards on "Shock the Monkey", additional vocals on "My Mercy")
 * Orgy – Vapor Transmission (2000, additional vocals on "The Spectrum")
 * "What's Going On" (2001, additional vocals on "What's Going On (Fred Durst's Reality Check Mix)")
 * The Family Values Tour 2001 (2001, appears live on the Static-X song "Push It")
 * Thirty Seconds to Mars – 30 Seconds to Mars (2002, plays guitar and bass on "Welcome to the Universe")
 * Korn – Korn Kovers (2005, additional vocals on "Love My Way")
 * Mickey Avalon – Loaded (2012, additional vocals on "Mickey's Girl", recorded in 2009)

title: Elijah Blue Allman


text:
Znojmo

Znojmo (Znaim) is a town in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 34,000 inhabitants. Znojmo is the historical and cultural centre of southwestern Moravia and the second most populated town in the South Moravian Region. The historic centre of Znojmo is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument reservation.

Administrative parts
The villages of Derflice, Kasárna, Konice, Mramotice, Načeratice, Oblekovice, Popice and Přímětice are administrative parts of Znojmo.

Etymology
The origin of the town's name is uncertain. According to the most likely theories, it was derived either from the Old Czech words znoj (i.e. 'heat') and znojný ('exposed to heat'), or from the personal name Znojem or Znojim.

Geography
Znojmo is located about 54 km southwest of Brno, near the border with Austria. It lies mostly in the Jevišovice Uplands, with only a small part of the municipal territory in the south extending into the Dyje–Svratka Valley. The highest point is at 397 m above sea level. The town is situated mainly on a rock outcropping on the steep left bank of the Thaya River. The western part of the municipal territory lies within the Podyjí National Park.

History
A settlement at the site possibly already existed during the time of the Great Moravian Empire in the 9th century, however, the main Great Moravian gord was situated on the hill across the Gránický brook. From about 1055, Znojmo Castle served as the residence of a Přemyslid principality within the Bohemian March of Moravia and a strategically important outpost near the border with the Bavarian March of Austria in the south. In 1101, Luitpold of Znojmo, Duke of Moravia, built the Rotunda of Saint Catherine in the castle.

The Znojmo Castle was seized and demolished by Duke Vladislaus II of Bohemia in 1145. In 1190, Duke Conrad II founded the Premonstratensian Louka Monastery at Znojmo.

The first written mention of Znojmo is from 1226. The royal town of Znojmo was founded shortly before 1226 by King Ottokar I of Bohemia on the plains in front of the rebuilt castle and was fortified. It was one of the first royal towns in Moravia. At that time, the burghers were mainly German speaking, while the surrounding villages were Czech speaking.

The town survived the Hussite Wars unscathed, when the Hussites failed to capture the town, and prospered. In the 15th and 16th centuries, networks of burgher houses with a system of underground passages were built as a part of fortifications. The Renaissance and late Gothic houses are preserved to this day. The development ended with the Thirty Years' War. Znojmo was conquered and ransacked repeatedly. It took over a hundred years for the town to recover.

From the 19th century, Znojmo is best known as the site for the Armistice of Znaim concluded there on 12 July 1809 after the Battle of Znaim, following the decisive Battle of Wagram, between Emperor Napoleon and the archduke Charles, which had taken place seven days earlier.

Since the end of World War I, Znojmo was within the newly established state of Czechoslovakia, except for 1938–1945 during the Nazi German occupation when it was included in Reichsgau Niederdonau. The German population of the town was expelled after World War II according to the Beneš decrees.

Economy
Znojmo is famous for local production of cucumbers, pickled in the original sweet-sour and spicy pickle, whose cultivation in the Znojmo region was introduced in 1571 by the abbot of the Louka Monastery, George II. The special taste is also the result of local type of cucumbers, cultivation method, soil, climatic conditions, processing and also the packaging in which they are kept.

Thanks to the favorable climatic conditions, the town is also successful in winery and fruit growing. It is the centre of viticulture of the Znojemská wine sub-region.

Transport
The I/38 (part of the European route E59) from Jihlava to the Czech-Austrian border passes through Znojmo. It forks in the centre of Znojmo and connects the town with Brno as the I/53 road.

There is a railway station with railway lines leading in three directions: to Vienna in Austria, to Břeclav and to Okříšky.

