Seems quite the bargain price now.

The United Nations Office at Geneva in Geneva, Switzerland, is one of the four major offices of the United Nations where numerous different UN agencies have a joint presence. The main UNOG administrative offices are located inside the Palais des Nations complex, which was originally constructed for the League of Nations between 1929 and 1938.

 

Besides United Nations administration, the Palais des Nations also hosts the offices for a number of programmes and funds such as the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE).

 

The United Nations and its specialized agencies, programmes and funds may have other offices or functions hosted outside the Palais des Nations, normally in office spaces provided by the Swiss Government.

 

UN specialised agencies and other UN entities with offices in Geneva hold bi-weekly briefings at the Palais des Nations, organized by the United Nations Information Service at Geneva.

 

UNOG produces an annual report where it lists all major events and activities that happened through a year.

 

Headquartered at Geneva:

Conference on Disarmament

International Bureau of Education

International Computing Centre

International Labour Organization

International Organization for Migration

International Trade Centre

International Telecommunication Union

Joint Inspection Unit

Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

United Nations Chief Executives Board for Coordination

United Nations Compensation Commission

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

United Nations Human Rights Council (see also United Nations Commission on Human Rights)

United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research

United Nations Institute for Training and Research

United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace

United Nations Research Institute For Social Development

World Health Organization

World Intellectual Property Organization

World Meteorological Organization

World Trade Organization

Presence at Geneva

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations - FAO (headquarters in Rome)

International Atomic Energy Agency (headquarters are in Vienna)

United Nations Environment Programme (headquarters are in Nairobi)

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (headquarters are in Paris)

United Nations Industrial Development Organization (headquarters are in Vienna)

World Food Programme (headquarters are in Rome)

United Nations World Tourism Organization (headquarters in Madrid)

 

Directors-general

Tatiana Valovaya, Russia, Director-General since 2019.

Wladimir Moderow, Poland, 1946–1951

Adriaan Pelt, Netherlands, 1952–1957

Pier Pasquale Spinelli, Italy, 1957–1968

Vittorio Winspeare-Guicciardi, Italy, 1968–1978

Luigi Cottafavi, Italy, 1978–1983

Eric Suy, Belgium, 1983–1987

Jan Mårtenson, Sweden, 1987–1992

Antoine Blanca, France, 1992–1993

Vladimir Petrovsky, Russia, 1993–2002

Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Russia, 2002–2011

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Kazakhstan, 2011–2013

Michael Møller, Denmark, 2013–2019

Tatiana Valovaya, Russia, 2019–present

Administrative history

United Nations Geneva Office, from beginning, Aug 1946 – Apr 1947, (IC/Geneva/1)

European Office of the UN, 11 Apr 1947 – 10 Aug 1948, (IC/Geneva/49)

United Nations Office at Geneva, 10 Aug 1948 – 9 Aug 1949, (IC/Geneva/152)

European Office of the UN, 9 Aug 1949 – 8 Dec 1957, (SGB/82/Rev.1)

United Nations Office at Geneva, 8 December 1957 – present, (SGB/82/Rev.2)

 

Geneva is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous of the French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the capital of the Republic and Canton of Geneva, and a centre for international diplomacy. Geneva hosts the highest number of international organizations in the world.

 

The city of Geneva (ville de Genève) had a population of 203,951 in January 2020 within its municipal territory of 16 km2 (6 sq mi), but the larger Canton of Geneva had a population of 504,128 over 246 km2 (95 sq mi). The Geneva metropolitan area as officially defined by Eurostat, including suburbs and exurbs in Vaud and the French departments of Ain and Haute-Savoie, extends over 2,292 km2 (885 sq mi) and had a population of 1,044,766 at the time.

 

Since 2013, the Canton of Geneva, the Nyon District (in the canton of Vaud), and the Pôle métropolitain du Genevois français (lit. 'Metropolitan hub of the French Genevan territory', a federation of eight French intercommunal councils), have formed Grand Genève ("Greater Geneva"), a Local Grouping of Transnational Cooperation (GLCT in French, a public entity under Swiss law) in charge of organizing cooperation within the cross-border metropolitan area of Geneva (in particular metropolitan transports). The Grand Genève GLCT extends over 1,996 km2 (771 sq mi) and had a population of 1,037,407 in Jan. 2020 (Swiss estimates and French census), 58.4% of them living on Swiss territory, and 41.6% on French territory.

 

Geneva is a global city, a financial centre, and a worldwide centre for diplomacy due to the presence of numerous international organizations, including the headquarters of many agencies of the United Nations and the ICRC and IFRC of the Red Cross. In the aftermath of World War I, it hosted the League of Nations. It was where the Geneva Conventions on humanitarian treatment in war were signed. It shares a unique distinction with municipalities such as New York City (global headquarters of the UN), Basel (Bank for International Settlements), and Strasbourg (Council of Europe) as a city which serves as the headquarters of at least one critical international organization without being the capital of a country.

 

The city has been referred to as the world's most compact metropolis and the "Peace Capital". In 2023, Geneva was ranked as the world's tenth most important financial centre by the Global Financial Centres Index, second in Europe behind London. In 2019, Geneva was ranked among the ten most liveable cities in the world by Mercer, alongside Zürich and Basel, as well as the thirteenth most expensive city in the world. In a UBS ranking of global cities in 2018, Geneva was ranked first for gross earnings, second most expensive, and fourth in purchasing power.

 

The history of Geneva dates from before the Roman occupation in the second century BC. Now the principal French-speaking city of Switzerland, Geneva was an independent city state from the Middle Ages until the end of the 18th century. John Calvin was the Protestant leader of the city in the 16th century.

 

Geneva first appears in history as an Allobrogian border town, fortified against the Celtic Helvetii tribe, which the Romans took in 121 BC.

 

In 58 BC, Caesar, Roman governor of Gaul, destroyed the Rhône bridge at Geneva and built a 19-mile earthwork from Lake Geneva to the Jura Mountains in order to block the migration of the Helvetii, who "attempted, sometimes by day, more often by night, to break through, either by joining boats together and making a number of rafts (ratis), or by fording the Rhône where the depth of the stream was least" (De Bello Gallico, I, 8). Then he helped establish Geneva as a Roman city (vicus and then civitas) by setting up camp there and significantly increasing its size.

 

In 443, Geneva was taken by Burgundy, and with the latter fell to the Franks in 534. In 888 the town was part of the new Kingdom of Burgundy, and with it was taken over in 1033 by the German Emperor.

 

In 563, according to the writings of Gregory of Tours and Marius Aventicensis, a tsunami swept along Lake Geneva, destroying many settlements, and causing numerous deaths in Geneva. Simulations indicate that this Tauredunum event was most likely caused by a massive landslide near where the Rhone flows into the lake, which caused a wave eight meters high to reach Geneva within 70 minutes.

 

Geneva became an episcopal seat in the 4th century.

 

According to legendary accounts found in the works of Gregorio Leti ("Historia Genevrena", Amsterdam, 1686) and Besson ("Memoires pour l'histoire ecclésiastique des diocèses de Genève, Tarantaise, Aoste et Maurienne", Nancy, 1739; new ed. Moutiers, 1871), Geneva was Christianised by Dionysius Areopagita and Paracodus, two of the 72 disciples, in the time of Domitian. Dionysius went thence to Paris and Paracodus became the first Bishop of Geneva – but the legend is based on an error, as is that which makes St. Lazarus the first Bishop of Geneva, arising out of the similarity between the Latin names Genava (Geneva) and Genua (Genoa, in northern Italy). The so-called "Catalogue de St. Pierre", which names St. Diogenus (Diogenes) as the first Bishop of Geneva, is unreliable.

 

A letter of St. Eucherius to Salvius makes it almost certain that the name of the first bishop (c. 400) was Isaac. In 440, Salonius appears as Bishop of Geneva; he was a son of Eucherius, to whom the latter dedicated his Instructiones'; he took part in the Council of Orange (441), Vaison (442) and Arles (about 455), and is supposed to be the author of two small commentaries, In parabolas Salomonis and on Ecclesisastis. Little is known about the following bishops:

 

Dormitianus (before 500), under whom the Burgundian Princess Sedeleuba, a sister of Queen Clotilde, had the remains of the martyr and St. Victor of Soleure transferred to Geneva, where she built a basilica in his honour.

St. Maximus (about 512-41), a friend of Avitus, Archbishop of Vienne and Cyprian of Toulon, with whom he was in correspondence.

Bishop Pappulus sent the priest Thoribiusas his substitute to the Synod of Orléans (541).

Bishop Salonius II is only known from the signatures of the Synods of Lyon (570) and Paris (573) and Bishop Cariatto, installed by King Guntram in 584, was present at the two Synods of Valence and Macon in 585.

 

From the beginning, the bishopric of Geneva operated as a suffragan of the Archbishopric of Vienne. The bishops of Geneva had the status of prince of the Holy Roman Empire from 1154, but had to maintain a long struggle for their independence against the guardians (advocati) of the see, the counts of Geneva and later the counts of the House of Savoy. It is some time around 1219 that the Counts of Geneva completely quit the city and moved their capital to Annecy.

 

In 1290, the latter obtained the right of installing the vice-dominus of the diocese, the title of "Vidame of Geneva" was granted by Amadeus V, Count of Savoy in the name of the Holy See (by the Foreign relations of the Holy See) to the counts of the House of Candia under count François de Candie of Chambéry-Le-Vieux a Chatellaine of the Savoy, this official exercised minor jurisdiction in the town in the bishop's absence.

 

In 1387, Bishop Adhémar Fabry granted the town its great charter, the basis of its communal self-government, which every bishop on his accession was expected to confirm. The line of the counts of Geneva ended in 1394, and the House of Savoy came into possession of their territory, assuming after 1416 the title of Duke. The new dynasty sought to bring the city of Geneva under their power, particularly by elevating members of their own family to the episcopal see. In 1447 Antipope Felix V, who was also Duke of Savoy, appointed himself as bishop of Geneva, and the Savoy dynasty ruled the episcopal see until 1490, when popular pressure compelled the dynasty to renounce the title of bishop.

 

In 1457 a major government organ was established in Geneva, known as the Grand Council, which first consisted of 50 deputies and later their number was raised to 200. The members of the Grand Council were elected every year in early February. The Grand Council represented the citizens of Geneva and decided on political matters and also elected the bishops of Geneva after that position was renounced by the Savoy dynasty in 1490. This same council gradually became estranged from the Duke of Savoy.

 

A new cause of friction between the Grand Council and the Duke of Savoy evolved in 1513, when Charles III decided to appoint his cousin John of Savoy as bishop and even secured Papal endorsement. Despite being bishop of Geneva, the new Savoy bishop resided most of the time in Pignerol in Piedmont, another factor enhancing the alienation between the people in Geneva and the Savoy dynasty.

