Academic literature on the topic 'Town Hall Square'

The Old Town in Sieradz is one of the oldest and best-preserved medieval urban complexes in Poland. In its center there is the Old Market Square, which was marked out at the intersection of important trade routes in the 13th century. Unfortunately, to this day, the center-market buildings, including the town hall, have not been preserved. Moreover, no photo or drawing showing the appearance of the Sieradz seat of municipal authorities has survived. In connection with the above, the article attempts to present the history of the repeatedly rebuilt town hall in Sieradz from different periods, as well as plans for its reconstruction. For this purpose, the available archival materials, the results of archaeological research and the literature on the subject were used, the analysis of which allowed to draw conclusions about the history of the town hall in Sieradz.

AbstractThis article explores a Portuguese town's latest market hall and adjoining new town square. Lourinhã, a town in the north of the District of Lisbon, introduced plans in 1966 to renovate its urban landscape, reorienting the town away from the cramped streets of the medieval centre to a new, open and manageable central square. Over the next forty years, and despite the fall of the dictatorship in 1974, Lourinhã’s municipal government, enjoying tacit support from its citizens, used tools such as electrical infrastructure and legislation to manage and develop what came to be called a ‘European’ landscape.

AbstractZbąszynek (Neu Bentschen), a German border post, with accommodation for railway workers, customs officials, postmen and border guards, was established primarily between 1923 and 1930. It was built in the middle of the countryside, designed according to the garden city concept and provided with an urban technical infrastructure. In the years 1932 to 1945, the town had the status of a rural parish. The majority of the houses and civic buildings (railway station, school, town hall, Protestant church, Catholic church, inn) were designed by Wilhelm Beringer from the Deutsche Reichsbahn administration in Frankfurt (Oder). He incorporated neo-baroque and expressionist motifs. The monumental and expressionist water tower, designed by Bruno Möhring from Berlin, is also worth noting. The town comprised two parts. The eastern part contained housing for company workers and officials, a school at the main town square and an inn; the western part was intended – though the idea was short-lived – to comprise privately owned houses, both churches and the town hall. By design, the slaughterhouse, sewage treatment plant and cemetery were all placed on the periphery of the town. The two parts were, and still are divided by ul. Wojska Polskiego, Zbąszynek’s main street. Its southern end is the imposing pl. Dworcowy, the Station Square, taking the form of a cour d’honneur.

Many things allow us to recognize that the Poles have a greater and fuller affinity with the Poznań Land than the Germans, even today. It is interesting, for example, with what confidence Polish architects, in contrast to their German counterparts, incorporate historical and regional characteristics in their designs.Moritz JafféThe Archive of the Town Curator of Monuments in the Polish city Poznań contains material about streets, monuments, Old Town Square, the cathedral, and other valuable constructions there. A folder labeled Nowy Ratusz (New Town Hall) attracted my attention, because I knew nothing about such a building. The folder contained photographs of a large neo-Gothic building. It looked like a typical Prussian public building, similar to hundreds of other postal, school, and government offices throughout the Prussian/German state. But what of this building? Had it been another casualty of the Second World War? The postwar images showed, that although seriously damaged, the building still stood in the ruins of the Old Town Square.

For more than eighty-five years, Sudeten German communities have gathered together to commemorate the so-called “March Fourth Massacre.” On this date in 1919, Czechoslovak troops opened fire on crowds of Germans who were demonstrating for national self-determination in thirty-five towns across Czechoslovakia's western frontier. By day's end, the violence in seven towns across the border region had claimed a total of fifty-four lives and had left hundreds wounded. The bloodiest altercation took place in the northwestern Bohemian town of Kadaň (Kaaden), which left twenty-two dead and ninety wounded. On that fateful day in Kadaň, this violence was precipitated by an altercation between unruly German students and anxious Czechoslovak guardsmen, who were stationed in front of the town hall. This altercation triggered two minutes of sustained and indiscriminate gunfire upon the crowd of nearly 10,000, who found themselves trapped by Czechoslovak machine gun nests at opposing ends of the market square.

