text:
German occupation of Luxembourg during World War II

The German occupation of Luxembourg in World War II began in May 1940 after the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg was invaded by Nazi Germany. Although Luxembourg was officially neutral, it was situated at a strategic point at the end of the French Maginot Line. On 10 May 1940, the German Wehrmacht invaded Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. Luxembourg was initially placed under a military administration, but later became a civilly administrated territory and finally was annexed directly into Germany. The Germans believed Luxembourg to be a Germanic state, and attempted to suppress what they perceived as alien French language and cultural influences. Although some Luxembourgers joined the resistance or collaborated with the Germans, both constituted a minority of the population. As German nationals, from 1942, many Luxembourgers were conscripted into the German military. Nearly 3,500 Luxembourgish Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. The liberation of the country by the Allies began in September 1944, but due to the Ardennes Offensive it was not completed until early 1945.

Eve of the invasion
The outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939 put Luxembourg's government in a delicate situation. On the one hand, the population's sympathy lay with Belgium and France; on the other hand, due to the country's policy of neutrality since 1867's Treaty of London, the government adopted a careful non-belligerent stance towards its neighbours. As of 1 September, Radio Luxembourg stopped broadcasting. In spring 1940, fortifications were erected along the borders with Germany and France. The so-called Schuster Line, named after its constructor, consisted of massive concrete roadblocks with steel doors. The official aim of these road blocks was to slow down the progress of any invading army and give time for the guarantors of Luxembourg's neutrality to take counteractions against the invaders. However, compared to the massive power of the German forces, it had only symbolic character and helped to calm down the population. Except for its small Corps des Gendarmes et Volontaires, Luxembourg did not possess an army, due to the treaty's restrictions.

After several false alarms in the spring of 1940, the probability of a military conflict between Germany and France grew. Germany stopped the export of coke for the Luxembourgish steel industry.

Invasion
The steel doors of the Schuster Line were ordered closed on 10 May 1940 at 03:15, following movements of German troops on the east side of the border rivers Our, Sauer and Mosel. In the meantime, German special forces dressed as civilians and supported by Germans living in Luxembourg - the so-called Stoßtrupp Lützelburg - tried to sabotage radio broadcasting and the barricades along the German-Luxembourgish border but their attempt failed. The Royal Family was evacuated from its residence in Colmar-Berg to the Grand Ducal palace in Luxembourg City.

The German invasion, made up of the 1st, 2nd, and 10th Panzer Divisions began at 04:35. They encountered no significant resistance save for some bridges destroyed and some land mines, since the majority of the Luxembourgish Volunteer Corps stayed in their barracks. Luxembourgish police resisted the German troops, however, to little avail; the capital city being occupied before noon. Total Luxembourgish casualties amounted to 75 police and soldiers captured, six police wounded, and one soldier wounded. At 08:00, elements of the of General Robert Petiet, supported by the 1st Spahi Brigade of Colonel Jouffault and the 2nd company of the 5th Armoured Battalion, crossed the southern border to conduct a probe of German forces; these units later retreated behind the Maginot Line. By the evening of 10 May 1940, most of the country, with the exception of the south, was occupied by German forces. More than 90,000 civilians evacuated from the canton of Esch-sur-Alzette as a consequence of the advance. 47,000 fled to France, 45,000 fled into the central and northern part of Luxembourg.

Grand Duchess Charlotte and the government of prime minister Pierre Dupong fled to France, Portugal and the United Kingdom, before finally settling in Canada for the duration of the war. Charlotte, exiled in London, became an important symbol of national unity. Her eldest son and heir, Jean, volunteered for the British Army in 1942. The only official representative left behind was, head of a governmental commission, as well as the 41 members of the Chamber of Deputies.

Military administration

Early on 10 May 1940, the German diplomat Von Radowitz handed the general secretary of the Luxembourgish government a memorandum from the German government, stating that Germany had no intention of changing the territorial integrity or political independence of the Grand Duchy. The following day, a military administration for Luxembourg was set up. Luxembourgish interests were represented by a governmental commission under Albert Wehrer, which consisted of senior civil servants and had been legitimated by the Chamber of Deputies. There was a good relationship between this commission and the military authorities, as Colonel Schumacher showed a broad-minded attitude towards the country's problems and a willingness to solve these in consultation with the government commission.

On 13 July 1940, the Volksdeutsche Bewegung (VdB) was founded in Luxembourg City under the leadership of Damian Kratzenberg, a German teacher at the Athénée de Luxembourg. Its main goal was to push the population towards a German-friendly position by means of propaganda, and it was this organisation that used the phrase Heim ins Reich.

Several Deputies and high-ranking civil servants were of the opinion that Luxembourg could retain a measure of autonomy under the military administration, as had occurred in World War I, and attempts were made to come to some sort of arrangement with Germany. However, it was soon made clear by the authorities in Berlin that Luxembourg's fate would be very different this time. The Nazis considered the Luxembourgish people as just another Germanic ethnic group and the Grand Duchy a German territory. The military authorities were withdrawn from Luxembourg by 31 July 1940, to be replaced by a civil administration under Gustav Simon.

Civil administration and annexation
Gustav Simon was appointed Chef der Zivilverwaltung (CdZ; "Chief of the Civil Administration") by the Oberkommando des Heeres on 21 July 1940. Luxembourg was then included into the CdZ-Gebiet Luxemburg on 29 July. While initially subordinate to the military commands in Belgium and northern France, Simon was confirmed in his appointment on 2 August by Adolf Hitler himself, indicating that he reported directly to the Führer and no one else. This granted him a wide degree of autonomy with regards to the military and civil authorities of Nazi Germany.

Simon, who was also the Gauleiter of the neighbouring Gau Trier-Koblenz, later Moselland (Gauleiter being a title denoting the leader of a regional branch of the Nazi party), led a propaganda and later terror campaign, known as Heim ins Reich, to convince the population that they were ethnic Germans and a natural part of the Third Reich. His objective was "to win Luxembourg back over to the German nation as soon as possible." He was convinced that Luxembourgers only needed a level of education and enlightenment in order to voluntarily declare their loyalty to Germany. He deduced this from his belief that they were, in fact, German "by blood and by descent". To the Gauleiter, Luxembourgish independence was an "absurd idea," which existed only because the monarchy and government had nurtured it: if the Luxembourgers were shown evidence of their belonging to the German nation, the will to be independent must disappear.

Life in occupied Luxembourg
The general public were slow to react at first, still feeling shock from the invasion of 1914–1918. Furthermore, the royal family and the government had silently fled into exile. The majority of the population kept their heads low to avoid any conflict with the authorities; others participated in acts of passive resistance.

Germanification
The administration of Simon arrived in Luxembourg fully persuaded that the "German-ness" of the Luxembourgers merely lay under a thin external layer of French influence. This in turn meant that, with a bit of determined "unraveling" by his administration, the German character of the population would essentially reveal itself.

Simon had two clear goals:
 * The Nazification and Germanisation of Luxembourg, i.e., the extinction of everything that was not of German source, like French names and words of French origin or a French way of life
 * The destruction and dismemberment of the Luxembourgish state institutions, and the country's incorporation into the Third Reich

His very first series of decrees made this policy very clear:

 * 6 August 1940: German became the only official language, and the usage of the French language was banned. The ban applied to official and administrative usage as well as everyday life. French expressions of courtesy such as "Bonjour", "Merci", "Monsieur", "Madame", etc. were included: people greeting each other had to say "Heil Hitler".
 * Autumn 1940. The political parties and independent labour unions, the Parliament and the Conseil d'État were dissolved. All civil society organisations and the press were subjected to Nazi control.
 * Till end 1940. German law was introduced including the Sondergerichte and the Nuremberg Laws.
 * 31 January 1941: French-sounding family names, first names, and the names of streets, towns, shops and companies were Germanised, that is, translated into their German counterpart or simply replaced by something more Germanic. Henri became Heinrich, Dupont became Brückner.
 * 18 February 1941: Wearing a beret (a traditional cap from the Northern Basque Country) was forbidden.
 * From May 1941 many Luxembourgish youth were ordered to participate in the Reichsarbeitsdienst.