 

In 1519, the Grand Council of Geneva attempted to forge an alliance with Fribourg, but the Duke of Savoy responded with invasion of the republic, which led to the execution of Philibert Berthelier and suspension of the Grand Council's powers. However, after that date the power of Savoy over Geneva gradually declined. In 1521 Jean of Savoy died, and the Grand Council appealed to Pope Leo X to appoint the next bishop, who then appointed Pierre de la Baume. In addition, the Duke of Savoy also tried to reconcile his political ambitions with local Genevan patriotism, and in 1523 marched into Geneva in a ceremony designated to appease its population, and tried to gain the support of the Geneva merchants by promising them a share in the trade with the Kingdom of Portugal (his wife's country of origin) and its territories in Brazil. However, the independence faction in Geneva did not accept these gestures. Another political crisis occurred in 1524, when the treasurer of Geneva, Bernard Boulet, a supporter of Savoy rule, was accused by the Grand Council of embezzlement. He reacted to the accusations by appealing to Charles III to curtail the powers of the council once more, to which the Duke responded by confiscating assets held by council members in other territories under Savoy rule.

 

In January 1525 the council appealed to the Pope to excommunicate Charles III. The deputies' attempt to enlist the support of the bishop Pierre de la Baume for their cause failed, and the Pope rejected their request. However, Charles III feared another rebellion, and in September 1525 made another proposal of power-sharing to the Grand Council of Geneva, which the council endorsed by 53–42. However, Charles III was not satisfied with this and started a new invasion of Geneva in order to destroy the pro-independence faction. The pro-independence faction fled to Fribourg, and in December 1525 the Grand Council acknowledged Charles III as the true sovereign of Geneva (a session known as the "Assembly of Halberds"). However, members of the pro-independence faction began their own clandestine campaign to enlist support for their cause, and in February 1526 gained the support of bishop Pierre de la Baume. Elections to the Grand Council took place the same month and led to a pro-independence majority that voted to break away from Savoy rule. Eventually the Grand Council succeeded in protecting the liberty of its citizens by establishing union with the Old Swiss Confederacy (Alte Eidgenossenschaft), by concluding on February 20, 1526 a treaty of alliance with Bern and Fribourg. On March 12, representatives of the other Swiss cantons appeared before the Grand Council in Geneva and swore to protect that republic as part of their confederation.

 

Geneva, home of Calvinism, was one of the great centres of the Protestant Reformation. While Bern favoured the introduction of the new teaching and demanded liberty of preaching for the Reformers Guillaume Farel and Antoine Froment, Catholic Fribourg renounced in 1533 its allegiance with Geneva.

 

In 1523, the first Protestants, refugees from France, arrived in Geneva. The new theology soon became very popular. The power of the Catholic Church in Geneva was further weakened following an abortive rebellion in 1526 by the priests in protest of the alliance with Bern and Fribourg. In July 1527, all Catholic priests of noble descent were expelled from Geneva due to their pro-Savoy sentiments. The bishop fled from Geneva to Gex in August 1527, in order to save himself from capture or assassination by Charles III's agents, but still remained officially the bishop of Geneva. The bishop supported for a while the independence of Geneva, but later colluded with Charles III to use his influence to bring about the annulment of the 1526 treaty of alliance. As a result, the Grand Council decided in January 1528 to adhere to the Lutheran faith, and the Pope responded by excommunicating the people of Geneva. Even though Geneva was still under the nominal jurisdiction of a Catholic bishop, the Grand Council took advantage of his absence and initiated a gradual reform in worship along Lutheran lines.

 

Following the 1526 alliance treaty, Charles III of Savoy was not willing to concede defeat in Geneva, and constantly plotted to take over that city again. The fear of Swiss intervention kept him at bay, but he encouraged sporadic acts of violence against Geneva such as acts of robbery and destruction of goods intended for Geneva. The bishop of Geneva, no longer residing within that city, participated in plans to overthrow its independence. Some of the knights who were interested in capturing Geneva for Charles III organized in an unofficial organization termed the Order of the Spoon.[8] The knights of that group attempted an abortive invasion of Geneva by climbing on the city wall with ladders on March 25, 1529, an event to be known as "day of the ladders". In addition, the Duke of Savoy sought to convince the other Swiss republics to abrogate their alliance with Geneva, and to that end managed to enlist the support of Francis I of France and of Emperor Charles V. The Emperor Charles V tried to convince the Grand Council of Geneva to return to the Catholic Church, and on July 16, 1529 even wrote a letter to that effect in his own handwriting, but the council of Geneva rejected the plea and Charles V became determined to act with force. The Swiss Federation was alarmed by these developments, and in May 1530 a joint delegation from Bern, Fribourg, Zurich, Basel and Solothurn suggested to the Grand Council the abrogation of the 1526 alliance treaty in exchange for looser cooperation. The Grand Council rejected the offer and decided to oppose any attempt to restore Geneva to Savoy rule.

 

On June 24, 1530, the Grand Council arrested a public prosecutor named Mandolia, who was a supporter of duke Charles III, and this irritated bishop Baume, who retaliated by arresting Genevan merchants in Gex, where he now resided. He also made a pact with the Knights of the Spoon, and on August 20, issued an episcopal decree ordering them to wage war in order to restore Geneva to its rightful rulers. On September 30, the attack began, as the Knights of the Spoon were joined by the forces of Charles III, reaching up to 800 soldiers total. The Genevan army was only about 600 men strong, but on October 10 reinforcements of about 10,000 men strong arrived from Bern and Fribourg.[9] In addition, Emperor Charles V, even though a supporter of Savoy interests, refused to participate in that war, and the invading army was forced to withdraw. Following the Savoyard withdrawal, a peace treaty was concluded between Geneva and bishop Baume, by which the Grand Council in Geneva released Mandolia from prison and the bishop released the Genevans arrested at Gex.

 

During the Second War of Kappel in October 1531, Geneva was politically divided, as the government of Bern requested military aid for the Protestants of Zurich, while Fribourg requested that for the Catholic party. The Grand Council of Geneva was torn between the two parties, but decided to split its forces and assist both simultaneously. Following the defeat of Zurich in the war, Fribourg renounced its alliance with Geneva. As a result, Charles III of Savoy renewed his plans of capturing Geneva. This alarmed the governments of Bern and Fribourg to the point of suggesting to Geneva to renounce the alliance treaty of 1526 and accept Savoy rule, which the council of Geneva rejected.

 

In June 1532, street skirmishes between Catholics and Protestants broke out, and the government of Fribourg threatened to tear up its alliance with Geneva if Protestant practices were permitted. The government of Bern, however, pressured the Grand Council of Geneva to allow Protestant preaching. The authority of the Catholic bishop was no longer recognized by the people and institutions of Geneva, but at first they refused to commit their city to the Protestant cause, for fear of antagonizing the Catholic rulers of adjacent kingdoms as well as the Catholic priests within Geneva.

 

Compromise between Catholics and Protestants

The Catholic priests and monks in Geneva remained a significant social force to reckon with, and used their influence in order to bring about the expulsion of the Protestant preachers, and on March 28, 1533 even tried to incite the Catholic masses to massacre the Protestants - a scheme that failed due to emotions of city solidarity and Grand Council efforts to restore the peace. The Grand Council was cautious in its policies, and attempted a middle course between the two factions. As part of that middle course, it yielded to Protestant demands by approving in March 1533 the publication of the Bible in French, but only a conservative translation that did not appeal to Protestant sentiments and was acceptable to the Catholics in the republic. The Grand Council also had to take into consideration the need to remain in alliance with both Catholic and Protestant cantons. In February 1533, Fribourg openly revoked the alliance treaty of 1526, and later even made plans to invade Geneva.

 

In order to keep the peace between Catholics and Protestants as well as a policy of neutrality between the Catholic and Protestant powers, the Grand Council of Geneva on March 30, 1533 passed a statute of compromise which permitted every Genevan to choose his religious affiliation, while prohibiting open attacks on Catholic doctrines and practices and all religious preaching in open places for both parties. Eating meat on Fridays was prohibited for both parties. However, neither had the intention of abiding by the statute, and street riots broke out from time to time.

 

Even after the ousting of bishop la Baume from Geneva, the triumph of Protestantism was not assured, as the Catholic faction within that city conspired with Fribourg to act for the return of the Catholic bishop to Geneva. La Baume himself was reluctant at first, but Pope Clement VII pressured him to accept. On July 3, 1533 - with military aid from Fribourg - the bishop once again entered Geneva in a procession. The Grand Council demanded from the bishop to honor the traditional freedoms of the republic, which he promised to uphold. However, soon the bishop started arresting conspicuous Protestants in Geneva, and there were rumors that he intended to remove the prisoners to Fribourg and placed beyond the Grand Council's reach. On July 12 riots broke out, and the bishop yielded to popular clamor and delivered the prisoners to the Council's custody. Fearing for his life, the bishop decided to flee the city, which he did on July 14, this time never to return, while moving his headquarters to Arbois and later to Chambery. However, de la Baume officially remained the bishop of Geneva and Catholic priests and monks still remained a strong faction within the city. The bishop still tried to exercise his jurisdiction over Geneva and on October 24, 1533 wrote a letter to the council, demanding it to stop Protestant preaching in Geneva, which the council refused to do.

 

Following the bishop's flight, the influence of Protestant preachers in Geneva increased, and this was achieved to the chagrin of the local Catholic priests due to pressure from Bern, which threatened to revoke the 1526 alliance treaty unless freedom was granted to Protestants. In addition, the exiled bishop was gradually losing popularity also with the Catholic sections of Genevan society due to numerous attempts to meddle by proxy with the republic's judicial affairs, which the Genevans viewed as attacks on the liberties of their city. As a result of that, the Grand Council agreed in January 1534 to allow the trials of clergyman by secular authorities. The Catholic influence within Geneva was further diminished following the flight on July 30, 1534 of part of its Catholic population due to the rising tensions between Catholics and Protestants, and at the February 1535 election to the Grand Council, a Protestant majority was secured. Bishop de la Baume, seeing that Geneva was becoming Protestant, issued a decree on June 13, 1535 prohibiting trade with Geneva on pain of excommunication. The Grand Council, even though consisted of a Protestant majority, still refrained from proclaiming the city as Protestant, for fear of reprisals from Catholic neighboring kingdoms. In order to compel the council to make that move, Protestant leaders such as Guillaume Farel began agitating the crowds to demolish icons and throw the wafers of the eucharist to the ground in Catholic churches. As a measure of compromise between the two groups, the Grand Council resolved on August 10, 1535, to prohibit the breaking of icons on one hand and to prohibit the celebration of Mass on the other. This move increased further the flight of Catholics from the city into Savoy territories. Following another unsuccessful invasion of Geneva by Savoy forces in October 1535, which ended in a Savoy defeat at Gingins, the Grand Council decided on February 3, 1536 on the destruction of all castles around Geneva in order not to allow any princes another pretext for invading their city.