ABSTRACT:This article discusses the material and spatial features of the tournaments on the Grote Markt, the central market square in Brussels, in the fifteenth and first half of the sixteenth century. It investigates how the tournament acquired meaning in the urban space where it was organized, and how the chivalric event in its turn altered that urban space. These Brussels tournaments, for which both archival, iconographical and narrative sources are available, show us the dynamics of an inherently courtly festival within an urban setting. Recent historiography has stressed that these tournaments, just like other urban festivals, for example joyous entries, demonstrate the submission of the town to the ruler. Indeed, the prince and his household used the public space of the Grote Markt and the facilities of the town hall to organize tournaments and festivities. However, they could not do this on their own. They needed the town government for the organization and logistics of the tournament and for its hospitality. Moreover, the town managed to put its own stamp on the architecture, both permanent and ephemeral, emphasizing the responsibilities that the duke had towards his town, as well as the long tradition of subservience and loyalty of the town to the duke.

he renovation of Adriatic towns under Venetian rule included all major urban settlements on the islands in the Quarnero Gulf. The size of Osor, the Roman centre of the Cres-Lošinj group of islands, radically decreased during this period. The scholarship holds that the town of Cres started to grow in the second half of the fifteenth century while Osor fell into disrepair. Apart from the new Renaissance Cathedral, other late Gothic and Renaissance buildings in Osor have never been thoroughly studied, partly because their state of preservation is modest and party because of the deep-seated opinion that the fifteenth century was only an epilogue to Osor’s great past. As a consequence, no basic analysis of local architecture has ever been done and the urban layout of historic Osor is not very well known. The causes of Osor’s demise, on the other hand, are well known. The population was decimated by illness and the town itself was destroyed by wars in the fourteenth century. Furthermore, maritime navigation changed from coastal to that accustomed to the open sea and Osor lost the strategic importance it held when it came to sailing along the Adriatic. The relocation of the local Count to Cres, frequently underlined as one of the key moments in the history of Osor’s decline and dated to 1450, does not seem to be as fateful as the reduced number of its inhabitants and the loss of naval and trading significance. The relocation created a dual government of sorts and a bimunicipal county was established. The historical importance of Osor as a traditional seat of power was paramount to Venice and the town maintained the prestige it had acquired during the Roman period as a town which controlled a large territory. In the mid-fifteenth century Osor was a building site: architectural structures were maintained, repaired and built anew. In the fourteenth century, a Gothic church of St Gaudentius was constructed on the main street and in the first half of the fifteenth century the Town Hall was built on the site of the ancient Roman curia. Until now, it was held that the reason for the construction of the new cathedral was the bisection of Osor which occurred in the mid-fifteenth century when the new fortification walls – with a reduced catchment area –were erected and so excluded the old cathedral from the perimeter. However, the decision to reduce the circumference of the new walls was made only in the last quarter of the fifteenth century, that is, after the foundations for the new cathedral had been laid. This means that the plans drawn up in the second half of the fifteenth century covered a larger area than previouslt thought and that they were done during the pontificate of Bishop Antun Palčić who was originally from Pag and who witnessed first-hand the building of the new town of Pag. A decree of 1581 records the construction of the town walls at Cres and Osor. The new fortification walls of Cres were being built throughout the sixteenth century and so it is likely that the transversal wall at Osor was constructed at the same time as the new walls at Cres, during the sixteenth century. The building of the new wall was not an ambitious feat of fortification construction but a simple encircling of the remodelled town centre. The new wall was just a consequence of urban reorganization and its direction was determined by the pre-existing defence buildings which were utilised and incorporated in the new addition. In the late fifteenth century, the main town square was fully developed and surrounded by the most important public and religious buildings. The Town Hall stood on the south-east corner and the new cathedral was built on the square’s south side. The Episcopal Palace extended along the entire west flank of the square. The Palace’s long and narrow east wing, facing the square, connected the two main wings of the complex. Despite its modest role as nothing more than a link, the east front was