title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: The Catholic Church began an evaluation of its understanding of Masonry during, (but not at,) Vatican II. Throughout the jubilee of 1966, Pope Paul VI granted every confessor the faculty to absolve censures and penalties of canon 2335 incurred by penitents who completely separated themselves from Masonic association and promised to repair and prevent, as far as possible, any scandal and damage they caused. In addition, Saint Padre Pio demonstrated the power of conversion by speaking with a member of the Italian parliament who was a self professed agnostic and freemason. Pio converted the man to Catholicism.


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: After a four-year investigation in five Scandinavian Bishops' Conference (CES) countries, the decided in 1967 to apply the 1966 post-conciliar norms in "De Episcoporum Muneribus", "which empowers bishops in special cases to dispense from certain injunctions of Canon Law." The permitted, within its jurisdiction, converts to Catholicism to retain their Swedish Rite membership, "but only with the specific permission of that person's bishop."


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: In early 1968, "The Tablet" reported that Vatican sources had "been quoted as saying that Catholics are now free to join the Masons in the United States, Britain and most other countries of the world. However, the European Grand Orient Lodge of Masons, established primarily in Italy and France, is still considered anti-Catholic or, at least, atheistic," and that "the 'let it be known that Catholics joining the Freemasons are no longer automatically excommunicated. The Church's new attitude has been in effect for more than a year.' The Church's Code of Canon Law drawn up in 1918 and shortly to be reformed, provided for automatic excommunication of Catholics 'who enroll in the Masonic sect or in secret societies conspiring against the Church or the legitimate authorities.' Vatican sources added that this wording would be changed to modify the Church's position when the new Code of Canon Law was completed." These reports apparently caused consternation in the Vatican, and were quickly corrected. The Holy See publicly said that canon 2335 was not abrogated, and denied it planned to "change profoundly" its historic prohibition against Catholics joining Masonic groups, although confidential sources said "a change in attitude in the future was considered possible."


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: Informal dialogues between Catholic Church and Masonic representatives took place after Vatican II in Austria, Italy and Germany. In Austria, Freemason Karl Baresch, representative of the Grand Lodge of Austria, informally met Cardinal Franz König, president of the Secretariat for Non-Believers, at Vienna in 1968. Later, a commission of Catholic Church and Masonic representatives conducted a dialogue and produced the 1970 , an interpretative statement directed at Paul VI; Cardinal Franjo Šeper, prefect of the ; and other Catholic authorities. It "contained serious faults in philosophical-theological and, above all, historical terms," according to Professor Zbigniew Suchecki, and "was never officially recognized by" the Catholic Church.


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: In 1971, Bishop Daniel Pezeril, auxiliary bishop of Paris, accepted an invitation from the Grande Loge de France to lecture. This was the first official reception of a Catholic bishop after 1738.


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: While some speculated about post-conciliar revision of canon law and how norms would be legislated and enforced, the canonical prohibition against Catholics joining Masonic groups remained in force in 1974.


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: The Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales (CBCEW) stated in 1974 that consultations with the world's bishops failed to produce consensus about the Catholic Church's relationship with Masonry. The wrote that many bishops had asked it about how to weight and interpret canon 2335. The divergent replies it gave reflected different situations in various countries. The reiterated that canons which establish a penalty are subject to strict interpretation, so canon 2335 applied only to Catholics who were members of Masonic associations that machinate against the Church. The interpreted as instructing bishops that canon 2335 "no longer automatically bars a Catholic from membership of Masonic groups" since it is subject to strict interpretation, and that "a Catholic who joins the Freemasons is excommunicated only if the policy and actions of the Freemasons in his area are known to be hostile to the Church." So, the defined norms within its jurisdiction, that Catholics, who believed that membership in Masonic associations "does not conflict" with their "deeper loyalty" to their incorporation in the Catholic Church, should "discuss the implications of such membership" with their parish priest. Likewise, Catholics in Masonic associations were "urged to seek reconciliation."


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: In 1980, after six years of dialogue with representatives of the United Grand Lodges of Germany and investigation of Masonic rituals, the produced a report on Freemasonry listing twelve conclusions.


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: Among the 's conclusions were that Freemasonry denies revelation, and objective truth. They also alleged that religious indifference is fundamental to Freemasonry, and that Freemasonry is Deist, and that it denies the possibility of divine revelation, so threatening the respect due to the Church's teaching office. The sacramental character of Masonic rituals was seen as signifying an individual transformation, offering an alternative path to perfection and having a total claim on the life of a member It concludes by stating that all lodges are forbidden to Catholics, including Catholic-friendly lodges.


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: The 1981 "Declaration concerning status of Catholics becoming Freemasons" said that the 1974 reply had "given rise to erroneous and tendentious interpretations." The 1981 declaration also affirmed that the prohibition against Catholics joining Masonic groups had not changed and remained in effect.


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: The Catholic Church abrogated and replaced with present , which took effect in November 1983. canon 2335 developed into canon 1374. Unlike the abrogated canon 2335, however, canon 1374 does not name any groups it condemns; it states:


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: This omission led some Catholics and Freemasons, especially in America, to believe that the ban on Catholics becoming Freemasons might have changed, and caused confusion in the church's hierarchy. Many Catholics joined the fraternity, basing their membership on a permissive interpretation of Canon Law and justifying their membership by their belief that Freemasonry does not plot against the Church.


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: The Catholic Church uses two parallel codes of canon law: the in the Latin Church of the Catholic Church and the 1990 "Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches" (1990 CCEO) in the "" Eastern Catholic Churches of the Catholic Church.


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: In 1983, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, with the personal approval of Pope John Paul II, issued a "Declaration on Masonic Associations", which reiterated the Church's objections to Freemasonry. The 1983 declaration states that "faithful who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion. ... the Church's negative judgment in regard to Masonic association(s) remains unchanged since their principles have always been considered irreconcilable with the doctrine of the Church and therefore membership in them remains forbidden.


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: A committee concluded in its 1985 Letter to U.S. Bishops Concerning Masonry that "the principles and basic rituals of Masonry embody a naturalistic religion active participation in which is incompatible with Christian faith and practice." "Those who knowingly embrace" masonic "principles are committing serious sin" and, according to Law's parenthetical commentary on Whalen, that offense might be punishable under canon 1364. According to that canon, an apostate, heretic, or schismatic incurs a "latae sententiae" excommunication and clerics can be punished with additional expiatory penalties including dismissal from the clerical state. Caparros et al. elucidates that, in cases where "registration into an association entails apostasy, heresy, or schism" then the offense is punishable under canon 1364. Nevertheless, citing , Caparros et al. states that "those masonic associations that would not be covered by" canon 1374 have "principles are still seen to be incompatible with the doctrine of the Church." Every delict in canon law is a sin. The "distinction between penal law and morality" is, according to the committee, that not all sins are violations in canon law – so in a case where a sin is not also a violation or delict in canon law, it is a fallacy to conclude that "it is permissible to commit it." "Referring specifically to the secrecy of masonic organisations," "reiterated the ban on masonic membership" in . According to , the "argues that Masonry establishes a relativistic symbolic concept of morality unacceptable to Catholicism."


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: In 1996, Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz, of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lincoln, legislated that Catholic members of masonic associations in the diocese, incur a "latae sententiae" censure of a one-month interdict during which they are forbidden to receive holy communion; those who continue membership incur a "latae sententiae" censure of excommunication. Those excommunications which were challenged through a process of canonical recourse were affirmed by a judgment of the Holy See in 2006.


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: In 2000, David Patterson, executive secretary of the Masonic Service Bureau of Los Angeles, asked Cardinal Roger Mahony "whether a practicing Catholic may join a Masonic Lodge." Father Thomas Anslow, Judicial Vicar of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, replied to Patterson that "the matter is too complex for a straightforward 'yes' or 'no' answer. But at least for Catholics in the United States, I believe the answer is probably yes." Because he was "unaware of any ideology or practice by the local lodges that challenges or subverts the doctrine and interests of the Catholic Church," Anslow wrote that his "qualified response" is "probably yes." Anslow publicly retracted his 2000 letter in 2002, with the explanation that his analysis was faulty. He wrote that, according to the reflection about the declaration, "the system of symbols" used in Masonry can "foster a 'supraconfessional humanitarian conception of "the divine that neutralizes or replaces the faith dimension of our relationship with God."


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: The Masonic Information Center pointed out in 2006 that , which prohibits membership in Masonic associations, "remains in effect."


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: Bishop Gianfranco Girotti, regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary, told the 2007 "Freemasonry and the Catholic Church" conference, at the Pontifical Theological Faculty of St. Bonaventure in Rome, that doctrine has not changed. Girotti, quoting the declaration, reiterated that masonic philosophy is incompatible with Catholic faith. Likewise, reacting to the news of an 85-year-old Catholic priest, Rosario Francesco Esposito, becoming a member in a Masonic lodge, Girotti told Vatican Radio in May 2007 that the declaration "." Girotti called on priests who had declared themselves to be Freemasons to be disciplined by their direct superiors.


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: In 2013, a Catholic priest at Megève, France, was "stripped of his functions at the request of the" for being an active member of the Grand Orient de France.


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: The Catholic Church's current norm on Masonic associations is the 1983 "Declaration on Masonic associations". The 1983 declaration states that Catholics "who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion."


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: The 1983 declaration clarified the omission of association names in 1983 Code of Canon Law (1983 CIC) by stating that the "editorial criterion which was followed" did not mention association names since "they are contained in wider categories." canon 1374 states that a Catholic "who joins an association which plots against the Church is to be punished with a just penalty; one who promotes or takes office in such an association is to be punished with an interdict." This contrasted with the 1917 Code of Canon Law (1917 CIC), which explicitly declared that joining Freemasonry entailed automatic excommunication. The omission of association names, like Masonic associations, from the prompted Catholics and Masons to question whether the ban on Catholics becoming Freemasons was still active, especially after the perceived liberalization of the Church after Vatican II.