Culture
Znojmo is known for its Znojmo Vintage Festival which takes place every September. The main attraction of the festival is the historical parade commemorating the visit of King John of Bohemia to Znojmo in 1327.

The annual Gherkin Feast is dedicated to tradition of growing gherkins in the region.

Sport
1. SC Znojmo FK is a local football club competing in the Moravian–Silesian Football League (3rd tier of the Czech football league system).

Orli Znojmo is an ice hockey club playing in the Czech 2. Liga.

Sights
The Gothic Church of St. Nicholas and the late Gothic Town Hall tower are the most recognizable landmarks. The original church was founded in around 1100, and replaced by a new church gradually built from 1338 until the late 15th century. The town hall with its 80 m high tower was built in 1445–1448.

Overlooking the Thaya River valley, on the edge of the medieval city, is the Znojmo Castle, which was founded by the Přemyslid dukes in the 11th century. The only remaining trace of this castle is the Romanesque Rotunda of Saint Catherine, the interior of which is covered with 11th-century frescoes depicting scenes from the Bible and illustrating the life of Přemysl the Ploughman. The rotunda is protected as a national cultural monument.

Beneath the grounds of the old town, there is a vast labyrinth of connected passageways and cellars called the Znojmo Catacombs. This system was developed in the 14th and 15th centuries for defence purposes, and it contains wells, drainage, fireplaces, trap doors and escapeways that lead beyond the fortifications of the town. The catacombs are the largest system of underground corridors and cellars in the Czech Republic – they are almost 27 km long and up to 4 levels deep.

The Church of Saint Michael the Archangel was probably built in the 12th century. It is the second most significant church in the town, after Church of Saint Nicholas. The church was first mentioned in 1226 and completely rebuilt in the late Gothic style in 1508. It is considered a monument of national importance.

The Premonstratensian Louka Monastery is among the most valuable buildings in Znojmo. The monastery was founded in 1190, but the current monastery building was built in two phases in the years 1748–1756 and 1761–1778. Architecturally, it is a monument of transnational importance, protected as a national cultural monument. The monastery complex includes the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and Saint Wenceslaus. It is originally a Romanesque basilica with a Gothic presbytery, which was rebuilt in the Baroque style at the end of the 17th century.

Notable people

 * Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368–1437), king of Bohemia; died here
 * Prokop Diviš (1698–1765), inventor, catholic priest; served here in 1736–1741
 * Clement Mary Hofbauer, C.Ss.R. (1751–1820), Redemptorist priest and saint; served here as an apprentice baker in 1767–1770
 * Charles Sealsfield (1793–1864), German-American writer and lawyer
 * Hugo Lederer (1871–1940), sculptor
 * Otte Wallish (1903–1977), Israeli graphic designer
 * Anna Spitzmüller (1903–2001), art historian and curator
 * Edith Körner (1921–2000), British magistrate
 * Franz Woidich (1921–2004), German fighter pilot
 * Petr Rosol (born 1964), ice hockey player
 * Jitka Schneiderová (born 1973), actress
 * Květoslav Svoboda (born 1982), swimmer
 * Michal Ordoš (born 1983), footballer
 * Jiří Orság (born 1989), weightlifter
 * Andrea Stašková (born 2000), footballer

Twin towns – sister cities
Znojmo is twinned with:

 * 🇨🇿 Chrudim, Czech Republic
 * 🇸🇰 Nové Zámky, Slovakia
 * 🇮🇹 Pontassieve, Italy
 * 🇮🇹 Povo (Trento), Italy
 * 🇦🇹 Retz, Austria
 * 🇸🇰 Ružinov (Bratislava), Slovakia
 * 🇵🇱 Strzegom, Poland
 * 🇩🇪 Torgau, Germany
 * 🇮🇹 Villazzano (Trento), Italy

title: Znojmo


text:
User talk:StephanLangdon

Hello Stephan, welcome to Wikipedia! I hope you have a lot of fun here. There are lots of resources around to help guide you. be sure to check out:

 * Naming conventions
 * Manual of Style

If you want add any images check out:

 * image use policy
 * How to keep image file sizes as small as possible

If you need any help try:

 * Help
 * Village pump
 * Or ask me at my talk page User_talk:Theresa knott

Don't be afraid of making the odd mistake, there are any number of others eagerly waiting for a chance to correct it!

title: User talk:StephanLangdon