A massive propaganda campaign was launched to influence the population, while not only dissidents and critics but also teachers, officials and leading business figures were threatened with losing their jobs unless they joined Nazi organisations, which led to much increased recruitment from all professions. A central registry documented the personal opinion regarding the Nazi regime of almost every citizen. People who were openly opposed to the regime lost their jobs or were deported, mainly to eastern Germany and in the worst cases sent to the death camps where many of them were murdered.

The occupation authorities attempted to cover Luxembourg with a net of political, social and cultural organisations, such as also existed in Germany, including the Hitler Youth, the League of German Girls, the Winterhilfswerk, the NS-Frauenschaft and the Deutsche Arbeitsfront.

Catholic Church
The Catholic Church in Luxembourg was relatively silent during the war, and took no public stance regarding the fate of the Jews or the Nazi regime. On the one hand, the Bishop, Joseph Laurent Philippe, was bedridden due to illness, and was therefore in no state to provide active opposition. On the other hand, the Bishop did not want to further antagonise the occupiers and endanger the already precarious religious life of the Church, which was heavily restricted during wartime. Bishop Philippe did, however, refuse to meet with the Nazi leadership, and made preparations in case his post should fall vacant.

The Church saw its very existence threatened as it was pushed out of public life by the anti-religious policies of the Nazis: public religious events such as the Octave celebration or the dancing procession were banned, Christian organisations were dissolved, religious education in schools was abolished, and a ban on the religious orders was put in place.

At the same time, the diocese administration remained one of very few Luxembourgish institutions that stayed intact during the war, although this was in doubt for a while, and a deportation of the Bishop was considered by the occupation authorities. Plans were made to deport him to Vichy France, though this failed due to the objections of the German ambassador in Paris and of the Sicherheitsdient headquarters in Berlin.

The Bishop's primary concern was to maintain pastoral care. In order to preserve this, he was prepared to give way on individual points. Thus, he made no official protest against the measures of the Zivilverwaltung, and tried to keep members of the clergy from "ill-considered" actions.

Many priests felt differently from the Bishop and used their influence on their congregations to strengthen their patriotic feelings, and protested against the occupation or became active in the Resistance. In the course of the war, out of 446 Catholic priests in Luxembourg, 58 were arrested, 16 imprisoned in Dachau and 7 were killed there. Another 18 clerics were deported to Vichy France.

Economy
Luxembourg's economy was dominated by heavy industry, especially mining and the steel industry. For its raw materials, and to sell its finished products it depended on the overseas market. Economically it could only survive by adhering to a wider economic area. In the 19th century it had been part of the German Confederation and the German customs union. After World War I, under Allied pressure, it re-oriented itself towards the West. German capital and companies — heavily present in the steel industry until then — left the country, and Luxembourg joined the Belgium–Luxembourg Economic Union (UEBL).

In the 1920s, Germany once again became Luxembourg's second-biggest economic partner, far ahead of France or Britain. As Germany was a large buyer of its heavy industry products, and provided 90% of Luxembourg's coal needs, the smaller country was dependent on Germany and susceptible to its pressures or threats.

As soon as the country was occupied, German heavy industry declared its interest in the Luxembourgish iron/steel mills. They let their wishes be known in Berlin and staked their claims. The Vereinigte Stahlwerke requested to take over Hadir; both the Reichswerke and Hoesch AG wanted to take over ARBED.

On 15 August 1940 the German currency and customers border was extended, so that Luxembourg was brought into the German economic area and its economic union with Belgium dissolved. On 29 January 1941 the Reichsmark became the only legal payment method, and the Cdz ordered all Luxembourgish curency to be handed in. The most important of the German tax laws were gradually rolled out in Luxembourg.

Resistance
The Luxembourgish resistance was carried out by only a small fraction of the population. Its formation was spontaneous and slow at first. The first groups were formed from autumn 1940 to summer 1941. In the beginning they worked without coordination and from different motivations, for instance Liberals opposed to the anti-Jewish policies and in favour of democracy as well as conservative Roman Catholics with sometimes more or less anti-national socialist tendencies. Some of the latter category also were at the same time opposed to the Soviet Union and "Bolshevism", hoping that the generals of the Wehrmacht would defeat Joseph Stalin and the Red Army, while at the same time hiding Jews and anti-Nazi clergy mixed together in their farms. The Luxembourg Resistance was joined by the Communist Party of Luxembourg only after the invasion of the USSR in June 1941.

The activities of the Resistance were largely directed towards undermining the German monopoly on information, and providing moral support to the population, by spreading counter-propaganda by word-of-mouth, leaflets, posters and later whole newspapers. Additionally, the Resistance helped Allied POWs and shot-down pilots, "deserters" from the Wehrmacht and other endangered Luxembourgers to cross the borders into Belgium or France. The introduction of forced labour and conscription into the Wehrmacht added to the Resistance's tasks: a large number of youths who refused to serve in the German armed forces now had to be hidden around the country and kept safe and fed, or helped to escape abroad. Collections of food and money were also made to help the families of those who were arrested, deported, or fired from their jobs. An increasingly important part of the Resistance's activities was to provide military, political and economic intelligence to the Allies. While some acts of sabotage did take place, they were rare and were seen as too risky in a small country with no remote areas to which they could withdraw. For similar reasons, armed combat by the Resistance against the occupiers was rare. Finally, many of the movements made contact with the government-in-exile, the Allies, and the French and Belgian resistance movements, with about 400 men joining the armed resistance in France. Additionally around 300 men from Luxembourg left their country to fight in the Ardennes section of the Witte Brigade, where they formed the so-called Red Lion Brigade.

Several well-known Catholic and Communist households, and many parishes and priories, also kept a number of Jewish Luxembourgish civilians and foreign Jews hidden and safe.

Passive resistance

Non-violent passive resistance was widespread in Luxembourg during the period. From August 1940, the Spéngelskrich (the "War of Pins") took place as Luxembourgers wore patriotic pin-badges (depicting the national colours or the Grand duchess), precipitating attacks from the VdB.

In October 1941, the German occupiers took a survey of Luxembourgish civilians who were asked to state their nationality, their mother tongue and their racial group, but contrary to German expectations, 95% answered "Luxembourgish" to each question. The refusal to declare themselves as German citizens led to mass arrests.

Conscription was particularly unpopular. On 31 August 1942, shortly after the announcement that conscription would be extended to all men born between 1920 and 1927, a strike began in the northern town of Wiltz. The strike spread rapidly, paralysing the factories and industries of Luxembourg. The strike was quickly repressed and its leaders arrested. 20 were summarily tried before a special tribunal (in German, a "Standgericht") and executed by firing squad at nearby Hinzert concentration camp. Nevertheless, protests against conscription continued and 3,500 Luxembourgers would desert the German army after being conscripted.

Collaboration
Collaboration with the Nazi occupation is an aspect less often talked about in Luxembourg. Studies have shown that collaboration was a phenomenon in all layers of society. There was, however, an over-representation of civil servants among the collaborators. On average, the collaborators were younger than the general population. In early September 1944, approximately 10,000 people left Luxembourg with the German civil administration: it is generally assumed that this consisted of 3,500 collaborators and their families. In 1945, 5,101 Luxembourgers, including 2,857 men and 2,244 women were in prison for political activities, constituting 1.79% of the population. Twelve collaborators were sentenced to death and were shot in Reckenthal in Luxembourg City. 249 were sentenced to forced labour, 1366 were sentenced to prison and 645 were sent to workhouses.

Repression
Faced with opposition from the general public the regime took brutal measures against any form of resistance. After the general strike of 1942, Gustav Simon proclaimed a state of emergency and introduced the German Standgerichte. Thousands were arrested and tortured. Hundreds were murdered in the concentration camps. Whole families were deported to eastern Germany and replaced by German families, mainly from South-Tyrol and Eastern Europe. The headquarters of the Gestapo, the Villa Pauly, became the symbol of this terror.