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: A number of Catholics became Freemasons assuming that the Church had softened its stance. The 1983 declaration addressed this misinterpretation of the Code of Canon Law, clarifying that:


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: The "irreconcilable principles" that the Church believes Freemasonry possesses include a "deistic God", naturalism, and religious indifferentism.


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: Near the time that the 1983 declaration was released, bishops' conferences in Germany and America also released independent reports on the question of Freemasonry. The conclusions of the German Bishops' Conference (DBK) in its 1980 report on Masonry and cited by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in its 1985 letter included that "research on the ritual and on the Masonic mentality makes it clear that it is impossible to belong to the Catholic Church and to Freemasonry at the same time."


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: Some of the doctrines are incorporated into Catholic social teaching which are, in the "Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church", to appreciate democratic political systems which are accountable to the governed and to "reject all secret organizations that seek to influence or subvert the functioning of legitimate institutions."


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: According to Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, and "are significant texts as they address the theoretical and practical reasons for the irreconcilability of masonry and Catholicism as concepts of truth, religion, God, man and the world, spirituality, ethics, rituality and tolerance."


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: Masonic bodies do not ban Catholics from joining if they wish to do so. There has never been a Masonic prohibition against Catholics joining the fraternity, and some Freemasons are Catholics, despite the Catholic Church's prohibition of joining the freemasons.


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: Freemasonry was an important catalyst in the founding of the Knights of Columbus and the Knights of Peter Claver in the United States and the Knights of the Southern Cross in Australia, because one of the attractions of Freemasonry was that it provided a number of social services unavailable to non-members (e.g., devout Catholics).


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: Michael McGivney, a Catholic priest in New Haven, Connecticut, wished to provide Catholic men with a Catholic fraternal organization, an alternative to Freemasonry with the attractiveness of selected membership and secret initiation, but neither oath-bound nor secret. Thus he founded the Knights of Columbus, believing that Catholicism and fraternalism were not incompatible and wished to found a society that would encourage men to be proud of their American Catholic heritage. McGivney was beatified by Pope Francis in 2020.


title: Papal ban of Freemasonry

text: The KoC, though accepting African-American members early on in its history, soon came to identify in many of its councils with segregationist and anti-Black viewpoints, leading to the denial of membership to many prospective black candidates. As a result, the Josephites founded the Knights of Peter Claver in 1909, which as of 2021 is the largest and oldest Black Catholic organization in America.


title: Remaster

text: Remaster refers to changing the quality of the sound or of the image, or both, of previously created recordings, either audiophonic, cinematic, or videographic. The terms digital remastering and digitally remastered are also used.


title: Remaster

text: A master is the definitive recording version that will be replicated for the end user, commonly into other formats (e.g. LP records, CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays).


title: Remaster

text: A batch of copies is often made from a single original master recording, which might itself be based on previous recordings. For example, sound effects (e.g. a door opening, punching sounds, falling down the stairs, a bell ringing) might have been added from copies of sound effect tapes similar to modern sampling to make a radio play for broadcast.


title: Remaster

text: Problematically, several different levels of masters often exist for any one audio release. As an example, examine the way a typical music album from the 1960s was created. Musicians and vocalists were recorded on multi-track tape. This tape was mixed to create a stereo or mono master. A further master tape would likely be created from this original master recording consisting of equalization and other adjustments and improvements to the audio to make it sound better on record players for example.


title: Remaster

text: More master recordings would be duplicated from the equalized master for regional copying purposes (for example to send to several pressing plants). Pressing masters for vinyl recordings would be created. Often these interim recordings were referred to as Mother Tapes. All vinyl records would derive from one of the master recordings.


title: Remaster

text: Thus, "mastering" refers to the process of creating a master. This might be as simple as copying a tape for further duplication purposes, or might include the actual equalization and processing steps used to fine-tune material for release. The latter example usually requires the work of mastering engineers.


title: Remaster

text: With the advent of digital recording in the late 1970s, many mastering ideas changed. Previously, creating new masters meant incurring an analog generational loss; in other words, copying a tape to a tape meant reducing the signal-to-noise ratio. This means how much of the original intended "good" information is recorded against faults added to the recording as a result of the technical limitations of the equipment used (noise, e.g. tape hiss, static, etc.). Although noise reduction techniques exist, they also increase other audio distortions such as azimuth shift, wow and flutter, print-through and stereo image shift.


title: Remaster

text: With digital recording, masters could be created and duplicated without incurring the usual generational loss. As CDs were a digital format, digital masters created from original analog recordings became a necessity.


title: Remaster

text: Remastering is the process of making a new master for an album, film, or any other creation. It tends to refer to the process of porting a recording from an analog medium to a digital one, but this is not always the case.


title: Remaster

text: For example, a vinyl LP – originally pressed from a worn-out pressing master many tape generations removed from the "original" master recording – could be remastered and re-pressed from a better-condition tape. All CDs created from analog sources are technically digitally remastered.


title: Remaster

text: The process of creating a digital transfer of an analog tape remasters the material in the digital domain, even if no equalization, compression, or other processing is done to the material. Ideally, because of their higher resolution, a CD or DVD (or even higher quality like high-resolution audio or hi-def video) release should come from the best source possible, with the most care taken during its transfer.


title: Remaster

text: Additionally, the earliest days of the CD era found digital technology in its infancy, which sometimes resulted in poor-sounding digital transfers. The early DVD era was not much different, with copies of films frequently being produced from worn prints, with low bitrates and muffled audio. When the first CD remasters turned out to be bestsellers, companies soon realized that new editions of back-catalog items could compete with new releases as a source of revenue. Back-catalog values skyrocketed, and today it is not unusual to see expanded and remastered editions of relatively modern albums.


title: Remaster

text: Master tapes, or something close to them, can be used to make CD releases. Better processing choices can be used. Better prints can be utilized, with sound elements remixed to 5.1 surround sound and obvious print flaws digitally corrected. The modern era gives publishers almost unlimited ways to touch up, doctor, and "improve" their media, and as each release promises improved sound, video, extras and others, producers hope these upgrades will entice people into making a purchase.


title: Remaster

text: Remastering music for CD or even digital distribution first starts from locating the original analog version.<ref name="How Stuff Works CD/DVD remaster"></ref> The next step involves digitising the track or tracks so it can be edited using a computer. Then the track order is chosen. This is something engineers often worry about because if the track order is not right, it may seem sonically unbalanced.


title: Remaster

text: When the remastering starts, engineers use software tools such as a limiter, an equaliser, and a compressor. The compressor and limiters are ways of controlling the loudness of a track. This is not to be confused with the volume of a track, which is controlled by the listener during playback.


title: Remaster

text: The dynamic range of an audio track is measured by calculating the variation between the loudest and the quietest part of a track. In recording studios the loudness is measured with negative decibels, zero designating the loudest recordable sound. A limiter works by having a certain cap on the loudest parts and if that cap is exceeded, it is automatically lowered by a ratio preset by the engineer.


title: Remaster

text: Remastered audio has been the subject of criticism. Many remastered CDs from the late 1990s onwards have been affected by the "loudness war", where the average volume of the recording is increased and dynamic range is compressed at the expense of clarity, making the remastered version sound louder at regular listening volume and more distorted than an uncompressed version. Some have also criticized the overuse of noise reduction in the remastering process, as it affects not only the noise, but the signal too, and can leave audible artifacts.


title: Remaster

text: Equalisation can change the character of a recording noticeably. As EQ decisions are a matter of taste to some degree, they are often the subject of criticism. Mastering engineers such as Steve Hoffman have noted that using flat EQ on a mastering allows listeners to adjust the EQ on their equipment to their own preference, but mastering a release with a certain EQ means that it may not be possible to get a recording to sound right on high-end equipment.


title: Remaster

text: Additionally, from an artistic point of view, original mastering involved the original artist, but remastering often does not. Therefore, a remastered record may not sound how the artist originally intended.


title: Remaster

text: To remaster a movie digitally for DVD and Blu-ray, digital restoration operators must scan in the film frame by frame at a resolution of at least 2,048 pixels across (referred to as 2K resolution). Some films are scanned at 4K, 6K, or even 8K resolution to be ready for higher resolution devices. Scanning a film at 4K—a resolution of 4096 × 3092 for a full frame of film—generates at least 12 terabytes of data before any editing is done.


title: Remaster

text: Digital restoration operators then use specialist software such as MTI's Digital Restoration System (DRS) to remove scratches and dust from damaged film. Restoring the film to its original color is also included in this process.


title: Remaster

text: As well as remastering the video aspect, the audio is also remastered using such software as Pro Tools to remove background noise and boost dialogue volumes so when actors are speaking they are easier to understand and hear. Audio effects are also added or enhanced, as well as surround sound, which allows the soundtrack elements to be spread among multiple speakers for a more immersive experience.


title: Remaster

text: An example of a restored film is the 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz". The color portions of "Oz" were shot in the three-strip Technicolor process, which in the 1930s yielded three black and white negatives created from red, green and blue light filters which were used to print the cyan, magenta and yellow portions of the final printed color film answer print. These three negatives were scanned individually into a computer system, where the digital images were tinted and combined using proprietary software.