 

On May 21, 1536, the Genevans declared themselves Protestant by taking a public oath of allegiance to the Lutheran faith where all residents took part, and proclaimed their city a republic. This move was in the making for a long time, but was delayed for fears of Savoy invasion. However, the French invasion of Savoy territories earlier that year had removed that obstacle.

 

The Protestant leader John Calvin was based in Geneva from 1536 to his death in 1564 (save for an exile from 1538 to 1541) and became the spiritual leader of the city, a position created by the Grand Council as the city turned Protestant. Geneva became a center of Protestant activity, producing works such as the Genevan Psalter, though there were often tensions between Calvin and the city's civil authorities. Calvin also supported the admission into Geneva of Protestant refugees, which some circles strongly opposed.

 

Though the city proper remained a Protestant stronghold, a large part of the historic diocese returned to Catholicism in the early seventeenth century under St. Francis de Sales. Geneva has played a historical role in the spread of Protestantism. In addition to becoming a Protestant state, Geneva in the 16th century also became a kind of welfare state, as a general state hospital was established in 1535 by the wealthy Protestant Claude Salomon. A centralized education system was established with the cooperation of John Calvin.

 

In 1584, Geneva strengthened its ties to the Swiss Confederacy with a separate "eternal treaty" with the Protestant city cantons of Bern and Zürich. But the five Catholic cantons blocked any suggestions of full accession of Geneva to the Confederacy.

 

In the 1580s, the conflict with Savoy intensified once again after the accession of Charles Emmanuel I. In the event known as L'Escalade of the night of 11 December 1602 (Old Style), the Savoiards attempted to take the city by stealth, climbing over the walls using black ladders. They were discovered and repelled.

 

The city became increasingly aristocratic during the 17th century, to the point where it became almost impossible for outsiders to acquire citizenship. The common assembly (Conseil général) became almost powerless, to the benefit of the lesser council (Petit Conseil) and the council of the two-hundred (Conseil des Deux-Cents), which were filled with members of the powerful families in nepotistic appointments. Society was divided between the Citoyens, who were either members of the old patriciate or offsprings of Bourgeois born in Geneva, and had full citizenship, the Bourgeois, who were either naturalized citizens or offsprings of Bourgeois not born in the city, the Natifs, Geneva-born descendants of residents without citizenship, and the mere Habitants, non-citizens permitted residence in exchange for a fee. Finally, Sujets were the population of a number of nearby villages controlled by the city.

 

Throughout this century, Geneva was plagued by strife between the Francophone oligarchy and radical populist opponents. The elite dominated the councils of the republic, and used their position to raise indirect taxes which hurt the poor more than the rich. They were accused of being pro-French libertine rentiers, committed neither to the republic nor to Calvinism, whereas the opposition subscribed to strict Calvinism and populist republicanism.

 

Conflict between these factions led to rioting in 1734–1737, which was settled after the diplomatic intervention of France and Geneva's two Swiss allies, Bern and Zurich. In the 1750s the opposition, led by watchmaker Jacques François Deluc (1698–1780), began to call themselves the représentants (representatives). They wanted the General Council (AKA the Grand Council, Geneva's legislature) to more truly represent the people and to re-assert its power over the aristocratic ministers on the Council of Twenty-Five (the executive council). This did not happen, but further unrest in 1767 led to another French-brokered agreement between elitists and populists.

 

Meanwhile, a quarrel between French-speaking intellectuals whipped up the unrest still further. A piece written by Jean le Rond d'Alembert appeared in 1757 in volume 7 of the Encyclopédie criticising the puritanism of Geneva's Calvinist pastors and advocating the adoption of the enlightened arts as in France. Jean Jacques Rousseau fell out with him and other philosophes such as Denis Diderot and Voltaire over this, advocating stricter morals and siding with the radicals, although not going so far as to advocate democracy.

 

Finally, in the abortive Geneva Revolution of 1782, revolutionary ideologues and working-class activists demanding a broader franchise seized the state. Popular representatives were elected to an executive committee which proceeded to enact wide-ranging reforms. However France, Bern and Savoy sent a military force to Geneva, causing the leading revolutionaries to flee to nearby Neuchâtel (then under Prussia), saying they would refound Geneva elsewhere along with industrious fellow-citizens. The invaders imposed a new constitution on Geneva entrenching the aristocracy. This caused many Genevans to emigrate and try to build a new Geneva at, for example, Waterford, Cologne or Brussels. Many radical émigrés went on to do great things, such as participating in the French Revolution (1789–1799).

 

During the French Revolution period, aristocratic and democratic factions again contended for control of Geneva. In 1798, however, France, then under the Directory, annexed Geneva and its surrounding territory.

 

In 1802, the diocese was united with that of Chambéry. The defeat of Napoleonic armies and liberation of Geneva in 1813 by the Austrian general Ferdinand von Bubna und Littitz restored its independence. At the Congress of Vienna of 1814–15, the territory of Geneva was extended to cover 15 Savoyard and six French parishes, with more than 16,000 Catholics; at the same time it was admitted to the Swiss Confederation. The Congress expressly provided—and the same proviso was included in the Treaty of Turin (16 March 1816)—that in these territories transferred to Geneva the Catholic religion was to be protected, and that no changes were to be made in existing conditions without the approval of the Holy See. The city's neutrality was guaranteed by the Congress. Pius VII in 1819 united the city of Geneva and 20 parishes with the Diocese of Lausanne, while the rest of the ancient Diocese of Geneva (outside of Switzerland) was reconstituted, in 1822, as the French Diocese of Annecy.

 

The Great Council of Geneva (cantonal council) afterwards ignored the responsibilities thus undertaken; in imitation of Napoleon's "Organic Articles", it insisted upon the Placet, or previous approval of publication, for all papal documents. Catholic indignation ran high at the civil measures taken against Marilley, the parish priest of Geneva and later bishop of the see, and at the Kulturkampf, which obliged them to contribute to the budget of the Protestant Church and to that of the Old Catholic Church, without providing any public aid for Catholicism.

 

On 30 June 1907, aided by strong Catholic support, Geneva adopted a separation of church and state. The Protestant faith received a one-time compensatory sum of 800,000 Swiss francs, while other faiths received nothing. Since then the Canton of Geneva has given aid to no creed from either state or municipal revenues.

 

The international status of the city was highlighted after World War I when Geneva became the seat of the League of Nations in 1919—notably through the work of the Federal Council member Gustav Ador and of Swiss diplomat William Rappard, who was one of the founders of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Europe's oldest graduate school of international and development studies. Furthermore, the International School of Geneva, the oldest currently operating International School in the world, was founded in 1924 by senior members of the League of Nations and the International Labor Office.

 

In the wake of the war, a class struggle in Switzerland grew and culminated in a general strike throughout the country—beginning on Armistice Day, 11 November 1918, and directed from the German-speaking part of the nation. However the prevailing friendliness toward France in Geneva moderated its effect upon that city.

 

On 9 November 1932, several small Fascist-inspired political parties, such as the National Union, attacked Socialist leaders, which action led to a later demonstration of the Left against the Fascists. On that occasion, young recruits in the Swiss Army fired without warning into a crowd, leaving thirteen dead and 63 wounded. As a result, a new general strike was called several days later in protest.

 

After World War II, the European headquarters of the United Nations and the seats of dozens of international organizations were installed in Geneva, resulting in the development of tourism and of business.

 

In the 1960s, Geneva became one of the first parts of Switzerland in which the rights movements achieved a certain measure of success. It was the third canton to grant women's suffrage on the cantonal and communal levels.

Unfortunately you only need one to not play along and it does not work.

Tabitha Mathiang spent ten years in the bush, fighting for justice and freedom for South Sudan alongside her husband, a general in the liberation movement. When the peace agreement was signed in 2005, she was hand-selected to lead the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of more than 3,000 women and child soldiers. But, she says, even after the armed groups handed over their guns, “There was still a culture of war.” When renewed conflict broke out in December 2013, 10 of Tabitha’s relatives were killed. With her friend Apuk, she provided support to the peace talks, reasoning that “Maybe when they see us together, a Dinka and a Nuer, these men will think differently.” The warring parties signed a peace agreement in 2015.

The Richard Wagner Monument (German: Richard-Wagner-Denkmal) is a memorial sculpture of Richard Wagner by Gustav Eberlein, located in Tiergarten in Berlin, Germany. It was created during 1901–1903 and is installed along Tiergartenstraße across from the Indian Embassy. It depicts Wagner in a seated pose and is covered by a roof.

 

Gustav Heinrich Eberlein (14 July 1847, Spiekershausen (near Staufenberg) - 5 February 1926, Berlin) was a German sculptor, painter and writer.

 

Life

He was the son of a border guard. At the age of eight, his family moved to Hannoversch Münden, which would be his home for the remainder of his life, despite many years spent elsewhere. His parents lacked the money to provide him with formal artistic training, so he obtained instruction wherever possible, especially from the local goldsmith. In 1866, thanks to the patronage of a pastor who had recognized his talents, he was able to attend the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg. In 1869, he went to Berlin on a scholarship. Three years later, another scholarship enabled him to study in Rome.

 

Upon his return to Berlin, he received significant support from Martin Gropius. Despite growing success, the next decade was difficult. His three-year-old son died in 1882, then his mother in 1888. This was followed by a divorce in 1891. A year later, he married the Countess Maria von Hertzberg, an aspiring young artist, and was appointed a Professor at the Prussian Academy of Arts the year after that.

 

In 1900, he came out in strong opposition to the "Lex Heinze" (which, among other things, banned the display of "immoral" art works). That same year, all but a few of his figures were removed from display at the Great Berlin Exhibition, not only because of the law but also, probably, because of his support for French and Belgian sculptors (such as Rodin and Meunier). In fact, as tensions between Germany and its western neighbors grew, Eberlein's outspoken advocacy of peace and disarmament caused him to lose his public commissions.

 

Later career

He was able to find work elsewhere, notably in South America, but his finances never recovered and he was divorced for a second time in 1912. The following year, he auctioned off most of his possessions in anticipation of emigrating, but those plans were put off because of World War I. He received some orders during the war and created a small museum at his studios in Berlin but, after the war, criticism was renewed; especially for his creating a statue of Karl Marx at the same time he was doing one of the former Kaiser. He was especially well known for his small figures and portrait sculpture and produced over 900 works. The majority of his larger bronze monuments were melted down during World War II. Most of his 300 original plaster models were disposed of by the city of Münden after his death. In 1962, work related to a construction project revealed approximately 80 figures and 11 paintings that were preserved and restored between 1983 and 1989. Many are now in the collection of the Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin.

 

He was able to avert destitution only by adopting his housemaid as his daughter, ensuring that he would be cared for by her family.[4] By the time of his death, he was nearly forgotten. He was buried at the Alter St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof in Berlin.

 

Selected major works

Altona, Germany - The Peace

Berlin Tiergarten - Richard Wagner and Albert Lortzing monuments.