In August 1940, the Gestapo had established its headquarters in the Villa Pauly in Luxembourg City, with field offices in the Villa Seligmann in Esch and the Villa Conter in Diekirch.

On 9 September 1942, the Gauleiter announced a "Resettlement operation for Luxembourg. From then until 1944, more than 1,410 families (4,200 individuals) were resettled to the East, the Sudetenland and Upper Silesia. Their property was stolen and they were to be educated into becoming "good Germans", being forbidden from returning to Luxembourg. From 1943, in addition to families deported for political reasons, the Germans started resettling families whose sons evaded conscription into the Wehrmacht or who had deserted from their units. Out of these resettled people, 73 died in the camps, including 9 children, mostly due to malnutrition and the lack of medical facilities.

Culture and arts
After a short period of boycott, from 1941 cinemas became a place to escape and forget everyday life, in this generally dark period for the country. Alongside the increadingly tough repression of the German apparatus from 1941/42, the public's passion for cinema increased. In a time of war, occupation and repression, cinema was one of few means of distraction available to the wider public.

Audiences eagerly consumed comedies, love films, high-spectacle productions and musical films. Aside from numerous reactions of disapproval in cinemas when films of explicit propaganda or the news were shown, the Luxembourg public's hostility towards Nazi German and the occupation manifested itself in other domains of social, cultural and political life (boycotting official events, the census of 10 October 1941, strike of 31 August 1942). But unlike most events organised by the occupiers (plays, concerts, public lectures), cinema was not seen as explicitly Nazi, despite most of the films being from Germany, and watching German entertainment films was not seen as expressing support for the occupiers.

The Luxembourgish public were generally hostile towards films whose Nazi propaganda message was too conspicuous. Films such as Ohm Krüger, Cadets, or Sieg im Westen were intended to praise the German spirit, glorify heroic deaths, stigmatise Germany's enemies, appeal to unconditional submission to Nazi Germany and convince Luxembourgers that their destiny lay in the German fold; these films were accompanied by aggressive advertising. In spite of this, they were rejected by most Luxembourgish cinema-goers, and German propaganda cinema did not succeed in putting a stop to the Luxembourgish public's pro-American and pro-British sympathies.

Yet at the same time, the public's majority anti-German attitude did not prevent it from becoming infatuated with a certain number of film productions that were fiercely conservative, if not explicitly Nazi. In Luxembourg, even among the fiercest opponents of the occupation, some were characterised by ideological convictions that were aggressively conservative, in some cases reactionary and authoritarian. This may explain the (relative) success of films such as the antisemitic Jud Süß, or Die goldene Stadt, a melodrama with racist undertones celebrating Germanic virtues and imbued with the "blood and soul" ideology.

The Holocaust
Before the invasion, 3,900 Jews lived in Luxembourg, many of them refugees from Germany and Austria. On the night of 10 May 1940, about 1,600 of them left the country. After Simon introduced the Nuremberg Laws, life became unbearable for the Jewish population. Their shops, possessions and money were confiscated and all Jewish employees were fired. They were not allowed inside public buildings or to keep pets. Up until 15 October 1941, a further 1,500 Jews left the country on the orders of the authorities. The Gestapo accompanied them to France and Spain but, since they were rejected there, they went on an endless odyssey.

On 23 August 1941, a curfew was introduced for the Jewish population and they were degraded to second class citizens. The synagogues in Luxembourg City and Esch-sur-Alzette were destroyed; the ones in Ettelbruck and Mondorf-les-Bains were devastated. The Nazis concentrated most of the remaining 800 Jews in the old monastery of Cinqfontaines (Fünfbrunnen). From here, they were deported on 7 trains from 16 October 1941 to 17 June 1943 to the ghetto of Litzmannstadt and the concentration camps of Lublin and Theresienstadt, and from 1943 directly to the extermination camp of Auschwitz.

On 17 June 1943, Gustav Simon announced Luxembourg to be Judenfrei. From the 683 deported, only 43 survived.

Liberation
Luxembourg was liberated by Allied forces in September 1944, specifically U.S. Army Combat Command A (CCA), 5th Armored Division. The first U.S. forces entered Luxembourgish territory near Petange on 9 September, and liberated the capital city on 10 September 1944. The Germans retreated without fighting. By 12 September 90% of the Grand Duchy had been liberated. One month before the start of the Battle of the Bulge, 250 soldiers of the Waffen-SS had unsuccessfully tried to recapture the town of Vianden from the Luxembourgish Resistance during the Battle of Vianden. During the Battle of the Bulge, the northern part of the country was hit by artillery from a special unit that the Germans designed to send shells up to 40 km away (see V3), but the Germans did not retake the city.

Casualties and damage
In total, 5,700 Luxembourgish citizens died during World War II, which corresponds to 2% of the population of 1940, the highest such loss in Western Europe. Additionally, 18,658 buildings were destroyed or heavily damaged, counting for 1/3 of all buildings in Luxembourg (affecting 39% the population). These numbers put into perspective how high the losses of Luxembourg actually were during World War II. (Most of the damages occurred during the Battle of the Bulge.)

Legacy
The government-in-exile in 1941 declared all measures by the German occupiers to be null and void, which it re-affirmed in 1944. However, it also stated that "[n]ot all is bad in the German system, we would do well to conserve some of the institutions that they have introduced." Hence, when the exiled government returned, it retained certain German regulations and dispositions in the areas of employment law, tax law and social legislation.

After the war the organisation "Ons Jongen" ("Our Boys") was formed to represent Luxembourgish conscripts into the Wehrmacht. The 10,000 affected young men and their families constituted a significant force in a country of around 300,000 inhabitants; they lobbied both the Luxembourgish government and the Federal Republic of Germany; later, they were represented by the "Federation of Victims of Nazism Forcibly Conscripted". Apart from lobbying, the organisation also undertook commemorative work. It almost certainly contributed to slowing the normalisation of Germano-Luxembourgish relations.

The Centre for Documentation and Research on the Resistance and the Centre for Documentation and Research on forced Conscription were founded in 2002 and 2005, respectively, to conduct research on the period of German occupation. They are funded by the government.

The German occupation period features in the following drama films: Déi zwéi vum Bierg (1985), Der neunte Tag (2004), Réfractaire (2009), and Emil (2010); it is also the subject of the 2004 documentary Heim ins Reich.

Several street names in the capital city are named after World War II events in Luxembourg, or pay tribute to Allied military or political leaders in the war, especially those that had a hand in the liberation of Luxembourg:

 * Allée des Résistants et des Déportés
 * Avenue Charles-de-Gaulle
 * Avenue du Dix-Septembre
 * Boulevard d'Avranches
 * Boulevard Franklin-D.-Roosevelt
 * Boulevard Général-George-S.-Patton
 * Rue de la Grève
 * Place des Martyrs
 * Rue du Plébiscite
 * Rue General-Major-Lunsford-E.-Oliver
 * Rue George-C.-Marshall


text:
Young Justice

Young Justice is a fictional DC Comics superhero team consisting of teenaged heroes.

The team was formed in 1998 when DC's usual teen hero group, the Teen Titans, had become adults and changed their name to the Titans. Like the original Teen Titans, Young Justice was centered on three previously established teen heroes: Superboy, Robin, and Impulse, but grew to encompass most teenaged heroes in the DC Universe.

In the 2003 mini-series Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day, both groups disbanded and members of each formed two new teams of Teen Titans and Outsiders.

The series was revived in 2019 under the Wonder Comics imprint for teen readers, reuniting most of the original core cast.

Fictional history
Robin, Superboy, and Impulse first join in a one-shot, part of the "GirlFrenzy" Fifth week event, called Young Justice: The Secret, written by Todd DeZago, where they first encounter the mysterious superheroine Secret and free her from captivity of the DEO (Department of Extranormal Operations). They next appear together in the Justice League miniseries, World Without Grown-Ups, also written by DeZago, in which a magical being, commanded by new child villain Bedlam, moves all adults to an alternate world. This is when they first stumble upon the abandoned Justice League Cave in Happy Harbor (formerly called "The Secret Sanctuary"), which would later become their headquarters, re-christened the "Justice Cave." After managing to thwart Bedlam's adolescent paradise, the three boys agree that they were effective as a team and should officially band together as their own group.