title: Remaster

text: The cyan, magenta, and yellow records had suffered from shrinkage over the decades, and the software used in the restoration morphed all three records into the correct alignment. The software was also used to remove dust and scratches from the film by copying data, for example, from the cyan and yellow records to fix a blemish in the magenta record. Restoring the movie made it possible to see precise visual details not visible on earlier home releases: for example, when the Scarecrow says "I have a brain", burlap is noticeable on his cheeks. It was also not possible to see a rivet between the Tin Man's eyes prior to the restoration.


title: Remaster

text: Shows that were shot and edited entirely on film, such as "", are able to be re-released in HD through re-scanning the original film negatives; the remastering process for the show additionally enabled Paramount to digitally update certain special effects. Shows that were made between the early 1980s and the early 2000s were generally shot on film, then transferred to and edited on standard-definition videotape, making high-definition transfers impossible without re-editing the product from scratch, such as with the HD release of "", which cost Paramount over $12 million to produce. Because of this release's commercial failure, Paramount chose not to give "" or "" the same treatment.


title: Remaster

text: Remastered movies have been the subject of criticism. When the Arnold Schwarzenegger film "Predator" was remastered, it was felt by some critics that the process was overdone, resulting in Schwarzenegger's skin looking waxy. As well as complaints about the way the picture looks, there have been other complaints about digital fixing. One notable complaint is from the 2002 remastered version of "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" (1982), where director Steven Spielberg replaced guns in the hands of police and federal agents with walkie talkies. A later 30th anniversary edition released in 2012 saw the return of the original scene.


title: Remaster

text: Canadian animator John Kricfalusi (of "The Ren & Stimpy Show" fame) has become a prominent critic of digital remastering, particularly in regards to its effects on Western animation. In his blog "John K. Stuff," he has admonished remasters for over-saturating colors and sharpening lines to the point of color bleeding (among other criticisms). He has gone on record in his blog to describe remastering as "digital ruination" and "digital destruction."


title: Remaster

text: Remastering a video game is more difficult than remastering a film or music recording because the video game's graphics show their age. This can be due to a number of factors, notably lower resolutions and less complicated rendering engines at the time of release. A video game remaster typically has ambience and design updated to the capabilities of a more powerful console, while a video game remake is also updated but with recreated models.


title: Remaster

text: Modern computer monitors and high-definition televisions tend to have higher display resolutions and different aspect ratios than the monitors/televisions available when the video game was released. Because of this, classic games that are remastered typically have their graphics re-rendered at higher resolutions. An example of a game that has had its original graphics re-rendered at higher resolutions is "Hitman HD Trilogy", which contains two games with high resolution graphics: "" and "". Both were originally released on PC, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. The original resolution was 480p on Xbox, while the remastered resolution is displayed at 720p on Xbox 360. There is some debate regarding whether graphics of an older game at higher resolutions make a video game look better or worse than the original artwork, with comparisons made to colorizing black-and-white-movies.


title: Remaster

text: More significant than low resolution is the age of the original game engine and simplicity of the original 3D models. Older computers and video game consoles had limited 3D rendering speed, which required simple 3D object geometry such as human hands being modeled as mittens rather than with individual fingers, while maps having a distinctly chunky appearance with no smoothly curving surfaces. Older computers also had less texture memory for 3D environments, requiring low resolution bitmap images that look visibly pixelated or blurry when viewed at high resolution. (Some early 3D games such as the 1993 version of DOOM also just used an animated two-dimensional image that is rotated to always face the player character, rather than attempt to render highly complex scenery objects or enemies in full 3D.) As a result, depending on the age of the original game, if the original assets are not compatible with the new technology for a remaster, it is often considered necessary to remake or remodel the graphical assets. An example of a game that has had its graphics redesigned is "", while the core character and level information is exactly the same as in "".


title: Darksiders III

text: Darksiders III is an Action role-playing game developed by Gunfire Games and published by THQ Nordic for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Stadia. It is the third entry in the "Darksiders" series.


title: Darksiders III

text: The game departs from the gameplay of the previous entries and incorporates elements from Metroidvanias and Soulslikes. Taking place before the first "Darksiders" game, the player controls Fury, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, in her quest to capture the seven deadly sins which have taken corporeal form and escaped imprisonment. In their quest, players can use a variety of melee and magical weapons and gain experience points and currency to upgrade Fury's powers and weapons.


title: Darksiders III

text: "Darksiders III" received mixed reviews upon release, with many critics highlighting the technical issues and bugs on both PC and console versions as well as the too simple combat and puzzle systems.


title: Darksiders III

text: "Darksiders III" is a departure from the previous games, borrowing structure and gameplay elements from Metroidvanias and Soulslikes, the game is viewed as a mashup of elements of previous games and a new direction. Players take control of Fury, sister of War and Death, two of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, from a third-person perspective. Fury, a mage who is described as the most unpredictable and enigmatic of the Four Horsemen, relies on whips, swords, flails, daggers and magic in combat. Fury can take on multiple different elemental forms in order to enhance her combat capabilities by granting her new weapons, attacks and traversal abilities.


title: Darksiders III

text: The combat is described as more methodical and straight forward not focusing on large crowds of enemies like the previous games and removing the hit counter. Enemies are stronger than in previous installments but appear in smaller numbers during encounters, so as to make battles feel more personal. Some enemies from previous games return, while other foes are new. Gated combat is not a feature, in an attempt to make everything within the setting contextualized and interconnected like the "Dark Souls" series.


title: Darksiders III

text: "Darksiders III" focuses on its leveling system in which Fury's damage, health, and arcane damage can be upgraded. The threats of the game's world will grow stronger as the player progresses through the story. Similar to War, yet dissimilar to Death, Fury collects souls from enemies and from objects in the environment, as a form of currency or an expendable resource. The player can attach "Enhancement"s to Fury's weapons for different perks and damage boosts.


title: Darksiders III

text: The game takes place in a continuous environment where exploration plays a large role in gathering more lurchers and materials to upgrade Fury herself and her arsenal. While exploring, Fury must solve simple puzzles and overcome platforming obstacles, some of which make use of her whip. Such puzzles include using bombs to blow up obstructed pathways or Fury's Forms to interact with the environment.


title: Darksiders III

text: Taking place parallel to the events of "Darksiders II" and before the majority of "Darksiders", Fury, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is summoned by the Charred Council, a group of mythical beings tasked with upholding the Balance in the universe. They task her with hunting down the Seven Deadly Sins, which have escaped imprisonment and assign her a Watcher to ensure she fulfills her task.


title: Darksiders III

text: Upon arriving on the war-torn, post-apocalyptic Earth, Fury encounters and defeats the first of the Sins, Envy. She claims one of her talismans and uses it as a prison to hold Envy before venturing to a sanctuary named Haven, where she encounters Ulthane, a member of the Maker race, and some humans who survived the Apocalypse. Ulthane asks Fury to send any humans she finds to Haven. She then leaves to find the next Sin, Wrath, who mortally wounds her when she is distracted by the death of her horse, Rampage. A portal opens up below her and takes her to the Lord of the Hollows, a powerful entity with the ability to release other beings from the cycle of life, death and rebirth in the Well of Souls. He heals her and reveals that she is being manipulated by the Charred Council for their own schemes. He aids her by giving her the Fire Hollow, a mystical artifact that enhances her combat abilities and asks her to hunt down the demon Abraxis and return to him with the demon's soul.


title: Darksiders III

text: As Fury continues to capture the Sins, the Lord of Hollows gifts her with new Hollows to aid in her mission which allow her to manipulate different elements. Fury confronts Abraxis in his stronghold who tells her that a new dark lord only known as "The Destroyer" is coming. Players can then choose to believe Abraxis or to kill Abraxis. Returning Abraxis' soul to the Lord makes him reveal that he was once part of the Charred Council but left over disagreements on how to enforce the Balance since the Kingdom of Man was ignored among the fights of Heaven and Hell. The Lord of Hollows will die regardless of the player's choice but siding with him grants Fury a Sigil with unknown properties.


title: Darksiders III

text: Eventually Fury confronts and defeats the final Sin, Pride who reveals that the Council have been secretly betraying the Balance behind everyone's backs from the start. At this point, the Watcher reveals herself to be the real Envy, having tricked Fury and the Council to strengthen herself by absorbing the rest of the sins into her amulet, gaining their powers. She uses her talisman to immobilize Fury and drain her powers, while informing her that the Council tried to pit Horsemen versus Sins in the hopes that they would annihilate each other.


title: Darksiders III

text: Fury falls to Earth but is saved by humans she helped rescue. Ulthane then reveals that he constructed a Reflecting Pool, a gateway that allows Fury to confront both Envy and the Charred Council. She then reveals her acquisition of the Hollow Lord's gift to the maker, who is awestruck at the sight of it, but refuses when offered the relic out of shame for past misdeeds, before Fury travels to the Council chamber and defeats Envy. Not long after the Council turns on her but the rider ultimately holds back her former handlers by detonating the Talisman of Sin and retreating back to Earth. If she obtained the Sigil from the Lord of Hollows, she will first use it to block the Council's attacks, revealing that the Council is afraid of the artifact.


title: Darksiders III

text: Returning to Earth, Fury helps the Makers to defend the humans' escaping through the Reflecting Pool to another realm while demons attack Haven. Fury decides to follow the humans as their new protector, after asking Ulthane to help War if the two of them ever meet (a reference to the events of the first "Darksiders"). Before leaving, a human helping to defend the Makers from the attack is revealed to be a disguised Strife, one of the other Horseman. With the survivors now safe and hidden away in another realm, it is revealed that the demon lord Lucifer knows what Fury has done and, depending on the player's choices, is either pleased that the Sigil was not created and that everything is going according to plan, or irritated that the Sigil may threaten his plans, and angered at his compatriot Lilith for not silencing the Lord of Hollows when she had the chance.


