The plant has its own fire brigade. Ezz Steel plant is located in Alexandria and employs more than 2000 skilled workers. It is the Middle East's leading producer of high quality long and flat steel for use in a wide range of end applications.

 

Country : Egypt

Date : 2008-04

Copyright : Marcel Crozet / ILO

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Erich Ludendorff

Ludendorff in 1915

Member of the Reichstag

In office

24 June 1920 – 13 June 1928

ConstituencyNational list

First Quartermaster General of the

Great General Staff

In office

29 August 1916 – 26 October 1918

SeniorPaul von Hindenburg[a]

Preceded byHugo von Freytag-Loringhoven

Succeeded byWilhelm Groener

Personal details

BornErich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff

 

9 April 1865

Kruszewnia, Province of Posen, Kingdom of Prussia, German Confederation

Died20 December 1937 (aged 72)

Munich, Nazi Germany

Political partyDVFP

Other political

affiliationsNSFB (1924–1925)

Spouses

 

Margarethe Schmidt

 

(m. 1909; div. 1925)

 

Mathilde von Kemnitz

 

(m. 1925)

RelativesHans Ludendorff (brother)

Heinz Pernet (stepson)

Signature

Military service

Allegiance

 

German Empire

Kingdom of Prussia

 

Branch/service

 

Imperial German Army

Prussian Army

 

Years of service1883–1918

RankGeneral der Infanterie

Battles/wars

 

World War I

Russian invasion of East Prussia (1914)

Battle of Tannenberg

First Battle of the Masurian Lakes

Battle of the Vistula River

Battle of Łódź

Winter Battle of the Masurian Lakes

Battle of Humin-Bolimów

Battle of Łomża

German summer offensive (1915)

Bug–Narew Offensive

Siege of Novogeorgievsk

Riga–Schaulen offensive

Vilno-Dvinsk offensive

Lake Naroch

Baranovichi offensive

Brusilov offensive

Second Battle of the Somme

German spring offensive

Second Battle of the Marne

Kapp Putsch

Beer Hall Putsch

 

AwardsPour le Mérite

Iron Cross 1st Class

 

Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff (German: [ˈeːʁɪç ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈluːdn̩dɔʁf] ⓘ; 9 April 1865 – 20 December 1937) was a German general and politician. He achieved fame during World War I (1914–1918) for his central role in the German victories at Liège and Tannenberg in 1914. After his appointment as First Quartermaster General of the German General Staff in 1916, Ludendorff became Germany's chief policymaker in a de facto military dictatorship until the country's defeat in 1918. Later during the years of the Weimar Republic, he took part in the failed 1920 Kapp Putsch and Adolf Hitler's 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, thereby contributing significantly to the Nazis' rise to power.

 

Erich Ludendorff came from a non-noble family in Kruszewnia (hence the lack of a "von" or "zu" in his name), in the Prussian Province of Posen. After completing his education as a cadet, he was commissioned a junior officer in 1885. In 1893, he was admitted to the prestigious German War Academy, and only a year later was recommended by its commandant to the General Staff Corps. By 1904, he had rapidly risen in rank to become a member of the Army's Great General Staff, where he oversaw the development of the Schlieffen Plan.

 

Despite being removed from the Great General Staff for meddling in politics, Ludendorff restored his standing in the army through his success as a commander in World War I. In August 1914, he led the successful German assault on Liège, earning him the Pour le Mérite. On the Eastern Front under the command of General Paul von Hindenburg, Ludendorff was instrumental in inflicting a series of crushing defeats against the Russians, including at Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes.

 

By August 1916, Ludendorff had successfully lobbied for Hindenburg's appointment as Supreme Commander as well as his own promotion to First Quartermaster General. Once he and Hindenburg had established a de facto military dictatorship, Ludendorff directed Germany's entire military strategy and war effort until the end of the conflict. In this capacity, he secured Russia's defeat in the east and launched a new wave of offensives on the Western Front resulting in advances not seen since the war's outbreak. However, by late 1918, all improvements in Germany's fortunes were reversed after a string of defeats in the Allies' Hundred Days Offensive. Faced with the war effort's collapse and a growing popular revolution, Kaiser Wilhelm II forced Ludendorff to resign.

 

After the war, Ludendorff became a prominent nationalist leader and a promoter of the stab-in-the-back myth, which posited that Germany's defeat and the settlement reached at Versailles were the result of a treasonous conspiracy by Marxists, Freemasons and Jews. He also took part in the failed 1920 Kapp Putsch and 1923 Beer Hall Putsch before unsuccessfully standing in the 1925 election for president against Hindenburg, his wartime superior. Thereafter, he retired from politics and devoted his final years to the study of military theory. His most famous work in this field was The Total War, where he argued that a nation's entire physical and moral resources should remain forever poised for mobilization because peace was merely an interval in a never-ending chain of wars. Following his death from liver cancer in Munich in 1937, Ludendorff was given—against his explicit wishes—a state funeral organized and attended by Hitler.

Early life

 

Ludendorff was born on 9 April 1865 in Kruszewnia near Posen, in the Province of Posen and Kingdom of Prussia (now Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland), the third of six children of August Wilhelm Ludendorff (1833–1905). His father was descended from Pomeranian merchants who had been raised to the status of a Junker.[1]

 

Erich's mother, Klara Jeanette Henriette von Tempelhoff (1840–1914), was the daughter of the noble but impoverished Friedrich August Napoleon von Tempelhoff (1804–1868) and his wife Jeannette Wilhelmine von Dziembowska (1816–1854), who came from a Germanized Polish landed family on the side of her father Stephan von Dziembowski (1779–1859). Through Dziembowski's wife Johanna Wilhelmine von Unruh (1793–1862), Erich was a remote descendant of the Counts of Dönhoff, the Dukes of Liegnitz and Brieg and the Margraves and Electors of Brandenburg.

 

Ludendorff had a stable and comfortable childhood, growing up on a small family farm. He received his early schooling from a maternal aunt and had a gift for mathematics,[2][3] as did his younger brother Hans, who became a distinguished astronomer. Upon passing the entrance exam for the Cadet School at Plön with distinction,[2] he was put in a class two years ahead of his age group, and thereafter he was consistently first in his class. The famous World War II General Heinz Guderian attended the same Cadet School, which produced many well-trained German officers. Ludendorff's education continued at the Hauptkadettenschule at Groß-Lichterfelde near Berlin through to 1882.[4]

Pre-war military career

Ludendorff at the age of 17 in 1882

 

In 1885, Ludendorff was commissioned as a subaltern into the 57th Infantry Regiment, then at Wesel. Over the next eight years, he was promoted to lieutenant and saw further service in the 2nd Marine Battalion, based at Kiel and Wilhelmshaven, and in the 8th Grenadier Guards at Frankfurt on the Oder. His service reports reveal the highest praise, with frequent commendations. In 1893, he entered the War Academy, where the commandant, General Meckel, recommended him to the General Staff, to which he was appointed in 1894. He rose rapidly and was a senior staff officer at the headquarters of V Corps from 1902 to 1904.

 

Next he joined the Great General Staff in Berlin, which was commanded by Alfred von Schlieffen, Ludendorff directed the Second or Mobilization Section from 1904 to 1913. Soon he was joined by Max Bauer, a brilliant artillery officer, who became a close friend.

 

In 1910 at age 45 "the 'old sinner', as he liked to hear himself called"[5] married the daughter of a wealthy factory owner, Margarethe Schmidt (1875–1936). They met in a rainstorm when he offered his umbrella. She divorced to marry him, bringing three stepsons and a stepdaughter.[4] Their marriage pleased both families and he was devoted to his stepchildren.

 

By 1911, Ludendorff was a full colonel. His section was responsible for writing the mass of detailed orders needed to bring the mobilized troops into position to implement the Schlieffen Plan. For this they covertly surveyed frontier fortifications in Russia, France and Belgium. For instance, in 1911 Ludendorff visited the key Belgian fortress city of Liège. Before the war, he was an Oberst in General Staff who studied the march route of the army in case of war.[6]

 

Deputies of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, which became the largest party in the Reichstag after the German federal elections of 1912, seldom gave priority to army expenditures, whether to build up its reserves or to fund advanced weaponry such as Krupp's siege cannons. Instead, they preferred to concentrate military spending on the Imperial German Navy. Ludendorff's calculations showed that to properly implement the Schlieffen Plan the Army lacked six corps.

 

Members of the General Staff were instructed to keep out of politics and the public eye,[7] but Ludendorff shrugged off such restrictions. With a retired general, August Keim, and the head of the Pan-German League, Heinrich Class, he vigorously lobbied the Reichstag for the additional men.[8] In 1913 funding was approved for four additional corps but Ludendorff was transferred to regimental duties as commander of the 39th (Lower Rhine) Fusiliers, stationed at Düsseldorf. "I attributed the change partly for my having pressed for those three additional army corps."[9]

 

Barbara Tuchman characterizes Ludendorff in her book The Guns of August as Schlieffen's devoted disciple who was a glutton for work and a man of granite character but who was deliberately friendless and forbidding and therefore remained little known or liked. It is true that as his wife testified, "Anyone who knows Ludendorff knows that he has not a spark of humor...".[10] He was voluble nonetheless, although he shunned small talk. John Lee,[11] states that while Ludendorff was with his Fusiliers, "he became the perfect regimental commander ... the younger officers came to adore him." His adjutant, Wilhelm Breucker, became a devoted lifelong friend.

World War I

Battle of Liège

 

At the outbreak of war in the summer of 1914 Ludendorff was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff to the German Second Army under General Karl von Bülow. His assignment was largely due to his previous work investigating defenses of Liège, Belgium. At the beginning of the Battle of Liège, Ludendorff was an observer with the 14th Brigade, which was to infiltrate the city at night and secure the bridges before they could be destroyed. The brigade commander was killed on 5 August, so Ludendorff led the successful assault to occupy the city and its citadel. In the following days, two of the forts guarding the city were taken by desperate frontal infantry attacks, while the remaining forts were smashed by huge Krupp 42-cm and Austro-Hungarian Škoda 30.5-cm howitzers. By 16 August, all the forts around Liège had fallen, allowing the German First Army to advance. As the victor of Liège, Ludendorff was awarded Germany's highest military decoration for gallantry, the Pour le Mérite, presented by Kaiser Wilhelm II himself on 22 August.[12]

Command in the East

 

German mobilization earmarked a single army, the Eighth, to defend their eastern frontier. When two Russian armies invaded East Prussia earlier than expected the command of the Eighth Army, Maximilian von Prittwitz with Georg von Waldersee as Chief of Staff, performed subpar and reportedly panicked. They accordingly were dismissed from command by the Oberste Heeresleitung (OHL), the German Supreme Army Command. The War Cabinet chose a retired general, Paul von Hindenburg, as commander, while the OHL assigned Ludendorff as his new chief of staff. Hindenburg and Ludendorff first met on their private train heading east. They agreed that they must annihilate the nearest Russian army before they tackled the second. On arrival, they discovered that Max Hoffmann had already shifted much of the 8th Army by rail to the south to do just that, in an amazing feat of logistical planning. Nine days later the Eighth Army surrounded most of a Russian army at Tannenberg, taking 92,000 prisoners in one of the great victories in German history. Twice during the battle Ludendorff wanted to break off, fearing that the second Russian army was about to strike their rear, but Hindenburg held firm.

 

The Germans turned on the second invading army in the Battle of the Masurian Lakes; it fled with heavy losses to escape encirclement. During the rest of 1914, commanding an Army Group, Hindenburg and Ludendorff staved off the projected invasion of German Silesia by dexterously moving their outnumbered forces into Russian Poland, fighting the battle of the Vistula River, which ended with a brilliantly executed withdrawal during which they destroyed the Polish railway lines and bridges needed for an invasion. When the Russians had repaired most of the damage the Germans struck their flank in the battle of Łódź, where they almost surrounded another Russian army. Masters of surprise and deft maneuver, the pair argued that if properly reinforced they could trap the entire Russian army in Poland. During the winter of 1914–15 they lobbied passionately for this strategy, but were rebuffed by the OHL.

 

Early in 1915 Hindenburg and Ludendorff surprised the Russian army that still held a toehold in East Prussia by attacking in a snowstorm and surrounding it in the Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes. The OHL then transferred Ludendorff, but Hindenburg's personal plea to the Kaiser reunited them. Erich von Falkenhayn, supreme commander at the OHL, came east to attack the flank of the Russian army that was pushing through the Carpathian passes towards Hungary. Employing overwhelming artillery, the Germans and Austro-Hungarians broke through the line between Gorlice and Tarnów and kept pushing until the Russians were driven out of most of Galicia, in Austro-Hungarian Poland. During this advance Falkenhayn rejected schemes to try to cut off the Russians in Poland, preferring direct frontal attacks like Bug–Narew Offensive. Outgunned, during the summer of 1915 the Russian commander Grand Duke Nicholas shortened his lines by withdrawing from most of Poland, destroying railroads, bridges, and many buildings while driving 743,000 Poles, 350,000 Jews, 300,000 Lithuanians and 250,000 Latvians into Russia.[13]

 

During the winter of 1915–16 Ludendorff's headquarters was in Kaunas. The Germans occupied present-day Lithuania, western Latvia, and north eastern Poland, an area almost the size of France. Ludendorff demanded Germanization of the conquered territories and far-ranging annexations, offering land to German settlers; see Drang nach Osten. Far-reaching plans envisioned Courland and Lithuania turned into border states ruled by German military governors answerable only to the Kaiser.[14] He proposed massive annexations and colonization in Eastern Europe in the event of the victory of the German Reich, and was one of the main supporters of the Polish Border Strip.[15] Ludendorff planned to combine German settlement and Germanisation in conquered areas with expulsions of native populations; and envisioned an eastern German empire whose resources would be used in future war with Great Britain and the United States[14][16] Ludendorff's plans went as far as making Crimea a German colony.[17] As to the various nations and ethnic groups in conquered territories, Ludendorff believed they were "incapable of producing real culture"[18]

 

On 16 March 1916, the Russians, now with adequate supplies of cannons and shells, attacked parts of the new German defenses, intending to penetrate at two points and then to pocket the defenders. They attacked almost daily until the end of the month, but the Lake Naroch Offensive failed, "choked in swamp and blood".[19]

 

The Russians did better attacking the Austro-Hungarians in the south; the Brusilov Offensive cracked their lines with a well-prepared surprise wide-front attack led by well-schooled assault troops. The breakthrough was finally stemmed by Austro-Hungarian troops recalled from Italy stiffened with German advisers and reserves. In July, Russian attacks on the Germans in the north were beaten back. On 27 July 1916, Hindenburg was given command of all troops on the Eastern Front from the Baltic to Brody in Ukraine. Ludendorff and Hindenburg visited their new command on a special train, and then set up headquarters in Brest-Litovsk. By August 1916 their front was holding everywhere.

Promotion to First Quartermaster-General

 

In the West in 1916 the Germans attacked unsuccessfully at Verdun and soon were reeling under British and French blows along the Somme. Ludendorff's friends at the OHL, led by Max Bauer, lobbied for him relentlessly. The balance was tipped when Romania entered the war on the side of the Entente, thrusting into Hungary. Falkenhayn was replaced as Chief of the General Staff by Hindenburg on 29 August 1916. Ludendorff was again his chief of staff as first Quartermaster general, with the stipulation that he would have joint responsibility.[20] He was promoted to General of the Infantry. Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg warned the War Cabinet: "You don't know Ludendorff, who is only great at a time of success. If things go badly he loses his nerve."[21] Their first concern was the sizable Romanian Army, so troops sent from the Western Front checked Romanian and Russian incursions into Hungary. Then Romania was invaded from the south by German, Austro-Hungarian, Bulgarian, and Ottoman troops commanded by August von Mackensen and from the north by a German and Austro-Hungarian army commanded by Falkenhayn. Bucharest fell in December 1916. According to Mackensen, Ludendorff's distant management consisted of "floods of telegrams, as superfluous as they were offensive."[22]

 

When sure that the Romanians would be defeated the OHL moved west, retaining the previous staff except for the operations officer, blamed for Verdun. They toured the Western Front meeting—and evaluating—commanders, learning about their problems and soliciting their opinions. At each meeting Ludendorff did most of talking for Hindenburg. There would be no further attacks at Verdun and the Somme would be defended by revised tactics that exposed fewer men to British shells. A new backup defensive line would be built, like the one they had constructed in the east. The Allies would call the new fortifications the Hindenburg Line. The German goal was victory, which they defined as a Germany with extended borders that could be more easily defended in the next war.

 

Hindenburg was given titular command over all of the forces of the Central Powers. Ludendorff's hand was everywhere. Every day he was on the telephone with the staffs of their armies and the Army was deluged with "Ludendorff's paper barrage"[23] of orders, instructions and demands for information. His finger extended into every aspect of the German war effort. He issued the two daily communiques, and often met with the newspaper and newsreel reporters. Before long the public idolized him as the German Army's brain. Historian and correspondent William L. Shirer later called him "virtually dictator of Germany from 1916 until the defeat."[24]

The Home Front

 

Ludendorff had a goal: "One thing was certain—the power must be in my hands."[25] As stipulated by the Constitution of the German Empire the government was run by civil servants appointed by the Kaiser. Confident that army officers were superior to civilians, the OHL volunteered to oversee the economy: procurement, raw materials, labor, and food.[26] Max Bauer, with his industrialist friends, began by setting overambitious targets for military production in what they called the Hindenburg Program. Ludendorff enthusiastically participated in meetings on economic policy—loudly, sometimes pummeling the table with his fists. Implementation of the Program was assigned to General Groener, a staff officer who had directed the Field Railway Service effectively. His office was in the (civilian) War Ministry, not in the OHL as Ludendorff had wanted. Therefore, he assigned staff officers to most government ministries, so he knew what was going on and could press his demands.

 

War industry's major problem was the scarcity of skilled workers, therefore 125,000 men were released from the armed forces and trained workers were no longer conscripted. The OHL wanted to enroll most German men and women into national service, but the Reichstag legislated that only males 17–60 were subject to "patriotic service" and refused to bind war workers to their jobs.[27] Groener realized that they needed the support of the workers, so he insisted that union representatives be included on industrial dispute boards. He also advocated an excess profits tax. The industrialists were incensed. On 16 August 1917, Ludendorff telegraphed an order reassigning Groener to command the 33rd Infantry Division.[28] Overall, "unable to control labour and unwilling to control industry, the army failed miserably".[29] To the public it seemed that Ludendorff was running the nation as well as the war. According to Ludendorff, "the authorities ... represented me as a dictator".[30] He would not become Chancellor because the demands for running the war were too great.[31] The historian Frank Tipton argues that while not technically a dictator, Ludendorff was "unquestionably the most powerful man in Germany" in 1917–18.[32]

 

The OHL did nothing to mitigate the crisis of growing food shortages in Germany. Despite the Allied blockade, everyone could have been fed adequately, but supplies were not managed effectively or fairly.[33] In spring 1918, half of all the meat, eggs, and fruit consumed in Berlin were sold on the black market.[34]

In government

 

The Navy advocated unrestricted submarine warfare, which would surely bring the United States into the war. At the Kaiser's request, his commanders met with his friend, the eminent chemist Walther Nernst, who knew America well, and who warned against the idea. Ludendorff promptly ended the meeting; it was "incompetent nonsense with which a civilian was wasting his time."[35] Unrestricted submarine warfare began in February 1917, with the OHL’s strong support. This fatal mistake reflected poor military judgment in uncritically accepting the Navy’s contention that there were no effective potential countermeasures, like convoying, and confidence that the American armed forces were too feeble to fight effectively.[citation needed] By the end of the war, Germany would be at war with 27 nations.

 

Ludendorff, with the Kaiser's blessing,[36] helped Lenin and other 30 or so revolutionaries in exile return to Russia.[37] Ludendorff agreed to send the Bolsheviks in Switzerland by train through Germany from where they would then travel to Russia via Sweden.[38] Lenin, however, still took some convincing, insisting that he be sent on a sealed train. Lenin ultimately agreed on 31 March, and would depart Switzerland on 8 April.[39][40][41]

 

In the spring of 1917 the Reichstag passed a resolution for peace without annexations or indemnities. They would be content with the successful defensive war undertaken in 1914. The OHL was unable to defeat the resolution or to have it substantially watered down. The commanders despised Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg as weak, so they forced his resignation by repeatedly threatening to resign themselves, despite the Kaiser's admonition that this was not their business. Bethmann Hollweg was replaced by a minor functionary, Georg Michaelis, the food minister, who announced that he would deal with the resolution as "in his own fashion".[42] Despite this put-down, the Reichstag voted the financial credits needed for continuing the war.

 

Following the overthrow of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, the new Russian government launched the Kerensky Offensive in July 1917, attacking the Austro-Hungarian lines in Galicia. After minor successes the Russians were driven back and many of their soldiers refused to fight. The counterattack was halted only after the line was pushed 240 kilometres (150 mi) eastwards. The Germans capped the year in the East by capturing the strong Russian fortress of Riga in September 1917, starting with a brief, overwhelming artillery barrage using many gas shells then followed by infiltrating infantry. The Bolsheviks seized power and soon were at the peace table.

 

Ludendorff insisted on the huge territorial losses forced on Russia in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, even though this required that a million German soldiers remain in the east. During the peace negotiations with Russia, his representative kept demanding the economic concessions coveted by German industrialists. The commanders kept blocking attempts to frame a plausible peace offer to the western powers by insisting on borders expanded for future defense. Ludendorff regarded the Germans as the "master race"[43] and after victory planned to settle ex-soldiers in the Baltic states and in Alsace-Lorraine, where they would take over property seized from Balts and the French.[44] One after another the OHL toppled government ministers they regarded as weak.

Western Front (1916–1917)

 

In contrast to the OHL's questionable interventions in politics and diplomacy, their armies continued to excel. The commanders would agree on what was to be done and then Ludendorff and the OHL staff produced the mass of orders specifying exactly what was to be accomplished. On the western front they stopped packing defenders in the front line, which reduced losses to enemy artillery. They issued a directive on elastic defense, in which attackers who penetrated a lightly held front line entered a battle zone in which they were punished by artillery and counterattacks. It remained German Army doctrine through World War II; schools taught the new tactics to all ranks. Its effectiveness is illustrated by comparing the first half of 1916 in which 77 German soldiers died or went missing for every 100 British to the second half when 55 Germans were lost for every 100 British.[45]

 

By February 1917 the OHL was sure that the new French commander, General Robert Nivelle, would attack, and correctly foresaw that he would try to pinch off the German salient between Arras and Noyon. So the OHL withdrew German forces to the segment of the Hindenburg line across the base of the salient in Operation Alberich, leaving the ground they gave up as a depopulated waste land. The Nivelle Offensive in April 1917 was blunted by mobile defense in depth. Many French units mutinied, though the OHL never grasped the extent of the disarray.

 

The British supported their allies with a successful attack near Arras and had another success in June 1917 at Messines Ridge in Flanders. Then at the end of July 1917, the British attacked Passchendaele Ridge. At first the defense was directed by General von Lossberg, a pioneer in defense in depth, but when the British adjusted their tactics, Ludendorff took over day-to-day control. The British eventually took Passchendaele Ridge at great cost.

 

Ludendorff worried about declining morale, so in July 1917 OHL established a propaganda unit. In October 1917 they began mandatory patriotic lectures to the troops, who were assured that if the war was lost they would "become slaves of international capital".[46] The lecturers were to "ensure that a fight is kept up against all agitators, croakers, and weaklings".[47]

 

To bolster the wobbling Austro-Hungarian government, the Germans provided some troops and led a joint attack in Italy in October. They sliced through the Italian lines in the mountains at Caporetto. Two hundred and fifty thousand Italians were captured and the rest of Italian Army was forced to retreat to the Grappa-Piave defensive line.

 

On 20 November 1917, the British achieved a total surprise by attacking at Cambrai. A short, intense bombardment preceded an attack by tanks, which led the infantry through the German wire. It was Ludendorff's 52nd birthday, but he was too upset to attend the celebratory dinner. The British were not organized to exploit their breakthrough, and German reserves counterattacked, in some places driving the British back beyond their starting lines.

 

At the beginning of 1918 almost a million munition workers struck; one demand was peace without annexations. OHL ordered that "'all strikers fit to bear arms' be sent to the front, thereby degrading military service."[48]

Western Front (1918)

 

With Russia out of the war, the Germans outnumbered the Allies on the Western Front. After extensive consultations, OHL planned a series of attacks to drive the British out of the war. During the winter all ranks were schooled in the innovative tactics proven at Caporetto and Riga. The first attack, Operation Michael, was on 21 March 1918 near Cambrai. After an effective hurricane bombardment coordinated by Colonel Bruchmüller, they slashed through the British lines, surmounting the obstacles that had thwarted their enemies for three years. On the first day they occupied as large an area as the Allies had won on the Somme after 140 days. The Allies were aghast, but it was not the triumph OHL had hoped for: they had planned another Tannenberg by surrounding tens of thousands of British troops in the Cambrai salient,[49] but had been thwarted by stout defense and fighting withdrawal. They lost as many men as the defenders—the first day was the bloodiest of the war.[50] Among the dead was Ludendorff’s oldest stepson; a younger had been killed earlier. The Germans were unable to cut any vital railway. When Ludendorff motored near the front he was displeased by seeing how: "The numerous slightly wounded made things difficult by the stupid and displeasing way in which they hurried to the rear."[51] The Americans doubled the number of troops being sent to France.

 

Their next attack was in Flanders. Again they broke through, advancing 30 km (19 mi), and forcing the British to give back all of the ground that they had won the preceding year after weeks of battle. But the Germans were stopped short of the rail junction that was their goal. Next, to draw French reserves south, they struck along the Chemin des Dames. In their most successful attack yet they advanced 12 km (7.5 mi) on the first day, crossing the Marne but stopping 56 kilometres (35 mi) from Paris. However each German triumph weakened their army and its morale. From 20 March 1918 to 25 June the German front lengthened from 390 kilometres (240 mi) to 510 kilometres (320 mi).[citation needed]

 

Then the Germans struck near Reims, to seize additional railway lines for use in the salient, but were foiled by brilliant French elastic tactics. Undeterred, on 18 July 1918 Ludendorff, still "aggressive and confident",[52] traveled to Flanders to confer about the next attack there. A telephone call reported that the French and Americans, led by a mass of tanks, had smashed through the right flank of their salient pointing toward Paris, on the opening day of the Battle of Soissons. Everyone present realized that surely they had lost the war. Ludendorff was shattered.[citation needed]

 

OHL began to withdraw step by step to new defensive lines, first evacuating all of their wounded and supplies. Ludendorff's communiques, which hitherto had been largely factual, now distorted the news, for instance claiming that American troops had to be herded onto troop ships by special police.[53]

 

On 8 August 1918, the Germans were completely surprised at Amiens when British tanks broke through the defenses and intact German formations surrendered. To Ludendorff it was the "black day in the history of the German Army".[54] The German retreats continued, pressed by Allied attacks. OHL still vigorously opposed offering to give up the territory they desired in France and Belgium, so the German government was unable to make a plausible peace proposal.[citation needed]

 

Ludendorff became increasingly cantankerous, railing at his staff without cause, publicly accusing Hindenburg of talking nonsense, and sometimes bursting into tears. Bauer wanted him replaced, but instead a doctor, Oberstabarzt Hochheimer, was brought to OHL. He had worked closely with Ludendorff in Poland during the winter of 1915–16 on plans to bring in German colonists.[44] Before the war he had a practice in nervous diseases. Hochheimer "spoke as a friend and he listened as a friend",[55] convincing Ludendorff that he could not work effectively with one hour of sleep a night and that he must relearn how to relax. After a month away from headquarters Ludendorff had recovered from the severest symptoms of battle fatigue.

Downfall

 

On 29 September 1918, Ludendorff and Hindenburg suddenly told an incredulous Kaiser that they could not guarantee the integrity of the Western front "for two hours" and they must have an immediate armistice. A new Chancellor, Prince Maximilian of Baden, approached President Woodrow Wilson, but Wilson's terms were unacceptable to the German leadership, and so the German army fought on. The chancellor told the Kaiser that he and his cabinet would resign unless Ludendorff was removed, but that Hindenburg must remain to hold the army together.[56] The Kaiser called his commanders in, curtly accepting Ludendorff's resignation and then rejecting Hindenburg's. Fuming, Ludendorff would not accompany the field marshal back to headquarters: "I refused to ride with you because you have treated me so shabbily".[57]

 

Ludendorff had assiduously sought all of the credit; now he was rewarded with all of the blame. Widely despised, and with revolution breaking out, he was hidden by his brother and a network of friends until he slipped out of Germany disguised in blue spectacles and a false beard[58] and fake Finnish passport,[59] settling in a Swedish admirer's country home until the Swedish government asked him to leave in February 1919. Within seven months, he wrote two volumes of detailed memoirs. Friends, led by Breucker, provided him with documents and negotiated with publishers. Groener (who is not mentioned in the book) characterized it as a showcase of his "caesar-mania".[60] He was a brilliant general, according to John Wheeler-Bennett, stating that he was "certainly one of the greatest routine military organizers that the world has ever seen",[61] but he also said he was a ruinous political meddler.[citation needed] The influential military analyst Hans Delbrück concluded that "The Empire was built by Moltke and Bismarck, destroyed by Tirpitz and Ludendorff."[62]

After the Great War

 

In exile, Ludendorff wrote numerous books and articles about the German military's conduct of the war while forming the foundation for the Dolchstosslegende, the "stab-in-the-back theory," for which he is considered largely responsible,[63] insisting that a domestic crisis had sparked Germany's surrender while the military situation held firm, ignoring that he himself had pressed the politicians for an armistice on military grounds. Ludendorff was convinced that Germany had fought a defensive war and, in his opinion, that Kaiser Wilhelm II had failed to organize a proper counter-propaganda campaign or provide efficient leadership.[63]

 

Ludendorff was extremely suspicious of the Social Democrats and leftists, whom he blamed for the humiliation of Germany through the Versailles Treaty. Ludendorff claimed that he paid close attention to the business element (especially the Jews), and saw them turn their backs on the war effort by—as he saw it—letting profit, rather than patriotism, dictate production and financing.

 

Again focusing on the left, Ludendorff was appalled by the strikes that took place towards the end of the war and the way that the home front collapsed before the military front did, with the former poisoning the morale of soldiers on temporary leave. Most importantly, Ludendorff felt that the German people as a whole had underestimated what was at stake in the war; he was convinced that the Entente had started the war and was determined to dismantle Germany completely.

 

Ludendorff wrote:

 

By the Revolution the Germans have made themselves pariahs among the nations, incapable of winning allies, helots in the service of foreigners and foreign capital, and deprived of all self-respect. In twenty years' time, the German people will curse the parties who now boast of having made the Revolution.

— Erich Ludendorff, My War Memories, 1914–1918

 

Political career in the Republic

Ludendorff (center) with Hitler and other early Nazi leaders and prominent radical German nationalists, April 1924

 

Ludendorff returned to Berlin in February 1919.[64] Staying at the Adlon Hotel, he talked with another resident, Sir Neill Malcolm, the head of the British Military Mission. After Ludendorff presented his excuses for the German defeat Malcolm said, "You mean that you were stabbed in the back?" [65]— coining a key catchphrase for the German right wing.

 

On 12 March 1920, 5,000 Freikorps troops under the command of Walther von Lüttwitz marched on the Chancellery, forcing the government led by Friedrich Ebert and Gustav Bauer to flee the city. The putschists proclaimed a new government with a right-wing politician, Wolfgang Kapp as the new "chancellor". Ludendorff and Max Bauer were part of the putsch. The Kapp Putsch was soon defeated by a general strike that brought Berlin to a standstill. The leaders fled, Ludendorff to Bavaria, where a right-wing coup had succeeded. He published two volumes of annotated—and in a few instances pruned—documents and commentaries documenting his war service.[66] He reconciled with Hindenburg, who began to visit every year.

 

In May 1923, Ludendorff had an agreeable first meeting with Adolf Hitler, and soon he had regular contacts with Nazis. On 8 November 1923, the Bavarian Staatskommissar Gustav von Kahr was addressing a jammed meeting in a large beer hall, the Bürgerbräukeller. Hitler, waving a pistol, jumped onto the stage, announcing that the national revolution was underway. The hall was occupied by armed men who covered the audience with a machine gun, the first move in the Beer Hall Putsch. Hitler announced that he would lead the Reich Government and Ludendorff would command the army. He addressed the now enthusiastically supportive audience and then spent the night in the War Ministry, unsuccessfully trying to obtain the army's backing.

 

The next morning, 3,000 armed Nazis formed outside of the Bürgerbräukeller and marched into central Munich, the leaders just behind the flag bearers. They were blocked by a cordon of police, and firing broke out for less than a minute. Several of the Nazis in front were hit or dropped to the ground. Ludendorff and his adjutant Major Streck marched to the police line where they pushed aside the rifle barrels. He was respectfully arrested. He was indignant when he was sent home while the other leaders remained in custody. Four police officers and 15 Nazis had been killed, including Ludendorff's servant, Kurt Neubauer.

 

They were tried in early 1924. Ludendorff was acquitted, but Heinz Pernet, Ludendorff's stepson, was convicted of "aiding and abetting treason," given a fifteen-month sentence. Hitler went to prison but was released after nine months. Ludendorff's 60th birthday was celebrated by massed bands and a large torchlight parade. In 1924, he was elected to the Reichstag as a representative of the NSFB (a coalition of the German Völkisch Freedom Party (DVFP) and members of the Nazi Party), serving until 1928. In 1925, he founded the Tannenbergbund, a German nationalist organization which was both anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic, and published literature espousing conspiracy theories involving Jews, Catholics—especially Jesuits—and Freemasons.[67][68][69]

 

As his views became more extreme under the influence of his wife, Mathilde von Kemnitz, Ludendorff gradually began to part company with Hitler, who was surreptitiously working to undermine the reputation of his one serious rival for the leadership of the extreme right in Germany.[67] The stranded relationships between NSDAP and other far right or nationalist movements only increased the gap between Hitler and Ludendorff's ideas; the surge of the SA as the armed wing of National Socialism also made redundant the presence inside the party of a "military" leader (Ludendorff) interacting with the "political" leader (Hitler). By February 1926, Hitler's movement was in the process of breaking ties with Ludendorff-sponsored Tannenbergbund.[70] Previously, Ludendorff had been persuaded to run for President of the Republic in the March 1925 election as the DVFP candidate, in alliance with the Nazis, but received only 1.1 per cent of the vote; there is some evidence that Hitler himself persuaded Ludendorff to run, knowing that the results would be humiliating.[67]

 

No one had a majority in the initial round of the election, so a second round was needed; Hindenburg entered the race and was narrowly elected. Ludendorff felt so humiliated by what he saw as a betrayal by his old friend that he broke off relations with Hindenburg, and in 1927 refused to even stand beside the field marshal at the dedication of the Tannenberg memorial. He attacked Hindenburg abusively for not having acted in a "nationalistic soldier-like fashion". The Berlin-based liberal newspaper Vossische Zeitung states in its article "Ludendorff's hate tirades against Hindenburg—Poisonous gas from Hitler's camp" that Ludendorff was, as of 29 March 1930, deeply grounded in Nazi ideology.[71]

 

Tipton notes that Ludendorff was a social Darwinist who believed that war was the "foundation of human society", and that military dictatorship was the normal form of government in a society in which every resource must be mobilized.[72] The historian Margaret L. Anderson notes that after the war, Ludendorff wanted Germany to go to war against all of Europe, and that he became a pagan worshipper of the Nordic god Wotan (Odin); he detested not only Judaism, but also Christianity, which he regarded as a weakening force.[73]

Retirement and death

 

In 1926, Ludendorff divorced Margarethe Schmidt and married his second wife Mathilde von Kemnitz (1877–1966). They published books and essays claiming that the world's problems were the result of Christianity, especially the Jesuits and Catholics, but also conspiracies by Jews and the Freemasons. They founded the Bund für Gotteserkenntnis (in German) (Society for the Knowledge of God), a small and rather obscure esoterical society of theists.[74]

 

By the time Hitler came to power, Ludendorff was no longer sympathetic to him. The Nazis distanced themselves from Ludendorff because of his eccentric conspiracy theories.[75]

 

On 30 January 1933, the occasion of Hitler's appointment as Chancellor by President Hindenburg, Ludendorff allegedly sent the following telegram to Hindenburg:[76]

 

I solemnly prophesy that this accursed man will cast our Reich into the abyss and bring our nation to inconceivable misery. Future generations will damn you in your grave for what you have done.[77]

 

Some historians consider this text to be a forgery.[78] In an attempt to regain Ludendorff's favor, Hitler arrived unannounced at Ludendorff's home on his 70th birthday in 1935 to promote him to field marshal. Infuriated, Ludendorff allegedly rebuffed Hitler by telling him: "An officer is named General Field-Marshal on the battlefield! Not at a birthday tea-party in the midst of peace."[79] He wrote two further books on military themes.[80]

 

Ludendorff died of liver cancer in the private clinic Josephinum in Munich, on 20 December 1937 at the age of 72.[81] He was given—against his explicit wishes—a state funeral organized and attended by Hitler, who declined to speak at his eulogy. He was buried in the Neuer Friedhof in Tutzing in Bavaria.

Decorations and awards

 

He received the following honours:[82]

 

Knight of the Military Order of Max Joseph (Bavaria)

Grand Commander's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern, with Star (Prussia)

Pour le Mérite (military), 8 August 1914; with Oak Leaves, 23 February 1915 (Prussia)

Grand Cross of the Iron Cross, 24 March 1918 (Prussia)

Iron Cross (1914) 1st and 2nd Classes

Commander of the Order of the Zähringer Lion, 2nd Class (Baden)

Knight of the Military Order of St. Henry (Saxony)

Knight of the Military Merit Order (Württemberg)

Knight Grand Cross of the House and Merit Order of Peter Frederick Louis, with Swords and Laurels (Oldenburg)

Military Merit Cross, 2nd class (Mecklenburg-Schwerin)

Military Merit Cross, 1st Class, with War Decoration (Austria-Hungary)

Commander of the Imperial Austrian Order of Franz Joseph, with Star, 1913 (Austria-Hungary)[83]

Grand Cross of the Austrian Imperial Order of Leopold, 1917 (Austria-Hungary)[83]

Gold Military Merit Medal (Signum Laudis, Austria-Hungary)

Cross for Merit in War (Saxe-Meiningen)

Grand Cross of the Order of the Cross of Liberty, with Swords (Finland)[84]

 

Writings

Books (selection)

Erich Ludendorff – Meine Kriegserinnerungen – Ernst Mittler und Sohn – Berlin 1919

 

1919: Meine Kriegserinnerungen 1914–1918. Berlin: Mittler & Sohn (republished 1936)

translated into English by Frederic Appleby Holt as My War Memories 1914–1918, London: Hutchinson & Co., 1919 (vol. I, vol. II; American edition as Ludendorff's Own Story, Harper & Brothers)

1920: (ed.) Urkunden der Obersten Heeresleitung über ihre Tätigkeit, 1916–18, Berlin: E. S. Mittler

translated into English by F.A. Holt as The General Staff and its Problems: The History of the Relations between the High Command and the German Imperial Government as Revealed by Official Documents, London: Hutchinson and Son, 1920 (vol. I, vol. II)[b]

1933: Mein militärischer Werdegang. Blätter der Erinnerung an unser stolzes Heer. Munich: Ludendorffs Verlag

1937: with Mitarbeitern: Mathilde Ludendorff – ihr Werk und Wirken. Munich: Ludendorffs Verlag

1937: Auf dem Weg zur Feldherrnhalle. Lebenserinnerungen an die Zeit des 9. November 1923. Munich: Ludendorffs Verlag

1939: with Mathilde Ludendorff: Die Judenmacht, ihr Wesen und Ende. Munich: Ludendorffs Verlag

 

Smaller publications

1926: Die Revolution von oben. Das Kriegsende und die Vorgänge beim Waffenstillstand. Zwei Vorträge. Lorch: Karl Rohm

1932: Schändliche Geheimnisse der Hochgrade. Ludendorffs Verlag, Munchen

1934: Wie der Weltkrieg 1914 „gemacht“ wurde. Munich: Völkischer Verlag

1934: Das Marne-Drama. Der Fall Moltke-Hentsch. Munich: Ludendorffs Verlag

1934: "Tannenberg". Zum 20. Jahrestag der Schlacht. Munich: Ludendorffs Verlag

1934: Die politischen Hintergründe des 9. November 1923. Munich: Ludendorffs Verlag

1935: Über Unbotmäßigkeit im Kriege. Munich: Ludendorffs Verlag

1935: Französische Fälschung meiner Denkschrift von 1912 über den drohenden Krieg. Munich: Ludendorffs Verlag

1938–40: Feldherrnworte. Munich: Ludendorffs Verlag

Organized by: Philippine Women's Center, No One is Illegal, and Justicia for Migrant Workers

 

December 18th has been designated as a Global Day of Action Against Racism, And for the Rights of Migrants, Refugees and Displaced People to commemorate and celebrate the struggles of migrants around the world (globalmigrantsaction.org/).

 

Join us in Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories for a community supper and participatory discussion across communities to continue to organize, to resist and to build a strong and vibrant migrant justice movement to demand dignity, justice and status for all.

 

Kenney’s model is one of Permanent Impermanence. We cannot allow divisive stereotypes of migrants ‘stealing our jobs and resources’ to let the Harper government off the hook for putting profit over the people and the planet. On International Migrants Day, stand with us for migrant dignity and human rights and justice for all.

 

-- Greater Vancouver Baptist Church

Original Caption: Millville, New Jersey - Glass bottles. L. G. Nestor Co. Tube worker blowing conductivity cell. This highly skilled worker takes glass tubing and blows it into the intricate shapes needed for chemical ware. He uses blue prints in determining the size of the bottles he blows. The glass is heated ready for blowing over the small gas flame shown in the left center of the picture, March 1937

 

U.S. National Archives’ Local Identifier: 69-RP-422

 

Photographer: Hine, Lewis

  

Subjects:

The New Deal

Tennessee Valley Authority

Works Progress Administration

Work Portraits

The Great Depression

  

Persistent URL: research.archives.gov/description/518651

 

Repository: Still Picture Records Section, Special Media Archives Services Division (NWCS-S), National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD, 20740-6001.

 

For information about ordering reproductions of photographs held by the Still Picture Unit, visit: www.archives.gov/research/order/still-pictures.html

 

Reproductions may be ordered via an independent vendor. NARA maintains a list of vendors at www.archives.gov/research/order/vendors-photos-maps-dc.html

 

Access Restrictions: Unrestricted

Use Restrictions: Unrestricted

The Integrated Policy Exercise provides students with a week-long opportunity to work intensively on a policy issue. All students participate as part of a team representing different constituencies with an interest in the problem being studied. Working in groups of 7 to 10, students are assigned a role such as lobbying firm, public official, or economic group. Groups develop policy positions and prepare a political strategy to achieve their goal(s). More on IPE: fordschool.umich.edu/ipe

 

The Winter 2015 IPE, “Bolstering Detroit's Economic Renewal through Skilled Workers: Implementing Governor Snyder's Visa Plan” took place on January 5, 6, and 9, 2015 at the Ford School’s Joan and Sanford Weill Hall, and at the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, MI. More on the 2015 topic and simulated media coverage: sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/fordschool-ipe-2015/home

The Integrated Policy Exercise provides students with a week-long opportunity to work intensively on a policy issue. All students participate as part of a team representing different constituencies with an interest in the problem being studied. Working in groups of 7 to 10, students are assigned a role such as lobbying firm, public official, or economic group. Groups develop policy positions and prepare a political strategy to achieve their goal(s). More on IPE: fordschool.umich.edu/ipe

 

The Winter 2015 IPE, “Bolstering Detroit's Economic Renewal through Skilled Workers: Implementing Governor Snyder's Visa Plan” took place on January 5, 6, and 9, 2015 at the Ford School’s Joan and Sanford Weill Hall, and at the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, MI. More on the 2015 topic and simulated media coverage: sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/fordschool-ipe-2015/home

Organized by: Philippine Women's Center, No One is Illegal, and Justicia for Migrant Workers

 

December 18th has been designated as a Global Day of Action Against Racism, And for the Rights of Migrants, Refugees and Displaced People to commemorate and celebrate the struggles of migrants around the world (globalmigrantsaction.org/).

 

Join us in Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories for a community supper and participatory discussion across communities to continue to organize, to resist and to build a strong and vibrant migrant justice movement to demand dignity, justice and status for all.

 

Kenney’s model is one of Permanent Impermanence. We cannot allow divisive stereotypes of migrants ‘stealing our jobs and resources’ to let the Harper government off the hook for putting profit over the people and the planet. On International Migrants Day, stand with us for migrant dignity and human rights and justice for all.

 

-- Greater Vancouver Baptist Church

Pictured: Mayor Karen Majewski, City of Hamtramck

 

The Integrated Policy Exercise provides students with a week-long opportunity to work intensively on a policy issue. All students participate as part of a team representing different constituencies with an interest in the problem being studied. Working in groups of 7 to 10, students are assigned a role such as lobbying firm, public official, or economic group. Groups develop policy positions and prepare a political strategy to achieve their goal(s). More on IPE: fordschool.umich.edu/ipe

 

The Winter 2015 IPE, “Bolstering Detroit's Economic Renewal through Skilled Workers: Implementing Governor Snyder's Visa Plan” took place on January 5, 6, and 9, 2015 at the Ford School’s Joan and Sanford Weill Hall, and at the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, MI. More on the 2015 topic and simulated media coverage: sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/fordschool-ipe-2015/home

Pan America uses a unique anti-crease formula for its wrinkle free shirts and trousers. Each piece is cured and treated properly under high-pressure steam and extreme temperatures, at the same time ensuring that they do not sag or wilt. While automation is use extensively, many of our steps rely on the keen eyes and able hands of a team of skilled workers trained to deliver excellence.

Visit : www.panamerica.in

From centre left: Maraea Whare (21) holding "Talley's AFFCO locks out families", Rangi Whare (53), Kerry Senior Whare (55) and Kerry Junior Whare (22) holding "Whanau Locked out by Talleys!!!".

 

Kerry Whare, his wife Rangi and two children Maraea and Kerry Junior all work at AFFCO Horotiu in Waikato.

 

The Talley's owned company gave Maraea, 21, and Kerry Junior, 22, lock out notices on Tuesday morning, but not their parents.

 

Mrs Whare, 53, is a skilled labourer and has worked at the site for 14 years. She says she feels like the company is trying to break up their family.

 

"Talley's AFFCO only negotiated for 10 hours face-to-face with our union before trying to split up my family," she says. "We've always been solid as a family and we're not going to let it happen."

 

Mr Whare, 55, is a multi-skilled worker and has worked at the plant on and off for 25 years. He says he feels gutted that he drove into work yesterday without his kids.

 

"It's heart breaking driving into work while your kids are locked out," he says. "I don't know how the company chose to only lock out some of the workers including my kids and not others, but I suspects it’s to create divisions in the workplace."

 

Mr and Mrs Whare went on strike for 24 hours from 5am this morning in solidarity with their children and will picket through to the afternoon.

 

Mrs Whare says the family was concerned about losing a further two incomes, particularly since wages have been lower than usual due to low stock numbers and because they are paying off two cars.

 

"We've got no choice to strike in solidarity -you’ve got to stand with your kids," she says.

 

Kerry junior says he always wanted to be like his dad and work in AFFCO, which is the main employer in Ngaruawahia.

 

"I've worked hard for the company and I feel like I've been stood on and spat out," he says. "I feel discriminated against."

 

Maraea, 21, is a labourer and has worked at the plant for four years. She says she is "dead broke" because she’s just had her 21st and the lockout will make things worse.

 

"I love my job and its sucks that I can’t come back in because I'm locked out," she says. "I'd rather be at work, but it was their decision and as far as I'm concerned I've done nothing wrong."

 

Kerry Junior, 22, is a cutter and has worked at the plant for six years. He say they have little prospect for work in Ngaruawahia, a small struggling town in rural Waikato with few jobs.

 

"We haven't even been told when we can go back to work," he says. "If we could find any jobs here, they're not going to employ us because they wouldn't know when we'd go back to AFFCO."

 

Mrs Whare says she always instilled in her kids that the only way they get anywhere is to work hard and earn a decent wage.

 

"What sort of message is Talley's AFFCO giving to our kids by locking them out? We just want the company to lift the lockout and let our kids go back to work."

 

The Whare family has worked at the meat processing plant for a combined 49 years and have other relatives at Horotiu.

 

ENDS

 

For more information contact Meat Workers Union media liason Simon Oosterman on 021 885 410.

Photos are available for free at www.flickr.com/photos/simonoosterman

The Integrated Policy Exercise provides students with a week-long opportunity to work intensively on a policy issue. All students participate as part of a team representing different constituencies with an interest in the problem being studied. Working in groups of 7 to 10, students are assigned a role such as lobbying firm, public official, or economic group. Groups develop policy positions and prepare a political strategy to achieve their goal(s). More on IPE: fordschool.umich.edu/ipe

 

The Winter 2015 IPE, “Bolstering Detroit's Economic Renewal through Skilled Workers: Implementing Governor Snyder's Visa Plan” took place on January 5, 6, and 9, 2015 at the Ford School’s Joan and Sanford Weill Hall, and at the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, MI. More on the 2015 topic and simulated media coverage: sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/fordschool-ipe-2015/home

Earn your bachelor degree without moving or a lengthy commute!

 

Four universities provide in-demand degree programs on the Lower Columbia College campus, significantly enhancing the ability of local residents and LCC graduates to complete higher levels of education--in their own community.

 

Partner Universities:

City University of Seattle

WSU Vancouver

 

Unlike students who move away to complete a four-year degree, local graduates are more likely to stay and work in the community. Professionals with advanced degrees, in addition to skilled workers in the vocational trades, help attract new business and industry.

 

For more information regarding bachelor degree programs on the Lower Columbia College calll 360.353.7800. Call today!

The Integrated Policy Exercise provides students with a week-long opportunity to work intensively on a policy issue. All students participate as part of a team representing different constituencies with an interest in the problem being studied. Working in groups of 7 to 10, students are assigned a role such as lobbying firm, public official, or economic group. Groups develop policy positions and prepare a political strategy to achieve their goal(s). More on IPE: fordschool.umich.edu/ipe

 

The Winter 2015 IPE, “Bolstering Detroit's Economic Renewal through Skilled Workers: Implementing Governor Snyder's Visa Plan” took place on January 5, 6, and 9, 2015 at the Ford School’s Joan and Sanford Weill Hall, and at the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, MI. More on the 2015 topic and simulated media coverage: sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/fordschool-ipe-2015/home

Gold deposits have been found in the south-eastern and south-western parts of South Sudan. Current mining efforts are at an artisanal level and have been ongoing since around the 1940s.

 

Gold mining employs workers mostly from South Sudan, while some skilled workers from Kenya, Sudan, Uganda and DRC are also involved.

 

2018 © Arshad Khan / UN Environment

For further information go to www.unenvironment.org/resources/report/south-sudan-first-...

The Integrated Policy Exercise provides students with a week-long opportunity to work intensively on a policy issue. All students participate as part of a team representing different constituencies with an interest in the problem being studied. Working in groups of 7 to 10, students are assigned a role such as lobbying firm, public official, or economic group. Groups develop policy positions and prepare a political strategy to achieve their goal(s). More on IPE: fordschool.umich.edu/ipe

 

The Winter 2015 IPE, “Bolstering Detroit's Economic Renewal through Skilled Workers: Implementing Governor Snyder's Visa Plan” took place on January 5, 6, and 9, 2015 at the Ford School’s Joan and Sanford Weill Hall, and at the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, MI. More on the 2015 topic and simulated media coverage: sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/fordschool-ipe-2015/home

Pictured: Professor Elisabeth Gerber, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy

 

The Integrated Policy Exercise provides students with a week-long opportunity to work intensively on a policy issue. All students participate as part of a team representing different constituencies with an interest in the problem being studied. Working in groups of 7 to 10, students are assigned a role such as lobbying firm, public official, or economic group. Groups develop policy positions and prepare a political strategy to achieve their goal(s). More on IPE: fordschool.umich.edu/ipe

 

The Winter 2015 IPE, “Bolstering Detroit's Economic Renewal through Skilled Workers: Implementing Governor Snyder's Visa Plan” took place on January 5, 6, and 9, 2015 at the Ford School’s Joan and Sanford Weill Hall, and at the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, MI. More on the 2015 topic and simulated media coverage: sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/fordschool-ipe-2015/home

The Integrated Policy Exercise provides students with a week-long opportunity to work intensively on a policy issue. All students participate as part of a team representing different constituencies with an interest in the problem being studied. Working in groups of 7 to 10, students are assigned a role such as lobbying firm, public official, or economic group. Groups develop policy positions and prepare a political strategy to achieve their goal(s). More on IPE: fordschool.umich.edu/ipe

 

The Winter 2015 IPE, “Bolstering Detroit's Economic Renewal through Skilled Workers: Implementing Governor Snyder's Visa Plan” took place on January 5, 6, and 9, 2015 at the Ford School’s Joan and Sanford Weill Hall, and at the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, MI. More on the 2015 topic and simulated media coverage: sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/fordschool-ipe-2015/home

English stone layers making a new yard with cobble stones. very skilled workers.

Secretary of the Army Dr. Mark T. Esper participated in the Regan National Defense Forum bipartisan annual event as a speaker in the A Defense Industrial & Innovation Base Workforce for the 21ST Century: Winning The Competition For Highly Skilled Workers Inside & Outside the Pentagon panel alongside California Congressman Ken Calvert, Ms. Marillyn Hewson, Chairman, President & CEO, Lockheed, and Florida Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy in Semi Valley, CA, Dec. 1, 2018. Mr. Mike Hammer from Fox News moderated the discussion. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Nicole Mejia)

En appuyant la Fondation du Centre des sciences de Montréal vous contribuez au développement de programmes et d’expositions qui suscitent la passion et favorise l’éclosion de vocations en science et technologie chez les jeunes.

 

www.centredessciencesdemontreal.com/a-propos-du-csm/fonda...

 

Take action to encourage young people’s passion for science, interest them in science and technology careers and prepare a new generation of highly skilled workers for our companies!

 

www.montrealsciencecentre.com/about-msc/foundation/direct...

 

The Integrated Policy Exercise provides students with a week-long opportunity to work intensively on a policy issue. All students participate as part of a team representing different constituencies with an interest in the problem being studied. Working in groups of 7 to 10, students are assigned a role such as lobbying firm, public official, or economic group. Groups develop policy positions and prepare a political strategy to achieve their goal(s). More on IPE: fordschool.umich.edu/ipe

 

The Winter 2015 IPE, “Bolstering Detroit's Economic Renewal through Skilled Workers: Implementing Governor Snyder's Visa Plan” took place on January 5, 6, and 9, 2015 at the Ford School’s Joan and Sanford Weill Hall, and at the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, MI. More on the 2015 topic and simulated media coverage: sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/fordschool-ipe-2015/home

"Notre-Dame d'Orcival" is a masterpiece of romanesque architecture in the Auvergne. Towering above the small village of Orcival (pop. 250) it was built within the second half of the 12th century on a steep slope. There are no proof records about the construction, as the archives were looted, but lots of legends are still around.

 

The Virgin herself should have been here, drinking water from a certain spring.

 

It was not the first church built on that place, that may even have been a special/holy place already during celtic times. The church was part of a small priory, belonging to La Chaise-Dieu and being a church of pilgrimage since the very beginning. Damaged (like Mozac) by the earthquakes (1478), it was reconstructed. During the Revolution the complete wooden furniture was burnt. The statue of the "Virgin in Majesty", created around 1170 and since then the center of The statue of the "Virgin in Majesty", created around 1170 and since then the center of the pilgrimage, was sealed inside a wall - and survived.

 

To construct a church on such a slope was pretty diffcult, as the site had to be levelled before the foundations could be layed. Seen here the nave, the transept, the crossing tower with the typical "massif barlong" - and hidden behind the scaffolding the radial chapels.

 

Structures like "Notre-Dame d'Orcival" need more than just a little TLC from time to time. They do create jobs for skilled workers.

 

Joining Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training and Minister Responsible for Labour Pat Bell and Parliamentary Secretary John Rustad are Clifford Wilson, a student in the Forest Industry Readiness Skills Training Program, and MaryAnne Arcand, Executive Director for the Central Interior Logging Association.

 

Learn More: www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/2012/11/first-program-helps-fill-s...

The Integrated Policy Exercise provides students with a week-long opportunity to work intensively on a policy issue. All students participate as part of a team representing different constituencies with an interest in the problem being studied. Working in groups of 7 to 10, students are assigned a role such as lobbying firm, public official, or economic group. Groups develop policy positions and prepare a political strategy to achieve their goal(s). More on IPE: fordschool.umich.edu/ipe

 

The Winter 2015 IPE, “Bolstering Detroit's Economic Renewal through Skilled Workers: Implementing Governor Snyder's Visa Plan” took place on January 5, 6, and 9, 2015 at the Ford School’s Joan and Sanford Weill Hall, and at the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, MI. More on the 2015 topic and simulated media coverage: sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/fordschool-ipe-2015/home

The Integrated Policy Exercise provides students with a week-long opportunity to work intensively on a policy issue. All students participate as part of a team representing different constituencies with an interest in the problem being studied. Working in groups of 7 to 10, students are assigned a role such as lobbying firm, public official, or economic group. Groups develop policy positions and prepare a political strategy to achieve their goal(s). More on IPE: fordschool.umich.edu/ipe

 

The Winter 2015 IPE, “Bolstering Detroit's Economic Renewal through Skilled Workers: Implementing Governor Snyder's Visa Plan” took place on January 5, 6, and 9, 2015 at the Ford School’s Joan and Sanford Weill Hall, and at the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, MI. More on the 2015 topic and simulated media coverage: sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/fordschool-ipe-2015/home

Kerry Junior Whare (22) and Maraea (21) have been locked out at Talley's-owned AFFCO Horotiu while their parents, Kerry Senior (55) and Rangi (53) remain at work.

 

Kerry Whare, his wife Rangi and two children Maraea and Kerry Junior all work at AFFCO Horotiu in Waikato.

 

The Talley's owned company gave Maraea, 21, and Kerry Junior, 22, lock out notices on Tuesday morning, but not their parents.

 

Mrs Whare, 53, is a skilled labourer and has worked at the site for 14 years. She says she feels like the company is trying to break up their family.

 

"Talley's AFFCO only negotiated for 10 hours face-to-face with our union before trying to split up my family," she says. "We've always been solid as a family and we're not going to let it happen."

 

Mr Whare, 55, is a multi-skilled worker and has worked at the plant on and off for 25 years. He says he feels gutted that he drove into work yesterday without his kids.

 

"It's heart breaking driving into work while your kids are locked out," he says. "I don't know how the company chose to only lock out some of the workers including my kids and not others, but I suspects it’s to create divisions in the workplace."

 

Mr and Mrs Whare went on strike for 24 hours from 5am this morning in solidarity with their children and will picket through to the afternoon.

 

Mrs Whare says the family was concerned about losing a further two incomes, particularly since wages have been lower than usual due to low stock numbers and because they are paying off two cars.

 

"We've got no choice to strike in solidarity -you’ve got to stand with your kids," she says.

 

Kerry junior says he always wanted to be like his dad and work in AFFCO, which is the main employer in Ngaruawahia.

 

"I've worked hard for the company and I feel like I've been stood on and spat out," he says. "I feel discriminated against."

 

Maraea, 21, is a labourer and has worked at the plant for four years. She says she is "dead broke" because she’s just had her 21st and the lockout will make things worse.

 

"I love my job and its sucks that I can’t come back in because I'm locked out," she says. "I'd rather be at work, but it was their decision and as far as I'm concerned I've done nothing wrong."

 

Kerry Junior, 22, is a cutter and has worked at the plant for six years. He say they have little prospect for work in Ngaruawahia, a small struggling town in rural Waikato with few jobs.

 

"We haven't even been told when we can go back to work," he says. "If we could find any jobs here, they're not going to employ us because they wouldn't know when we'd go back to AFFCO."

 

Mrs Whare says she always instilled in her kids that the only way they get anywhere is to work hard and earn a decent wage.

 

"What sort of message is Talley's AFFCO giving to our kids by locking them out? We just want the company to lift the lockout and let our kids go back to work."

 

The Whare family has worked at the meat processing plant for a combined 49 years and have other relatives at Horotiu.

 

ENDS

 

For more information contact Meat Workers Union media liason Simon Oosterman on 021 885 410.

Photos are available for free at www.flickr.com/photos/simonoosterman

The B.C. government is investing $29.2 million to renew trades facilities at Camosun College - a key part of B.C.'s new Skills and Training Plan.

 

The renovation and expansion of Camosun's Interurban facilities will ensure future heavy-duty mechanics, shipbuilders and other skilled workers will be able to get the training they need on southern Vancouver Island.

 

The Honourable John Yap, Minister of Advanced Education, Innovation and Technology, and Honourable Ida Chong, Minister of Aboriginal Rights and Reconciliation, made the announcement today at Camosun’s Interurban campus.

 

Learn More: www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/2012/09/trades-renewal-begins-at-c...

The Integrated Policy Exercise provides students with a week-long opportunity to work intensively on a policy issue. All students participate as part of a team representing different constituencies with an interest in the problem being studied. Working in groups of 7 to 10, students are assigned a role such as lobbying firm, public official, or economic group. Groups develop policy positions and prepare a political strategy to achieve their goal(s). More on IPE: fordschool.umich.edu/ipe

 

The Winter 2015 IPE, “Bolstering Detroit's Economic Renewal through Skilled Workers: Implementing Governor Snyder's Visa Plan” took place on January 5, 6, and 9, 2015 at the Ford School’s Joan and Sanford Weill Hall, and at the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, MI. More on the 2015 topic and simulated media coverage: sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/fordschool-ipe-2015/home

Checkpoint Charlie (or "Checkpoint C") was the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War (1947–1991), as named by the Western Allies.

 

East German leader Walter Ulbricht agitated and maneuvered to get the Soviet Union's permission to construct the Berlin Wall in 1961 to stop emigration and defection westward through the Border system, preventing escape across the city sector border from East Berlin into West Berlin. Checkpoint Charlie became a symbol of the Cold War, representing the separation of East and West. Soviet and American tanks briefly faced each other at the location during the Berlin Crisis of 1961. On 26 June 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy visited Checkpoint Charlie and looked from a platform onto the Berlin Wall and into East Berlin.

 

After the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc and the reunification of Germany, the American guard house at Checkpoint Charlie became a tourist attraction. It is now located in the Allied Museum in the Dahlem neighborhood of Berlin.

 

By the early 1950s, the Soviet method of restricting emigration was emulated by most of the rest of the Eastern Bloc, including East Germany. However, in occupied Germany, until 1952, the lines between East Germany and the western occupied zones remained easily crossed in most places. Subsequently, the inner German border between the two German states was closed and a barbed-wire fence erected.

 

Even after closing of the inner German border officially in 1952, the city sector border in between East Berlin and West Berlin remained considerably more accessible than the rest of the border because it was administered by all four occupying powers. Accordingly, Berlin became the main route by which East Germans left for the West. Hence the Berlin sector border was essentially a "loophole" through which Eastern Bloc citizens could still escape.

 

The 3.5 million East Germans who had left by 1961 totaled approximately 20% of the entire East German population.[7] The emigrants tended to be young and well educated.[8] The loss was disproportionately great among professionals — engineers, technicians, physicians, teachers, lawyers and skilled workers.

A large and enthusiastic crowd – made up of industry and community leaders, MSU Denver faculty, staff, students and alumni, legislators and other stakeholders – gathered on Oct. 8 for the groundbreaking of MSU Denver’s Aerospace and Engineering Sciences building. The $60 million facility promises to revolutionize aerospace and advanced manufacturing education with an innovative, cross-disciplinary curriculum that offers industry a direct pipeline of highly educated, skilled workers.

 

Photos by Sara Hertwig

The Integrated Policy Exercise provides students with a week-long opportunity to work intensively on a policy issue. All students participate as part of a team representing different constituencies with an interest in the problem being studied. Working in groups of 7 to 10, students are assigned a role such as lobbying firm, public official, or economic group. Groups develop policy positions and prepare a political strategy to achieve their goal(s). More on IPE: fordschool.umich.edu/ipe

 

The Winter 2015 IPE, “Bolstering Detroit's Economic Renewal through Skilled Workers: Implementing Governor Snyder's Visa Plan” took place on January 5, 6, and 9, 2015 at the Ford School’s Joan and Sanford Weill Hall, and at the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, MI. More on the 2015 topic and simulated media coverage: sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/fordschool-ipe-2015/home

Samuel Gompers is famous because he

 

CORRECT: started the modern labor movement in the United States.

EXPLANATION: The labor movement fundamentally changed the relationship between workers and employers.

 

2. Someone who works in an industrial job, often in manufacturing, and who receives wages is a(n)

 

CORRECT: blue-collar worker.

EXPLANATION: Blue-collar workers are so-called because traditional work shirts worn by laborers were blue; laborers wore darker clothing that didn't show the dirt associated with hard physical labor in a factory.

 

3. Why was the Taft-Hartley Act passed?

 

CORRECT: to curb union power

EXPLANATION: Unions became so powerful in the 1940s that they began to abuse their power to the point where companies were hindered from increasing efficiency to stay competitive. This and other problems prompted Congress to pass the Taft-Hartley Act.

 

4. A settlement technique in which a neutral mediator meets with each side to try to find a solution that both sides will accept is

 

CORRECT: mediation.

EXPLANATION: Collective bargaining sometimes results in a deadlock at which time a third-party mediator is called in to help find solutions and thereby prevent a strike.

 

5. The process in which union and company representatives meet to negotiate a new labor contract is called

 

CORRECT: collective bargaining.

EXPLANATION: Labor contracts usually last from two to five years, after which time a new contract must be negotiated. Unions often engage in collective bargaining with company representatives to negotiate new labor contracts.

 

6. What tactic, involving a work stoppage, do unions use to force employers to address their demands?

 

CORRECT: strikes

EXPLANATION: A strike is an organized work stoppage that can shut down a workplace.

 

7. What is the name for a settlement technique in which a third party reviews the case and imposes a decision that is legally binding for both sides?

 

INCORRECT: a right-to-work law

CORRECT: arbitration

EXPLANATION: If collective bargaining and mediation have failed to produce an agreement between a union and an employer, then they might be willing to designate a neutral third party to make the final decision as an arbitrator.

 

8. In the early years of the labor movement, what was one of the main reasons workers wanted to organize?

 

CORRECT: Factories were dangerous places to work.

EXPLANATION: Workers in the 1800's were injured at a high rate, and disabled workers often lost their jobs. The prospects of finding another job were very small once a worker was injured.

 

9. Someone in a professional or clerical job who usually earns a salary is considered to be a(n)

 

CORRECT: white-collar worker.

EXPLANATION: White-collar workers are so-called because the men who held those jobs in the past usually wore white shirts and ties to work.

 

10. Why do we celebrate Labor Day?

 

CORRECT: to pay homage to the American worker

EXPLANATION: In 1882, labor leader Peter J. McGuire suggested a day celebrating the American worker. The idea took hold, and Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894.

 

1. Which is an example of a semi-skilled worker?

 

CORRECT: lifeguard

 

2. The decision that a mediator reaches during settlement talks is

 

CORRECT: non-binding.

 

3. When an employer believes that job applicants are intelligent and hardworking based upon their completion of college, it is an example of

 

CORRECT: the screening effect.

 

4. Which of the following workers is likely to earn the highest wage?

 

CORRECT: a professional worker

 

5. When is there an equilibrium wage?

 

CORRECT: when there is no excess in the demand for workers or in the supply of workers

 

6. The law that set the minimum wage is the

 

CORRECT: Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

 

7. What type of work is growing fastest in the United States?

 

CORRECT: information-related

 

8. The Taft-Hartley Act in 1947

 

CORRECT: allowed states to pass right-to-work laws.

 

9. What was one reason union membership rose in the 1930s?

 

CORRECT: Congress passed pro-union laws.

 

10. Another name for temporary work is

 

CORRECT: contingent employment.

 

11. What is meant by productivity?

 

CORRECT: the value of output

 

12. A labor union is an organization that

 

CORRECT: tries to improve working conditions, wages, and benefits for its members.

 

13. Which of the following most accurately describes the change in average weekly earnings since 1980?

 

CORRECT: Average weekly earnings have risen for college-educated workers only.

 

14. Which of the following people is considered part of the labor force?

 

CORRECT: a person who has lost a job but is looking for one

 

15. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the United States Department of Labor

 

CORRECT: surveys households to assemble information on the workforce each month.

 

16. The invisible barrier that exists when highly skilled women are continually denied promotions to high-level positions in an industry dominated by men is called

 

CORRECT: the glass ceiling.

 

17. Which job is categorized as professional and would most likely earn a salary?

 

CORRECT: teacher

 

18. _______________ founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1886.

 

CORRECT: Samuel Gompers

 

19. Collective bargaining means that

 

CORRECT: representatives of unions and companies negotiate new labor contracts.

 

20. There is a high equilibrium wage when the

 

CORRECT: labor supply is low and the demand is high.

  

The Integrated Policy Exercise provides students with a week-long opportunity to work intensively on a policy issue. All students participate as part of a team representing different constituencies with an interest in the problem being studied. Working in groups of 7 to 10, students are assigned a role such as lobbying firm, public official, or economic group. Groups develop policy positions and prepare a political strategy to achieve their goal(s). More on IPE: fordschool.umich.edu/ipe

 

The Winter 2015 IPE, “Bolstering Detroit's Economic Renewal through Skilled Workers: Implementing Governor Snyder's Visa Plan” took place on January 5, 6, and 9, 2015 at the Ford School’s Joan and Sanford Weill Hall, and at the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, MI. More on the 2015 topic and simulated media coverage: sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/fordschool-ipe-2015/home

The Integrated Policy Exercise provides students with a week-long opportunity to work intensively on a policy issue. All students participate as part of a team representing different constituencies with an interest in the problem being studied. Working in groups of 7 to 10, students are assigned a role such as lobbying firm, public official, or economic group. Groups develop policy positions and prepare a political strategy to achieve their goal(s). More on IPE: fordschool.umich.edu/ipe

 

The Winter 2015 IPE, “Bolstering Detroit's Economic Renewal through Skilled Workers: Implementing Governor Snyder's Visa Plan” took place on January 5, 6, and 9, 2015 at the Ford School’s Joan and Sanford Weill Hall, and at the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, MI. More on the 2015 topic and simulated media coverage: sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/fordschool-ipe-2015/home

Wages of less skilled workers have stagnated or fallen in real terms across advanced economies. In all but a handful of them, the incomes of households in the top income decile have risen faster than incomes of bottom-decile households for 25 years. The growing polarization of household incomes is driven by many factors, including patterns of household formation; the rise in the number of single-headed households, for example, is concentrated among middle- and low-income earners. Highly educated, higher-income cohorts not only have higher marriage rates but also now tend to marry within their own income groups. Nonetheless, the labor market’s changing demand and supply patterns, which determine long-term wage trajectories, are the most powerful drivers of income polarization.

 

This exhibit comes from “The world at work: Jobs, pay, and skills for 3.5 billion people,” the new McKinsey Global Institute report, on the McKinsey & Company Web site. bit.ly/KWDvHT

 

The Integrated Policy Exercise provides students with a week-long opportunity to work intensively on a policy issue. All students participate as part of a team representing different constituencies with an interest in the problem being studied. Working in groups of 7 to 10, students are assigned a role such as lobbying firm, public official, or economic group. Groups develop policy positions and prepare a political strategy to achieve their goal(s). More on IPE: fordschool.umich.edu/ipe

 

The Winter 2015 IPE, “Bolstering Detroit's Economic Renewal through Skilled Workers: Implementing Governor Snyder's Visa Plan” took place on January 5, 6, and 9, 2015 at the Ford School’s Joan and Sanford Weill Hall, and at the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, MI. More on the 2015 topic and simulated media coverage: sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/fordschool-ipe-2015/home

A section of a tower crane being removed by a 350 ton mobile crane.

The Postcard

 

A postally unused postcard published by the American Art Publishing Co. on behalf of F.W. Woolworth.

 

On the divided back is printed:

 

'The Woolworth Building,

New York City.

Occupies a plot 152x197 feet

at Broadway and Barclay Street.

It is the tallest building in the

world, rising to a height of

750 feet, 55 stories above the

ground.

The foundation consists of

caissons 19 feet in diameter

sunk to bedrock, 110 to 130

feet below the ground.

Total cost is estimated at

$15,000,000.

H. Finkelstein & Son'.

 

The Woolworth Building

 

The Woolworth Building is a residential building and early skyscraper at 233 Broadway in the Tribeca neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in NYC.

 

Designed by Cass Gilbert, it was the tallest building in the world from 1913 to 1930, with a height of 792 feet (241 m). More than a century after its construction, it remains one of the 100 tallest buildings in the U.S..

 

The Woolworth Building consists of a 30-story base topped by a 30-story tower. Its façade is mostly decorated with architectural terracotta, though the lower portions are limestone, and it features thousands of windows.

 

The ornate lobby contains various sculptures, mosaics, and architectural touches. The structure was designed with several amenities and attractions, including a now-closed observatory on the 57th. floor and a private swimming pool in the basement.

 

F. W. Woolworth, the founder of a brand of popular five-and-ten-cent stores, conceived the skyscraper as a headquarters for his company. Woolworth planned the skyscraper jointly with the Irving National Exchange Bank, which also agreed to use the structure as its headquarters.

 

The Woolworth Building had originally been planned as a 12- to 16-story commercial building, but it underwent several revisions during its planning process. Construction started in 1910, although the building's final height was not decided upon until January 1911. The building officially opened on the 24th. April 1913.

 

The Woolworth Building has undergone several changes throughout its history. The façade was cleaned in 1932, and the building received an extensive renovation between 1977 and 1981.

 

The Irving National Exchange Bank moved its headquarters to 1 Wall Street in 1931, but the Woolworth Company (later Venator Group) continued to own the Woolworth Building for most of the 20th. century.

 

The structure was sold to the Witkoff Group in 1998. The top 30 floors were sold to a developer in 2012 and converted into residences.

 

Office and commercial tenants use the rest of the building.

 

-- Architecture of the Woolworth Building

 

Cass Gilbert designed the Woolworth Building in the neo-Gothic style. The building resembles European Gothic cathedrals; Reverend S. Parkes Cadman dubbed it "The Cathedral of Commerce" in a booklet published in 1916.

 

F. W. Woolworth, who had devised the idea for the Woolworth Building, had proposed using the Victoria Tower as a model for the building; he reportedly also admired the design of Palace of Westminster.

 

Gilbert, by contrast, disliked the comparison to religious imagery. The architect ultimately used 15th.- and 16th.-century Gothic ornament on the Woolworth Building, along with a complementary color scheme.

 

The Woolworth Building was designed to be 420 feet (130 m) high, but was eventually raised to 792 feet (241 m).

 

The Woolworth Building was 60 stories tall when completed in 1913, though this consisted of 53 usable floors topped by several mechanical floors.

 

The building's ceiling heights, ranging from 11 to 20 feet (3.4 to 6.1 m), make it the equivalent of an 80-story building. It remained the tallest building in the world until the construction of 40 Wall Street and the Chrysler Building in 1930, both in New York City.

 

The building is assigned its own ZIP Code; it was one of 41 buildings in Manhattan that had their own ZIP Codes as of 2019.

 

-- The Form of the Woolworth Building

 

The building's tower, flush with the main frontage on Broadway, joins an office block base with a narrow interior court for light. The base occupies the entire lot between Park Place to the north, Broadway to the east, and Barclay Street to the south.

 

The site measures 155 feet (47 m) wide on Broadway and 200 feet (61 m) wide on both Park Place and Barclay Street. The base contains two "wings" extending westward, one each on the Park Place and Barclay Street frontages, which form a rough U-shape when combined with the Broadway frontage.

 

This ensured that all offices had outside views. The U-shaped base is approximately 30 stories tall. All four elevations of the base are decorated, since the building has frontage on all sides.

 

The tower rises an additional 30 stories above the eastern side of the base, abutting Broadway. Above the 30th. floor are setbacks on the north and south elevations. There are additional setbacks along the north, south, and west elevations on the 45th. and 50th. floors.

 

The 30th. through 45th. floors measure 84 by 86 feet (26 by 26 m); the 46th. through 50th. floors, 69 by 71 feet (21 by 22 m); and the 51st. through 53rd. floors, 69 by 61 feet (21 by 19 m).

 

The tower has a square plan below the 50th.-story setback and an octagonal plan above. Though the structure is physically 60 stories tall, the 53rd. floor is the top floor that can be occupied. Above the 53rd. floor, the tower tapers into a pyramidal roof.

 

-- The Façade of the Woolworth Building

 

The lowest four stories are clad in limestone. Above that, the exterior of the Woolworth Building was cast in limestone-colored, glazed architectural terracotta panels.

 

F. W. Woolworth initially wanted to clad the skyscraper in granite, while Gilbert wanted to use limestone. The decision to use terracotta for the façade was based on both aesthetic and functional concerns.

 

Terracotta was not only fireproof but also, in Gilbert's mind, a purely ornamental addition clarifying the Woolworth Building's steel construction. Each panel was of a slightly different color, creating a polychrome effect.

 

The façade appeared to have a uniform tone, but the upper floors were actually darker and more dense. Behind the terracotta panels were brick walls; the terracotta pieces are attached to the brick walls by metal rods and hangers.

 

The Atlantic Terra Cotta Company provided the original terracotta cladding. The panels were manufactured in shades of blue, green, sienna, and rose. The terracotta panels were partially vitrified, allowing them to bear large loads.

 

Gilbert also asked that John Donnelly and Eliseo V. Ricci create full-size designs based on Atlantic Terra Cotta's models.

 

In 1932, Atlantic Terra Cotta carried out a comprehensive cleaning campaign of the Woolworth's façade in order to remove blackening caused by the city's soot and pollution.

 

The Ehrenkrantz Group restored the building's façade between 1977 and 1981. During the renovation, much of the terracotta was replaced with concrete and Gothic ornament was removed.

 

The building has several thousand windows: the exact number is disputed, but various sources state that the Woolworth Building has 2,843, 4,400, or 5,000 windows.

 

Windows were included for lighting and comfort; because the Woolworth Building was built before air conditioning became common, every office is within 10 feet (3.0 m) of a window.

 

Some of the Woolworth Building's windows are set within arch-shaped openings. Most of the building's spandrels, or triangles between the top corners of the window and the top of the arch, have golden Gothic tracery against a bright blue backdrop.

 

On the 25th., 39th., and 40th. stories, the spandrels consist of iconography found in the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom.

 

Gold-on-blue tracery is also found on the 26th., 27th., and 42nd. floors.

 

-- The Base of the Woolworth Building

 

The main entrance on Broadway is a three-story Tudor arch, surrounded on either side by two bays: one narrower than the main arch, the other wider. The five bays form a triumphal arch overhung by a balcony and stone motifs of Gothic design.

 

The intrados of the arch contains 23 niches. The topmost niche depicts an owl; the lowest niches on both sides depict tree trunks; and the other twenty niches depict animated figures.

 

The spandrel above the left side of the arch depicts Mercury, classical god of commerce, while that above the right side depicts Ceres, classical goddess of agriculture.

 

Above all of this is an ogee arch with more niches, as well as two carvings of owls hovering above a "W" monogram. There are salamanders within niches on either side of the main entrance.

 

Inside the triumphal arch, there is a smaller arch with a revolving door and a Tudor window; it is flanked by standard doors and framed with decorations. There is a pelican above this smaller arch.

 

-- The Tower Section of the Woolworth Building

 

At the 45th.- and 50th.-story setbacks, there are turrets at each corner of the tower. The northeast corner turret concealed a smokestack.

 

There is a pyramidal roof above the 53rd. floor, as well as four ornamental tourelles at the four corners of the tower. The roof was originally gilt but is now green. The pyramidal roof, as well as the smaller roofs below, used 40,000 square feet (3,700 m2) of gold leaf.

 

The main roof is interspersed with small dormers, which contain windows into the maintenance levels inside. The pyramidal roof is topped by another pyramid with an octagonal base and tall pointed-arch windows. In turn, the octagonal pyramid is capped by a spire.

 

The three layers of pyramids are about 62 feet (19 m), or five stories tall. An observation deck was located at the 55th. floor, about 730 feet (220 m) above ground level. The deck, which was octagonal in plan, measuring 65 feet (20 m) across, was accessed by a glass-walled elevator.

 

It was patronized by an estimated 300,000 visitors per year, but was closed as a security measure in 1941 after the Pearl Harbor attack.

 

Strongly articulated piers, which carry right to the pyramidal cap without intermediate cornices, give the building its upward thrust. This was influenced by Aus's belief that:

 

"From an engineering point of view,

no structure is beautiful where the

lines of strength are not apparent."

 

The copper roof is connected to the Woolworth Building's steel superstructure, which serves to ground the roof electrically. The Gothic detailing concentrated at the highly visible crown is over-scaled, and the building's silhouette could be made out from several miles away.

 

Gilbert's choice of the Gothic style was described as "an expression of the verticality of the tower form", and as Gilbert himself later wrote, the style was "light, graceful, delicate and flame-like".

 

Gilbert considered several proposals for exterior lighting, including four powerful searchlights atop nearby buildings and a constantly rotating lamp at the apex of the Woolworth Building's roof.

 

Ultimately, the builders decided to erect nitrogen lamps and reflectors above the 31st. floor, and have the intensity of the lighting increase with height.

 

-- Structural Features of the Woolworth Building

 

-- The Substructure

 

In contrast to other parts of Manhattan, the bedrock beneath the site is relatively deep, descending to between 110 and 115 feet (34 and 35 m) on average. The site also has a high water table, which is as shallow as 15 feet (4.6 m) below ground level.

 

Due to the geology of the area, the building is supported on 69 massive caissons that descend to the bedrock. The caissons range in depth from 100 to 120 feet (30 to 37 m).

 

To give the structure a sturdy foundation, the builders used metal tubes 19 feet (5.8 m) in diameter filled with concrete. These tubes were driven into the ground with a pneumatic caisson process to anchor the foundations to the bedrock.

 

Because the slope of the bedrock was so sharp, steps had to be carved into the rock before the caissons could be sunk into the ground. The caissons were both round and rectangular, with the rectangular caissons located mainly on the southern and western lot lines.

 

The caissons are irregularly distributed across the site, being more densely concentrated at the northeastern corner. This is because the building was originally planned to occupy a smaller site at the corner of Broadway and Park Place; when the site was enlarged, the caissons that had already been installed were left in place.

 

The two basement levels, descending 55 feet (17 m), are constructed of reinforced concrete.

 

-- The Superstructure

 

Whereas many earlier buildings had been constructed with load-bearing walls, which by necessity were extremely thick, the Woolworth Building's steel superstructure was relatively thin, which enabled Gilbert to maximize the building's interior area.

 

Engineers Gunvald Aus and Kort Berle designed the steel frame. Each column carries a load of 24 tons per square foot, supporting the building's overall weight of 233,000 tons.

 

Where the columns of the superstructure did not match up with the caissons, they were cantilevered above on plate girders between two adjoining caissons. These girders are extremely large; one such girder measures 8 feet (2.4 m) deep, 6.75 feet (2 m) wide, and 23 feet (7.0 m) long.

 

For the wind bracing, the entire Woolworth Building was considered as a vertical cantilever, and correspondingly large girders and columns were used in the construction.

 

-- Interior

 

Upon completion, the Woolworth Building contained seven water systems — one each for the power plant, the hot-water plant, the fire-protection system, the communal restrooms, the offices with restrooms, the basement swimming pool, and the basement restaurant.

 

Although the water is obtained from the New York City water supply system, much of it is filtered and reused. A dedicated water system, separate from the city's, was proposed during construction, but workers abandoned the plan after unsuccessfully digging 1,500 feet (460 m) into Manhattan's bedrock.

 

The Woolworth Building was the first structure to have its own power plant, with four Corliss steam engine generators totaling a capacity of 1,500 kilowatt-hours; the plant could support 50,000 people.

 

The building also had a dedicated heating plant with six boilers producing 2,500 horsepower. The boilers were fed from subterranean coal bunkers capable of holding over 2,000 tons of anthracite coal.

 

-- Lobby

 

The ornate, cruciform lobby, known as the "arcade", was characterized by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission as:

 

"One of the most spectacular of

the early 20th. century in New

York City".

 

It consists of two perpendicular, double-height passageways with barrel-vaulted ceilings. Where the passageways intersect, there is a domed ceiling. The dome contains pendentives that may have been patterned after those of the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia.

 

Veined marble from the island of Skyros in Greece covers the lobby. Patterned glass mosaics that contain blue, green, and gold tiling with red accents decorate the ceilings.

 

There are other Gothic-style decorations in the lobby, including on the cornice and the bronze fittings. Twelve plaster brackets, which carry grotesques depicting major figures in the building's construction, are placed where the arcade and the mezzanine intersect.

 

These ornaments include Gilbert with a model of the building, Aus taking a girder's measurements, and Woolworth holding nickels and dimes. Two ceiling murals by C. Paul Jennewein, titled Labor and Commerce, are located above the mezzanine where it crosses the south and north wings, respectively.

 

The staircase hall is a two-story room located to the west of the arcade. It consists of the ground level, which contains former storefronts, as well as a mezzanine level above it. The ground floor originally contained 18 storefronts.

 

A 15-foot-wide (4.6 m) marble staircase leads westward from the arcade to a mezzanine, where the entrance to the Irving National Exchange Bank office was formerly located. The mezzanine contains a stained-glass skylight surrounded by the names of several nations. The skylight contains the dates 1879 and 1913, which respectively signify the years of the Woolworth Company's founding and the building's opening.

 

The skylight is also surrounded by sculpted grotesques, which depict merchandising activities in the five-and-dime industry.

 

There is a smaller space west of the staircase hall with a one-story-high ceiling. This room contains a coffered ceiling with a blue-green background. The crossbeams contain Roman portrait heads, while the cornice contains generic sculpted grotesques.

 

-- Basement

 

The basement of the Woolworth Building contains an unused bank vault, restaurant, and barbershop. The bank vault was initially intended to be used for safe-deposit boxes, though it was used by the Irving National Exchange Bank in practice.

 

In 1931, Irving moved some $3 billion of deposits to a vault in its new headquarters at 1 Wall Street, and the Woolworth Building's vault was converted into a storage area for maintenance workers.

 

There is also a basement storage room, known as the "bone yard", which contains replacement terracotta decorations for the facade.

 

The basement also contains closed entrances to two New York City Subway stations. There was an entrance to the Park Place station directly adjacent to the building's north elevation, served by the 2 and ​3 trains. This entrance was closed after the September 11 attacks in 2001.

 

Another entrance led to the City Hall station one block north, now served by the R and ​W trains, but this was closed in 1982 because of concerns over crime.

 

A private pool, originally intended for F. W. Woolworth, exists in the basement. Proposed as early as 1910, the pool measured 15 by 55 feet (4.6 by 16.8 m) and had a marble perimeter.

 

The pool was later drained, but was restored in the mid-2010's as part of the conversion of the Woolworth Building's upper floors into residential units.

 

-- Offices

 

At the time of construction, the Woolworth Building had over 2,000 offices. Each office had ceilings ranging from 11 to 20 feet (3.4 to 6.1 m) high. Gilbert had designed the interior to maximize the amount of usable office space, and correspondingly, minimize the amount of space taken up by the elevator shafts.

 

The usable-space consideration affected the placement of the columns in the wings, as the columns in the main tower were positioned around the elevator shafts and facade piers.

 

Each of the lowest 30 stories had 31 offices, of which ten faced the light court, eight faced Park Place, eight faced Barclay Street, and five faced Broadway. Above the 30th.-story setback, each story had 14 offices.

 

For reasons that are unknown, floor numbers 42, 48, and 52 are skipped.

 

Woolworth's private office on the 24th. floor, revetted in green marble in the French Empire style, is preserved in its original condition. His office included a mahogany desk with a leather top measuring 7.5 by 3.75 feet (2.29 by 1.14 m).

 

That desk contained a hidden console with four buttons to request various members of his staff.

 

The marble columns in the office are capped by gilded Corinthian capitals. Woolworth's reception room contained objects that were inspired by a visit to the Château de Compiègne shortly after the building opened.

 

These included a bronze bust of Napoleon, a set of French Empire-style lamps with gold figures, and an inkwell with a depiction of Napoleon on horseback.

 

The walls of the office contained portraits of Napoleon, and gold-and-scarlet chairs were arranged around the room. At some point, Woolworth replaced the portrait of Napoleon with a portrait of himself.

 

-- Elevators

 

The Woolworth Building contains a system of high-speed elevators capable of traveling 650 feet (200 m) or 700 feet (210 m) per minute. The Otis Elevator Company supplied the units, which were innovative in that there were "express" elevators, stopping only at certain floors, and "local" elevators, stopping at every floor between a certain range.

 

There were 26 Otis electric elevators with gearless traction, as well as an electric-drum shuttle elevator within the tower once construction was complete. Of these, 24 were passenger elevators. Two freight elevators and two emergency staircases were placed at the rear of the building.

 

The elevator doors in the lobby were designed by Tiffany Studios. The patterns on the doors are arabesque tracery patterns in etched steel set off against a gold-plated background.

 

-- History of the Woolworth Building

 

-- Planning

 

F. W. Woolworth, an entrepreneur who had become successful because of his "Five-and-Dime" (5- and 10-cent stores), began planning a new headquarters for the F. W. Woolworth Company in 1910.

 

Around the same time, Woolworth's friend Lewis Pierson was having difficulty getting shareholder approval for the merger of his Irving National Bank and the rival New York Exchange Bank.

 

Woolworth offered to acquire shares in New York Exchange Bank and vote in favor of the merger if Pierson agreed to move the combined banks' headquarters to a new building he was planning as the F. W. Woolworth Company's headquarters.

 

Having received a commitment from the banks, Woolworth acquired a corner site on Broadway and Park Place in Lower Manhattan, opposite City Hall.

 

Woolworth and the Irving National Exchange Bank then set up the Broadway-Park Place Company to construct and finance the proposed structure. Initially, the bank was supposed to purchase the company's stock gradually until it owned the entire company, and thus, the Woolworth Building.

 

Irving would be able to manage the 18 floors of rentable space on a 25-year lease. While negotiations to create the Broadway-Park Place Company were ongoing, Woolworth and his real estate agent Edward J. Hogan purchased several parcels from the Trenor Luther Park estate and other owners.

 

The entire footprint of the current building, a rectangular lot, had been acquired by the 15th. April 1910, at a total cost of $1.65 million (about $37.7 million in 2022).

 

-- Original designs

 

Woolworth commissioned Cass Gilbert to design the new building. Gilbert later mentioned that he had received the commission for the Woolworth Building after getting a phone call from Woolworth one day.

 

Woolworth wanted his new structure to be of similar design to the Palace of Westminster in London, which was designed in the Gothic style. At the time, Gilbert was well known for constructing modern skyscrapers with historicizing design elements.

 

Gilbert was originally retained to design a standard 12- to 16-story commercial building for Woolworth, who later said:

 

"I have no desire to erect a monument

that would cause posterity to remember

me".

 

However, Woolworth then wanted to surpass the nearby New York World Building, which sat on the other side of City Hall Park and stood 20 stories and 350 feet (110 m).

 

A drawing by Thomas R. Johnson, dated April 22 1910, shows a 30-story building rising from the site. Because of the change in plans, the organization of the Broadway-Park Place Company was rearranged.

 

Woolworth would now be the major partner, contributing $1 million of the planned $1.5 million cost. The Irving Bank would pay the balance, and it would take up a 25-year lease for the ground floor, fourth floor, and basement.

 

By September 1910, Gilbert had designed an even taller structure, with a 40-story tower on Park Place adjacent to a shorter 25-story annex, yielding a 550-foot (170 m)-tall building.

 

The next month, Gilbert's latest design had evolved into a 45-story tower roughly the height of the nearby Singer Building. After the latest design, Woolworth wrote to Gilbert in November 1910 and asked for the building's height to be increased to 620 feet (190 m), which was 8 feet (2.4 m) taller than the Singer Building, Lower Manhattan's tallest building.

 

Woolworth was inspired by his travels in Europe, where he would constantly be asked about the Singer Building. He decided that housing his company in an even taller building would provide invaluable advertising for the F. W. Woolworth Company and make it renowned worldwide.

 

This design, unveiled to the public the same month, was a 45-story tower rising 625 feet (191 m), sitting on a lot by 105 by 197 feet (32 by 60 m). Referring to the revised plans, Woolworth said:

 

"I do not want a mere building.

I want something that will be an

ornament to the city."

 

He later said that he wanted visitors to brag that they had visited the world's tallest building.

 

Louis J. Horowitz, president of the building's main contractor Thompson-Starrett Company, said of Woolworth:

 

"Beyond a doubt his ego was a thing

of extraordinary size; whoever tried to

find a reason for his tall building and

did not take that fact into account would

reach a false conclusion."

 

Even after the revised height was unveiled, Woolworth still yearned to make the building even taller, as it was now close to the 700-foot (210 m) height of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower, then the tallest building in New York City and the world.

 

On the 20th. December 1910, Woolworth sent a team of surveyors to measure the Metropolitan Life Tower's height and come up with a precise measurement, so that he could make his skyscraper 50 feet (15 m) taller.

 

He then ordered Gilbert to revise the building's design to reach 710 or 712 feet (216 or 217 m), despite ongoing worries over whether the additional height would be worth the increased cost.

 

In order to fit the larger base that a taller tower necessitated, Woolworth bought the remainder of the frontage on Broadway between Park Place and Barclay Street. He also purchased two lots to the west, one on Park Place and one on Barclay Street; these lots would not be developed, but would retain their low-rise buildings and preserve the proposed tower's views.

 

Such a tall building would produce the largest income of any building globally.

 

On the 1st. January 1911, the New York Times reported that Woolworth was planning a 625 feet (191 m) building at a cost of $5 million.

 

By the 18th. January 1911, Woolworth and Hogan had acquired the final site for the project at a total cost of $4.5 million; (about $103 million in 2022) the lot measured 152 feet (46 m) on Broadway, 192.5 feet (58.7 m) on Barclay Street, and 197.8 feet (60 m) on Park Place.

 

In a New York Times article two days later, Woolworth said that his building would rise 750 feet (230 m) to its tip. In order to fit the correct architectural proportions, Gilbert redesigned the building to its current 792-foot (241 m) height.

 

Renderings by the illustrator Hughson Hawley, completed in April 1911, are the first official materials that reflect this final height.

 

Gilbert had to reconcile both Woolworth's and Pierson's strict requirements for the design of the structure. The architect's notes describe late-night conversations that he had with both men. The current design of the lobby, with its arcade, reflected these conflicting pressures.

 

Sometimes Gilbert also faced practical conundrums, such as Woolworth's requirement that:

 

There must be many windows so divided

that all of the offices should be well lighted,

and so that tenants could erect partitions to

fit their needs."

 

Gilbert wrote that:

 

"This requirement naturally

prevented any broad wall

space".

 

Woolworth and Gilbert sometimes clashed during the design process, especially because of the constantly changing designs and the architect's fees. Nevertheless, Gilbert commended Woolworth's devotion to the details and beauty of the building's design, as well as the entrepreneur's enthusiasm for the project.

 

Such was the scale of the building that Gilbert noted:

 

"For several years my sense of scale was

destroyed because of the unprecedented

attuning of detail to, for these days, such

an excessive height".

 

-- Construction of the Woolworth Building

 

In September 1910, wrecking crews demolished the five and six-story structures which previously occupied the site. Construction officially began on the 4th. November 1910, with excavation by The Foundation Company, using a contract negotiated personally by Frank Woolworth.

 

The start of construction instantly raised the site's value from $2.25 million to $3.2 million. The contract of over $1 million was described as the largest contract for foundation construction ever awarded in the world.

 

It took months for Woolworth to decide upon the general construction company. George A. Fuller's Fuller Company was well experienced and had practically invented skyscraper construction.

 

However Louis Horowitz's Thompson-Starrett Company was local to New York, and despite being newer, Horowitz had worked for Fuller before, and thus had a similar knowledge base.

 

On the 20th. April 1911, Thompson-Starrett won the contract with a guaranteed construction price of $4,308,500 for the building's frame and structural elements.

 

The company was paid $300,000 for their oversight and management work, despite Woolworth's attempts to get the company to do the job for free due to the prestige of the project.

 

On the 12th. June 1911, the Atlantic Terra Cotta Company received a $250,000 contract to manufacture the terracotta.

 

The next month, Donnelly and Ricci received the $11,500 contract for the terracotta work and some of the interior design work. Gilbert requested Atlantic Terra Cotta use an office next to his while they drew several hundred designs.

 

The construction process involved hundreds of workers, and daily wages ranged from $1.50 for laborers (equivalent to $44 in 2022) to $4.50 for skilled workers (equivalent to $133 in 2022).

 

By August 1911, the building's foundations were completed ahead of the target date of the 15th. September; construction of the skyscraper's steel frame began on the 15th. August.

 

The steel beams and girders used in the framework weighed so much that, to prevent the streets from caving in, a group of surveyors examined them on the route along which the beams would be transported.

 

The American Bridge Company provided steel for the building from their foundries in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh; manufacturing took over 45 weeks.

 

The first above-ground steel had been erected by October 1911, and installation of the building's terracotta began on the 1st. February 1912.

 

The building rose at the rate of 1½ stories a week, and the steelworkers set a speed record for assembling 1,153 tons of steel in six consecutive eight-hour days.

 

By the 18th. February 1912, work on the steel frame had reached the building's 18th. floor. By the 6th. April 1912, the steel frame had reached the top of the base at the 30th. floor, and work then began on constructing the tower of the Woolworth Building.

 

Steel reached the 47th. floor by the 30th. May, and the official topping out ceremony took place two weeks ahead of schedule on the 1st. July 1912, as the last rivet was driven into the summit of the tower.

 

The skyscraper was substantially completed by the end of that year. The final estimated construction cost was US$13.5 million (equivalent to $400,000,000 in 2022), up from the initial estimates of US$5 million for the shorter versions of the skyscraper (equivalent to $148,000,000 in 2022).

 

Woolworth provided $5 million, while investors provided the remainder, and financing was completed by August 1911.

 

-- Opening and the 1910's

 

The building opened on the 24th. April 1913. Woolworth held a grand dinner on the building's 27th. floor for over 900 guests, and at exactly 7:30 p.m. EST, President Woodrow Wilson pushed a button in Washington, D.C., to turn on the building's lights. Additional congratulations were sent via letter from former President William Howard Taft, Governor of New Jersey James Fairman Fielder and United States Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels.

 

The building was declared ready for occupancy on the 1st. May 1913, and Woolworth began advertising the offices for rent beginning at $4.00 per square foot.

 

To attract tenants, Woolworth hired architecture critic Montgomery Schuyler to write a 56-page brochure outlining the building's features. Schuyler later described the Woolworth Building as the "noblest offspring" of buildings erected with steel skeletons.

 

On completion, the Woolworth Building topped the record set by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower as the world's tallest building, a distinction it held until 1930.

 

Woolworth had purchased all of the Broadway-Park Place Company's shares from the Irving National Exchange Bank by May 1914; his company held no ownership stake in the building.

 

The building contained offices for as many as 14,000 employees. By the end of 1914, the building was 70% occupied and generating over $1.3 million a year in rents for the F. W. Woolworth Company.

 

-- The Woolworth Building in the 1920's to 1960's

 

During the Great War, only one of the Woolworth Building's then-14 elevators was turned on, and many lighting fixtures in hallways and offices were turned off. This resulted in about a 70% energy reduction compared to peacetime requirements.

 

The building had more than a thousand tenants by the 1920's, who generally occupied suites of one or two rooms. These tenants reportedly collectively employed over 12,000 people in the building.

 

In 1920, after F. W. Woolworth died, his heirs obtained a $3 million mortgage loan on the Woolworth Building from Prudential Life Insurance Company in order to pay off $8 million in inheritance tax.

 

By this point, the building was worth $10 million and grossed $1.55 million per year in rental income. The Broadway-Park Place Corporation agreed to sell the building to Woolco Realty Co., a subsidiary of the F. W. Woolworth Company, in January 1924 at an assessed valuation of $11.25 million (about $153 million in 2022).

 

The company paid $4 million in cash and obtained a five-year, $11 million mortgage from Prudential Life Insurance Company at an annual interest rate of 5.5%. The sale was finalized in April 1924, after which F. W. Woolworth's heirs no longer had any stake in the building.

 

In 1927, the building's pinnacle was painted green, and the observation tower was re-gilded for over $25,000 (about $340,647 in 2022). The Atlantic Terra Cotta Company cleaned the Woolworth Building's façade in 1932.

 

Prudential extended its $3.7 million mortgage on the building by ten years in 1939, and the observation deck was closed after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941.

 

Ten of the building's 24 elevators were temporarily disabled in 1944 because of a shortage of coal. The next year, the building's owners replaced the elevators and closed off the building above the 54th. story.

 

By 1953, a new chilled water air conditioning system had been installed, bringing individual room temperature control to a third of the building.

 

The old car-switch-control elevators had been replaced with a new automatic dispatching systems and new elevator cars. The structure was still profitable by then, although it was now only the sixth-tallest building, and tourists no longer frequented the Woolworth Building.

 

The building's terracotta façade deteriorated easily, and, by 1962, repairs to the terracotta tiles were occurring year-round.

 

The Woolworth Company had considered selling the building as early as the 1960's, though the planned sale never happened.

 

-- Restoration and Landmark Status

 

The National Park Service designated the Woolworth Building as a National Historic Landmark in 1966. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) considered giving the Woolworth Building official city-landmark status in 1970. The F. W. Woolworth Company called the landmark law "onerous" since it would restrict the company from making modifications to many aspects of the building.

 

The commission ultimately declined to give the Woolworth Building a designated-landmark status because of the company's opposition to such a measure, as well as the increased costs and scrutiny.

 

The lobby was cleaned in 1974.

 

The F. W. Woolworth Company commissioned an appraisal of the building's façade in 1975 and found serious deterioration in the building's terracotta. Many of the blocks of terracotta had loosened or cracked from the constant thermal expansion and contraction caused by New York's climate.

 

The cracks in the façade had let rain in, which had caused the steel superstructure to rust. By 1976, the Woolworth Company had placed metal netting around the façade in order to prevent terracotta pieces from dislodging and hitting pedestrians.

 

The issues with the façade were exacerbated by the fact that very few terracotta manufacturers remained in business, making it difficult for the company to procure replacements.

 

The New York City Industrial and Commercial Incentives Board approved a $8.5 million tax abatement in September 1977, which was to fund a proposed renovation of the Woolworth Building.

 

The Woolworth Company still occupied half the building; its vice president for construction said:

 

"We think the building merits

the investment, in part because

F. W. Woolworth had used his

own wealth to fund the building's

construction."

 

Much of the remaining space was occupied by lawyers who paid rentals of between $7 to $12 per square foot ($75 to $129/m2).

 

The F. W. Woolworth Company began a five-year restoration of the building's terracotta and limestone façade, as well as replacement of all the building's windows, in 1977.

 

Initially, the company had considered replacing the entire terracotta façade with concrete; however this was canceled due to its high cost and potential backlash from preservationists.

 

The renovation, carried out by Turner Construction to plans by the New York architectural firm Ehrenkrantz Group, involved the replacement of roughly one-fifth of the building's terracotta.

 

Since there were so few remaining terracotta manufacturers, Woolworth's replaced 26,000 of the tiles with concrete lookalikes; many of those tiles had to be custom-cut. The concrete was coated with a surface that was meant to be replaced every five years, like the glazing on the terracotta blocks.

 

Similarly, the original copper windows were replaced with aluminum frames which allowed them to be opened, whereas the originals were sealed in place.

 

The company also removed some decorative flying buttresses near the tower's crown and refaced four tourelles in aluminum because of damage.

 

The building's renovation was completed without fanfare in 1982. The estimated cost of the project had risen from $8 million to over $22 million. Much of the renovation was financed through the city government's tax break, which had increased to $11.4 million.

 

The LPC again considered the Woolworth Building for landmark designation in early 1982, shortly after the renovation was completed. However upon the request of the building's lawyers, the LPC postponed a public hearing for the proposed landmark designation to April 1982.

 

That year, the building's entrance to the City Hall subway station was closed because of fears over crime. The LPC granted landmark protection to the building's façade and the interior of its lobby in April 1983.

 

The Woolworth Company (later Venator Group) continued to own the building for a decade and a half. After struggling financially for years, and with no need for a trophy office building, Venator Group began discussing a sale of the building in 1996.

 

To raise capital for its other operations, Venator formally placed the Woolworth Building for sale in April 1998.

 

-- Witkoff Group Ownership

 

Venator Group agreed to sell the building in June 1998 to Steve Witkoff's Witkoff Group and Lehman Brothers for $155 million (about $261 million in 2022). However before the sale was finalized in December 1998, Witkoff renegotiated the purchase price to $137.5 million (about $231 million in 2022), citing a declining debt market.

 

Venator shrunk its space in the building from eight floors to four; this was a sharp contrast to the 25 floors the company had occupied just before the sale.

 

Witkoff also agreed to license the Woolworth name and invest $30 million in renovating the exterior and interior of the building.

 

After purchasing the building, the Witkoff Group rebranded it in an attempt to attract entertainment and technology companies. In April 2000, the Venator Group officially moved their headquarters to 112 West 34th. Street, and Witkoff indicated that he would sell the upper half of the building as residential condominiums.

 

That October, the company proposed a two-story addition to the 29th.-floor setbacks on the north and south elevations of the tower, to be designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, who were also leading the renovation of the building. The LPC denied the proposal.

 

The company unveiled an ambitious plan in November 2000 that would have converted the top 27 floors of the building into 75 condominiums, including a five-story penthouse. The plan would have included a new residential lobby on Park Place, a 100-space garage, a 75-seat underground screening room, and a spa in the basement.

 

The developers planned to spend $60 to $70 million on the conversion which would be ready for occupancy by August 2002. However the LPC opposed the plan because it would have required exterior changes to the roof.

 

The commission eventually approved a modified version of the plan. Following the September 11 attacks and the subsequent collapse of the nearby World Trade Center, the proposal was later canceled.

 

-- Security Increases and New Plan

 

Prior to the September 11 attacks, the World Trade Center was often photographed in such a way that the Woolworth Building could be seen between the complex's twin towers.

 

After the attacks occurred only a few blocks away, the Woolworth Building was without electricity, water and a telephone service for a few weeks; its windows were broken, and falling rubble damaged a top turret.

 

Increased post-attack security restricted access to most of the ornate lobby, previously a tourist attraction. New York Times reporter David W. Dunlap wrote in 2006 that a security guard had asked him to leave within twelve seconds of entering the Woolworth Building.

 

However, there was renewed interest in restoring public access to the Woolworth Building during planning for its centennial celebrations. The lobby reopened to public tours in 2014, when Woolworth Tours started accommodating groups for 30- to 90-minute tours.

 

The tours were part of a partnership between Cass Gilbert's great-granddaughter, Helen Post Curry, and Witkoff's vice president for development, Roy A. Suskin.

 

By 2007, the concrete blocks on the Woolworth Building's façade had deteriorated because of neglect. A lack of regular re-surfacing had led to water and dirt absorption, which had stained the concrete blocks.

 

Though terracotta's popularity had increased since the 1970's, Suskin had declined to say whether the façade would be modified, if at all.

 

Around the same time, Witkoff planned to partner with Rubin Schron to create an "office club" on the top 25 floors building to attract high-end tenants like hedge funds and private equity firms. The plan would have restored the 58th. floor observatory as a private amenity for "office club" tenants, in addition to amenities like a private dining room, meeting rooms, and a new dedicated lobby.

 

The partners planned to complete the project by the end of 2008, but the financial crisis of 2007–2008 derailed the plans, leaving the top floors gutted and vacant.

 

-- Residential Conversion

 

On the 31st. July 2012, an investment group led by New York developer Alchemy Properties which included Adam Neumann and Joel Schreiber, bought the top 30 floors of the skyscraper for $68 million (about $86.1 million in 2022) from the Witkoff Group and Cammeby's International.

 

The firm planned to renovate the space into 33 luxury apartments and convert the penthouse into a five-level living space. The lower 28 floors are still owned by the Witkoff Group and Cammeby's International, who planned to maintain them as office space.

 

The project was expected to cost approximately $150 million including the $68 million purchase price. The Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the changes to the building in October 2013.

 

When the sale was first announced in 2012, the developers expected the building's conversion to be complete by 2015. However, construction took longer than expected.

 

Workers could not attach a construction hoist to the building's façade without damaging it, and they were prohibited from using the elevators because of the active office tenants on the lower floors and the regular public tours of the landmarked lobby.

 

The renovation included many restorations and changes to the building's interior. Two of the elevator shafts only went to the 29th. floor, allowing extra floor space for the residents above.

 

A new private lobby was also built for residents, and the coffered ceiling from F. W. Woolworth's personal 40th. floor office was relocated to the entryway. Each unit received space in a wine cellar, along with access to the restored private pool in the basement.

 

The 29th. floor was converted to an amenity floor named the "Gilbert Lounge" after the structure's architect, while the 30th. floor hosts a fitness facility.

 

In August 2014, the New York Attorney General's office approved Alchemy's plan to sell 34 condos at the newly branded Woolworth Tower Residences for a combined total of $443.7 million. After a soft launch in late 2014, units at the building were officially listed for sale in mid-2015.

 

Alchemy initially intended to leverage an in-house sales staff, and hired a director from Corcoran Sunshine to lead the effort. However, the new sales director left at the end of 2015 amid rumors of slow sales. Following his departure, the company hired Sotheby's International Realty to market the units.

 

The building's penthouse unit, dubbed "The Pinnacle", was listed at $110 million, the highest asking price ever for an apartment in downtown Manhattan. If it had sold at that price, the unit would have surpassed the record $50.9 million penthouse at Ralph Thomas Walker's Walker Tower, and even the $100.5 million record price for a Manhattan penthouse set by Michael Dell at Extell's One57 in 2014.

 

Due to delays, the conversion was expected to be completed by February or March 2019, about six and a half years after Alchemy bought the property. However by February 2019, only three of the building's 31 condos had been sold, since the developers had refused to discount prices, despite a glut of new luxury apartments in NYC.

 

The still-vacant penthouse's asking price was reduced to $79 million. By 2021, Alchemy had sold 22 condominiums to tenants such as the entrepreneur Rudra Pandey.

 

-- Corporate Tenants

 

On the building's original completion, the F. W. Woolworth Company occupied only one and a half floors. However, as the owner, the Woolworth Company profited from renting space out to others.

 

The Woolworth Building was almost always fully occupied because of its central location in Lower Manhattan, as well as its direct connections to two subway stations.

 

The Irving Trust Company occupied the first four floors when the building opened. It had a large banking room on the second floor accessible directly from a grand staircase in the lobby, vaults in the basement, offices on the third-floor mezzanine, and a boardroom on the fourth floor.

 

In 1931, the company relocated their general, out-of-town, and foreign offices from the Woolworth Building after building their own headquarters at 1 Wall Street.

 

Columbia Records was one of the Woolworth Building's tenants on opening day and housed a recording studio in the skyscraper. In 1917, Columbia made what are considered the first jazz recordings, by the Original Dixieland Jass Band, in this studio.

 

Shortly after the building opened, several railroad companies rented space. The Union Pacific Railroad and Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad occupied the ground floor retail space with ticket offices.

 

The inventor Nikola Tesla also occupied an office in the Woolworth Building beginning in 1914; he was evicted after a year because he could not pay his rent.

 

Scientific American moved into the building in 1915 before departing for Midtown Manhattan in 1926. The Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America was present at the building's opening, occupying the southern half of the 18th. floor.

 

By the 1920's, the building also hosted Newport News Shipbuilding and Nestlé.

 

In the 1930's, prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey maintained his offices in the building while investigating racketeering and organized crime in Manhattan. His office took up the entire fourteenth floor, and was heavily guarded.

 

During World War II, the Kellex Corporation, part of the Manhattan Project to develop nuclear weapons, was based here.

 

During the early 1960's, public relations expert Howard J. Rubenstein opened an office in the building. In 1975, the city signed a lease for state judge Jacob D. Fuchsberg's offices in the Woolworth Building.

 

-- Educational Tenants

 

The structure has a long association with higher education, housing a number of Fordham University schools in the early 20th. century. In 1916, Fordham created "Fordham Downtown" at the Woolworth Building by moving the School of Sociology and Social Service and the School of Law to the building.

 

The Fordham University Graduate School was founded on the building's 28th. floor in the same year, and a new Teachers' College quickly followed on the seventh floor.

 

In September 1920, the Business School was also established on the seventh floor, originally as the School of Accounting. By 1929, the school's combined programs at the Woolworth Building had over 3,000 enrolled students.

 

Between 1916 and 1943 the building was also home at various times to the Fordham College (Manhattan Division), a summer school, and the short-lived School of Irish Studies.

 

In 1943, the Graduate School relocated to Keating Hall at Fordham's Rose Hill campus in Fordham, Bronx, and the rest of the schools moved to nearby 302 Broadway because of reduced attendance due to World War II.

 

The New York University School of Professional Studies' Center for Global Affairs leased 94,000 square feet (8,700 m2) on the second, third, and fourth floors in 2002 from defunct dot-com startup FrontLine Capital Group.

 

The American Institute of Graphic Arts also moved its headquarters to the Woolworth Building.

 

-- 21st-Century Tenants

 

By the early 2000's, the Woolworth Building was home to numerous technology tenants. Digital advertising firm Xceed occupied 65,000 square feet (6,000 m2) across four floors as its headquarters. Organic, Inc. took 112,000 square feet (10,400 m2), and advertising agency Fallon Worldwide used two floors.

 

Xceed terminated its lease in April 2001 during the midst of the Dot-com bubble collapse in order to move to smaller offices in the Starrett–Lehigh Building.

 

One month after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC's) Northeast Regional Office at 7 World Trade Center was destroyed in the September 11 attacks, the commission's 334 employees moved into 140,000 square feet (13,000 m2) across five floors of the Woolworth Building. The SEC left for a larger space in Brookfield Place in early 2005.

 

The General Services Administration took over the commission's space on the 1st. November 2005 and used it as offices for approximately 200 staff of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts and U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services System.

 

The New York City Police Department pension fund signed a lease for 56,000 square feet (5,200 m2) on the 19th. and 25th. floors in April 2002.

 

Starbucks opened a 1,500-square-foot (140 m2) location on the ground floor in the spring of 2003. In 2006, Levitz Furniture moved its headquarters to the 23rd. floor from Woodbury, Long Island, after declaring bankruptcy a second time.

 

In May 2013, SHoP Architects moved the company's headquarters to the entire 11th. floor, occupying 30,500 square feet (2,830 m2) of space. In February 2016, the New York City Law Department leased the entire 32,000 square feet (3,000 m2) fifth floor for the Department's tort office.

 

Joseph Altuzarra's namesake fashion brand, Altuzarra, signed on to occupy the 14th. floor in June 2016. In 2017, the New York Shipping Exchange moved into the 21st floor. In May 2018, architecture and design firm CallisonRTKL signed a lease for the entire 28,100 square feet (2,610 m2) 16th. floor.

 

-- Impact of the Woolworth Building

 

Before construction, Woolworth hired New York photographer Irving Underhill to document the building's construction. These photographs were distributed to Woolworth's stores nationwide to generate enthusiasm for the project.

 

During construction, Underhill, Wurts Brothers, and Tebbs-Hymans each took photographs to document the structure's progression. These photos were often taken from close-up views, or from far away to provide contrast against the surrounding structures.

 

They were part of a media promotion for the Woolworth Building. Both contemporary and modern figures criticized the photos as:

 

"Standard solutions at best and

architectural eye candy at worst".

 

Later critics praised the building. Amei Wallach of Newsday wrote in 1978 that the building resembled:

 

"A giant cathedral absurdly

stretched in a gigantic fun

mirror. The lobby certainly

looks like a farmboy's dream

of glory".

 

A writer for The Baltimore Sun wrote in 1984 that:

 

"The lobby's lighting, ceiling mosaic,

and gold-leaf decorations combine

for a church-like atmosphere, yet the

grotesques provide a touch of

irreverence".

 

Richard Berenholtz wrote in his 1988 book Manhattan Architecture that:

 

"At the Woolworth Building, Gilbert

succeeded in uniting the respected

traditions of architecture and

decoration with modern technology".

 

In a 2001 book about Cass Gilbert, Mary N. Woods wrote that:

 

"The rich and varied afterlife of

the Woolworth Building enhances

Gilbert's accomplishment".

 

Dirk Stichweh described the building in 2005 as being:

 

"The Mozart of skyscrapers".

 

In 2007, the building ranked 44th. among 150 buildings in the AIA's List of America's Favorite Architecture.

 

In recognition of Gilbert's role as the building's architect, the Society of Arts and Sciences gave Gilbert its gold medal in 1930, calling it:

 

"An epochal landmark in the

history of architecture".

 

On the 40th. anniversary of the building's opening in 1953, one news source called the building:

 

"A substantial middle-aged lady, with

a good income, unconcern over years—

and lots of friends".

 

A one-third-scale replica of the Woolworth Building, the Lincoln American Tower in Memphis, Tennessee, was also built in 1924.

 

-- The Woolworth Building in the Media

 

The Woolworth Building has had a large impact in architectural spheres, and has been featured in many works of popular culture, including photographs, prints, films, and literature.

 

One of the earliest films to feature the skyscraper was Manhatta (1921), a short documentary film directed by painter Charles Sheeler and photographer Paul Strand.

 

Since then, the building has made cameo appearances in several films, such as the 1929 film Applause. It was also the setting of several film climaxes, such as in Enchanted (2007), as well as the setting of major organizations, such as in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016).

 

The television show Ugly Betty used the Woolworth Building as the 'Meade Publications' building, a major location in the series, while one of the vacant condominiums was used in filming the TV series Succession in 2021.

 

The building has also appeared in literature, such as Langston Hughes's 1926 poem "Negro" and the 2007 novel Peak.

Pictured: Harvey Hollins III, Director of the Office of Urban and Metropolitan Initiatives

 

The Integrated Policy Exercise provides students with a week-long opportunity to work intensively on a policy issue. All students participate as part of a team representing different constituencies with an interest in the problem being studied. Working in groups of 7 to 10, students are assigned a role such as lobbying firm, public official, or economic group. Groups develop policy positions and prepare a political strategy to achieve their goal(s). More on IPE: fordschool.umich.edu/ipe

 

The Winter 2015 IPE, “Bolstering Detroit's Economic Renewal through Skilled Workers: Implementing Governor Snyder's Visa Plan” took place on January 5, 6, and 9, 2015 at the Ford School’s Joan and Sanford Weill Hall, and at the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, MI. More on the 2015 topic and simulated media coverage: sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/fordschool-ipe-2015/home

Pictured (L-R): Gerald Poisson, Chief Deputy County Executive of Oakland County; Bill Angerson, Tax and Local Government Operations Office of SEMCOG; State Senator Judy Emmons (R-SD33)

 

The Integrated Policy Exercise provides students with a week-long opportunity to work intensively on a policy issue. All students participate as part of a team representing different constituencies with an interest in the problem being studied. Working in groups of 7 to 10, students are assigned a role such as lobbying firm, public official, or economic group. Groups develop policy positions and prepare a political strategy to achieve their goal(s). More on IPE: fordschool.umich.edu/ipe

 

The Winter 2015 IPE, “Bolstering Detroit's Economic Renewal through Skilled Workers: Implementing Governor Snyder's Visa Plan” took place on January 5, 6, and 9, 2015 at the Ford School’s Joan and Sanford Weill Hall, and at the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, MI. More on the 2015 topic and simulated media coverage: sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/fordschool-ipe-2015/home

Dimitris Pikionis, an inspired architect, city planner, artist, set designer and thinker executed the landscaping of the archaeological area around the Acropolis, Philopappos' Hill and St. Demetrius Loumbardiaris between 1950-1957. He created two winding walks one of which accesses the Acropolis, whereas the other leads away from the Sacred Rock to an Anderon (plateau) on Philopappos' Hill, from which the monuments of the Acropolis can be best viewed. Pikionis constructed the Loumbardiaris kiosk with its pergola and the Anderon framed by semicircular benches and other marble seats, by drawing from ancient linear compositions. He integrated the remains of the ancient habitations which were revealed on the site. The construction was done without preplanning, on site, using skilled workers who shaped the surfaces of the paved walks using pitching chisels and a variety of pointed chisels. Pikionis himself organized the planting of trees in the specific area. He boosted the shrub vegetation and the planting of wild and domestic olive trees, even plants that the ancient people used in their temples such as pomegranate, laurel or myrtle trees.Pikionis' priority was to blend the natural and archaeological landscape, which classified his work as a creation of high aesthetics. He was awarded for this accomplishment and the Greek Ministry of Culture listed his work in 1996.

Attending the EuroSkills Budapest Conference on 27 September 2018, EUROCHAMBRES President Christoph Leitl underlined the importance that education and training is in tune with the skills needs of the private sector.

As the economy evolves faster than ever due to technological breakthroughs, curricula content and the way it is delivered must prepare young people for emerging new opportunities and enable them to adapt to future needs that cannot yet be predicted.

The last edition of EUROCHAMBRES’ annual economic survey of over 50.000 businesses across Europe revealed a lack of skilled workers one of the greatest challenges. This is in line with a longer term trend, as the skills mismatch issue has been a problem for several years, in times of both high and low unemployment. “We have more graduates than ever in Europe and incredibly talented young people entering the labour force. But what good is this if they cannot find work and employers cannot find staff with the right skills? We must do better in ensuring that education prepares young people for current and emerging employment opportunities”, President Leitl said.

Euroskills plays an important role in addressing this persistent skills mismatch across Europe by showcasing the professional skills sought by many employers across a wide range of sectors. It is also based on a pan-European approach, which Chambers consider an important element in matching supply and demand. “Employers, policy-makers and educators must work together to ensure that vocational education is perceived by young people as a positive option that opens up excellent career opportunities and offers an international perspective. Euroskills is a fantastic way to do this”, President Leitl stated.

Professional training must be dynamic, not static

A World Economic Forum report this month set out how the labour market is set for radical changes as technological advances and artificial intelligence accelerate. President Leitl argued that this underlines the need for reforms: “The economy is evolving faster than ever, but unfortunately our education and training systems generally are not keeping up. Curricula must adapt based on feedback from the economy and so must the way in which curricula is taught. As well as acquiring technical skills, young people need transversal skills that will allow them to adapt throughout their career”.

EUROCHAMBRES calls in particular for the development of more effective vocational training and apprenticeship schemes in many member states, for the closer involvement of businesses in the design of curricula and for more dynamic and interoperable skills forecasting tools to be developed across Europe.

The Integrated Policy Exercise provides students with a week-long opportunity to work intensively on a policy issue. All students participate as part of a team representing different constituencies with an interest in the problem being studied. Working in groups of 7 to 10, students are assigned a role such as lobbying firm, public official, or economic group. Groups develop policy positions and prepare a political strategy to achieve their goal(s). More on IPE: fordschool.umich.edu/ipe

 

The Winter 2015 IPE, “Bolstering Detroit's Economic Renewal through Skilled Workers: Implementing Governor Snyder's Visa Plan” took place on January 5, 6, and 9, 2015 at the Ford School’s Joan and Sanford Weill Hall, and at the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, MI. More on the 2015 topic and simulated media coverage: sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/fordschool-ipe-2015/home

Pictured: Bing Goei, Director of the Michigan Office of New Americans (MONA)

 

The Integrated Policy Exercise provides students with a week-long opportunity to work intensively on a policy issue. All students participate as part of a team representing different constituencies with an interest in the problem being studied. Working in groups of 7 to 10, students are assigned a role such as lobbying firm, public official, or economic group. Groups develop policy positions and prepare a political strategy to achieve their goal(s). More on IPE: fordschool.umich.edu/ipe

 

The Winter 2015 IPE, “Bolstering Detroit's Economic Renewal through Skilled Workers: Implementing Governor Snyder's Visa Plan” took place on January 5, 6, and 9, 2015 at the Ford School’s Joan and Sanford Weill Hall, and at the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, MI. More on the 2015 topic and simulated media coverage: sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/fordschool-ipe-2015/home

Attending the EuroSkills Budapest Conference on 27 September 2018, EUROCHAMBRES President Christoph Leitl underlined the importance that education and training is in tune with the skills needs of the private sector.

As the economy evolves faster than ever due to technological breakthroughs, curricula content and the way it is delivered must prepare young people for emerging new opportunities and enable them to adapt to future needs that cannot yet be predicted.

The last edition of EUROCHAMBRES’ annual economic survey of over 50.000 businesses across Europe revealed a lack of skilled workers one of the greatest challenges. This is in line with a longer term trend, as the skills mismatch issue has been a problem for several years, in times of both high and low unemployment. “We have more graduates than ever in Europe and incredibly talented young people entering the labour force. But what good is this if they cannot find work and employers cannot find staff with the right skills? We must do better in ensuring that education prepares young people for current and emerging employment opportunities”, President Leitl said.

Euroskills plays an important role in addressing this persistent skills mismatch across Europe by showcasing the professional skills sought by many employers across a wide range of sectors. It is also based on a pan-European approach, which Chambers consider an important element in matching supply and demand. “Employers, policy-makers and educators must work together to ensure that vocational education is perceived by young people as a positive option that opens up excellent career opportunities and offers an international perspective. Euroskills is a fantastic way to do this”, President Leitl stated.

Professional training must be dynamic, not static

A World Economic Forum report this month set out how the labour market is set for radical changes as technological advances and artificial intelligence accelerate. President Leitl argued that this underlines the need for reforms: “The economy is evolving faster than ever, but unfortunately our education and training systems generally are not keeping up. Curricula must adapt based on feedback from the economy and so must the way in which curricula is taught. As well as acquiring technical skills, young people need transversal skills that will allow them to adapt throughout their career”.

EUROCHAMBRES calls in particular for the development of more effective vocational training and apprenticeship schemes in many member states, for the closer involvement of businesses in the design of curricula and for more dynamic and interoperable skills forecasting tools to be developed across Europe.

Secretary of the Army Dr. Mark T. Esper participated in the Regan National Defense Forum bipartisan annual event as a speaker in the A Defense Industrial & Innovation Base Workforce for the 21ST Century: Winning The Competition For Highly Skilled Workers Inside & Outside the Pentagon panel alongside California Congressman Ken Calvert, Ms. Marillyn Hewson, Chairman, President & CEO, Lockheed, and Florida Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy in Semi Valley, CA, Dec. 1, 2018. Mr. Mike Hammer from Fox News moderated the discussion. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Nicole Mejia)

news.yahoo.com/1-1-dr-ashish-jha-082830031.html

 

We're seeing high levels of reinfection: Dr. Ashish Jha

Martha Raddatz interviews White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha on "This Week."

Duration: 5:18

 

www.dw.com/en/germanys-covid-19-summer-spike-pushes-nurse...

 

Germany's COVID-19 summer spike pushes nurses beyond their limits

 

German hospitals are struggling as beds fill up and nursing staff falls ill with COVID. Even freshly trained health care workers complain about unsustainable levels of stress and worsening conditions.

 

Germany's COVID-19 summer spike pushes nurses beyond their limits

 

German hospitals are struggling as beds fill up and nursing staff falls ill with COVID. Even freshly trained health care workers complain about unsustainable levels of stress and worsening conditions.

 

German health workers are completely exhausted

 

It's not easy to reach Georg Goutrie on the phone. But between two night shifts and an early morning shift, the 21-year-old nurse finds a moment to answer. "What day is it? Sunday, right?" he asks with a laugh. For the past month, Goutrie has been working at the mother and child unit at Berlin's Charite hospital. With over 3,000 beds, the university hospital is one of the largest in Europe.

 

Goutrie's three-year training to become a nurse began right in the middle of the pandemic. During that time, he and other trainees experienced challenges most clinics around the country faced: Entire wards were shut down, with operations postponed and staff moved elsewhere to care for COVID-19 patients.

 

At his current post, Goutrie will likely be spared a similar situation. "My ward now can't be closed. Babies simply arrive when they are ready, and you can't put them at the back of the line." For the time being, however, all patients are being handled as though they were positive COVID-19 cases: in isolation until they get a negative PCR test result.

 

Relaxed regulations meet a new omicron variant

 

Over the last two years, COVID-19 infections have dropped during the summer, when people spend more time outside. This has meant a reprieve for health workers during the warmer months.

 

But this year is different. Case numbers are rising even in summer and the health system is already approaching its limits, according to the Marburger Bund doctors' association. While in early June the 7-day incidence rate was the lowest it had been all year, numbers have since spiked rapidly.

 

One explanation is the new BA.5 virus subvariant. Even more contagious than previous variants, experts say that it could spread rapidly well into summer. Those who have been vaccinated or already recovered from an omicron variant infection aren't safe. Two-thirds of COVID infections are now attributable to the BA.5 subvariant.

 

The spread has been facilitated, as authorities have relaxed prevention measures. People in Germany are no longer subject to contact restrictions or mask requirements in most public spaces. Many are also traveling and attending events once again.

 

Free rapid tests have been abolished due to the expense. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said recently that the service had been costing €1 billion ($1 billion) per month. Now people are required to pay €3 at test centers, with some exceptions. It remains to be seen whether this will discourage regular testing.

 

Virus hits hospital workers

 

A familiar pattern is playing out for nurses once again. With COVID-19 numbers on the rise, they are concerned about fall and winter, when experience shows that infections will continue to multiply. One of the largest clinics in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein already closed two sites at the beginning of July because too many staff were infected with the virus.

 

"It has hit our employees too — there are higher rates of sickness in our workforce than usual, due in part to the coronavirus," reports the intensive care unit at Hamburg's Agaplesion hospital. As in many other hospitals, a COVID-19 ward has been set up here in addition to the intensive care unit.

 

"We have already had to reserve beds due to the situation described above. And this in the middle of summer," the hospital's press office wrote to DW. "So we look with concern to the coming fall and winter."

 

Too many patients, too much responsibility

 

But COVID-19 is not the decisive issue. The pandemic has highlighted the already precarious working conditions in the care sector, a problem that The Walk of Care initiative, in which nurse Georg Goutrie is also active, has been working to repair since 2016. It unites caregivers of all ages and ranks in a campaign for better financial and structural health care policies.

 

"In Germany, we average about 13 patients per nurse, while in Holland, for example, there are only five," Goutrie says. "How am I supposed to take responsibility for 13 patients at once and still provide high-quality care?"

 

Nurses had already been working at their absolute limit for years in both outpatient clinics and hospitals, he stresses. Conditions hit women the hardest because they fill more than two-thirds of the nursing jobs throughout the country.

 

Those who suffer most can't afford to rest after their paid caregiving ends because the unpaid labor of tending to children and dependents awaits them at home. Many also experience racism or sexism in the workplace, but struggle to find new positions, Goutrie says.

 

Low wages, high stress levels

 

According to the German Economic Institute, the country could see a shortage of around 307,000 nursing staff by 2035.

 

The problem has been steadily worsening for years. Conditions create physical and emotional strain, and understaffed teams often mean working overtime — on the lowest possible wages.

 

Anonymous reports by hospital personnel from across the country describe how this feels on a website called "Schwarzbuch Krankenhaus," (Black Book Hospital). Health workers' comments read:

 

"I didn't even have time to care for the dying!"

 

"I love my job and I am very proud of it. But I am so shocked by the abysmal care in this facility that I couldn't stand it for more than two years."

 

"When I broke down crying in the ward, none of the other nurses had even a moment to comfort me."

 

Burnout or coolout?

 

Such accounts reveal a wide spectrum of psychological distress. Burnout is a much-discussed topic in nursing. But there is also a phenomenon known as "coolout" that is becoming more common in Germany.

 

"It's when you don't care about anything. Nothing touches you anymore. It's a state of complete overload. You take care of people in a state of emergency," Goutrie says, adding that this leads to mistakes or even violence towards patients.

 

In June 2021, politicians vowed to make improvements, launching a nursing reform that came into force this year. It aims to alleviate the skilled worker shortage and job stress with better wages and more onsite decision-making responsibility for nursing staff.

 

But Goutrie is considering a career change, to maybe start something completely different, even if the idea pains him. "If you see yourself as a caregiver, it makes sense to go into nursing," he says. "But at what cost?"

Portrait of a steelworker. Ezz Steel production site is located in Alexandria and employs more than 2000 skilled workers. It is the Middle East's leading producer of high quality long and flat steel for use in a wide range of end applications.

 

Country : Egypt

Date : 2008-04

Copyright : Marcel Crozet / ILO

The bronze "Metal Men" sculpture was a popular meeting point for shoppers on Market Street in Meadowhall ever since it opened in September 1990, but controversially they were moved outside in August 2011 during construction work and they remain outside to this day.

 

The sculpture was created by Robin Bell and depicts steel teemers (highly skilled workers responsible for pouring steel into ingot moulds) at work. It is dedicated to Benjamin Huntsman (1704-1770) and it was originally unveiled by a real-life teemer, George Dalton.

Kerry Junior Whare (22) and Maraea (21) have been locked out at Talley's-owned AFFCO Horotiu while their parents, Kerry Senior (55) and Rangi (53) remain at work.

 

Kerry Whare, his wife Rangi and two children Maraea and Kerry Junior all work at AFFCO Horotiu in Waikato.

 

The Talley's owned company gave Maraea, 21, and Kerry Junior, 22, lock out notices on Tuesday morning, but not their parents.

 

Mrs Whare, 53, is a skilled labourer and has worked at the site for 14 years. She says she feels like the company is trying to break up their family.

 

"Talley's AFFCO only negotiated for 10 hours face-to-face with our union before trying to split up my family," she says. "We've always been solid as a family and we're not going to let it happen."

 

Mr Whare, 55, is a multi-skilled worker and has worked at the plant on and off for 25 years. He says he feels gutted that he drove into work yesterday without his kids.

 

"It's heart breaking driving into work while your kids are locked out," he says. "I don't know how the company chose to only lock out some of the workers including my kids and not others, but I suspects it’s to create divisions in the workplace."

 

Mr and Mrs Whare went on strike for 24 hours from 5am this morning in solidarity with their children and will picket through to the afternoon.

 

Mrs Whare says the family was concerned about losing a further two incomes, particularly since wages have been lower than usual due to low stock numbers and because they are paying off two cars.

 

"We've got no choice to strike in solidarity -you’ve got to stand with your kids," she says.

 

Kerry junior says he always wanted to be like his dad and work in AFFCO, which is the main employer in Ngaruawahia.

 

"I've worked hard for the company and I feel like I've been stood on and spat out," he says. "I feel discriminated against."

 

Maraea, 21, is a labourer and has worked at the plant for four years. She says she is "dead broke" because she’s just had her 21st and the lockout will make things worse.

 

"I love my job and its sucks that I can’t come back in because I'm locked out," she says. "I'd rather be at work, but it was their decision and as far as I'm concerned I've done nothing wrong."

 

Kerry Junior, 22, is a cutter and has worked at the plant for six years. He say they have little prospect for work in Ngaruawahia, a small struggling town in rural Waikato with few jobs.

 

"We haven't even been told when we can go back to work," he says. "If we could find any jobs here, they're not going to employ us because they wouldn't know when we'd go back to AFFCO."

 

Mrs Whare says she always instilled in her kids that the only way they get anywhere is to work hard and earn a decent wage.

 

"What sort of message is Talley's AFFCO giving to our kids by locking them out? We just want the company to lift the lockout and let our kids go back to work."

 

The Whare family has worked at the meat processing plant for a combined 49 years and have other relatives at Horotiu.

 

ENDS

 

For more information contact Meat Workers Union media liason Simon Oosterman on 021 885 410.

Photos are available for free at www.flickr.com/photos/simonoosterman