When the ongoing title begins in September 1998, the three heroes have formed a clubhouse in the Cave. However, in the first issue, they awaken the android superhero Red Tornado from a self-imposed dormancy; Red Tornado would remain a supporting character in the title, acting as a mentor/chaperone to the founding team, feeling that his interaction with the boisterous teens will help salvage what he felt was left of his humanity. In issue 4, the group doubles in number with the addition of three teen superheroines: the second Wonder Girl (Cassandra Sandsmark), struggling to make her mark as a serious crimefighter, the ethereal and mysterious Secret (Greta Hayes, but nicknamed "Suzie" throughout most of the series), and Arrowette (Cissie King-Jones), attempting to humiliate her estranged domineering mother, the retired Miss Arrowette, by outshining her own brief super-heroic career. The stern and calculating Robin and the cocky and brazen Superboy occasionally compete for leadership; Robin is the one most commonly deferred to, though routinely teased by the others for what they consider his over-pragmatic nature, initially refusing to share his face or his true identity with any of them; a slightly jealous Wonder Girl overcomes her initial distaste for Arrowette and the two quickly become close friends; Wonder Girl's schoolgirl crush on Superboy slowly begins to develop into genuine feelings shared between the two of them for one another; the team as a whole usually find the ability to trust in Impulse in spite of his whimsical character, yielding mixed results in various adventures; Secret, amnesiac to her true identity and history, is accepted for her innocent nature and forms a kinship with Wonder Girl and Arrowette, and later on in the series she develops a crush on Robin.

In their earliest adventures, the team mostly faced threats of varying severity; from the Mighty Endowed, an archaeologist named Nina Dowd ("N. Dowd") who was transformed into a top-heavy feline figure too well endowed to support her own weight, to the deadly Harm. This man was an aspiring super-villain bent on battling and killing young metahumans for "practice," later revealed to be Secret's adopted brother in her previous life. Harm was responsible for her death and subsequent transfiguration. Young Justice discovers and "adopts" the Super-Cycle, a sentient vehicle capable of flight from New Genesis which they come to rely as their primary means of transportation. They are also persistently badgered by APES (All Purpose Enforcement Squad) Agents Donald Fite and Ishido Maad (loosely coined as "Fite n' Maad"). Writer Peter David, in a column about jokes he was not allowed to do, revealed that he had considered naming the two "Nuck" and "Futz", but had been overruled by DC editors who did not like the combination "Nuck'n'Futz". These men are acting on behalf of the Department of Extranormal Operations. They are seeking to recapture Secret; instead she leads a revolt that frees all of their other captives.

Red Tornado faces losing custody of his adoptive daughter, Traya. He flees the state with her, placing the team in a legal predicament because they assisted him. Traya is eventually returned to her mother after she is awakened from her coma by Secret, while Red Tornado is temporarily impounded. Arrowette suffers the murder of a close friend at her school and nearly kills the attacker. This places the team in further trouble with the government. It helps stir an already-ensuing media blitz aimed at all young super-heroes turning public sway towards the opinion that all teenage heroes are too reckless and more of an endangerment to society than a protection. This situation is further exacerbated when Young Justice, in an attempt to free Secret who had been taken captive by the DEO, inadvertently defaces Mount Rushmore. These events quickly give rise to building tensions between Young Justice and their adult counterparts in the Justice League, and a rising amount of petitioning in Washington against "underage" crime-fighters, spurred by the newly formed team of Golden Age sidekicks, Old Justice. Remorseful over her lack of restraint, and feeling burnt-out on a life that was mostly forced on her by her mother in the first place, Cissie retires as Arrowette and quits the team in the midst of these events, much to the dismay of her best friend Wonder Girl (who would go on to continually pester Cissie for some time later about rejoining the team). In the midst of these events, unbeknownst to the team, Superboy is taken captive and detained by the villainous Agenda, while his villainous counterpart, Match, is implanted within the team. Shortly after, they meet and are aided by a mysterious new heroine, the enigmatic Empress, later revealed to be Anita Fite, daughter of Donald Fite, one of the agents who had previously plagued the team up through this point. The team soon becomes targeted by a federally-operated group of metahumans known as the Pointmen, and is forced to flee their headquarters in Happy Harbor, now officially wanted by the government.

Sins of Youth
These developments spin off into one of the series' key events, Young Justice: Sins of Youth fifth week event in March 2000 (takes place between Young Justice issues #19 and 20), as the team's troubles come to a head when all members of Young Justice, the Justice League, the Justice Society, the Titans, and several other costumed heroes are, in a catastrophic chain of events involving Klarion the Witch-Boy, are either aged to adulthood or de-aged to adolescence, thanks to the machinations of the Agenda, headed by former wife of Lex Luthor, Contessa Erica Alexandra Del Portenza, who had been manipulating events from the beginning in an attempt to discredit all costumed super-heroes, young and old alike, by targeting Young Justice and the teen heroes as the weakest link in the chain. During this crisis, as the heroes scatter to find a reversal to Klarion's magicks, the DCU is given a glimpse of the quality of heroism that may one day arise from its youngest generation of super-heroes (much to the surprise of many within the super-heroic community, as well as a few members of Young Justice themselves), as well as a glimpse of its senior generations in their teen years or younger. Also during the event, or as indirect results of the event, Superboy's girlfriend Tana Moon is brutally murdered by an agent of the Agenda, marking a turning point in the Kid of Steel's life, Wonder Girl began to bloom into her role as a hero, even abandoning her wig. Jack Knight (Starman), impressed with the competence and intelligence he witnessed in the then-adult Courtney Whitmore, the second Star-Spangled Kid, would later pass his Cosmic Rod and the Starman mantle on to Courtney, spurring the precocious heroine to later become Stargirl. It also marked the transition between the original six and the new cast, with Empress joining right after this storyline and a newly de-aged Lobo, or Li'l Lobo, being created by it.

In the aftermath of these events, negative public opinion against the young crime-fighters subsides, and the team reconciles with their friends and mentors in the Justice League and with the government. Superboy temporarily loses his powers, but regains his ability to age normally (as a result from an earlier story arc in his own title, Kon-El was permanently suspended in age as a 16-year-old). The team re-locates its headquarters to an abandoned hotel in the Catskills and takes a temporary leave of absence to recuperate, allowing for a substitute team consisting of Beast Boy, Flamebird, Batgirl, Captain Marvel Junior, and Lagoon Boy to fill in for one issue, as they intervene in a battle royale between Klarion and Li'l Lobo.

When Cissie is selected to represent the United States in the archery games for the 2000 Summer Olympics at the encouragement of her mother, the team accompanies her to Australia and thwarts an effort to sabotage the games by the criminal nation of Zandia. Cissie, a natural-born marksman, wins the gold medal for the US, effectively gaining her celebrity status without the need of her heroic identity. They team up once again with Empress, finally learning her true identity, much to Anita's chagrin. Young Justice quickly warms up to the young mystic and welcomes her within their ranks, though Cissie initially rejects Anita out of resentment towards feeling replaced.

The team later make an expedition to outer space at the behest of Doiby Dickles, former sidekick to Golden Age Green Lantern Alan Scott, and former member of Old Justice, to free his previous homeworld Myrg from invading forces. In this adventure they encounter Li'l Lobo once again, who agrees to join them for the expectation of violence. Robin begrudgingly allows Young Justice to accept Lobo's help in this instance, primarily out of a desire for any chance of evening their odds for success. After liberating Myrg and returning home (after yet another brief excursion to New Genesis, in which Secret meets and unwittingly strikes up a rapport with the despotic Darkseid), Lobo continues to exercise his presence with Young Justice and participating in their adventures for no real reason that anyone within the group can discern; he is never officially accepted as a member. He develops an attraction for Empress; a mildly interested but mostly apathetic Anita obliges to go on a date with him at one point.

