title: Röhm scandal

text: The scandal came to national attention as a result of the beating of Klotz by Nazi deputies in the Reichstag building on 12 May 1932 as revenge for his publication of Röhm's letters. Many Germans saw this attack on democracy as more important than Röhm's personal life. The Nazis' electoral performance was not affected by the scandal, but it affected their ability to present themselves as the party of moral renewal. Hitler defended Röhm during the scandal. The latter became completely dependent on Hitler due to loss of support in the Nazi Party. Hitler had Röhm and his friends murdered in 1934, citing both his homosexuality and alleged treachery. This purge opened the systematic persecution of homosexual men in Nazi Germany.


title: Röhm scandal

text: Ernst Röhm (1887–1934) was one of the early leaders of the Nazi Party and built up its paramilitary wing, the (SA), which violently attacked communists and other perceived enemies of the German people. He was a friend of later German dictator Adolf Hitler and in 1923 he was convicted of treason for his role in the Beer Hall Putsch. After he was elected to the Reichstag and went to live in Berlin in 1924, he frequented homosexual establishments, including the Eldorado club. In 1929, Röhm joined the homosexual association (League for Human Rights) and became known to many figures in Berlin's homosexual community. Röhm resented having to conceal his sexual orientation and was as open about it as it was possible to be without stating it. In 1925, a man he had hired as a prostitute robbed him; Röhm reported the man to the police. Although Hitler found out about this incident, he did not take action.


title: Röhm scandal

text: In 1928, the homosexual, nationalist physician Karl-Günther Heimsoth wrote a letter to Röhm questioning a passage in the latter's autobiography, ("The Story of an Arch-Traitor"). As part of a denunciation of conservative, bourgeois morality, Röhm had written, "The struggle against the cant, deceit and hypocrisy of today's society must take its starting point from the innate nature of the drives that are placed in men from the cradle… If the struggle in this area is successful, then the masks can be torn from the dissimilation in all areas of the human social and legal order." He blamed bourgeois morality for causing suicide. Röhm's arguments about morality found little support among other Nazis.


title: Röhm scandal

text: Heimsoth asked if Röhm intended this passage as a criticism of Paragraph 175, the German law prohibiting sex between men. Röhm replied, stating "You have understood me completely!" He told Heimsoth that he had initially intended to be more explicit, but toned the passage down on the advice of friends. Röhm and Heimsoth befriended each other and spent time together at homosexual meeting places in Berlin. They corresponded while Röhm was in Bolivia, where he had emigrated in 1928 to work as a military advisor. Both men saw their homosexuality as compatible with Nazism; Heimsoth hoped that Röhm could lead the Nazi Party to become accepting of homosexuality. In his letters, Röhm discussed his sexual orientation in unambiguous language, once describing himself as "same-sex orientated" () and saying he had an aversion to women.


title: Röhm scandal

text: In 1928, the Nazi Party responded negatively to a questionnaire about their view of Paragraph 175, declaring "Anyone who even thinks of homosexual love is our enemy." Nazi politicians regularly railed against homosexuality, claiming that it was a Jewish conspiracy to undermine the German people. They promised to have homosexuals sterilized if they took power. The majority of Nazis held traditional moral beliefs and found Röhm and his associates, some of whom were homosexual, intolerable. At this time any civil servant or officer whose homosexuality was discovered would have been dismissed, regardless of whether a violation of Paragraph 175 could be proven. The SA's tacit tolerance of homosexuals in its own ranks was in contrast to this. This tolerance was dependent on remaining discreet and certainly not publicly known, lest it bring the SA's hypermasculine image into question. Röhm tried to separate his private and political life, but historian Laurie Marhoefer writes that "most Nazis considered supposedly private matters like sexuality intensely public and political". Biographer comments, "If Ernst Röhm was at all revolutionary, he was revolutionary in his demand that National Socialism and German society accept him as he was—a man who desired other men."


title: Röhm scandal

text: The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and Communist Party of Germany (KPD) were the primary supporters of repealing Paragraph 175, but they opportunistically used accusations of homosexuality against political opponents. Contemporaries noted the hypocrisy of this approach. Confronted with the rise of Nazism, they exploited a stereotype associating homosexuality with militarism that had been established during the Eulenburg affair. In 1927, SPD deputies heckled Nazi deputy Wilhelm Frick, shouting "Hitler, heil, heil, heil. Heil Eulenburg!" after Frick called for harsh penalties for homosexuality. The SPD initiated the Röhm scandal in an effort to prevent or delay the Nazi seizure of power at a time when the defenders of the Weimar Republic's democracy sensed that they were running out of options.


title: Röhm scandal

text: Röhm returned to Germany at Hitler's request in November 1930, and was officially appointed chief of staff of the SA on 5 January 1931. This appointment was seen by many as the second most powerful office in the Nazi movement, but Röhm's position was weakened by his homosexuality and he was dependent on Hitler's personal support. His predecessor, Franz von Pfeffer, wrote that Röhm had been appointed "probably, also because of his inclinations... [which] offered a useful point of attack at any time".


title: Röhm scandal

text: Röhm's appointment was opposed from the beginning by some in the SA who saw it as cementing the subordination of the SA to the Nazi Party's political wing. His homosexuality was seized upon by those who disagreed with the organizational reforms but could not openly criticize Hitler without breaking with Nazism, because of the Führer principle. Hitler said that the personal life of a Nazi was only a concern for the party if it contradicted the fundamental principles of Nazism. The leader of the Berlin SA, Walther Stennes, rebelled against the SA leadership and declared that he and his followers would "never serve under a notorious homosexual like Röhm and his (male prostitutes)". On 3 February, Hitler dismissed Stennes's objection, stating, "The SA is not a girls' boarding school." Röhm's appointment of old friends to powerful positions in the SA invoked the ire of his opponents, but contrary to popular perceptions, not all these men were homosexual and they were appointed due to perceived loyalty rather than sexuality.


title: Röhm scandal

text: The internal opposition to Röhm intensified in February 1931 when Hitler replaced Stennes by Paul Schulz, who promoted two suspected homosexuals, Edmund Heines and Karl Ernst, within the Berlin SA. Rumor had it that Ernst was only promoted because of an intimate relationship with , a friend of Röhm's who was not a member of the party or SA. Many Berlin SA personnel disagreed with these appointments, complaining about the "Röhm-Röhrbein-Ernst Triple Alliance", which was perceived as a homosexual clique. It was incorrectly claimed by Röhm's opponents that "large circles of Berlin party comrades are informed about the gay clubs", and these rivals noted with satisfaction that the perceived homosexual cliques were exposed in the left-wing media. On the night of 26 June, a Nazi named Walter Bergmann was arrested at a Berlin pub where he had found Ernst and Röhrbein together. Bergmann shouted, "Look at these parasites on the party, these , these damned ass-fuckers who let the party's reputation go to hell." Although Röhm asserted in one of his letters to Heimsoth that the party had become "accustomed to my criminal idiosyncrasy", Marhoefer concludes that this "was wild optimism or self-delusion".


title: Röhm scandal

text: Röhm's double life became unsustainable in the face of his higher profile and the rising popularity of the Nazi Party. He became more circumspect than before, avoiding homosexual clubs. His friend Peter Granninger procured young men between 16 to 20 years old and brought them to apartments owned by Granninger and for sexual encounters. When an unemployed waiter in Munich, Fritz Reif, tried to blackmail him in April 1931, it was reported in the press. By the beginning of 1931, newspapers started to allude to his homosexuality, leading Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels to write in his diary on 27 February that the Nazi Party was seen as "the Eldorado of the 175-ers".


title: Röhm scandal

text: On 14 April 1931, the SPD newspaper began reporting a series of front-page stories on the "hair-raising depravity in the Section 175 sense" that it argued was rampant in the Nazi Party. The first story claimed that Röhm and Heines were part of a homosexual clique in the SA and that they walked arm-in-arm with Hitler, citing an unnamed former Nazi (possibly Otto Strasser). The second article, published on 23 April, reported on Röhm's dalliances with a male prostitute. The third accused the Nazis of hypocrisy for condemning homosexuality in public but turning a blind eye to homosexuals in its own ranks, reporting that Hitler had ignored various reports of Röhm's homosexuality. The claimed without evidence that German youth were endangered by Röhm's homosexuality and coined the word to describe the alleged moral dissolution of the SA. Other SPD and KPD newspapers repeated the reports.


title: Röhm scandal

text: One of the main sources for the stories were alleged letters between Röhm and the former Nazi . Röhm wrote in the Nazi newspaper that Meyer's letters were forged and sued the for libel. The investigation confirmed that Meyer had forged the letters; Meyer was arrested for forgery and killed himself in prison before the trial could begin. Coverage of the scandal in the left-wing media diminished, but the rumors persisted. Röhm's homosexuality was cited as part of a broader pattern in which it was argued that the Nazis did not "possess the moral qualities" requisite for leadership. In September 1931 the SPD's brought up "the gay () captain Röhm" in response to a Nazi political poster calling for "a clean Germany, a true family life".


title: Röhm scandal

text: Observing the Meyer debacle, SPD leaders decided to find authentic evidence of Röhm's homosexuality to charge him under Paragraph 175. The Berlin police, under the jurisdiction of Prussian interior minister Carl Severing (SPD), often declined to enforce this law but opened an investigation against Röhm based on the testimony of waiter Fritz Reif. The police confiscated the letters between Röhm and Heimsoth and interrogated both men. Under interrogation, Röhm admitted to bisexuality and said that he had masturbated with other men, but never violated Paragraph 175. On 6 June 1931, a trial against Röhm opened. Reif testified that he and a friend, hotel employee Peter Kronninger, had participated in mutual masturbation with Röhm in late 1930 in a hotel room. Reif said that when he did not receive the money he was promised, he ended up going to the police. Röhm and Kronninger denied the incident. The trial was eventually dropped for lack of evidence. In all, Röhm was unsuccessfully tried five times in 1931 and 1932, but the prosecution was never able to prove that he had violated Paragraph 175. It was especially difficult to obtain evidence for a crime committed in private.