the widest part of the Palace and closed the square’s west side, respecting the new, small-scale urban layout of Osor. The north-east corner of the complex is decorated with an engaged colonette topped by a leaf capital. Its counterpart can be found on a building at the opposite side of the square, which was subsequently heavily rebuilt. These corresponding engaged colonettes indicate that the architects wanted to create a meaningful urban space. The north side of the square no longer exists in its original shape. In the mid-fifteenth century, this area was occupied by religious buildings traces of which can be seen in the present-day modest houses. These traces are mostly elements of Gothic decoration and so it can be concluded that this side of the square featured Gothic structures. The analysis of the architecture on the main square demonstrates that it there were consecutive building phases and that the Cathedral was the last building to be built. There was no unifying stylistic concept; the buildings on the square were either Gothic or Renaissance. This does not reduce the importance of this feat of public building because the Episcopal Palace and Osor Cathedral were built at the same time, by the same master builders, for the same patron, the difference being that the former in the Gothic and the latter in the Renaissance style. This, in my opinion, means that the value of the main square at Osor should not be assessed through stylistic unity but by considering the harmonious spatial relationships between its structures, the attention given to their design, their role as public buildings and the balance achieved by adapting the newly built structures to the pre-existing ones. It is well known that the late fifteenth century was the time when traditional Gothic decoration was used alongside new Renaissance forms and so the stylistic inconsistency apparent in Osor’s main square was done in the spirit of time. The remodelling of the town centre lasted for the whole century and the town was also well maintained in the period that followed. Archival records tell us that a grain store was built in the late fifteenth century but nothing is known about its location or appearance. Despite the efforts and large-scale building campaigns of public and religious architecture, the migration of able-bodied people looking for work continued and Osor was gradually transformed into an occasional dwelling place of the nobility and the clergy – a town of the Church and aristocracy. Today, Osor is a town with low-density architecture. The legacy of medieval town building can be seen only in the row of houses that face the main street. They are huddled together and arranged around communal courtyards, which is a characteristic of local medieval town planning on the island of Cres. The most prominent residential building is the palazzetto of the Draža family, an old noble family of Osor. The location of the Draža house and its spatial relationship with the surrounding, more modest houses, implies that it embodied the medieval concept of densely built town blocks dominated by a single aristocratic building. Other aristocratic houses at Osor are more isolated and surrounded by green spaces. These large green areas were once occupied by Roman and medieval houses and insulae. Following the late middle ages, the decaying architectural structures were not repaired but used to create gardens: their perimeter walls were neatly re-arranged and became the dividing walls between different gardens while the spaces they contained were filled with a layer of soil, as archaeological test pits have shown. Apart from large gardens and courtyards, the residential character of Osor as an aristocratic resort is attested by the Latin inscriptions on the building façades but also by the written records about noble families which possessed estates in both Cres and Osor during the period that followed the formation of the bimunicipal county in the fifteenth century. All these events created a set of specific characteristics in Osor during the late fifteenth and the sixteenth century. Its importance as the seat of a commune and a bishop was reflected in the main town square which was planned in the spirit of the Renaissance and according to the redesign of towns under the Venetian rule. The medieval legacy is still evident in the buildings on the main street which are densely huddled around communal courtyards and which centre around dominant aristocratic houses. In contract to them, large gardens and the aforementioned historic circumstances indicate that Osor was a residential resort of the local nobility. From the fifteenth century onward, the most frequently recorded features of Osor were its decay and mala aria (bad air). Nevertheless, as late as 1771, Alberto Fortis described it as the only town on the island of Cres to have kept the legacy of its noble past. In addition to the aforementioned Gothic and Renaissance elements of architectural decoration, many more were rebuilt into later houses. They are as frequent as the Roman and early medieval spolia and were reused in the same manner. Their existence witnesses that Osor had had another important historic phase in its long life.