Berlin Tiergarten - Figures for the Siegesallee (Victory Avenue) project of Wilhelm II. He did two groups:

Group 26; consisting of Frederick I of Prussia as the central figure, flanked by Andreas Schlüter and Eberhard von Danckelmann.

Group 30; with Frederick William III of Prussia as the central figure, flanked by Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher and Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein.

Buenos Aires - "Monument to General José de San Martín and the Armies of Independence"; side figures.

Hannoversch Münden - Germania Statue; with many signed copies forming a part of various war memorials throughout Germany. (The exact number is unknown because some were lost or destroyed). This was the result of an aggressive advertising campaign by the foundry, which included the statue in its catalog.

Montevideo - Figures in the Second Concourse of the "Monument to Artigas".

Rome - Goethe monument.

Santiago - "German Fountain", Plaza de Armas.[a]

Tilsit - Statue of Queen Louise

Various statues of Wilhelm I in Arnsberg, Duisburg, Gera, Hamburg, Krefeld, Mannheim, Mönchengladbach and Wuppertal.

 

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk ("total work of art"), by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama. He described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung).

 

His compositions, particularly those of his later period, are notable for their complex textures, rich harmonies and orchestration, and the elaborate use of leitmotifs—musical phrases associated with individual characters, places, ideas, or plot elements. His advances in musical language, such as extreme chromaticism and quickly shifting tonal centres, greatly influenced the development of classical music. His Tristan und Isolde is sometimes described as marking the start of modern music.

 

Wagner had his own opera house built, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, which embodied many novel design features. The Ring and Parsifal were premiered here and his most important stage works continue to be performed at the annual Bayreuth Festival, which was galvanized by the efforts of his wife Cosima Wagner and the family's descendants. His thoughts on the relative contributions of music and drama in opera were to change again, and he reintroduced some traditional forms into his last few stage works, including Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg).

 

Until his final years, Wagner's life was characterised by political exile, turbulent love affairs, poverty and repeated flight from his creditors. His controversial writings on music, drama and politics have attracted extensive comment – particularly since the late 20th century, as they express antisemitic sentiments. The effect of his ideas can be traced in many of the arts throughout the 20th century; his influence spread beyond composition into conducting, philosophy, literature, the visual arts and theatre.

 

Early years

Richard Wagner was born on 22 May 1813 to an ethnic German family in Leipzig, then part of the Confederation of the Rhine. His family lived at No 3, the Brühl (The House of the Red and White Lions) in Leipzig's Jewish quarter. He was baptized at St. Thomas Church. He was the ninth child of Carl Friedrich Wagner, who was a clerk in the Leipzig police service, and his wife, Johanna Rosine (née Paetz), the daughter of a baker. Wagner's father Carl died of typhoid fever six months after Richard's birth. Afterwards, his mother Johanna lived with Carl's friend, the actor and playwright Ludwig Geyer. In August 1814 Johanna and Geyer probably married—although no documentation of this has been found in the Leipzig church registers. She and her family moved to Geyer's residence in Dresden. Until he was fourteen, Wagner was known as Wilhelm Richard Geyer. He almost certainly thought that Geyer was his biological father.

 

Geyer's love of the theatre came to be shared by his stepson, and Wagner took part in his performances. In his autobiography Mein Leben Wagner recalled once playing the part of an angel. In late 1820, Wagner was enrolled at Pastor Wetzel's school at Possendorf, near Dresden, where he received some piano instruction from his Latin teacher. He struggled to play a proper scale at the keyboard and preferred playing theatre overtures by ear. Following Geyer's death in 1821, Richard was sent to the Kreuzschule, the boarding school of the Dresdner Kreuzchor, at the expense of Geyer's brother. At the age of nine he was hugely impressed by the Gothic elements of Carl Maria von Weber's opera Der Freischütz, which he saw Weber conduct. At this period Wagner entertained ambitions as a playwright. His first creative effort, listed in the Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis (the standard listing of Wagner's works) as WWV 1, was a tragedy called Leubald. Begun when he was in school in 1826, the play was strongly influenced by Shakespeare and Goethe. Wagner was determined to set it to music and persuaded his family to allow him music lessons.

 

By 1827, the family had returned to Leipzig. Wagner's first lessons in harmony were taken during 1828–1831 with Christian Gottlieb Müller. In January 1828 he first heard Beethoven's 7th Symphony and then, in March, the same composer's 9th Symphony (both at the Gewandhaus). Beethoven became a major inspiration, and Wagner wrote a piano transcription of the 9th Symphony. He was also greatly impressed by a performance of Mozart's Requiem. Wagner's early piano sonatas and his first attempts at orchestral overtures date from this period.

 

In 1829 he saw a performance by dramatic soprano Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, and she became his ideal of the fusion of drama and music in opera. In Mein Leben, Wagner wrote, "When I look back across my entire life I find no event to place beside this in the impression it produced on me," and claimed that the "profoundly human and ecstatic performance of this incomparable artist" kindled in him an "almost demonic fire."

 

In 1831, Wagner enrolled at the Leipzig University, where he became a member of the Saxon student fraternity. He took composition lessons with the Thomaskantor Theodor Weinlig. Weinlig was so impressed with Wagner's musical ability that he refused any payment for his lessons. He arranged for his pupil's Piano Sonata in B-flat major (which was consequently dedicated to him) to be published as Wagner's Op. 1. A year later, Wagner composed his Symphony in C major, a Beethovenesque work performed in Prague in 1832 and at the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 1833. He then began to work on an opera, Die Hochzeit (The Wedding), which he never completed.

 

Early career and marriage (1833–1842)

Wilhelmine "Minna" Planer (1835), by Alexander von Otterstedt

In 1833, Wagner's brother Albert managed to obtain for him a position as choirmaster at the theatre in Würzburg. In the same year, at the age of 20, Wagner composed his first complete opera, Die Feen (The Fairies). This work, which imitated the style of Weber, went unproduced until half a century later, when it was premiered in Munich shortly after the composer's death in 1883.

 

Having returned to Leipzig in 1834, Wagner held a brief appointment as musical director at the opera house in Magdeburg during which he wrote Das Liebesverbot (The Ban on Love), based on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. This was staged at Magdeburg in 1836 but closed before the second performance; this, together with the financial collapse of the theatre company employing him, left the composer in bankruptcy. Wagner had fallen for one of the leading ladies at Magdeburg, the actress Christine Wilhelmine "Minna" Planer and after the disaster of Das Liebesverbot he followed her to Königsberg, where she helped him to get an engagement at the theatre. The two married in Tragheim Church on 24 November 1836. In May 1837, Minna left Wagner for another man, and this was but only the first débâcle of a tempestuous marriage. In June 1837, Wagner moved to Riga (then in the Russian Empire), where he became music director of the local opera; having in this capacity engaged Minna's sister Amalie (also a singer) for the theatre, he presently resumed relations with Minna during 1838.

 

By 1839, the couple had amassed such large debts that they fled Riga on the run from creditors. Debts would plague Wagner for most of his life. Initially they took a stormy sea passage to London, from which Wagner drew the inspiration for his opera Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman), with a plot based on a sketch by Heinrich Heine. The Wagners settled in Paris in September 1839 and stayed there until 1842. Wagner made a scant living by writing articles and short novelettes such as A pilgrimage to Beethoven, which sketched his growing concept of "music drama", and An end in Paris, where he depicts his own miseries as a German musician in the French metropolis. He also provided arrangements of operas by other composers, largely on behalf of the Schlesinger publishing house. During this stay he completed his third and fourth operas Rienzi and Der fliegende Holländer.

 

Dresden (1842–1849)

Wagner had completed Rienzi in 1840. With the strong support of Giacomo Meyerbeer, it was accepted for performance by the Dresden Court Theatre (Hofoper) in the Kingdom of Saxony and in 1842, Wagner moved to Dresden. His relief at returning to Germany was recorded in his "Autobiographic Sketch" of 1842, where he wrote that, en route from Paris, "For the first time I saw the Rhine—with hot tears in my eyes, I, poor artist, swore eternal fidelity to my German fatherland." Rienzi was staged to considerable acclaim on 20 October.

 

Wagner lived in Dresden for the next six years, eventually being appointed the Royal Saxon Court Conductor. During this period, he staged there Der fliegende Holländer (2 January 1843) and Tannhäuser (19 October 1845), the first two of his three middle-period operas. Wagner also mixed with artistic circles in Dresden, including the composer Ferdinand Hiller and the architect Gottfried Semper.

 

Wagner's involvement in left-wing politics abruptly ended his welcome in Dresden. Wagner was active among socialist German nationalists there, regularly receiving such guests as the conductor and radical editor August Röckel and the Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin. He was also influenced by the ideas of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Ludwig Feuerbach. Widespread discontent came to a head in 1849, when the unsuccessful May Uprising in Dresden broke out, in which Wagner played a minor supporting role. Warrants were issued for the revolutionaries' arrest. Wagner had to flee, first visiting Paris and then settling in Zürich where he at first took refuge with a friend, Alexander Müller.

 

In exile: Switzerland (1849–1858)

Wagner was to spend the next twelve years in exile from Germany. He had completed Lohengrin, the last of his middle-period operas, before the Dresden uprising, and now wrote desperately to his friend Franz Liszt to have it staged in his absence. Liszt conducted the premiere in Weimar in August 1850.

 

Nevertheless, Wagner was in grim personal straits, isolated from the German musical world and without any regular income. In 1850, Julie, the wife of his friend Karl Ritter, began to pay him a small pension which she maintained until 1859. With help from her friend Jessie Laussot, this was to have been augmented to an annual sum of 3,000 thalers per year, but the plan was abandoned when Wagner began an affair with Mme. Laussot. Wagner even plotted an elopement with her in 1850, which her husband prevented. Meanwhile, Wagner's wife Minna, who had disliked the operas he had written after Rienzi, was falling into a deepening depression. Wagner fell victim to ill health, according to Ernest Newman "largely a matter of overwrought nerves", which made it difficult for him to continue writing.

 

Wagner's primary published output during his first years in Zürich was a set of essays. In "The Artwork of the Future" (1849), he described a vision of opera as Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art), in which music, song, dance, poetry, visual arts and stagecraft were unified. "Judaism in Music" (1850) was the first of Wagner's writings to feature antisemitic views.[58] In this polemic Wagner argued, frequently using traditional antisemitic abuse, that Jews had no connection to the German spirit, and were thus capable of producing only shallow and artificial music. According to him, they composed music to achieve popularity and, thereby, financial success, as opposed to creating genuine works of art.

