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Hotel Waldkater
The Hotel Waldkater was a famous hotel in the Bode Gorge in the Harz Mountains of Germany. History The first establishment called ''Waldkater'' ("wildcat") was built in 1845 and subsequently altered many times. The name goes back to a story, according to which a wine adulterator had been changed into a cat as a punishment. Before it was shot by a hunter the cat was supposed to have been saved by revealing a recipe for a May Day drink (''Maitrank''). But because this drink was also adulterated and caused the hunter to have a hangover, the adulterator had to be saved again and now showed the hunter a hidden treasure. With this capital the hunter built the hotel as well as a monument to the adulterator. Less romantic is the story that a carter named Christoph Fessel originally built a small refreshment hut in the Bode Gorge that was soon replaced by the one-story ''Kleiner Waldkater''. In 1852 the ''Großer Waldkater'' Hotel was added, that together with the Rosstrappe, Hexentanzpl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bode Gorge
The Bode Gorge (german: Bodetal) is a long ravine that forms part of the Bode valley between Treseburg and Thale in the Harz Mountains of central Germany. The German term, ''Bodetal'' (literally "Bode Valley"), is also used in a wider sense to refer to the valleys of the Warme and Kalte Bode rivers that feed the River Bode. At the Bode Gorge, the River Bode, which rises on the highest mountain in the Harz, the Brocken, has cut deeply into the hard Ramberg granite rock. The ravine is about 140 m deep at Treseburg and some 280 m deep at Thale where it breaks out into the Harz Foreland. The Bode Gorge was designated a nature reserve as early as 5 March 1937; its boundaries being subsequently expanded. With an area of, currently , it is one of the largest nature reserves in Saxony-Anhalt. Geology Apart from intrusions of Ramberg granite, which rose to the surface and solidified 300 million years ago in the Upper Carboniferous Period, and their associated veins of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harz Mountains
The Harz () is a highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name ''Harz'' derives from the Middle High German word ''Hardt'' or ''Hart'' (hill forest). The name ''Hercynia'' derives from a Celtic name and could refer to other mountain forests, but has also been applied to the geology of the Harz. The Brocken is the highest summit in the Harz with an elevation of above sea level. The Wurmberg () is the highest peak located entirely within the state of Lower Saxony. Geography Location and extent The Harz has a length of , stretching from the town of Seesen in the northwest to Eisleben in the east, and a width of . It occupies an area of , and is divided into the Upper Harz (''Oberharz'') in the northwest, which is up to 800 m high, apart from the 1,100 m high Brocken massif, and the Lower Harz (''Unterharz'') in the east which is up to aroun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hexentanzplatz
The ''Hexentanzplatz'' (literally “Witches′ Dance Floor”) in the Harz mountains is a plateau () that lies high above the Bode Gorge, opposite the Rosstrappe in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. History The Hexentanzplatz is reputedly an Old Saxon cult site, at which pagan celebrations were held in honour of the so-called Hagedisen (forest and mountain goddesses), particularly on the night of 1 May. The place did not become known as the ''Hexentanzplatz'' until the cult was banned by the invading Christian Franks. According to tradition the site was guarded by Frankish soldiers in order to enforce the ban and they were chased off by Saxons dressed as witches and riding on broomsticks. Another old Saxon cult site is found on the Brocken. Above the Hexentanzplatz are the remains of the (“Saxon Dyke”), a wall of granite rocks and possibly part of a larger fortification, more than 1,500 years old. Tourism Since the middle of the 19th century there has been a mountain ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hotel Zehnpfund
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a refrigerator and other kitchen facilities, upholstered chairs, a flat screen television, and en-suite bathrooms. Small, lower-priced hotels may offer only the most basic guest services and facilities. Larger, higher-priced hotels may provide additional guest facilities such as a swimming pool, business centre (with computers, printers, and other office equipment), childcare, conference and event facilities, tennis or basketball courts, gymnasium, restaurants, day spa, and social function services. Hotel rooms are usually numbered (or named in some smaller hotels and B&Bs) to allow guests to identify their room. Some boutique, high-end hotels have custom decorated rooms. Some hotels offer meals as part of a room and board arrangement. In Jap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Youth Hostel
A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory, with shared use of a lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex and have private or shared bathrooms. Private rooms may also be available, but the property must offer dormitories to be considered a hostel. Hostels are popular forms of lodging for backpackers. They are part of the sharing economy. Benefits of hostels include lower costs and opportunities to meet people from different places, find travel partners, and share travel ideas. Some hostels, such as Zostel in India or Hostelling International, cater to a niche market of travelers. For example, one hostel might feature in-house social gatherings such as movie nights or communal dinners, another might feature local tours, one might be known for its parties, and another might have a quieter place to relax in serenity, or be located on the beach. Newer hostels focus on a more ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Die Wende
The Peaceful Revolution (german: Friedliche Revolution), as a part of the Revolutions of 1989, was the process of sociopolitical change that led to the opening of East Germany's borders with the West, the end of the ruling of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) (communist regime) in the German Democratic Republic (GDR or "East Germany") in 1989 and the transition to a parliamentary democracy, which later enabled the reunification of Germany in October 1990. This happened through non-violent initiatives and demonstrations. This period of change is referred to in German as ' (, "the turning point"). These events were closely linked to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's decision to abandon Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe as well as the reformist movements that spread through Eastern Bloc countries. In addition to the Soviet Union's shift in foreign policy, the GDR's lack of competitiveness in the global market, as well as its sharply rising national debt, hastened the dest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theodor Fontane
Theodor Fontane (; 30 December 1819 – 20 September 1898) was a German novelist and poet, regarded by many as the most important 19th-century German-language realist author. He published the first of his novels, for which he is best known today, only at age 58 after a career as a journalist. Fontane's novels are known for their complex, often sceptical view of society in the German empire; he shows different social and political parts of society meeting and sometimes clashing. Other trademarks of Fontane's work are their strongly drawn female characters (such as ''Effi Briest'' and ''Frau Jenny Treibel''), tender irony and vivid conversations between characters. Life Youth Fontane was born in Neuruppin, a town 30 miles northwest of Berlin, into a Huguenot family. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to an apothecary, his father's profession. He became an apothecary himself and in 1839, at the age of 20, wrote his first work (''Heinrichs IV. erste Liebe'', now lost). His ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cécile (novel)
''Cécile'' is an historical novel by the British writer F. L. Lucas. His second novel, first published in 1930, it is a story of love, society and politics in the France of 1775–1776, set largely in Picardy and Paris, which locations form its two parts. Plot summary Cécile, 18, and Andrée, 23, are daughters of the Marquis de Maurepaire of Vraulx Saint-Mein in Picardy. Cécile is a joyous may-fly of a girl, just out of her convent and at once married off by her father, for money, to serious Gabriel de Rieux, 25 ("my heavenly bridegroom" ), whom she does not love. Andrée is a young ''philosophe'', romantic about one thing (love), sceptical about all else. She is married to the dashing Gaston, Vicomte de Launay, 30, a proto- Romantic, who makes her miserable by his affair with a fawn-like peasant-girl, whom he swept into his saddle one moonlit evening in the woods. (He is a disciple of Rousseau.) Andrée and Gaston quarrel about this, about their children's education, and abo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