The renovation of Adriatic towns under Venetian rule included all major urban settlements on the islands in the Quarnero Gulf. The size of Osor, the Roman centre of the Cres-Lošinj group of islands, radically decreased during this period. The scholarship holds that the town of Cres started to grow in the second half of the fifteenth century while Osor fell into disrepair. Apart from the new Renaissance Cathedral, other late Gothic and Renaissance buildings in Osor have never been thoroughly studied, partly because their state of preservation is modest and party because of the deep-seated opinionthat the fifteenth century was only an epilogue to Osor’s great past. As a consequence, no basic analysis of local architecture has ever been done and the urban layout of historic Osor is not very well known. The causes of Osor’s demise, on the other hand, are well known. The population was decimated by illness and the town itself was destroyed by wars in the fourteenth century. Furthermore, maritime navigation changed from coastal to that accustomed to the open sea and Osor lost the strategic importance it held when it came to sailing along the Adriatic. The relocation of the local Count to Cres, frequently underlined as one of the key moments in the history of Osor’s decline and dated to 1450, does not seem to be as fateful as the reduced numberof its inhabitants and the loss of naval and trading significance. The relocation created a dual government of sorts and a bimunicipal county was established. The historical importance of Osor as a traditional seat of power was paramount to Venice and the town maintained the prestige it had acquired during the Roman period as a town which controlled a large territory.In the mid-fifteenth century Osor was a building site: architectural structures were maintained, repaired and built anew. In the fourteenth century, a Gothic church of St Gaudentius was constructed on the main street and in the first half of the fifteenth century the Town Hall was built on the site of the ancient Roman curia. Until now, it was held that the reason for the construction of thenew cathedral was the bisection of Osor which occurred in the mid-fifteenth century when the new fortification walls – with a reduced catchment area –were erected and so excluded the old cathedral from the perimeter. However, the decision to reduce the circumference of the new walls was made only in the last quarter of the fifteenth century, that is, after the foundations for the new cathedral had been laid. This means that the plans drawn up in the second half of the fifteenth century covered a larger area than previouslt thought and that they were done during the pontificate of Bishop Antun Palčić who wasoriginally from Pag and who witnessed first-hand the building of the new town of Pag. A decree of 1581 records the construction of the town walls at Cres and Osor. The new fortification walls of Cres were being built throughout the sixteenth century and so it is likely that the transversal wall at Osor was constructed at the same time as the new walls at Cres, during thesixteenth century. The building of the new wall was not an ambitious feat of fortification construction but a simple encircling of the remodelled town centre. The new wall was just a consequence of urban reorganization and its directionwas determined by the pre-existing defence buildings which were utilised and incorporated in the new addition. In the late fifteenth century, the main town square was fully developed and surrounded by the most importantpublic and religious buildings. The Town Hall stood on the south-east corner and the new cathedral was built on the square’s south side. The Episcopal Palace extended along the entire west flank of the square. The Palace’s long andnarrow east wing, facing the square, connected the two main wings of the complex. Despite its modest role as nothing more than a link, the east front was the widest part of the Palace and closed the square’s west side, respecting the new, small-scale urban layout of Osor. The north-east corner of the complex is decorated with an engaged colonette topped by a leaf capital. Its counterpart can be found on a building at the opposite side of the square, which was subsequently heavily rebuilt. These corresponding engaged colonettes indicate that the architects wanted to create a meaningful urban space. The north side of the square no longer exists in its original shape. In the mid-fifteenth century, this area was occupied by religious buildings traces of which can be seen in the present-day