Our Worlds at War
During 2001's "Our Worlds at War" storyline, the universe is faced with the dual threat of impending annihilation at the hands of Imperiex and conquest/enslavement at the hands of Brainiac 13. Many tenuous alliances are formed, particularly between then-US President Lex Luthor and the Justice League, not to mention Earth and the dark world Apokolips. In the midst of intergalactic war, Young Justice is drafted into the combat strictly for search and rescue purposes. As a result of the aftermath of the JLA: Tower of Babel storyline, in which Batman had been revealed to be keeping extensive and invasive dossiers on his teammates in the Justice League for purposes of neutralizing and subduing in the event of any of them going rogue, similar suspicions of Robin had begun to circulate amongst his teammates in Young Justice. When the team crash lands and is left stranded on Apokolips after Superboy took control of their shuttle in an attempt to rescue Steel from the Black Racer, tensions explode between Superboy and Robin and those suspicions are brought to light, leaving the team divided; Superboy, Wonder Girl, Impulse, and Cissie all express concerns regarding whether Robin is capable of doing the same thing to them, but Secret reaffirms her faith in Robin while Empress acknowledges Batman's reasons for developing the strategies, with Lobo dismissing it as impossible for anyone to take him out so he doesn't care. The group agree to put the matter aside for the time being as they attempt to get off of Apokolips.

The team quickly begins drawing enemy fire; Impulse is left shaken and temporarily traumatized when one of his super-speed "scouts" (vibrational "clones" Impulse learned to make of himself that could function independently for short time periods) is killed in the line of fire, giving the lackadaisical hero a harsh confrontation with his own mortality; Li'l Lobo is all but annihilated by Parademons, ultimately finished off by the Black Racer. The rest of the team is taken captive and put into the care of Granny Goodness, where she and her Female Furies subject them to various cruel forms of mental torture. Secret is taken to confer with Darkseid, who had taken an interest in the powerful, yet naive young heroine the last time they had met. Secret, who had recently begun to learn more about her powers and her connections with the afterlife and who had consequently began to ponder her true nature, is informed by Darkseid that she is "evil." Young Justice eventually breaks free from Granny's captivity and lashes out at their tormentors before making another desperate attempt at escape. Due to Li'l Lobo's ability to replicate clones of himself for every drop of his blood spilled, the team is aided by an army of Lobo clones who are unleashed on the Apokoliptian forces, as they lash out against everyone and everything around them before turning on each other and killing one another off to the last surviving Lobo. The team finally makes good their escape from Apokolips in the midst of the chaos, with the help of one additional genetically inferior teenage Lobo that had remained hidden from the fight in their spaceship. Ashamed of his perceived inferiority and cowardice, this less imposing, less threatening Lobo renames himself "Slo-Bo." The team, who had been listed as missing in action for some time finally return to Earth safely a few days after the Imperiex War had finally ended, collectively and individually jarred by their wartime experience.

In the aftermath of this adventure, for the first time frightened for his life, Impulse decides to quit the team, retiring from his super-hero life altogether. He is joined by Robin, who decides to sever ties with the team out of hurt feelings inflicted by teammates that he feels no longer trust him. After the loss of two founding members, they are joined by former Justice League mascot Snapper Carr, who agrees to assume Red Tornado's mentoring position; with his own unique form of counsel, Snapper attempts to help the remaining members get their feet back on the ground. To re-bolster their ranks, the team soon recruits the older Ray as its newest member. Meanwhile, in an effort to help Secret come to terms with her tragic past and assuage her concerns over what she considers her "true nature", Snapper arranges for Suzie to be taken in by the Spectre Hal Jordan in a mentoring capacity. The full details of her life and death are brought to light, as well as her role as a "gatekeeper" between the realm of the dead and the living. She is never shown divulging the information of her origin to her teammates, though she does supply them with her true name, Greta Hayes.

World Without Young Justice
All four series featuring Young Justice characters take part in the "World Without Young Justice" crossover in April 2002. The five-part story arc features old Young Justice opponent Bedlam from "World Without Grown-Ups" returning and once again recreating the world to suit his will. In this new reality, Young Justice consists of distorted, and in some cases amoral, parodies of their proper selves. Reunited with Bart Allen and Tim Drake, Young Justice manages to defeat Bedlam once again and restore reality to its rightful state.

With Young Justice once again in full force, the team decides to take a vote on who should become team leader, due to the feeling that despite Robin's return, they question whether or not he deserves the position of leader, particularly in light of having quit the team so abruptly. In the end, Wonder Girl, having blossomed into a competent, level-headed heroine since her more awkward days hiding under her wig and goggles, and also having stuck with the team through thick and thin since close to its beginning, wins the election, and is given full blessings from former leader, Robin. Though Robin loses his leadership position, he continues to act as the team's chief tactical mind, similar to Batman's role with the JLA.

Wonder Girl assumes responsibility just in time to lead Young Justice to its next challenge. When Empress's father is kidnapped and murdered by her super-villain grandfather, Agua Sin Gaaz, a prominent and powerful resident of the nation of Zandia, populated primarily with criminals, Young Justice assembles a legion of young heroes from across the DCU to assist in Sin Gaaz's apprehension, including Stargirl, Jakeem Thunder, Lagoon Boy, Kid Devil, The Wonder Twins, and dozens of others. The assault on Zandia is met with an equally staggering assemblage of villains, resulting in an all-out battle royale. Empress confronts Sin Gaaz, but the villain is defeated and murdered by Arrowette – not Cissie, but her mother, Bonnie King-Jones, passing off as her own daughter. After Sin Gaaz's demise, Empress is left in the care of two newborn infants suddenly created in his lab – the reincarnations of Anita's own deceased parents.

The final storyline of the series witnesses the building subplot of Secret's dark side coming to light. As Young Justice prepares to boost its image and expand by agreeing to star in a new reality show, Secret learns that her father is to soon be sentenced to death for the murder of her brother, Harm. She pleas for her teammates help in breaking him out of jail. When they refuse and later condemn her after freeing her father anyway, a betrayed Secret erupts in a fit of anger, violently attacks her friends, and agrees to leave Earth for Apokolips with Darkseid, at last giving in to his offer of tutelage. With Secret now in service to one of humanity's greatest adversaries, and now totally in control of her vast power linking her to the abyss, the team apprehensively prepares to face their former friend. Impulse confesses his fear over his own lack of regard for his own life; Empress, now left to care for two newborn infants faces the possibility that her career as a super-hero may be over; Slo-Bo, with his physically inferior body, is slowly beginning to degrade; Cissie at last establishes peace with her mother; and Superboy and Wonder Girl finally confess their feelings for one another. When Secret finally attacks in a final confrontation condemning her friends for failing her, Robin admits their failings and appeals to Secret's reason and inner goodness. Upon breaking down in tears and giving up the people she had previously consumed, Secret is confronted and scorned by an angered Darkseid. Slo-Bo attempts to attack the New God but is seemingly obliterated by a shot of Darkseid's Omega Effect. Darkseid then uses his Omega Effect to strip Secret of her immortality and her power, rendering her "normal" as punishment for her betrayal; ironically, being "normal" was all Secret really yearned for all along. The last page reveals that Slo-Bo, rather than being killed by Darkseid, was instead flung into the far future, where he is (consciously) imprisoned as a statue in the Young Justice of the 853rd Century's cave headquarters.

