In Europe
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Kohl, Helmut (b. 1930): German politician, Chancellor of Germany 1982–98 and Chancellor of West Germany 1982–90. Played a significant role in effecting the union of the DDR and the Federal Republic in 1990.
Kristallnacht: the name given to the organised and coordinated pogroms, carried out by Nazis throughout Germany and Austria on the night of 9–10 November, 1938, in which Jews were beaten to death and their properties destroyed.
Lenin, Vladimir llych (1870–1924): Founder of the Russian Communist Party, prime mover behind the October Revolution (1917), and first head of the Soviet Union 1917–24. Formulated a body of political principles known as Leninism.
Lloyd George, David, 1st Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor (1863–1945): British Liberal statesman and Prime Minister 1916–22, who guided Britain through the latter part of the First World War. Introduced health and unemployment insurance in Britain, laying the foundations of the modern welfare state.
Lubbers, Dr. Rudolphus Franciscus Marie or Ruud Lubbers (b. 1939): Dutch politician who led three successive governments as Prime Minister of the Netherlands 1982–94. Has held many positions in both public and private sectors and was the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 2001–5.
Maastricht Treaty: a treaty on European economic and monetary union negotiated by the heads of government of the member states of the European Community in December 1991, which came into force in November 1993. It removed the word ‘Economic’ from the name of the community and led to the creation of the EU.
Matwin, Wladek (b. 1916): Polish historian and former politician. A communist since his student days, he became the First Secretary of the Wroclaw Voivodship Party Committee immediately after the Second World War. In August 1944, Matwin was a lieutenant in the Red Army and witnessed the Warsaw Uprising first hand.
Milosčević, Slobodan (1941–2006): Serbian politician, President of Serbia 1989–97 and President of Yugoslavia 1997–2000. In promoting Serbian nationalism he was a key figure in the Yugoslav Wars in the 1990s and the Kosovo War in 1999. Indicted by the United Nations for war crimes in 1999 and found dead in his cell in 2006.
Mitterand, François (Maurice Marie) (1916–96): French statesman and member of the Socialist Party, President of France 1981–95. As President, he nationalised financial institutions and key industries, raised the minimum wage and decentralised government.
Monnet, Jean (1888–1979): French political economist, inspirational and strategic thinker. In 1940 he proposed a daring plan to Winston Churchill that France and Great Britain become one. Architect of the Schuman Plan to create the European Coal and Steel Community and its first president in 1952.
Montgomery, Bernard Law, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, also known as Monty (1887–1976): British Field Marshal and prominent commander of the Allied forces in the Second World War. His victory at El Alamein in 1942 against Rommel was a significant Allied success. In 1944, his daring initiative to cross the Rhine at Arnhem, Operation Market Garden, ended in failure.
Munich Agreement: agreement between Britain, France, Germany and Italy, signed in Munich on 29 September, 1938, under which the Sudetenland in western Czechoslovakia was ceded to Germany. Hitler subsequently annexed the remainder of Czechoslovakia and invaded Poland, precipitating the Second World War.
Mussolini, Benito, also known as Il Duce (the leader) (1883–1945): Italian Prime Minister 1922–43 and Fascist dictator. Entered the Second World War on the side of Nazi Germany in 1940. When the Allies invaded Italy he tried to escape but was captured and executed by Italian communist partisans.
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation): international organisation established in 1949 to counter the Soviet military presence in post-war Europe. The strongest military alliance in the world.
Nazi: Belonging to the Nazi Party (National Socialist German Workers’ Party) which, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, governed Germany 1933–45. Nazi ideology called for the expansion of Germany and its policies were based on nationalism, racism, anti-communism, antiSemitism and the belief in the superiority of ‘Aryan’ Germans.
Nicholas II, Czar (1868–1918): last Russian emperor who reigned 1894–1917. Forced to abdicate after the February Revolution in 1917 and shot with his family the following year.
Nicolson, Sir Harold George (1886–1968): British diplomat, author and politician. Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of Information in Churchill's 1940 wartime government. Supported British rearmament and was one of the few to condemn Chamberlain and oppose the Munich Agreement.
Night of the Long Knives: the night of Saturday, 30 June, 1934 – and the following day – when the Gestapo murdered between one hundred and fifty and two hundred of Hitler's political opponents, including almost the entire SA leadership.
October Revolution: in a coup led by Lenin in October, 1917, the Russian Bolsheviks seized power from the provisional government established after the February Revolution of the same year. Civil war and the creation of the Soviet Union followed.