modest houses. These traces are mostly elements of Gothic decoration and so it can be concluded that this side of the square featured Gothic structures. The analysis of the architecture on the main square demonstrates that it there were consecutive building phases and that the Cathedral was the last building to be built. There was no unifying stylistic concept; the buildings on the square were either Gothic or Renaissance. This does not reduce the importance of this feat of public building because the Episcopal Palace and Osor Cathedral were built at the same time, by the same master builders, for the same patron, the difference being that the former in the Gothic and the latter in the Renaissance style. This, in my opinion, means that the value of the main square at Osor should not be assessed throughstylistic unity but by considering the harmonious spatial relationships between its structures, the attention given to their design, their role as public buildings and the balance achieved by adapting the newly built structures tothe pre-existing ones. It is well known that the late fifteenth century was the time when traditional Gothic decoration was used alongside new Renaissance forms and so the stylistic inconsistency apparent in Osor’s main squarewas done in the spirit of time. The remodelling of the town centre lasted for the whole century and the town was also well maintained in the period that followed. Archival records tell us that a grain store was built inthe late fifteenth century but nothing is known about its location or appearance.Despite the efforts and large-scale building campaigns of public and religious architecture, the migration of able-bodied people looking for work continued and Osor was gradually transformed into an occasional dwelling place of the nobility and the clergy – a town of the Church and aristocracy. Today, Osor is a town with low-density architecture. The legacy of medieval town buildingcan be seen only in the row of houses that face the main street. They are huddled together and arranged around communal courtyards, which is a characteristic of local medieval town planning on the island of Cres. The mostprominent residential building is the palazzetto of the Draža family, an old noble family of Osor. The location of the Draža house and its spatial relationship with the surrounding, more modest houses, implies that it embodied the medieval concept of densely built town blocks dominated by a single aristocratic building. Other aristocratic houses at Osor are more isolated and surrounded by green spaces. These large green areas were once occupied by Roman and medieval houses and insulae. Following the late middle ages, the decaying architectural structures were not repaired butused to create gardens: their perimeter walls were neatly re-arranged and became the dividing walls between different gardens while the spaces they contained were filled with a layer of soil, as archaeological test pits have shown. Apart from large gardens and courtyards, the residential character of Osor as an aristocratic resort is attested by the Latin inscriptions on the building façades but also by the written records about noble familieswhich possessed estates in both Cres and Osor during the period that followed the formation of the bimunicipal county in the fifteenth century.All these events created a set of specific characteristics in Osor during the late fifteenth and the sixteenth century. Its importance as the seat of a commune and a bishop was reflected in the main town square which was planned in the spirit of the Renaissance and according to the redesign of towns under the Venetian rule. The medieval legacy is still evident in the buildings on the main street which are densely huddled around communal courtyards and which centre around dominant aristocratic houses. In contract to them, large gardens and the aforementioned historic circumstances indicate that Osor was a residential resort of the local nobility. From the fifteenth century onward, the most frequently recorded features of Osor were its decay and mala aria (bad air). Nevertheless, as late as 1771, Alberto Fortis described it as the only town on the island of Cres to have kept the legacy of its noble past. In addition to the aforementioned Gothic and Renaissance elements of architecturaldecoration, many more were rebuilt into later houses. They are as frequent as the Roman and early medieval spolia and were reused in the same manner. Their existence witnesses that Osor had had another important historic phase in its long life.