 

In "Opera and Drama" (1851), Wagner described the aesthetics of music drama that he was using to create the Ring cycle. Before leaving Dresden, Wagner had drafted a scenario that eventually became Der Ring des Nibelungen. He initially wrote the libretto for a single opera, Siegfrieds Tod (Siegfried's Death), in 1848. After arriving in Zürich, he expanded the story with Der junge Siegfried (Young Siegfried), which explored the hero's background. He completed the text of the cycle by writing the libretti for Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) and Das Rheingold (The Rhine Gold) and revising the other libretti to conform to his new concept, completing them in 1852. The concept of opera expressed in "Opera and Drama" and in other essays effectively renounced all the operas he had previously written through Lohengrin. Partly in an attempt to explain his change of views, Wagner published in 1851 the autobiographical "A Communication to My Friends". This included his first public announcement of what was to become the Ring cycle:

 

I shall never write an Opera more. As I have no wish to invent an arbitrary title for my works, I will call them Dramas ...

 

I propose to produce my myth in three complete dramas, preceded by a lengthy Prelude (Vorspiel)....

 

At a specially-appointed Festival, I propose, some future time, to produce those three Dramas with their Prelude, in the course of three days and a fore-evening [emphasis in original].

 

Wagner began composing the music for Das Rheingold between November 1853 and September 1854, following it immediately with Die Walküre (written between June 1854 and March 1856). He began work on the third Ring drama, which he now called simply Siegfried, probably in September 1856, but by June 1857 he had completed only the first two acts. He decided to put the work aside to concentrate on a new idea: Tristan und Isolde, based on the Arthurian love story Tristan and Iseult.

 

One source of inspiration for Tristan und Isolde was the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, notably his The World as Will and Representation, to which Wagner had been introduced in 1854 by his poet friend Georg Herwegh. Wagner later called this the most important event of his life. His personal circumstances certainly made him an easy convert to what he understood to be Schopenhauer's philosophy, sometimes categorized as "philosophical pessimism". He remained an adherent of Schopenhauer for the rest of his life.

 

One of Schopenhauer's doctrines was that music held a supreme role in the arts as a direct expression of the world's essence, namely, blind, impulsive will. This doctrine contradicted Wagner's view, expressed in "Opera and Drama", that the music in opera had to be subservient to the drama. Wagner scholars have argued that Schopenhauer's influence caused Wagner to assign a more commanding role to music in his later operas, including the latter half of the Ring cycle, which he had yet to compose. Aspects of Schopenhauerian doctrine found their way into Wagner's subsequent libretti.

 

A second source of inspiration was Wagner's infatuation with the poet-writer Mathilde Wesendonck, the wife of the silk merchant Otto Wesendonck. Wagner met the Wesendoncks, who were both great admirers of his music, in Zürich in 1852. From May 1853 onwards Wesendonck made several loans to Wagner to finance his household expenses in Zürich, and in 1857 placed a cottage on his estate at Wagner's disposal, which became known as the Asyl ("asylum" or "place of rest"). During this period, Wagner's growing passion for his patron's wife inspired him to put aside work on the Ring cycle (which was not resumed for the next twelve years) and begin work on Tristan. While planning the opera, Wagner composed the Wesendonck Lieder, five songs for voice and piano, setting poems by Mathilde. Two of these settings are explicitly subtitled by Wagner as "studies for Tristan und Isolde".

 

Among the conducting engagements that Wagner undertook for revenue during this period, he gave several concerts in 1855 with the Philharmonic Society of London, including one before Queen Victoria. The Queen enjoyed his Tannhäuser overture and spoke with Wagner after the concert, writing in her diary that Wagner was "short, very quiet, wears spectacles & has a very finely-developed forehead, a hooked nose & projecting chin."

 

In exile: Venice and Paris (1858–1862)

Wagner's uneasy affair with Mathilde collapsed in 1858, when Minna intercepted a letter to Mathilde from him. After the resulting confrontation with Minna, Wagner left Zürich alone, bound for Venice, where he rented an apartment in the Palazzo Giustinian, while Minna returned to Germany. Wagner's attitude to Minna had changed; the editor of his correspondence with her, John Burk, has said that she was to him "an invalid, to be treated with kindness and consideration, but, except at a distance, [was] a menace to his peace of mind." Wagner continued his correspondence with Mathilde and his friendship with her husband Otto, who maintained his financial support of the composer. In an 1859 letter to Mathilde, Wagner wrote, half-satirically, of Tristan: "Child! This Tristan is turning into something terrible. This final act!!!—I fear the opera will be banned ... only mediocre performances can save me! Perfectly good ones will be bound to drive people mad."

 

In November 1859, Wagner once again moved to Paris to oversee production of a new revision of Tannhäuser, staged thanks to the efforts of Princess Pauline von Metternich, whose husband was the Austrian ambassador in Paris. The performances of the Paris Tannhäuser in 1861 were a notable fiasco. This was partly a consequence of the conservative tastes of the Jockey Club, which organised demonstrations in the theatre to protest at the presentation of the ballet feature in act 1 (instead of its traditional location in the second act); but the opportunity was also exploited by those who wanted to use the occasion as a veiled political protest against the pro-Austrian policies of Napoleon III. It was during this visit that Wagner met the French poet Charles Baudelaire, who wrote an appreciative brochure, "Richard Wagner et Tannhäuser à Paris". The opera was withdrawn after the third performance and Wagner left Paris soon after. He had sought a reconciliation with Minna during this Paris visit, and although she joined him there, the reunion was not successful and they again parted from each other when Wagner left.

 

Return and resurgence (1862–1871)

The political ban that had been placed on Wagner in Germany after he had fled Dresden was fully lifted in 1862. The composer settled in Biebrich, on the Rhine near Wiesbaden in Hesse. Here Minna visited him for the last time: they parted irrevocably, though Wagner continued to give financial support to her while she lived in Dresden until her death in 1866.

 

A young man in a dark military jacket, jodhpurs, long boots, and a voluminous ermine robe. He wears a sword at his side, a sash, a chain and a large star. Mainly hidden by his robe is a throne and behind that is a curtain with a crest with Ludwig's name and title in Latin. To one side a cushion holding a crown sits on a table.

 

In Biebrich, Wagner, at last, began work on Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, his only mature comedy. Wagner wrote a first draft of the libretto in 1845, and he had resolved to develop it during a visit he had made to Venice with the Wesendoncks in 1860, where he was inspired by Titian's painting The Assumption of the Virgin. Throughout this period (1861–1864) Wagner sought to have Tristan und Isolde produced in Vienna.[91] Despite many rehearsals, the opera remained unperformed, and gained a reputation as being "impossible" to sing, which added to Wagner's financial problems.

 

Wagner's fortunes took a dramatic upturn in 1864, when King Ludwig II succeeded to the throne of Bavaria at the age of 18. The young king, an ardent admirer of Wagner's operas, had the composer brought to Munich. The King, who was homosexual, expressed in his correspondence a passionate personal adoration for the composer,[n 11] and Wagner in his responses had no scruples about feigning reciprocal feelings. Ludwig settled Wagner's considerable debts, and proposed to stage Tristan, Die Meistersinger, the Ring, and the other operas Wagner planned. Wagner also began to dictate his autobiography, Mein Leben, at the King's request. Wagner noted that his rescue by Ludwig coincided with news of the death of his earlier mentor (but later supposed enemy) Giacomo Meyerbeer, and regretted that "this operatic master, who had done me so much harm, should not have lived to see this day."

 

After grave difficulties in rehearsal, Tristan und Isolde premiered at the National Theatre Munich on 10 June 1865, the first Wagner opera premiere in almost 15 years. (The premiere had been scheduled for 15 May, but was delayed by bailiffs acting for Wagner's creditors, and also because the Isolde, Malvina Schnorr von Carolsfeld, was hoarse and needed time to recover.) The conductor of this premiere was Hans von Bülow, whose wife, Cosima, had given birth in April that year to a daughter, named Isolde, a child not of Bülow but of Wagner.

 

Cosima was 24 years younger than Wagner and was herself illegitimate, the daughter of the Countess Marie d'Agoult, who had left her husband for Franz Liszt. Liszt initially disapproved of his daughter's involvement with Wagner, though nevertheless, the two men were friends. The indiscreet affair scandalised Munich, and Wagner also fell into disfavour with many leading members of the court, who were suspicious of his influence on the King. In December 1865, Ludwig was finally forced to ask the composer to leave Munich. He apparently also toyed with the idea of abdicating to follow his hero into exile, but Wagner quickly dissuaded him.

 

A couple is shown: On the left is a tall woman of about 30. She wears a voluminous dress and is sitting sideways in an upright chair, facing and looking up into the eyes of the man who is on the right. He is about 60, quite short, and balding at the temples. He is dressed in a suit with a tailcoat and wears a cravat. He faces and looks down at the woman. His hand rests on the back of the chair.

 

Ludwig installed Wagner at the Villa Tribschen, beside Switzerland's Lake Lucerne. Die Meistersinger was completed at Tribschen in 1867, and premiered in Munich on 21 June the following year. At Ludwig's insistence, "special previews" of the first two works of the Ring, Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, were performed at Munich in 1869 and 1870, but Wagner retained his dream, first expressed in "A Communication to My Friends", to present the first complete cycle at a special festival with a new, dedicated, opera house.

 

Minna died of a heart attack on 25 January 1866 in Dresden. Wagner did not attend the funeral. Following Minna's death Cosima wrote to Hans von Bülow several times asking him to grant her a divorce, but Bülow refused to concede this. He consented only after she had two more children with Wagner; another daughter, named Eva, after the heroine of Meistersinger, and a son Siegfried, named after the hero of the Ring. The divorce was finally sanctioned, after delays in the legal process, by a Berlin court on 18 July 1870. Richard and Cosima's wedding took place on 25 August 1870. On Christmas Day of that year, Wagner arranged a surprise performance (its premiere) of the Siegfried Idyll for Cosima's birthday. The marriage to Cosima lasted to the end of Wagner's life.

 

Wagner, settled into his new-found domesticity, turned his energies towards completing the Ring cycle. He had not abandoned polemics: he republished his 1850 pamphlet "Judaism in Music", originally issued under a pseudonym, under his own name in 1869. He extended the introduction, and wrote a lengthy additional final section. The publication led to several public protests at early performances of Die Meistersinger in Vienna and Mannheim.

 

Bayreuth (1871–1876)

In 1871, Wagner decided to move to Bayreuth, which was to be the location of his new opera house. The town council donated a large plot of land—the "Green Hill"—as a site for the theatre. The Wagners moved to the town the following year, and the foundation stone for the Bayreuth Festspielhaus ("Festival Theatre") was laid. Wagner initially announced the first Bayreuth Festival, at which for the first time the Ring cycle would be presented complete, for 1873, but since Ludwig had declined to finance the project, the start of building was delayed and the proposed date for the festival was deferred. To raise funds for the construction, "Wagner societies" were formed in several cities, and Wagner began touring Germany conducting concerts. By the spring of 1873, only a third of the required funds had been raised; further pleas to Ludwig were initially ignored, but early in 1874, with the project on the verge of collapse, the King relented and provided a loan. The full building programme included the family home, "Wahnfried", into which Wagner, with Cosima and the children, moved from their temporary accommodation on 18 April 1874. The theatre was completed in 1875, and the festival was scheduled for the following year. Commenting on the struggle to finish the building, Wagner remarked to Cosima: "Each stone is red with my blood and yours".