title: Röhm scandal

text: The SPD decided to publish the Röhm–Heimsoth letters during the 1932 German presidential election in which Hitler was running against incumbent Paul Hindenburg. The former Nazi turned anti-fascist publicist prepared a 17-page pamphlet titled (The Röhm Case) that contained facsimiles of three letters. In early March 1932, the SPD printed and mailed 300,000 copies of the pamphlet to important Germans including politicians, army officers, doctors, teachers, and notaries. In the pamphlet, Klotz argued: "This fish stinks from its head. Decay reaches deep into the ranks of the NSDAP" (Nazi Party). He asserted that a party that tolerated homosexuality in its highest echelons must intend to "poison the Volk [,]… destroy [its] moral strength" and would lead to the decline of Germany similar to the decline of ancient Rome. Klotz claimed that leaving Röhm in his position would make the Nazis complicit in "crimes of having knowingly and intentionally furthered the seduction of German youths into becoming homosexual minions". In his pamphlet, Klotz claimed that "By publishing the Röhm letters, I make no value judgment against homosexuals", but he did not notice or care that the campaign against Röhm stirred up hatred of homosexuals as well as Nazis.


title: Röhm scandal

text: Röhm sued in an attempt to stop the distribution of the letters, but the lawsuit was thrown out of court as he did not assert that the letters were fakes. The court ruled that there was no illegality in the publication of genuine letters. Röhm admitted to other Nazis that he had written them. The court cases attempting to halt the distribution of the pamphlet regularly featured in the for months. SPD newspapers soon picked up on Klotz's pamphlet, publishing excerpts of the letters. The allegations against Röhm found their way into election posters and stickers. The campaign did not target Röhm as much as Hitler and the entire Nazi movement, smearing them as ridden with homosexuality and suggesting that German youth were morally endangered.


title: Röhm scandal

text: On 6 April, four days before the second round of the presidential election, Hitler defended Röhm and declared that he would remain the SA chief of staff. Röhm later told the Nazi that he had offered his resignation, but Hitler had refused it. Many Nazis were astonished that Hitler had not broken with Röhm, both because of their own prejudices and because they thought he harmed the party's chances of gaining political power. Konstantin Hierl worried the scandal would "break the faith of the masses in the strength and purity of the National Socialist Movement" and hurt the party among conservative voters that Hitler needed to poach from Hindenburg. Historian Andrew Wackerfuss argues that Hitler supported Röhm because of a combination of personal affection, Röhm's professional competence, and a defensive support for his own appointment.


title: Röhm scandal

text: In an effort to protect the Nazi Party from the scandal, in March 1932 Walter Buch put ex-Nazi in charge of a plot to murder Röhm. The plan called for killing Röhm, du Moulin-Eckart, and Röhm's press officer at the Brown House and framing the KPD. Danzeisen engaged the unemployed architect Karl Horn as a hitman, but Horn told the intended victims and the plan fell through. Röhm tried to put an end to the plot quietly by telling Hitler and Heinrich Himmler, while du Moulin-Eckart and Cajetan Graf von Spreti reported it to the Munich police. The plot became public knowledge when covered by the on 8 April. Danzeisen, but not Buch, was tried and convicted for his role in the plot, generating additional negative press coverage for the Nazi Party into late 1932.


title: Röhm scandal

text: Although most media did not report on the scandal until May 1932, Marhoefer argues that knowledge of the scandal was widespread before then. The scandal was unpleasant for the Nazi Party, but it did not affect their electoral performance. Although Hindenburg won the election on the second ballot, Hitler obtained 37 percent of the vote. Historian writes, "At the very least, the revelations about Röhm were an unwelcome distraction [for Hitler's campaign]... at worst a damaging blow to the Hitler's credibility as a worthy claimant to the high office of Reich president". On 4 March, the Minister President of Prussia, Otto Braun (SPD), asked Chancellor Heinrich Brüning to bring the Röhm–Heimsoth letters to Hindenburg's attention. Hindenburg remarked privately that in the Kaiserreich, a man in Röhm's situation would have been given a pistol to shoot himself. The scandal made it more difficult for Hindenburg to appoint Hitler chancellor as the latter requested on a meeting on 13 August, accompanied by Röhm and Frick. Hindenburg found it "downright disgusting" to have to meet Röhm and "shake hands with the (faggot)".


title: Röhm scandal

text: On 12 May 1932, Klotz visited the Reichstag café to meet SPD chairman Otto Wels. After Wels was called away to a vote, Klotz was recognized by Heines, who had entered the café with a group of Nazi deputies. Heines shouted something to the effect of "You're the hoodlum who published the pamphlet!" and slapped him across the face. The Nazis subsequently assaulted him with their fists and a chair, but fled when a waiter and other deputies intervened. Two policemen appeared at the scene and offered to escort Klotz outside so he could identify his attackers. Klotz agreed, but outside the café they were set upon by dozens of Nazis who assaulted them. Multiple witnesses reported hearing someone shout, "I'll beat him to death." Someone called Klotz's wife and told her to come to the Reichstag "to collect his bones".


title: Röhm scandal

text: Since parliament was in session at the time of the attack, Reichstag president Paul Löbe (SPD) ordered the maximum suspension (30 days) of Heines, , Fritz Weitzel, and for assaulting Klotz. He announced that he had called the police to restore order and arrest the four Nazis, who refused to leave. At this news, the entire Nazi Reichstag delegation, 107 men, shouted, "Heil Hitler!" Dozens of policemen under the command of Bernhard Weiß entered the plenary, but were heckled by antisemitic slurs directed at Weiß, who was Jewish. The police struggled to identify the Nazis that they were trying to arrest, although they ultimately succeeded. The ensuing chaos was such that Löbe had to discontinue the parliament's session. A brawl between Nazi and SPD deputies in the plenary was narrowly avoided. The Reichstag never met again before the July 1932 German federal election.


title: Röhm scandal

text: The attack and subsequent trial made the headlines of widely read national newspapers. On 14 May, Krause was acquitted; Heines, Stegmann, and Weitzel were convicted and sentenced to three months in jail. The judge condemned the Nazi deputies for their hooliganism in the Reichstag building, a holy site of democracy, when they could have chosen non-violent methods of resolving their dispute with Klotz. As a result of the attack on Klotz, the Röhm scandal was widely covered on the front pages of German newspapers, although the nature of the scandal was not always specified in the press coverage. Nevertheless, the scandal did not significantly affect the July election. The scandal had not died out by 11 January 1933, when the published an article speculating that Hitler would dismiss Röhm.


title: Röhm scandal

text: The Nazi press responded to the scandal mostly by ignoring it and sometimes by denying nonspecific allegations against Röhm, claiming that they were fabrications by socialists and Jews. It also exaggerated Röhm's military activities in Bolivia, falsely claiming that he was offered the position of Chief of Staff of the Bolivian Army. Marhoefer argues that even convinced Nazi opponents did not necessarily use Röhm's sexuality to attack the party, and argues that this was a success of the homosexual movement in convincing Germans that private sexuality was not their concern: "It is difficult to imagine the national media in the 1930s in a country other than Germany reacting to a homosexual sex scandal about a leading politician with such restraint." Some conservatives and Nazi sympathizers who opposed homosexual emancipation nevertheless portrayed Röhm's sexuality as a matter not of public concern, and Marhoefer argues that this is a sign of acceptance that homosexuality did not necessarily entail expulsion from public life. Nevertheless, she states, "The highly public, persuasive allegations about Röhm's sexuality made it tough for the NSDAP to campaign as a party of moral renewal."


title: Röhm scandal

text: After the Klotz attack, the main message in press coverage was the exposure of the Nazis' violent methods, their "rule of fists" () as opposed to the rule of law, and antipathy for democracy. Röhm's homosexuality was an issue of secondary or tertiary importance. This was the case for those as far left as the SPD and as far right as the German National People's Party (DVNP). A wide range of conservatives and liberals blamed Klotz for bringing up the issue of Röhm's sexuality. While a considerable number of right-wing papers were hostile to democracy and justified the attack on Klotz, others were uneasy with what they saw as Nazi thuggishness. The Nazi-sympathizing held that "above all the Reichstag building is not the right place to take revenge or vengeance with a series of ear-boxings", although it also condemned Klotz's pamphlet. Far-right Erich Ludendorff published a pamphlet titled "General Ludendorff Says: Let's Get Out of This Brown Swamp!" in which he attacked Hitler for supporting Röhm. The title alluded to the ancient German practice of drowning homosexuals in swamps. Ludendorff's pamphlet was favorably covered by the left-wing media.


title: Röhm scandal

text: The general tenor of the coverage by the SPD was to appeal to homophobia in order to discredit Nazism, and portray homosexuality as embedded in the Nazi Party. For example, appealed to the "" using Nazi terminology, and implied that any boy or young man joining the Hitler Youth or SA was in danger of homosexual predation. Antifascist papers frequently tied together the Nazis' alleged homosexuality with their violence and murder. In October 1932, the published a satirical letter from the point of view of a young stormtrooper who does not realize he is the subject of homosexual advances, positing that the SA seduced innocent youth into homosexuality, radical politics, and militarism. Although the KPD had declined to publish the Heimsoth letters, after the scandal broke it responded inconsistently. In the KPD newspaper it was argued that Röhm abused his position of power to take advantage of economically vulnerable workers. argued that the NSDAP was a breeding ground for homosexuality and Röhm was unsuitable as a youth leader. Only a few leftists criticized the outing. One of these was Kurt Tucholsky, who wrote in , "We oppose the disgraceful Paragraph 175 wherever we can; therefore we must not join the choir of those among us who want to banish a man from society because he is homosexual."


title: Röhm scandal

text: In contrast to the left-wing press, homosexual activists emphasized the hypocrisy of the Nazi Party. While homosexual associations such as the League of Human Rights and the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee (WhK) opposed Nazism, they condemned the outing, arguing that Röhm's private life should remain private. Both the WhK and Friedrich Radszuweit, the leader of the League of Human Rights, criticized the SPD for exploiting homophobia to attack the Nazi Party. Although the WhK, whose leadership was dominated by Jews and leftists, understood the existential threat of Nazism, they nevertheless rejected outing as a tactic. Radszuweit wrote that the Nazis' dispute was with the Jews rather than homosexuals, and argued that Röhm's political survival suggested that the Nazis would soon drop their support for Paragraph 175. Bisexual activist Adolf Brand wrote, "when someone... would like to set in the most damaging way the intimate love contacts of others under degrading control—in that moment his own love-life also ceases to be a private matter". Brand warned that homosexual SA men were "carrying their hangman's rope in their pockets". In the edition of his memoirs published in late 1933, Röhm condemned the scandal, calling it "a large-scale moral campaign... unprecedented in its shamelessness and meanness".