Graduation Day
The team is next seen in the Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day mini-series. A casual business meeting with a potential money source and the Titans goes awry when the two teams are attacked by an android (see Indigo) from the future, leaving Empress, Argent, Cyborg and Jesse Quick hospitalized. The Ray is absent, but unmentioned. Upon further pursuance of the situation, the unwitting android activates a dormant Superman replicate android that had been left in the care of STAR Labs. The Superman android turns out to be hostile, and the resulting clash leads to the deaths of long-time Titans Lilith and Donna Troy (who, unknown to the Titans and Young Justice, was resurrected by the Titans of Myth), leaving both teams devastated. Wonder Girl, enraged at being unable to save either of them and particularly saddened by the loss of her friend and predecessor, has come to see herself and Young Justice ineffective as heroes, and turns away from her teammates. Young Justice finally dissolves. The kids, choosing to shoulder the weight of the responsibility for the fiasco, drop out of communication with one another until Wonder Girl, Robin, Superboy, and Impulse are brought back together by Cyborg, Starfire, and Beast Boy to form the new Teen Titans.

Meanwhile, Ray joins the new Freedom Fighters, while Snapper Car joins Checkmate. Secret, without powers retires from the superhero world to attend school with Cissie and Wonder Girl. Empress also goes into semi-retirement but would occasionally re-don her costume during the Infinite Crisis, and during a brief team-up with Supergirl. She apparently came out of retirement in Final Crisis, joining Mas y Menos and Sparx in forming a Teen Titans spin-off known as the "League of Titans". The League is easily defeated by Mirror Master and Arthur Light, and are last seen recuperating at the Hall of Justice. Red Tornado meanwhile later rejoins the Justice League. After over a year of inactivity, Lagoon Boy is recruited by Cyborg for his new Titans East roster, only to be severely injured and rendered comatose on the team's first training exercise. The Super-Cycle meanwhile has disappeared without a trace.

A short Young Justice story is added into Teen Titans #50, where Wonder Girl and Robin remembering their old Young Justice days, and in particular the newly deceased Bart Allen. The pair would share stories about how Bart would impulsively make mistakes such as causing an international incident in Gorilla City, failing to realize his teammates were badly-made robots and publishing the team's secret identities in a Young Justice comic book.

Unofficial reunions
In the Wonder Girl mini series, the then living remaining core members of Young Justice, consisting of Wonder Girl, Robin, Empress, and Arrowette (Secret was absent due to her powers being gone and Superboy and Kid Flash had not yet been resurrected), along with Hercules, teamed up to defeat Granny Goodness and her Female Furies.

In the first six issues of Adventure Comics (collected in Superboy: The Boy of Steel), Wonder Girl, Red Robin (Tim Drake), and Kid Flash come together in Smallville to offer Superboy support after an incident with Lex Luthor.

Wonder Comics
In the years following DC's The New 52 and DC Rebirth soft reboots, a new Young Justice series was launched in January 2019 as part of DC's teen-oriented Wonder Comics imprint, written by the imprint's curator Brian Michael Bendis. The first story arc featured the reunion of original team members Robin (Tim Drake), Superboy (Conner Kent), Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark) and Impulse (Bart Allen). They were joined by new team members Teen Lantern (Keli Quintana), a young girl who managed to hack a Green Lantern Corps power battery; Jinny Hex, the descendant of Jonah Hex; and Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld. This series saw the reintroduction of the pre-New-52 Conner Kent and Bart Allen to the main DC continuity, apart from the latter's one-page reappearance in The Flash vol. 5 #51.

The team initially came together in Metropolis, when responding to an incursion from the forces of the Dark Lord Opal from Gemworld. Being drawn into Gemworld after the retreating invaders, the team were reunited with Superboy – who had been marooned on Gemworld for some time, and so had been unaffected by the cosmic reboots that had altered continuity since his last appearance – and introduced to Amethyst. After defeating the Dark Lord Opal, the team were set adrift in the multiverse and travelled through a variety of alternate realities in their attempt to get home. While on Earth-Three, on Impulse's encouragement Robin took up the new codename Drake.

Upon returning to their home reality, the team encountered Naomi McDuffie, main character of the Wonder Comics series Naomi. Soon afterwards, Superboy was again sent to an alternate reality by the villainous S.T.A.R. Labs scientists who had initially sent him to Gemworld, this time ending up on Skartaris. In their effort to find out what happened to him, Young Justice teamed up with Naomi, along with Jayna & Zan from Wonder Twins and Miguel Montez & Summer Pickens from Dial H For Hero (both series also under the Wonder Comics imprint).

David F Walker became co-writer of the series as of issue #13. More allies were recruited for the mission to recover Superboy, including Spoiler (Stephanie Brown), Aqualad (Jackson Hyde), Sideways (Derek James) and original team member Arrowette (Cissie King-Jones). After the defeat of the S.T.A.R. Labs scientists and Superboy's return, the team decided to accept all their allies on the mission as new members, transforming Young Justice from a self-contained team into a broadly-connected network of young superheroes.

All-ages series
A second, unrelated Young Justice title was launched by DC in 2011, set within the continuity of the Young Justice animated series (placing it on Earth-16 in the DC Multiverse). The series was part of DC's kid-friendly all-ages line, which also included comics based on other popular cartoons such as Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Ben 10. Issue #0 was written by TV series writers Greg Weisman and Kevin Hopps. Issues 1–6 and the 2011 Free Comic Book Day Special were written by Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani. As of issue #7 TV series writers Greg Weisman and Kevin Hopps resumed writing the series. Mike Norton provided the art for issues 0–4 and the 2011 Free Comic Book Day Special, while Christopher Jones became the new artist as of issue #5. The series concluded with issue #25, less than one month before the animated series' apparent cancellation.

The series featured a team consisting of teen superheroes Superboy, Aqualad, Artemis, Robin, Miss Martian and Kid Flash. Issues #0-19 were set during the events of the first season of the animated series, with stories taking place between episodes. The final six-part story arc "Invasion", published over issues #20-25, was set one month before the beginning of the second season.

Issues #5 and #6 of the title feature the kids on a camping trip in homage to issue #7 of the original series, which featured a similar storyline.

In advance of the animated series returning for its third season after a six-year hiatus, the comic was also revived for a one-shot story titled "Torch Songs" intended to lead into the new season's first episode. The story was ultimately released digitally in two chapters, over the two days preceding the third-season premiere. Greg Weisman returned as writer and Christopher Jones as artist.

In other media
On November 26, 2010, the Young Justice animated television series pilot premiered in the United States on Cartoon Network. Despite its title, the show is not an adaptation of the Young Justice series of comics, but rather, an adaptation of the entire DC Universe with a focus on young superheroes. The television series is based on a concept of a cross between Teen Titans and Young Justice, rather than a direct adaptation of one of them. It draws influences from the 1960s Teen Titans run and the 1990s Young Justice run, in addition to subsequent comics. The line-up includes a version of Superboy, the Dick Grayson incarnation of Robin, the Wally West incarnation of Kid Flash, Miss Martian, Artemis, and a newly created version of Aqualad. Other members join and make appearances on an intermittent or permanent basis. On April 25, 2017, Warner Brothers announced that the third season would be titled Young Justice: Outsiders.

Young Justice appears in the Teen Titans Go! episode "Let's Get Serious" in which they manage to defeat the Hive Five, the Titans' arch rivals. After Aqualad accuses the Titans of being a disgrace to all superheroes, they later decide to work to become more serious. Young Justice is seen again during the end of the episode in which the now serious Titans successfully defeat the Hive Five. Aqualad compliments them on this but shares his concern that they might have become too serious. This causes Robin and the other Teen Titans to turn away on them. However, Aqualad was proven to be correct as, due the seriousness, Cyborg and Beast Boy unintentionally sparked a massive argument that caused the team to disband.

On the first of May 2020, DC Universe's original series Harley Quinn, the Young Justice animated series could be seen on a TV screen in the episode Batman's Back Man. This was because two men were watching TV and they were on the DC Universe streaming service and both Harley Quinn and Young Justice could be seen on the TV.

Young Justice is briefly mentioned in Gotham Knights, where Tim Drake, as one of the main playable characters, can receive messages from his teammates Kon-El, Bart Allen, and Cassie Sandsmark.