Orwell, George, pen name of Eric Arthur Blair (1903–50): English novelist and adventurer. Best known for his novels Animal Farm, a satire on communism under Stalin, and 1984, which describes a totalitarian future state. Homage to Catalonia draws on his experiences in Spain when he volunteered for militia service to fight against the fascists.
Ossi: colloquial term for a person from the former East Germany.
Paisley, The Reverend Ian Richard Kyle (b. 1926): militant Protestant leader in Northern Ireland, MP for North Antrim since 1970 and leader and co-founder in 1971 of the Democratic Unionist Party. Outspoken critic of the Roman Catholic Church and a vociferous defender of the Protestant Unionist position in Northern Ireland.
Pétain, Henri Philippe (1856–1951): French general, head of state of the French government of Vichy 1940–4. Viewed as a war hero in France for his leadership in the First World War but discredited for cooperating with the Germans in the Second World War. Sentenced to death for treason but this was commuted to life imprisonment by de Gaulle.
Pogrom: organised and extensive violence against the persons or property of ethnic, religious or minority groups. The term can be particularly applied to attacks on Jews in Russia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and in Germany and Poland during the Nazi rise to power.
Radek, Karl Berngardovich (1885–1939): communist propagandist and key figure in the Communist International. Played an important role in the First World War in secret negotiations with Germany regarding funding of the Bolsheviks and acted as a mediator between Lenin and the Germans.
Rathenau, Walther (1867–1922): German statesman and industrialist who organised distribution of raw materials during the First World War. Helped form the German Democratic Party and was appointed Minister of Reconstruction in 1921 and Foreign Minister in 1922. His political policies and Jewish origins led to his assassination that year.
Reagan, Ronald Wilson (1911–2004): Republican statesman and President of the United States 1981–9. His talks with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Geneva and Reykjavík, where the two sides pledged to make the world a safer place, contributed to the ending of the Cold War.
Ribbentrop, Joachim von (1893–1946): German politician and Foreign Minister under the Nazi regime 1938–45. The negotiation of the non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union, also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, was his greatest diplomatic coup and cleared the way for Hitler to invade Poland in 1939. Tried at Nuremberg and hanged for war crimes.
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano (1882–1945): Democratic statesman and President of the United States 1933–45. Played an important role during the Second World War, providing Britain with financial support and supplying the Allies with arms to defeat Nazi Germany.
Roth, Joseph (1894–1939): Austrian novelist and journalist, best known for his novels The Radetzky March, which portrays the latter days of the Habsburg monarchy, and Job, a novel of Jewish life. In his books he draws upon his own experiences of
war, revolution and social upheaval. On Hitler's rise to power he was forced to flee Germany and spent most of his final years in Paris.
Rust, Mathias (b. 1968): German amateur pilot who, at the age of nineteen, on 26 May, 1987, landed his Cessna aeroplane in Red Square, in front of the Kremlin, without being challenged by Soviet air defences. Shortly afterwards, Mikhail Gorbachev replaced the ministers responsible, who were opposed to glasnost and perestroika, with men who supported his policies.
SA (Sturmabteilung, ‘assault division’): also known as Sturmabteilung or Brownshirts. Until the Night of the Long Knives this was the Nazis’ leading paramilitary organisation.
Second World War (1939–45): a worldwide war in which Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Japan were defeated by an alliance including Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union and the United States. In Europe the war ended with the German surrender in May 1945. An estimated fifty-five million people were killed.
Siedler, Wolf Jobst (b.1926): German journalist and writer who lives in Berlin. For nearly twenty years he was head of Ullstein & Propyläen publishers and, from 1980 to 1998, of his own publishing house. Keen critic and commentator on political and historical events in Germany.
Solidarity: Polish independent trade union movement, founded in 1980 and led by Lech Walesa. An anti-communist coalition of diverse groups, it advocated non-violence in its campaign for political change. Banned in 1981 with the imposition of martial law in Poland, legalised again in 1989, and won a majority in the elections of that year.
Speer, Albert (1905–81): German architect and high-ranking Nazi official. A highly efficient organiser, he became Hitler's Minister for Armaments. At Nuremberg he was sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment for his role in the Third Reich. Released in 1966, he wrote two bestselling autobiographical works and died of natural causes in 1981.
SS (Schutzstaffel, ‘protective squadron’): Nazi special police force, founded as Hitler's personal bodyguard in 1925. Under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler from 1929 until its dissolution in 1945, the SS provided powerful security forces including the Gestapo and operated the concentration camps and the extermination camps.
Stabilisation Force (SFOR): multinational force deployed by NATO in Bosnia and Herzegovina whose key task was to uphold the Dayton Agreement, a peace agreement reached in 1995 to end the war in Bosnia.
Stalin, Joseph (1879–1953): Soviet statesman and General Secretary of the Russian Communist Party 1922–53. Dictator of the Soviet Union for a quarter of a century, his Five-Year Plans for economic development, rapid industrialisation and enforced collective farming made his country into a major world power. In the 1930s he initiated the ruthless purges of the Communist Party ranks.
Stasi (Staatssicherheitsdienst,‘state security service’): security force and intelligence organisation of the former East Germany. Disbanded in 1989.
Thatcher, Margaret Hilda, Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven (b. 1925): British Conservative politician and first woman Prime Minister 1979–90. Nicknamed the ‘Iron Lady’, she had unshakeable faith in the power of market mechanisms, entrepreneurialism, privatisation and trade union legislation.
Tito, born Josip Broz (1892–1980): Yugoslav statesman, effective head of Yugoslavia from 1943 and President 1953–80. Successfully combined central authority with a large degree of autonomy for the six federal republics, providing Yugoslavia with more than three decades of stable leadership.
Treaty of Rome: treaty which established the European Union, signed on 25 March, 1957 by France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
Treaty of Versailles: peace treaty, signed in 1919, which officially ended the First World War. It re-divided the territories of the defeated nations, included a ‘war guilt’ clause and reparation terms which Germany considered severe, and created the League of Nations.
Trotsky, Leon, born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (1879–1940): communist revolutionary and politician. A leader in the October Revolution and founder of the Red Army, he lost to Stalin in a power struggle to succeed Lenin. Was exiled from the Soviet Union and settled in Mexico where he was assassinated.
Truman, Harry S. (1884–1972): Democratic statesman and President of the United States 1945–53. In 1948 he introduced the Marshall Plan which provided financial, economic and technical assistance to rebuild the war-shattered allied countries of Europe. Also established the NATO mililtary alliance in 1949.
Walesa, Lech (b.1943): Polish politician, President of Poland (1990—5). Chairman of Communist Poland's first independent trade union, Solidarity, he was a key figure in establishing the first non-communist government in the Soviet Bloc. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983.
Warsaw Pact: treaty signed in 1955 which established a mutual defence organisation composed of the communist states of Central and Eastern Europe. Created following the integration of West Germany into NATO in the same year and lasted throughout the Cold War.
Wehrmacht (‘defence force’): name given to the armed forces of Nazi Germany. The Wehrmacht was abolished in 1945 at the end of the Second World War.
Weizsäcker, Carl Friedrich von (b. 1912): German physicist and philosopher, son of the German diplomat Ernst von Weizsäcker, and brother of former German President Richard von Weizsäcker. During the Second World War, he was a member of the team that worked on the development of an atom bomb for Nazi Germany.
Wende (‘change’ or ‘turning point’): term used to refer to the collapse of the communist system, signified by the breach in the Berlin Wall by the East Germans in November 1989.
Wessi: used in a similar way to Ossi as a colloquial term for a person from the former West Germany.
Wilhelm II, known as Kaizer Wilhelm (1859—1941): last German Emperor and King of Prussia 1888—1918. Supported Austria-Hungary following the assassination of his close friend Franz Ferdinand in a conflict which developed into the First World War. Abdicated in 1918 and went into exile in the Netherlands.
Yeltsin, Boris Nikolayevich, (b.1931): Russian statesman and first President of the Russian Federation 1991—99. Employed ‘shock therapy’ reforms with the massive privatisation of state-run enterprises to introduce democracy and a market-based economy. Resigned in 1999 and was succeeded by Vladimir Putin.
Translation copyright © 2007 by Sam Garrett
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in the Netherlands as In Europa by Uitgeverij Atlas, Amsterdam, copyright © 2004 by Geert Mak. This translation originally published in Great Britain by Harvill Secker, an imprint of Random House Group Ltd., London. This translation published by arrangement with Harvill Secker, an imprint of Random House Group Ltd., London.
Pantheon Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mak, Geert.
[In Europa. English]
In Europe: travels through the twentieth century / Geert Mak.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
eISBN: 978-0-307-49609-6
1. Europe—History—20th century. 2. Europe— Description and travel. 3. Mak, Geert—Travel—Europe. 4. Journalists—Netherlands—Diaries. 5. Historians— Netherlands—Diaries. I. Title.
D424M3513 2007 940.5—dc22 2007009260
Maps by Peter Palm, Berlin, Germany
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