 

A building stands beyond a part-ploughed field and a row of trees. It has five sections. Farthest away, the tallest part with a v-shaped roof contains the stage. Adjoining it is the auditorium section built of patterned brick. Nearest is the royal entrance, made of stone and brick with arched windows and a portico. Two wings adjoin the auditorium.

The Bayreuth Festspielhaus: photochrom print of c. 1895

For the design of the Festspielhaus, Wagner appropriated some of the ideas of his former colleague, Gottfried Semper, which he had previously solicited for a proposed new opera house in Munich.[119] Wagner was responsible for several theatrical innovations at Bayreuth; these include darkening the auditorium during performances, and placing the orchestra in a pit out of view of the audience.

 

The Festspielhaus finally opened on 13 August 1876 with Das Rheingold, at last taking its place as the first evening of the complete Ring cycle; the 1876 Bayreuth Festival therefore saw the premiere of the complete cycle, performed as a sequence as the composer had intended. The 1876 Festival consisted of three full Ring cycles (under the baton of Hans Richter). At the end, critical reactions ranged between that of the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, who thought the work "divinely composed", and that of the French newspaper Le Figaro, which called the music "the dream of a lunatic". The disillusioned included Wagner's friend and disciple Friedrich Nietzsche, who, having published his eulogistic essay "Richard Wagner in Bayreuth" before the festival as part of his Untimely Meditations, was bitterly disappointed by what he saw as Wagner's pandering to increasingly exclusivist German nationalism; his breach with Wagner began at this time. The festival firmly established Wagner as an artist of European, and indeed world, importance: attendees included Kaiser Wilhelm I, the Emperor Pedro II of Brazil, Anton Bruckner, Camille Saint-Saëns and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

 

Wagner was far from satisfied with the Festival; Cosima recorded that months later, his attitude towards the productions was "Never again, never again!" Moreover, the festival finished with a deficit of about 150,000 marks. The expenses of Bayreuth and of Wahnfried meant that Wagner still sought further sources of income by conducting or taking on commissions such as the Centennial March for America, for which he received $5000.

 

Last years (1876–1883)

Following the first Bayreuth Festival, Wagner began work on Parsifal, his final opera. The composition took four years, much of which Wagner spent in Italy for health reasons. From 1876 to 1878 Wagner also embarked on the last of his documented emotional liaisons, this time with Judith Gautier, whom he had met at the 1876 Festival. Wagner was also much troubled by problems of financing Parsifal, and by the prospect of the work being performed by other theatres than Bayreuth. He was once again assisted by the liberality of King Ludwig, but was still forced by his personal financial situation in 1877 to sell the rights of several of his unpublished works (including the Siegfried Idyll) to the publisher Schott.

 

Several floral tributes are laid on a flat gravestone that is in the middle of a large bed full of low leafy plants. A crazy-paved path passes either side of the bed.

The Wagner grave in the Wahnfried garden; in 1977 Cosima's ashes were placed alongside Wagner's body.

Wagner wrote several articles in his later years, often on political topics, and often reactionary in tone, repudiating some of his earlier, more liberal, views. These include "Religion and Art" (1880) and "Heroism and Christianity" (1881), which were printed in the journal Bayreuther Blätter, published by his supporter Hans von Wolzogen. Wagner's sudden interest in Christianity at this period, which infuses Parsifal, was contemporary with his increasing alignment with German nationalism, and required on his part, and the part of his associates, "the rewriting of some recent Wagnerian history", so as to represent, for example, the Ring as a work reflecting Christian ideals. Many of these later articles, including "What is German?" (1878, but based on a draft written in the 1860s), repeated Wagner's antisemitic preoccupations.

 

Wagner completed Parsifal in January 1882, and a second Bayreuth Festival was held for the new opera, which premiered on 26 May. Wagner was by this time extremely ill, having suffered a series of increasingly severe angina attacks. During the sixteenth and final performance of Parsifal on 29 August, he entered the pit unseen during act 3, took the baton from conductor Hermann Levi, and led the performance to its conclusion.

 

After the festival, the Wagner family journeyed to Venice for the winter. Wagner died of a heart attack at the age of 69 on 13 February 1883 at Ca' Vendramin Calergi, a 16th-century palazzo on the Grand Canal. The legend that the attack was prompted by an argument with Cosima over Wagner's supposedly amorous interest in the singer Carrie Pringle, who had been a Flower-maiden in Parsifal at Bayreuth, is without credible evidence. After a funerary gondola bore Wagner's remains over the Grand Canal, his body was taken to Germany where it was buried in the garden of the Villa Wahnfried in Bayreuth.

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The Peace Symbol

 

"This forked symbol was adopted as its badge by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in Britain, and originally, its use was confined to supporters of that organization. It was later generalized to become an icon of the 1960s anti-war movement, and was also adopted by the counterculture of the time. It was designed and completed February 21, 1958 by Gerald Holtom, a commercial designer and artist in Britain. He had been commissioned by the CND to design a symbol for use at an Easter march to Canterbury Cathedral in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in England.

 

The symbol itself is a combination of the semaphoric signals for the letters "N" and "D," standing for Nuclear Disarmament. In semaphore the letter "N" is formed by a person holding two flags in an upside-down "V," and the letter "D" is formed by holding one flag pointed straight up and the other pointed straight down. These two signals imposed over each other form the shape of the peace symbol. In the original design the lines widened at the edge of the circle.[1]

 

A conscientious objector who had worked on a farm in Norfolk during the Second World War, Holtom later wrote to Hugh Brock, editor of Peace News, explaining the genesis of his idea in greater depth: "I was in despair. Deep despair. I drew myself: the representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya’s peasant before the firing squad. I formalised the drawing into a line and put a circle round it."[1]

 

The peace symbol flag first became known in the United States in 1958 when Albert Bigelow, a pacifist protester, sailed his small boat outfitted with the CND banner into the vicinity of a nuclear test. The peace symbol button was imported into the United States in 1960 by Philip Altbach, a freshman at the University of Chicago, who traveled to England to meet with British peace groups as a delegate from the Student Peace Union (SPU). Altbach purchased a bag of the "chickentrack" buttons while he was in England, and brought them back to Chicago, where he convinced SPU to reprint the button and adopt it as its symbol. Over the next four years, SPU reproduced and sold thousands of the buttons on college campuses."

- Wiki

 

thanks to the following contributers from the One Million Peace Signs group

 

1. Don't break me, 2. White peace on a chair, 3. Imagine, 4. peace-o-lantern - _MG_5709, 5. deep..blue..peace..someday, 6. Peace symbol cane, 7. Peace, 8. Peace, 9. key ring, 10. Peace Love and Happy, 11. Peace, 12. Peace is a balanced meal, 13. Snow Peace Sign

 

this mosaic is one in a series of mosaics i'm making as part of the History of the SIGN

 

please visit the group blog & www.onemillionpeacesigns.com/ for all the happenings

-p.e.a.c.e.

 

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Manifestazione degli studenti per la pace ed il disarmo - Roma 1983. Girotondo a Corso Vittorio, in fondo si vede Piazza del Gesù, ex sede della Democrazia cristiana e passaggio obbligato di tutte le manifestazioni a Roma. Cosa dice lo striscione in fondo? Le scuole di via Aquilonia per la pace? Ho interpretato bene?

Foto scattata quando avevo 16 anni e facevo il liceo artistico, con la mia prima macchina fotografica ed il mio primo rullino in bianco e nero. Scansionata e ritoccata con photoshop.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Students demonstration for peace and disarmament - Rome 1983. Ring-a-ring o'roses.

Photo taken when I was 16 years old and I was studying at art school, with my first camera and my first film in black and white. Photo scanned and retouched with photoshop.

Four New York women join hundreds of members of Women’s Strike for Peace picket the White House January 15, 1962 demanding disarmament and the end of nuclear testing.

 

All from Queens, New York City, from left to right: Lyalya Harold, Edith Frepp, Emily Guttchen, and Edith Milgram.

 

This demonstration was a follow-up to the first Women’s Strike for Peace protest the previous year.

 

The group sent shock waves through the U.S. the year before when the group arose spontaneously and held demonstrations in more than 60 cities and staging a march on Washington in November to protest against nuclear testing fallout and the lack of a test ban treaty.

 

President Kennedy responded to that demonstration by saying, “I saw the ladies myself. I recognized why they were here. There were a great number of them. It was in the rain. I understood what they were attempting to say and, therefore, I considered that their message was received.”

 

HUAC responded by scheduling hearings into alleged communist domination of the Women’s Strike for Peace and held three days of hearings Dec 11-13, 1962.

 

Of the 11 witnesses called, nine invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to testify. The final witness, Dagmar Wilson, founder of the group, gave full testimony in front of 500 supporters in the committee hearing room.

 

When asked if she would purge communists from the organization, she responded “certainly not” and if asked if she would make the movement equally open to Nazis and Fascists, she replied, “If only we could get them on our side.”

 

During the hearing, committee counsel Alfred Nittle asked Wilson if she had orchestrated simultaneous demonstrations in 58 American cities on Nov. 1, 1961. Wilson responded that the spontaneity of the feminine peace movement was “hard to explain to the masculine mind.”

 

As each of the previous women called to testify refused to answer committee questions, each woman was applauded by the partisan audience. Wilson said at the end of the hearing that, “Solid support of the women for those who took the Fifth [Amendment] is an indication that we are simply not concerned with personal points of view.”

 

Following the HUAC hearing, the women marched to the White House where they picketed with signs reading, “End the Arms Race, Not the Human Race” and “Peace is American.”

 

For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsmw1miEv

 

Photo by Arnold Sachs. The image is courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.

 

Protest sign: “We are not afraid of Putin - we are afraid of you“

 

Despite one-sided reporting and war rhetoric by the media and politic, the majority of Germans are against the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine and for peace negotiations. The online manifesto, Manifesto for Peace, which reflects this desire, has been signed by 680,000 people so far.

 

On 24 February 2023, the first anniversary of the Russian attack on Ukraine, a pro-government demonstration was held in Berlin in favour of supplying arms to Ukraine and admitting the country to NATO, attended by 5,000 people. A day later there was a large peace demonstration with 50,000 participants, for negotiations and a ceasefire. This demonstration and the online manifesto "Manifesto for Peace" were initiated by left-wing politician Sarah Wagenknecht and feminist Alice Schwarzer.

 

World-renowned US economics professor Jeffrey Sachs speaks via internet to peace demonstrators in Berlin about the truth of the Ukraine war: youtu.be/I4l63yN656A

 

Trotz einseitiger Berichterstattung und Kriegsrhetorik durch Medien und Politik ist die Mehrheit der Deutschen gegen die Lieferung von schweren Waffen an die Ukraine und für Friedensverhandlungen. Das Online-Manifest "Manifest für den Frieden", das diesen Wunsch widerspiegelt, wurde bisher von 680.000 Menschen unterzeichnet.

 

Am 24. Februar 2023, dem ersten Jahrestag des russischen Angriffs auf die Ukraine, fand in Berlin eine regierungsnahe Demonstration für Waffenlieferungen und die Aufnahme der Ukraine in die NATO statt, an der 5.000 Menschen teilnahmen. Einen Tag später gab es eine große Friedensdemonstration mit 50.000 Teilnehmern für Verhandlungen und einen Waffenstillstand. Diese Demonstration und das Online-Manifest "Manifest für den Frieden" wurden von der linken Politikerin Sarah Wagenknecht und der Feministin Alice Schwarzer initiiert.

 

Der weltbekannte US-Wirtschaftsprofessor Jeffrey Sachs spricht via Internet zu den Friedensdemonstranten in Berlin über die Wahrheit des Ukraine-Krieges: youtu.be/I4l63yN656A

  

IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano opening statement at the meeting on the Entry into Force of the Amendment to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (CPPNM) hosted by Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (VCDNP). Andromeda Tower, Vienna, Austria. 22 February 2016.

 

Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA

No More Hiroshimas! No More Nagasakis! No More Hibakusha!

faslanepeacecamp.wordpress.com/2017/03/30/no-more-hiroshi...

Protest sign: “No war against Russia! Sack Baerbock!“

 

Despite one-sided reporting and war rhetoric by the media and politic, the majority of Germans are against the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine and for peace negotiations. The online manifesto, Manifesto for Peace, which reflects this desire, has been signed by 680,000 people so far.

 

On 24 February 2023, the first anniversary of the Russian attack on Ukraine, a pro-government demonstration was held in Berlin in favour of supplying arms to Ukraine and admitting the country to NATO, attended by 5,000 people. A day later there was a large peace demonstration with 50,000 participants, for negotiations and a ceasefire. This demonstration and the online manifesto "Manifesto for Peace" were initiated by left-wing politician Sarah Wagenknecht and feminist Alice Schwarzer.

 

World-renowned US economics professor Jeffrey Sachs speaks via internet to peace demonstrators in Berlin about the truth of the Ukraine war: youtu.be/I4l63yN656A

 

Trotz einseitiger Berichterstattung und Kriegsrhetorik durch Medien und Politik ist die Mehrheit der Deutschen gegen die Lieferung von schweren Waffen an die Ukraine und für Friedensverhandlungen. Das Online-Manifest "Manifest für den Frieden", das diesen Wunsch widerspiegelt, wurde bisher von 680.000 Menschen unterzeichnet.

 

Am 24. Februar 2023, dem ersten Jahrestag des russischen Angriffs auf die Ukraine, fand in Berlin eine regierungsnahe Demonstration für Waffenlieferungen und die Aufnahme der Ukraine in die NATO statt, an der 5.000 Menschen teilnahmen. Einen Tag später gab es eine große Friedensdemonstration mit 50.000 Teilnehmern für Verhandlungen und einen Waffenstillstand. Diese Demonstration und das Online-Manifest "Manifest für den Frieden" wurden von der linken Politikerin Sarah Wagenknecht und der Feministin Alice Schwarzer initiiert.

 

Der weltbekannte US-Wirtschaftsprofessor Jeffrey Sachs spricht via Internet zu den Friedensdemonstranten in Berlin über die Wahrheit des Ukraine-Krieges: youtu.be/I4l63yN656A

  

~ visit.un.org/sites/visit.un.org/files/visitorcentre_broch...

 

Tour Guide Day, 12/27/2018, New York, NY.

 

Canon EOS-1DS

28.0-75.0 mm

ƒ/3.2 28.0 mm 1/30 400

 

FaceBook | Blogger | Twitter | Tumblr | Pinterest | Getty | Instagram | Lens Wide-Open

Protest sign: “We are not at war - with anybody“

 

Despite one-sided reporting and war rhetoric by the media and politic, the majority of Germans are against the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine and for peace negotiations. The online manifesto, Manifesto for Peace, which reflects this desire, has been signed by 680,000 people so far.

 

On 24 February 2023, the first anniversary of the Russian attack on Ukraine, a pro-government demonstration was held in Berlin in favour of supplying arms to Ukraine and admitting the country to NATO, attended by 5,000 people. A day later there was a large peace demonstration with 50,000 participants, for negotiations and a ceasefire. This demonstration and the online manifesto "Manifesto for Peace" were initiated by left-wing politician Sarah Wagenknecht and feminist Alice Schwarzer.

 

World-renowned US economics professor Jeffrey Sachs speaks via internet to peace demonstrators in Berlin about the truth of the Ukraine war: youtu.be/I4l63yN656A

 

Trotz einseitiger Berichterstattung und Kriegsrhetorik durch Medien und Politik ist die Mehrheit der Deutschen gegen die Lieferung von schweren Waffen an die Ukraine und für Friedensverhandlungen. Das Online-Manifest "Manifest für den Frieden", das diesen Wunsch widerspiegelt, wurde bisher von 680.000 Menschen unterzeichnet.

 

Am 24. Februar 2023, dem ersten Jahrestag des russischen Angriffs auf die Ukraine, fand in Berlin eine regierungsnahe Demonstration für Waffenlieferungen und die Aufnahme der Ukraine in die NATO statt, an der 5.000 Menschen teilnahmen. Einen Tag später gab es eine große Friedensdemonstration mit 50.000 Teilnehmern für Verhandlungen und einen Waffenstillstand. Diese Demonstration und das Online-Manifest "Manifest für den Frieden" wurden von der linken Politikerin Sarah Wagenknecht und der Feministin Alice Schwarzer initiiert.

 

Der weltbekannte US-Wirtschaftsprofessor Jeffrey Sachs spricht via Internet zu den Friedensdemonstranten in Berlin über die Wahrheit des Ukraine-Krieges: youtu.be/I4l63yN656A

 

CND Rally - London, 24th October 1981

In 1981 I was an impressionable young man, standing alongside thousands of like-minded people in Hyde Park, London. The march and rally was organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). Here is a long shot of the crowd and the stage.

 

"More than 250,000 people have marched through London to protest over the siting of nuclear missiles in the UK.

 

The rally, organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), took more than five hours to get through the city centre causing massive traffic disruption.

 

CND officials said they were delighted with the response and had never seen such a crowd.

 

The marchers, made up mainly of young people, created a festival atmosphere in Hyde Park as speakers took to the stage to address the crowd."

See more here on the BBC archives: news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/24/news...

 

Taken using a Soviet made Zenith TTL SLR camera.

 

You can see a random selection of my photos here at Flickriver: www.flickriver.com/photos/9815422@N06/random/

Frank A. Rose, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance (left), Laura Rockwood, Executive Director, VCDNP (center), and Ambassador Bente Angell-Hansen, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Norway to Austria and Resident Representative to the IAEA (right) during a roundtable discussion entitled "International Partnership for Nuclear Disarmament Verification" in Vienna, Austria.

CND Rally - London, 24th October 1981

In 1981 I was an impressionable young man, standing alongside thousands of like-minded people in Hyde Park, London. The march and rally was organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). Here is a close up of the crowds and banners.

 

"More than 250,000 people have marched through London to protest over the siting of nuclear missiles in the UK.

 

The rally, organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), took more than five hours to get through the city centre causing massive traffic disruption.

 

CND officials said they were delighted with the response and had never seen such a crowd.

 

The marchers, made up mainly of young people, created a festival atmosphere in Hyde Park as speakers took to the stage to address the crowd."

See more here on the BBC archives: news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/24/news...

 

Taken using a Soviet made Zenith TTL SLR camera.

 

You can see a random selection of my photos here at Flickriver: www.flickriver.com/photos/9815422@N06/random/

I found this painted onto a boulder at Meig's Point in Hammonasset state park in Madison, Connecticut

CND Rally - London, 24th October 1981

In 1981 I was an impressionable young man, standing alongside thousands of like-minded people in Hyde Park, London. The march and rally was organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). Here is a close up of the stage - I'm pretty sure it was the reggae singer Maxi Priest up on stage in this shot. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxi_Priest

 

"More than 250,000 people have marched through London to protest over the siting of nuclear missiles in the UK.

 

The rally, organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), took more than five hours to get through the city centre causing massive traffic disruption.

 

CND officials said they were delighted with the response and had never seen such a crowd.

 

The marchers, made up mainly of young people, created a festival atmosphere in Hyde Park as speakers took to the stage to address the crowd."

See more here on the BBC archives: news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/24/news...

 

Taken using a Soviet made Zenith TTL SLR camera.

 

You can see a random selection of my photos here at Flickriver: www.flickriver.com/photos/9815422@N06/random/

More than 1,000 pickets filed past the White House February 17, 1962 during a student “Peace Race” (instead of arms race).

 

The “Peace Race” protest exceeded all expectations as more than 4,000 young people rallied, on the Washington Monument grounds while some laid a wreath in Arlington Cemetery.

 

Police said the protest was the largest White House demonstration since the protests calling for clemency for the Rosenbergs in 1953. The group engaged in lobbying the previous day calling for no resumption of nuclear testing.

 

Other demands included an end to civil defense, withdrawal of United States missile bases from Europe and for disarmament.

 

Perennial Socialist Party candidate for President Norman Thomas, 77, spoke to the crowd saying in part, “You will not live to my age…unless you stop the arms race.”

 

United Auto Workers secretary-treasurer Emil Mazey called for a de-militarized Germany as a step back from the confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States.

 

Howard University civil rights protester Jan Triggs vowed that the peace and civil rights movements would be joined at the hip.

 

The earlier lobbying effort involved meeting with Kennedy administration officials, Soviet officials and Senators and Representatives on Capitol Hill.

 

Todd Gitlin, an early Students for a Democratic Society leader and an organizer of the protest said he was sure the long line of picketers in front of the White House looked good from the President’s window.

 

The students dressed in regular suits and wore ties. Folk-singing was discouraged by the Turn Toward Peace Student Council, which was one of the more conservative peace groups at the time.

 

During the picketing police arrested Sp. 4/C Robert E. Greenberg, a uniformed soldier on three-day leave from Fort Knox, Ky. Greenberg laid down on the sidewalk when police asked him to step out of the picketing line because he was in uniform.

 

Two other participants were also arrested when they tried to photograph Greenberg lying on the sidewalk.

 

For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsjDjYsZp

 

The photographer is unknown. The image is an Associated Press photograph housed in the D.C. Library Washington Star Collection.

 

UN Disarmament Fellows, IAEA visit Programme held at the Agency headquarters in Vienna, Austria. 9 September 2022

 

Photo Credit: Anass Tarhi / IAEA

Deputy Secretary Sherman delivers opening remarks and responds to questions from the press at the 18th Annual NATO Conference on Weapons of Mass Destruction, Arms Control, Disarmament, and Non-Proliferation, at the Department of State. [State Department photo by Freddie Everett/ Public Domain]

15 August 2012. El Fasher: Narima Abdala Mohammed carries bricks for the construction of a community center in Althoura Shemal in El Fasher, North Darfur, as part of a Community Based-Labour Intensive Project (CLIP) sponsored by UNAMID DDR (Disarmament Demobilization Reintegration).

During three months, UNAMID provides training to 80 young people (60 men and 20 women) to construct this building.

Photo by Albert González Farran - UNAMID

Yury Ambrazevich (on screen), Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus addresses the Conference on Disarmament 2023, held in Geneva.

 

UN Photo/Violaine Martin

28 February 2023

Geneva, Switzerland

Photo # UN7975314

Ieri, 25 Aprile 2014, si è svolta a Verona la manifestazione'"Arena di Pace", un evento sostenuto da tutto il mondo dell’associazionismo laico e cattolico italiano. Nel giorno dell'Anniversario della Liberazione, si sono riuniti i movimenti per la pace, il disarmo, la nonviolenza, la solidarietà ed il volontariato.

 

(On the poster - "The root of the evil. There is an alternative: unilateral disarmament.")

American actor and UN Messenger of Peace Michael Douglas (right) speaks during a special event at UN headquarters to launch a book entitled, “Action for Disarmament: 10 Things You Can Do!” At left is Maher Nasser, Director of the Outreach Division in the Department of Public Information (DPI). The event was co-organized by the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs and DPI.

 

UN Photo/Devra Berkowitz

15/04/2014

United Nations, New York

origami nuclear disarmament symbol.

From left to right, Renata Dwan, Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), Izumi Nakamitsu, Under Secretary-General, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Tatiana Valovaya, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Anja Therese Kaspersen, Director, Office for Disarmament Affairs and Radha Day, Senior Political Affairs Officer, Office for Disarmament Affairs, Secretary of the Conference on Disarmament. 26 August 2019. UN Photo/ Jean Marc Ferré

Photo credit: Alexander Papis ; Nuclear Ban Week, Vienna, 2022

15 August 2012. El Fasher: Iman Mohamed Halim works on the construction of a community center in Althoura Shemal in El Fasher, North Darfur, as part of a Community-based Labour Intensive Project (CLIP) sponsored by UNAMID DDR (Disarmament Demobilization Reintegration).

During three months, UNAMID provides training to 80 young people (60 men and 20 women) to construct this building.

Photo by Albert González Farran - UNAMID

Ajay Devgan , Tabu & Jaey Gajera together to promote of upcoming 2015 Indian thriller drama film Drishyam - Visuals Can Be Deceptive.

twitter.com/jaeygajeraindia

#AjayDevgn #AjayDevgan #ShriyaSaran #Tabu #RajatKapoor #IshitaDutta #NishikantKamat #KumarMangatPathak #AjitAndhare #AbhishekPathak #UpendraSidhaye #JeethuJoseph #PanoramaStudios #Viacom18MotionPictures — at Indiabulls Finance Centre.

 

Weapons being burnt during the official launch of the Disarmament, Demobilization, Rehabilitation and Reintegration (DDRR) process in Muramvya, Burundi. DDR programmes often provide alternative livelihoods to members of armed groups, preventing their engagement in continued violence, and enhancing civilian protection in the process. (2004) (Photo by Martine Perret)

 

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi at the International Gender Champions Vienna held at the Vienna International Centre in Vienna, Austria. 5 March 2020

 

From left to right: HE Mr. David Hall, Resident Representative of the United Kingdom to the IAEA, HE Maria Cleofe Rayos Natividad, Resident Representative of the Philippines to the IAEA, HE Ms Barbara Žvokelj, Resident Representative of Slovenia to the IAEA, HE Ms. Kjersti Ertresvaag Andersen, Resident Representative of Norway to the IAEA, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, Elena K. Sokova, Executive Director, Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (VCDNP), HE Mr Alejandro Solano Ortiz, Resident Representative of Costa Rica to the IAEA, HE Ms Pirkko Hämäläinen, Resident Representative of Finland to the IAEA, Li Yong, Director General UNIDO, HE Ms. Khojesta Fana Ebrahimkhel, Resident Representative of Afghanistan to the IAEA, HE Mr. Richard Travers Sadleir, Resident Representative of Australia to the IAEA, HE Ms. Alicia Buenrostro Massieu, Resident Representative of Mexico to the IAEA and HE Ms Elena Rafti, Resident Representative of Cyprus to the IAEA

 

Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA

Rafael Mariano Grossi, IAEA Director General, met with Philippe Bertoux, Director Strategic Affairs, Security and Disarmament, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France, during his official visit to the Agency headquarters in Vienna, Austria. 31 May 2022.

 

Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA

 

French Delegation:

Philippe Bertoux, Director Strategic Affairs, Security and Disarmament, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Pierre Capiomont, Deputy Director, Disarmament and non-proliferation

Xavier Sticker, Resident Representative of France to the IAEA

Raphael Trapp, Deputy Permanent Representative

 

IAEA:

Rafael Mariano Grossi, IAEA Director-General

Jacek Bylica, IAEA Chief of Cabinet

Diego Candano Laris, Senior Advisor to the Director-General

 

Jacek Bylica, IAEA Chief of Cabinet, delivers his welcome address at the UN Disarmament Fellows, IAEA visit Programme held at the Agency headquarters in Vienna, Austria. 7 September 2022

 

Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA

 

Training co-organised with Morocco provides future chemistry professionals with platform to boost careers and advance understanding of the CWC

Protest sign: “Enough killing! Enough robbed! Enough lies! Americans – go home!“

 

Despite one-sided reporting and war rhetoric by the media and politic, the majority of Germans are against the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine and for peace negotiations. The online manifesto, Manifesto for Peace, which reflects this desire, has been signed by 680,000 people so far.

 

On 24 February 2023, the first anniversary of the Russian attack on Ukraine, a pro-government demonstration was held in Berlin in favour of supplying arms to Ukraine and admitting the country to NATO, attended by 5,000 people. A day later there was a large peace demonstration with 50,000 participants, for negotiations and a ceasefire. This demonstration and the online manifesto "Manifesto for Peace" were initiated by left-wing politician Sarah Wagenknecht and feminist Alice Schwarzer.

 

World-renowned US economics professor Jeffrey Sachs speaks via internet to peace demonstrators in Berlin about the truth of the Ukraine war: youtu.be/I4l63yN656A

 

Trotz einseitiger Berichterstattung und Kriegsrhetorik durch Medien und Politik ist die Mehrheit der Deutschen gegen die Lieferung von schweren Waffen an die Ukraine und für Friedensverhandlungen. Das Online-Manifest "Manifest für den Frieden", das diesen Wunsch widerspiegelt, wurde bisher von 680.000 Menschen unterzeichnet.

 

Am 24. Februar 2023, dem ersten Jahrestag des russischen Angriffs auf die Ukraine, fand in Berlin eine regierungsnahe Demonstration für Waffenlieferungen und die Aufnahme der Ukraine in die NATO statt, an der 5.000 Menschen teilnahmen. Einen Tag später gab es eine große Friedensdemonstration mit 50.000 Teilnehmern für Verhandlungen und einen Waffenstillstand. Diese Demonstration und das Online-Manifest "Manifest für den Frieden" wurden von der linken Politikerin Sarah Wagenknecht und der Feministin Alice Schwarzer initiiert.

 

Der weltbekannte US-Wirtschaftsprofessor Jeffrey Sachs spricht via Internet zu den Friedensdemonstranten in Berlin über die Wahrheit des Ukraine-Krieges: youtu.be/I4l63yN656A

  

A day spent photographing protesters in the fight for nuclear disarmament - The governments plans to renew our nuclear weapons for the price of £20 Billion.

From left to right, Renata Dwan, Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), Izumi Nakamitsu, Under Secretary-General, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Tatiana Valovaya, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Anja Therese Kaspersen, Director, Office for Disarmament Affairs and Radha Day, Senior Political Affairs Officer, Office for Disarmament Affairs, Secretary of the Conference on Disarmament. 26 August 2019. UN Photo/ Jean Marc Ferré

Rafael Mariano Grossi, IAEA Director General, met with HE Mr. Atsushi Kaifu, Ambassador, Director-General, Disarmament, Non-Proliferation and Science Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, during his official visit to the Agency headquarters in Vienna, Austria. 4 May 2022.

 

Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA

 

Japanese Delegation:

HE Mr. Atsushi Kaifu, Ambassador Director-General, Disarmament, Non-Proliferation and Science Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan

Mr. Osamu Kogane, Deputy Director, Arms Control and Disarmament Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan

Ambassador Takeshi Hikihara, Resident Representative, Permanent Mission of Japan in Vienna

Ms. Yuki Takahashi: First Secretary, Permanent Mission of Japan in Vienna

 

IAEA:

Rafael Mariano Grossi, IAEA Director-General

Jacek Bylica, IAEA Chief of Cabinet

Diego Candano Laris, Senior Advisor to the Director-General

Toshio Kaneko, Special Assistant to the Director-General for Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Applications and Technical Cooperation

 

Training co-organised with Morocco provides future chemistry professionals with platform to boost careers and advance understanding of the CWC

Hoshyar Zebari, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iraq during of the Session 2013 of Conference of disarmement. 25 june 2013. Photo by Jean-Marc Ferré

3/4

Nuclear disarmament now! Candels on the Reykjavík pound

Kertafleyting á Reykjavíkurtjörn í minningu fórnalamba kjarnorkusprenginganna á Hiroshima 6. ágúst 1945 and Nagasaki 9. ágúst 1945

Photo credit: Alexander Papis for ICAN ; Nuclear Ban Week Vienna 2022

Manifestazione degli studenti per la pace ed il disarmo - Roma 1983. Striscione per la pace per il disarmo e l'autodeterminazione dei popoli. Qualcuno si riconosce?

Foto scattata quando avevo 16 anni e facevo il liceo artistico, con la mia prima macchina fotografica ed il mio primo rullino in bianco e nero. Scansionata e ritoccata con photoshop.

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Students demonstration for peace and disarmament - Rome 1983. Banner for Peace for Disarmament and Self-Determination of Peoples.

Photo taken when I was 16 years old and I was studying at art school, with my first camera and my first film in black and white. Photo scanned and retouched with photoshop.

The CND symbol, now known universally as a 'peace symbol' was designed by Gerald Holtom in 1958, the year in which the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament was launched by Bertrand Russell and other British intellectuals. Its shape is based on the semaphore signals for the letters N and D (for Nuclear Disarmament). The design of the logo was never copyrighted, leading to its widespread reuse and adoption. CND became a mass movement during the late 1950s and early 1960s, with annual mass marches from the UK's weapons research establishment in Aldermaston to London. Support waned later in the 1960s, when opposition to the Vietnam War became the focus of left-wing organisation.