Awards
The 1,000,000 issue of the series was a part of the "DC One Million" storyline, which was a top votegetter for the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for Favorite Story for 1999. Said story involved Justice Legion T, an 853rd Century trio of young heroes: Robin the Toy Wonder (a robotic Robin), Superboy OMAC (One Millionth Actual Clone, a play on the classic OMAC character) and Impulse (a Speed Force-influenced energy being, presumably either personified by the spirits of previous persons who used the heroic name, or else the living embodiment of random thoughts lost in the Speed Force, but most probably a time misplaced Scout of the original Impulse).

Collected editions
Additionally, selected Young Justice comics were reprinted as part of the "DC Comics Presents: Young Justice" series. Each issue was square-bound with approximately 100 pages each, in the "100-Page Spectacular" format.
 * DC Comics Presents: Young Justice #1 (published October 2010): collects JLA: World Without Grown-Ups #1–2
 * DC Comics Presents: Young Justice #2 (published November 2010): collects Young Justice Secret Files and Origins #1, Young Justice in No Man's Land, and Young Justice: The Secret.
 * DC Comics Presents: Young Justice #3 (published December 2010): collects Secret Origins 80-Page Giant #1, Young Justice #7

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

title: Young Justice


text:
Valleraugue

Valleraugue (Valarauga) is a former commune in the Gard department in southern France. On 1 January 2019, it was merged into the new commune Val-d'Aigoual.

Geography
Valleraugue is located in a deep valley of the Cévennes mountains, on the river Hérault.

Sights
Picturesque medieval town, 26 bridges, most of them several centuries old.

Weather station
The Mont Aigoual weather station is located on the territory of the commune.

Personalities
Valleraugue was the birthplace of:
 * Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Bréau (1810–1892), naturalist was born at Berthézène, which is part of Valleraugue
 * Francois Perrier (1835–1888), Brigadier-general and commander of the Légion d'honneur

title: Valleraugue


text:
Jorge Ben

Jorge Duílio Lima Menezes (born March 22, 1939) is a Brazilian popular musician, performing under the stage name Jorge Ben Jor since the 1980s, though commonly known by his former stage name Jorge Ben. Performing in a samba style that also explored soul, funk, rock and bossa nova sounds, Ben has recorded such well-known songs as "Chove Chuva", "Mas, que Nada!", "Ive Brussel" and "Balança Pema". His music has been interpreted by artists such as Caetano Veloso, Sérgio Mendes, Miriam Makeba, Soulfly and Marisa Monte.

Ben's broad-minded and original approach to samba led him through participation in some of Brazilian popular music's most important musical movements, such as bossa nova, Jovem Guarda, and Tropicália, with the latter period defined by his albums Jorge Ben (1969) and Fôrça Bruta (1970). He has been called "the father of samba rock", by Billboard magazine. According to American music critic Robert Christgau, Ben and his contemporary Gilberto Gil were "always ready to go further out on a beat than the other samba/bossa geniuses".

Early life and career
Born Jorge Duílio Lima Menezes in Rio de Janeiro, he first took the stage name Jorge Ben after his mother's name (Sílvia Saint Ben Lima, Brazilian-born of Ethiopian origin) but in the 1980s changed it to Jorge Ben Jor (commonly written Benjor).

Jorge Ben obtained his first pandeiro (Brazil's most popular type of tambourine) when he was thirteen, and two years later, was singing in a church choir. He also took part as a pandeiro player in the blocos of Carnaval, and from eighteen years of age, he began performing at parties and nightclubs with the guitar given to him by his mother. He was given the nickname "Babulina" after his enthusiastic pronunciation of rockabilly singer Ronnie Self's song "Bop-A-Lena". Was introduced to Tim Maia by Erasmo Carlos. It was in 1963 at one of those clubs in which he performed that Jorge's musical career took off; he came on stage and sang "Mas, que Nada!" to a small crowd that happened to include an executive from the recording company, Philips. One week later, Jorge Ben's first single was released.

The hybrid rhythms that Jorge employed brought him some problems at the start of his career, when Brazilian music was split between the rockier sounds of the Jovem Guarda and traditional samba with its complex lyrics. However, as that phase in Brazilian pop music history passed and bossa nova became better known throughout the world, Ben rose to prominence.

Holdings both television programs O Fino da Bossa and Jovem Guarda from Rede Record, after being reprimanded by the production of "O Fino da Bossa", chose to participate in the Jovem Guarda, soon after, joined the program Divino, Maravilhoso from TV Tupi, presented by Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil.

Jorge Ben's first public appearances were in small festivals organised by his friends, where bossa nova and rock and roll predominated. As with most musicians of the time, Ben was initially influenced by João Gilberto even though he was quite innovative in his own right. Outside of Brazil, the song is better known in cover versions by Sérgio Mendes and the Tamba Trio. The song has also been reinterpreted by prominent jazz artists including Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie and Al Jarreau; as well as other samba artists of the time, such as Elza Soares. His musical work has been vastly sampled by music producers and DJs in a variety of genres such as jazz funk, disco, and acid jazz.

Ben composed song "Mas, que Nada!" in 1963. Ben's 1963 debut album Samba Esquema Novo was met with great acclaim from fans, and encouraged Philips to capitalize on the success with immediate follow-up albums. The label pressured Ben to hastily record songs imitative of his debut, along with cover songs, resulting in the three albums within the span of 18 months and a strain on the singer's relationship with Philips. He left the label after his 1965 album Big Ben.

Success
In 1969, Jorge Ben released his eponymous album amid the excitement of the cultural and musical Tropicália movement. The album featured Trio Mocotó as his backing band, who would go on to launch a successful career on the back of their association with Ben. The album was noted for "País Tropical", one of his most famous compositions, although it would be Wilson Simonal who would take his recording of the song to the top of the charts in Brazil that same year. Instead, the song "Charles, Anjo 45", also from the self-titled album, would become Ben's biggest self-performed chart hit of the year. Ben recorded "Taji Mahal" in 1972.

Jorge Ben released his most esoteric and experimental albums in the 1970s, most notably A Tábua de Esmeralda in 1974 and Solta o Pavão in 1975. The following year he released one of his most popular albums, África Brasil (1976), a fusion of funk and samba which relied more on the electric guitar than previous efforts. This album also features a remake of his previously released song "Taj Mahal." With its commercial success and sustained radio play, the melody made its way into the 1979 hit "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" by Rod Stewart. Ben sued for plagiarism and Stewart settled the lawsuit and donated the single’s royalties to UNICEF.

In 1989, Jorge changed his recording label as well as his artistic name, becoming Jorge Benjor (or Jorge Ben Jor). At the time, it was said that there were numerous reasons for his change in name; other sources say it was in response to an incident where some of his royalties accidentally went to American guitarist George Benson.

Recent career
In 2002, Jorge Ben contributed to the critically acclaimed Red Hot + Riot, a compilation CD created by the Red Hot Organization in tribute to the music and work of Nigerian musician Fela Kuti, which raised money for various charities devoted to raising AIDS awareness and fighting the disease. He collaborated with hip-hop artists Dead Prez, Talib Kweli, and Bilal to remake Fela Kuti's famous song "Shuffering and Shmiling" for the CD.

Ben was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Latin Recording Academy in 2005. A year later, a remake of Ben's "Mas, que Nada!" became an international chart hit for Sérgio Mendes with The Black Eyed Peas after being used by Nike in a global TV advertisement during the 2006 FIFA World Cup; this remake (the second time Mendes had covered the track) reached the Top 10 in several European countries, including the UK and Germany, in addition to reaching Number 1 in the Netherlands.

Jorge Ben is also a big fan of Flamengo, a Brazilian football club, located in Rio de Janeiro, which counts Zico, Junior and Leandro among their former star players. Ben's interest in football carries over to his music, as many of his songs deal with the subject, such as "Flamengo", "Camisa 10 da Gávea", "Ponta De Lança Africano (Umbabarauma)", "Zagueiro", "Fio Maravilha", and "A Loba Comeu o Canário".

On July 7, 2007, he performed at the Brazilian leg of Live Earth in Rio de Janeiro.