title: Darksiders III

text: A third entry in the "Darksiders" series was originally planned by Vigil Games, but the fate of its franchise was threatened due to financial complications. Its parent company, THQ, filed for bankruptcy in 2012. The company's assets were sold at an auction, excluding Vigil Games, which was shut down along with the parent company, THQ. In April 2013, THQ began a process to auction off the remaining IP that it had not yet sold, including "Darksiders". Several companies publicly expressed interest in bidding for the franchise, including the Japanese developer PlatinumGames, and Crytek USA, a new Crytek subsidiary led by former Vigil CEO David Adams, and primarily staffed by former Vigil employees. Adams had expressed interest in allowing "Darksiders" to come back "home" to its creators. "Darksiders", along with "Red Faction" and "MX vs. ATV", were purchased by Nordic Games in the final transaction of THQ's assets in April 22; Nordic Games expressed interest to develop the third installment due to its popularity with the fans. The game was published by THQ Nordic and developed by Gunfire Games. The development team largely consists of former Vigil Games employees whose previous work includes development of the first two "Darksiders" games. The game was released on November 27, 2018. Alongside it, THQ Nordic presented various editions for the game; a deluxe edition, which came with the soundtrack and two future downloadable content packs, the Collector's Edition, which came with a Fury figurine, and the Apocalypse edition, with figurines of War, Death, Fury and Vulgrim.


title: Darksiders III

text: A month after the game's release, a patch was released for the game adding a "Classic" mode to make the game 'feel' more like its two predecessor games, such as allowing Fury to dodge, interrupt her attacks and use items instantly.


title: Darksiders III

text: "Darksiders III" received mixed reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. The third game was widely criticized for the technical issues in both consoles and PC versions of the game. "Eurogamer" review criticized the "straight forward combat" saying it is a matter of "upgrade weapon damage" and that the few puzzles are too simple, and in concluding that it "has done better in the past". "GameSpot" review said that the game is "unfocused", that the "clear inspiration from Dark Souls" go against the rest of the series design, that the game has "rudimentary puzzles" and concludes by saying that ""Darksiders 3" retrogrades on its predecessors with an unfocused approach that constantly clashes itself". "PC Gamer" review said that the game doesn't commit itself enough on the RPG department due to the game's lack of a loot system and weapons being earned as the plot goes on. He ends his review saying that "it doesn't condemn "Darksiders" to oblivion, but it’s the lowlight of the series so far".


title: Darksiders III

text: The game debuted at 32nd place in the UK's all-format sales charts. According to reports, the game managed to sell 71,000 copies on Steam alone in its first week. In a financial quarter report in February 2019, THQ Nordic said that the game has made its development and marketing budget back and reiterated its commitment to the franchise.


title: Darksiders III

text: Prior to the game's release, the CEO of THQ Nordic said that if "Darksiders III" reached over 100,000 copies sold, the company would look into a sequel. A spin-off game was released in 2019, titled "".


title: Efteling

text: Efteling () is a fantasy-themed amusement park in Kaatsheuvel, the Netherlands. The attractions reflect elements from ancient myths and legends, fairy tales, fables, and folklore.


title: Efteling

text: The park was opened on May 31, 1952. It evolved from a nature park with a playground and a "Fairytale Forest" into a full-sized theme park. It now caters to both children and adults with its cultural, romantic, and nostalgic themes, in addition to its wide array of amusement rides including six roller coasters and four dark rides.


title: Efteling

text: It is the largest theme park in the Netherlands and one of the oldest theme parks in the world. It is twice as large as the original Disneyland park in California and predates it by three years. Annually, the park has more than 5 million visitors. In 2020, it was the most visited theme park in Europe, before Disneyland Park (Paris).


title: Efteling

text: Efteling is one of the oldest theme parks still in existence. Its roots go back to 1935, when the R. K. Sport en Wandelpark was inaugurated.


title: Efteling

text: In 1950, Efteling Nature Park Foundation (Stichting Natuurpark de Efteling) was founded by the mayor of Loon op Zand, R.J. van der Heijden, filmmaker Peter Reijnders, and designer artist Anton Pieck (1895-1987). The foundation was named after a 16th-century farm named Ersteling.


title: Efteling

text: Efteling officially opened on May 31, 1952, when the Fairy Tale Forest ("het Sprookjesbos"), designed by the famous Dutch illustrator Anton Pieck, was opened to the public. Initially, the Fairy Tale Forest was home to some 10 different fairy tales, all of them brought to life using original drawings by Pieck alongside mechanics, lighting and sound effects designed by the Dutch filmmaker Peter Reijnders. The life-sized dioramas, displayed together in an atmospheric forest, were a tremendous success. In 1952 alone, Efteling welcomed 240,000 visitors.


title: Efteling

text: Since 1978, the park has been expanded and grown to become one of the most popular theme parks in the world. In the same year, English singer Kate Bush performed in the park in "De Efteling Special", which was broadcast on 11 May 1978. In early 1978, the amusement park's Haunted Castle was completed and the opening was scheduled on 10 May that year. Bush, who just had a big hit in the Netherlands with "Wuthering Heights", made her debut on Dutch television in the special. Her popularity was used to draw the attention to the Haunted Castle.


title: Efteling

text: The Dutch climate and the integral role of natural greenery in the park's appearance prevented the opening of the park year-round.


title: Efteling

text: In 2010, Efteling announced plans to remain open year-round. From November through about February, the 'Winter Efteling' theme remains in place. However, attractions that involve water, such as the rapids ride 'Piraña' or the water coaster 'Vliegende Hollander' (Flying Dutchman), are closed.


title: Efteling

text: Gisela Williams, a reporter for "The Wall Street Journal", wrote a review of the park in early 2014. Williams praised Efteling but criticized the teacups-style ride Monsieur Cannibale due to ethnic stereotypes. Her review was later mentioned in "De Telegraaf", a daily newspaper in the Netherlands, and drew several angry comments from its readership. Williams also received her first death threat for her comments about the controversial attraction. In recent years, activists have repeatedly requested the Efteling to remove or re-theme the attraction. In June 2021, the park closed the ride for an extensive renovation including a re-theme.


title: Efteling

text: The Efteling opened the trackless darkride Symbolica in 2017. With a price tag of 35 million euros, it is the most expensive investment in Efteling history. Beside the theme park, the Efteling operates two hotels, a theatre, a golf course, and two holiday villages.


title: Efteling

text: In December 2020, the park was forced to close in compliance with the new COVID-19 restrictions introduced by prime minister Mark Rutte and the third Rutte cabinet.


title: Efteling

text: The success of Efteling has been attributed largely to its ride designs, architecture and atmosphere. When Anton Pieck was asked to design the initial fairy tales for the Efteling, he made sure the park would live up to his personal high standards. There would be no use of cheap building materials, plastic, or concrete. Pieck's illustration style, somewhat grim and dark, but also romantic and nostalgic, was the thematic base on which nearly all future expansions were built.


title: Efteling

text: Pieck worked for Efteling until the mid-1970s, when his position as chief designer was passed on to the younger Ton van de Ven. Van de Ven had already been working for Efteling for several years and Pieck was very pleased with his work. The Haunted Castle ("het Spookslot"), which opened in 1978 as the park's first new large attraction, was Efteling's first to be designed entirely by Van de Ven.


title: Efteling

text: Van de Ven continued his work until 2002, when he retired. A new team of imagineers works on new Efteling attractions, still in a style suitable to the Efteling.


title: Efteling

text: The Efteling Theme Park Resort now comprises several divisions: the theme park (1952), the four-star Efteling Hotel (1992), the 18-hole golf course (1995), Efteling Theatre (2002), accommodation parks: Efteling Bosrijk (2009) & Het Loonsche Land (2017). The theatre, which was once used for park shows, is one of the five biggest theatres in the Netherlands and can house big theatre productions, which will not be included in park admissions.


title: Efteling

text: Besides using it as a home base for shows/musicals created by the Efteling itself (like "Droomvlucht") it also lends itself out for other big productions, events, and business events. The hotel was operated by Golden Tulip for several years, but Efteling decided in 2004 to manage it independently. All divisions are now profitable, although it took the golf course several years to break even. The divisions are each contained in commercial corporations, but all shares are still held by the nonprofit Efteling Nature Park Foundation ("Stichting Natuurpark de Efteling").


title: Efteling

text: The theme park covers . This area has changed only marginally over the course of its history. The Efteling Theme Park Resort also offers the Efteling hotel, the Efteling hotel Loonsche Land, a theatre, a golf course, Villa Pardoes, and two holiday villages (Efteling Bosrijk and Efteling Loonsche Land) on . The park's foundation owns a total of also including young forest, nature reserve, some grassland, fields and roads.


title: Efteling

text: The park is divided into five themed areas or 'realms'. Originally, the park was divided into four areas called North, West, East, and South, with most of the park's historical rides and attractions, such as the Fairy Tale Forest, located in West. When the park reorganized its infrastructure in the late 1990s, adding the Pardoes Promenade (named after Efteling's mascot "Pardoes", a court jester) and a central hub called Efteling Brink, it also changed the areas' names. North was changed to "Reizenrijk" (Travel Realm), West became "Marerijk" (Fairy Realm), East became "Ruigrijk" (Adventure Realm), and South became "Anderrijk" (Other Realm). In 2017 a fifth realm opened in the center of the park called "Fantasierijk" (Fantasy Realm).


title: Efteling

text: Although the park was not built with these divisions in mind and the names may seem cryptic, they do make sense. Perhaps the area most suited to its name is "Ruigrijk", where most fast rides such as the double-loop roller coaster Python (constructed in 1981) are located. "Marerijk" is the home to the Fairy Tale Forest and the Fairies of the "Droomvlucht", "Anderrijk" has some rides that are inspired by non-Western cultures (e.g. Fata Morgana and Piraña), while "Reizenrijk" has the Carnaval Festival ride, which travels through several different 'countries'. The "Fantasierijk" got its name from the darkride "Symbolica: Palace of Fantasy".