Chernelytsia by the Dniester. The Development of a Medieval Grod Into a TownThe article explores the early history and gradual modernisation of Chernelytsia – a town of Pokkuttya region. The first settlement in this region was noted on a high triangular cape on the right bank of the Dniester. Initially, it was a modestly fortified settlement located on the border of the Kievan state. However, after its incorporation into the Galicia Rostislav state and subsequently into Galicia–Volhynia Romanovich state, the settlement developed into a tri-part fortified grod of 5 ha in area. The author hypothesises that the grod ceased to be active between the 2nd half of the 16th century and the 1st half of the 17th century, after it had fallen prey to the Tatars who had raided Pokkuttya. Another period in the history of Chernelytsia is marked by the emergence of a new settlement at the area of today’s town’s centre. The emergence is dated at the 1st half of the 15th century. Initially, both the new settlement and the old grod were active, however, soon after being granted a municipal charter, the new settlement took the lead in social and economic activity. The town structure ossified in the 17th century when the bastion castle was built, as well as the St Archangel Michael Church and a Dominican monastery. Also, three tserkov churches were active in Chernelytsia at that time. The market square emerged, the town hall and a synagogue were built, and suburbs became discernible. The town plan changed only at the end of the 18th century when the new era in town’s history started.

ABSTRACTHistorical sources reveals that Copenhagen was founded in the late 12th century AD by Bishop Absalon. However, during the excavation for the new metro in central Copenhagen a previously unknown early medieval cemetery was discovered and excavated at the Town Hall Square. Radiocarbon (14C) analysis was conducted on the 9 individuals found in situ, together with 11 individuals from the other early medieval cemetery in Copenhagen, belonging to the St Clemens church. The radiocarbon analysis places the onset of the cemeteries to the early 11th century AD and therefore questions the age of Copenhagen and hence the archaeological and historical perception of the Danish historical record. Here a detailed account of the radiocarbon-based Bayesian model is presented.

Design of a new town hall for the part of city Brno - Kohoutovice helps to create a functioning public space. City Hall is open to its mass and the square through the passage on the first floor does not preclude views in Kohoutovice valley. Socio - cultural hall is the second mass and utilizes existing building of Albert. The area of public space is fleshed out with new masses into more intimate and more graspable form, there is a better public space, the center of the district.

The subject of thesis is the proposal of a new community center, which will be in addition to the larger socio-cultural hall Facilities also include a city district and all necessary facilities. It appears appropriate to share some space, especially for the two main representative feature, or adding additional functions to the new center has become a real focus of civic, social and community activities. Integral part Solutions will finish outdoor spaces, which would functionally replace the missing central square. More detailed framework construction program is contained in a separate annex assignment.

The work is aimed at the center of the village, which is a square that, in size comparable to that of the Square of Freedom in Brno, is an exhibition of problems: considerable deterioration of the building fund, underground use of the public space, which is moreover unreadable and unreachable. The proposed solution divides the area of the square into three smaller public spaces that have a different character and function. Mariánské námětí is the torso of the existing one, which has been earmarked for the building of a new municipal office and library, is characterized by town houses and the location of services and public amenities. The second area is a semi-detached cottage. It is dominated by walnuts and water. The proposed buildings are oriented towards the library and the wine house. The third such defined area is the Wine Market, which is the crossroads, the scattered area of the surrounding houses, like a school, shops, or wine house. A large part of the COOP building has a sports complex with a halo and a swimming pool. There are solved especially the buildings of the town hall with a library and a wine house.

The aim of this thesis is to design the town hall for the city part Brno-sever. City Hall is situated in a newly designed urban structure, located at the place of barracks in Cerna Pole. The main motto of the work was to create a modern town hall, which will sustain its flexibility and openness on the foundation for the enduring values. This was achieved by dividing the functions in the basic group and respect them throughout the proposal.

This diploma thesis deals with the urban study on the revitalization of the barracks in Brno, the Black Fields. In the defined area a new residential complex is designed to integrate the area into the surrounding area. The proposal also envisages the creation of development areas for Mendel University, where within these areas will be created a sports hall, accommodation facilities for students library and a representative building. An interesting element is the creation of a public space shielded from traffic.

The assignment for this thesis was to prepare an architectural plan for barracks in Černé Pole in Brno. As part of the assignment, I attempted to rejuvenate and open up the given territory to the town and to its people and to connect it to the surrounding structures. I expanded the territory in question with adjacent panel construction from the north, as one of the objectives was to gradually incorporate this development in a way so that it does not create a barrier. The second objective was to revive two historical barracks buildings and a panel building dormitory, which serve as a reference for the image of the place. The thesis is split into two parts - analysis and proposal. In the proposal I discuss specific materials, transportation and public spaces. Most of the territory is made up of residential spaces with civil and commercial spaces, which together make the entire area functional. In my proposal I try to show how the entire territory can be solved, with the involvement of the historic and panel buildings, and not just building on an empty brownfield.

The theme of the thesis „Retriveal of the historici centre and surrounding of the Kyjov city“ deals with current condition of the Kyjov. It processes problematic area sof city, such as existing buildings, transportation, greenery, living spaces, new waterfront, House of culture pre-space, middle of the Masaryk Square, etc. It looking for answers to long standing questions: How to deal with the long-term dechne of the population? Where to find new spaces for living? How should Kyjov develop in future? How to make city an attractive place for new Citizen and investors? Answer for all these questions is urban study which is focused on named areas, including selected part of historical center.