title: Röhm scandal

text: Röhm developed even more enemies within the party as a result of the disclosure of his homosexuality and became increasingly isolated. In 1932, he admitted that he had become personally dependent on Hitler, telling Kurt Lüdecke: "My position is so precarious. I can't be too exigent... I stick to my job, following him blindly, loyal to the utmost—there's nothing else left me." In April 1933, one of Hitler's conservative backers, Reichsbank president Hjalmar Schacht, deplored Röhm and his "homosexual clique" to which he attributed great political power. Röhm was appointed Reich minister without portfolio in Hitler's cabinet in December 1933 and reluctantly confirmed by Hindenburg, thus becoming "probably the first previously known homosexual in a German government" according to historian . No other Weimar political party had a known homosexual in its leadership. In 1934, Schulz reflected that any other party in the Weimar Republic would have gotten rid of Röhm within an hour. Marhoefer argues that Röhm became the world's "first openly gay politician" as a result of the scandal. Although the Nazis were willing to temporarily tolerate Röhm and some other homosexuals within its ranks as long as they were useful, the party never adopted this as a general principle or changed its views on homosexuality.


title: Röhm scandal

text: The Röhm scandal fueled the persistent but false notion that the Nazi Party was dominated by homosexuals, a recurring theme in 1930s left-wing propaganda. In the aftermath of the scandal, leftist paramilitaries began to taunt the SA with shouts of, "Hot Röhm" (), "Heil Gay" () or "SA, Trousers Down!" (), which almost always started a fight. Anti-Nazi jokes alluded to Röhm's homosexuality, such as the following on the ideal German: "Blond like Hitler, tall like Goebbels, slim like Göring, and chaste like Röhm." Sopade reports prepared in 1934 indicated that many Germans had heard of the Röhm scandal before 1933 and associated it with the SPD.


title: Röhm scandal

text: The worldwide bestseller "The Brown Book of the Reichstag Fire and Hitler Terror" (1933)—a brainchild of KPD politician Willi Münzenberg—claimed that Röhm's assistant Bell, who was murdered in early 1933 in Austria, had been his pimp and had procured Reichstag arsonist Marinus van der Lubbe for Röhm. The book claimed that a clique of homosexual stormtroopers led by Heines set the Reichstag fire; van der Lubbe remained behind and agreed to accept the sole blame because of his desperation for affection; Bell was killed to cover it up. There was no evidence for these claims, and in fact Heines was several hundred kilometers away at the time. Wackerfuss states that Reichstag conspiracy appealed to antifascists because of their preexisting belief that "the heart of the Nazis' militant nationalist politics lay in the sinister schemes of decadent homosexual criminals". In 1933, the persistent scandal around Röhm and other homosexual Nazis was one of the motivations for the criminalization of homosexuality in the Soviet Union—homosexuality was claimed to be a danger to the state and a fascist perversion. Soviet writer Maxim Gorky asserted, "If you just root out all the homosexuals—then fascism will vanish!"


title: Röhm scandal

text: In mid-1934, Hitler had Röhm, along with most of his close political friends, killed during what he termed the "Night of the Long Knives". Nazi propaganda claimed that Hitler had recently discovered Röhm's homosexuality, and that the murders were a defense against a coup by the SA. The stereotype of homosexual men as treacherous conspirators connected these justifications. Wackerfuss argues that, "By deploying public panic against homosexuality, Hitler and the Nazi media won support for their illegal murders and laid further foundations for unchecked state violence." Although Hitler had previously known and tolerated everything that he now cited as his reasons for murdering the SA leadership, his explanation was widely accepted by the German public. Anti-fascists echoed the Nazis in emphasizing homosexuality as a reason for the purge; Münzenberg claimed that the Nazis killed the SA leadership to eliminate the witnesses to the Nazis' perpetration of the Reichstag fire.


title: Röhm scandal

text: The 1934 purge opened the systematic persecution of homosexual men in Nazi Germany. According to Werner Best, Himmler believed that the capture of the state by homosexuals had been narrowly averted. Himmler became determined to hunt down and eradicate homosexual cliques in the Nazi security apparatus. By 1945, Nazi leaders were praising Röhm's ideas about reforming the army and ultimately blaming his homosexuality (rather than their murder of him) for the failure to put these ideas into practice, which they held responsible for the loss of World War II. Goebbels claimed that if Röhm had not been "a homosexual and an anarchist... in all probability some hundred generals rather than some hundred SA leaders would have been shot on 30 June".


title: Röhm scandal

text: In 1950s West Germany, during the Cold War, the Federal Ministry of Justice cited the Röhm affair as an example of what they called the "danger of homosexual subversion", to justify retention of the Nazis' more punitive revision of Paragraph 175, and the law was not repealed until 1994.


title: Beat Shazam

text: Beat Shazam is an American television musical game show which premiered on Fox on May 25, 2017. The show is hosted by Jamie Foxx, who is also an executive producer on the show along with Jeff Apploff (who created the show with Wes Kauble). On July 12, 2017, Fox renewed the series for a second season, which premiered on May 29, 2018. On August 21, 2018, Fox renewed the series for a third season that premiered on May 20, 2019. On January 31, 2020, the series was renewed for a fourth season, which was originally going to premiere later that year, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it instead premiered on June 3, 2021. On April 5, 2022, the series was renewed for a fifth season, which premiered on May 23, 2022.


title: Beat Shazam

text: Three teams of two players each compete through four rounds (five in season 1) to identify a series of songs, banking money for each correct answer. After the fourth round (fifth in season 1), the highest-scoring team plays head-to-head against the Shazam app, attempting to increase their winnings by naming up to six songs before it can identify them. Any team that beats Shazam on all six songs wins the grand prize of $1,000,000.


title: Beat Shazam

text: In season 1, the main game consists of five rounds. In each round, a category is given and several songs (usually five, but occasionally four) are played, one at a time and with four choices displayed for each title. Teams separately and secretly lock in their guesses at the title, and the team that chooses correctly in the fastest time wins money. If two or more teams lock in the correct answer and have the same fastest time, they each score for that song. There is no penalty for incorrect answers.


title: Beat Shazam

text: The final song of each round is designated as the "Fast Track" and is played at double value. During the season finale, this song is played as a "Fast Track Challenge," in which the teams must respond within the time needed for Shazam to identify it. No multiple-choice answers are offered, and only the first team to buzz in is given a chance to name the song and win the money for it.


title: Beat Shazam

text: From season 2 onwards, the main game consists of four rounds. The first round is the "Shazam Shuffle", where each song is from a different category. The first six songs are worth $2,000 each, and the Fast Track is worth $4,000. In the second round, each team picks from two categories, with the category chosen by majority rule, (at least two teams), being played. The first four songs are worth $3,000 each and the Fast Track is worth $6,000, (however, in some episodes of the show, four songs are played in the round instead of five). In the third round, one member of each team plays, the first four songs are worth $5,000 each and the Fast Track is worth $10,000. The fourth round is a standard round played similar to the main game from season 1, where the first four songs are worth $10,000 each and the Fast Track is worth $20,000.


title: Beat Shazam

text: In season 3, the first two rounds are played the same way as in season 2, with two newly revised rounds. The first round is the "Shazam Shuffle", where only the number of songs is reduced from 7 to 5. The first four songs are worth $2,000 each and the Fast Track is worth $4,000. In the second round, now titled "That's My Jam!", each team picks from two categories, and whichever category chosen by at least two teams gets played. The first three songs are worth $3,000 each and the Fast Track is worth $6,000. In the third round, "Corinne's Choice", the category is chosen by the DJ. The first three songs are worth $5,000 each and the Fast Track is worth $10,000. The fourth round is called "Without Words", where the instrumental part of the song is played. The first three songs are worth $10,000 each and the Fast Track is worth $20,000.


title: Beat Shazam

text: The first round is the "Shazam Shuffle", where the first four songs are worth $1,000 each and the Fast Track is worth $2,000. In the second round, "That's My Jam!", the first three songs are worth $2,000 each and the Fast Track is worth $4,000. In the third round, "Corinne's Choice", the first three songs are worth $4,000 each and the Fast Track is worth $8,000. In the fourth round, "Without Words", the first three songs are worth $8,000 each and the Fast Track is worth $16,000.


title: Beat Shazam

text: After the second round (third in season 1), the team in last place is eliminated and leaves with nothing. After the fourth round (fifth in season 1), the trailing team is eliminated and receives either a random amount of cash or a tenth of their money (half in the first three seasons). A team can accumulate up to $76,000 ($126,000 in season 1; $124,000 in season 2; $102,000 in season 3) during the main game. In the event of a tie after rounds two or four (three or five in season 1), one additional song, with no category given, is played as a tiebreaker, using the same rules as the main game. No money is awarded for the tiebreaker song, and the team that answers it correctly in the fastest time moves on to the next round.


title: Beat Shazam

text: The winning team attempts to identify five more songs, one at a time before Shazam can do so. Each correct answer awards the team $25,000. No multiple-choice answers are offered in this round, and each song is in a different category. The team must answer with the exact wording of the title. A yellow ring on the gameboard steadily disappears to act as a timer; the contestants must buzz in before it is completely gone. If the team fails to buzz in on any song, or fails to identify any song, they lose the opportunity to play for $1,000,000.


title: Beat Shazam

text: After all five songs have been played, the team is given a category for a sixth and final song. They may either end the game and keep their winnings or attempt to identify this song. If they choose to continue, only one team member may play. If the contestant correctly names the song before Shazam, the team's entire winnings are doubled; if the team beats Shazam on all six songs, the team's winnings are increased to the grand prize of $1,000,000. Giving a wrong answer or no answer on the final song cuts the team's winnings in half. However, if they choose to keep their winnings and not face the final song, they are given a chance to see if they can identify the last song. If they correctly name the song, they are not awarded any money and if they incorrectly name the song, they don't lose any money.


title: Beat Shazam

text: Without winning the grand prize, a team can win up to $352,000 ($452,000 in season 1; $448,000 in season 2; $404,000 in season 3) over the course of the entire game, by identifying every song in the main game, beating Shazam on four of the first five songs in the bonus round, then beating it again on the sixth.