title: Efteling

text: Efteling was largely built in an existing pine forest located in a rural area, giving it a 'nature park' feeling. Together with its large ponds and gardens, its abundant green space is rather unusual among the world's leading theme parks.


title: Efteling

text: 1952 - Fairytale Forest (Dutch: "Sprookjesbos"; Anton Pieck, Peter Reijnders, Ton van de Ven, Henny Knoet, Michel den Dulk, Karel Willemen and Pim-Martijn Sanders)


title: Efteling

text: 1954 - Anton Pieck Square (Dutch: "Anton Pieckplein"), (square with nostalgic rides, Anton Pieck and Michel den Dulk)


title: Efteling

text: 1981 - Python (double loop corkscrew roller coaster, Vekoma) (original demolished in 2018, replaced by a replica 3 months later)


title: Efteling

text: 1996 - The House of the Five Senses (Dutch: "Het huis van de 5 zintuigen") (park entrance, Ton van de Ven)


title: Efteling

text: 2007 - The Flying Dutchman (Dutch: "De Vliegende Hollander") (water coaster / dark ride, Karel Willemen)


title: Efteling

text: 2019 - Fabula replaces the former PandaVision (€3.5 million renovation by Efteling and Aardman Animations)


title: Efteling

text: 1978 - Haunted Castle (Dutch: "Spookslot") (haunted attraction, Ton van de Ven and Anton Pieck), closed 2022, will be replaced by Danse Macabre in 2024.


title: Efteling

text: 1985 - Bob Track (Dutch: "Bobbaan") (bobsled roller coaster, Intamin Ton van de Ven), demolished in 2019, replaced by Max & Moritz


title: Efteling

text: 2002 - PandaVision (Dutch: "Pandadroom") (a 4-D film cinema, Van Doorn and associates), replaced by Fabula


title: Efteling

text: The Efteling is a private company limited by shares. The Efteling Nature Park Foundation ("Stichting Natuurpark de Efteling") is the only shareholder. The foundation was founded in 1950 by R.J.Th. van der Heijden, Peter Reijnders, and Anton Pieck. The company is led by two directors. They manage four sections: the theme park, the Efteling Hotel, the Efteling Golf course, and the Efteling Theatre.


title: Efteling

text: In the high season, Efteling employs 2,500 workers. In 2000, the number was 1670, of which 400 had a permanent contract (24%), 450 were seasonal employees (27%) and 820 had temp jobs (49%).


title: Efteling

text: Efteling welcomed 3,240,000 visitors in 2007, making it the most popular theme park in the Netherlands. In 2009, the park's attendance surpassed for the first time since its opening 4,000,000 visitors and in 2017 roughly 5,180,000 visitors went to the park, making it the most popular tourist daytrip destination in all categories. The objective was to reach 5 million admissions in 2020. It is reached in 2017, three years earlier than expected.


title: Efteling

text: In its opening year (1952), the park had 222,941 visitors. In 1954, the millionth visitor since the official opening was welcomed.


title: Efteling

text: In 1983, the attendance increases by 30%. Efteling is the leading leisure park in Europe with 1.9 million visitors per year. In 1989, Efteling leads European parks in terms of attendance, 2.1 million people go to the park, including 1.6 million from the Netherlands. In 1991, Efteling is on the top step of the European podium with 2.6 million visitors. On the second step, three parks have 2 million admissions: Europa-Park, Alton Towers and Phantasialand. On the third step, two parks show 1.4 million admissions: Walibi Wavre and Parc Astérix.


title: Efteling

text: Most of the visitors are Dutch; 94% of the Dutch population has visited the park. About 16% of visitors live in areas such as Flanders (Belgium), Westphalia (Germany) and Southern England (UK).


title: Efteling

text: From 1952 to 2002, the ticket price was set in Dutch guilders. These prices were converted to euros using a conversion factor of 0,45378. In 1952, the ticket price was 0,80 Dutch guilders (0,36 euro). From 1956 to 1965, the ticket price was 1 Dutch guilder. The price had risen to 42 Dutch guilders by 2001 and was converted to 21 euros in 2002, during the switch to the euro in the Netherlands. tickets cost 42.00 Euros or 40.00 Euros by "low season". There are also "luxe" tickets for €68.00 that include i.a. lunch, dinner and free parking. Tickets ordered online are sold with a discount of 2 euros. Admission is free for children under 4.


title: Efteling

text: On December 11, 2008, theme park officials announced that they would spend EUR40 million during 2009-2012 on three large construction projects: a convention centre accommodating 1500 visitors (de Burcht), an arena from the Middle Ages for 750 show spectators (Raveleijn), and a redesign for snack bar "De Likkebaerd" to turn it into a station for the park's steam train. They also said they did not expect to suffer from the Financial crisis of 2007–2008. In 2009, the Efteling announced that the Burcht has been cancelled.


title: Efteling

text: The park announced in 2015 that they had the ambition to welcome 7 million guests by 2030. For this they drew up a zoning plan in the period from 2015 to 2018 called 'Bestemmingsplan Wereld van de Efteling 2030'. The park will at first expand to the east as far as the road De Horst and the highway N261. After the eastern expansion, the park will expand in a western direction on the site where parking spaces are currently located. In 2018, the zoning plan was unanimously adopted within the municipality of Loon op Zand, after which three objections were submitted to the Raad van State. Two objections were investigated by the council and in the meantime the council decided that De Efteling was not allowed to start implementing the plan. With an adjustment on a number of points, the council approved the zoning plan in June 2021. Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic that led to the multiple closures of the park, the park had to review its investments. It decided to postpone the expansion towards the east side for a few years and to focus on expansions within the existing park boundaries. On January 24, 2022, the company announced that it would invest €75 million in the construction of a new hotel within the park on the square behind the entrance and in an attraction that will replace Spookslot.


title: Efteling

text: Efteling has a good relationship with The Walt Disney Company's theme parks. Disneyland Paris consulted Efteling during its construction and design phase, to adapt the American park to European tastes. As a token of appreciation, the Disney Company gave Efteling a small statue. Ton van de Ven, who designed many of Efteling's attractions, was also a good friend of Tony Baxter (senior vice president of Walt Disney Imagineering). The relationship between the two parks was emphasized when Efteling won the 2004 Thea Classic Award, the highest honor awarded by the Themed Entertainment Association: Efteling had, as it turned out, been nominated by Tony Baxter.


title: Efteling

text: Also, a popular legend further links Disney and Efteling. For years, rumors have circulated that Walt Disney derived his inspiration for Disneyland (which opened in 1955), from Efteling (which opened in 1952). According to the legend, in the early 1950s, Walt Disney traveled to Europe a few times and visited several tourist attractions. Reportedly, a brochure from the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions even states that Disney "spent a great deal of time studying Pieck's work at Efteling before beginning his own park". However, the rumor was later discredited by Efteling. An off-hand remark by a PR person for Efteling during a presentation for a group of reporters further extend the legend's longevity. Walt Disney likely never actually visited Efteling, though he did visit Madurodam and Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. The latter actually did provide some inspiration for Disneyland.


title: Major and minor

text: In Western music, the adjectives major and minor may describe a chord, scale, or key. As such, composition, movement, section, or phrase may be referred to by its key, including whether that key is major or minor.


title: Major and minor

text: Some intervals may be referred to as "major" and "minor". A major interval is one semitone larger than a minor interval. The words "perfect", "diminished", and "augmented" are also used to describe the quality of an interval. Only the intervals of a second, third, sixth, and seventh (and the compound intervals based on them) may be major or minor (or, rarely, diminished or augmented). Unisons, fourths, fifths, and octaves and their compound interval must be perfect (or, rarely, diminished or augmented). In Western music, a minor chord "sounds darker than a major chord".


title: Major and minor

text: The other uses of "major" and "minor" generally refer to scales and chords that contain a major third or a minor third, respectively.


title: Major and minor

text: The hallmark that distinguishes major keys from minor is whether the third scale degree is major or minor. As musicologist Roger Kamien explains, "the crucial difference is that in the minor scale there is only a half step between '2nd and 3rd note' and between '5th and 6th note' as compared to the major scales where the difference between '3rd and 4th note' and between '7th and 8th note' is [a half step]." This alteration in the third degree "greatly changes" the mood of the music, and "music based on minor scales tends to" be considered to "sound serious or melancholic".


title: Major and minor

text: Minor keys are sometimes said to have a more interesting, possibly darker sound than plain major scales. Harry Partch considers minor as, "the immutable faculty of ratios, which in turn represent an immutable faculty of the human ear." The minor key and scale are also considered less justifiable than the major, with Paul Hindemith calling it a "clouding" of major, and Moritz Hauptmann calling it a "falsehood of the major".


title: Major and minor

text: Changes of mode, which involve the alteration of the third, and mode mixture are often analyzed as minor changes unless structurally supported because the root and overall key and tonality remain unchanged. This is in contrast with, for instance, transposition. Transposition is done by moving all intervals up or down a certain constant interval, and "does" change the key but not the mode, which requires the alteration of intervals. The use of triads only available in the minor mode, such as the use of A-major in C major, is relatively decorative chromaticism, considered to add color and weaken the sense of key without entirely destroying or losing it.


title: Major and minor

text: Musical tuning of intervals is expressed by the ratio between the pitches' frequencies. Simple fractions can sound more harmonious than complex fractions; for instance, an octave is a simple 2:1 ratio and a fifth is the relatively simple 3:2 ratio. The table below gives approximations of a scale to ratios that are rounded to be as simple as possible.