The purpose of this diploma thesis is to examine how local citizens and the expert community perceive the current status of the Old Town Square in Prague. At present, the attention is very often turned to the possible completion of the Old Town Hall and the overall physical arrangement of the area. Thesis will be based both on the study of historical and present documents. Initially, the focus will be on determining the current situation and use of the square, later on we will discuss the completion of the Old Town Hall and comprehensively the use of area as such. Based on interviews with residents I will evaluate the satisfaction of local citizens with the current purpose of this place, what is their use of the square and what local people think about the completion of the Old Town Hall and other objects situated on the square.

The electronic computer has profoundly changed chess. This chapter describes the birth of computer chess, from the very first discussions of computational chess at Bletchley Park during the war to the first chess moves ever calculated by an electronic computer. We cover a number of historic chess programs—including Turing’s own ‘Turochamp’—and recapture some of the atmosphere of those early days of computer chess. Albert Square, Manchester, 2012. The time was coming up to 9 o’clock on a grim summer morning, two days after what would have been Turing’s 100th birthday. Litter from the Olympic torch ceremony still scattered the ground. There were unusual numbers of chess enthusiasts and computer scientists in the square, hurrying past the awkwardly posturing statue of William Gladstone and up the steps at the entrance to Manchester Town Hall. Inside, they filed past more statues—chemist John Dalton, physicist James Joule—and took their seats in the crowded gothic-revival great hall. News of Turing’s centenary celebrations had reached over forty countries: fans in other time zones clicked to join the audience, watching their screens and waiting for the big event to start. Shortly after 9, a flawlessly groomed Garry Kasparov took the stage. Born in the Soviet Union in 1963, Kasparov (Fig. 31.1) became world chess champion at the age of only 22. He has gone down in history as the first reigning champion to be beaten by a computer. In a New York TV studio on the thirty-ninth floor of a Seventh Avenue skyscraper, IBM’s chess computer DeepBlue crushed Kasparov in 1997 (see Ch. 27). Fifteen years later he had come to Manchester to honour Turing, the first pioneer of computer chess. Seeming a bit nervous at first—until his natural ebullience reasserted itself—Kasparov haltingly told the crowd: ‘Apart from personal love of the game, Turing did serious work with chess as a model of mechanical thinking and machine intelligence’. Yet Turing, he said, ‘was a fairly terrible chess player’.

“Silberblick.” Bright moment, lucky chance. A sunny day in Weimar, November 1991. Hedwig, 38, waits solemnly for me in the town square still known as Karl Marx Platz (formerly Adolf Hitler Platz). A spirited, voluble woman, Hedwig has been eager to show me the cultural splendors of her hometown—the Goethehaus, the Schillerhaus, the Liszthaus, all lining the Frauenplan in the center of old Weimar. But today she is reluctant; today, warm morning rays beaming down upon us, Hedwig seems reserved as we stride along the Schillerstrasse toward the outskirts of town. Today our destination is Humboldtstrasse 36, the Villa Silberblick, home of the Nietzsche Archive, which opened in May to the public for the first time since 1945. Hedwig hands me a May issue of Die Zeit. “The Banished One Is Back!” blazons the headline: The reopening of the Archives has been the cultural event of the year in Weimar. As we walk, I muse on the significance of the return to eastern German life of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844–1900): the author of notorious neologisms and catch phrases such as the Will to Power, the Übermensch (Superman), the Antichrist, master and slave morality, the blond beast, the free spirit, the last man, eternal recurrence, “God is dead,” “Live dangerously!” “Become hard!” “philosophize with a hammer,” and “beyond good and evil”; the writer who inspired thinkers such as Heidegger, artists such as Thomas Mann, and men of action such as Mussolini; the philosopher exalted by the Nazis and reviled by the communists. No discussion of eastern German education “after the Wall”—and the ongoing political re-education of eastern Germans—would be complete without reference to the return of the writer regarded as the most important educator in Germany during the first half of this century. Indeed, Nietzsche als Erzieher (Nietzsche as Educator) was the title of a popular book in Wilhelmine Germany written by Walter Hammer, a leader of the Wandervögel (birds of passage) youth movement.