title: Beat Shazam

text: An episode featuring a guest appearance by Demi Lovato was slated to air on July 24, 2018, but a different new episode was shown instead due to Lovato's hospitalization after an apparent overdose. The episode eventually aired on September 11, 2018 with Lovato's appearance edited out. Her appearance surfaced on September 29, 2020.


title: Dik Evans

text: Richard G. "Dik" (also "Dick") Evans (born 1957) is an English-born Irish musician best known as a founder of the band Virgin Prunes and an early member of the band that would become U2. Dik and his younger brother David "the Edge" Evans, U2's guitarist, were among U2's co-founders.


title: Dik Evans

text: Evans was born in England to Welsh parents. At a young age, the family moved to Ireland. He first began to learn how to play guitar with an acoustic guitar bought by his brother, which the two shared.


title: Dik Evans

text: The band that would eventually be named U2 formed in Dublin on 25 September 1976. Dik and his brother Dave were two of six people to respond to a note that Larry Mullen Jr. posted on the notice board at Mount Temple Comprehensive School in search of musicians for a new band. The group set up in Mullen's kitchen, with the Evans brothers on guitar; at the first meeting, the duo shared a single home-made instrument between them. They soon whittled down the lineup to a five-piece and settled on the name "Feedback" because it was one of the few technical terms they knew. Most of their initial material consisted of cover songs, which the band admitted was not their forte. Some of the earliest influences on the band were emerging punk rock acts, such as the Jam, the Clash, Buzzcocks, and Sex Pistols. The popularity of punk rock convinced the group that musical proficiency was not a prerequisite to success.


title: Dik Evans

text: In April 1977, Feedback played their first gig for a paying audience at St. Fintan's High School. Shortly after, the band changed their name to "The Hype". Dik, who was older than the other band members and by this time at college, was becoming the odd man out. The rest of the band was leaning towards the idea of a four-piece ensemble. In March 1978, the group changed their name to "U2". That same month, U2, as a four-piece without Dik, won a talent contest in Limerick sponsored by Harp Lager and the "Evening Press". The win was an important milestone and affirmation for the fledgling band. Within a few days, Dik was officially phased out of the band with a farewell concert at the Presbyterian Church Hall in Howth. During the show, which featured the group playing cover songs as the Hype, Dik ceremonially walked offstage. The remaining four band members returned later in the concert to play original material as U2.


title: Dik Evans

text: Evans was later a founding member of Dublin-based band The Virgin Prunes and their guitarist from 1977 to 1984. He co-founded the band The Kid Sisters, later known as The Screech Owls, along with the American musician Deborah "Debbie" Schow.


title: Dik Evans

text: Recent solo work includes contributions to "Snakes & Ladders – A Festival of New Irish Music", curated by composer and former Virgin Prunes' band member, Daniel Figgis.


title: The Gate (1987 film)

text: The Gate is a 1987 supernatural horror film directed by Tibor Takács and starring Stephen Dorff in his film debut. The film follows two young boys who accidentally release a horde of demons from their backyard through a large hole in the ground.


title: The Gate (1987 film)

text: An international co-production between Canada and the United States, the film was released by the New Century Vista Film Company and grossed around twice its budget. Since its release, it has obtained a cult following and was followed by a sequel in 1990 titled "".


title: The Gate (1987 film)

text: A 3D-remake directed by Alex Winter was in production; it was initially set for a release in 2011, but no release occurred at that time.


title: The Gate (1987 film)

text: Twelve-year-old Glen has a nightmare of finding his home abandoned, then going into his tree-house only for it to be struck by lightning and collapse. When he wakes, he finds that in his backyard, workers have cut down the same tree from his nightmare and unearthed a geode. Glen returns with older friend Terry to investigate. Though the workers attempted to fill the hole left by the tree, Glen and Terry breach the surface, finding a large geode. Glen catches a splinter and leaves a small amount of blood behind.


title: The Gate (1987 film)

text: Glen's parents leave town for three days, placing his 15-year-old sister Alexandra ("Al") in charge. While Al throws a party, Terry and Glen break open the geode after having discovered that it has left strange writing on a notepad, and read the incantations aloud. They go downstairs just as the party-goers are playing a levitation game. Everyone is shocked when they levitate Glen.


title: The Gate (1987 film)

text: That night, Glen sees his bedroom wall stretching, and Terry embraces an apparition of his dead mother that turns out to be Glen's dog Angus, who dies as a result. The next day, Terry brings a heavy metal album to Glen's house with lyrics based on "The Dark Book". He believes that the hole in Glen's backyard is a gateway to a domain of evil gods, and speculates that their actions opened it. He concludes that the only missing element would be to deposit a sacrifice into the hole. Unknown to them, a friend of Al's dumps Angus's body into the hole, completing the summoning. After having read a section from "The Dark Book" that is supposed to close the gateway, the boys find the hole closed and assume that their efforts succeeded.


title: The Gate (1987 film)

text: That night, a swarm of moths shatter Glen's bedroom window, and Angus' corpse is found in Terry's bed. Demonic arms try pulling Al under her bed; Terry and Glen barely save her. They try fleeing the house, but are greeted outside by Glen and Al's parents, actually disguised demons. After having returned to the house, Al volunteers to inspect the yard, but the others see it swarming with small demons and call her back. Terry leads everyone to the basement to retrieve "The Dark Book", but it bursts into flames. They then attempt to stop the creatures by reading the Bible. Terry reads from Psalm 59 and the hole begins to close, but he slips and falls into the hole. Terry is attacked by the small demons before Al and Glen pull him out. Terry reads from Genesis, then throws the Bible into the hole, causing an explosion that appears to seal the hole.


title: The Gate (1987 film)

text: That night, a wall breaks open and a construction worker's corpse falls through (Terry had previously lied to Glen that when his house was built, one of the workers died and the other workers had sealed him inside a wall). The worker pulls Terry into the wall, which seals behind him. Upstairs, Al notices a hazy image of the construction worker in her mirror before Glen bursts into her bedroom. Al throws a stereo at the construction worker and he disintegrates into dozens of little demons. Al holds the bedroom door shut while Glen races downstairs to find their father's gun. A demonic version of Terry appears, biting his hand before Al stabs Terry in the eye. Al and Glen hide in a closet, but the construction worker breaks through an interior wall and drags Al away.


title: The Gate (1987 film)

text: Glen realizes that Terry and Al represent the two human sacrifices that would fully open the gate. He also realizes that the rocket that he had given to Al for her birthday, a symbol of love, light and purity, may stop the rise of the Old Gods. He makes his way upstairs as the floor collapses, revealing a chasm beneath the house. Glen attempts to launch the rocket, but his matches keep blowing out. The wind sucks Glen onto the foyer, where a giant serpentine demon emerges. The demon pats Glen on the head and touches his hand before returning to the hole. Glen discovers that the demon's touch has placed an eye in the palm of his hand. He stabs the eye, then struggles to descend the staircase, at which point the demon re-emerges. Glen uses a battery-powered launcher to fire his rocket into the demon, causing it to explode.


title: The Gate (1987 film)

text: Angus emerges from the front closet, seemingly restored to life. He is followed by Terry and Al, also unhurt. Later, the kids worry about how to explain the wreckage of the house to their parents.


title: The Gate (1987 film)

text: The first draft of the script was written by Michael Nankin when he was unemployed and recently divorced, basing it on "the nastiest thoughts from [his] childhood". Glen and Al were depicted as being more mischievous than shown in the final film, and the demons spread to the rest of the town, where they would drag neighbors out into the streets to kill them. The gigantic demon was originally envisioned as being made of bloody entrails.


title: The Gate (1987 film)

text: The house was a real home in Toronto, but an exterior exit had to be constructed for the production, featuring bricks, stairs, and a bug zapper. Beyond the backyard was a new housing development, so the crew erected a fence around the yard to block the construction vehicles and workers from view.


title: The Gate (1987 film)

text: The effects used to create the demons included stop-motion animation as well as forced perspective, wherein actors wearing rubber suits were made to look minuscule by their position relative to the camera and to the human characters. Randall William Cook, the film's special effects supervisor, used his hand and eye to create the scene where an eyeball appears in Glen's palm.


title: The Gate (1987 film)

text: "The Gate" opened in the US on May 15, 1987. It ranked second in its opening weekend and grossed $4.3 million. It grossed a total of $13.5 million by the end of its run. Lionsgate released a special edition DVD on October 6, 2009, with audio commentary from the director and interviews. They later released a Blu-ray version via their label Vestron Video on February 28, 2017. It includes commentary from the filmmakers and several featurettes.


title: The Gate (1987 film)

text: Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 60% based on 10 reviews and a rating average of 5.80/10. Michael Wilmington of the "Los Angeles Times", in comparing it to the works of Steven Spielberg and Stephen King, wrote, "whatever minor triumphs it dredges up, is too hopelessly copycat". In rating it 3/5 stars, "TV Guide" called it a "surprisingly effective" and refreshingly uncynical horror film that may be too wimpy for some horror fans. Commenting on the film's dreamlike plot, "Time Out" said it could have been a cult film had the filmmakers abandoned their attempts to tie together the bizarre elements.


title: The Gate (1987 film)

text: In a retrospective review, Odie Henderson of "Slant Magazine" wrote, "If you can get in touch with your inner 12-year-old, "The Gate" is a pleasant diversion." Henderson identifies family values as a core theme, though it is subtle enough not to be preachy. Reviewing the DVD for Dread Central, Paul Nicholasi rated it 4.5/5 stars and called it "a MUST HAVE movie for all horror fans" that they can show their kids to introduce them to horror films.


title: Zechariah (Hebrew prophet)

text: Zechariah was a person in the Hebrew Bible traditionally considered the author of the Book of Zechariah, the eleventh of the Twelve Minor Prophets.


title: Zechariah (Hebrew prophet)

text: The Book of Zechariah introduces him as the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo. The Book of Ezra names Zechariah as the son of Iddo, but it is likely that Berechiah was Zechariah's father, and Iddo was his grandfather. His prophetical career probably began in the second year of Darius the Great, king of the Achaemenid Empire (520 BCE). His greatest concern appears to have been with the building of the Second Temple.


title: Zechariah (Hebrew prophet)

text: He was probably not the "Zacharias" mentioned by Jesus in the Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of Matthew, "from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar". Jesus' words are interpreted as: from the first victim of a murder (Abel), to the last martyr (Zechariah), by which Zechariah ben Jehoiada was more likely meant, as representing the last of the martyrs recorded in the Masoretic Text. However, some scholars still identify him with the later prophet Zechariah, rather than the priest Zechariah of the 9th century BCE, as the Gospel of Matthew records his name as "Zechariah son of Berechiah", and the prophet Zechariah is indeed listed as the son of Berechiah.


title: Zechariah (Hebrew prophet)

text: On the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar, his feast day is February 8. He is commemorated in the calendar of saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church on the Tuesday after the fifth Sunday of Pentecost and, with the other Minor Prophets, on July 31. The Roman Catholic Church honors him with a feast day assigned to September 6.


title: Stan Polley

text: Stanley Herbert Polley (April 7, 1922 – July 20, 2009) was an American entertainment manager and fraudster active in the 1960s and 1970s. His clients included rock band Badfinger, musician Al Kooper, and singer Lou Christie. Throughout his career, Polley defrauded a number of clients and associates, most notably Badfinger.


title: Stan Polley

text: Polley was born on April 7, 1922 in New York City. After serving as a corporal in the U.S. Army during World War II, he practiced law and worked in retail shops before beginning his managerial career in New York's garment industry. He began artist management after he met Lou Christie in the mid-1960s. It was through his association with Christie that he met and began working with other artists in the New York and Los Angeles entertainment fields.


title: Stan Polley

text: In 1968, Polley formed a company called "Five Arts Management," for his work with singer Lou Christie, musician Al Kooper, arranger Charles Calello, TV director Michael Cooper, composer Sandy Linzer and WABC disc jockey Bob Lewis. He formed further companies for legal and accounting purposes to manage artists including composers Irwin Levine and Larry Brown. In 1970, Polley registered "Badfinger Enterprises, Inc." as a corporate entity for management of the British rock group Badfinger, which had no American representation at the time.


title: Stan Polley

text: In 1971, Polley was named during US Senate investigation hearings as an intermediary between unnamed crime figures and a New York Supreme Court judge. Most of Polley's American clients said they were already suspicious of their manager by this point, but the publicity of the hearings convinced several to sever ties with him.


title: Stan Polley

text: The following year, in 1972, Polley negotiated a record contract with Warner Bros. Records for Badfinger, which called for advances to be paid into an escrow account. In 1974, Warner's publishing division filed a lawsuit against Polley when it was unsuccessful in locating the funds. The legal morass crippled Badfinger financially; band leader Pete Ham died by suicide on April 24, 1975, leaving behind a note directly blaming Polley for his financial ruin. Bandmate Tom Evans died by suicide on November 19, 1983.


title: Stan Polley

text: In 1991, Polley pleaded no contest to charges of misappropriating funds and money laundering in Riverside County, California. Aeronautics engineer Peter Brock accused Polley of swindling him out of $250,000 () after the two set up a corporation to manufacture airplane engines. Polley was placed on probation for five years and ordered by the court to return all missing funds to Brock, although the complainant said the restitution never materialized.


title: Stan Polley

text: Polley died in Rancho Mirage, California, on July 20, 2009. He is interred in the Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, California.


title: Stan Polley

text: Polley's clients included singer-producer Hank Medress, the rock band Badfinger, musician Al Kooper, singer Lou Christie, Michael Cooper, Charles Calello, Sandy Linzer and Bob Lewis. Multiple financial dealings by Polley were found to be irregular and to the detriment of his clients, scamming them and causing the acts to fall apart.


title: Komsomolsk-on-Amur

text: Komsomolsk-on-Amur () is a city in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia, located on the west bank of the Amur River in the Russian Far East. It is located on the Baikal-Amur Mainline, northeast of Khabarovsk. Population:


title: Komsomolsk-on-Amur

text: The city and its suburbs stretch for over along the left bank of the Amur River. The river at this point is up to wide. Lake Khummi is located southeast of the city.


title: Komsomolsk-on-Amur

text: The distance to Khabarovsk—the administrative center of the krai—is ; to the Pacific Ocean—about . The nearest other major town is Amursk, about south.


title: Komsomolsk-on-Amur

text: The future site of Komsomolsk-on-Amur was conquered by the Mongols in the 13th century, becoming part of the Mongol Empire under the Mongol Yuan Dynasty. It was later held by the Manchus until the area was ceded to the Russian Empire in the treaty of Aigun in 1858. The village of Permskoye () was established on the later site of Komsomolsk in 1860 by migrant peasants from what is now the Perm Krai.


title: Komsomolsk-on-Amur

text: The government of the Russian SFSR announced in 1931 plans to construct a shipyard on the Amur at the present site of Komsomolsk, with construction beginning in 1932. The town was largely built using volunteer labor from the Communist youth organization Komsomol, thus receiving the name Komsomolsk. However, the construction of the town was aided with the use of penal labour from the prison camps situated in the area. The suffix "on Amur" was added to differentiate from other towns with the same name. It was granted town status in 1933.


title: Komsomolsk-on-Amur

text: By the end of the 1940s, the shipyards along with facilities for other heavy industry had been completed. The city developed into a regional center for industries such as aircraft manufacturing, metallurgy, machinery, oil refining, and shipbuilding. At present, Komsomolsk-on-Amur is the main center for the manufacture of Sukhoi military aircraft and the Sukhoi Superjet airliner. The MiG-15bis and the Lisunov Li-2 were both manufactured in Komsomolsk-on-Amur.


title: Komsomolsk-on-Amur

text: Within the framework of administrative divisions, Komsomolsk-on-Amur serves as the administrative center of Komsomolsky District, even though it is not a part of it. As an administrative division, it is incorporated separately as the city of krai significance of Komsomolsk-na-Amure—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division, the city of krai significance of Komsomolsk-na-Amure is incorporated as Komsomolsk-na-Amure Urban Okrug. The city is administratively divided into 2 okrugs (previously raion), coinciding with the historical parts: Leninsky (Dzemgi) and Central.


title: Komsomolsk-on-Amur

text: In the Soviet period, the administrative-territorial division of the city was different from the present. In accordance with the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR of 19 October 1943 were formed Lenin, Stalin and Central areas. Stalinsky district included the territory of Railway Amurstali and residential community.


title: Komsomolsk-on-Amur

text: Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR "On the Abolition of the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Khabarovsk Krai" on August 7, 1957 in the district division was abolished, but the decree of March 31, 1972 the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the newly divided the city into two districts - Central and Leninsky.


title: Komsomolsk-on-Amur

text: Komsomolsk-on-Amur consists of two historical parts: the center, or "city", where the main enterprise - Shipyard, and the Dzemgi - an area that has formed during the construction of an aircraft factory (future KnAAPO). In fact, each of the parts is a separate town, itself a single center in the city.


title: Komsomolsk-on-Amur

text: Areas of the city are very different architectural appearance: Center Stalinist buildings dominated the 40-50s (exception - the residential area near the railway station), Dzemgi is built up mainly typical panel apartment blocks. The "sleeping" area Dzemgi is not, as the majority of their residents work in enterprises located here.


title: Komsomolsk-on-Amur

text: Komsomolsk-on-Amur has a humid continental climate (Köppen "Dfb"). Temperatures in the area of the city typically change by over over the course of the year, with a daily average of in January, compared to in July.


title: Komsomolsk-on-Amur

text: Komsomolsk-on-Amur is an important industrial center of Khabarovsk Krai and of the Russian Far East. It has a diversified economy where machine building, metallurgy and timber enterprises dominate.


title: Komsomolsk-on-Amur

text: The city's most notable company is Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association, Russia's largest aircraft-manufacturing enterprise. It is among Khabarovsk Krai's most successful enterprises, and for years has been the largest taxpayer of the territory. It has manufactured hundreds of civil aircraft and thousands of various-role military aircraft from the first recon aircraft to modern Su- series fighters and light amphibian aeroplanes. The company is hugely important to the city's economy, contributing 45% of all payments into the local budget.


title: Komsomolsk-on-Amur

text: Komsomolsk-on-Amur railway station is an important rail junction of Baikal-Amur Mainline and Komsomolsk-Dezhnyovka railway line.


title: Komsomolsk-on-Amur

text: Public transport includes 5 tram routes, bus and fixed-taxi (marshrutka). However, since January 10, 2018 the tram has not been operated, due to 'poor road condition' on Mira Prospect. It has yet to reopen and it was speculated that the suspension of tram traffic might become permanent.


title: Papain

text: Papain, also known as papaya proteinase I, is a cysteine protease () enzyme present in papaya ("Carica papaya") and mountain papaya ("Vasconcellea cundinamarcensis"). It is the namesake member of the papain-like protease family.


title: Papain

text: It has wide ranging commercial applications in the leather, cosmetic, textiles, detergents, food and pharmaceutical industries. In the food industry, papain is used as an active ingredient in many commercial meat tenderizers.


title: Papain

text: Papain belongs to a family of related proteins, known as the papain-like protease family, with a wide variety of activities, including endopeptidases, aminopeptidases, dipeptidyl peptidases and enzymes with both exo- and endopeptidase activity. Members of the papain family are widespread, found in baculoviruses, eubacteria, yeast, and practically all protozoa, plants and mammals. The proteins are typically lysosomal or secreted, and proteolytic cleavage of the propeptide is required for enzyme activation, although bleomycin hydrolase is cytosolic in fungi and mammals. Papain-like cysteine proteinases are essentially synthesised as inactive proenzymes (zymogens) with "N"-terminal propeptide regions. The activation process of these enzymes includes the removal of propeptide regions, which serve a variety of functions "in vivo" and "in vitro". The pro-region is required for the proper folding of the newly synthesised enzyme, the inactivation of the peptidase domain and stabilisation of the enzyme against denaturing at neutral to alkaline pH conditions. Amino acid residues within the pro-region mediate their membrane association, and play a role in the transport of the proenzyme to lysosomes. Among the most notable features of propeptides is their ability to inhibit the activity of their cognate enzymes and that certain propeptides exhibit high selectivity for inhibition of the peptidases from which they originate.


title: Papain

text: The papain precursor protein contains 345 amino acid residues, and consists of a signal sequence (1-18), a propeptide (19-133) and the mature peptide (134-345). The amino acid numbers are based on the mature peptide. The protein is stabilised by three disulfide bridges. Its three-dimensional structure consists of two distinct structural domains with a cleft between them. This cleft contains the active site, which contains a catalytic dyad that has been likened to the catalytic triad of chymotrypsin. The catalytic dyad is made up of the amino acids cysteine-25 (from which it gets its classification) and histidine-159. Aspartate-158 was thought to play a role analogous to the role of aspartate in the serine protease catalytic triad, but that has since been disproved.


title: Papain

text: The mechanism by which papain breaks peptide bonds involves the use of a catalytic dyad with a deprotonated cysteine. A nearby Asn-175 helps to orient the imidazole ring of His-159 to allow it to deprotonate the catalytic Cys-25. This cysteine then performs a nucleophilic attack on the carbonyl carbon of a peptide backbone. This forms a covalent acyl-enzyme intermediate and frees the amino terminus of the peptide. The enzyme is deacylated by a water molecule and releases the carboxy terminal portion of the peptide. In immunology, papain is known to cleave the Fc (crystallisable) portion of immunoglobulins (antibodies) from the Fab (antigen-binding) portion.


title: Papain

text: Papain prefers to cleave after an arginine or lysine preceded by a hydrophobic unit (Ala, Val, Leu, Ile, Phe, Trp, Tyr) and not followed by a valine.


title: Papain

text: Papain breaks down tough meat fibres, and has been used since before European contact to tenderise meat eaten in its native South America. Meat tenderisers in powder form with papain as an active component are widely sold and the culinary use of papaya peel has featured in research papers.


title: Papain

text: Papain can be used to dissociate cells in the first step of cell culture preparations. A ten-minute treatment of small tissue pieces (less than 1 mm) will allow papain to begin cleaving the extracellular matrix molecules holding the cells together. After ten minutes, the tissue should be treated with a protease inhibitor solution to stop the protease action. Left untreated, papain activity will lead to complete lysis of the cells. The tissue must then be triturated (passed quickly up and down through a Pasteur pipette) to break up the pieces of tissue into a single cell suspension.


title: Papain

text: It is also used as an ingredient in various enzymatic debriding preparations, notably Accuzyme. These are used in the care of some chronic wounds to clean up dead tissue.


title: Papain

text: Papain is added to some toothpastes and mint sweets as a tooth whitener. Its whitening effect is minimal, because the papain is present in low concentrations and is quickly diluted by saliva. It would take several months of use to have a noticeable effect.


title: Papain

text: Papain is the main ingredient of Papacarie, a gel used for chemomechanical dental caries removal. It does not require drilling and does not interfere in the bond strength of restorative materials to dentin.


title: Papain

text: Papain has been known to interfere with urine drug tests for cannabinoids. It is found in some drug detox products.


title: Papain

text: Recently, it has been demonstrated that papain can be used to assemble thin films of titania used in photovoltaic cells.<ref name="doi:10.1039/C8TB00381E"></ref>


title: Papain

text: Papain has also been used to create a degenerated disc disease model to assess various types of injectable therapies.


title: Papain

text: An antibody digested by papain yields three fragments: two 50 kDa Fab fragments and one 50 kDa Fc fragment. The papain-digested antibody is unable to promote agglutination, precipitation, opsonization, and lysis, however, the Fab fragment is still able to bind to and neutralize appropriate antigens, most commonly seen in the use of sheep anti-Crotalid toxin antibody preparations, known as CroFab and in Digibind, a similar sheep antiserum fragment, used to neutralize the cardiac medication digoxin in acute overdose situations.


title: Papain

text: Papain is usually produced as a crude, dried material by collecting the latex from the fruit of the papaya tree. The latex is collected after scoring the neck of the fruit, where it may either dry on the fruit or drip into a container. This latex is then further dried. It is now classified as a dried, crude material. A purification step is necessary to remove contaminating substances. This purification consists of the solubilization and extraction of the active papain enzyme system through a government-registered process. This purified papain may be supplied as powder or as liquid.


title: Papain

text: On September 23, 2008, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned companies to stop marketing ophthalmic balanced salt solutions and topical drug products containing papain by November 4, 2008. The FDA said, "Papain-containing drug products in topical form historically have been marketed without approval...". According to the FDA's statement on the subject, "These unapproved products have put consumers' health in jeopardy, from reports of permanent vision loss with unapproved balanced salt solutions to a serious drop in blood pressure and increased heart rate from the topical papain products," said Janet Woodcock, director for the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.


title: Papain

text: Topical drug ointments containing papain are used to remove dead or contaminated tissue in acute and chronic lesions, such as diabetic ulcers, pressure ulcers, varicose ulcers, and traumatic infected wounds. Trade names for these products include Accuzyme, Allanfil, Allanzyme, Ethezyme, Gladase, Kovia, Panafil, Pap Urea, and Ziox. Other products are marketed under the names of the active ingredients, for instance, papain-urea ointment.


title: Papain

text: In 2008 the FDA announced its intention to take action against these products because it had received reports of serious adverse events in patients using products containing papain. Reports included hypersensitivity (allergic) reactions that lead to hypotension (low blood pressure) and tachycardia (rapid heart rate). In addition, people allergic to latex can also be allergic to papaya, the source of papain, implying that people with latex sensitivity may be at increased risk of suffering an adverse reaction to a topical papain drug product.


title: Papain

text: FDA recommended that people with concerns about using topical papain preparations contact their health care provider about discontinuing use.


title: Philadelphia, Mississippi

text: Philadelphia is a city in and the county seat of Neshoba County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 7,118 at the 2020 census.


title: Philadelphia, Mississippi

text: Philadelphia is incorporated as a municipality; it was given its current name in 1903, two years before the railroad brought new opportunities and prosperity to the town. The history of the town and its influences- social, political and economic- can be seen in the many points of interest within and beyond the city limits. These range from the large ceremonial Indian mound and cave at Nanih Waiya, built approximately 1700 years ago and sacred to the Choctaw; to the still thriving Williams Brothers Store, a true old-fashioned general store founded in 1907 and featured in "National Geographic" in 1937 as a source of anything from "horse collars to straw hats."


title: Philadelphia, Mississippi

text: In the mid-20th century, Mississippi was a battleground of the civil rights movement as, like other states of the South, it had long disfranchised blacks and subjected them to racial segregation and Jim Crow laws. Philadelphia in June 1964 was the scene of the murders of civil rights workers James Chaney, a 21-year-old black man from Meridian, Mississippi; Andrew Goodman, a 20-year-old Jewish anthropology student from New York City; and Michael Schwerner, a 24-year-old Jewish CORE organizer and former social worker, also from New York. Their deaths demonstrated the risks that civil rights workers took to secure the constitutional rights of African Americans.


title: Philadelphia, Mississippi

text: Ku Klux Klan members (including Cecil Price, a deputy sheriff of Neshoba County) released the three young men from jail, took them to an isolated spot, and killed them, then buried them in an earthen dam. It was some time after they disappeared before the bodies were discovered, as a result of an FBI investigation and national media attention. The national outrage over their deaths helped procure support for Congressional passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The murders and related conspiracy gave rise to the "Mississippi Burning" trial, "United States v. Price".


title: Philadelphia, Mississippi

text: On August 3, 1980, Ronald Reagan gave his first post-convention speech at the Neshoba County Fair after being officially chosen as the Republican nominee for President of the United States. He said: "I believe in states' rights ... I believe we have distorted the balance of our government today by giving powers that were never intended to be given in the Constitution to that federal establishment." He went on to promise to "restore to states and local governments the power that properly belongs to them".


title: Philadelphia, Mississippi

text: Marcus Dupree played high school football for the Philadelphia High School Tornadoes from 1978 to 1981. He was an outstanding athlete who was widely recognized for his achievements. Dupree scored 87 touchdowns total during his playing time in high school, breaking the record set by Herschel Walker by one. In 1981, Marcus's final High School football game was played at Warriors Stadium of the tribal high school at the Choctaw Indian Reservation. The author Willie Morris described the audience at Dupree's final high school game as "the most distinctive crowd I had ever seen ... four thousand or so people seemed almost an equal of mix of whites, blacks, and Indians ... "


title: Philadelphia, Mississippi

text: In May 2009, Philadelphia elected its first black mayor, James A. Young, a 53-year-old Pentecostal preacher and a former county supervisor. He defeated Rayburn Waddell, a white, three-term incumbent, by 46 votes in the Democratic primary (there was no Republican challenger). Jim Prince, publisher of the local "The Neshoba Democrat" newspaper said, "Philadelphia will always be connected to what happened here in 1964, but the fact that Philadelphia, Mississippi, with its notorious past, could elect a black man as mayor, it might be time to quit picking on Philadelphia, Mississippi." Young's campaign staff credited Barack Obama's presidential campaign for increasing registration of black and young voters in Philadelphia, many of whom voted for Young. His term began July 3, 2009.


title: Philadelphia, Mississippi

text: On April 27, 2011, the town and surrounding areas were ravaged during the 2011 Super Outbreak when an EF5 tornado with winds of up to 205 MPH carved a path through town. Despite its incredible strength at the top of the Enhanced-Fujita Scale, only three people died as a result. It would be one of four EF5 tornadoes to strike on that day, and one of two in the state of Mississippi (the town of Smithville further north was decimated a short while later). It also became the first F5/EF5 tornado to strike in Mississippi in 45 years.


title: Philadelphia, Mississippi

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which are land and (0.19%) is water.


title: Philadelphia, Mississippi

text: As of the 2020 United States Census, there were 7,118 people, 2,836 households, and 1,804 families residing in the city.


title: Philadelphia, Mississippi

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 7,303 people, 2,950 households, and 1,899 families residing in the city. The population density was 688.1 people per square mile (265.8/km). There were 3,302 housing units at an average density of 311.1 per square mile (120.2/km). The racial makeup of the city was 55.54% White, 40.12% African American, 2.01% Native American, 0.49% Asian, 0.08% Pacific Islander, 0.55% from other races, and 1.20% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino were 1.51% of the population.


title: Philadelphia, Mississippi

text: There were 2,950 households, out of which 30.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.8% were married couples living together, 20.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.6% were non-families. 32.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.38 and the average family size was 3.00.


title: Philadelphia, Mississippi

text: In the city, the population was spread out, with 26.1% under the age of 18, 9.1% from 18 to 24, 25.9% from 25 to 44, 21.0% from 45 to 64, and 17.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 81.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 73.8 males.


title: Philadelphia, Mississippi

text: The median income for a household in the city was $26,438, and the median income for a family was $30,756. Males had a median income of $30,731 versus $20,735 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,787. About 25.1% of families and 28.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 41.1% of those under age 18 and 16.4% of those age 65 or over.


title: Philadelphia, Mississippi

text: Most of the City of Philadelphia is served by the Philadelphia Public School District. A portion is zoned to the Neshoba County School District.


title: Philadelphia, Mississippi

text: "The Neshoba Democrat" is published in Philadelphia. It is a weekly newspaper that was established in 1881.


title: Philadelphia, Mississippi

text: Cable television services for the city of Philadelphia are contracted to MetroCast Communications. Electrical utilities, as well as water and sewer service, are provided by the City of Philadelphia as Philadelphia Utilities. The natural gas utility is CenterPoint Energy. AT&T is the local telephone service provider.


title: Karl Rock

text: Karl Edward Rice, known online as Karl Rock, is a New Zealand blogger and YouTuber based in India. He is best known for his vlogs, which are centred around his travels in the Indian subcontinent, and his book "How to Travel in India."


title: Karl Rock

text: Rock was born in Auckland, New Zealand, and frequently travelled to India. In 2019, he married Manisha Malik, an Indian woman from Haryana; he resided with Malik in Delhi until his blacklisting by the Government of India in 2020, which cancelled his travel visa. Rock holds dual citizenship of New Zealand and the Netherlands.


title: Karl Rock

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Rock received public praise on Twitter from Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, for his efforts in donating plasma at a donation bank of the Government of Delhi.


title: Karl Rock

text: As part of an investigation with BBC "Panorama", Rock teamed up with Jim Browning, a scambaiter and fellow YouTuber, for a joint infiltration into a large-scale technical support scamming operation in the Indian city of Gurgaon, Haryana. The duo recorded footage of the scamming facility via drones and CCTV, and also downloaded 7000 scam-call recording files from the scammers' computers. Their investigation video series was centred around the tendency of scammers to target elderly people and computer-illiterates in countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, and locally in the Indian subcontinent.


title: Karl Rock

text: In July 2021, Rock uploaded a video on YouTube explaining that his travel visa was cancelled shortly after he left India in October 2020 to travel to Pakistan through Dubai. Upon his attempts to apply for a new visa in Dubai, he was informed that he had been blacklisted by the Government of India and was prohibited from re-entering India; he had last entered the country in November 2019, and shared this information in a video on his channel. Rock stated that there was no official reason provided by the Indian government for his blacklisting and that he had not received any response from India's Ministry of Home Affairs following his attempts to contact them. In a statement, India's Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Home Affairs stated that Rock had been blacklisted for "multiple visa violations on his last visit"; in the context of the blacklisting, an Indian government official stated that Rock had committed a violation by engaging in business activities while on a tourist visa.


title: Karl Rock

text: Rock returned to India in April 2022, after the restrictions on his entry into the country had been lifted.


title: Gavin de Becker

text: Gavin de Becker (born October 26, 1954) is an American author and security specialist, primarily for governments, large corporations, and public figures. He is the chairman of Gavin de Becker and Associates, which he founded in 1978.


title: Gavin de Becker

text: Gavin de Becker is the son of Hal de Becker (1931–2021), an American dancer and prolific writer about dance.


title: Gavin de Becker

text: De Becker describes his childhood as mired in violence. His parents divorced when he was three. His heroin-addict mother physically abused de Becker and his sister, and once shot his stepfather. She committed suicide when he was sixteen, and de Becker subsequently moved in with a friend from school, Miguel Ferrer, the son of the actors José Ferrer and Rosemary Clooney. He lived with the family for two years and would go on to work with Clooney as her road manager. He then worked as Elizabeth Taylor's assistant.


title: Gavin de Becker

text: In the 1980s, together with the United States Marshals Service, de Becker co-designed the MOSAIC Threat Assessment Systems, which is used to screen threats to justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, members of United States Congress, and senior officials of the Central Intelligence Agency. Los Angeles County Law enforcement agencies adopted MOSAIC in 1997 to help police manage and reduce spousal abuse cases that might escalate to homicide.


title: Gavin de Becker

text: In 1983, he investigated a stalker for Olivia Newton-John, Sheena Easton, and Cher. He also provided his services to celebrities like Richard Burton, Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, Joan Rivers, Victoria Principal, Tina Turner, and John Travolta.


title: Gavin de Becker

text: He was twice appointed to the President's Advisory Board at the United States Department of Justice, in 1982 and 1989, and he served two terms on the Governor's Advisory Board at the California Department of Mental Health.


title: Gavin de Becker

text: He has also served as an advisor for the anti-bullying resource Bystander Revolution, senior advisor to the Rand Corporation, and senior fellow at UCLA's School of Public Policy.


title: Gavin de Becker

text: De Becker has shared his philosophies about prevention of violence in several appearances on "The Oprah Winfrey Show", "60 Minutes", "Larry King Live", "20/20", "The Jordan Harbinger Show", and Sam Harris's podcast, "Waking Up". He has also been profiled in "Time" and "Newsweek", "The Wall Street Journal", "The New York Times", and others. De Becker's first book, "The Gift of Fear", published in 1997, was a US number 1 bestseller on "The New York Times" Bestseller List.


title: Gavin de Becker

text: Also in 1997, his firm was hired by Bill Cosby to investigate the murder of his son, Ennis, and the threatening letters his family received after the slaying.


title: Gavin de Becker

text: In 1999–2000, he assisted the United States Secret Service in the development of its guide for Protective Intelligence and


title: Gavin de Becker

text: In 2008, Oprah Winfrey dedicated a show to commemorate the ten-year anniversary of the publication of "The Gift of Fear". In the last year of her show, she dedicated two hour-long shows to de Becker's work in domestic violence.


title: Gavin de Becker

text: His 2008 book, "Just 2 Seconds", has been described as a guide for protectors of at-risk people focusing on five key lessons for those responsible to protect others. It also includes summaries of incidents from the last several decades for training and analysis. Co-authors of the book are Tom Taylor and Jeff Marquart.


title: Gavin de Becker

text: In March 2019, de Becker, who has worked for Jeff Bezos, accused the Saudi Arabian government of hacking Bezos' phone after the "National Enquirer" published a story about Bezos's extramarital affair. According to the BBC, de Becker, as Bezos' top security staffer, "linked the hack to "The Washington Post" coverage of the murder of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul." "The Daily Beast" ran an op-ed, in which de Becker explained the matter of the Saudi hack in detail. Journalist Brad Stone explored whether the Saudi hack was linked in any way to a "National Enquirer" article about Bezos having an affair. United Nations Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard conducted an investigation of the Saudi hack. In a public statement, she referred to information that suggested a WhatsApp account belonging to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was used to deploy digital spyware on Bezos' phone, "in an effort to influence, if not silence" "The Washington Post"'s reporting on the kingdom. A United Nations report noted that "the iPhone infiltration occurred from May to June in 2018, when the phones of Jamal Khashoggi's associates, Yahya Assiri and Omar Abdulaziz, were also hacked, allegedly using malware called Pegasus." The UN experts stated: "During the same period, Mr. Bezos was widely targeted in Saudi social media as an alleged adversary of the Kingdom. This was part of a massive, clandestine online campaign against Mr. Bezos and Amazon, apparently targeting him principally as the owner of "The Washington Post"."


title: Gavin de Becker

text: Gavin de Becker has provided expert witness testimony in many cases, including the successful prosecution of Arthur Richard Jackson, the assailant of actress Theresa Saldaña. He later led a national campaign to keep Jackson incarcerated. He also testified in the civil case against the employer of murderer Rodney Garmanian.


title: Gavin de Becker

text: De Becker testified in the successful 1994 civil case arising when the tabloid "Globe" accused an uninvolved man of being the actual assassin of Senator Robert Kennedy (Khawar vs Globe International, Inc). Globe tried to get de Becker's testimony thrown out by a higher court; however, it was ultimately upheld by the California Court of Appeals.


title: Gavin de Becker

text: De Becker advised the Los Angeles County District Attorney in the prosecution of Robert Bardo, the murderer of actress Rebecca Schaeffer, and was a consultant on the prosecution of O.J. Simpson for the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ron Goldman, and the successful civil action against Simpson. His role in the O.J. Simpson cases is described in several books on the case, including those written by Marcia Clark, Christopher Darden, Jeffrey Toobin, and Daniel Petrocelli.


title: Ton of refrigeration

text: A ton of refrigeration (TR or TOR), also called a refrigeration ton (RT), is a unit of power used in some countries (especially in North America) to describe the heat-extraction capacity of refrigeration and air conditioning equipment.


title: Ton of refrigeration

text: It was originally defined as the rate of heat transfer that results in the freezing or melting of of pure ice at in 24 hours.


title: Ton of refrigeration

text: Air-conditioning and refrigeration equipment capacity in the U.S. is often specified in "tons" (of refrigeration). Many manufacturers also specify capacity in BTU/h, especially when specifying the performance of smaller equipment.


title: Ton of refrigeration

text: The ton of refrigeration is equivalent to the consumption of one ton of ice per day and originated during the transition from stored natural ice to mechanical refrigeration. Just as horsepower and candlepower were intuitive units of measure for people living through the transition from horse to steam power and from flame-based to electric lighting, so was the ton of refrigeration an intuitive unit of measure during a technological change, as the ice trade gradually included growing percentages of artificial ice (ice from ice-making plant) in addition to its natural ice supplies. The TR unit was developed during the 1880s. Its definition was set at the level of an industry standard in 1903, when Thomas Shipley of the York Manufacturing Company led the formation of an industry association (the Ice Machine Builders Association of the United States) along with standardization of several equipment specifications. In 1904 these efforts led to the founding of the American Society of Refrigerating Engineers (ASRE), which was one of the predecessors of ASHRAE.


title: Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly

text: Prince Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly (; baptised – ) was an Imperial Russian soldier of Baltic German and Scottish origin, who was commander-in-chief and Minister of War of the Russian Empire during Napoleon's invasion in 1812 and the War of the Sixth Coalition. Barclay implemented a number of reforms during this time that improved supply system in the army, doubled the number of army troops, and implemented new combat training principles. He was also the Governor-General of Finland.


title: Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly

text: He was born into a German-speaking noble family from Livonia, who were of Scottish descent. His father was the first of his family to be accepted into the Russian nobility. Barclay joined the Imperial Russian Army at a young age in 1776. He served with distinction in the Russo-Turkish War (1787–92), the Russo-Swedish War (1788–90), and the Kościuszko Uprising (1794).


title: Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly

text: In 1806, Barclay began commanding in the Napoleonic Wars, distinguishing himself at the Battle of Pułtusk that same year. He was wounded at the Battle of Eylau in 1807 while his troops were covering the retreat of the Russian army. Because of his wounds, he was forced to leave command. The following year, he carried out successful operations in the Finnish War against Sweden. Barclay led a large number of Russian troops approximately 100 km across the frozen Gulf of Bothnia in winter during a snowstorm. For his accomplishments, Barclay de Tolly was appointed Governor-General of the Grand Duchy of Finland. From 20 January 1810 to September 1812 he was the Minister of War of the Russian Empire.


title: Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly

text: When the French invasion of Russia began in 1812, Barclay de Tolly was commander of the 1st Army of the West, the largest Army to face Napoleon. Barclay initiated a scorched earth policy from the beginning of the campaign, though this made him unpopular among Russians. After the Battle of Smolensk failed to halt the French and discontent among Russians continued to grow, Alexander I appointed Mikhail Kutuzov as Commander-in-Chief, though Barclay remained in charge of the 1st Army. However, Kutuzov continued the same scorched earth retreat up to Moscow where the Battle of Borodino took place nearby. Barclay commanded the right wing and center of the Russian army for the battle. After Napoleon's retreat, the eventual success of Barclay's tactics made him a hero among Russians. He became Commander-in-Chief in 1813 after the battle of Bautzen, replacing Wittgenstein (who had been appointed after Kutuzov's death early in 1813) and led the taking of Paris, for which he was made a Field Marshal. His health later declined and he died on a visit to Germany in 1818.


title: Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly

text: Michael Andreas was born as a son of Gotthard (1734–1781) and his wife Margarethe Elisabeth von (1733-1771). The Barclay de Tolly family were German-speaking descendants of the Scottish Clan Barclay. Their ancestor Peter Barclay emigrated from Towie, Aberdeenshire (Towy or Tolly; ) and settled in Livonia in the 17th century. He was born in ,


title: Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly

text: Duchy of Courland and Semigallia (present-day Pamūšis, Šiauliai County, Lithuania) and raised in Beckhof, Livonia, Russian Empire (now Jõgeveste, Estonia), which was his mother's family estate. The commonly accepted birth date of 27 December 1761 is actually the day of his baptism in the Lutheran church of the town of Zaumel (now


title: Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly

text: His grandfather, Wilhelm Barclay de Tolly, served as the mayor of Riga, while his father served in the Russian army before being admitted into the ranks of the Russian nobility by the Tsar. From 1765, the young Barclay de Tolly grew up in St. Petersburg and was raised by his aunt. This was a common occurrence among the German Protestants, and it gave the young man an exposure to higher society unavailable in the Baltic provinces.


title: Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly

text: The future field marshal started his active service in the Imperial Russian Army in 1776, and he would spend the rest of his life with the military. He had two brothers who also served in the Russian army: Axel Heinrich Barclay de Tolly, a Major General of Engineers, and Erich Johann Barclay de Tolly, a Major of Artillery.


title: Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly

text: Barclay was enlisted in the Pskov Carabineer Regiment on 13 May 1776, and he achieved the rank of a cornet by May 1778. In the same year, he joined the Imperial jaeger regiments, and with his unit was assigned to the army of Prince Potemkin. In 1788–1789, during the Russo-Turkish War (1787–92), Barclay served under the command of Victor Amadeus of Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-Hoym. During this campaign, he distinguished himself in the taking of Ochakov and Akkerman. For his role in the capture of Ochakov, he was personally decorated by Prince Potemkin.


title: Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly

text: In 1789, during the Russo-Swedish War (1788–90), he was transferred to the Finnish front. Four years later, he fought in the Polish Campaign of 1794, and was decorated for his role in the capture of Vilnius. He was a lieutenant colonel by 1794 after serving as aide-de-camp to various senior officers in several campaigns. In that year, he was appointed commander of the Estland Jaeger Corps, and three years later commander of the 4th Jaeger Regiment, becoming its chief in 1799, soon after being promoted to general major for his service in Poland.


title: Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly

text: In the war of 1806 against Napoleon, Barclay took a distinguished part in the Battle of Pultusk (December 1806) and was wounded at the Battle of Eylau (7 February 1807), where his conduct won him promotion to the rank of lieutenant general. After a period of convalescence, Barclay returned to the army and in 1808 commanded operations against the Swedes during the Finnish War. In 1809, he successfully marched over the frozen Gulf of Bothnia, which allowed him to surprise the enemy and seize Umeå in Sweden. For this exploit, immortalized by the Russian poet Baratynsky, he was made full general and Governor-General of Finland. A year later, he became Minister of War, retaining the post until 1813.


title: Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly

text: During Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812, Barclay assumed the supreme command of the 1st Army of the West, the largest of the Russian armies facing Napoleon. He used a strategy of retreat leaving behind scorched earth from the beginning of the campaign in order to draw the French supply lines deep into Russian territory and retreated to the village of Tsaryovo-Zaimishche between Moscow and Smolensk, although some consider the strategy merely a confluence of diverse circumstances and not attributable to the will of one man.


title: Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly

text: Nevertheless, the Russians keenly opposed the appointment of a non-Russian as commander-in-chief. His rivals spread rumors of his being Napoleon's agent, and the populace condemned him as a coward. Barclay was forced by his subordinates and the Tsar to engage Napoleon at Smolensk (17–18 August 1812). Napoleon forced Barclay to retreat when he threatened Barclay's only escape route. After the loss of the "Holy City" of Smolensk, the outcry of officers and civilians grew to a point where the Tsar could no longer ignore it. He appointed Kutuzov, previously a general at the battle of Austerlitz, as the over-all commander of the Russian forces. Barclay remained General of the 1st Army of the West.


title: Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly

text: Barclay commanded the right flank at the Battle of Borodino (7 September 1812) with great valour and presence of mind, and during the celebrated council at Fili advised Kutuzov to surrender unfortified Moscow to the enemy. His illness made itself known at that time and he was forced to leave the army soon afterwards.


title: Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly

text: After Napoleon was driven from Russia, the eventual success of Barclay's tactics made him a romantic hero, misunderstood by his contemporaries and rejected by the court. His popularity soared, and his honour was restored by the tsar.


title: Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly

text: Barclay was re-employed in the field and took part in the German Campaign of 1813 and the French Campaign of 1814, which ended the War of the Sixth Coalition (1812–1814).


title: Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly

text: After Kutuzov's death, he once again became commander-in-chief of the Russian forces at the Battle of Bautzen (21 May 1813), and in this capacity he served at Dresden (26–27 August 1813), Kulm (29–30 August 1813) and Leipzig (16–19 October 1813).


title: Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly

text: In the latter battle, he commanded a central part of the Allied forces so effectively that the tsar bestowed upon him the title of count.


title: Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly

text: Barclay took part in the invasion of France in 1814 and commanded the taking of Paris, receiving the baton of a Field Marshal in reward. In 1815 he again served as commander-in-chief of the Russian army, which after the Hundred Days occupied France, and he was made a prince at the close of the war. As his health grew worse, he left the military and settled down in his Jõgeveste manor (German exonym: "Beckhof", Polish: "Tepelshof") (in what is now southern Estonia).


title: Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly

text: Barclay de Tolly died at Insterburg (Chernyakhovsk), East Prussia, on 26 May 1818 (14 May, Old Style) on his way from his Livonian manor to Germany, where he wanted to renew his health. His and his wife Helene Auguste Eleonore von Smitten's remains were embalmed and put into the mausoleum built to a design by Apollon Shchedrin and Vasily Demut-Malinovsky in 1832 in Jõgeveste.


title: Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly

text: A grand statue of him was erected in front of Kazan Cathedral, St Petersburg at the behest of Emperor Nicholas I. He is also commemorated by a modern statue in Riga, a full-size bronze-mounted statue by Vladimir Surovtsev in Chernyakhovsk, a bust monument in Tartu, and the so-called "Barclay's leaning house" in Tartu (which was acquired by his widow after his death).


title: Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly

text: In 1791, Michael married his cousin, Auguste Helena Eleonora von Smitten (1770-1828), daughter of Hinrich Johann von Smitten (1731-1782) and Renata Helena von Stackelberg (1749-1786). After the extinction of the Barclay de Tolly princely line with his son Magnus on 29 October 1871 (17 October, Old Style), Alexander II allowed the field marshal's sister's grandson through female lineage, Alexander von Weymarn, to assume the title of on 12 June 1872 (31 May, Old Style).


title: Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly

text: In 2013, JSC Aeroflot-Russian Airlines received the Boeing 777-300ER aircraft manufactured by the Boeing Corporation, named in honor of the outstanding Russian military leader - M. Barclay de Tolly.


title: Ring system

text: A ring system is a disc or ring, orbiting an astronomical object, that is composed of solid material such as dust and moonlets, and is a common component of satellite systems around giant planets. A ring system around a planet is also known as a planetary ring system.


title: Ring system

text: The most prominent and most famous planetary rings in the Solar System are those around Saturn, but the other three giant planets (Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune) also have ring systems. Recent evidence suggests that ring systems may also be found around other types of astronomical objects, including minor planets, moons, and brown dwarfs, and as well, the interplanetary spaces between planets such as Venus and Mercury.


title: Ring system

text: There are three ways that thicker planetary rings have been proposed to have formed: from material of the protoplanetary disk that was within the Roche limit of the planet and thus could not coalesce to form moons, from the debris of a moon that was disrupted by a large impact, or from the debris of a moon that was disrupted by tidal stresses when it passed within the planet's Roche limit. Most rings were thought to be unstable and to dissipate over the course of tens or hundreds of millions of years, but it now appears that Saturn's rings might be quite old, dating to the early days of the Solar System.


title: Ring system

text: Fainter planetary rings can form as a result of meteoroid impacts with moons orbiting around the planet or, in case of Saturn's E-ring, the ejecta of cryovolcanic material.