title: Major and minor

text: In just intonation, a minor chord is often (but not exclusively) tuned in the frequency ratio 10:12:15 (). In 12-tone equal temperament (12-TET), which is now the most common tuning system in the West, a minor chord has 3 semitones between the root and third, 4 between the third and fifth, and 7 between the root and fifth.


title: Major and minor

text: In 12-TET, the perfect fifth (700 cents) is only about two cents narrower than the just-tuned perfect fifth (3:2, 702.0 cents), but the minor third (300 cents) is noticeably (about 16 cents) narrower than the just minor third (6:5, 315.6 cents). Moreover, the minor third (300 cents) more closely approximates the 19-limit (Limit (music)) minor third (19:16 , 297.5 cents, the nineteenth harmonic) with about two cents error.


title: Major and minor

text: Alexander J. Ellis proposes that the conflict between mathematicians and physicists on one hand and practicing musicians on the other regarding the supposed inferiority of the minor chord and scale to the major may be explained due to physicists' comparison of just minor and major triads, in which case minor comes out the loser, versus the musicians' comparison of the equal tempered triads, in which case minor comes out the winner since the ET major third is about 14 cents sharp from the just major third (5:4, 386.3 cents), but just about four cents narrower than the 19-limit major third (24:19, 404.4 cents); while the ET minor third closely approximates the 19:16 minor third which many find pleasing.


title: Major and minor

text: In the Neo-Riemannian theory, the minor mode is considered the inverse of the major mode, an upside down major scale based on (theoretical) undertones rather than (actual) overtones (harmonics) (See also: Utonality).


title: Major and minor

text: The root of the minor triad is thus considered the top of the fifth, which, in the United States, is called the fifth. So in C minor, the tonic is actually G and the leading tone is A (a half step), rather than, in major, the root being C and the leading tone B (a half step). Also, since all chords are analyzed as having a tonic, subdominant, or dominant function, with, for instance, in C, A minor being considered the tonic parallel (US relative), Tp, the use of minor mode root chord progressions in major such as A-major–B-major–C-major is analyzed as sP–dP–T, the minor subdominant parallel (see: parallel chord), the minor dominant parallel, and the major tonic.


title: What Would You Do? (2008 TV program)

text: What Would You Do? (commonly abbreviated as "WWYD", and formerly known as "Primetime: What Would You Do?" through the program's fifth season) is an American situational hidden camera television series that has been broadcast on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) since February 26, 2008. Created by Chris Whipple, the show with a social experiment format follows the reactions of passing strangers as they encounter conflict or illegal activity in a public setting, unaware that it is all staged and being recorded with hidden cameras. Throughout all of its sixteen seasons, the show has been hosted by news correspondent John Quiñones.


title: What Would You Do? (2008 TV program)

text: Appearing periodically on ABC's "Primetime" from 2005 to 2007, "What Would You Do?" became an instant success for the ABC network. Following the 2007 writers' strike, ABC ordered the first season of the show. The series was annually renewed for a second, third, fourth, and fifth season. Starting with the sixth season, the show began to feature guest appearances, which included Barbara Corcoran, Howie Mandel, and Meredith Vieira. Following the seventh season, "What Would You Do?" aired its first Christmas special in its eighth season. This was followed by guest appearances by Daymond John and Pnina Tornai in the show's ninth season, Winnie Harlow in the show's tenth season, and an era without guests in the show's eleventh and twelfth seasons. A 10-year anniversary special was aired in 2017 as the season finale of the thirteenth season, titled "What Would You Do?: Then and Now", featuring scenarios originally aired on "Primetime" and in season one being remade with the same actors in the same locations. Following the fourteenth and fifteenth seasons of the show, ABC announced that they would air episodes filmed before the COVID-19 pandemic as part of the show's sixteenth season, as well as a special hosted by Gio Benitez as part of the sixteenth season's season finale.


title: What Would You Do? (2008 TV program)

text: "What Would You Do?" was conceived as a format-based series for ABC's newsmagazine "Primetime", however, all on-air references to the parent program were removed from "What Would You Do?" following the discontinuation of "Primetime" as a standalone program by the network in 2010, with subject-based formats of the program, such as "Primetime: Family Secrets", airing thereafter during the summer months or as a temporary replacement for entertainment programs canceled during the fall-to-spring television season.


title: What Would You Do? (2008 TV program)

text: The program features actors acting out scenes of conflict or illegal activity in public settings while hidden cameras record the scene, and the focus is on whether or not bystanders intervene, and how. Variations are usually included, such as changing the genders, the races, or the clothing of the actors performing the scene, to see if bystanders react differently. The situations often pertain to prejudice; race, sex, religious beliefs, physical and mental disabilities, obesity and weight, sexual harassment, vandalism, theft, physical appearance, homelessness, financial trouble, parenting, and social status are common themes. Quiñones appears at the end of each scenario to interview bystanders and witnesses about their reactions.


title: What Would You Do? (2008 TV program)

text: During some of the segments, psychology professors, teachers, or club members watch and discuss the recorded video with Quiñones, explaining and making inferences on the bystanders' reactions. This and similar formats have been criticized for their design, leading to conclusions about the bystanders that fail to account for other possible explanations for their behavior.


title: What Would You Do? (2008 TV program)

text: In 2013, a short-lived spinoff titled "Would You Fall for That?" was aired, with 3 episodes. Filmed entirely in the state of New York, the show presented a study on human behavior based on hidden camera social experiments performed on complete strangers.


title: What Would You Do? (2008 TV program)

text: Reruns of older "What Would You Do?" episodes began airing on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) on February 15, 2011, under the title "What Would You Do?: OWN Edition". Reruns of the program began airing on HLN in 2012 as part of the cable news channel's primetime schedule. In the United States, the show has been broadcast on A&E since 2015.


The NATO intervention in Bosnia and Herzegovina was a series of actions undertaken by NATO whose stated aim was to establish long-term peace during and after the Bosnian War. NATO's intervention began as largely political and symbolic, but gradually expanded to include large-scale air operations and the deployment of approximately 60,000 soldiers of the Implementation Force.


title: NATO intervention in Bosnia and Herzegovina

text: NATO involvement in the Bosnian War and the Yugoslav Wars in general began in February 1992, when the alliance issued a statement urging all the belligerents in the conflict to allow the deployment of United Nations peacekeepers. While primarily symbolic, this statement paved the way for later NATO actions.


text: On July 10, 1992, at a meeting in Helsinki, NATO foreign ministers agreed to assist the United Nations in monitoring compliance with sanctions established under United Nations Security Council resolutions 713 (1991) and 757 (1992). This led to the commencement of Operation Maritime Monitor off the coast of Montenegro, which was coordinated with the Western European Union Operation Sharp Guard in the Strait of Otranto on July 16. On October 9, 1992, the Security Council passed Resolution 781, establishing a no-fly zone over Bosnia-Herzegovina. In response, on October 16, NATO expanded its mission in the area to include Operation Sky Monitor, which monitored Bosnian airspace for flights from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.


text: On November 16, 1992, the Security Council issued Resolution 787, which called upon member states to "halt all inward and outbound maritime shipping in order to inspect and verify their cargos" to ensure compliance with sanctions. In response to this resolution, NATO deactivated Maritime Monitor on November 22, and replaced it with Operation Maritime Guard, under which NATO forces were authorized to stop ships and inspect their cargos. Unlike Sky Monitor and Maritime Monitor, this was a true enforcement mission, not just a monitoring one.


text: NATO's air mission also switched from monitoring to enforcement. The Security Council issued Resolution 816, which authorized states to use measures "to ensure compliance" with the no-fly zone over Bosnia. In response, on April 12, 1993, NATO initiated Operation Deny Flight which was tasked with enforcing the no-fly zone, using fighter aircraft based in the region.


text: Throughout 1993, the role of NATO forces in Bosnia gradually grew. On June 10, 1993, NATO and the UN agreed that aircraft acting under Deny Flight would provide close air support to UNPROFOR at the request of the UN. On June 15, NATO integrated Operation Maritime Guard and Western European Union naval activities in the region into Operation Sharp Guard, and expanded its role to include greater enforcement powers.


text: On February 28, 1994, the scope of NATO involvement in Bosnia increased dramatically. In an incident near Banja Luka, NATO fighters operating under Deny Flight shot down four Serb jets. This was the first combat operation in the history of NATO and opened the door for a steadily growing NATO presence in Bosnia. In April, the presence of NATO airpower continued to grow during a Serb attack on Goražde. In response, NATO launched its first close air support mission on April 10, 1994, bombing several Serb targets at the request of UN commanders.


text: NATO continued its air operations over Bosnia in the first half of 1995. During this period, American pilot Scott O'Grady was shot down over Bosnia by a surface-to-air missile fired by Bosnian Serb soldiers. He was eventually rescued safely, but his downing caused concern in the United States and other NATO countries about NATO air superiority in Bosnia and prompted some calls for more aggressive NATO action to eliminate Serb anti-air capabilities.


text: In July 1995, the Bosnian Serbs launched an attack on the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, ending with the deaths of approximately 8,000 civilians in the Srebrenica massacre. After the horrifying events at Srebrenica, 16 nations met at the London Conference, beginning on July 21, 1995, to consider new options for Bosnia. As a result of the conference, UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali gave General Bernard Janvier, the UN military commander, the authority to request NATO airstrikes without consulting civilian UN officials, as a way to streamline the process. As a result of the conference, the North Atlantic Council and the UN also agreed to use NATO air strikes in response to attacks on any of the other safe areas in Bosnia. The participants at the conference also agreed in principle to the use of large-scale NATO air strikes in response to future acts of aggression by Serbs.