Discography

 * 1963: Samba Esquema Novo
 * 1964: Ben É Samba Bom
 * 1964: Sacundin Ben Samba
 * 1965: Big Ben
 * 1967: O Bidú: Silêncio no Brooklin
 * 1969: Jorge Ben
 * 1970: Fôrça Bruta
 * 1971: Negro É Lindo
 * 1972: Ben
 * 1973: 10 Anos Depois
 * 1974: A Tábua de Esmeralda
 * 1975: Solta o Pavão
 * 1975: Jorge Ben à l'Olympia
 * 1975: Gil e Jorge (with Gilberto Gil)
 * 1976: África Brasil
 * 1976: Samba Nova
 * 1977: Tropical
 * 1978: A Banda Do Zé Pretinho
 * 1979: Salve Simpatia
 * 1980: Alô, Alô, Como Vai?
 * 1981: Bem Vinda Amizade
 * 1983: Dadiva
 * 1984: Sonsual
 * 1986: Ben Brasil
 * 1989: Ben Jor
 * 1992: Live in Rio
 * 1994: 23
 * 1995: Homo sapiens
 * 1997: Musicas Para Tocar Em Elevador
 * 2000: Puro Suingue
 * 2002: Acústico MTV – Double CD release, available jointly or separately, consisting of Admiral Jorge V and Banda do Zé Pretinho
 * 2004: Reactivus Amor Est (Turba Philosophorum)
 * 2006: Sou da Pesada (7 Samurai Afroraduno Remix)/A Joven Samba *(Klasick Remix)
 * 2007: Recuerdos de Assunción 443
 * 2008: Favourites: From Samba Esquema Novo 1963 – África Brasil 1976

title: Jorge Ben


text:
George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton

George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton, (17 January 1709 – 22 August 1773), known between 1751 and 1756 as Sir George Lyttelton, 5th Baronet, was a British statesman. As an author himself, he was also a supporter of other writers and as a patron of the arts made an important contribution to the development of 18th-century landscape design.

Life
Lord Lyttelton was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Lyttelton, 4th Baronet, of Frankley, in the County of Worcester, by his wife Christian, daughter of Sir Richard Temple, 3rd Baronet. Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, he afterwards went on grand tour, visiting Europe with his tutor. It was during this time that he started publishing his early works in both poetry and prose. Even after he was elected to Parliament in 1735, he continued to publish from time to time. In 1742 he married Lucy, daughter of Hugh Fortescue, and following her death in 1747 he later married Elizabeth, daughter of Field Marshal Sir Robert Rich, 4th Baronet, in 1749. He died in August 1773, aged 64, and was succeeded as baron by his eldest son, Thomas. Though Samuel Johnson's biographical notice of Lyttelton is characterised by a conspicuous show of dislike, it diverges at the end into a long description of his exemplary death and the plain inscription he asked to have added to his first wife's monument in St John the Baptist Church, Hagley.

Political career
Lyttelton was Member of Parliament (MP) for Okehampton from 1735 to 1756 and, as one of Cobham's Cubs during the 1730s, opposed the Prime Minister Robert Walpole. He served as secretary to Frederick, Prince of Wales from 1737, and then, after Walpole's fall, as a Commissioner of the Treasury in 1744. That year too he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Lyttelton was made a Privy Councillor in 1754 and in the following year became briefly Chancellor of the Exchequer, but performed poorly in that role. In 1756 he was raised to the peerage as Lord Lyttelton, Baron of Frankley in the County of Worcester, and continued to speak in the House of Lords until the year before he died.

Lyttelton was later described as "an amiable, absent-minded man, of unimpeachable integrity and benevolent character, with strong religious convictions and respectable talents", but ultimately as "a poor practical politician". His political opponent Lord Hervey spitefully characterised his performance as a speaker as "a great flow of words that were always uttered in a lulling monotony, and the little meaning they had to boast of was generally borrowed from the commonplace maxims and sentiments of moralists, philosophers, patriots, and poets, crudely imbibed, half digested, ill put together, and confusedly refunded".

Poetry and patronage
Lord Lyttelton was a friend and supporter of Alexander Pope in the 1730s and of Henry Fielding in the 1750s; the latter dedicated his novel Tom Jones to Lyttelton. He had written his "Epistle to Mr. Pope, from a young gentleman at Rome" while still on the European tour, advising him to abandon satire for a patriotic theme more worthy of his greatness. Later on the poem was used to preface editions of Pope's work.

Throughout his life, he acted as a friendly patron of poets. James Thomson, for whom Lyttelton eventually arranged a pension, was a frequent visitor to Hagley Hall. Joseph Warton he appointed his domestic chaplain and it was at his suggestion that David Mallet was made undersecretary to the Prince of Wales.

Lyttelton's own poetic reputation was guaranteed continuity by his work being included in the collection of English poets prefaced by Johnson's Lives. Variously annotated and augmented, the collection appeared in succeeding editions into the start of the 19th century. The monody "To the Memory of a Lady lately Deceased", written on the death of his first wife, had an even longer lasting reputation. Though Thomas Gray found "parts of it too stiff and poetical", he especially praised the fourth stanza as "truly tender and elegiac". The poem was alluded to or parodied by others well into the 19th century, particularly the invocation of the "shades of Hagley" in the fifth stanza. Anna Seward, in answer to a correspondent who preferred Lyttelton's ode to the newly fashionable sonnet, ingeniously rearranged the lines of the poem into a series of sonnets, in which the "shades of Hagley" passage headed the second. And William Gladstone acknowledged that his Church Principles was "completed beneath the shades of Hagley" as late as 1840.

Despite his long political career, it was as a poet that Lyttelton was chiefly remembered in the 19th century. But he was author also of many works in prose, chiefly historical and theological. Two, however, are distinguished by their humour. Letters from a Persian in England, to his Friend at Ispahan (1735) ironically comments on the idiosyncrasies of the time from the naïve point of view of an outsider. On attending a wedding ceremony in "one of their Mosques", for example, the visitor remarks that "Marriage here is esteemed a Religious Ceremony, and that I believe is one Reason among others why so little Regard is paid to it". Oliver Goldsmith was later to borrow the same approach for his Chinese philosopher in Letters from a Citizen of the World to his Friends in the East (1760). There were, nevertheless, French models for both in the Lettres Persanes of Montesquieu (1721) and the Lettres Chinoises (1735) of Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens, both of which had been translated soon after into English.

Another work with prior French counterparts was Lyttelton's Dialogues of the Dead (1760). Though these had Classical precedents, the more immediate models were François Fénelon's Dialogues des morts anciens et modernes and Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle's Nouveaux Dialogues des morts, which had also appeared in popular English translations as Dialogues of the Dead. The themes treated in Lyttelton's are political, literary and philosophical, although the characters sometimes stray from their expected role. Joseph Addison and Jonathan Swift's conversation is of politics, while Charles XII of Sweden proposes to Alexander the Great an alliance against Alexander Pope for insulting them both in a satire. Included among these conversations were three that Lyttleton had encouraged the bluestocking leader Elizabeth Montagu to write (Dialogues 26–8).

All of Lyttelton's writing was collected shortly after his death by his nephew, G. E. Ayscough. In 1791 an edition of his poems appeared in Germany accompanied by J. G. Weigel's prose translations. During his lifetime Lyttelton's Observations on the Conversion and Apostleship of St. Paul was translated into French in 1750 by Jean Deschamps (1707–67) and again in 1754 by the Abbé Antoine Guénée (1717–1803); his Dialogues of the Dead was also translated into French in 1760 as Dialogues des morts by Élie de Joncourt (1697–1765) and Jean Deschamps.

Hagley Hall and grounds
Lyttelton spent many years and a fortune developing Hagley Hall and its park, which contained many follies as well as memorials to the poets Milton, Pope, Thomson and the neighbouring landscaper William Shenstone. Also included among the latter was a 'druid's temple' of standing stones commemorating Ossian that Lyttelton had erected outside his grounds on nearby Clent Hill. The hall itself was designed by Sanderson Miller and is the last of the great Neo-Palladian houses to be built in England.

title: George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton