title: Women's history

text: In the newly founded German State (1871), women of all social classes were politically and socially disenfranchised. The code of social respectability confined upper class and bourgeois women to their homes. They were considered socially and economically inferior to their husbands. The unmarried women were ridiculed, and the ones who wanted to avoid social descent could work as unpaid housekeepers living with relatives; the ablest could work as governesses or they could become nuns.


title: Women's history

text: A significant number of middle-class families became impoverished between 1871 and 1890 as the pace of industrial growth was uncertain, and women had to earn money in secret by sewing or embroidery to contribute to the family income.


title: Women's history

text: In 1865, the Allgemeiner Deutscher Frauenverein (ADF) was founded as an umbrella organization for women's associations, demanding rights to education, employment, and political participation. Three decades later, the Bund Deutscher Frauenverbände (BDF) replaced ADF and excluded from membership the proletarian movement that was part of the earlier group. The two movements had differing views concerning women's place in society, and accordingly, they also had different agendas. The bourgeois movement made important contributions to the access of women to education and employment (mainly office-based and teaching). The proletarian movement, on the other hand, developed as a branch of the Social Democratic Party. As factory jobs became available for women, they campaigned for equal pay and equal treatment. In 1908 German women won the right to join political parties, and in 1918 they were finally granted the right to vote. The emancipation of women in Germany was to be challenged in following years.


title: Women's history

text: Historians have paid special attention to the efforts by Nazi Germany to reverse the political and social gains that women made before 1933, especially in the relatively liberal Weimar Republic. The role of women in Nazi Germany changed according to circumstances. Theoretically, the Nazis believed that women must be subservient to men, avoid careers, devote themselves to childbearing and child-rearing, and be helpmates to the traditional dominant fathers in the traditional family. But, before 1933, women played important roles in the Nazi organization and were allowed some autonomy to mobilize other women. After Hitler came to power in 1933, the activist women were replaced by bureaucratic women, who emphasized feminine virtues, marriage, and childbirth.


title: Women's history

text: As Germany prepared for war, large numbers of women were incorporated into the public sector and, with the need for full mobilization of factories by 1943, all women were required to register with the employment office. Hundreds of thousands of women served in the military as nurses and support personnel, and another hundred thousand served in the Luftwaffe, especially helping to operate the anti-aircraft systems. Women's wages remained unequal and women were denied positions of leadership or control.


title: Women's history

text: More than two million women were murdered in the Holocaust. The Nazi ideology viewed women generally as agents of fertility. Accordingly, it identified the Jewish woman as an element to be exterminated to prevent the rise of future generations. For these reasons, the Nazis treated women as prime targets for annihilation in the Holocaust.


title: Women's history

text: Anna Kowalczyk () has written and Marta Frej () has illustrated a book detailing history of Polish women entitled "Missing Half of History: A Brief History of Women in Poland" ("Brakująca połowa dziejów. Krótka historia kobiet na ziemiach polskich"), published in 2018 by Wydawnictwo W.A.B. ().


title: Women's history

text: Interest in the study of women's history in Eastern Europe has been delayed. Representative is Hungary, where the historiography has been explored by Petö and Szapor (2007). Academia resisted incorporating this specialized field of history, primarily because of the political atmosphere and a lack of institutional support. Before 1945, historiography dealt chiefly with nationalist themes that supported the anti-democratic political agenda of the state. After 1945, academia reflected a Soviet model. Instead of providing an atmosphere in which women could be the subjects of history, this era ignored the role of the women's rights movement in the early 20th century. The collapse of Communism in 1989 was followed by a decade of promising developments in which biographies of prominent Hungarian women were published, and important moments of women's political and cultural history were the subjects of research. However, the quality of this scholarship was uneven and failed to take advantage of the methodological advances in research in the West. In addition, institutional resistance continued, as evidenced by the lack of undergraduate or graduate programs dedicated to women's and gender history at Hungarian universities.


title: Women's history

text: Women's history in Russia started to become important in the Czarist era, and concern was shown in the consciousness and writing of Alexander Pushkin. During the Soviet Era, feminism was developed along with ideals of equality, but in practice and in domestic arrangements, men often dominate.


title: Women's history

text: By the 1990s new periodicals, especially "Casus" and "Odysseus: Dialogue with Time, Adam and Eve" stimulated women's history and, more recently, gender history. Using the concept of gender has shifted the focus from women to socially and culturally constructed notions of sexual difference. It has led to deeper debates on historiography and holds a promise of stimulating the development of a new "general" history able to integrate personal, local, social, and cultural history.


title: Women's history

text: General overviews of women in Asian history are scarce, since most specialists focus on China, Japan, India, Korea or another traditionally defined region.


title: Women's history

text: Published work generally deals with women as visible participants in the revolution, employment as vehicles for women's liberation, Confucianism and the cultural concept of family as sources of women's oppression. While rural marriage rituals, such as bride price and dowry, have remained the same in form, their function has changed. This reflects the decline of the extended family and the growth in women's agency in the marriage transaction. In recent scholarship in China, the concept of gender has yielded a bounty of new knowledge in English- and Chinese-language writings.


title: Women's history

text: "Zhongguo fu nü sheng Huo shi" () is a historical book written by Chen Dongyuan in 1928 and published by The Commercial Press in 1937. The book, the first to give a systematic introduction to women's history in China, has strongly influenced further research in this field.


title: Women's history

text: The book sheds a light on Chinese women's life ranging from ancient times (prior to Zhou Dynasty) to the Republic of China. In the book, sections are separated based on dynasties in China. Sections are divided into segments to introduce different themes, such as marriage, feudal ethical codes, education for women, virtues, positions, the concept of chastity, foot-binding and women's rights movement in modern China. Inspired by the anti-traditional thoughts in New Culture Movement, the author devoted much effort to disclosing and denouncing the unfairness and suppression in culture, institutions, and life that victimize women in China. According to the book, women's conditions are slightly improved until modern China. In the Preface of the book, the author writes: since women in China are always subject to abuse, the history of women is, naturally the history of abuse of women in China. The author revealed the motivation: the book intends to explain how the principle of women being inferior to men evolves; how the abuse to women is intensified over time; and how the misery on women's back experience the history change. The author wants to promote women's liberation by revealing the political and social suppression of women.


title: Women's history

text: Mann (2009) explores how Chinese biographers have depicted women over two millennia (221 BCE to 1911), especially during the Han dynasty. Zhang Xuecheng, Sima Qian, and Zhang Huiyan and other writers often study women of the governing class, and their representation in domestic scenes of death in the narratives and in the role of martyrs.


title: Women's history

text: The historiography of women in the history of Tibet confronts the suppression of women's histories in the social narratives of an exiled community. McGranahan (2010) examines the role of women in the 20th century, especially during the Chinese invasion and occupation of Tibet. She studies women in the Tibetan resistance army, the subordination of women in a Buddhist society, and the persistent concept of menstrual blood as a contaminating agent.


title: Women's history

text: Japanese women's history was marginal to historical scholarship until the late 20th century. The subject hardly existed before 1945, and, even after that date, many academic historians were reluctant to accept women's history as a part of Japanese history. The social and political climate of the 1980s in particular, favorable in many ways to women, gave opportunities for Japanese women's historiography and also brought the subject fuller academic recognition. Exciting and innovative research on Japanese women's history began in the 1980s. Much of this has been conducted not only by academic women's historians, but also by freelance writers, journalists, and amateur historians; that is, by people who have been less restricted by traditional historical methods and expectations. The study of Japanese women's history has become accepted as part of the traditional topics.


title: Women's history

text: With a handful of exceptions, there was a little serious history of women in Australia or New Zealand before the 1970s.


title: Women's history

text: A pioneering study was Patricia Grimshaw, "Women's Suffrage in New Zealand" (1972), explaining how that remote colony became the first country in the world to give women the vote. Women's history as an academic discipline emerged in the mid-1970s, typified by Miriam Dixson, "The Real Matilda: Woman and Identity in Australia, 1788 to the Present" (1976). The first studies were compensatory, filling in the vacuum where women had been left out. In common with developments in the United States and Britain, there was a movement toward gender studies, with a field dominated by feminists.


title: Women's history

text: Other important topics include demography and family history. Of recent importance are studies of the role of women on the homefront, and in military service, during world wars. See Australian women in World War I and Australian women in World War II.


title: Women's history

text: Middle Eastern women's history as a field is still developing, but expanding swiftly. Scholarship first began to appear in the 1930s and 1940s, and then further developed in the 1980s. The earliest historical research in the west came from Gertrude Stern ("Marriage in Early Islam"), Nabia Abbott ("Aishah, the Beloved of Muhammed" and "Two Queens of Bagdad"), and Ilse Lichtenstadter (W"omen in the Aiyam al-'Arab: A Study of Female Life during Warfare in Preislamic Arabia"). Following a relatively dormant period, the western version of the discipline became revitalized by the feminist movement, which renewed interest in filling gendered gaps in historical narratives. Numerous studies were published during this period, a trend which has continued and even accelerated into the twenty-first century.


title: Women's history

text: Scholarship on the Middle East before the 1800s has suffered from the limited number direct records of women's lives during ancient and medieval periods. Since the vast majority of historical information has come from male authors and is primarily focused on men, accounts and data which are authored by and center on women are rare. Much of what has been synthesized has come from art, court records, religious doctrine, and other mentions. Researchers have made particular use of court records from the Ottoman Empire. Despite relative sparseness, valuable sources have been identified, and historians have been able to publish recounts of women's social, economic, political, and cultural involvement. Marten Sol's 1999 "Women in the Ancient Near East" offers a comprehensive overview of women's lives in ancient Babylonia and Mesopotamia. Topics include, but are not limited to, dress, marriage, slavery, sexual autonomy, employment, and religious involvement. Amira El-Azhary Sonbol's "Beyond the Exotic: Women's Histories in Islamic Societies" brings together twenty-four historians' essays on sources that can be used to fill gaps in conventional historical narratives. Among the essays, analyses of women's legal statuses, patronage of arts, and religious involvement according to region figure prominently.


title: Women's history

text: The information available on women dating after the 1800s is much more robust, and this has led to better-developed histories of multiple Middle Eastern peoples. Similarly to scholarship of the ancient and medieval Middle East, many researchers have drawn from the later Ottoman Empire, this time to discuss the lives and roles of women during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Judith E. Tucker, in "Women in the Middle East and North Africa: Restoring Women to History", emphasizes the ways in which changes in the geopolitical and economic landscapes of the 19th century influenced women's lives and roles in Middle Eastern society. At the same time, she also argues that there is not a clear divide between the way societies were structured before and after modernization began to creep over the world. It is also important, according to Tucker, that scholars keep in mind the differing rates of influence other countries and global dynamics exerted according to region and time period in the Middle East, over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries.


title: Women's history

text: Across all time periods, the Middle East has been a large region of multiple countries and numerous groups, and scholars have generated research on a wide variety of specific peoples and places, both pre-modern and modern. For example, "Women in Middle Eastern History: Shifting Boundaries of Sex and Gender" covers research that ranges from women's agency in Mamluk Egypt and in the 19th century Ottoman Empire to Islamic societies' adaptations to intersex people to demonstrate the flexibility of Middle Eastern societies. In addition, "Gender, Religion, and Change in the Middle East" compiles research on various phenomena in the mid-20th century, including: women's integration into student bodies at the American University of Beirut; women's organization of social welfare services in Egypt; the relationship between the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Israeli women's roles and rights in the military and society; and Muslim women's organization of "sofre", or women-only "ceremonial votive meals," dedicated to Shiite saints. In "Palestinian Women’s Activism: Nationalism, Secularism, Islamism", Islah Jad relays the developments and conflicts associated with women's movements in Palestine from the 1930s to early 2000's, placing particular emphasis on the relationship between Islamic and secularist groups of women activists.


title: Women's history

text: Islam is often framed by historians as having a profound influence on many women's lives throughout Middle Eastern history. Many researchers have dedicated special attention to changes brought about after the rise of Islam, as well as specific ways in which women's lives were shaped by Islamic law and custom. However, historians are somewhat split in their interpretations on the role of Islam in mediating women's oppression since its development, with particular controversy arising in the west. Nikki R. Keddie explains that histories developed on Middle Eastern women are often written in response or reaction to historical geopolitical tension between Middle Eastern and western countries, the latter of which frequently stereotype Middle Eastern cultures as problematic based on Islam's supposed oppression of women. Scholarship on women, particularly the Muslim majority of most Middle Eastern countries, may either be hostile to or aim to defend Islam's influence on women's status. She identifies a spectrum approaches to Islam among scholars, ranging between potentially extreme forms of criticism and defense.


title: Women's history

text: For example, Ida Lichter's "Muslim Women Reformers" takes a critical approach to gender relations in Muslim majority countries. In her introduction Lichter writes that in comparison to "liberated women in the west," it seems that Muslim women are contending with "a medieval environment of cultural restrictions and misogynistic regulations scripted by religious and patriarchal authorities intent on impounding women's lives." Lichter maintains that the women's rights activists she covers in the book are striving justly against harsh oppression by Islamic extremist groups, and of that this is important because these groups pose a threat not just to women in Muslim countries, but women everywhere.


title: Women's history

text: At the same time, multiple scholars assert that a large part of women's statuses in Middle Eastern society were dictated by the socioeconomic and political landscape of the specific time and region, and not necessarily by religion. This idea is supported by Crocco et al.'s "At the Crossroads of the World: Women of the Middle East,” Okkenhaug and Flaskerud's "Gender, Religion, and Change in the Middle East," and Keddie and Baron's "Women in Middle Eastern History: Shifting Boundaries of Sex and Gender". Crocco et al. argue, from a pedagogical perspective, that Middle Eastern women's history needs to be regarded and taught not only as the history of Islam's impacts on women in the Middle East, but also the history of Christianity's and Judaism's impacts on their respective minority communities, and of the roles that class, political status, and economics have played in women's lives. They also assert that while religions, particularly Islam, have been viewed as sources of patriarchy, instances of women's subordination can be traced back to the development of settled agricultural societies and the advent of property, which motivated the careful control of women's reproduction to ensure inheritance stayed within families.


title: Women's history

text: A central concern in the development Middle Eastern studies is orientalism, or the tendency of western groups to view civilizations in African and Asia as backwards, exotic, and underdeveloped. Keddie and Anne Chamberlain describe this approach to the so-called "Orient" as being heavily entangled with western interpretations of Middle Eastern women's roles in their families and societies. Multiple authors, including Chamberlain, criticize approaches to Middle Eastern gender relations which rely on narratives of female oppression and victimization, as well as perhaps over-confidence in western feminist thought. Chamberlain offers an alternative interpretation of women's empowerment in Middle Eastern countries in her book "The Veil in the Looking Glass: A History of Women's Seclusion in the Middle East".


title: Women's history

text: Several authors link discussions of orientalism with the issue of translating western feminist discourses to women's historiography in the Middle East. Meriwether writes that while the discipline is gaining momentum in countries such as the U.S., Middle Eastern women's history is not as robust of a field in the countries it concerns itself with. She argues that western notions of feminism rely on cultural values which do not necessarily align with those other countries', and the impetus for much of the scholarship that has occurred in western countries does not translate perfectly into the academic landscape of the Middle East. She also argues that the complex relationships between gender, colonialism, and class and ethnic relations in Middle Eastern localities create very different climates for the development of women's histories compared with those of (at least mainstream) feminism in the west.


title: Women's history

text: In response to potentially narrow focus of western feminism, Liat Kozma proposes a shift toward transnational feminism. She also advocates for collaboration between scholars who specialize in Middle Eastern history and who specialize in gender, respectively. She argues that this can help to center Middle Eastern women's history specifically, thus helping to counter its marginalization both in gender- and Middle Eastern-focused scholarship.


title: Women's history

text: Scholars have turned their imagination to innovative sources for the history of African women, such as songs from Malawi, weaving techniques in Sokoto, and historical linguistics.


title: Women's history

text: Prior to the colonial era reigning across the continent of Africa, systems and societies were matriarichal. The woman carried and respresented herself as equal and even superior to the man. Leading the continent to prosper and flourish. By bringing an oppressive form of Christianity to Africa, European colonizers altered its trajectory by introducing and imposing patriarchal ideals and systems to replace the matriarchy that had aided in upbringing the African continent.


title: Women's history

text: At the First Floor Art Gallery in Zimbabwe, feminist artist Lauren Webber works on traditional fabrics and materials to expose and showcase the continent's long history of female dominance


title: Women's history

text: Apart from individual women, working largely on their own, the first organized systematic efforts to develop women's history came from the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) in the early 20th century. It coordinated efforts across the South to tell the story of the women on the Confederate home front, while the male historians spent their time with battles and generals. The women emphasized female activism, initiative, and leadership. They reported that when all the men left for war, the women took command, found ersatz and substitute foods, rediscovered their old traditional skills with the spinning wheel when factory cloth became unavailable, and ran all the farm or plantation operations. They faced danger without having menfolk in the traditional role of their protectors. Historian Jacquelyn Dowd Hall argue that the UDC was a powerful promoter of women's history:


title: Women's history

text: The work of women scholars was ignored by the male-dominated history profession until the 1960s, when the first breakthroughs came. Gerda Lerner in 1963 offered the first regular college course in women's history. The field of women's history exploded dramatically after 1970, along with the growth of the new social history and the acceptance of women into graduate programs in history departments. In 1972, Sarah Lawrence College began offering a Master of Arts Program in Women's History, founded by Gerda Lerner, which was the first American graduate degree in the field. Another important development was to integrate women into the history of race and slavery. A pioneering effort was Deborah Gray White's "'Ar'n't I a Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South" (1985), which helped to open up analysis of race, slavery, abolitionism, and feminism, as well as resistance, power, and activism, and themes of violence, sexualities, and the body. It is also White who has brought up the subject of women's presence in historical archives. Speaking on the absence black women specifically in historical narratives she says "black people have an oral tradition sustained by almost 300 years of illiteracy in America." There has been an increase in women within archival repositories which means people are finding it is a more important area of study. A major trend in recent years has been to emphasize a global perspective. Although the word "women" is the eighth most commonly used word in abstracts of all historical articles in North America, it is only the twenty-third most used word in abstracts of historical articles in other regions. Furthermore, "gender" appears about twice as frequently in American history abstracts compared to abstracts covering the rest of the world.


title: Women's history

text: In recent years, historians of women have reached out to web-oriented students. Examples of these outreach efforts are the websites "Women and Social Movements in the United States", maintained by Kathryn Kish Sklar and Thomas Dublin. and "Click! The Ongoing Feminist Revolution".


title: Women's history

text: In the Ancien Régime in France, few women held any formal power; some queens did, as did the heads of Catholic convents. In the Enlightenment, the writings of philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau provided a political program for reform of the ancien régime, founded on a reform of domestic mores. Rousseau's conception of the relations between private and public spheres is more unified than that found in modern sociology. Rousseau argued that the domestic role of women is a structural precondition for a "modern" society.


title: Women's history

text: Salic law prohibited women from rule; however, the laws for the case of a regency, when the king was too young to govern by himself, brought the queen into the centre of power. The queen could ensure the passage of power from one king to another—from her late husband to her young son—while simultaneously assuring the continuity of the dynasty.


title: Women's history

text: Educational aspirations were on the rise and were becoming increasingly institutionalized in order to supply the church and state with the functionaries to serve as their future administrators. Girls were schooled too, but not to assume political responsibility. Girls were ineligible for leadership positions and were generally considered to have an inferior intellect to their brothers. France had many small local schools where working-class children - both boys and girls - learned to read, the better "to know, love, and serve God." The sons and daughters of the noble and bourgeois elites were given gender-specific educations: boys were sent to upper school, perhaps a university, while their sisters - if they were lucky enough to leave the house - would be sent to board at a convent with a vague curriculum. The Enlightenment challenged this model, but no real alternative was presented for female education. Only through education at home were knowledgeable women formed, usually to the sole end of dazzling their salons.


title: Women's history

text: Women's rights refers to the social and human rights of women. In the United States, the abolition movements sparked an increased wave of attention to the status of women, but the history of feminism reaches to before the 18th century. (See protofeminism.) The advent of the reformist age during the 19th century meant that those invisible minorities or marginalized majorities were to find a catalyst and a microcosm in such new tendencies of reform. The earliest works on the so-called "woman question" criticized the restrictive role of women, without necessarily claiming that women were disadvantaged or that men were to blame.


title: Women's history

text: Parliamentary representation began in the early 20th century. In 1900 no woman had ever been elected to the national legislature. Finland broke through in 1907. By 1945 representation averaged three percent; by 2015, it reached 20 percent.


title: Women's history

text: In Britain, the Feminism movement began in the 19th century and continues in the present day. Simone de Beauvoir wrote a detailed analysis of women's oppression in her 1949 treatise "The Second Sex." It became a foundational tract of contemporary feminism. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, feminist movements, such as the one in the United States substantially changed the condition of women in the Western world. One trigger for the revolution was the development of the birth control pill in 1960, which gave women access to easy and reliable contraception in order to conduct family planning.


title: Women's history

text: Women's historians have debated the impact of capitalism on the status of women. Taking a pessimistic side, Alice Clark argued that when capitalism arrived in 17th century England, it made a negative impact on the status of women as they lost much of their economic importance. Clark argues that in the 16th century England, women were engaged in many aspects of industry and agriculture. The home was a central unit of production and women played a vital role in running farms, and in some trades and landed estates. Their useful economic roles gave them a sort of equality with their husbands. However, Clark argues, as capitalism expanded in the 17th century, there was more and more division of labor with the husband taking paid labor jobs outside the home, and the wife reduced to unpaid household work. Middle-class and women were confined to an idle domestic existence, supervising servants; lower-class women were forced to take poorly paid jobs. Capitalism had a negative effect on many women. In a more positive interpretation, Ivy Pinchbeck argues that capitalism created the conditions for women's emancipation. Tilly and Scott have to emphasize the continuity and the status of women, finding three stages in European history. In the preindustrial era, production was mostly for home use and women produce much of the needs of the households. The second stage was the "family wage economy" of early industrialization, the entire family depended on the collective wages of its members, including husband, wife and older children. The third or modern stage is the "family consumer economy," in which the family is the site of consumption, and women are employed in large numbers in retail and clerical jobs to support rising standards of consumption.


title: Women's history

text: The 1870 US Census was the first to count "Females engaged in each and every occupation" and provides a snapshot of women's history. It reveals that, contrary to popular myth, not all American women of the Victorian period were "safe" in their middle-class homes or working in sweatshops. Women composed 15% of the total workforce (1.8 million out of 12.5). They made up one-third of factory "operatives," and were concentrated in teaching, as the nation emphasized expanding education; dressmaking, millinery, and tailoring. Two-thirds of teachers were women. They also worked in iron and steel works (495), mines (46), sawmills (35), oil wells and refineries (40), gas works (4), and charcoal kilns (5), and held such surprising jobs as ship rigger (16), teamster (196), turpentine laborer (185), brass founder/worker (102), shingle and lathe maker (84), stock-herder (45), gun and locksmith (33), hunter and trapper (2). There were five lawyers, 24 dentists, and 2,000 doctors.


title: Women's history

text: Marriage ages of women can be used as an indicator of the position of women in society. Women's age at marriage could influence economic development, partly because women marrying at higher ages had more opportunities to acquire human capital.


title: Women's history

text: On average, across the world, marriage ages of women have been rising. However, countries such as Mexico, China, Egypt, and Russia have shown a smaller increase in this measure of female empowerment than, for example, Japan.


title: Women's history

text: In the history of sex, the social construction of sexual behavior—its taboos, regulation and social and political effects—has had a profound effect on women in the world since prehistoric times. Absent assured ways of controlling reproduction, women have practiced abortion since ancient times; many societies have also practice infanticide to ensure the survival of older children. Historically, it is unclear how often the ethics of abortion (induced abortion) was discussed in societies. In the latter half of the 20th century, some nations began to legalize abortion. This controversial subject has sparked heated debate and in some cases, violence, as different parts of society have different social and religious ideas about its meaning.


title: Women's history

text: Women have been exposed to various tortuous sexual conditions and have been discriminated against in various fashions in history. In addition to women being sexual victims of troops in warfare, an institutionalized example was the Japanese military enslaving native women and girls as comfort women in military brothels in Japanese-occupied countries during World War II.


title: Women's history

text: Particularly, Black Women have been the most affected by hyper-sexualization, body policing, and sexual assault throughout time. Specifically during slavery, Black women were used both as human tools, as well as sexual devices for their white slave-masters. Such conditions continue to permeate in American society beyond slavery and the Jim Crow era. Black women have been conditioned to be silent on their experiences with sexual assault as a means of survival in a society that devalues their whole experience as a Black woman. This stems from the roots of slavery, where Black women were both dehumanized by society, while also being labeled as sexual, and deserving of sexual abuse.


title: Women's history

text: The social aspects of clothing have revolved around traditions regarding certain items of clothing intrinsically suited different gender roles. In different periods, both women's and men's fashions have highlighted one area or another of the body for attention. In particular, the wearing of skirts and trousers has given rise to common phrases expressing implied restrictions in use and disapproval of offending behavior. For example, ancient Greeks often considered the wearing of trousers by Persian men as a sign of an effeminate attitude. Women's clothing in Victorian fashion was used as a means of control and admiration. Reactions to the elaborate confections of French fashion led to various calls for reform on the grounds of both beauties (Artistic and Aesthetic dress) and health (dress reform; especially for undergarments and lingerie). Although trousers for women did not become fashionable until the later 20th century, women began wearing men's trousers (suitably altered) for outdoor work a hundred years earlier. In the 1960s, André Courrèges introduced long trousers for women as a fashion item, leading to the era of the pantsuit and designer jeans, and the gradual eroding of the prohibitions against girls and women wearing trousers in schools, the workplace, and fine restaurants. Corsets have long been used for fashion, and body modification, such as waistline reduction. There were, and are, many different styles and types of corsets, varying depending on the intended use, corset maker's style, and the fashions of the era.


title: Women's history

text: The social status of women in the Victoria Era is often seen as an illustration of the striking discrepancy between the nation's power and richness and what many consider its appalling social conditions. Victorian morality was full of contradictions. A plethora of social movements concerned with improving public morals co-existed with a class system that permitted and imposed harsh living conditions for many, such as women. In this period, an outward appearance of dignity and restraint was valued, but the usual "vices" continued, such as prostitution. In the Victorian era, the bathing machine was developed and flourished. It was a device to allow people to wade in the ocean at beaches without violating Victorian notions of modesty about having "limbs" revealed. The bathing machine was part of sea-bathing etiquette that was more rigorously enforced upon women than men.


title: Women's history

text: The Roaring Twenties is a term for society and culture in the 1920s in the Western world. It was a period of sustained economic prosperity with a distinctive cultural edge in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe, particularly in major cities.


title: Women's history

text: Women's suffrage came about in many major countries in the 1920s, including United States, Canada, Great Britain. many countries expanded women's voting rights in representative and direct democracies across the world such as the US, Canada, Great Britain and most major European countries in 1917–21, as well as India. This influenced many governments and elections by increasing the number of voters available. Politicians responded by spending more attention on issues of concern to women, especially pacifism, public health, education, and the status of children. On the whole, women voted much like their menfolk, except they were more pacifistic.


title: Women's history

text: The 1920s marked a revolution in fashion. The new woman danced, drank, smoked and voted. She cut her hair short, wore make-up and partied. Sometimes she smoked a cigarette. She was known for being giddy and taking risks; she was a flapper. More women took jobs making them more independent and free. With their desire for freedom and independence came as well change in fashion, welcoming a more comfortable style, where the waistline was just above the hips and loosen, and staying away from the Victorian style with a corset and tight waistline.


title: Women's history

text: With widespread unemployment among men, poverty, and the need to help family members who are in even worse condition, The pressures were heavy on women during the Great Depression across the modern world. A primary role was as a housewife. Without a steady flow of family income, their work became much harder in dealing with food and clothing and medical care. The birthrates fell everywhere, as children were postponed until families could financially support them. The average birthrate for 14 major countries fell 12% from 19.3 births per thousand population in 1930 to 17.0 in 1935. In Canada, half of Roman Catholic women defied Church teachings and used contraception to postpone births.


title: Women's history

text: Among the few women in the labor force, layoffs were less common in the white-collar jobs and they were typically found in light manufacturing work. However, there was a widespread demand to limit families to one paid job, so that wives might lose employment if their husband was employed. Across Britain, there was a tendency for married women to join the labor force, competing for part-time jobs especially.


title: Women's history

text: In rural and small-town areas, women expanded their operation of vegetable gardens to include as much food production as possible. In the United States, agricultural organizations sponsored programs to teach housewives how to optimize their gardens and to raise poultry for meat and eggs. In American cities, African American women quiltmakers enlarged their activities, promote collaboration, and trained neophytes. Quilts were created for practical use from various inexpensive materials and increased social interaction for women and promoted camaraderie and personal fulfillment.


title: Women's history

text: Oral history provides evidence for how housewives in a modern industrial city handled shortages of money and resources. Often they updated strategies their mothers used when they were growing up in poor families. Cheap foods were used, such as soups, beans and noodles. They purchased the cheapest cuts of meat—sometimes even horse meat—and recycled the Sunday roast into sandwiches and soups. They sewed and patched clothing, traded with their neighbors for outgrown items, and made do with colder homes. New furniture and appliances were postponed until better days. Many women also worked outside the home, or took boarders, did laundry for trade or cash, and did sewing for neighbors in exchange for something they could offer. Extended families used mutual aid—extra food, spare rooms, repair-work, cash loans—to help cousins and in-laws.


title: Women's history

text: In Japan, official government policy was deflationary and the opposite of Keynesian spending. Consequently, the government launched a nationwide campaign to induce households to reduce their consumption, focusing attention on spending by housewives.


title: Women's history

text: In Germany, the government tried to reshape private household consumption under the Four-Year Plan of 1936 to achieve German economic self-sufficiency. The Nazi women's organizations, other propaganda agencies and the authorities all attempted to shape such consumption as economic self-sufficiency was needed to prepare for and to sustain the coming war. Using traditional values of thrift and healthy living, the organizations, propaganda agencies and authorities employed slogans that called up traditional values of thrift and healthy living. However, these efforts were only partly successful in changing the behavior of housewives.


title: Women's history

text: The Hindu, Jewish, Sikh, Islamic and Christian views about women have varied throughout the last two millennia, evolving along with or counter to the societies in which people have lived. For much of history, the role of women in the life of the church, both local and universal, has been downplayed, overlooked, or simply denied.


title: Women's history

text: The First World War has received the most coverage, with the newest trend being coverage of a wide range of gender issues.


title: Women's history

text: During the twentieth century of total warfare the female half of the population played increasingly large roles as housewives, consumers, mothers, munitions workers, replacements for men in service, nurses, lovers, sex objects and emotional supporters. One result in many countries was women getting the right to vote, including the United States, Canada, Germany, and Russia, among others.


title: Tori Welles

text: Welles was born and raised in Southern California. She is of Spanish, French, Norwegian, and English descent.


title: Tori Welles

text: Welles performed in adult films between 1988 and 1999 and also directed several movies in the early 1990s. In 1997 Paul Norman released a private home video of himself and Welles, filmed after their divorce, called "The Private Diary of Tori Welles". Welles was reportedly angry but said she had no legal basis to stop its distribution.


title: Tori Welles

text: Welles is a former contract performer with Vivid Entertainment. She has also worked for production companies such as Caballero Home Video, Evil Angel, VCA Pictures, and the Zane Entertainment Group.


title: Tori Welles

text: Welles has appeared in a variety of minor mainstream acting roles such as the 1995 Clint Howard horror-comedy "Ice Cream Man" (credited as Brittania Paris) and a 2006 episode of the comedy series "Scrubs". She was also featured in 1993 on the Swedish late night talk show "Adam". Welles also has director, producer, costume & wardrobe, and writing credits.


title: Tori Welles

text: As of 2004 she worked as a regional sales manager for Peach DVD, under the name "Brittania Paris". In May 2011, Welles was hired as a sales associate by Metro Entertainment.


title: Tori Welles

text: In March 2012, Welles and Tom Byron launched Hall of Fame Management, a talent agency that represents pornographic actors, directors, editors, photographers, and other adult industry workers. She also has her own production company called Tori Welles Entertainment.


title: Polo neck

text: A polo neck, roll-neck (United Kingdom, South Africa), turtleneck (United States, Canada), or skivvy (Australia, New Zealand, United States) is a garment—usually a sweater—with a close-fitting collar that folds over and covers the neck. It can also refer to the type of neckline, the style of collar itself, or be used as an adjective ("polo necked").


title: Polo neck

text: A simpler variant of the standard polo neck is the mock polo neck (or mock turtleneck), that resembles the polo neck with the soft fold at its top and the way it stands up around the neck, but both ends of the tube forming the collar are sewn to the neckline. This is mainly used to achieve the appearance of a polo neck where the fabric would fray, roll, or otherwise behave badly unless sewn. The mock polo neck clings to the neck smoothly, is easy to manufacture, and works well with a zip closure.


title: Polo neck

text: Turtle neck–like garments have been worn for hundreds of years, dating at least to the 15th century. They were originally designed to protect the necks of knights wearing chainmail. Royalty adopted high-neck fashion, with the height and volume of the neck ruffle indicating status.


title: Polo neck

text: From the late 19th century on polo necks were commonly worn by fishermen, manual workers, athletes, sailors and naval officers. In the early part of the 20th century the black polo neck was typical attire of Oswald Mosley, leader of British Union of Fascists ("Blackshirts"), though since the middle of that century black polo necks have been closely associated with leftist radical academics, philosophers, artists and intellectuals. The polo neck jumper became an iconic symbol of the French philosopher Michel Foucault. Polo necks also became a big fashion for wealthy young men after they were worn by European film stars Marcello Mastroianni and Yves Montand.


title: Polo neck

text: Greta Garbo often wore polo necks and trousers privately, as later Audrey Hepburn would do in official photographs.


title: Polo neck

text: Vladimir Putin of Russia, Andreas Papandreou of Greece, and Emmanuel Macron of France are examples of European leaders who are fond of wearing polo necks.


title: Polo neck

text: At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries the high neckline blouse became a fashionable option for young women as part of the emergence of the Gibson Girl.


title: Polo neck

text: Their adoption by Noël Coward in the 1920s turned polo necks into a brief middle-class fashion trend, and feminists made them into a unisex item. Absorbed into mainstream American fashion by the mid 20th century, the polo neck came to be viewed as an anti-tie, a smart form of dress for those who rejected formal wear. Senator Ted Kennedy, pianist/conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy, conductor Seiji Ozawa, philosopher Michel Foucault, shipping tycoon Stavros Niarchos, singer Barry Manilow, scientist Carl Sagan, Oracle Corporation co-founder Larry Ellison, Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, and Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs were among those often seen in polo necks.


title: Polo neck

text: Over time it became a fad among teenage girls, especially in a lightweight form that emphasised their figures. It was not long before Hollywood was also exploiting this image as part of the sweater girl look.


title: Polo neck

text: By the late 1950s the "tight turtleneck" had been adopted as part of the preppy style among students, a style emphasising neatness, tidiness and grooming. This would become an important aspect of the polo neck's image in the United States. The look would filter through to Britain and the rest of Europe in a watered-down version.


title: Polo neck

text: Very elegant polo necks of silk or nylon knit, especially made with French cuffs for formal dress affairs, have also seen success in American fashion.


title: Polo neck

text: Polo necks have been used as substitutes for a shirt-and-tie since the 1920s. This was sometimes frowned upon in upscale restaurants and at weddings.


title: Harz

text: The Harz () is a highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name "Harz" derives from the Middle High German word "Hardt" or "Hart" (hill forest). The name "Hercynia" derives from a Celtic name and could refer to other mountain forests, but has also been applied to the geology of the Harz. The Brocken is the highest summit in the Harz with an elevation of above sea level. The Wurmberg () is the highest peak located entirely within the state of Lower Saxony.


title: Harz

text: The Harz has a length of , stretching from the town of Seesen in the northwest to Eisleben in the east, and a width of . It occupies an area of , and is divided into the Upper Harz ("Oberharz") in the northwest, which is up to 800 m high, apart from the 1,100 m high Brocken massif, and the Lower Harz ("Unterharz") in the east which is up to around 400 m high and whose plateaus are capable of supporting arable farming.


title: Harz

text: The following districts ("Kreise") fall wholly or partly within the Harz: Goslar and Göttingen in the west, Harz and Mansfeld-Südharz in the north and east, and Nordhausen in the south. The districts of the Upper Harz are Goslar and Göttingen (both in Lower Saxony), whilst the Lower Harz is on the territory of Harz and Mansfeld-Südharz districts (both in Saxony-Anhalt). The Upper Harz is generally higher and features fir forests, whilst the Lower Harz gradually descends into the surrounding area and has deciduous forests interspersed with meadows.


title: Harz

text: The dividing line between Upper and Lower Harz follows approximately a line from Ilsenburg to Bad Lauterberg, which roughly separates the catchment areas for the Weser (Upper Harz) and Elbe (Lower Harz). Only on the southeastern perimeter of the Upper Harz, which is also called the High Harz ("Hochharz") (Goslar, Göttingen and Harz districts), does the mountain range exceed on the Brocken massif. Its highest peak is the Brocken (1,141 m), its subsidiary peaks are the Heinrichshöhe (1,044 m) to the southeast and the Königsberg (1,023 m) to the southwest. Other prominent hills in the Harz are the Acker-Bruchberg ridge (927 m), the Achtermannshöhe (925 m) and the Wurmberg (971 m) near Braunlage. In the far east, the mountains merge into the East Harz foothills (Harz district, Saxony-Anhalt), which are dominated by the Selke Valley. Part of the south Harz lies in the Thuringian district of Nordhausen.


title: Harz

text: The Harz National Park is located in the Harz; the protected area covers the Brocken and surrounding wilderness area.


title: Harz

text: Because of the heavy rainfall in the region the rivers of the Harz Mountains were dammed from an early date. Examples of such masonry dams are the two largest: the Oker Dam and the Rappbode Dam. The clear, cool water of the mountain streams was also dammed by early mountain folk to form the various mountain ponds of the Upper Harz waterways, such as the Oderteich.


title: Harz

text: The 17 dams in the Harz block a total of twelve rivers. Because the Harz is one of the regions of Germany that experiences the most rainfall, its water power was used from early times. Today the dams are primarily used to generate electricity, to provide drinking water, to prevent flooding and to supply water in times of scarcity. Modern dam-building began in the Harz with the construction of the Söse Valley Dam, which was built between 1928 and 1931. The dams of the Upper Harz lakes are some of the oldest dams in Germany that are still in operation.


title: Harz

text: The largest rivers in the Harz are the Innerste, the Oker and the Bode in the north; the Wipper in the east; and the Oder in the south. The Innerste merges into the Leine and its tributaries are the Nette and the Grane. The rivers Radau, Ecker and Ilse all discharge into the Oker. The Hassel, the Selke and the Holtemme (whose main tributary is the Zillierbach) flow into the Bode. The Wipper is fed by the Eine. The Rhume is joined by the Söse and the Oder; the latter being fed by the Sieber. The Zorge, the Wieda and the Uffe all flow into the Helme.


title: Harz

text: Climatically a hill range has lower temperatures and higher levels of precipitation than the surrounding land. The Harz is characterised by regular precipitation throughout the year. Exposed to westerly winds from the Atlantic, heavy with rain, the windward side of the mountains has up to 1,600 mm of rain annually (West Harz, Upper Harz, High Harz); in contrast, the leeward side only receives an average of 600 mm of precipitation per annum (East Harz, Lower Harz, Eastern Harz foothills).


title: Harz

text: The Harz is the most geologically diverse of the German "Mittelgebirge", although it is overwhelmingly dominated by base-poor rocks. The most common rocks lying on the surface are argillaceous shales, slaty ("geschieferte") greywackes and granite intrusions in the shape of two large igneous rock masses or plutons. The Gießen-Harz surface layer of the Rhenohercynian zone, which is widespread in the Harz, consists mainly of flysch. Well-known and economically important are the limestone deposits around Elbingerode and the Gabbro of Bad Harzburg. The landscapes of the Harz are characterised by steep mountain ridges, stone runs, relatively flat plateaus with many raised bogs and long, narrow V-shaped valleys, of which the Bode Gorge, the Oker and Selke valleys are the best known. A representative cross-section of all the Harz rocks is displayed on the Jordanshöhe near Sankt Andreasberg near the car park (see photo).


title: Harz

text: The formation and geological folding of the Harz hills began during a prominent phase of the Palaeozoic era, in the course of the Hercynian mountain building of the Carboniferous period, about 350 to 250 million years ago. At that time in the history of the Earth, numerous high mountains appeared in Western Europe, including the Fichtelgebirge and Rhenish Massif. They were, however, heavily eroded due to their height (up to 4 km) and were later covered over by Mesozoic rocks. From the Early Cretaceous and into Late Cretaceous times the Harz was uplifted in a single block by tectonic movements and, particularly during the Tertiary period, the younger overlying strata were eroded and the underlying base rock left standing as low mountains. The most important uplift movements were during the sub-Hercynian phase (83 mya), when the northern edge was steeply tilted. This formed a fault zone on the northern border of the Harz (the Northern Harz Boundary Fault or "Harznordrandverwerfung").


title: Harz

text: The Harz is a fault-block range, that rises abruptly from the surrounding lowlands in the west and northeast and gradually dips towards the south. It is dissected by numerous deep valleys. North of the hills lie the Cretaceous layers of the sub-Hercynian depression in the rolling hills of the Harz Foreland; south of the Harz, Permian sediments lie flat on southwest-dipping Palaeozoic beds.


title: Harz

text: As a result of the northern fault zone and the vertical or, sometimes even overfolded, geological strata, the geology of the Harz sometimes changes frequently within a relatively small area of just a few square kilometres. As a consequence of this it is also referred to as the "Classic Geological Square Mile" ("Klassischen Quadratmeile der Geologie").


title: Harz

text: From the edge of the Harz to 700 m above sea level beech woods dominate, especially the wood-rush beech woods on locations poorly supplied with nutrients where the common beech ("Fagus sylvatica") is often the only tree species. In lower, drier locations the English oak ("Quercus robur") and sessile oak ("Quercus petraea") occur as well. Sycamore trees ("Acer pseudoplatanus") may be found growing in wetter places. During times of decay and rejuvenation when there is plenty of light, light-dependent pioneers such as rowan ("Sorbus aucuparia"), silver birch ("Betula pendula") and pussy willow ("Salix caprea") play a role. Melic grass beech woods are found in the few places where there is an abundance of nutrients and bases, e. g. over dolerite and gneiss formations, and they have a vegetation layer rich in variety and luxuriant growth. Here, too, the common beech dominates, mixed, for example, with sycamore, ash ("Fraxinus excelsior"), hornbeam ("Carpinus betulus") and Scots elm ("Ulmus glabra"). As a result of the increasingly continental climate on the eastern edge of the Harz, the common beech gives way to mixed forests of sessile oak.


title: Harz

text: At intermediate heights of between 700 and 800 m above sea level, mixed woods of spruce ("Picea abies") and common beech would predominantly be found under natural conditions. However, apart from a few remnants, these were supplanted a long time ago by spruce stands as a result of deliberate forest management. Sycamore trees are also found in these woods.


title: Harz

text: Spruce woods thrive in the highest locations from about 800 m to the tree line at around 1,000 m above sea level. These woods are also home to some deciduous trees such as rowan, silver and downy birches ("Betula pendula" and "Betula pubescens") and willows ("Salix spec."). Conditions of high humidity foster an environment rich in mosses and lichens. In spite of the near-natural habitat there are only a few, indigenous, genetically adapted (autochthonous) spruce trees. Wood-reed spruce woods dominate. A well developed ground vegetation thrives on their moderately rocky and fresh, but certainly not wet, soils, characterised in appearance especially by grasses such as shaggy wood-reed ("Calamagrostis villosa") and wavy hair-grass ("Avenella flexuosa"). The soils in the higher regions are, as in most of the Harz, comparatively poor in nutrients and bases, so that only a few herbaceous plants occur here, such as heath bedstraw ("Galium saxatile"). For that reason it is more the ferns, mosses, lichens and fungi that, in addition to spruce trees, characterise these woods. Boulders and stone runs occur in the areas of weather-resistant rock in the high (alti-)montane and montane zones – these are extreme habitats for vegetation. Due to the lack of soil material, only weak, straggly, very open spruce woods thrive here. They have an especially high variety of trees and allow more room of light-loving species such as silver birch, rowan, sycamore, willow and dwarf bushes such as the blueberry ("Vaccinium myrtillus"). Mosses and ferns are also common here. One unusual species is the Carpathian birch ("Betula pubescens subsp. carpatica"). Bog-spruce woods are found around the raised bogs on marshy and boggy soils. In these sorts of places spruce woods can, in exceptional cases, also form the natural woodland in lower down the mountains. These wet, moorland woods have a high proportion of peat mosses ("Sphagnum spec."). The ground vegetation may also have a rich proliferation of low bushes such as cowberry ("Vaccinium vitis-idaea"). Clumps of purple moor grass ("Molinia caerulea") are also typical of this type of woodland habitat. The characteristic species of fungi in natural spruce woods are "Phellinus viticola" and prunes and custard ("Tricholomopsis decora").


title: Harz

text: Ravine ("Schluchtwald"), riparian ("Auwald") and river source ("Quellwald") woods only occur in small areas. In these places the common beech gives way to hardier deciduous species such as sycamore, large-leaved lime ("Tilia platyphyllos"), Scots elm or ash. The herbaceous layer is similar to that of the better-nourished beech woods. Notable species amongst the plant communities here include the Alpine blue-sow-thistle ("Cicerbita alpina"), perennial honesty ("Lunaria rediviva"), hard shield fern ("Polystichum aculeatum") and long beech fern ("Phegopteris connectilis").


title: Harz

text: The raised bogs in the Harz are some of the best preserved in central Europe. They were formed at the end of the last ice age about 10,000 years ago. A significant proportion of the vegetation on these raised bogs is made up of peat mosses ("Sphagnum spec."). The flarks ("Schlenken") and the hummocks ("Bulten") are home to different species of flora. In the flarks, for example, "Sphagnum cuspidatum" is found, whereas the hummocks are preferred by "Sphagnum magellanicum". The blanket of peat moss is penetrated by dwarf bushes such as cowberry and blueberry. Bog-rosemary ("Andromeda polifolia") is a relict of the ice age. Other such ice age plants include the dwarf birch ("Betula nana") and few-flowered sedge ("Carex pauciflora"). Cranberries ("Vaccinium oxicoccus") bloom from May to June. The black crowberry ("Empetrum nigrum") may also be seen amongst those bearing black fruit. Common heather (Calluna vulgaris) grows on the drier hummocks and occasionally the cross-leaved heath ("Erica tetralix") may be found. Typical grasses are the sheathed cottongrass ("Eriophorum vaginatum"), known for its bright, white clusters of fruit and deergrass ("Scirpus cespitosus"), which is rust-red in the autumn. One fascinating moorland plant is the round-leaved sundew ("Drosera rotundifolia"). Bog or northern bilberry (Vaccinium uliginosum) grows on the drier margins of the bog.


title: Harz

text: A multitude of wild animals live in the beech forests of the Harz Mountains. Over 5,000 species, most of them insects, have their home in these woods. They include many species that help to decompose leaves and work them into the soil and ground cover, including springtails, oribatid mites, woodlice, roundworms, millipedes, earthworms and snails. Characteristic breeding birds in the beech woods, with their abundance of dead wood, are the black woodpecker ("Dryocopus martius") and stock dove ("Columba oenas"). An indication of the natural state of the beech woods in the Harz is the return of the black stork ("Ciconia nigra"). This shy and susceptible resident of richly diverse deciduous and mixed forest has become very rare in central Europe due to increasing disturbance of its habitat (caused by a lack of old trees and natural brooks). Through improvements to its habitat, including the renaturalisation of waterways and the creation of relatively undisturbed peaceful areas, the black stork population has now recovered. A typical mammal of such deciduous woods is the European wildcat ("Felis silvestris"), that has established a stable population in the Harz. It prefers the diverse wooded areas, which offer a rich variety of food.


title: Harz

text: The animal kingdom of the mixed beech and spruce woods is also diverse. Species that thrive in mixed forest are especially at home. For example, the mixed mountain forest is the natural habitat of the capercaillie ("Tetrao urogallus"). The Tengmalm's owl ("Aegolius funereus") may also be found here. It breeds almost exclusively in black woodpecker holes in old beeches, and needs, unlike the spruce woods, more open beech forest with its higher population of small mammals in its search for food. For cover, however, it prefers the darker, denser spruce trees.


title: Harz

text: A large number of the animals that live in natural spruce forest are suited to the special conditions of life in the higher parts of the Harz. Typical residents amongst the bird population include the crested tit ("Parus cristatus"), goldcrest and firecrest ("Regulus regulus" and "Regulus ignicapillus"), siskin ("Carduelis spinus"),


title: Harz

text: treecreeper ("Certhia familiaris"), coal tit ("Parus ater") and crossbill ("Loxia curvirostra"). Special mention should be made here of the pygmy owl ("Glaucidium passerinum") which is threatened with extinction and which lives in the submontane to subalpine zones within mixed and pine forests interspersed with open areas. They prefer spruce woods for breeding, but feed in more open stands of trees or on open moorland. Like the black stork, the pygmy owl had long since disappeared from the Harz, but returned in the 1980s of its own volition, as its ancestral homeland once again became more natural, so that there was sufficient food to support it (insects, small mammals and small birds) as well as standing dead wood (spruce trees with woodpecker holes).


title: Harz

text: In addition to the many species of birds, there is a range of large butterflies in the various spruce woods that, outside of the Harz, are seriously endangered or simply non-existent. Two species will be mentioned here as examples. "Gnophos sordarius" occurs in old, open wood-reed spruce forest, sometimes in connection with stone runs or bog spruce forests; "Enthephria caesiata" is a native of the bilberry-rich bog spruce woods.


title: Harz

text: Only a few animals are able to survive the extreme conditions of the raised bogs. Examples of these are the Alpine emerald dragonfly ("Somatochlora alpestris"), which only occurs in Lower Saxony in the Harz, and is endangered in Germany, and the Subarctic darner ("Aeshna subarctica"), a damselfly which is threatened with extinction.


title: Harz

text: Rocks and stone runs are important habitat components for the peregrine falcon ("Falco peregrinus") and ring ouzel ("Turdus torquatus"). The peregrine, which is threatened with extinction here, needs steep rock outcrops with little vegetation. After its population had died out in the Harz, a breeding pair was re-established in the region. A crucial contribution has been made by extensive efforts to promote quiet areas in the ancestral breeding grounds of this shy species. Since 1980, a breeding pair has settled in the eastern Harz as the result of a wildlife reintroduction project. The ring ouzel prefers semi-open stone runs and lightly wooded transition zones between treeless raised bogs and forests. The Harz is home to one of its few, isolated breeding areas in central Europe. Its main distribution area extends across northwest Europe, including large parts of England and Scotland, as well as the high mountains of southern and eastern Europe.


title: Harz

text: The waterways, with their distinct mountain stream character, play an important role right across the Harz. In comparison with the other natural regions of Lower Saxony, they are still very natural and varied, and the water is very clean. As a result of the high water velocity of the Harz streams, flowers rarely gain a foothold in the water. Even the animals in these streams need to be well suited to high velocities. Only a few species, such as fish, swim actively against the stream. The most common species are brown trout ("Salmon trutta forma fario") and bullhead ("Cottus gobio"). Much richer in variety, by contrast, is the range of species in the system of crevices under the streambed. In addition to the insects and fish hatchlings that thrive here, may be found protozoons, flatworms ("Turbellaria") and water mites ("Hygrobatoidea"). Other species of animals cling fast to the stones, e. g. caddis fly larvae ("Trichoptera") and snails, or can only live in the reduced water velocities on the bed of the stream or on stones by having flat body shapes, e. g. stonefly larvae. In the calmer parts of the stream, behind stones or in blankets of moss, there are also water beetles ("Hydrophilidae") and small shrimp-like amphipods.


title: Harz

text: Occasionally the golden-ringed dragonfly ("Cordulegaster boltoni") and beautiful demoiselle ("Calopteryx virgo"), a type of damselfly, can be seen by streams in the Harz.


title: Harz

text: The dipper ("Cinclus cinclus"), which is found everywhere on Harz streams, occurs almost exclusively in the highlands. Its habitat is very fast-flowing, clear mountain streams with wooded banks. It can dive and run under water along the stream bed. It turns stones over in its search for food. The grey wagtail ("Motacilla cinerea") also uses the rich food supplies of the mountain brooks.


title: Harz

text: In 2000, the lynx was successfully reintroduced by the Harz National Park, and it has since fitted well into the ecology of the region. Through specific conservation measures in past years, the retreat of the bat population in the Harz has been halted. Amongst the mammals that may be hunted are the red deer, roe deer, wild boar and mouflon.


title: Harz

text: The Harz was first mentioned as "Hartingowe" in an 814 deed by the Carolingian King Louis the Pious. Settlement within the mountains began only 1000 years ago, as in ancient times dense forests made the region almost inaccessible. The suffix "-rode" (from , to stub) denotes a place where woodland had been cleared to develop a settlement.


title: Harz

text: The year 968 saw the discovery of silver deposits near the town of Goslar, and mines became established in the following centuries throughout the mountains. During the Middle Ages, ore from this region was exported along trade routes to far-flung places, such as Mesopotamia. The wealth of the region declined after these mines became exhausted in the early 19th century. People abandoned the towns for a short time, but prosperity eventually returned with tourism. Between 1945 and 1990, the Inner German border ran through the Harz, the west belonging to the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the east to the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). Today the Harz forms a popular tourist destination for summer hiking as well as winter sports.


title: Harz

text: About 700,000 to 350,000 years ago "Homo erectus" hunted in and around the Harz near Bilzingsleben (Thuringia), Hildesheim and Schöningen (Lower Saxony). The Neanderthals entered the stage about 250,000 years ago and hunted aurochs, bison, brown bear and cave bear, mammoths, rhinos, horses, reindeer, forest elephants and other animals in the Harz region. Tools used by Neanderthals were discovered "inter alia" in the Einhorn Cave in the southern Harz (100,000 years ago) and in the Rübeland Caves. Finds of birch pitch near Aschersleben on the northern edge of the Harz point to the use of this prehistoric adhesive by Neanderthals about 50,000 years ago. The Upper Palaeolithic Revolution, about 40,000 years ago, saw "Homo sapiens" move from Africa into Europe, including to the Harz region, where they appear to have ousted the Neanderthals and subsequently settled here.


title: Harz

text: Many discoveries in the Harz, such as the bronze club of Thale, which was found by the "Roßtrappe", could indicate an earlier Celtic occupation of the Harz.


title: Harz

text: The Harzgau itself was first mentioned in a deed by the Emperor, Louis the Pious, from the year 814, in which it was referred to by its High German form, "Hartingowe". According to the Fulda annals of 852, the Harzgau was occupied by the Harudes and after whom the "Harudengau" ("Harudorum pagus") was named. "Harud", from which "Hard", "Hart" and "Harz" are derived, means forest or forested mountains, and the Harudes were the residents or dwellers in the Harud.


title: Harz

text: Of more recent origin are settlements whose names end in "–rode", a suffix that is first discernable in the Harzgau from the mid-9th century. Where the founders of these villages came from is unknown.


title: Harz

text: Charlemagne declared the Harz a restricted imperial forest or "Reichsbannwald". The "Saxon Mirror" ("Sachsenspiegel"), the oldest German law book ("Rechtsbuch"), probably published around 1220/30 at Falkenstein Castle in the Selke valley, later made the imperial restriction clear: "Whoever rides through the Harz Forest, must unstring his bow and crossbow and keep dogs on a line – only crowned royalty ("gekrönte Häupter") are allowed to hunt here". Eike von Repkow's "Sachsenspiegel" which, for centuries, formed the basis on which German law was administered, described the Harz as a place "where wild animals are guaranteed protection in the king's restricted forests". There were three restricted forests, so described, in the state of Saxony, where there was no longer unfettered access for everyone.


title: Harz

text: This ban did not last forever. Mining, ironworks, water management, increasing settlement, woodland clearances, cattle driving, agriculture, and later tourism all undermined this imperial protection over the centuries.


title: Harz

text: As early as 1224, monks who had settled in Walkenried bought extensive tracts of forest in the western Harz, to secure economically the one quarter of the Rammelsberg ore profits promised to them by Frederick Barbarossa in 1129. From that it can be deduced that there was already a shortage of wood then. From the 12th to the 14th centuries, large parts of the Harz were managed economically by the Cistercian Abbey of Walkenried. As well as agriculture and fishing, they also controlled the silver mining industry in the Upper Harz and in Goslar.


title: Harz

text: In the middle of the 14th century, the settlements in the Harz became heavily depopulated as a result of the Black Death, and a systematic resettlement of mining villages in the Upper Harz did not take place until the first half of the 16th century.


title: Harz

text: In 1588, the Nordhausen doctor, Johannes Thal, published the first book on regional flora in the world, "Silva hercynia", in which he described the flowers specific to the Harz.


title: Harz

text: In 1668, Rudolph Augustus, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg granted the first conservation order for Baumann's Cave. The ducal decree stated, "inter alia", that the cave should be permanently preserved by all those responsible as a special, natural wonder. It also stated that nothing should be spoiled or destroyed, and that groups of ordinary strangers should not be allowed to enter without prior arrangement. A resident mine worker was entrusted to oversee the natural monument. Until the issue of this conservation order, there had only been an order for the protection of the forest, which had been issued by the ruling princes for real, practical considerations. But for the first time the 1668 cave order took ethical-aesthetic considerations into account. The year 1668 was the birth of classic nature conservation in the Harz. The order had been precipitated by the earlier, serious destruction of the cave's features by Vandals. The first Harz 'rangers' were formed.


title: Harz

text: The steadily increasing consumption of wood by the pits and smelting works led to overexploitation of the forests and, from about 1700, to their outright destruction. There were no less than 30,000 charcoal piles in the Harz. In 1707, an order by Count Ernst of Stolberg forbade Brocken guides to take strangers or local folk to the Brocken without special permission, and the lighting of fires was forbidden.


title: Harz

text: The first attempts at forest conservation in the Harz were centred on the Brocken, and began with a far-sighted nature conservation act over 275 years ago. In 1718, Count Christian Ernest of the House of Stolberg issued an ordinance in which destruction or damage to the forest on the Brocken would be severely punished. In 1736, Christian Ernest also built the "Wolkenhäuschen" ("Little House in the Clouds") on the Brocken.


title: Harz

text: As a young man, the famous German poet, Goethe visited the Harz several times and had a number of important lifetime experiences. These included his walks on the Brocken and his visit to the mines in Rammelsberg. Later, his observations of the rocks on the Brocken led to his geological research. His first visit to the Harz awakened in him a keen interest in science (see Goethes: "Wahrheit und Dichtung"). In 1777, Goethe climbed the Brocken, departing from Torfhaus.


title: Harz

text: At that time, there was still no mass tourism on the Brocken; in the year 1779 only 421 walkers were recorded. Goethe described his feelings on the summit later, as follows: "So lonely, I say to myself, while looking down at this peak, will it feel to the person, who only wants to open his soul to the oldest, first, deepest feelings of truth."


title: Harz

text: The count's guest house on the Heinrichshöhe had become too small and suffered from overcrowding; in 1799 it burned down. In 1800, a new guest house was built on the Brocken to replace it.


title: Harz

text: Around 1800, large swathes of the Harz were deforested. The less resistant spruce monoculture, that arose as a consequence of the mining industry in the Upper Harz, was largely destroyed by a bark beetle outbreak and a storm of hurricane proportions in November 1800. This largest known bark beetle infestation in the Harz was known as the "Große Wurmtrocknis", and destroyed about of spruce forest and lasted about for 20 years. The woods were largely reforested with spruce. Continuous problems with bark beetle and storms were the negative side effects of mining in the Harz Mountains.


title: Harz

text: In 1818, a mounted forester, Spellerberg, from Lautenthal, killed the last lynx in the Harz on the Teufelsberg.


title: Harz

text: At the start of the 19th century, the increasing changes to the natural landscape wrought by man and the extinction of large mammals like the bear, wolf and lynx raised awareness of the threat to nature.


title: Harz

text: In 1852, the district administrator of Quedlinburg placed the "Teufelsmauer", ""a rock outcrop famous as an object of folklore and as a rare natural curiosity"", near Thale under protection, because the inhabitants of neighbouring districts were using the rocks as a quarry. This protection order survived in spite of all protests from the local villages. Thus, a valuable natural monument was saved from destruction, and it is of note that the authorities felt that the 'romantic' reasons for its preservation were entirely justified.


title: Harz

text: Albert Peter laid out the Brocken Garden in 1890. This was the first Alpine flower garden to be established on German soil. And, in terms of its scientific concept and scope, the Brocken Garden was the first of its type worldwide.


title: Harz

text: The Brocken Railway began service in 1899, against the already strong concerns of conservationists. For example, the botanist, Bley, wanted to prevent trains from climbing the Brocken, because it he felt it would threaten the Brocken's flora.


title: Harz

text: In 1907, Hermann Löns uttered his famous cry "More Protection for the Brocken" ("Mehr Schutz für den Brocken") in light of the mass tourism that was beginning to affect the Brocken. By 1912, he effectively pressed for the establishment of a Harz national park, without calling it such, in "Der Harzer Heimatspark" (Verlag E. Appelhans u. Co., Braunschweig 1912), a brochure that has remained relatively unknown. The Harz played a special role in the life of the famous regional poet, naturalist and local patriot, undoubtedly not least because his second wife, Lisa Hausmann, came from Barbis in the South Harz.


title: Harz

text: The Wernigerode rector, W. Voigt, wrote, in 1926, in his famous "Brockenbuch": "In America it has long become the business of the people, to create a sacrosanct haven for the native flora and fauna of the regions in national parks. North and South Germany have their heath and alpine parks. May the joint efforts of the royal authorities, the local police, the Wernigerode Nature Conservation Society and individual friends of the Brocken also succeed now in central Germany, through caring nurture across the board, in establishing and preserving the Brocken too, as a small, but unique, nature reserve for the German people."


title: Harz

text: In the 1930s, national park planning in Germany became specific again. There were concrete plans for the national parks of the Lüneburg Heath, Bavarian – Bohemian Forest, High Tauern, Höllengebirge, Neusiedler See and Kurische Nehrung. The Second World War prevented these national park plans from being taken forward; nevertheless, in 1937, an Upper Harz Nature Reserve ("Naturschutzgebietes Oberharz") was designated.


title: Harz

text: During the Nazi era, the Harz area became an important production site for the armaments industry. Many factories, important to the war effort, were located there and, as the war neared its conclusion, they were increasingly staffed with slave labour. As a result, the Harz was the location of several hundred forced labour camps and KZs at that time. KZ Dora near Nordhausen in the South Harz became particularly infamous. This camp, "Mittelbau-Dora" (also "Dora-Mittelbau" and "Nordhausen-Dora"), was a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp. Its prisoners were used by the SS mainly in the tunnel excavation and nearby underground stations of the Mittelwerk Ltd., in Kohnstein, situated near Nordhausen, where the V-2 rocket and the flying bomb V-1 rocket were produced. The slave labourers at the Dora camp were subjected to brutal conditions, which led to more than 20,000 deaths.


title: Harz

text: In the last weeks of the war, the so-called Harz Fortress ("Harzfestung") is worth mentioning. In February/March 1945 the SS Reichsführer, Heinrich Himmler, established the Harz Fortress to defend central Germany from the western allies. Its headquarters was at Blankenburg. Amongst the formations mobilised were divisions belonging to the 11th Army, divisions of the Waffen SS and the "Volkssturm". When the United States First Army reached Nordhausen in the southern Harz, and went to advance northwards, it met with resistance, especially in the hills around the towns of Ilfeld and Ellrich. Not until 7 May 1945 did the last formations of the 11th Army and Waffen SS in the Harz surrender. Several units of "Volkssturm" troops fought on against the Americans during May.


title: Harz

text: Shortly before his death in 2003, American Second World War veteran and organized crime figure, Frank Sheeran, admitted to having participated in a massacre of German POWs in the Harz area. At the time, Sheeran was serving in the 45th U.S. Infantry Division. According to Sheeran, his unit was climbing the Harz when they came upon a mule train carrying supplies to German positions on the hillside. The Americans handed shovels to their prisoners, forced them to dig their own graves, then shot and buried them.


title: Harz

text: Wernher von Braun, one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Germany during the Second World War and, subsequently, in the United States, reportedly ordered blueprints of his work to be hidden in an abandoned mine shaft in the Harz range.


title: Harz

text: Until 1990, the Inner German border ran through the western third of the Harz. The Brocken plateau and other peaks near the border were part of a large military out-of-bounds area, which demonstrating walkers first entered on 3 December 1989. Tourism on the Brocken has since then become very intense – about 1.3 million people visit the summit of the Brocken annually. The former out-of-bounds area today has many habitats worth protecting and, as a result, it is being turned into a green belt.


title: Harz

text: The mining industry in the Harz has its origins about 3,000 years ago during the Bronze Age. The seven Upper Harz mining towns – Clausthal, Zellerfeld, Bad Grund, Sankt Andreasberg, Lautenthal, Altenau and Wildemann – and around 30 other villages within and on the edge of the Harz can thank the Upper Harz mining and smelting industries for their boom. The former imperial town of Goslar, too, whose splendour depended on the ore treasures of the Rammelsberg, mined argentiferous lead ore for centuries. Mining heavily dominated the economic life of the Harz as well as its scenery. Miners created the famous engineering system for the management of water in the Upper Harz, the Upper Harz Water Regale, of which 70 kilometres of ditch and 68 'ponds' (with a volume of 8 million cubic metres) are still used today. Without using their considerable hydropower output, silver mining in the Harz would never have been able to attain its major economic significance.


title: Harz

text: In the eastern Harz Foreland (Mansfeld Land and Sangerhäuser Mulde) copper schist was mined until 1990. The early beginnings of this industry were first mentioned in 1199, and it was considered in its heyday, at the end of the 15th century, as the most important in Europe. In addition, at Ilfeld is the only stone coal mine in the Harz, the former Rabenstein Gallery Mine ("Bergwerk Rabensteiner Stollen"). In the North Thuringian mining area, there were numerous potash mines and, in the vicinity of Röblingen, geological waxes were extracted by a mining concern.


title: Harz

text: The last mine in the Upper Harz – the Wolkenhügel Pit in Bad Lauterberg – closed its operations in June 2007 for economic reasons. Having formerly had 1,000 workers, the mine employed just 14 people towards the end, using the most modern technology to extract barite. With the closure of this facility, mining operations that had begun in the Middle Ages and had continued unbroken since the 16th century, extracting silver, lead and zinc, came to an end. Bearing witness to the industry are cultural monuments as well as the negative consequences of mining for the environment such as e. g. pollution of the ecosystem with heavy metals.


title: Harz

text: The booming mining industry of bygone centuries in the Harz region – especially for silver, iron, copper, lead and zinc – has declined markedly. However, the heavy metal residues in the soils of the Upper Harz, which in some cases are significant, represent a serious environmental hazard today.


title: Harz

text: Copper workings are still important today in the area of Mansfeld. The last centres of mining were the Rammelsberg near Goslar (closed 1988) and the Hilfe Gottes Pit near Bad Grund (closed 1992). In Bad Lauterberg, barite – used today primarily for the manufacture of paint and in sound insulation – was extracted until July 2007 at the Wolkenhügel Pit, the last mine in the entire Harz. Furthermore, limestone is still mined at Elbingerode in three large open pits ("Werk Rübeland", "Werk Kaltes Tal" and "Werk Hornberg"). Another important employer is the Clausthal University of Technology. In addition to the classical disciplines of mining and metallurgy, many engineering and science subjects, as well as business studies courses, are taught and researched.


title: Harz

text: The extensive woods of the Harz mean that forestry plays an important economic role, as do the associated wood-working industries. In the first millennium AD, hardwood trees (mainly common beech) were predominant on the higher ground – typical of a natural highland forest. Hence one spoke of going "in die Harten" ("into the hardwood forest"), a term which gave the "Harz" its name. Today, however, the commercially managed areas are mainly monocultures of Norway spruce. A cause of this development was the mining history in the Harz region, with its high demand for wood and the consequent overuse and devastation of the stands of forest. In addition, there were the climatic changes of the so-called Little Ice Age. The reforestation with relatively easily managed and undemanding spruce trees since the middle of the 18th century was mainly due to the proposals of the Senior Forester and Master Hunter, Johann Georg von Langen.


title: Harz

text: Tourism is very important to the Harz, although the prevalence of cheap air travel has led to a decline in recent years. There are many spa towns, and almost every village in the Harz and Harz Foreland caters to tourists. Well-known destinations are the Harz National Park and the Brocken, as well as the historic towns on the edge of the Harz. Concepts like the Western town, Pullman City Harz, or the rock operas on the Brocken are intended to also be particularly attractive to foreign tourists. The "Harzer Verkehrsverband" (HVV) is responsible for the marketing of the Harz to tourists.


title: Harz

text: Although winter sport in the Harz does not have the significance of other mountain areas, such as the Thuringian Forest, Ore Mountains, Black Forest or even the Alps, there are plenty of winter sport facilities. Of particular note are the villages and towns of Altenau (including Torfhaus), Benneckenstein, Braunlage (including Hohegeiß), Goslar-Hahnenklee, Hasselfelde, Sankt Andreasberg (including Sonnenberg and Oderbrück) and Schierke. Due to the high altitude and length of their runs, Nordic skiing is very popular. International winter sport competitions take place on the Wurmberg ski jump near Braunlage and the biathlon facility at Sonnenberg.


title: Harz

text: Also worth mentioning are the many cross-country skiing runs ("Loipen") in the Harz. Their quality and features are ensured by the land owners, particularly in the Harz National Park, where snow is still relatively guaranteed during the winter months, and also by individual communities and societies. The "Förderverein Loipenverbund Harz", for example, is well known in this regard. It was founded in 1996 on the initiative of the Harz National Park, Harz winter sport parishes, the cable car and lift operators, hotels and transport companies, and has the aim of promoting ski tourism in the Harz and looking after the interests of nature conservation.


title: Harz

text: The mountain rescue service on the cross-country routes, the toboggan slopes, footpaths, alpine ski pistes and rough terrain is provided by the "Bergwacht Harz".


title: Harz

text: In summer, the main activity in the Harz, by far, is walking. In recent years Nordic walking has become increasingly popular.


title: Harz

text: On several reservoirs in the Harz, a variety of water sports is permitted and, on a number of rivers originating in the Harz, there are opportunities for canoeing and other sports on white water sections. International canoe and kayak competitions take place on the Oker below the Oker Dam. The white water on this stretch of river is partly a result of the raised levels of discharge from the Oker Reservoir and so is largely independent of the weather.


title: Harz

text: Several hills provide a base for airborne activities, such as gliding and hang-gliding, notably the Rammelsberg near Goslar.


title: Harz

text: The Harz offers a range of climbing areas like, the Oker valley, with its rock outcrops ("Klippen"); the "Adlerklippen" being especially popular.


title: Harz

text: The Harz has also developed in recent years into a popular mountain bike region, with 62 signed mountain bike routes and four bike parks with lift facilities in Braunlage, Hahnenklee, Schulenberg and Thale. The bike parks offer freeride, downhill and fourcross routes. Both the signed cycle paths and the bike parks are suitable for every level of cyclist.


title: Harz

text: Roads in the Harz are used by racing bikes and touring bikes, despite their sometimes heavy use by lorries, because in the whole of North Germany there is no other region with such long, and in places very steep, descents and ascents. In addition, there are a large number of railway connections on the edge of the Harz which allow bicycles to be taken on trains.


title: Harz

text: The Harz Mountain Rescue ("Bergwacht Harz") service also operates in summer, rescuing people involved in accidents on difficult terrain.


title: Harz

text: The mountains of the Harz were used in former times for long walks (e. g. by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Heinrich Heine and Hans Christian Andersen). An extensive network of footpaths is maintained today, especially by the Harz Club. In addition, there are several long-distance paths (the Harz Witches' Trail, Kaiser Way, Karst Trail and Selke Valley Trail), as well as a trans-regional project, the "Harzer Wandernadel", with 222 checkpoints and a range of walking badges that may be earned for various levels of achievement.


title: Harz

text: In the Oker Valley and at "Roßtrappe" near Thale, there are rocks on the "Hohneklippen" (the "Höllenklippe" or the Feuerstein near Schierke, among several) that are used by climbers.


title: Harz

text: The Harz Run () is a fun run and walking event in the Harz mountains of Germany organised by the Wernigerode Skiing Club ("Skiklub Wernigerode 1911") which takes place on the last Saturday of April. The main run is an ultra marathon which is long and crosses the Harz between Wernigerode and Nordhausen in a north–south direction. There is also a 25 km route from Wernigerode to Benneckenstein and a 28 km course from Benneckenstein to Nordhausen.


title: Harz

text: A feature of the Upper Harz is, or was, the Upper Harz dialect ("Oberharzer Mundart"). Unlike the Lower Saxon, Eastphalian and Thuringian dialects of the surrounding region, this was an Ore Mountain dialect from Saxony and Bohemia, that went back to the settlement of mining folk from that area in the 16th century.


title: Harz

text: The Upper Harz dialect was used only in a few places. The best known are Altenau, Sankt Andreasberg, Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Lautenthal and Hahnenklee. Today the dialect is heard only rarely in the Upper Harz in everyday life and it is mainly members of the older generations who still use it, so occasional articles in the local papers are printed in "Upper Harz", which helps to preserve it.


title: Harz

text: Geomorphological processes have led to the formation of caves in the gypsum, dolomite and limestone layers of the Harz. These dripstone caves include Baumann's Cave, the Unicorn Cave, Hermann's Cave, the Iberg Dripstone Cave and, on the southern edge of the Harz, the Heimkehle.


title: Harz

text: Because the older formations contained many mineral deposits, they were explored very early on by the mining industry. The mines have often been turned into show mines. For example, the Samson Pit was for a long time the deepest mine in the world. Other show mines are the "Büchenberg", "Drei Kronen & Ehrt", the "Röhrigschacht" show mine, the "Lange Wand" show mine in Ilfeld and the "Rabensteiner Stollen" show mine in Netzkater.


title: Harz

text: Others have been turned into mining museums, like the Upper Harz Mining Museum in Clausthal-Zellerfeld, the Lautenthal Mining Museum with its pit railway or the Rammelsberg Mining Museum near Goslar, which is a UNESCO world heritage site. The Roter Bär Pit in St. Andreasberg also served as a training mine until the 20th century and is today, preserved true to the original, as a visitor mine.


title: Harz

text: The medieval abbeys of Drübeck, Ilsenburg, Michaelstein, Quedlinburg and Walkenried are found mainly on the edge of the Harz. In Hahnenklee there is a wooden stave church, the Gustav Adolf Stave Church which was consecrated in 1908.


title: Harz

text: The high elevation of many places in the Harz has been used to advantage to erect transmission or observation towers. These include the Carlshaushöhe near Trautenstein, the observation tower on the Großer Knollen or the Josephskreuz.


title: Harz

text: In historical times, high ridges and spurs were used as sites for fortified castles ("Burgen"). In the Harz these include Falkenstein Castle, where Eike von Repkow probably drew up the "Sachsenspiegel", the most important legal code of the German Middle Ages, Hohnstein Castle near Neustadt/Harz, Lauenburg Castle near Stecklenberg, Plessenburg and Stecklenburg, as well as the ruined castles of Harzburg, Anhalt, Königsburg, Scharzfels.


title: Harz

text: In addition to these defensive structures, palatial castles ("Schlösser") were also built, such as Herzberg Castle, Blankenburg Castle, Stolberg Castle and Wernigerode Castle.


title: Harz

text: The "Harzer Schmalspurbahnen" (Harz Narrow Gauge Railways), colloquially known as the "Harzquerbahn" (Trans-Harz Railway), a narrow (metre)-gauge steam and diesel-powered railway network is a very popular mode of transport, especially with tourists. The railways link Wernigerode, Nordhausen, Quedlinburg and the Brocken. Prior to the closure of the Inner German border the present-day network was joined at Sorge to the "Südharzbahn" (South Harz Railway), which ran from Walkenried to Braunlage and Tanne.


title: Harz

text: Main line railways serve the major towns around the Harz including Halberstadt, Wernigerode, Thale, Quedlinburg and Nordhausen. The Harz used to be served by a number of branch lines, some of which are still open. Those operating regular passenger services are the Halberstadt–Blankenburg, Quedlinburg–Thale, Klostermansfeld–Wippra and Berga-Kelbra–Stolberg lines. All the branch lines in Lower Saxony (the Innerste Valley Railway and Oder Valley Railway) have been closed. The Rübeland Railway is only used by goods traffic at present, but there are plans to run it as a heritage railway.


title: Harz

text: Around the Harz a number of railway lines form a ring. They are, clockwise from the north, the Heudeber–Danstedt–Vienenburg, the Halberstadt–Vienenburg railway, the Halle–Halberstadt railway, the Berlin-Blankenheim Railway, the Halle-Kassel Railway, the South Harz Line, the Herzberg–Seesen railway, the Goslar–Seesen railway and the Vienenburg–Goslar railway.


title: Harz

text: The Harz is grazed by the A 7 motorway in the west and the A 38 in the south. A four-lane motor road, the B 243 runs along the southwestern perimeter of the Harz via Osterode to Bad Lauterberg. In addition there is a good federal road (the B 6, B 4) from Goslar to Braunlage. The North Harz Foreland benefits from the newly built B 6n. Both the B 4 and the B 6n have been upgraded almost to motorway standard. The B 4 crosses the Harz from Bad Harzburg on a north–south axis running through Torfhaus and Braunlage as far as Ilfeld on the edge of the South Harz. The rest of the Harz is also well served by federal roads. Important ones include the Harz high road ("Harzhochstraße", the B 242), which crosses the Harz in an east–west direction (from Seesen to Mansfeld) and the B 241, which runs from Goslar in the north over the Upper Harz (Clausthal-Zellerfeld) as far as Osterode in the south.


title: Meh

text: Meh () is a colloquial interjection used as an expression of indifference or boredom. It is often regarded as a verbal equivalent of a shrug of the shoulders. The use of the term ""meh"" shows that the speaker is apathetic, uninterested, or indifferent to the question or subject at hand. It is occasionally used as an adjective, meaning something is mediocre or unremarkable.


title: Meh

text: Also considered a non-committal response, "meh" can be used when disregarding a question or to refer to something they have no opinion or emotions about. In expressing an opinion, it means the speaker's opinion is that of apathy. Some may respond with "meh" simply to avoid creating an opinion on the matter at all.