text: After the London Conference, NATO planned an aggressive new air campaign against the Bosnian Serbs. On August 28, 1995, Serb forces launched a mortar shell at the Sarajevo marketplace killing 37 people. Admiral Leighton Smith, the NATO commander recommended that NATO launch retaliatory air strikes under Operation Deliberate Force. On August 30, 1995, NATO officially launched Operation Deliberate Force with large-scale bombing of Serb targets. The airstrikes lasted until September 20, 1995 and involved attacks on 338 individual targets.


text: Largely as a result of the bombing under Operation Deliberate Force and changes in the battlefield situation, the belligerents in the Bosnian War met in Dayton, Ohio in November 1995, and signed the Dayton Accords, a peace treaty. As part of the accords, NATO agreed to provide 60,000 troops to deploy to the region, as part of the Implementation Force (IFOR), U.S. designation Operation Joint Endeavor. These forces remained deployed until December 1996, when those remaining in the region were transferred to the Stabilization Force (SFOR). SFOR peacekeepers remained in Bosnia until 2004.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 27 January 2020, the first case in Germany was confirmed near Munich, Bavaria. By mid February, the arising cluster of cases had been fully contained. On 25 and 26 February, multiple cases related to the Italian outbreak were detected in Baden-Württemberg. A carnival event on 15 February in Heinsberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, was attended by a man identified as positive on 25 February; in the outbreak which subsequently developed from infected participants, authorities were mostly no longer able to trace the likely chains of infections. On 9 March, the first two deaths in Germany were reported from Essen and Heinsberg. New clusters were introduced in other regions via Heinsberg as well as via people arriving from China, Iran and Italy, from where non-Germans could arrive by plane until 17–18 March. From 13 March, German states mandated school and kindergarten closures, postponed academic semesters and prohibited visits to nursing homes to protect the elderly. Two days later, borders to Austria, Denmark, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland were closed.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: By 22 March, curfews were imposed in six German states while other states prohibited physical contact with more than one person from outside one's household.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 15 April 2020, Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke of "fragile intermediate success" that had been achieved in the fight against the pandemic. The same day, a first loosening of restrictions was announced, continued in early May, and eventually, holiday travels were allowed in cooperation with other European countries. A number of state premiers pressed for faster relaxation of restrictions, putting them at odds with Merkel, who favoured a more cautious approach, a pattern that repeated itself later that year. Substantial local outbreaks in meat processing plants drew public attention beyond the epidemiological context to poor working conditions. By late August, infection numbers had returned to the levels of April, and a possible second wave of the pandemic was under debate. By mid October, it was believed by experts to be inevitable. A partial lockdown from 2 November only temporarily halted the rise in case numbers; the total number of reported infections since the start of the pandemic crossed one million on 27 November. A hard lockdown from 15 December made FFP2 masks or other clinical masks mandatory on public transport and in shops. Repeated lockdown extensions were mainly motivated by the appearance of the Alpha variant and other mutations. Death rates in nursing homes remained high until late January 2021 but dropped strongly in February, likely due to residents and workers at these facilities having been prioritised in the vaccination campaign. The second wave peaked in January.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: In March 2021, the Alpha variant drove a third wave of infections. The average age of the infected, as well as of those requiring intensive care, was much younger than in the first two waves. A reform of the Infection Protection Act in late April increased federal government powers, allowing it to mandate pandemic measures in hard-hit districts; in November 2021, the measures were ruled by the Federal Constitutional Court to have been legal. From late April, infection numbers started to continuously decrease; the third wave was seen as broken by early May. The Delta variant became dominant among the new infections by the end of June, and from early July, cases started to increase again. On 20 August, the RKI assessed the country to have entered the fourth wave of the pandemic, again with most of the cases coming from the younger age groups. With effect from 23 August, the so-called 3G rule gave those who were vaccinated, had recovered, or had a negative test result no older than 24 hours more freedom to visit numerous venues. From mid October, infections and intensive care unit admissions started to increase again. On 4 November, as almost 34,000 reported infections set a new record since the beginning of the pandemic, Health Minister Jens Spahn spoke of a "massive pandemic of the unvaccinated", which was criticized by scientists for underrating the role of the vaccinated in the pandemic. Unprecedentedly high infection numbers led Germany to reintroduce free coronavirus testing in November, a month after they had been phased out, and to launch a booster campaign. Booster vaccinations were declared by new Health Minister Karl Lauterbach to be central to the government strategy of combating the Omicron variant.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: Warnings of a "massive fifth wave" driven by Omicron in December proved to be no exaggeration as daily case numbers rose up to over 200,000 by mid February 2022, and remained at a high level in March. Experts considered the absence of a decrease to be due to the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron, which had ushered in the sixth wave of the pandemic, and expected more cases after the easing of pandemic measures scheduled to begin on 21 March.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: Vaccinations with the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine began on 27 December 2020 (unofficially one day earlier); vaccinations with the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, the AstraZeneca vaccine and the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine began in mid January, early February, and mid March 2021 respectively. Vaccinations with AstraZeneca were stalled on 16 March 2021 due to concerns about rare and potentially lethal side effects but resumed on 19 March after the European Medicines Agency deemed the vaccine "safe and effective". On 30 March, German vaccination commission STIKO recommended limiting the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine to those aged 60 or over, but revised this on 22 April to allow for use in younger ages, subject to their consent to medical advice about the risks. Vaccinations accelerated in April, with a total of 15 million shots given that month. On 6 May, the AstraZeneca vaccine was made available to all adults, with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine following on 10 May and all others on 7 June. Vaccination with AstraZeneca ceased on 1 December 2021. On 3 February 2022, the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine was approved. , 68.1 per cent of the total population had completed their vaccination, with considerable regional variation across states. In mid-January 2022, the RKI reported that just under 75 per cent had received at least one vaccination.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan, Hubei, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: The case fatality ratio for COVID-19 is lower than SARS of 2003, but the transmission has been significantly greater, with a significant total death toll.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: In the implementation of federal and state guidelines to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, the Infection Protection Act (, IfSG) has played a central role. Enacted in 2000, the IfSG authorises state governments to issue regulations to control communicable diseases, and to order protective measures including quarantine, thus granting them considerable power in relation to the federal government, whose primary task is to coordinate the measures taken.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: In March 2020, the federal government drafted a change to the IfSG to allow the federal government more power over the federal states. Among others it would allow the health ministry to prohibit border crossings, track the contacts of infected persons and enlist doctors, medicine students and other health care workers in the efforts against an infectious disease. A condition for use of the additional powers is the determination of an epidemic situation of national significance (). The Bundestag made this determination on 25 March, the same day it approved the amendments to the IfSG. The amendments became law on 27 March. The determination was extended repeatedly, for the fourth time on 25August 2021 for tentatively three months. In a 11 November Bundestag debate, chancellor-in-waiting Olaf Scholz pushed for the state of emergency to end on 25 November as scheduled; in justification of this measure, which was expected to go ahead, fellow Social Democrat Dirk Wiese said that "lockdowns for the entire republic and de-facto occupational bans ... we no longer consider proportionate". On the same occasion, Scholz called for parliamentary support for a catalogue of new measures that would replace the state of emergency.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 18 November 2020, a reform of the IfSG which had been proposed by the ruling Grand coalition was passed in the Bundestag with 415 votes in favour, 236 against, and eight abstentions. The regulations of the law include a specification of the scope of measures which may be taken by individual states to combat a health emergency such as the current pandemic. The purpose of the law was to put measures that had been previously enacted by decree on a more firm legal basis. It also addressed complaints from across the political spectrum about what they saw as diminished role of the parliament. The opposition parties in parliament remained dissatisfied with the reformed law.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: A further revision of the IfSG came into force on 22 April 2021, allowing the federal government to mandate curfews from 24 April.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: Germany has a common National Pandemic Plan, which describes the responsibilities and measures of the health care system actors in case of a huge epidemic. Epidemic control is executed both by the federal authorities such as Robert Koch Institute and by the German states. The German states have their own epidemic plans. On 4 March, the RKI published an extension of the national plan, which it had produced in collaboration with several other entities, for the handling of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Four major targets are included in this plan:


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: The plan has three stages, which might eventually overlap due to regional differences in the evolution of the pandemic:


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: In the "containment stage" health authorities are focusing on identifying contact persons who are put in personal quarantine and are monitored and tested. Personal quarantine is overseen by the local health agencies. By doing so, authorities are trying to keep infection chains short, leading to curtailed clusters. As of 4 March 2020, the pandemic was managed in the containment stage. In the "protection stage" the strategy will change to using direct measures to protect vulnerable persons from becoming infected. The "mitigation stage" will eventually try to avoid spikes of intensive treatment in order to maintain medical services.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: As early as January 2020, the German Bundestag was fully informed about the dangers of the global spread of a coronavirus pandemic. A risk analysis predicted how dangerous a global coronavirus outbreak could be. It stated that "children [...] have [...] minor disease progressions" and that the risk of death of "over-65-year-olds [is] at 50%". It further stated that a "vaccine" is "unavailable", so all the more important is the "use of protective equipment such as protective masks, goggles and gloves". But until 24 March, the (BBK) had never set up appropriate stores or had talks with manufacturers and suppliers to prepare for such a situation, was the criticism of some experts.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 25 February, a 25-year-old man from Göppingen, Baden-Württemberg, who had recently returned from Milan, Italy, tested positive and was treated in Klinik am Eichert. On 26 February, Baden-Württemberg confirmed three new cases. The 24-year-old girlfriend of the 25-year-old man from Göppingen and her 60-year-old father, who worked as a chief physician at University Hospital Tübingen, tested positive and were admitted to the same hospital in Tübingen. A 32-year-old man from Rottweil, Baden-Württemberg, who had visited Codogno, Italy with his family on 23 February, tested positive and was admitted to a hospital for isolation.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 27 February, Baden-Württemberg confirmed four new cases, for a total of eight cases in the region. Two women and a man from Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald and Freiburg, respectively, tested positive. They had had contact with an Italian participant at a business meeting in Munich; he was subsequently tested positive in Italy. A man from the district of Böblingen, who had had contact with the travel companion of the patient from Göppingen, also tested positive.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 28 February, Baden-Württemberg confirmed five new cases, bringing the total number of cases in the state to thirteen. A man from Ludwigsburg with flu symptoms who had tested negative for influenza virus was automatically tested for SARS-CoV-2 and confirmed positive. A man from Rhine-Neckar returning from a short ski holiday with mild cold symptoms checked himself in to the emergency department of the University Hospital Heidelberg and tested positive. A 32-year-old man in Heilbronn tested positive and was admitted to a hospital. He had been in Milan on 21 February and fallen ill with flu symptoms on 23 February. A man from Nuremberg who was in Karlsruhe on business was admitted to the Karlsruhe City Hospital after testing positive. His family in Nuremberg was also ill with respiratory symptoms. A man from Breisgau who had travelled to Bergamo, Italy also tested positive and underwent isolation.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: After the ease of lockdown, a group of Germans who had been working in China was allowed to return. On arrival in Tianjin on 29 May 2020, Chinese authorities tested a 34-year-old engineer from Blaustein positive for the coronavirus. A test on departure in Frankfurt had shown no infection.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 27 January 2020, the Bavarian Ministry of Health announced that a 52-year-old employee of Webasto, a German car parts supplier at Starnberg, Bavaria had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. He contracted the infection from a Chinese colleague who had received a visit in Shanghai from her parents from Wuhan. His was the first known case of a person contracting the virus outside of China from a non-relative – the first known transmission of the virus outside China being father to son in Vietnam.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 28 January, three more cases were confirmed, a 27-year-old and a 40-year-old man as well as a 33-year-old woman. All three were also employees of Webasto. They were monitored and quarantined at the München Hospital in Schwabing.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 30 January, a man from Siegsdorf who worked for the same company tested positive; on 31 January and 3 February respectively, both his children tested positive. His wife also tested positive on 6 February. A 52-year-old Webasto employee from Fürstenfeldbruck tested positive.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 1 February, a 33-year-old Webasto employee living in Munich tested positive. On 3 February, another employee was confirmed positive. On 7 February, the wife of a previously diagnosed man tested positive. On 11 February, a 49-year-old Webasto employee tested positive, as did a family member of a previously diagnosed employee.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: According to reconstruction analysis published in September 2020, the outbreak at Webasto had not seeded the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy, with the evidence pointing instead to the latter outbreak having been initiated by cases imported directly from China.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 27 February, Bavaria confirmed that a man from Middle Franconia tested positive after he had contact with an Italian man who later tested positive as well.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 8 March, an 83-year-old resident of the St. Nikolaus home of the elderly in Würzburg was brought into hospital and died four days later diagnosed with COVID-19, becoming the first reported death of the virus in Bavaria. By 27 March, ten more residents of the St. Nikolaus home of the elderly had also died of the virus and 44 residents and 32 employees tested positive. The residency complained about a lack of personnel and protective equipment.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 12 August 2020, Bavarian health authorities admitted that they had not yet informed over 44,000 returning travellers about the results of their COVID-19 tests, mostly taken at mobile testing centres at highways. It was believed that there had been over 900 positive cases among these. The government explained the glitch with missing software and an unexpected large number of volunteers tested. Health Minister Melanie Huml reportedly offered her resignation to premier Soeder, whose decision to leave her in office was met with sharp criticism by the parliamentary opposition. In January 2021, Huml was moved to a position in the Bavarian State Chancellery.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: From 18 January 2021, pursuant to a 12 January decision, Bavaria made the wearing of FFP2 masks mandatory on public transport and in supermarkets, excepting bus drivers, ticket inspectors, and children aged up to 14 years. The new rule would not be policed until 24 January. The Bavarian government said it would provide masks free of charge to low-income groups and social welfare recipients.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: Due to the number of occupied intensive care beds reaching 609 on 8 November 2021, thereby exceeding the threshold of 600, the "Corona-Ampel" (corona traffic light) jumped to red in the state, triggering a tightening of pandemic restrictions. It had been green just days earlier. With immediate effect, access to gyms and sports facilities, as well as museums and cultural facilities, was reduced from that under the 3G rule, covering the fully vaccinated, the recovered, or those who had recently tested negative, to the 2G rule, which excluded the third mentioned group. Only to those under the age of 12, for which age group no COVID-19 vaccine had been approved, would the 3G rule still applied, as well as to discretionary cases on medical grounds. Restaurants, hairdressers, universities and libraries were to continue to apply the 3G rule.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: The first case detected in the capital, Berlin, was reported on 2 March 2020. On 17 March, the government of Berlin announced plans to open a 1,000-bed hospital for COVID-19 patients on the grounds of Messe Berlin in the Westend locality of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. The hospital opened on 11 May 2020.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On November 15, 2021, Berlin banned unvaccinated citizens from restaurants, bars, cinemas and other entertainment venues, and now require them to present a negative COVID test to travel by bus or train. The measures have been implemented due to the largest increase in case counts to date.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: In January 2022, a spokesman of the Berlin government told Reuters that public services including transportation, police and child care were reshuffling operations to cope with an increasing number of staff in quarantine.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: Hamburg's first case, a male paediatric member of staff at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, was confirmed on 27 February. , there are 196 active cases.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 28 February, Hesse officials confirmed three new cases in Lahn-Dill, Hochtaunuskreis and Giessen. The cases in Lahn-Dill and Giessen were linked to the cluster in NRW, and the case in Hochtaunuskreis to the one in Lahn-Dill.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: After the ease of lockdown for religious groups on 1 May, a church service on 10 May in Frankfurt led to a cluster that grew to 112 cases by 25 May. The service was later determined to have breached several regulations, including those that the major churches had given themselves. The church evaded penalties through participation in a study by the RKI, whose scientists had expressed great interest in studying the outbreak in detail. All of the infected had recovered by 24 June.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 1 March 2020, Lower Saxony reported its first case. After the ease of lockdown in early May 2020 about 40 people met on 15 May for a private party in a restaurant in Moormerland. By 24 May at least 10 of the participants had tested positive and quarantine was ordered for 70 people.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 31 May 2020, a new cluster with 36 confirmed infections was reported in Göttingen. The local authorities checked Hookah lounges to find the source of the infections. Mayor Rolf-Georg Köhler informed the public on 2 June that the cluster originated in Eid al-Fitr celebrations by several families on 23 May where social distancing rules had been ignored. On 4 June 2020, the city reported 86 infections from the cluster and some 216 people had been ordered in quarantine. All schools were closed again and all contact and team sports were prohibited for 2 weeks.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 25 February, a 47-year-old man tested positive in Erkelenz, Heinsberg at North Rhine-Westphalia. He had been previously treated at University Hospital of Cologne on 13 and 19 February for a pre-existing medical condition. 41 medical staff members and patients were identified to have had contact with him at the hospital; one person from medical staff showed symptoms and tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 26 February, the man's wife, a kindergarten teacher, tested positive; both were isolated at University Hospital of Düsseldorf. His colleague and her partner also tested positive.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 27 February, Heinsberg confirmed fourteen new cases: nine from Gangelt, two from Selfkant, one from the city of Heinsberg, one from Düsseldorf and one from Herzogenrath. Multiple cases were linked to the Gangelter Carnival. All of them were placed in home isolation. This brought the current total to twenty in the district. A medical doctor in Mönchengladbach tested positive and was quarantined at home. He had attended the same carnival event in Gangelt.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 28 February, Aachen confirmed the first COVID-19 case in the region, a woman from Herzogenrath (Aachen district), who had attended the carnival event in Gangelt on 15 February and underwent home isolation. Heinsberg confirmed 17 new cases, bringing the current total to 37 cases in the district.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 29 February, the number of confirmed cases in Heinsberg rose to sixty. Additionally, one case was confirmed in Bonn, three more in the Aachen district (one in Aachen and two in Würselen), and one in Lüdenscheid. Cologne, Mönchengladbach and Duisburg also each reported two cases. The first cases in Münster were confirmed.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 1 March, cases in Heinsberg rose to 68. A case was confirmed in Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis, affecting a woman from Overath.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 2 March, the number of positive cases in Heinsberg increased to 79. The Unna district reported its first case, a 61-year-old woman.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 3 March, cases in Heinsberg rose to 84. Two more cases were confirmed in Münster. The first case was confirmed in Neuss.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 4 March, the first case in Bochum was confirmed when a 68-year-old man returning from holiday in Italy tested positive.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 5 March 195 cases were confirmed by laboratory test in Heinsberg. The local authorities announced that all schools, kindergartens, daycare facilities and interdisciplinary early intervention centres would remain closed until at least 15 March 2020. Six people tested positive in Münster, of which four were pupils and one a child in a day care centre. The school and the day care centre were closed as a precaution.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 6 March, confirmed cases in Heinsberg rose to 220. A mobile medical care unit was deployed in Gangelt-Birgden. Bochum's second case was confirmed, after the wife of the city's first confirmed case also tested positive.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

text: On 7 March, three cases were confirmed in Remscheid and one in Wermelskirchen. Bochum reported its third case, a 58-year-old man from Weitmar who had returned from a holiday in Italy.